Obama vs. McCain – what the hell is going on

How can you watch Barack Obama stand in Berlin and give that speech (look it up if you didn’t see it or hear it) and not see this man as the next leader of the free world.  We can talk about issues all day long, and we will disagree.  But this election is about so many things, not just Iraq and the economy.  I’ll say it – I was proud to be an American today, and representing me was a man with vision, and insight, who can speak to the world on my behalf.  I have never said that about another person in my life.

Back home, McCain is talking to NBC news.  I don’t know why he speaks to the media because he steps in shit each and every time.  I can see his staff watching from the bunker throwing their hands up, banging themselves on the head, sweating, swearing and yelling at the TV screen for McCain to JUST SHUT UP, for god’s sake.  In the past week he’s gotten the facts about the “surge” wrong, in terms of when it started in his head versus when it really started.  He thinks Iraq was the first conflict after 9/11 (um, can you say Afghanistan?)  Today, towards the end of a week of many McCain gaffes, Kelly O’Donnell asks McCain if these so called gaffes can be dismissed as just a byproduct of his age.  With a laugh McCain blathers on as follows (mind you he doesn’t answer the question “These are tough times in America and the world. They need someone with experience and knowledge and background to make the kids of judgement that will….reform judgement.  I know how to keep us prosperous and bring us the peace.  I know how to win wars.  I hate wars.  I know how to keep prosperity and grow the economy……yadda yadda yadda.”

So McCain didn’t answer the question that his age is a factor in his memory loss but I will.  YES, he is going senile.  And if you are crying out for the Reagan years, you’ve got them, McCain has Alzheimer’s too.  I can hear the brain nerve tissue eroding from here.

Can we be done yet, PLEASE!  Let’s just vote already.  I can’t take it any more.

Jaw-dropping: the evidence of Bush Administration War Crimes

Quote courtesy of MotherJones.com:

“Alberto Gonzalez renders [the] Geneva [conventions] obsolete for U.S. purposes in a policy-setting memo. When Secretary of State Colin Powell reads it, he immediately sets up a meeting with the president, telling him the document, if followed, “will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice.”

I believe that it is in your best interest to take a look at everything you know happened but may have forgotten.  And when you put it all together in a timeline, the evidence of abuse of presidential power (or rather the president’s perception of his own power) are astounding.

This is just one example of the “tip of the iceberg”.  When I began searching for information about the timeline of the Iraqi war, knowing now the lies and manipulations, criminal in nature, perpetrated by the Bush Administraiton, I knew I would find evidence.  I just didn’t realize that it was probably 100 times worse than I thought it was.

I know that in an election year, especially when we are this close, nobody is going to rock the boat for fear of eithe losing their incumbent seat or not winning a seat if they are not the incumbent.  So who should do what?  Well, a crime is a crime.  President Bush has invoked executive privilege so many times that it really cant’ be considered a privilege anymore, it’s just business as usual.  But after January 20, 2009, Bush and his cronies will be regular citizens and there is nothing to stop anyone from bringing war crime charges against the lot. 

McCain will never seek to bring the republicans to justice.  My only hope is that the democrats will do the right thing, appoint a special investiator, and bring them all down.  I want to see arrests, public trials, and jail times for the pile of indefensible crimes committed by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and anybody else involved in these autrocities.

This is America, people.  Justice is justice and our constitution guarantees that we have the right to speak out against an unjust or illegal government.  I have only one voice.  We all need to speak out.  Seeing Bush in handcuffs lead off to jail would be far more satisfying than watching Saddam Hussein hanged in public.

New Yorkers show their true colors at the 2008 All Star Game

The All Star game is really nothing more than a celebration of baseball.  It doesn’t really matter whether the American or National League wins or loses, except the winner get a home field advantage at the next World Series.

There have been rivals in sports since the beginning of sports, but none more contentious than that of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

But here’s the deal.  The are in the same league, and therefore on the same side in this matchup. 

And when Terry Francona and Manny Ramirez were announced in a very long lineup of starters, all the New York crowd could do was “BOO” them.  That shows a lot of class doesn’t it.  Red Sox players and coaches go to Yankee Stadium to celebrate the game of baseball, celebrate the hall of famers who were there, and even celebrate Yankee Stadium itself in its final year, all the New Yorkers could think about was booing the Red Sox players, their teammates in this game.

Well, New York, you showed your true colors like you always do, for good or bad; this time for bad, I think you are disgusting.

