Four years ago, I worked hard to try to get John Kerry elected president of the United States after seeing the damage done by George W. Bush over his first four years in office.
Unfortunately, through a combination of fear-based politics and irrationally placed patriotism, Bush was able to squeak by Kerry. Clearly, Kerry wasn’t the most charismatic person every to run for president, but at least he understood the costs of war.
We don’t fear terrorist attacks, plane hijackings, or invasions by foreign forces. Why? Because we’re too busy to live in fear of stuff like that.
Given a limited amount of time and energy to devote toward fear, we’re going with the legitimate options that hit closer to home.
With that in mind, I present to you the one candidate I believe has the ability to focus this country on the issues that truly affect Americans: Barack Obama.
Unlike four years ago, I don’t doubt the intelligence of any of the remaining candidates in the presidential race. But only one candidate is capable of leading this country out of fear by providing both hope and the motivation to make our country better than it is today.
I’m convinced that Barack Obama, when elected, will use the power of the presidency to motivate people to be better than they are today. He’ll do this by addressing the American people directly through TV and Internet videos that explain where we are today, what we’re capable of, why it’s important, and how we’re gong to work together to solve our common problems.
Here’s a taste of what I believe we can expect from Obama once we elect him:
In some cases, Barack Obama may need to raise taxes.
If there is one thing that can be learned from the amazing grass roots success of Ron Paul’s campaign, it’s that people do not like their money being spent without justification. In Paul’s case, he believes that almost everything government does is without justification.
I don’t believe that, and I believe that most Americans believe that government programs generally exist to solve problems that the market failed to solve on its own, such as educating all of our children, making sure our parents don’t live in poverty after retirement, and providing safe food, water, workplaces, and air through regulation.
All Americans want to know where our money is going and whether it’s doing any good. Obama has the ability to level with us about what’s working and what isn’t since he doesn’t have 16 years worth of relationships at stake in DC.
The owner of a local restaurant explained to me on Saturday night that he stood outside with his 8-year-old daughter for 2 hours earlier in the day so she could see the next president of the United States speak. While proudly wearing his Obama sticker from the rally at the Target Center, he explained that he’s most excited about seeing Obama put Americans to work on projects that make our country a better place. Let’s redirect the $2 billion a week we’re spending killing people overseas to domestic projects that put people to work (without getting them killed) and make America more beautiful.
I leave you with this video created by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. His motivation for this musical rendition of Obama’s New Hampshire conciliatory speech is included below the video:
I was sitting in my recording studio watching the debates…
Torn between the candidates
I was never really big on politics…
and actually I’m still not big on politics…
but 4 years ago, me and the black eyed peas supported Kerry…
And we supported Kerry with all our might…
We performed and performed and performed for the DNC…
doing all we could do to get the youth involved…
The outcome of the last 2 elections has saddened me…
on how unfair, backwards, upside down, unbalanced, untruthful,
corrupt, and just simply, how wrong the world and “politics” are…
So this year i wanted to get involved and do all i could early…
And i found myself torn…
because this time it’s not that simple…
our choices aren’t as clear as the last elections …
last time it was so obvious…
Bush and war vs. no bush and no war…
But this time it’s not that simple…
and there are a lot of people that are torn just like i am…
So for awhile I put it off and i was going to wait until it was decided for me…
And then came New Hampshire…
And i was captivated…
Inspired…
“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” the former Arkansas governor told a Myrtle Beach crowd on January 17, referring to the Confederate flag. “If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole. That’s what we’d do.”
It can only mean one thing: You’re willing to put bigots’ rights ahead of human rights.
Don’t you think America deserves better than that?
My Joe 6-Pack understanding of congressional earmarks goes something like this: Every member of congress is alloted a certain amount of federal funding that they can direct to projects of their choice without much congressional oversight, such as a vote specifically on the funding choices. This can be a good thing, since Keith Ellison probably knows better what his Minneapolis constituents need than Don Young of Alaska. Of course, it can be a bad thing if you’re represented by someone like Don Young of Alaska who’s been busy collecting campaign donations and setting aside earmarks for people he doesn’t politically (only financially) represent:
While the number of donors who got earmarks is hard to determine, an analysis of Young’s campaign finance reports show that beneficiaries of just seven earmarks with a total price of $259 million gave the veteran congressman at least $575,000. None of the projects was in Alaska.
