Obama Cruces Connection: Global Issues Group Meeting recap for Thursday, Feb. 19 2009 NEXT MONTH'S MEETINGS:
General meeting of the Obama Cruces Connectionis: Saturday, March 14th at 11am 1400 S Solano Ave
Pending schedule approval, the agreed upon time and date for next month's meeting of the Global Issues Group: Obama Cruces Connection: Thursday, March 19th at 6pm1400 S Solano Ave Top 3 Points for Future Action:
When I was growing up, I was told there are only two things that are certain in life: Death and Taxes. I'm going to add a third: Change. Somehow, a change has got to come and business as usual in the political arena simply isn't working any more. That said, here is my official:
Armchair Unprofessional Critique and Analysis of last night's debates
Again, as I said before, they didn't get much settled last night that they haven't talked about before.
Obama's Strong PointsHe's got his playbook all together and in check when it comes to this nation's economy. He is very good at handling money, as we have seen from his campaign strategies and budgeting; and he understands what everyday average people go through, all as a result of his work as a community organizer. Very earthy, grassroots, and all about the people.
He kept his ear to the ground and knows what everyone who supports him wants, needs, and expects of him, but sadly enough, for his entire first term in office, should he win, he's going to be so busy and bogged down with cleaning up the Republican craptank that he may not have time to start working on what he wants for America until it's time to be re-elected. In the meantime, he's going to get angry people who will swear that he hasn't lived up to his promises only because the Repugs are making sure that if he does win, he won't have time to move forward.
Having said that, Obama is about 95 points ahead of McCain on how to take care of home and "his own family." He's not that proverbial daddy who goes off and feeds and houses someone else's kids when his own are starving and laying on the streets. As I said earlier, McCain's only strength is military policy in a nation where most people are calling for an end to that egregious war. I don't think McCain's one and only advantage and strong point over Obama, but certainly not over Joe Biden, is going to be of much help to any of us in the months and years to come. The war is not the only thing in America's dialogue, but it's the only thing McCain knows and knows well.
Obama has avoided tying this war in with the faltering economy, but as an Armchair Politician, I say the two are very much connected. In my household, money that doesn't go to one thing is invariably spent on another.
Obama tried to focus more on HOW money should be spent, and McCain was insistent that "taxes be cut." The funny thing is, as we've said before, taxes can't be cut. Not realistically. A momentary annual tax relief is nothing over the long term, and I heard Obama talking about the long term. McCain was talking about temporary relief. In real time, whatever checks the government writes--be they good checks or checks with nothing more than a rubber stamp that they hope doesn't bounce--the cost of everything is going up, not down. Nobody's getting a cost of living increase to counterbalance these ever-increasing expenses, which are never going to go down.
Therefore, corporate America, (business-class America, that is) which has always double, triple, and quadruple-dipped in the Tax Pot coming from at least 3-4 different directions, are still using that same-o infamous "we want to keep America's workforce strong by being able to give them good jobs." This has tickled the tax pot until it is now doubled over in the strain of laughter. Their stance is, of course, a more philosophically advanced way of saying this country can only exist if we keep having have-nots that we can blame for not having anything; but the message is loud and clear in the end results, not in what they say. We are seeing the end results of that today. National banks are collapsing and all John McCain can talk is war. They've got this "magical elf" message when it comes to keeping the economy strong and Obama can see straight through it and is on top of it.
Obama Weak PointsHis weak points on the economy are really hidden strengths upon which he can capitalize. Obama seems to keep trying to keep military money and homeland pocket change economy separate, but it is highly apparent that the two are eternally intertwined.
The American people have been robbed going in and coming out the door because tax money was spent on a war to help fatten the pockets of the already uber-rich while draining the coffers of everyday working citizens. Those are not two separate budgets, they are one and the same. Now, Wall Street wants a big fat welfare check to compensate for their screw-ups and failures, and to cover for the fact that they made themselves millionaires cheating Main Street.
Obama won't say it directly, though, and considering how out of focus a lot of folks are about nearly everything he says, I can't say I blame him. Therefore, someone has to stand strong and say it for him. This is where he got us to put our hands up and be present and accounted for and standing at the ready to take America back under the control of the people. The last thing Obama needs right now is to not have his hands and arms held up when he's facing opponents who take everything he says to the negative extreme. If we don't help counterbalance the lies, we end up with McCain and Palin; and those two are a recipe for future disaster if I ever saw one.
As Obama's running mate, I hope Biden will have free reign to say everything Obama cannot until he's in that chair in the Oval Office. If so, Biden is going to become the most visible, vital and viable vice president in the history of America.
The majority of the world is made up of "brown" people who will be able to relate to Obama much better--they want to talk to him to see if they can get some sense out of him that they haven't been able to get out of any of this country's previous leaders. Obama is right on "pre-conditions" for peace talks: There shouldn't be any and I wish he would stand stronger on that.
He should hear out everything other nation's leaders have to say, put all the cards on the table, and then put his cards on the table and see if they can work it out from there. Not listening to these people, who are supposedly so 'dangerous' and 'cannot be reasoned with,' is what has caused terrorist strength to increase and rise up in triple the numbers that it was yesterday. These people figure if nobody will listen to them and hear their voices, they will still be heard one way or another. It's common "pre-conditions" and an unwillingness to hear them out that have them setting off bombs all over the place in the first place.
