I have a question: Would it not be better to let illegals work and provide for them selves than to keep them locked up in personal hell at our tax expense for wanting a better life? They are locked up at our expense for months or even years at our expense. If they are working they are buying. There needs to be a better alternative. Our deportation system is jammed at our tax expense. Maybe if they can pass a test they could be elligitable for Amnesty.
In Germany they first came for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for the Catholics,and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.Then they came for me -and by that time no one was left to speak up.
America's Place in the World
I travel internationally a great deal on business. Once, I went around the world visiting 7 countries in 14 days meeting with the financial firms leaders. I've flown 14 hours for a 12 hour meeting to immediately fly home in order to coach my sons basketball team's practice. I know what it is to be a road warrior.
Common Ground Found in IndiaOn one trip to India, I took a weekend to travel to one of the 4 holy sights in Puri on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. There, I pursued information as to a legend told to e by Indian colleagues that Jesus spent his youth there at the temple. Many Indians there in Puri believed Christ was an incarnation of God on earth as was Krishna. I found that I had more in common with Hindu Indians than we had differences. Additionally, the poverty I saw there was more than even that I've experienced in the back woods Louisiana where I spent my summers on my grandparent's farm. It broke my heart and forever changed my life to see a small child standing knee deep in mud naked and crying as people passed him by because he was from the untouchable cast. I grew to appreciate the upward mobility America provides its citizens. My great grandparents were born into effective slavery though the civil war had ended years prior. My great grandmother was an amazing woman stressed to my mother and myself the importance of education as the only path to freedom. I honor her in my striving for excellence and knowledge. God has truly blessed America but do we really appreciate the gifts in this generation. I am reminded of the parable of the talents. Is the baby boomer and now GenX generation the servant given 1 talent that buried it in the ground.
The Gulf between America and Europe
As I travel throughout Europe, I am constantly facing and addressing the negative perceptions of Americans. Europeans tend to blame the average American for the policies of the Bush administration. There is a tangible contempt and loathing with an undercurrent of jealousy for the wealth and opportunity many see America squandering. In essence, we Americans must take responsibility for electing George Bush. It's not the Republican's fault. America stands and falls as a nation undivided.Europeans also do not understand why Americans hold firm to the right to bear arms. They do not understand that Americans fear our own government more than our government fears to citizens. There is a fundamental distrust of authority. Assassinations of our best and brightest is our legacy. It is the evil that lurks in the shadows. The nail that sticks up gets hammered as they say in Japan.At times, I wonder if Europeans consider themselves truly allies with the US. The threat of the USSR and facism have faded from the minds of most Europeans it seems as with the role America played in securing European freedom. In the end, once I show compassion for their views and explain the environment and challenges Americans face to safeguard democracy from big business and organized crime, a common ground can be found with those abroad. Once again, we have more in common than that which separates.
World Citizenship
It is clear that the efforts of the past to aid poor countries not with weapons but with education and human resources are far more effective than punitive military actions and a heavy handed foreign policy. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Teaching the world to fish will feed them for generations and build alliances into the future.
Why must America act unilaterally with military strikes? Why are we not providing greater support for regional policing of regional problems through UN sponsored commissions? Americans are citizens of the world and must use our God given gifts to lead by example rather than by dictate or mandate. Compassion and patience is the calling card of a mature state and leading nation.Show how your plan for America on all fronts (education, military, healthcare, etc) is a template for the world. Can you UN adopt such a template to propagate to emerging nation states? If not, then there may be something lacking in the underlying principles that impairs the ability for a sustainable and repeatable solution to be adopted. Regards,Derek LaSalle
Based on the fluctuations of an individual's maturity and the unique events that shape each human's behavior, it is dangerous to assume that someone who was once 15 years old, still holds the same beliefs as they approach their 20s, or 50s. As you know, an individual's beliefs and priorities can change dramatically over the course of their life.
