The Right Wingers are resulting to threats/violence and hate...We need to take charge and not stand there shocked....Take action....Yes, they are winning the attention war....We are losing the facts war because the legends that the RNC spins have become fact.....Thus, the myths become facts
Nazi Symbol AP News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090811/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_protests
Lou Dobbs threatens Dean:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/dobbs-apologizes-for-sayi_n_256728.html
I fear where this is going.....we need to stand up....National day of support....contact me people
varun22@yahoo.com
.NYT article LINK
The New York Times reported today that the White House is quietly conceding that they are losing control of the Health Care Reform debate. So......in response......? A march? Rapid Fire TV ads? Formal debates moderated by NPR, PBS, ABC, NBC? Nope....a website.........That's it....a website..
The WH released a myth busters website.......What Obama should do is concede he needs a little help from his friends.....Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffet and other Business Leaders and even the Kennedys to get the word out and deal with the fires.
To explain: most of the activists with whom I'm close are insisting that their activism focus on obtaining single-payer healthcare out of the current drive for healthcare reform. They're essentially saying that if we obtain anything less than single payer healthcare, we will have failed. And thus they're devoting all their healthcare energy into agitating for single payer.
Yet read the following excerpt from President Obama’s remarks the other day in front of the American Medical Association:
The first thing we need to do is to protect what's working in our health care system. So just in case you didn't catch it the first time, let me repeat: If you like your health care system and your doctor, the only thing reform will mean to you is your health care will cost less. If anyone says otherwise, they are either trying to mislead you or don't have their facts straight….You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package. Again, this is for people who aren't happy with their current plan. If you like what you're getting, keep it. Nobody is forcing you to shift.
… let me also address a illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I'll be honest; there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe -- and I've taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief -- that it's important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States. So when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They're not telling the truth.
I read this as the president having crossed the Rubicon on single payer; if single-payer isn’t dead now, the best that can be said is that it’s on palliative care.
You may disagree with our President’s priorities, but it seems to me that he remains a rather brilliant strategist.
Even Dr. Howard Dean, our former party chairman & hardly a right-wing tool, recently noted:
People may not like the health care system, but they like their doctor or hospital. President Obama's plan is realistic. Even in Britain, where medicine really is socialized [doctors offices and hospitals are publicly owned] 15% of health care dollars go to private insurance. Private insurance isn't going away.... (From http://www.yesmagazine.org/svgblog/2009/06/howard-dean-on-single-payer-health-care.html ; again, emphasis mine.)
Interestingly, I've noted that a lot of these lefties who are practicing a "single payer or bust" strategy are seem to be supporters of a group called MoveOn.org . Yet when it comes to getting a healthcare plan that has a real chance of passing Congress, they won't move on!
C'mon, fellow Dems...get with the program!
DemocracyForAmerica.com Blog: Howard Dean is BACK!http://www.democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts/27900-howard-dean-is-backWritten by: Charles Chamberlain on Mar 2, 2009 2:20 PM ESTLinked to groups: Blog For AmericaYou may have heard by now that Gov. Howard Dean is coming back to Democracy for America. Today we made the official announcement. Here's some of what the good Doctor sent to DFA members today: I'm returning to DFA and I have to admit, it'll be nice to work out of my old office in Burlington. I'll also be hitting the road with you, stumping for grassroots candidates and advocating for the issues that matter most to you and me. For one, I think you know that healthcare for all is an important issue to me. I look forward to working with you to pass meaningful reform that makes sure that every American has the care they need.
Stephen Views the News 2/5/09
http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/
* Get out the metal polish – Obama’s “change you can believe in” has rapidly developed a coat of tarnish as ethics questions surrounded Obama selections Richardson, Daschle, Geithner and Killefer. It reminds one of the Grouch Marx quote: “There's one way to find out if a man is honest - ask him. If he says, 'Yes,' you know he is a crook.” Obama has said he was not looking for “yes men” to serve in his administration. In one respect that is what he is finding.
* A note to President Obama ~ remember Howard Dean – With Daschle dashed you need a solid replacement to guide America into a new era of health care. Howard Dean has the qualifications and expressed interest. He is a medical doctor, the former six-term governor of Vermont and the recent leader of the Democratic Party where his dedication and intelligence played a vital roll in Democrats having huge successes in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Rumor has it that your Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has issues with Dean stemming from disagreements over past political strategies. Mr. President, as you bend over backwards to accommodate Republicans, please do not ignore valued Democrats. May I suggest that you take the time to seriously consider Dr. Dean to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He is a individual partially responsible for your reaching the White House, he has impeccable credentials and he should not be ignored because of petty internal politics.
* Maintaining the shine ~ campaign promises being fulfilled – On the positive side of the nascent Obama administration one can note:
~ Passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that helps ensure redress for women that did not receive the same pay as men doing the same job in a firm. Many Republicans/conservatives are lamenting that this will open the door to lawsuits. I often wonder why these GOPers are rarely concerned when employees are screwed over by the firms that employ them. These same screwees were once embryos.
~ On Wednesday Obama signed the Children's Health Insurance Program, granting 4 million more children access to affordable health care. Former President G.W. Bush twice vetoed this legislation. With so much on his special-interest plate he probably forgot that these 4 million children were also once fertilized eggs. Warning to embryos: do not leave the womb lest Republicans/conservatives will abandon you.
