"Describing how ideology, special-interest pressure, populist politics, and sheer incompetence have left the US economy on life support, the author puts forth a clear, commonsense plan to reverse the Bush-era follies and regain America's economic sanity...."
While Americans are distracted by the Presidential Election, the Bush Cabal continues to push America even further down their path of destruction.... "The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo...."
CQ Politics | David Corn: "I've listened to Sarah Palin several times in the past few days. (It's my job--what I get the big bucks to do.) And as she whips up the crowds that come to her rallies, her biggest argument against Barack Obama is that he WILL RAISE YOUR TAXES. Did you get that? Oh, you missed the nuance. HE WILL RAISE YOUR TAXES. And her case is built on two facts. But they are not facts--or not full facts. And though these attacks have been debunked repeatedly by mainstream media factcheckers, Palin and John McCain keep using them. Call me naive, but I still find it surprising that they believe they can get away with such serial misrepresenting (or lying). So for the last time--I hope--let's look at these two claims...." Continue reading.Photo credit: A Barack Obama ad quotes press remarks about John McCain's campaign. Democrats have added a ''Count the Lies'' Web page. (YouTube.com) The Boston Globe
Before you vote, ask yourself what kind of role model you want for your children and for America's children? Howard Zinn says real change will come when people take direct action to stop house foreclosures
"This film came together as an urgent message," explained author Naomi Wolf this weekend at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Published last fall, her book The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, was swiftly adapted for the screen by filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg ("The Devil Came on Horseback," "The Trials of Darryl Hunt") and a version was completed just in time for a Hamptons fest screening on Friday and a SnagFilms online debut this week.
"I wrote this book because I could no longer ignore the echoes between events in the past and forces at work today," Wolf begins in her acclaimed book. Like the work, "The End of America" lays out a ten-point blueprint for what Wolf calls, "closing societies." Introducing the new documentary on Friday, Wolf explained that she studied history and found alarming links that shaped her narrative. Exploring the history of emerging dictatorships in Germany, Italy, Argentina, the Czech Republic and China, Wolf predicted a bleak future for the United States in the wake of rights restrictions imposed in the wake of 9/11.... Continue reading.
"Wayne Madsen a Washington based investigative journalist, author, columnist and former U.S. Naval Officer reported on April 3rd, 2008 the existence of a document called the “C & R” document is being passed around among senior members of Congress and their staff...."
"US police fear riots could break out if John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, wins the election next month...."
"It's tempting to begin taking the likelihood of Obama's victory just a bit for granted. The polls look good. McCain and Palin are flailing, and Ted Stevens is headed for jail. The Republicans have started their blame game.
But it's dangerous to assume that the election is over, or to settle for a narrow margin. Here are four reasons to keep doing all we can to keep working (and get our procrastinating friends to finally donate and volunteer) so we can create broadest possible mandate for Obama and his Democratic allies...."
"Forty-one years after McCain was shot down in Vietnam, the man who saved his life has died in obscurity.
[...]
As I stood on the floor of the Xcel Energy Center, some 50 yards from John McCain as he accepted his party's presidential nomination, the projector flashed that same black-and-white photo image I had seen in Vietnam of McCain being dragged to the shore of Truc Bach Lake. Moments later, to my surprise, I heard McCain say: " … I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence. Those men saved my life." But McCain wasn't talking about the Vietnamese people who pulled him from that lake, people whose homes he had just bombed. He was talking about his fellow American POWs. Had McCain truly erased from his memory a touching reunion that took place just over a dozen years before?
I could only think about how different the narrative would be had McCain said: "I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence. Those (Vietnamese civilians) saved my life (because they understood the humanity in all of us that transcends government and country)."
Barack Obama and Joe Biden will cut taxes for 95% of working families, and provide at least three times as much tax relief for middle class families as John McCain and Sarah Palin. The Obama/Biden plan provides $1,000 of tax relief for workers and new tax benefits to help families pay for college, childcare and save for retirement.
