Soon as we got a Democrat in the White House, a bunch of Senators claiming to be Democrats rushed to show how independent they are, declaring they won’t necessarily vote in support of the President’s agenda that he was elected to enact. As a Hoosier, I’ll put Indiana’s Evan Bayh (pronounced “Bye” or “Buy”) at the top of the list.
Mr. Obama is right to allow politicians to vote their “consciences” (oxymoron is obvious). Where he’s wrong is in promising to raise money for them. I won’t give one penny to support ANY Senator who fails to toe the line and earnestly help the President do what he promised. Many promises were made. If they’re not kept because Democrats in the Senate support powerful banks and other lobbies against the people who support Mr. Obama’s agenda, then Bayh-Bayh to them come the primary.
If self-described Democrats in the Senate refuse to push through the President’s agenda, then it’s up to us to FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL. I won’t give money to or raise money for Evan Bayh or Arlen Spector or any of the approximately eight others who have declared themselves “independent” of this cause.
They want our money and votes only to betray us to the powerful lobbyists who own them. We need to start work right now finding better people to run against them in the primaries and start raising the money they’ll need to win.
We kept McCain and Palin out of the White House. We certain can put Bayh, Specter and those other eight “independent” Democrats OUT of the Senate. CHANGE is coming to America.
As an independent voter who was/is a strong Obama supporter I'm watching the stimulus legislation negotiations for signs that the new administration will deliver on the promise of change to the partisan political process. So far I'm encouraged that Obama and the Republican leadership are at least talking and have some hope that the result will be better, more balanced legislation.
Just by way of background, in 2000 President Bush had also run partly on the promise of a bipartisan approach. Apparently he was not sincere because there was almost nothing bipartisan about his 8 years except briefly after the 2001 attacks when the Democrats came to him.
I believe that Obama is sincere about bipartisanship but I'm still afraid that the strong partisan currents will sweep his good intentions away. I'm enough of a realist to understand that partisanship will remain, but enough of an idealist to hope that our elected representatives may sometimes choose in favor of the greater good of the country rather than partisan advantage and that balanced, moderate legislation may sometimes result.
In the latest report on the stimulus neogtations I see both good and bad signs http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012400661.html.
Bad:
- The Republicans say they were completely shut out of the stimulus drafting process
- The legislation bears some Congressional Chrismas tree imprints; such as money for the National Endowment for the Arts. (I don't object to funding the arts but don't understand why that should be in the jobs bill. Bills should be kept clean and specific to their purpose, not used as a way to sneak in funding for other things in a non-transparent manner)
- The bill will be very expensive and I don't understand how our country will ever pay off all its debts and if/when foreigners stop buying our Treasury bills we'll be ruined
Good:
-Obama met with the Republican leadership, listened to their input, and hopefully gave them reason to be constructive and bipartisan in their turn
- One of the ideas that Obama and the Democrats will reportedly consider is abatement of the effect of the AMT tax. (This tax is an abomination because it continually increases without Congressional transparency and accountability. And its abatement is arguably stimulative to the economy so it is not another Christmas tree ornament.)
The Pickens Plan: For those who would like to become an active participant in a solution for our nations energy needs I urge you to join with T.Boone Pickens in his quest for a cleaner planet through alternative energy.
Also see Green Wave Energy: Green Wave was founded by Mark Holmes and was formulated for viable alternative energy solutions. Green Wave Energy is promoting state-of-the-art energy-saving products and services throughout the country.
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Call 949.645.1701 for information on how Green Wave Energy can help you save the planet.
Alternative EnergySource: David Apperson
url: http://veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/tag/alternative-energy
"Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign. The Connecticut independent will lose a minor panel post as punishment for criticizing Obama this fall.
Lieberman's colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday on a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel. He loses an Environment and Public Works panel subcommittee chairmanship, however."
(Actually, he gave up his position on the Environmental and Public Works Committee altogether. However, Lieberman is also on the Armed Services Committee, where he chairs an important subcommittee.)
The article concludes with a statement made Friday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who opposed the move.
"To reward Senator Lieberman with a major committee chairmanship would be a slap in the face of millions of Americans who worked tirelessly for Barack Obama and who want to see real change in our country. Appointing someone to a major post who led the opposition to everything we are fighting for is not 'change we can believe in."'
I discussed Lieberman's situation in my new blog, Keep Joe Lieberman, which has now achieved its purpose. By their actions, the Senate Democrats have shown that there’s hope for them yet!It is also important to note that Lieberman caucused with the Democrats as an Independent Democrat, so he was not obliged by this to support Obama, just as Bernie Sanders could have supported
I'm glad that Obama seeks to govern rather than to seek revenge. Too bad there are so many "Democrazies" out there who aren't getting the message.