~ On January 23rd President Obama repealed the Global Gag Rule, which prohibited family-planning programs in other nations receiving U.S. aid if the programs were pro-choice. I find it curious that conservatives genuflect to smaller government and less regulation until it comes to regulating other peoples’ lives. “Abstinence only” is absence of effectiveness in preventing pregnancy, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and especially the spread of HIV AIDS that is decimating large segments of populations in Africa and is inflicting tragedy throughout the world. I suggest that if one bears an ideology that harms people, cryovac it in a condom.
~ “The Obama administration has asked the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon's budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent -- about $55 billion.” I recently saw a statistic that the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 40 countries combined. I have read articles that billions are being spent on Pentagon projects that are outmoded or have little chance of being operational. The Pentagon and the defense industry enjoy a tremendous influence on the decision-making process of how our society allocates it resources. It will take strong leadership from Obama and Congress to assess and rein in these powerhouses that Dwight D. Eisenhower, over 50 years ago, termed the military-industrial complex. It has achieved a momentum and life of its own that many feel is substantially beyond reason and practicality. It is my sense that we are in a hostage situation to these forces.
~ The Bush administration and the EPA consistently blocked California and 13 other states from setting stricter automobile emission standards. President Obama will direct federal regulators to re-evaluate the Bush decision to reject California’s application and it will likely lead to the Bush policy being reversed. Auto makers and their lobbyists will balk but it is well beyond time to direct our attention and resources to rehabilitating our environment. Our once pristine planet is close to being on life support. Its potential demise is not likely to occur in my lifetime but do we not all have a responsibility to the embryos that will follow?
~ The Times of London is reporting, “President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent.” Nuclear weapons reduction was a core element in Obama’s candidacy. The 1991 US-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), which expires in December, had reduced each country’s stockpiles from 10,000 to 5,000 weapons. It is felt that further reductions by these two powers could assist in influencing countries such as Iran to not develop nuclear weapons. It seems to me that reducing the number of nuclear weapons is critical. From one standpoint their existence has been primarily a deterrent between the two powers since no country benefits by using such weapons given the assured retaliation it would generate. The greater danger today is that the larger the number of weapons in existence, the greater the danger of such a weapon getting into terrorist hands. Such radical ideologues/idiots do not fear retaliation. And that is a very dangerous enemy.
* The nuance of language - The federal judge overseeing the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy has been charged with assault and arrested for hitting his wife. Many have called for tougher judges but it appears that Judge James M. Peck has misinterpreted the intent of “tougher”. According to the NY Times article, “Judge Peck is known for his patience in handling matters as complex as the Lehman case.” Apparently his “patience” did not extend to his complex marriage. If the pecker keeps this up he may find himself patronizing his own courtroom. It will look like an Abbot and Costello routine as da judge bounces between da bench and da defendant’s table.
* Reality issues – I am 6’ 9” tall with biceps too large for my body. George W. Bush and Ronald Regan vie for the title of Best President in the history of the U.S. Paris Hilton is Obama’s nominee to oversee his Abstinence Only program. Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson is historically correct in denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers. While none of these absurd assertions have merit, Williamson does in fact maintain his position concerning the Holocaust. This came to light because he had been excommunicated by the Church in 1988 and last month this moral moron was reinstated by Pope Benedict XVI. I imagine the Pope has some down time between Christmas and Easter and was looking for a way to keep busy. May I recommend macramé?
Since the reinstatement there has been global outrage and the Vatican was forced to issue a statement that Williamson “must absolutely, unequivocally and publicly distance himself from his positions on the Holocaust, or else he would not be allowed to serve as a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church.” Congratulations to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, several prominent figures in the German Catholic Church and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for condemning Williamson and in some cases criticizing the Vatican. The NY Times observes: the fact that the Vatican issued a statement is a clear indication that the Vatican was facing nothing less than an internal and external political crisis. The reality is that when good people stand up and speak out about institutional and individual ignorance, altered behavior can result. This is a wonderful lesson for us in America where leadership at all levels of government and across society permitted the Bush administration to intimidate any expression of criticism.
* When the brass is AWOL - Another U.S. service member has been determined to have been electrocuted in a shower in Iraq, and Navy criminal investigators are investigating. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, of South St. Paul, Minn., died Sept. 11, 2004, while showering. His family was told he died of natural causes. Cedegrens’s death is among 18 electrocution deaths (16 were U.S. service members) under investigation for improperly installed or maintained electrical devices. I have noted on many occasions the damage perpetrated by the no-bid contractors such as KBR, hired by the Bush administration for supplying the troops and rebuilding Iraq. Among the many disgraces that pall the tragedy known as Bush and Cheney’s Iraq war the abuse of America’s service people and the abuse of taxpayers’ money is yet to be fully told. Recall the drinking water tainted with human fluids, inadequate body armor, overly extended tours of duty, insufficiently plated vehicles, inadequate medical and psychological care upon the return to the states… To the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Generals, the Admirals and other military leaders I ask, “WHERE IS YOUR OUTRAGE?
* “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908 – 1965)
Howard Dean would make an excellent Secretary of HHR, and his nomination would make a splash to distract from the Daschle debacle.