"Middle-class families will earn about $13,000 more in eight years if Obama wins and $5,000 if McCain wins...."
A new anti-Obama group runs a bunk-filled ad implying he'd give a driver's license to Mohammed Atta.More Here.Summary
An upstart group calling itself the "National Republican Trust PAC" mixes a pile of false claims and the image of 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta to create one of the sleaziest false TV ads of the campaign.
- The spot falsely claims Obama has a "plan" to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. In fact, Obama has said quite specifically, "I am not proposing that that's what we do."
- The ad implies such licenses would enable terrorist attacks. In fact, Atta wouldn't have needed one to carry out his attacks.
- It claims that Obama's health care plan will apply to illegal immigrants. But Obama has stated quite clearly that his plan "does not" cover illegal immigrants.
- The ad falsely claims that Obama's plan "gives illegals Social Security benefits," which is also flatly untrue.
An estimated 165 million U.S. residents under the age of 65 currently receive health insurance coverage through their employer. A linchpin of this system is the tax exclusion that allows insurance premiums paid for by employers to be not considered taxable income for employees. John McCain’s plan for health care reform would end this exclusion. EPI’s report concludes that as many as 27 million Americans nationwide could lose their employer health benefits as a result. (Learn more about why Senator McCain’s plan would have such a devastating effect on hard-working families across the country.)
In Jackson, Missouri we meet a pharmacist running a small business. His name is Darrell Hanschen and he is living the american dream. However, he feels that dream might come to an end if something doesn't change.
He says, "I see it everyday, I can't run and hide like the doctors... If something doesn't change, there's going to be a lot of people sick. Let's get somebody in there who cares about the person that walks the streets of Jackson. Somebody who actually Cares."
Dana Snodgrass understands how Republicans think. He owns an autobody shop in Joplin and runs a small 200 acre farm near Web City with his son Kyle. Like many local business people, Dana is concerned about the movement of jobs to foreign countries and the persistence of low wages in the area. Dana explains how the usual core “values” of guns, religion and abortion are being trumped by concerns about the economy, and why Missourians should vote now for Barack Obama.
Barclay Hastings is a veteran from Columbus Ohio. He loves the people of Ohio.
In 2000 he would have voted for McCain, but he wouldn't do that today. Barack Obama is the type of leader that "comes once in a lifetime."
From Jasper County, MO we meet an antique shop owner, Sharon Houston, raised republican and always voted republican. This year she is voting for Democratic Senator Barack Obama. She is tired of the greed, cheating and lies. American people need to get back to the basics and their spirit right and move on and believes Obama's spirit is right.
81 year old Jack Moore is from Nixa Missouri. He is a World War 2 veteran that served in the US Navy.
Jack is a gun lover and treasures his father's hunting rifles. He knows that "Barack won't take his guns away."
Keith Howell from Fallon Nevada owns a rock crushing equipment repair business with his wife and son. His small business is among the first to feel the economic downturn because as he puts it, if they're not building houses, their not pouring concrete and if they're not pouring concrete, there is no need for crushed rock, and if they're not crushing rock, the machines don't break and they don't need me.
Keith's informed and energetic monolog on Obama's alternative energy plan lays out how Nevada stands to gain substantially because it is in fact not only a step in the right direction environmentally but also serves as a job-creating-path out of the current economic crisis, and creates a sustainable energy plan that is clean as well as American, keeping dollars from going overseas.
Joan McKinney is from Columbus, Ohio. She is a small business owner who does tradeshow exhibits. Joan is an Ohio State alumni - and has "a real love for the Buckeyes." As a small business owner he does everything from freight to the dishes.
Her biggest challenge is responsibility for her employee's healthcare. She was encouraged by Barack's possibility to cover 50% of her employee's healthcare.
We meet Darrell in Jackson, Missouri again where he shares with us another story. Darrell tells us he sees Barack reaching into places that he never thought would ever cross his mind.