Joe Bodell at Minnesota Campaign Report took at look at what Minnesota’s reps have been earmarking. For example, here’s what he found Ellison securing for:
Freshman Keith Ellison, representing Minneapolis and several of its suburbs, also issued several requests that were eventually included in the final spending bill. He co-sponsored the same $55 million for the Northstar Commuter Rail as Oberstar, and added to that $10.4 million for the Central Corridor Light Rail project (it will be interesting to see what the state legislature does with this project in the upcoming session). Only one of Ellison’s other earmarks (an army medical research project for Phygen Inc.) totaled more than $1 million, and all were focused on social services, public safety, and water infrastructure projects in and around Minneapolis.
Seems reasonable.
So, what about this one: John Kline, who represents the southern part of the Twin Cities, decided that his district deserved none fo the money they were alloted. Are things really running that smoothly to the South?
Dear Future Generations. In the 2000’s, we had a president from Texas who’s international crime fighting policy was basically this:
1. Offer bounties to people living in poverty who are willing to turn in other 3rd world living humans in exchange for cash.
2. Torture the captives to find out if they actually know anything.
3. Don’t allow the tortured to have trials where they could explain the circumstances that led to their capture, how they’ve been tortured, and that they’d like to get back to herding sheep now.
This president managed to scare enough crap out of the public that they were willing to go along with his pro-torture policies.
In fact, it became patriot to be scared.
Yes, we were the most powerful country in the world, but our president’s power came from keeping citizens living with a sense of fear.
Fear allowed the government to carry out known forms of torture on humans with full knowledge of the public. The government managed to convince the public that torturing fellow humans was justifiable. It got to the point that major national news channels like FOX News actually debated whether a torture technique called waterboarding was really torture.
Is waterboarding torture?
Try it on yourself to find out.
That’s what this guy did. Keep in mind that he was in complete control in this situation. He wasn’t locked up in a razorwire jail thousands of miles from home where he wasn’t allowed to see a lawyer.
This is a guy with a weight bench in his home who attempted to simulate waterboarding on himself to see what he could learn from that:
I’ll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I’d take the fingers, no question.
It’s horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I’d prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I’d give up anything, say anything, do anything.
The Spanish Inquisition knew this. It was one of their favorite methods.
It’s torture. No question. Terrible terrible torture. To experience it and understand it and then do it to another human being is to leave the realm of sanity and humanity forever. No question in my mind.
Your tax dollars at work.
It’s worth clicking through to read his full experiment and reactions to the varying degrees of waterboard torture my 2004 Bush supporting friends endorsed by re-electing our torturer in chief.
Alberto Gonzales, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, George W Bush, and everyone who voted for this group in 2004 should run their own self-torture tests to get a feel for the inhumane treatment they’ve authorized.
I swear to you, if I ever get the chance to introduce Trent Lott to an audience - not all that likely, I know - I’m going to borrow my introductory remarks from The Beast:
Old school Dixiecrat segregationist who switched parties along with Strom Thurmond back when Democrats decided to be nicer to black people.
Sadly, that one-sentence bio will still get cheers with some audiences.
Andrew Sullivan’s points about Obama’s potential bipartisan appeal are especially salient today as Zogby’s recent polling becomes a topic of national conversation. The short story: Zogby’s head-to-heads show Hillary losing to every single Republican candidate for President. How does Obama fare? He wins against every single Republican candidate for President. (Edwards is somewhere in between)
Val sent over an Edwards highlight from last night’s debate:
He makes a good point. Who is setting public policy in the United States these days? Is the public really being served, or are corporations with a vested interest in the status quo running the show?
The Deets is the personal blog of Ed Kohler. Views represented here are his own. Views of comments on The Deets are their own and Ed does not necessarily endorse the views of commenters. Ed's wishlist can be found here.