Even the Republicans don’t believe in Republicans

On a recent episode of Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS, he had two Republican guests who wrote books about the condition and current mixed-up state of the Republican party.

Even I was amazed at how frank, honest, and candid they were about the state of the GOP and where it has all gone wrong.  Bill Moyers talked with conservative authors Mickey Edwards and Ross Douthat about the state of American conservatism and the Republican party.

It is important that people see, or at least read, the views of these two staunch Republicans. They talked at great length about the abuse of power of the Bush Administration.  They also spoke at lenght about how the republicans use the Constitution to prove their point unless is doesn’t suit them, wherein they ignore the constitution and use their own attorneys to figure out a way to interpret the Constitution to futher their agenda, ignore the law, lie to the public, and so on, and so on.

The link to Moyers’ web site dealing with this issue on PBS is here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07112008/gop.html

Quote from the site:

“It’s no secret that some members of the GOP are distancing themselves from the Bush administration as they get themselves ready for the 2008 election. “

From the Goldwater Republicans to the Reagan Democrats, all is addressed here.  For anyone who wants to really understand what is going on in today’s politics, you owe it to yourself to dial in to this interview.

John McCain and the price of gas – follow the money

Credit to Noel Sheppard of “Newsbusters.org”.  I’m sure he did not intend for anyone to use his story to defend Keith Olbermann and his view of the facts but, there you have it.

While Noel Sheppard is not a supporter of Keith Olbermann or Barack Obama, we can thank him for laying out the details of the Enron Loophole in U.S. Legislation and the connection to John McCain.  If you want to figure out something you don’t understand, just follow the money.

Almost two years ago, NewsBusters wondered when media would begin reporting Enron’s ties to higher oil and gas prices.

Recently, we got our answer: when it could be blamed on the Republican presidential nominee.

Such was certainly the case Wednesday evening when Obama advocate Keith Olbermann did a segment on “Countdown” pointing fingers at John McCain for having not done more to repeal the so-called “Enron Loophole” created by the enactment of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

Though predictable, Olbermann conveniently ignored how the first version of this bill passed in the House with almost unanimous bipartisan support, cleared final approval in the Senate by a voice vote without any objection, and was signed into law by Bill Clinton who had also been a strong advocate (video embedded upper-right, use scrollbars to center):

OLBERMANN: John McCain is renowned for saying he does not know much about the economy and for parading around those advisers of his who he says do know something about the economy. our third story tonight, A COUNTDOWN special report on the price of gas, and how McCain`s chief economic adviser, among others, helped create and defend pivotal legislation that unleashed speculators to run up gas prices. It is, in essence, a legalized form of insider trading, deregulation that lets speculators overwhelm trading in oil futures, those complicated contracts that let commercial users of oil hedger their bets about future price and supply fluctuations by agreeing to prices and delivery dates ahead of time.

Since this legislation passed, gasoline prices have more than doubled and commodity traders have made tens of millions of dollars, devastating thousands of small companies that deal in oil, and creating the risk of a speculative bubble popping.

How does McCain fit in? The road connecting him to four dollar gas begins with Enron

OLBERMANN (voice-over video tape): Soon after Enron`s birth as a power supplier in the 1980s, CEO Ken Lay decided head could make more money betting on electricity futures, especially if government regulators didn`t stop him from cornering the market and gaming the system. Under the first President Bush, an obscure agency called the Commodities Future Trading Commission obliged Ken Lay. The CFTC chairwoman, Wendy Gramm, left Enron alone.

When Bill Clinton beat Bush, it took only one week before Enron asked Gramm to lock in her hands-off position as official CFTC policy. Gramm started the process. The CFTC approved it after she left on Clinton`s inauguration day. Five weeks later, she took a part-time post on Enron`s board of directors and wound up earning more than 900,000 dollars over the next decade. Clinton never undid Gramm`s changes.

Fast forward to the year 2000 and Bush v. Gore. In the chaos of constitutional crisis, Enron got a law passed containing what is now known as the Enron loophole. Where Gramm deregulated individual trades, the Enron loophole deregulated entire markets, online markets. [...]

Since 2006, John McCain`s top economic adviser has been former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, husband of the former CFTC head who then joined Enron. McCain chaired Gramm`s 1996 presidential race, with Ken Lay as regional chairman. It was Gramm who passed the Enron loophole, partially written by Enron itself, with no hearings, with no debate.

It was Gramm who stopped Democrats from closing the Enron loophole, and it was Gramm who became vice chairman at the Swiss financial firm UBS in 2002, less than a year after UBS bought the shattered remains of Enron`s energy trading arm.