One thing to observe about John McCain, as seen again tonight at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, is his 'willingness' to spread false context about Obama without apology even with contempt; this is a grave telling sign of his current state of character. In addition, how he allows his running mate, Sarah Palin, to go around erratically swing falsehoods at Barack Obama without McCain’s responsible correction or intervening leadership. All of this should send a sober warning to the American public about McCain's judgment and how he plans to govern right now in 2008.
Instead of asserting sound evidence that supports his arguments in his campaign; McCain continues to choose the low road. The low road will get the American people nowhere fast and fuel the attitude of cynicism already express against America government. Consequently, Americans will lose out in the end. The American public need a consistent trustworthy voice that encourages individuals to take the road less traveled, and gives them straight context about the issues they face everyday; not guilt by association speeches and videos.
McCain’s present strategy is praying on the hope that Americans are not going to spend time researching political policy positions. Does McCain believe that the American public is too naive to discern between what is true and what is false? As McCain stated to one gentleman tonight, most Americans have near heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, right?
Ever since the Mortgage Meltdown started somewhere around the 04's, there has been talk about bailing out the Homeowner. But just that "a lot of talk".
But NOTHING, not even talk about those of us who already lost our homes.
Now that WE MUST BAIL OUT WALL STREET, administration officials have agreed to include mortgage help for beleguered homeowners but, nothing, not even TALK for those of us who already lost our homes.
I have nothing against help for homeowners, I just worry that is not going to be enough and I think that Congress should examine this measures and pressure the administration if they are not going to help homeowners or the funds are at risk to get lost in a beaurocratic mess; as we experienced after Katrina, believe it or not there are still victims from Katrina who have not been helped or funds still unaccounted for.
It bothers me a lot 'how quick we forget"
Just as the Katrina's victims who will never see help, the homeowners who already lost our homes to the great American mortgage meltdown, will be left out in the cold.
Like the millions of taxpayers who were left out of the stimulus package, because they did not qualify due to the existing tax laws. It amazes me to think that the administration actually made the ordinary folk believe that help was on the way. When most disabled veterans and social security recipients found out that they would not receive any money that would help them at least for that month, pay the rent or buy some extra food or clothing; they were devastated and extremely dissappointed.
The idea was good, not that it would fix the economy, but a band aid (a wet one, that is). It was the idea that it would make ordinary people believe that after its failure they would believe that the goverment did try to help ordinary people with the stimulus package but, the situation has gotten worse and now it is required to bail out Wall Street or things will get a lot worse.
The truth is this: the administration told us that this were extraordinary times that require extraordinary measures, but did not apply extraordinary ecxeptions to the existing tax laws which led to excluding social security recipients, disabled veterans and other taxpayesr who earned the amount required to qualify for the stimulus package but were claimed as dependents on someone elses return. In addition to that, the package was designed to reward with more money those who earned more money, with the max of $1200 for married couples who earned $150,000 plus $300 per child under the age of 17.
I am tired of the injustice, I am tired of watching the least fortunate always getting the dirty end of the stick.
I am not a firm believer of "conspiracy theories" although in retrospect, I have a very good one about the Iraq war.
Today, is becoming obvious that the present administration knew way in advance about the economic crisis we would face. I believe that months ago they (Bush, Paulson, Cheney and other very close players) after realizing that the Republicans did not have a chance to win the White House and, since the economy was about to take a plunge; try to prepare the American people mentally (with the stimulus package) and even more with the initial bail out of Fanney Mae and Freddy Mac and subsequently AIG.
Now that we are all brain washed, we can believe that they really need all that money, just like we believed that Dick Chaney did not have personal interest in United States invading Iraq, when now his company Halliburton is making Billions of dollars in the rebuilding of Iraq. And, I would not be surprised for a second if Halliburton would profit from the Bail Out as well as some foreign institutions.
Only in America you can imagine that the President and his Wall Street cronies are about to rob the bank and distribute the money among themselves. They figure that, with Barak Obama as president, Wall Street is not going to have a free ride, they will be regulated. So might as well take the money now and let Obama deal with the ONE TRILLION debt we will inherit and of course, there will be no money to pay for Universal Health Care or any other social programs that Senator Obama is promissing now.