Dean is a medical doctor, former governor of Vermont, former (and perhaps most successful) DNC chair, delivering the party victories in 2006 and 2008. He would make President Obama's health care initiatives happen, making sure all Americans can get health care.
I urge you to contact the President, the Vice President, and your congressional representatives to urge that Dean's name be tossed into the ring.
Gov. Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign started what Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign have now finished. Dean for America pioneered the idea of a broadly distributed, loosely organized campaign where individual groups around the country operated with autonomy. As importantly, and perhaps ultimately more importantly, the Internet was exploited as a campaign tool as never before.
Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy is being credited for playing a significant role in Barack Obama’s victory as well as Democratic success in Congressional races. And the social media tools and techniques pioneered by Dean’s team were perfected by Obama’s campaign.
Gov. Dean, you deserve a lot of credit for the Democratic victories yesterday. Thank you. My fellow Deaniacs: We ultimately did get our country back. Thank you.
You can read more about my experience as a Deaniac on my blog at lifeonq.com
Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved=&preview=&suggest=¬e_id=42743673711#/profile.php?id=1277637249&ref=name
Puh-leeze! If Barack Obama or Joe Biden had winked at the camera once, let alone three times, it would've ended their campaign as surely as the Dean Scream ended Howard's. It would've been all we heard pundits talk about ALL NIGHT and ALL DAY until the Dems tucked tail and went home.
Winking at the camera is so completely inappropriate to the context of a vice-presidential campaign debate. Imagine - the nation's economic structure crumbling, a failing health care system, two wars sucking our juices dry, and she's winking at us?? I'm calling her on that. Not charming, Mrs. Mooselini. We need real solutions to real problems, not coquettish flirtation with the camera and a phoney 'FARGO' accent that doesn't manifest in earlier interviews. VPILF to the penalty box.
The Dean Scream was a media-manufactured gaffe created by extracting the sound of the crowd from Dean yelling along. The Palin Winks were real, really out of place, and really 'not-ready for prime time'.
Biden Has Done More Than Look At Russia Across The Horizon, my FIRST article at Huffington Post, so please do comment: http://tinyurl.com/Bidenvs-Palin or www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-fox/biden-has-done-more-than_b_129382.html
I welcome your insights and ideas, and Huffington Post is a place perhaps millions more people will see them and want to participate in this emerging dialogue about what direction our Nation must move in the next four years, to repair the enormous damage internationally during the past 8 years by Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Rumsfeld/KelloggBrownand Root/Blackwater, and others!
Audio in English @
http://lineasemanal.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/howard_dean091208email.mp3
------Gobernador: La popularidad del senador Obama está incrementando entre los latinos. ¿Qué razones nos puede dar que expliquen este fenómeno?El senador Obama es de la opinión de que todos los ciudadanos americanos deberían tener seguro médico. El senador McCain se opone a esto.El senador Obama tiene un programa para mejorar las escuelas públicas. El senador McCain no considera que el Gobierno Federal debería participar en esto y así es que en asuntos de familia y educación, el senador Obama tiene más firmes convicciones que el senador McCain.Además, el senador McCain le dio la espalda a los latinos al ni siquiera votar por su propia propuesta migratoria. El senador Obama comprende que en América todos deben ser incluidos, y no solamente en tiempo de elecciones. Y que no se puede usar a una parte de la población como chivos expiatorios.¿Qué tipo de impacto tendría una administración Obama en la relaciones exteriores de los EEUU, específicamente en los países hispanohablantes?Ya hemos visto que la personalidad del senador Obama es popular en otros países. Principalmente porque él cree que todos deberíamos trabajar juntos en vez de dictarles a los otros lo que hay que hacer. Esto es algo muy sensible para la gente en Latinoamérica.Yo me he reunido con lideres latinoamericanos, como el presidente de México, y les he hecho saber que con el gobierno del senador Obama, las relaciones con Latinoamérica serían muy diferentes a las que se tendrían o se tuvieron con George Bush o John McCain.La Fe es una parte importante de la cultura latina. Los republicanos se presentan como el partido de las gentes de Fe. ¿Qué filosofía se acerca más a la Fe, la Republicana o la Demócrata?Los demócratas. Creo que el senador Obama ha expresado claramente que es una persona de Fe. Pero como dice la Biblia, La Fe sin hechos no significa nada. Los republicanos hablan de la Fe, los demócratas la ponen en práctica. Y lo más importante acerca de la Fe es cómo la ponemos de manifiesto en nuestras vidas personales.El senador Obama es una persona honesta y honrada. La campaña de McCain está dirigida por "Lobbyists" (Agentes de los grupos de presión). Y se puede hablar mucho acerca de la Fe, pero si no se practica a diario entonces tenemos un problema.La Igualdad Salarial es otro asunto. El senador Obama tiene la convicción de que las mujeres deberían ser remuneradas igual que los hombres. John McCain votó en contra de esto. McCain cree que las mujeres no deberían ganar tanto como los hombres y que el gobierno no tiene parte en esto. El senador Obama ha puesto su Fe en práctica. Y McCain habla de su Fe pero no incluye la igualdad de derechos para las mujeres.Sobresale entre los grupos de presión el de "English Only" . Este es un tema muy importante para muchos latinos. ¿Cuál es la postura del Partido Demócrata sobre este asunto?Nosotros creemos que es bueno aprender diversos idiomas, pensamos que los latinos que vienen a los EEUU aprenden inglés sin que se les diga que lo tienen que hacer; todos los inmigrantes