So I know that was a lot of information to absorb. But just read it once or twice, and take it all in.  This shouldn’t be your only factor in deciding who the next President should be but it should be at least one.

The Bush Administration makes the war personal, to me

A few years ago my 16 year old nephew came to visit us in Maine with my brother and the rest of his family.  He was always a bit of a trouble maker and his parents always said he was a lot like me.  The last time I saw him on that Thanksgiving weekend, I couldn’t stand him.  He was arrogant, egotistical, and just plain flippant with everyone.  I tried to talk to him and give him advice; set him straight so to speak, but to no avail.

Fast forward about one year or so.  I heard through the family grapevine that my nephew had decided to join the service.

WHAT!?  Keep in mind this was in the midst of the lowest points of the Iraq War.  Not that they aren’t all low points and the measuring stick keeps hitting new lows all the time, but I couldn’t bear the thought of my own nephew, no matter how abnoxious he was the last time I saw him, on the battlefield, and fighting a war that began on a stack of lies.  I was aghast.  I was in disbelief.  I was scared to death.  A boy whose parents are now born again Christians must have been scared out of their minds. 

Time passed, I didn’t hear much.  I presumed things were OK with my nephew since I didn’t get the “bad news”.  It was all so strange and so surreal.

A week ago, my nephew came to Maine to visit the family.  He was on a month long leave and all he wanted to do was spend time on the lake in the Maine countryside.  And as far as I am concerned, any soldier deserves exactly what they want when they are on leave, or otherwise for that matter.  They are risking their lives for us over ther, because, as is told to them by their commanding officer and the American Right Wing Media, so we don’t have to fight them over here.

When I saw him I gave him a big hug.  He looked somehow the same, yet somehow different.  I didn’t really know how to talk to him.  Partly because there were so many people around, relative and friends and such, and party because I just didn’t know what to say since the last time I saw him I wanted to kill him myself.

As the long weekend progressed, I found my one opportunity to talk to him.  I started out slow.  I had a million questions but didn’t want to overwhelm him.  I wanted to know what it was like to be in the Army, to be in Afghanistan or Iraq.  What did he do everyday for his job.  How did he have fun.  And then the blogger in me came alive.  Do you get news from home?  Do you get American TV?  Do you talk about the war among your co-workers (I don’t even know the right terms like Platoon, or Squadron, or Brigade)?

He began to open up to me.  He told me that he worked on the supply line.  Six of his buddies had been killed, four by IEDs.  I asked him if he agreed with the war and he said no.  I asked him if his buddies believed in the war and he said no.  He didn’t understand why they was over there or what they were really supposed to be doing, in the big picture.  He knew the soldiers on the front line (wherever that is) needed supplies and that was his daily work.  He didn’t understand the big picture.

I couldn’t figure out if his confusion was because he is nineteen years old or because he was uninformed.  And if he was uninformed was it intentional by Army in general?

He told me about talking to some guys from Special Ops.  According to my nephew, the Special Ops guys had Osama bin Laden in their sights, on more than one occassion.  And when, at the final moment, the Special Ops guys asked for a final “shoot to kill” order, they were told to stand down.  My nephew was heartbroken.  He thought that getting OBL was part of his mission.  And if they are not allowed to complete their mission and go home, then why were they there.

I tried to explain to him that if Bin Laden were killed now, America would feel safer and then vote Democrat in the 2008 election.  As long as there is fear in the hearts and minds of Americans, the Republicans have a chance at keeping the White House. It is sick and twisted, but it is true and it is American politics.

He is still a bit young to understand politics.  He is very isolated from politics and could not even remember the name of the Republican nominee, John McCain.  it didn’t matter to him.  He had his job to do ever day and it is extremely difficult and all-consuming.  He wants to do his job and come home to his girlfriend so he can get married and start his life.  He was hoping that the new G.I. bill would go through and just a few days ago I emailed him and let him know that both he and his family would be taken care of in terms of their education.

So I have this nineteen year old nephew, who has grown up a lot in just a few years.  What man wouldn’t grow up after seeing the horrors of war.  He wants to serve his country, learn all he can from it, come home, get married, have children and try to carve out his piece of the American Dream.  And I want that for him, too.  He’s is pretty sure that when his tour is up, he will be stop-gapped; something he never even knew about when he enlisted.