Since we seem to forget so quickly, during the Obama's administration, when no money is available for those programs mentioned above, republicans will hammer on the fact that the Obama administration did not deliver; then, they will have enough inmunition to take the White House back in 2012.
They tell us that they are borrowing the money and that Wall Street is going to pay us back with interest. If they were no were around when we were loosing our homes, why should we bail them out, oh, is because if we don't there will be no money to keep business open therefore no jobs for no one.
That is call: SCARE TACTICS, republicans are very good at it, they have had plenty of practice, their motto is: keep them uneducated, sick and running scared, I have seen that all my life. I am afraid that we will eventually bail some business out, but hope that will be companies that got caught in the middle and no companies that actually caused and contributed to the crisis, we should find those accountable. If companies responsible for the crisis are rewarded with OUR MONEY, it sends the wrong message to future generations.
I would have no problem bailing out the Banks and Mortgage Companies, as long as I can have my home back.
Well, we gave you (out of your own money) alsmost 1/2 Billion with the stimulus package, why can't you bail us out with 1 Trillion plus dollars. "Folks, we can always count on the generosity of the American people" . Are we generous or stupid? Am I asking for too much when I want my house back?
It does not have to be that way, I believe that some monetary measures should be taken to correct the destructive course the Bush administration has taken our economy thru, but no ONE TRILLION OF OUR HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS.
Let's not get fulled by the fact that our economy is about 14 Trillion dollars and, 1 Trillion is just a drop in the bucket because, we are 9 Trillion Dollars in debt; thanks to the Bush administration.
When President Clinton left office, left us with a surplus, DO WE WANT 4 MORE YEARS OF REPUBLICAN DESASTROUS POLICIES?
I got totally of the track, WHAT ABOUT US WHO ALREADY LOST OUR HOMES? if you know of anything period, related to this forgotten group of Americans, please post a coment or contact me.
God bless you and get registered to vote,
Mario Lopez
Tonight we are showing the documentary "Darfur Now" at our Fair Trade shop at 6:30 pm. And, I wanted to be sure about Obama's position on Darfur before showing this movie. If you can watch this documetary, please do. It is one of the most encouraging films as it portrays people who are from different walks of life that are doing something to end the Darfurian genocide now.
Here is Obama's position on Darfur as stated in his issues tab...go to foreign policy to find out more about his stances in Darfur and throughout Africa.
Stop the Genocide in Darfur: As president, Obama will take immediate steps to end the genocide in Darfur by increasing pressure on the Sudanese and pressure the government to halt the killing and stop impeding the deployment of a robust international force. He will hold the government in Khartoum accountable for abiding by its commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord that ended the 30 year conflict between the north and south. Obama worked with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.
We are the government that called what is going on in Darfur as genocide. And yet, we've done nearly nothing through our foreign policies to stop it. It has been a grassroots effort to divest from Sudan through pension plans, and private individuals have kept humanitarian flights going into Darfur time and again because countries and the UN aren't doing enough.
If you want to know how best to help, read Not on Our Watch by John Prendergast & Don Cheadle. Go to www.savedarfur.org and donate, or educate. But learn how to help through lobbying local, state and federal government officials, and mobilizing your families, friends and co-workers. Have a "Darfur Friday" instead of Casual Friday.
Do what you can now, and pressure Obama to be very active about Darfur once he's elected.
As a guest on Larry King Live, Michael Moore said “the democrats come to a gun fight with a pea shooter.” I agree with this statement and blame the loose of the last two elections on the lack of attacks by the democrats. It is imperative this year to fight hard and fierce against Mc Cain and Palin as an example how they will fight for the USA in places like Afghanistan and Georgia.
After months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.
Huh?
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience. (1)
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest. (2)
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. (3)
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools. (4)
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change. (5)
Even though it may not look like it or feel like it, you are making progress.