If the Republicans lose this election my guess would be that Gov. Palin would continue to work to separate Alaska from the United States for wealth and political purposes. Look at it this way; if successful she would be the President of Alaska.
Dear Lou,I feel I can't refrain myself anymore, and need to write this message after having watched your show today. Since “Lou Dobbs Tonight” airs at a convenient time family-wise, I have been watching it for most of the year. I have always found it much too centered on yourself, has always been exasperated by your interrupting and not letting finish your guests in order to make your angry/biased remarks (and polls in which you use the most misleading wordings I have ever seen), and always suspected you to be a very conservative Republican in disguise. Amid all this, I “tolerated” your show as a background noise, and also to hear from different sources. Today is the last straw. It is very clear that you dislike Senator Obama, and are angry about his rise. But, as the last example of your hypocrisy, you said that he is an elitist (again), and does not respect “Joe the plumber” which is (again) way too coincidentally in tune with the Republican’s campaign. Obama accuses McCain to use Joe to make people think that his plans are better for the middle class, and states that it is very likely that Joe makes less than $250,000 (which means that he would benefit from Obama’s tax cut). You subsequently reproached to Obama to have meant that a plumber was not entitled to make more than $250,000… Either you are trying to manipulate people’s opinion, or you don’t understand plain English. Take it from me, a non-American legally living in the US (nobody’s perfect, me even less probably for you: I am French), I don’t know what part of “do you know many plumbers who make more than $250,000?” you don’t understand, but it has nothing to do with a plumber being entitled to earn that kind of money. What bothers me is not even your tone or your opinion; it is your self-positioning as “Mr Independent”. Message repetition has a clear impact on perception, and I bet that a lot of voters, and probably independent voters, actually perceive you as being a real independent. This means that you are in the position of potentially helping McCain’s campaign, by making him the right candidate for independents, through attacks aimed at Obama and…. Bush’s administration. Easy! Your populist strategy, in the way that you simply play on people’s hot buttons to make them agree with you and like you, is a mock one. You know that your impact would be less if you admitted to be on McCain’s side, you thus choose to manipulate and lie. It is incredible that CNN allows you to do that, and I will use all means of communication to spread the word. Once again, it’s not about what you say, it’s who you pretend to be. I still hope that you will either balance your comments, or do your political coming-out, for the sake of honesty and ethics.Best,Olivier
After watching the new mini-documentary released by Obama's campaign, I am completely stunned as to how he allowed his campaign to resort to this. Campbell Brown wrote this morning on CNN.com about statements each candidate made early on in the election process and the need for civility.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/06/campbell.brown.campaign/index.html
John McCain: I pledge again a respectful campaign. A respectful campaign based on the issues and based on the stark differences we have on the vision for the future of America.
Sen. Barack Obama: I said I was looking forward to a civil substantive debate on the issues and he agreed.
McCain: I've pledged to conduct a respectful campaign and I urge, time after time, various entities within the Republican party to also do that.
Obama: We don't need John McCain and I to be demonizing each other. You won't get that from my campaign.
So again I ask the question - how did we get here? Now of course, many of you may say that Sarah Palin threw the first stone in the recent exchange, by bringing up the ridiculous "connection" of Obama to domestic terrorists. This connection is non-existent, let's be frank about that. So does it warrant an equally flimsy and nasty allegation?
Anyone that has done a little homework on the Keating Five (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_five) will find that Sen. McCain was involved, but was cleared of all charges by the Senate Ethics Committee. He was only reprimanded for showing bad judgement in meeting with federal regulators, a decision he called "the worst mistake of my life". I bring this up because any Republican campaigner with half a wit will respond with this, and will ask the natural question - why hasn't Sen. Obama similarly denounced the domestic terrorists he supposedly knew, and why hasn't he said that his "association" with them was a mistake? Personally, I don't think he has to - I think the charge of association is completely ludicrous and doesn't deserve a response. But you can see the slippery slope you get on when you DO choose to respond.
I urge Sen. Obama and my fellow supportors to encourage the campaign to stop what it is doing - immediately. You will only hurt the purity of the message Obama has tried to convey, which is a change from politics as usual. Because what the campaign has lowered itself to is exactly politics as usual. And just because "they" do it, doesn't mean you have to lower yourself to doing it too.
Political message in 5....4....3....2.....1.....
To start off, I'm a registered Libertarian who has (for the most part) remained on the fence during this presidential election. After exchanging some long and heated emails with friends in the last 2 days, I pushed myself off of the political fence and made a choice. Rather than continue to make excuses for a candidate I wanted to support in 2000 (as did some Democrats we all know), and rather than hoping that McCain would somehow find his way through Alaska and back to that wonderful platform, I've come to realize that the choice before us in November is not really as difficult as I wanted it to be. I've been a fan of Barack since before he set foot in the senate, and eagerly awaited the day when he would make his own presidential bid. While I felt for a long time that this was just too soon to try, I still knew deep down that this was the future for our country.