lo aprenden. Pensamos que sería muy beneficioso para los americanos hablar otros idiomas también.Nosotros sabemos qué es verdaderamente este asunto del "English Only". Sabemos en realidad que está dirigido contra los inmigrantes latinos. Nunca tuvimos una ley como esta para los inmigrantes irlandeses, italianos o judíos y no creo que la necesitemos para los latinos.Se ha reportado que el senador Obama puede que esté listo para dejar que las "Organizaciones 527" como Moveon.org aumenten su agresividad contra la campaña de McCain. ¿Cree que es esta una buena idea? Y si es así, ¿Se debería haber hecho antes?No se nada de eso, no he escuchado esos reportes. Esto es lo que queremos hacer:La campaña de McCain quiere hablar acerca de todo excepto de McCain. Quieren hablar de Sandra Palin, de lápices de labios, de todo, menos del propio McCain. Esto pasa por que McCain es un candidato del pasado. Nosotros vamos ha hablar sobre temas importantes. Como usted sabe el lema del movimiento del senador es "Si Se Puede" o "Yes We Can".¿Y cómo se siente usted cuando ve que los republicanos están adoptando sus lemas y sus formas?¿Pero quién les va a creer?Gordon Smith y John McCain han estado en Washington casi el mismo tiempo, si se pone a sumar, del que yo llevo viviendo. Y la realidad es que nunca se van a obtener cambios con personas a las que que sólo les interesa hablar de cambios en las elecciones.Sólo se obtienen verdaderos cambios con las personas que lo viven. Barak Obama fue un organizador comunitario, en la comunidad latina hay un gran número de organizadores; los demócratas se pasaron tres días burlándose de los organizadores comunitarios en Minnesota.Sabemos bien del lado de quién está Barack Obama. Se sabe también de que lado está John McCain, y este no es el lado de los latinos.Una última pregunta, y esta es una pregunta general: Si el senador Obama es elegido, ¿Cuáles son los cambios más importantes que podemos esperar de su presidencia, algo que la gente podrá ver?Lo más importante es que habrá más trabajos disponibles, que todos los americanos tendrán cobertura médica y que pondremos fin a la guerra de Irak de forma honorable.Traducción: Abelardo Magaña, Rodrigo Alvarez y Matías Trejo De DiosAudio in English @
Here is a guest blog by Soheil, Iowa New Media Intern
Last week at the University of Iowa campus, Howard Dean gave a rousing speech to scores of young people asking everyone to volunteer and help elect Senator Obama as our next president.
Check out this video of the event:
There are less than two weeks before early voting begins here in Iowa on September 25th. From then on, every day until November 4th will be Election Day.
We are going to need college and high school students across the state to help get out the vote and join our campaign. This is going to be a great way to get involved in a presidential campaign and meet hundreds of other young leaders who are making a difference.
In Barack’s own words, “Change doesn’t come from the top down; it comes from the bottom up.”
No matter how much time you have to offer, there’s a place for you in this campaign. You can sign up for an internship with your nearest campaign office here: http://ia.barackobama.com/iaintern.
This is our time. Help us take charge of change.
I have been writing some halacious (and I believe quite excellent) articles on the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR AND LONG RANGE BENEFITS FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH, FOR DR. HOWARD DEAN III, M.D., to be considered an "early" member of Obama's Cabinet, if that wouldn't be too big a step down for one of his genius level intelligence, I say as Secretary of Health, or better yet, FDA Commissioner, to take federal regulatory power out of the hands and make it begin again to actually protect consumers.....
FDA Commissioner should be a Cabinet Level position, anyway...it oversees a full 25% of the entire US Economy , the segment based on Food or Drugs).
The 6 decades-long subservience to corporate demand and corporate profits, the influence of corporate lobbyists to destroy true consumer protection legislation at all levels, the international implications, especially Economic, of a total regulatory failure in the United States Food and Drug Administration: all of this needs to come to a rapid, almost immediate end, with a very strong consumer protection-oriented FDA Commissioner who is not going to open the Revolving Door at the FDA to corporations regulated by the FDA, and not going to constantly capitulated to the whims an profits of Big Pharma and Big Junk Food, dba Grocery Manufacturers of America, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Wrigley's Gum, Ajinomoto of Japan (the world's largest manufacturer of both Aspartame and of Monosodium Glutamate, and everybody's fist choice for monster corporation: Monsanto, etc.
I see no better choice than nor anyone else I would trust more to do that job than Howard Dean!
[Here is one of my first articles on this subject: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Medical-Corner-of-the-by-Stephen-Fox-080824-149.html] (I also want to see New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of State and California Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown, as Attorney General) I frequently hear that such discussions, if they came from Obama, would be deemed "presumptuous" and "arrogant", some say by the press and others say from the Neocon Right Wingers. However, if he were to speak to that issue in the context of what he would like to achieve as President in the various key realms, Environment, Education, International, Defense, etc., and at the same time, mention some names of who the USA MIGHT see in charge of which Cabinet level positions: With some more obligatory brainstorming, THIS SEEMS LIKE A DYNAMITE CAMPAIGN TACTIC AND WAY TO SECURE FENCESITTERS AND UNDECIDED, especially in Battleground states.... Too bad if the Neocons label it "arrogant" or "presumptuous." I could care less what they think. This is not some mere campaign ploy, but a plan that would illuminate ALL Americans as to what his administration might achieve. In such a comparison with McCain, I am sure Obama would come out clearly on top.