Seems the family of McCain's professed idol, Barry Goldwater, doesn't have anything positive to say about Senator McCain. And the reasons are telling:"Being Barry Goldwater's granddaughter and living in Arizona, one would assume that I would be voting for our state's senator, John McCain. I am still struck by certain 'dyed in the wool' Republicans who are on the fence this election, as it seems like a no-brainer to me.
Myself, along with my siblings and a few cousins, will not be supporting the Republican presidential candidates this year. We believe strongly in what our grandfather stood for: honesty, integrity, and personal freedom, free from political maneuvering and fear tactics. I learned a lot about my grandfather while producing the documentary, Mr. Conservative Goldwater on Goldwater. Our generation of Goldwaters expects government to provide for constitutional protections. We reject the constant intrusion into our personal lives, along with other crucial policy issues of the McCain/Palin ticket.
My grandfather (Paka) would never suggest denying a woman's right to choose. My grandmother co-founded Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the 1930's, a cause my grandfather supported. I'm not sure about how he would feel about marriage rights based on same-sex orientation. I think he would feel that love and respect for ones privacy is what matters most and not the intolerance and poor judgment displayed by McCain over the years. Paka respected our civil liberties and passed on the message that that we should conduct our lives standing up for the basic freedoms we hold so dear.
For a while, there were several candidates who aligned themselves with the Goldwater version of Conservative thought. My grandfather had undying respect for the U.S. Constitution, and an understanding of its true meanings.
There always have been a glimmer of hope that someday, someone would "race through the gate" full steam in Goldwater style. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened, and the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear. Nothing about McCain, except for maybe a uniform, compares to the same ideology of what Goldwater stood for as a politician. The McCain/Palin plan is to appear diverse and inclusive, using women and minorities to push an agenda that makes us all financially vulnerable, fearful, and less safe.
When you see the candidate's in political ads, you can't help but be reminded of the 1964 presidential campaign of Johnson/Goldwater, the 'origin of spin', that twists the truth and obscures what really matters. Nothing about the Republican ticket offers the hope America needs to regain it's standing in the world, that's why we're going to support Barack Obama. I think that Obama has shown his ability and integrity.
After the last eight years, there's a lot of clean up do. Roll up your sleeves, Senators Obama and Biden, and we Goldwaters will roll ours up with you."
"Ben Bernanke apparently wants four more years as Federal Reserve Chairman. At least that's a reasonable conclusion after Mr. Bernanke all but submitted his job application to Barack Obama yesterday by endorsing the Democratic version of fiscal 'stimulus.'"
“Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States,” writes The Times’s editorial board.
The Wall Street Journal today rounds up the horde of prominent Republicans jumping ship to Barack Obama. Now one of John McCain's actual advisers has switched sides...
Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian UK: "Joel Haugen, a Republican fighting a tough congressional race against the Democrats in Oregon, has fallen out with his party. The reason: his surprise endorsement of Barack Obama for the presidency.
'I believe in putting nation before party and my first priority is following my conscience with regard to what is best for America,' Haugen said in a statement issued by his office today. 'I have a huge amount of respect for John McCain, but I believe that he has more of a cold war mentality.'"
"...it is without ambivalence that we endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president."
The Wall Street Journal today rounds up the horde of prominent Republicans jumping ship to Barack Obama. Now one of John McCain's actual advisers has switched sides...
"Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, a Republican, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president on Friday, citing the senator's good judgment, 'deep sense of calm' and 'first-class political temperament.'
Weld said he's never endorsed a Democrat for president before, but in the last six weeks or so, it became 'close to a no-brainer.' Obama has a history of bringing Democrats, Republicans and independents together and is the best choice at a time when America's standing in the world is at a low point, he said.
'It's not often you get a guy with his combination of qualities, chief among which I would say is the deep sense of calm he displays, and I think that's a product of his equally deep intelligence,' he said in a phone interview."
"Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt will hit the campaign trail this week on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, signaling Mr. Schmidt's push for a greater voice in politics while giving the Obama campaign a boost from a highly desirable constituency...."
A longtime Republican State Senator in Wisconsin history announced on Tuesday that she would be supporting Barack Obama, in part because of the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign and, specifically, the use of "dishonorable" anti-Obama robocalls.
"All of us should be extremely wary of the half truths and outright untruths that have been spread by the recent negative campaigning and shameful automated phone calls," said Barbara Lorman of Fort Atkinson. "While my admiration for Senator Obama has grown with his positive approach to addressing the challenges facing our nation, my disappointment with the McCain campaigned has deepened. The negative tactics are inappropriate, downright dishonorable and have no place in the State of Wisconsin...."
In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president....
Dear Friends and Relations,
A friend and former colleague of mine in the Foreign Service, Kevin McGuire, some time ago drafted a short statement of support for Obama and began to ask retired Foreign Service officers if they would sign it. So far 334 of us have done so, including by my count 66 former American ambassadors.
If you would like to know why we have done so and who we are, you can find our reasons and our signatures at Foreign Policy for Obama.Com: Declaration of Support by Over 280 Former Diplomats. (Ed. note: the number is now over 330.) ..."
"�For those who voice doubts about Barack Obama and some of his less progressive policy advisers, please take heart from the way he has defended his plan to cut taxes for the vast majority while raising them for families making over $250,000. Who should pay what for the costs of government raises the most basic issues of fairness. But who pays also determines whether we rebuild our economy from the bottom up, as Obama promises, or continue to wait in vain for good jobs and decent wages to trickle down from John McCain's friends at the top...."
"The next president will influence everything from your Internet access to your ability to pay medical bills...."
Calculate how Obama's Tax Policies will impact YOU
"The Bush administration's deficits have undermined confidence in the financial markets, contributing somewhat to the present crisis. To put this into perspective:
Quiz:
1. Which recent president generated the highest budget deficits as a portion of gross domestic product?
2. Who was the only recent president to decrease government expenditure as a portion of GDP?
Choices:
a. Ronald Reagan
b. George H.W. Bush
c. Bill Clinton
d. George W. Bush"
A group of top American communication professors have crafted and signed a statement calling on the McCain campaign, primarily, to stop its negative campaigning. “The purposeful dissemination of messages that a communicator knows to be false and inflammatory is unethical. It is that simple,” the statement says."
"John McCain has spent his career voting against clean energy solutions while supporting billions in subsidies for Big Oil...."
"John McCain had a fabulously loony weekend, flipping out charges and attacks like a mud tornado. The truly remarkable thing about McCain's attacks, especially on Obama's economic policies, is that McCain, in each case, is "guilty" of supporting some version of the policies he's attacking..."
"Sarah Palin had a few memorable moments during her campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday. But the most eye-opening of them all came, it would appear, when the Alaska Governor somehow drew a connection between Barack Obama's tax policy and an encroaching, nightmarish, communist government. The Illinois Democrat, she hysterically suggested, would, through his proposals, create a country 'where the people are not free.'"
"Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment _ a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 _ emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence...."
"Sen. Joe Lieberman on Friday skirted a question on whether vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is ready from day one to be president, saying 'thank God' she won't have to be."
"'It looks like, walks like, talks like and smells like desperation to me,' said the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston, an Obama supporter who backed President Bush in the past two elections. The Methodist pastor called the 2012 letter 'false and ridiculous.' He said it showed that some Christian conservative leaders fear that Obama's faith-based appeals to voters are working.
Like other political advocacy groups, Christian right groups often raise worries about an election's consequences to mobilize voters. In the early 1980s, for example, direct mail from the Moral Majority warned that Congress would turn a blind eye to 'smut peddlers' dangling pornography to children.
'Everyone uses fear in the last part of a campaign, but evangelicals are especially theologically prone to those sorts of arguments,' said Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University political scientist. 'There's a long tradition of predicting doom and gloom.'