With that said, I am now throwing my support behind Obama and his campaign. I've setup a website for donations to his campaign, and am now registered with his volunteer pool in Texas (I never do things half-assed). I encourage all of you to donate even a few dollars to his campaign - those few dollars can help lock up this election and ensure that the vote in November will be a resounding endorsement for Obama. Lastly, as this Kool-aid begins to wear off, I urge everyone to remain critical of the statements from our politicians from both sides, even those that we endorse. We will not agree with everything they say, and an endorsement does not mean we have to :)
Here is the link - please do pass it around and encourage folks to donate.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/whiteout
Obama supporters,
During the time I have been a member at faithbase.com, I have noticed alot of other members who have a distorted view or are misinformed about Barack Obama's faith and how it will play out in his everyday administration. I have dedicated a site within the community at http://www.faithbase.com/voiceswords to help fight against falsehoods about Obama and help point people to the truth. Unfornuately, there are alot of people out there who still believe Obama is a "live-birth" exterminator, a Muslim or has other beliefs that are contrary to the Christian faith, thus his faith. Therefore, I asking Obama supporters that are concerned with making sure Barack's faith is not smeared with falsehoods and protrayed truthfully to join me at faithbase.com.
As a christian this is very information to me. It saddens and angers me to see these falsehoods floating around despite the clear evidence that is out there about Barack Obama faith. However, one thing is clear, we had to be a revolving media outlet for Obama; true information is not going to fly to people through dial-up or broadband communications by itself. Mostly important, this is not about the Christian faith superiority or the lesser Muslim or Buddist faith, this is about advocating the truth about our next president of the United States of America. So, if you are interested go to faithbase.com, signup with a new account and start communicating and spreading the truth or click the faithbase.com button below to go differently to my site on faithbase.com. As stated, there are alot of falsehoods still floating around out there. In West Viginia alone, for example, 26% percent of people still believe Barack is a Muslim. I have family members that run into people everyday in Western North Carolina that firmly believe he is a Muslim. Furthermore, there are many people that believe he is a pro-abortion extremist. All which are not true.
Thank you for listening Obama supporters,
Johnathan
http://www.faithbase.com/voiceofswords
http://www.twitter.com/advocacy4change
I don't know how many of you follow Politico, but there was an interesting piece on the site today about Palin's meeting with foreign leaders at the UN and the press blackout surrounding it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13791.html for those interested.
Basically, more of the same. Palin doesn't take press questions, won't even let the press near the proceedings for more than photo ops. The McCain campaign states that it is because she'd rather "speak directly to the American people." But the American people she's exposed to are supporters, who are more content with gladhanding and having face time with their candidate than asking hard hitting questions.
It all essentially boils back down to the fact that she's little more than window dressing for Republican policies and not entirely trusted by her handlers to go forth with the message. She was weak in the Gibson interview, and was tossed softballs by Hannity. High exposure, low risk seems to be the order of the day.
But even in the Gibson interview she seemed horribly weak on foreign policy. What does this say, then, about McCain's choice?
Good evening, Obama fans. I'll be joining you for the rest of the flight. The facts about me?
Age: 25Occupation: Student (finishing my MA thesis at the moment)Location: Pennsylvania, the prefix "Battleground" not included
All in all, I am your basic post-graduate student with aspirations to teach at the college level. The subject? Geography. You know, that subject that the public education system is convinced isn't worth the time to teach? Yeah, that's my thing.
I'll be honest, I'm not much for blogs. It really isn't my thing. But the more I watch this election the more I feel the need to talk about the campaigns and what it means to someone like me. I was amazed as I rolled through the various blogs here on this site, and how the stories of each person varied so widely. Needless to say, I felt kinda compelled to add my two cents (though these days I may need about $1.20 with costs going up as they are).
As you all well know, the stakes for this election are huge. Even bigger for those of my generation, all told. The last eight years have left us in a pinch as a nation. Our reputation abroad is decimated, there are a thousand different troubles here at home, and America needs a true leader. Not just someone who has "experience" (remember, our dear friend Dick Cheney had "experience"), but someone who can raise the spirits of the common man. Someone who inspires the people of America to want to be more than they are, and for their country to follow suit.
Today, that someone is Barack Obama.
Well - it's full steam ahead for my grandmother and her blog. She is consistently posting thoughts to her webiste at 85andchange.com, and her fan base keeps growing. She continues to receive great feedback from old and young. Everyone seems to be so appreciative that a senior citizen has spoken up and made it easier for other senior citizens to fall in line. As we saw in the numbers today - senior citizens are really starting to break for Barack Obama and Joe Biden! Others have said how they are so grateful that she has provided them a way to bridge a gap between grandparents and grandchildren and given them something to talk about with each other.