Prediction: McCain will use the Bush 2004 Debate Tactic of Deriding Obama's Ostensible "Lack of Experience." Cheney used that as well in the VP Debates. You know McCain will hammer that, but describing Cabinet picks during the debates will blow McCain and his leaky boat right out of the tub! The Republicans will, in their fuzzy demented way, will remember how well this worked in 2004!I see clearly that if Obama would try this on a trial basis, here and there, before the first debate, ultimately he would be doing it for the right reasons, so that the American public might better comprehend his highest goals domestically and internationally, and it would open the door to perceptions of his candidacy, raising it above the National Enquirer propensities of the Republican Team in this election.
Obama should immediately ask Dwight Eisenhower's Granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, to appear at campaign major events in the Battleground states, for in the Senate Races, and in the Presidential Race. I am sure she would accept.
I have heard from at least 50 people in Florida that they are praying and begging for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, to come to Florida, to dispell the vicious rumors the R's have spread throughout the elderly mostly Jewish community, that Obama is some kind of secret Muslim Terrorist. I am serious about such reports coming from South Florida, and I thus encourage Obama and Biden to invite Ed Koch to spend a month in Florida on their behalf, and to ask Susan Eisenhower to appear in older Rust Belt and Bible Belt rallies, where older fence sitters and undecideds will hear her grandfather, the last Real Republican, with great benefit for the Electoral Vote Tally. Respectfully offered, Stephen Fox Founder, New Millennium Fine Art a Santa Fe Gallery since 1980 stephen@santafefineart.com
[PHILADELPHIA - Republican presidential candidate John McCaincut short his first public appearance without running-mate Sarah Palin after chanting supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama interrupted his speech.
After lunching with a roundtable of women at Philadelphia's Down Home Diner, McCain shook hands with supporters and strode up to a podium to deliver astatement. But as he spoke, chants of "Obama, Obama, Obama" filled the room.
Reporters craned forward trying to hear the Arizona senator. Unfortunately for McCain -- and possibly overlooked by aides who planned the event -- a section of the diner opened up to a market where a crowd had gathered behind a cordon.
A large contingent of Obama supporters showed up, mixed with some who had bumper stickers reading "Democrats for McCain".
"It's time to leave the talk behind and start shaking up Washington and fixing our economy, taking care of the problems facing our families. We'regoing to give a tax cut to every family with a child," he said.
His words were barely audible.
McCain's supporters shouted "John McCain", "John McCain," "John McCain". The duelling chants nearly drowned out the presidential hopeful's voice.
"Pennsylvania is a battleground state as we can tell," McCain said.
Meanwhile Palin, the Alaska governor, was on a flight back to her state.]
U.S. Representative Tom Udall, D-N.M., released the following statement today in solemn remembrance of the tragedies of September 11, 2001:
"September 11 is a day that invokes immense sadness in all of us. Today, we remember the pain that we felt seven years ago.
But Americans learned something about ourselves on September 11, 2001, and what we learned should make us all proud.
We learned that, in America, when we find ourselves face-to-face with tragedy, we know a simple truth: we are our brothers' keepers; we are our sisters' keepers.
We know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
That if one American dies needlessly, we are all diminished by that loss. As we mark this somber day, let us take comfort in that lesson: whatever our enemies do to us, Americans will stick together. And we will not be defeated."
_______________________________
My own recollection/observation was after 9/11 when the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar al Saud, donated a check for many millions of dollars to the 9/11 victims fund, as I recall $10 million, and accompanying the check was a letter in which he made many points, and among them was the question of the United States' need to figure out what it might have done to cause this ghastly disaster and act of Terrorism.
That was too much for Rudy Giuliani, who immediately returned the check to Bandar, objecting very vociferously to Bandar's his commentary.
When I read about this in the New York Times, I immediately recognized this as Giuliani's error, but we all throughout life recognize this uniquely human trait of not being able to accept responsibility (or even a hint of a discussion of responsibility) by someone who is in some kind of serious trouble. It is just too much for them to deal with.....
The Saudi passport of Saeed Alghamdi, said to be discovered in the wreckage of Flight 93.
Steel beams from the WTC were already being removed and recycled on September 20, 2001. [Source: Associated Press]
A chunk of hot metal being removed from the North Tower rubble about eight weeks after 9/11. [Source: Frank Silecchia]
From left to right: Dick Cheney, Prince Bandar, Condoleezza Rice, and George W. Bush, on the Truman Balcony of the White House on September 13, 2001. [Source: White House]
Bandar certainly should have had some keen insights into these matters; from Wikipedia, in italics:
[Prince Bandar has formed close relationships with several American presidents, notably George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, who gave him the affectionate and controversial nickname "Bandar Bush". His friendship with Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, extends to the years before Cheney took office as the United States Vice President. Prince Bandar invited the Cheney family to his daughter's wedding in the 1990s, but they did not attend.