He enlisted because he didn’t want to turn out like his friends; drinking and partying every weekend, living in their parent’s basements.  He did the right thing for himself at the time.  But the only way that he will have a chance at the American Dream, and the only way we, as Americans, will repay him for his service by helping him attain his goal, is to end this ridiculous, un-winable war. 

It’s time, people, do the right thing.

Republicans and the love/hate affair with John McCain

Today, June 21, 2008, mark your calendars because you will need to track this to understand it.

The Republican establishment, it’s surrogates, including talk radio, mouthpieces, congress persons, pundits, and strategists, are FOR John McCain and will defend him with their lives.

Is it because they truly believe in the John McCain “movement” or is it because they are just so afraid of Barack Obama and the true movement of the Democratic party, who finally sees, and now has proof of, the lies and betrayal of Bush and his administration, that they will stand behind John McCain at all costs.

Let’s look at recent history.  Pundits and talk radio, pablum puking right wingers like Laura Ingraham and Mike Gallagher, and Rush Fatbaugh, said horrible, horrible, demeaning, condescending things about John McCain prior to him being the only Republican nominee left to fight against the big bad democrats.

But that was “before”.  And by before I mean before the Republicans and Democrats had picked their respective nominees for President.

Now, John McCain is superman, a war hero, a superior intellectual, the saving grace of the Republican party.  Need I go on.   Did they really think they would get away with it.  “We hate him, we hate him, we hate him, he’s not even a real Republican”.  Now, it’s a different story.  At least Hillary Clinton’s supporters have stuck to their principles, no matter how flawed, and refuse to back anyone else.; no matter what.

Issues for the 2008 Presidential Election

WOW am I getting tired of issues that are not really issues.  I’m not sure if cable news just needs to fill time, or if conservative think tanks are trying to convince voters that certain issues exist just because McCain is so far behind, or maybe it’s is a little bit of both.

I have said this before and I will say it again.  Abortion and Gay Marriage are not issues.

How many of you out there are dealing with abortion right now.  How many are dealing with gays getting married.  Sure maybe there are one or two reading this blog that are dealing with this issue.  But I’m pretty sure it is not a number that makes a bit of difference.

But really now.  Does a woman get an abortion every day, every week, what, how often.  And take one woman you know as an example and think about all of the other women she knows.  How many of them are dealing with an unwanted pregnancy right now.  Abortion is something that, even if you are pro-choice and having unprotected sex, you would only have to deal with once, maybe twice in a lifetime.  There are NOT huge swarms of pregnant women in every small town in America sitting around at forums or symposiums talking about their pregnancies and whether or not they should ABORT, ABORT, ABORT.

Come on people.  This is not an issue in this or any other election.  Even if you are pro-choice, Abortion is a life-changing decision, the hardest decision of your life, and a decision not made easily, no matter what your beliefs.  So let’s just stop pretending that liberals are so liberal that they think every baby is on the table as a candidate for cut-and-run.

Now, Gay Marrriage.  How many people to you know that are gay and want to get married.  And because they want to get married, this is affecting your life somehow.  I’m gay and I don’t even know any gay people that want to get married.  So let’s stop pretending that Gay Marriage is an issue.   JUST STOP IT ALREADY.

The issues are the economy and the war.  Luckily, thanks in part to Barack Obama (at least he was on the right side) got emergency extended benefit for those who are unemployed and whose benefits ran out.  That’s a tough thing to handle and this type of help is the kind of assistance that real Americans need.  I know on a first hand basis what it is like to lose your job, then lose your car, then lose your home and then lose your unemployment benefits.  I find it hard to believe that suicide isn’t more prevalent.  Maybe there is, and it’s just not on the news.

And the war.  Come on.  Is there not yet enough information available to each and every person in the world to prove the George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, and Karl Rove made up a war, lied to the American people, cost untold number of lives, both American and otherwise; cost untold numbers of maimed and scarred-for-life soldiers that will never be the same again.  All for the sake of Bush’s ego and a bundle of money that he and Cheney made off this whole thing.

I’ll be writing another post shortly about the my personal reflections on the war as the result of my own nephew who is 19 years old…..19 years old…..and putting his life on the line ever day for me, and you and doesn’t have a clue why he’s doing it.

Other than the economy and the war, the only thing left is our dignity, as Americans.  Barack Obama isn’t perfect, nobody is.  But if it takes a man with eloquence, charisma, charm, empathy, patriotism, and genuine care for his fellow human beings to inspire this country to heal itself, then I trust him.  And I want him to represent me as an American around the world.