And if writing on her blog was not enough - she now has a video, too! You can find her video at her website (85andchange.com) or you can find it on You Tube! My smart, hip grandmother speaks up any chance she has and lets people know they are never to old - or young - for change!
Just this week, Granny Gobama met a couple influential people - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend & Alice Travis Germond - not to mention Heather Tom, as well! Meeting all of these women was a thrill for her. She found Kathleen Kennedy to be a thoughtful and inspiring speaker, and Alice Germond to be so enthusiastic and energetic.
Please take a moment to visit her site and pass the link on to anyone who may read (or watch) about why it is important for seniors, and everyone, to think long and hard about this important upcoming election - and why they should seriously consider voting for Barack Obama!
September 18, 2008-09-18
Dear Mr. Obama
After watching the news and the pundit’s last night weigh in on the state on the Presidential race so far I decided to make my way to bed. After tossing and turning for a few minutes I realized that wasn't going to fall asleep any time soon as thoughts of the economy and the day to day concerns not only for my family but for every American were keeping me awake.
A Letter from a Concerned CitizenI believe that because we are all Americans before any other political affiliation it is our duty to scrutinize heavily all of our candidates, regardless of party. Senator McCain's surprise pick late in the game leaves us with little time to perform the scrutiny that we as citizens must perform of all our candidates, especially since the media spotlight (which itself we can never count on) will waver back to a focus on Senators Obama and McCain shortly.In this interest I have included the following internet links to broaden our understanding of our fresh, skilled VP candidate and her recent speech. In addition to the following considerations, I believe we all must solemnly investigate whether she has the wisdom and worldliness it takes to conduct foreign relations in today's world:An opinion piece discussing the choice of Governor Palin in relation to the pitfalls of affirmative action:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/08/uselections2008.sarahpalin2Karl Rove describing why picking an inexperienced governor for VP could be good politically but not necessarily good for our nation (video):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4qEynSx19EA re-reading of Governor Palin's speech focusing on ending partisan rancor, why to care about community organizers, and why we can't forget about criminal rights in a scary world (drawing what should be a clear distinction between Senator McCain and the Governor):http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/4/11525/73205/547/586256This article from a year ago explains that congress removed the earmark (or federally imposed restrictions) on the multi-hundred million dollar check originally meant for the famous "bridge to nowhere." Governor Palin kept said check for Alaska, which was obfuscated in her speech.http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/22/alaska.bridge.ap/At the time, Senator McCain himself was outspoken against this flow of funds into Alaska, and said, referring to the Michigan bridge collapse that killed 13:"Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country," McCain told a group of people in a town-hall style meeting in Ankeny, Iowa."Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."More than anything, however, we must focus on Sarah Palin's international experience. I have found it difficult to find that she has any! Can we afford to have a candidate with no foreign policy experience possibly leading the free world?Please spread the message to your friends and family. We need to keep America safe and free! Obama-Biden is the only way!
FLIGHT 18 is a place where we can explore thoughts and ideas together. We believe in the People of the Growing Awareness. We live in dark times and the future is in our hands.
In Hebrew, 18 means Life. FLIGHT 18 is the flight of life.
For the next two months I will chronicle my DIRECT ACTIONS in support of Barack Obama for President in New York City.
Let's start at one of the beginnings.
On January 20, 2001, my friends and I went to the nation's capitol to video document the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush. Later at a church a Reverend declared the beginning of The Direct Confrontation Movement. It called us to get in the way of those who put our democracy into the pockets of war profiteers and the politicians who enable them.
Fast forward past art events, protests and street theatre.
August 2004. For each day of the Republican National Convention I rode around Manhattan on my Peace Bike singing, speaking out and waging peace. One night, I and Harmonic Insurgence, a vocal group, greeted delegates as they returned in buses to their hotels with songs like the Star-Spangled Banner with the only lyric being, "Stop the War" repeated over and over.
Wearing a suit, I handed out a flyer that read: "A message from a real Republican: “Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” -- Abraham Lincoln, in an 1864 letter.
Progressive fun. That's why we're here.
This is Flight 18. My name is Eric Wallach and I'll be your captain.
All aboard.
After listening to Governor Sarah Palin's (negative) speech and Senator John McCain's (lack there of) speech this week, I am more determined to help get Senator Barack Obama into the White House. Governor Palin not only offended Senator Obama but she offended supporters like me by calling me a "follower" of Barack Obama.
I am a proud "female" Independent and I have supported Senator Obama from the beginning. But if I were undecided for some crazy reason....Senator McCain and Governor Palin just lost my vote.
Take care my good people!