The close relationship with the Bush family is also described in Craig Unger's book House of Bush, House of Saud and is highlighted in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11....
Prince Bandar has endured controversy over allegations in the book Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward that President George W. Bush informed him of the decision to invade Iraq ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell. Also, the book alleged a deal had been worked out to reduce oil prices just ahead of the November 2004 election. Bandar publicly endorsed President Bush.
On June 26, 2005, Prince Bandar reportedly submitted his resignation as ambassador to the United States for "personal reasons".[4][5] Bandar's return to Saudi Arabia was announced weeks prior to the death of King Fahd upon which Bandar's father, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz became the nation's Crown Prince. It has been rumoured that Bandar's return was timed in order to secure a position in the new government.[6] In October 2005 he became the kingdom's national security chief.]
Wat happened? According to another source; "Saudi princesses are no less benevolent than their husbands, brothers and cousins. Ambassador-Prince Bandar's own wife Princess Haifa, daughter of the late King Feisal, received a letter from an unknown woman telling of problems with medical bills. The Princess-Ambassadress dashed her off a check in six figures -- and the money by some strange route ended up among the resources of the perpetrators of the September 11 atrocities. The revelation so upset Her Royal Highness that various sympathetic Washington ladies rushed their condolences and sympathy to her -- including Mrs. George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Colin Powell. "
I am not a 9/11 conspiracy kind of guy/paranoid, not at all. I concluded long ago that even talking about such was a waste of time, my time at least....
However, having said that, since September 11, 2001, I do believe we have a lot of evidence of how our hostility about Islam now has alienated most of the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, about 60 nations; it is obvious that the Chinese have run rings around us in terms of investment and economic policy throughout most of the world, particularly in Africa; it is screamingly obvious that American excursions into Iraq along with most of the US wars since 1945 have been in essence imperialistic in nature, and as such have earned us increasing hostility; one British tourist visiting Santa Fe compared the British in Ireland to the Americans in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
"If you kill their mothers and children and cousins and brothers over several years, pretty soon the entire nation becomes terrorists."
I do believe that the core of this Modern History was all essentially delineated by Marx, Engels, and especially by Hegel, in his discussions of Dialectical Materialism.
All those ISM's and the thesis/antithesis/synthesis processes make perfect sense to me in explaining the History of Economic Systems; it is clear to me that when Big Pharma and Big Junk Food corporations and their hired guns/lobbyists effectively take over the regulatory processes of a nation, like they have done with the FDA, that we are doomed in health, in history, in medical and consumer credibility, and in Economic well-being.
I have written a lot of articles on related subjects, particularly Consumer Protection, Aspartame, and Donald Rumsfeld's having forced through the FDA the approval for Aspartame/Methanol/Formaldehyde, so he could make $12-20 million personal profit, the health of hundreds of millions of people be damned....
I won't regale you with this on this solemn occasion, but allow me to recall a lecture in Santa Fe a few years ago by former President of Poland and Nobel Laureate Lech Walesa to the effect that the USA has lost its moral stature in toto as well as most of its political power, squandered its economic power in order to preserve and just barely maintain its military power, which was no replacement for moral, political, or economic power. That was quite brilliant, truly.
Similarly, DNC Chairman and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean III, M.D., was recently in Santa Fe to fire up the troops, and one thing in particular stuck with me, when he said no nation could bring peace in any conflict unless it had the moral authority to sit at the negotiating table.
We don't have that power and that moral authority throughout most of the world right now, thanks to the past 8 years of Bush/Cheney/Neocon/Blackwater/Halliburton/Kellogg Brown, and Root mode of economics and government economic policies.
I really don't believe that in general Economics nor specifically that Macro Economic insights from government economic advisors, for example, hardly qualifies as rocket science.
It is more akin to the old irrigation system of colonial New Mexico, in which the farmer who controlled the flow of the irrigation ditch, or ACEQUIA MADRE ("MOTHER DITCH" in Spanish) determined which field the water would flow into. He was called the Majordomo, and in that society, was much more important than any Mayor, or "ALCALDE" in Spanish.
That is what has happened during the past 8 years. The White House and other government masters of the flow of monies have purposefully turned the irrigation ditch waters into such things as Military, Defense Contractors, Weapons, Hardware, Security, etc.
What was in that other field, the one that got neglected and deprived of water?
Just about everything else: Education, Inner Cities, Highway maintenance and construction, Infrastructure, huge realms of Scientific and Medical Research like Stem Cell Research, etc. You name it: our American Economy is in terrible shape, and with the way our international respect has deteriorated, squarely because of Bush and Cheney, it might get a lot worse....the signs are everywhere; they are well known and they are easily recognized: endemic mortage failures, high gas prices, a deflated stock market, high unemployment, failed schools especially in the Inner City, store closings, et. alia.
Much of this election hinges on our ability to change all of that, to put America back on a sane and internationally effective tack, and that is at a minimum, just to ensure our survival as a nation.
That is why I want to see Dr. Dean be the Obama Cabinet Secretary for Health or as FDA Commissioner, and that is why I want to see NM Governor Bill Richardson as the next Secretary of State. I think also that Jerry Brown of California would make a great consumer protection-oriented United States Attorney General, one who would also reconstruct all of our civil liberties.