Continue working towards progress instead of perfection.
Nothing or no no one is perfect.
Just keep taking steps.
Keep making those phone calls.
Continue following your plan.
Remain focused on your goal.
Do what you have to do right now to get to the next level.
Complete every task.
Keep every promise and commitment.
Don't look back.
Let no one weaken your walk of faith and determination.
Remain teachable.
Place yourself in a blessing position by associating with people on-the-grow.
Talk with teachers.
Walk with winners.
Climb with champions.
Study successful people.
Something great is about to happen for you!
Start giving thanks right now before you can even see the outward manisfestation of your prayers and desires.
Everything you do from this day forward will take you further away or closer to your potential for successful living.
-by Dr. Jewel Diamond Taylor, Motivational Speaker & Author
-- Frederick II (the Great)
It is increasingly clear: desperation, which has always been part of human experience in some form, is becoming the pervasive mood of our time. During the Cold War/Korean War/Vietnam War era, anxiety was prevalent. The Seventies brought frustration. The Eighties and Nineties were about distraction. Now desperation has taken center stage. Desperation is the driving force on Wall Street and in the inner city. It shapes our foreign policy, as well as our domestic policy. From the board of General Motors to the single mother in abject poverty, financial decisions are made in the context of desperation.
Despair is the sense that everything is going badly and there is no hope. Desperation is a state of despair that results in reckless or extreme behavior. A few months ago, when Senator Obama was talking (off the record, if there is such a thing anymore) about bitterness. Behind that bitterness that some people are expressing is the desperation that most of us are experiencing. Once you distinguish the desperation, you can see it occuring everywhere.
We are holding on to our attachments to value, our pictures of how it should be, our preferred "lifestyles." We are encouraged to hold on. The President recommends shopping more. In a time of climate change and crunchy credit, no one is suggesting that we let go of unnecessary excesses. We want to hold on to our big resource-destroying vehicles and two-hour commutes, iPods and cellphones, and being so busy we cannot find the time to cook healthy, fresh food for our families. We want to hold on to our self-styled "greatest nation in the world." We want to hold on to our bombs, our military and our international force projections.
Paradoxically, it is the holding on that produces the desperation. It is possible to lift ourselves out of despair and end our mood of desperation. The World-as-it-is has given us the profound opportunity to begin giving up our romantic notions, our attachments, our pictures of how it should be (phisbe). It is up to us to fulfill the promise of the American experiment, rather than to perpetuate its distortion.
I came across an article I’d like to shre hopefully it will help some see the forest for the trees. if not well I wish you much luck.
By Gail Collins; NY TimesI know, I know. You’re upset. You think the guy you fell in love with last spring is spending the summer flip-flopping his way to the right. Drifting to the center. Going all moderate on you. So you’re withholding the love. Also possibly the money.
I feel your pain. I just don’t know what candidate you’re talking about.
Think back. Why, exactly, did you prefer Obama over Hillary Clinton in the first place? Their policies were almost identical — except his health care proposal was more conservative. You liked Barack because you thought he could get us past the old brain-dead politics, right? He talked — and talked and talked — about how there were going to be no more red states and blue states, how he was going to bring Americans together, including Republicans and Democrats.
Exactly where did everybody think this gathering was going to take place? Left field? * Obama is trying to win a United States election not president of “Moveon.org”*
When an extremely intelligent politician tells you over and over and over that he is tired of the take-no-prisoners politics of the last several decades, that he is going to get things done and build a “new consensus,” he is trying to explain that he is all about compromise. Even if he says it in that great Baracky way.
Here’s a helpful story: Once upon a time, there was a woman searching for a guy who was ready to commit. One day, she met an attractive young man.
“My name is Chuck,” he said, grinning an infectious grin. “I’m planning to devote my entire life to saving endangered wildlife in the Antarctic. In five weeks I leave for the South Pole, where I will live alone in a tent, trying to convince the penguins that I am part of their flock. In the meantime, would you like to go out?”