But the tone this election year is sharper than usual and the volume has turned up as Nov. 4"
"It’s bad enough that the employees of ACORN have had to endure days of baseless and outlandish attacks by John McCain and the RNC. But after McCain outrageously claimed before a national audience on Wednesday night that ACORN was “maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy,” the group came under attack, literally. In the following days, ACORN’s Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized and at least one employee received a death threat.
And for nearly two weeks, ACORN offices across the nation have been subjected to an onslaught of racist and threatening voicemails and emails. We have secured copies of some of the most disturbing and offensive messages and have reproduced them below in order to show the very real consequences of the Right Wing’s overheated and misplaced “voter fraud” rhetoric.
Warning: the emails and voicemails below are highly explicit and have only been edited to remove personally identifying information. Please also note that, where relevant, the proper authorities have been notified...."
"A group of liberal American rabbis have denounced Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign as leaning toward 'hate speech' in its treatment of Democratic rival Barack Obama.
'The manner in which Senator McCain, Governor [Sarah] Palin and their supporters refer to Senator Obama is creeping toward hate speech,' Rabbis for Obama said in a statement on Thursday.
'As leaders of the Jewish community we are well aware of the dangers of using inflammatory political language to marginalize individuals and groups."
John Dinges:"John McCain, who has harshly criticized the idea of sitting down with dictators without pre-conditions, appears to have done just that."Continue reading.
McCain Featured In Iran-Contra Group's Newsletter: "A newsletter from 1984 provides more embarrassing evidence of John McCain's relationship with the U.S. Council on World Freedom, a group that was involved in funding militant anti-communists and espoused some anti-Semitic views...."
A Pittsburgh police commander says a volunteer for the McCain campaign who reported being robbed and attacked near a bank ATM in Bloomfield has confessed to making up the story. Police say charges will be filed. More details to follow.read more | digg story
Don't Let Conservatives Rewrite History: "Conservatives are desperately trying to shift the blame for the financial crisis away from its true cause — a bankrupt governing philosophy. Get the facts, so you can challenge the myths about the core causes of the meltdown and share the truth with others."Educate Yourself and Take Action Here.
Ron Howard is the latest star to voice his support for Obama, and he did it alongside his old costars Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler in a video for Funny or Die. Watch him strip down, trim his nose hair and don an Opie wig for a black and white call to action before fast-forwarding to "Happy Days."ENJOY:
"There are a number of people in my life -- some family, some friends, some colleagues -- with whom I have never agreed upon anything political. Ever. These are my political opposites. My bizarre-o twins. And they have been my adversaries in countless debates; the kind nobody ever wins, but nobody ever seems to tire of, either.
Sadly, politics have become sort of a new sports league in modern culture. We don't really listen to each other's points of view so much as we pick a side and root for it. And just as with our favorite sports teams, our faith in our parties can become blind. I have had about as much success convincing my Republican father-in-law of my liberal points of view as I have had convincing my father, an Ohio State alumnus, to root for Michigan.
But over the last few months, something unprecedented has happened. Almost all these folks have told me that, for the first time ever, they are voting for the same candidate I am: Barack Obama.
Now, these are not casual conservatives...." Continue Reading
"...I thought we were making an ad campaign about Obama. But I think we ended up making an ad campaign about the essential ingredient that makes democracy work: an open mind. We don't belong to our political parties. Our political parties belong to us."
"Growing voter concerns over the financial crisis are closely connected to worries about health care. The latest Institute for America's Future Op Ed ad in Tuesday's NY Times links the two issues directly, with the headline: WILL WE LET CONSERVATIVES DO TO HEALTH CARE WHAT THEY DID TO BANKING? As voters feel the economy go into a tailspin, they join the millions of Americans already fearful they will lose their jobs and their health coverage.
Conservatives generally ignore health care, but now all politicians are forced to say something. In just the last few several weeks, the national media have finally started to cover the stark differences between John McCain and Barack Obama on health care. And it took some active education to get them to report the story...."