Such speculations are of course something else entirely, but I am certain that Obama should discuss such things seriously and frequently, ignoring the advice of some who say that that would be ridiculed by the right wing as "presumptuous" or as "arrogant," so that the American people can gain some glimmer of an insight into what he really would like to achieve as President, in terms of names, both possible and real and well known names.
Will Obama win?
To get to that victory, I work day and night as a member of 328 Obama groups, coordinating correspondence, and urging people to not just "preach to the choir," as that is how Democrats usually lose elections, but to get out there and go door to door to tell folks how much is really at stake in this election, plus my special focus: Letters to the Editor, Opinion/Editorials, and so on, all over the United States, wherever they could be published.
Surprising how few people comprehend this in only a few states, and in not many of the so-called BATTLEGROUND STATES, for Obama and for US Senate candidates, as described in my blog about a week ago in the letter from Senator Charles Schumer.
I am going to take a break from all of this furious emailing, so you won't hear from me for a while.
I will conclude with a few paragraphs written today, not by me, but an astute observer and friend of mine,who wishes to remain anonymous, about 50 years old, a realtor, former actress, and thinker:
Recently, I was on a flight to Texas and sat next to a very personable and fairly astute guy. We began talking politics and went back and forth about the issues. He was really impressed by my research and said so.
Then he leaned over to me and whispered conspiratorially, "I concede all the points but Obama is a Muslim, you know."
And when I calmly explained that that particular lie fed on our basest fears, he held up Reverend Wright as proof. This scene has been repeated numerous times with different characters but the underlying emotional message is clear and powerful. Their winning on a gut level. They are afraid and the facts don't matter.
Obama is perceived as "the other."
The Republicans have clearly defined him emotionally and he must wrest these irrational pictures away from them and supplant them with powerful and soothing reassurance.
Obama may loose this election if he does not connect on a visceral level soon. He must capture the emotional narrative and stop trying to be only reasonable. People do not reason their way into the voting booth. They move from the gut.
He has much "low-hanging fruit" to choose from. Sarah Palin is a right-wing fundamentalist wack-job. She is an extremist and Americans of all stripes are uncomfortable with extremism. John McCain has abandoned every "maverick" position he's ever held.
It's all on video, from her prayers to the oil pipeline god to the massively naked ambition which has led him to do a 180 on every major political stance of his past. Use Their Own Words To Out This Outrageous Hypocricy. Draw passionate simple pictures once again and reframe this narrative, from the gut. It's the only way. "
______________________________________
Obama has to win!
Page A14
One rap on Sarah Palin's qualifications to be Vice President is that she governs one of our least populated states, with a budget of "only" $12 billion and 16,000 full-time state employees.
On the other hand, it turns out that the Governor's office in Alaska is one of the country's most powerful. For more than two decades Thad Beyle, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, has maintained an index of "institutional powers" in state offices.
He rates governorships on potential length of service, budgetary and appointment authority, veto power and other factors. Mr. Beyle's findings for 2008 rate Alaska at 4.1 on a scale of 5.
The national average is 3.5. Only four other states -- Maryland, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia -- concentrate as much power in the Governor's office as Alaska does, and only one state (Massachusetts) concentrates more. California may be the nation's most populous state, but its Governor rates as below-average (3.2) in executive authority.
This may account in part for Arnold Schwarzenegger's poor legislative track record. The lowest rating goes to Vermont (2.5), where the Governor (remember Howard Dean) is a figurehead compared to Mrs. Palin. In Alaska, the Governor has line-item veto power over the budget and can only be overridden by a three-quarters majority of the Legislature.
In 1992, the year Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton was elected President, his state budget was $2 billion and among the smallest in the country. Compared to that, Sarah Palin is an executive giant.
COMMENT?
See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.
And add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.
About 300 people braved the cold and light rain to join DNC Chairman Howard Dean as he kicked off a Midwestern "Register For Change" bus tour today in Minneapolis with a rally at Augsburg College.
Chairman Dean was joined by Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak, Congressman Keith Ellison, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, each of whom appealed to the crowd to get registered and get involved in Barack's campaign for change right here in Minnesota.
Dean implored the students in the crowd not to make the same mistake his generation did following their handwork on civil rights and women's rights:
You can't take a vacation from politics... you need to be in politics, because politics is about justice... and because we have this belief that we can make the world better. And if you want to get there, we have to elect Barack Obama.
Campus organizers and volunteers walked through the crowd, registering voters and signing up volunteers. And although the Republican National Convention was happening just a few miles away in neighboring St. Paul, there was no doubt among the crowd that John McCain and Sarah Palin were just more of the same.
The Register for Change Bus Tour kicked off on July 17th in Crawford, Texas. It will register voters nationwide between now and November. Registering new voters plays a huge role in our strategy to elect Barack President—and getting new people involved has always been at the heart of Barack’s message of change.
Here are some more photos from the rally:
If you you're not registered to vote, be sure to visit VoteForChange.com to get registered in a matter of minutes.
Tomorrow, Governor Howard Dean's cross-country "Register for Change" bus tour will pass through Minnesota, stopping in Minneapolis for a rally with U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Congressman Keith Ellison at Augsburg College.