The danger America faces is that if it doesn't listen to these people, (Remember: Palestine-Peace Not Apartheid), things can only get worse. When it comes to foreign policy, America is going to be harder on Obama than the world leaders and heads of state will be...they actually WANT to hear what he has to say from the president's chair and not from the sidelines of senatorial opinion.
If he can win them over, he wins the five cards McCain is left holding, and that's the end of the argument about his "foreign policy" experience, or supposed lack thereof. These people need someone to listen to them without pre-conditions...as Obama has said. Not to give them whatever they want to our own detriment, but to at least hear what they have to say and play it one strategy at a time. They are people, too -- and America has to stop taking that Western Cowboy stance of bullying any and everybody who doesn't think like they do or see things their way. Jimmy Carter did it, and he won them over--until they found something else to fight about. No president is ever going to end that, no matter how much foreign policy experience he has.
This fight started with Esau and Jacob/Israel (Isaac's sons and Abraham's grandsons) long before America existed. Now that true Israel is scattered about to the four winds and can't be found until Jesus returns, the argument with the "state of Israel" is even worse and more compelling. As European colonizers who have taken over the middle east, America's Old Guard can't help but side with them in order to preserve their own integrity on what they did right here in America.
These "terrorists" are human beings, too, and deserve to be heard out fully and completely. And if an agreement can't be reached aftyer that, well...the idea is to make certain America is sheltered from any more foreign attacks on American soil, regardless of what it takes to get the job done. Anyone who calls themselves a "christian" and doesn't understand that, I question their faith in their God. I vote for voices over bombs any day. They will be heard, one way or the other.
It's only to McCain's advantage to keep painting hungry and desperate human beings as nothing but killers; because it is the same old tactic that was tried on blacks and Indians in America who would commit crimes just to keep from starving to death and having their land ravaged and stolen from them. It's the same old story in a new day, only this time it's not just America, but other countries are involved. They, too, are in danger of being colonized by European forces who still think their manifest destiny is to control the world and force everyone to be what they are or else. Current politics don't allow respect for other people's ways unless America says its okay for them to be who and what they are. THAT is dangerous thinking. Meeting with foreign nationals without pre-conditions is not the danger.
Bottom line: Without marked and time-stamped resolution, America is right on schedule for another terrorist attack that will make the WTC look like someone hit at a gnat with a flyswatter. So far, the Republicans haven't been able to work it out. Obama needs to be given a chance, the chance that world leaders all over would rather see.
The key question last night was: Is America safer now than it was seven years ago? The obvious answer was no, but John McCain said yes. It's a lie.
BUT, he's the same person who said the American economy was strong only weeks before Wall Street started crumbling in front of our very eyes. Then he tried to make a grandstand of possibly not going to the debates last night to help "save" America's economy from itself.
On that same stupid and arrogant note, I would not be surprised to see, in the coming weeks, Obama's discomfort with the "safety factor" in America come to manifestation. He is very uncomfortable with saying the nation is "safer" and McCain picked that weak spot to dig his finger in. Chances are, Obama's right.
America is no safer, and is worse off since the war was started than they were before. Obama should not be forced to tell a lie just to appease McCain's "so what are you saying, that the soldiers and Petraus failed"?
Well, no, sir; they didn't fail. America failed them, as usual.
McCain's a good for one for propped-up talk about supporting soldiers and families when he obviously will be the last one to do so, especially with that trusty old pen he says he will use to veto earmark pork-barrel spending that Palin advocates. (They all did or do, it's just that Palin has spent three times what everyone else has, in one of the least populated states in the nation). It's too bad that she and her friends didn't succeed in seceding BEFORE this election year, because that ain't all McCain is planning on vetoing that he can't, or won't, say for now.
He told Obama not to say "certain things" in public even if he is planning on doing them behind closed doors. To me, that spoke directly to McCain's inability to be honest and forthright; and to the fact that he would still be willing, in a post-Bush America, to lie to get what he wants and achieve his ends. Obama has stood up and said, "I will not lie to America just to have my way. The American people will be told the truth and allowed to judge for themselves."
Foreign affairs seems to be having its day in the sun during this election. We usually think of historic preservation as purely a domestic issue but Don Rypkema of Place Economics has an interesting series of posts about historic preservation and world affairs. He lists 10 key ideas (notably none of which seem to involve invading anyone!). You can read the entire blog here: http://www.placeeconomics.com/2008/08/historic-preservation-and-america-in.html.
Here is the text of the first installment of his preservation and world affairs posts:
Even as the press was reporting Barack's every move during his overseas tour, they were anxious to find any moment possible to criticize him. Of course, McCain's campaign was quick to fault Obama for anything and everything, characterizing the Obama trip as nothing if not presumptive. Never mind that McCain himself took a world jaunt after his nomination was certain. (It was notable for what he did not achieve, so it was sparsely covered by the media.)
The most telling part of the Obama trip may have been that after nearly eight years, someone of true character was filling an American leadership void. With the Texas cowboy and his cronies at the helm, no one in the world has had any respect for the United States. Now, at least, we could revel in someone who was very presidential in his demeanor, his interactions with world leaders, and his commentary on global affairs.
Let the right wing loonies rail about Obama's "messianic" nature. In Barack Obama, we finally have a leader that we -- and the world -- can embrace and believe in.