Continue reading.
"Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will break with his party and vote for Sen. Barack Obama. "He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press...." Continue reading.
..."I was impressed by the comprehensive indictment of the current Republican ticket that was implicit in Powell's statement. It was not just about foreign affairs, it was a comprehensive statement that conveys the message that the more traditionally centrist Republicans are coming to view the McCain-Palin ticket as some sort of deviation -- some sort of break -- with the genuine traditions of the Republican Party."...
Frank Rich | New York Times : "McCain isn't, as he and his defenders keep protesting, a passive martyr to a catastrophic administration. He could have made separating himself from Bush the brave, central and even conservative focus of his campaign. Far from doing that, he embraced the Bush ethos - if not the incredible shrinking man himself - more tightly than ever...."
Click on the link, wait to load, and then move your cursor to the various parts of the oval office. Don't forget to look out the windows, under the couch cushions, and into desk cabinets, too. And don't forget the red phone!
Enjoy. Then vote for Obama.
"According to the election analysis site FiveThirtyEight.com, some Pennsylvanians have complained about a call that impersonates Barack Obama and includes racial epithets..."
Smear groups and now a desperate McCain campaign are trying to connect Barack to William Ayers using age-old guilt by association techniques. Here’s the truth: the smear associating Barack to Ayers is “phony,” “tenuous,” – even “exaggerated at best if not outright false.”
William Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with whom Barack served on the board of an education-reform organization in the mid-1990’s. According to the Associated Press, they are not close: “No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago …”
Smear groups and the McCain campaign are trying to connect Obama to acts Ayers committed 40 years ago – when Barack was just eight years old. Here’s what the New York Times reported on the connection:
But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”Barack has publicly denounced Ayers’ radical actions from the 1960’s:
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.Fight back with the truth: make sure anyone who has seen this smear also sees this page.
In pushing for ever-expanding and unaccountable surveillance authority, the Bush Administration has assured the public that it aims its spying capabilities at serious security threats. But as two government whistleblowers recently revealed to ABC News, surveillance programs touted as critical to protect national security have in fact been used to monitor the private communications of innocent Americans abroad, including humanitarian workers and U.S. service-members. While disturbing, ABC’s report confirms a core contention of the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging Congress’s recent expansion of governmental spying powers: unchecked surveillance authority invades the privacy of innocent Americans, and in doing so, fundamentally undermines the efforts of human rights workers, journalists, and attorneys doing important work around the globe.Illustration credit: seattlepi.nwsource.com/.../Cartoon20060214.gif
Two former military intercept operators — the people who actually intercept, monitor, and collect international telephone and email communications — told ABC News that "hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home." The operators worked for the National Security Agency ("NSA"), the spy agency chiefly responsible for international surveillance. They report that NSA routinely listened in on the innocent, and sometimes intimate, conversations of Americans abroad. There were apparently no effective procedures in place to filter out these kinds of communications.
The NSA program went beyond invading the personal privacy of Americans abroad (and their friends and family on the other end of the line). NSA also directed its surveillance powers at well-established humanitarian organizations, like the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. As one whistleblower told ABC News: "We knew they were working for these aid organizations. . . . And yet, instead of blocking these phone numbers we continued to collect on them."...
Paul Krugman | NYTimes.com:"It’s now clear that rescuing the banks is just the beginning: the nonfinancial economy is also in desperate need of help.
And to provide that help, we’re going to have to put some prejudices aside. It’s politically fashionable to rant against government spending and demand fiscal responsibility. But right now, increased government spending is just what the doctor ordered, and concerns about the budget deficit should be put on hold...." Continue Reading.
Frank Rich | NYTimes.com: "IF you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.Photo Credit: http://politigal1.blogspot.com
Some voters told reporters that they didn’t want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history — in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries.
“I’ve got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying,” Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded.
Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option...." Continue reading.