Here are the details:
REGISTER FOR CHANGE RALLY WITH HOWARD DEANThursday, September 4th - 12:30 PMAugsburg CollegeUrness Hall Lawn2211 Riverside Avenue SouthMinneapolis, MNMap & Directions
REGISTER FOR CHANGE RALLY WITH HOWARD DEANThursday, September 4th - 12:30 PMAugsburg CollegeUrness Hall Lawn2211 Riverside Avenue SouthMinneapolis, MN
Map & Directions
The Register for Change tour made dozens of campaign stops in key states throughout the country in the run up to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and it's only fitting that it comes to the Twin Cities, the site of the Republican National Convention.
Come out and meet fellow Obama supporters—and check out the Register for Change Bus! For more information, visit the Register for Change site.
As a friend and colleague of Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder, Mission Possible International, I am happy to inform you that I will be a guest on this major program tonite, Wednesday morning in fact, on the largest listenership program in the world, Coast to Coast, hosted by the regular host, George Noory, with Betty Martini as the Prime Guest.
The first two hours of this massive 3 hour program are devoted to Attorney James Turner of Washington D.C., the renowned consumer protection lawyer, who, among many other great deeds, succeeded in getting the carcinogenic cyclamates removed from sale in the Nixon years.
The other major guest will be physician H.J. Roberts of West Palm Beach Florida, author of Aspartame Disease: An FDA Approved Epidemic, a 1038 page book from the point of view of an internist who has been working with Diabetics and the ghastly avoidable effects of the artificial sweetener aspartame for the past 27 years. Dr. Roberts was elected by his medical peers as the best physician in the United States, back in the early 80's; you may know of his wife, Carol, a Florida Democratic Party Official, who was one of the Election Board supervisors in Broward County, Florida, in the "hanging chad" controversies.
This should be a very stimulating evening. My main hope tonight is that ALL Obama supporters can get off of aspartame, if there are any who are, since it is metabolized as Methanol and Formaldehyde, and that Obama supporters will use their influence to carry through after the election to get a real consumer protecitonist appointed as FDA Commissioner.
My own personal nomination and hope would be for Dr. Howard Dean, M.D., to take such a position, or as US Secretary of Health, to whom the FDA Commissioner reports.
I wrote important legislation to ban aspartame for both the Hawaii and New Mexico Senate, which was overwhelmed by corporate lobbyists (eviscerated, might be the best word....) which led to a Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 191, which genteely but firmly asked the FDA to rescind the approval for aspartame, and gave about 40 reasons to do so. It can be read at the Hawaii Legislature website, as SCR 191.
Here is the Resolution (please take the time to read it):
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2008/Bills/HCR191_.htm
If there are any questions or newly enthused activists who want to help with similar resolutions in their state, please let me know by email.
For Coast to Coast Subscribers, the show will be archived at their site, www.coasttocoastam.com, for about 90 days, and at that site, you can find which stations in your area carry it.
Best wishes, and I hope this all makes perfect sense to you and to President Obama, when it comes time to consider the health of hundreds of millioins of America. As James Turner will describe tonight, he essentially forced Nixon with the compiled evidence, to give a Presidential Order to get Cyclamates off the market.
This is the exact opposite from what Reagan and Rumsfeld did in 1981 to get aspartame approved, never mind that it had been turned down by the FDA as neurotoxic for the prior 15 years, from 1966 bto 1981. Google and read this: RUMSFELD'S BIOWEAPON LEGACY, to get to the grim truth about the most sordid chapter in the FDA's checkered history.
Respectfully,
Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News
stephen@santafefineart.com
[The comparison to Harriet Miers is an obvious but original thought, but it seems Art Levine at the Huffington Post, also conceived of it, a bit earlier than I did, so hats off to Art Levine: here is his article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/sarah-palin-the-new-harri_b_122582.html]
#1: Palin opposes a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body, opposing the right to an abortion even for rape victims.
#2: Palin believes that Creationism should be taught in public schools, which runs both counter to well-settled evolutionary science, and to the Constitutional separation of church and state.
#3: Palin is a global warming denier, who (as with her views on evolution) has expressed skepticism about the well-settled science.
#4: Palin opposes listing polar bears as an endangered species, because it means oil and gas companies might have to be just a little bit careful out there.
#5: Palin is rabidly dedicated to drilling in the Artic wildlife refuge, known as ANWR.
#6: Palin is in the midst of a growing ethics scandal, involving the alleged abuse of her gubernatorial power to punish a State Trooper who is her sister's ex-husband, firing a State Commissioner who refused to go along.
#7: Palin called Hillary Clinton a "whiner", even as she cynically tries to woo Clinton voters to the McCain ticket.
#8: Palin has very little experience for the Vice Presidential job, serving less than two years so far of her first term as Governor of a state with fewer residents than Fort Worth, Texas. (Previously, she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, pop. 8,500.) This a photo of Wasilla, Alaska.
http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/wasilla.jpg
#9: Palin has no foreign policy experience at all, so little in fact that her supporters are reduced to citing Alaska's proximity to Russia.
#10: Palin is virtually untested, unvetted and unknown to Americans, a fact which throws into relief the hypocrisy of the many unfair criticisms leveled at Barack Obama during this campaign.
BONUS REASON, #11: Palin only recently said that she doesn't even know what the job entails, saying on the CNBC show Kudlow and Co
![[Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin winks as she speaks during her vice presidential debate against Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/winkwink1003.jpg "winkwink1003.jpg")