“I have just met the man I’m going to marry,” she told her friends. She had been betrayed by poor listening skills, which skipped right over the South Pole and the tent. Of course, after five weeks of heavy dating, Chuck flew away and was never heard from again.
A year and a half of campaigning and we still haven’t heard Obama’s penguins, either. It’s not his fault that we missed the message — although to be fair, he did make it sound as if getting rid of the “old politics” involved driving out the oil and pharmaceutical lobbyists rather than splitting the difference on federal wiretapping legislation. But if you look at the political fights he’s picked throughout his political career, the main theme is not any ideology. It’s that he hates stupidity. “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war,” he said in 2002 in his big speech against the invasion of Iraq. He did not, you will notice, say he was against unilateral military action or pre-emptive attacks or nation-building. He was antidumb.
Most of the things Obama’s taken heat for saying this summer fall into these two familiar patterns — attempts to find a rational common ground on controversial issues and dumb-avoidance.
On the common-ground front, he’s called for giving more federal money to religious groups that run social programs, but only if the services they offer are secular. People can have guns for hunting and protection, but we should crack down on unscrupulous gun sellers. Putting some restrictions on the government’s ability to wiretap is better than nothing, even though he would rather have gone further.
Dumb-avoidance would include his opposing the gas-tax holiday, backtracking on the anti-Nafta pandering he did during the primary and acknowledging that if one is planning to go all the way to Iraq to talk to the generals, one should actually pay attention to what the generals say.
Touching both bases are Obama’s positions that 1) if people are going to ask him every day why he’s not wearing a flag pin, it’s easier to just wear the pin, for heaven’s sake, and 2) there’s nothing to be gained by getting into a fight over whether the death penalty can be imposed on child rapists.
His decision to ditch public campaign financing, on the other hand, was nothing but a complete, total, purebred flip-flop. If you are a person who feels campaign finance reform is the most important issue facing America right now, you should either vote for John McCain or go home and put a pillow over your head. *Quite frankly I would rather he didn’t take tax payer money.It would have been financialy and strategicaly stupid of him not to beat the Republicans at thier own game*. I believe I have met every single person in the country for whom campaign finance reform is the tiptop priority, and their numbers are not legion.
Meanwhile, Obama has made it clear what issues he thinks all this cleverness and compromising are supposed to serve: national health care, a smart energy policy and getting American troops out of Iraq. He has tons of other concerns, but those seem to be the top three. There’s definitely a penguin in there somewhere.
* = My thoughts
Despite what his conservative critics charge as arrogance, Barack Obama isn't letting his recent successful foreign trip to go to his head. In fact, he looks at his chances in the presidential election rather soberly, as seen in these NYTimes and Newsweek articles/interviews:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/politics/26cnd-obama.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=login
http://www.newsweek.com/id/148986/output/print
Here are a couple of articles covering the end of Barack's trip abroad:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1826859,00.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-bush26-2008jul26,0,389750.story
Check out this interesting NY Times article on Obama's visit to Iraq. Doesn't he look cool with those shades?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/us/politics/22assess.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp&adxnnlx=1216729177-hBb2yS9mJntVCgSo2302Sw
Obama just touched down in Jordan today. So far, so good.
http://religion.info/english/articles/article_385.shtml
Source: Religioscope
Author: Richard Cimino
While there have been allegations in the past of government investigation of mosques on issues relating to terrorism, the recent report, first featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, is said to be the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place.
An article in the Los Angeles Times (May 29) reports that information about the alleged spying surfaced in a case about classified files concerning terrorism that were stolen from a secure office used by military and civilian law enforcement officials at Camp Pendleton. Some of these classified records referred to the surveillance of Muslim communities in Southern California, specifically, the Islamic Center of San Diego. The records alleged that the mosque had been monitored as part of a federal surveillance program targeting Muslim groups, according to the Union-Tribune article.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/10/muslim_profiling/index.html
Source: Salon
Author: Juan Cole
The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.
The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, "There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling." Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties.
