Tag: 2008 elections

The ‘town hall’ debate actually merits a kudo, amid its problems: there were actually serious questions about energy and global warming, including a direction mention of green jobs.  

In the debate, Barack Obama consistently reiterated that energy is a top-tier issue, linking it to financial, environmental, and international security challenges.  Obama spoke of energy in holistic terms, speaking from individuals to nation/globe, about producing power and seeking energy efficiency, about … Obama sounded like he understood what he was talking about and that he has a plan for solving multiple problems at the same time when it comes to energy.

John McCain also emphasized energy, but his comments were filled with incomplete, disingenuous, and non-truthful elements continuing a sad tradition by both John McCain and Sarah Palin.

John McCain’s body language was so clenched, so tightly wound, I was waiting (ok, almost hoping) for him to explode into one of his famous tantrums.

His forced soft-speak, reminiscent of Bush’s almost whispery speech when he was trying to win people over seemed strained, not natural. The muscles in his clenched jaw visibly flexed and twitched with tension.

Then there is the arm thing. Has anyone else noticed his arms seem to stick out at a 45 degree unnatural angle, binding just below the shoulders in an obvious ill fit from all the padding? Even his body under the suit looked padded, to make him look bigger.

He looks like a robot, with his stiff hands and jerky movements.

Obama however looked comfortable, loose, natural, even graceful. Dominant.

As the election season heats up and the races for state and federal offices begin their final mad rush through October toward the November 4 finish line, the overall theme appears to be one of much needed change.  It’s time to dispense with the ideas that have wrought two wars, undermined our constitution, diminished critical federal oversight and cast us into an economic tailspin of failure, corruption and greed.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Red to Blue initiative has helped bring the Democratic 50 State strategy to fruition by helping candidates in competitive races get a leg up on funding and support.  It’s a start, but it’s incomplete.

There are some other bets worth placing, like in Kansas Congressional District 4, for example: candidate and Democratic State Senator Donald Betts, vs. Republican incumbent Todd Tiahrt.  It’s a race that has the potential to unseat Tiahrt, a stalwart Bush/Cheney supporter who has been closely tied to both Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.  I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Betts earlier today. I’ll post the interview tomorrow; meanwhile, read on, learn about the race and help out if you can.

Scottish activist films Israeli navy shooting at Gaza fishermen

Claims of 14 deaths in previous incidents

According to

Billy Briggs, writing in Scotland Sunday Herald,

A Scottish human rights activist has filmed the Israeli navy firing machine guns at unarmed Palestinian fishing boats in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The footage, taken on September 6 by Andrew Muncie, who is from the Highlands, shows an Israeli gunboat engaging fishing boats while international observers hold their arms in the air and scream for them to stop firing.

Briggs reports that:

No-one was injured in the incident, but Palestinian fishermen claim 14 colleagues have been murdered at sea by the Israeli navy since the onset of an economic blockade imposed after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Israel says patrolling these waters is a vital security measure to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza, but by its blockade, Israel controls the Palestinians’ food, fuel, aid, and ability to fish in their own territorial waters.

The Sunday Herald article states that:

According to the United Nations, the crisis has left the number of households in Gaza below the poverty line at an unprecedented 52%.

Gaza’s fishing industry has been hit particularly hard. Under the 1993 Oslo accords, Gazan fishermen were to be allowed 20 nautical miles out to sea. According to Oxfam, fishermen are now only allowed six miles out to sea – not far enough out to reach the schools of large fish – and risk being shot or arrested if they breach this limit.

But that’s not all Israel controls with its gunboats in Gaza’s maritime territory.

Democratic Spine ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

Dimensions: 14″ x 14″ x 9″

Description: A mini coffin with a truncated human spine lays in a bed of velvet. The coffin is covered with quotes by Progressive, Democrats both recent and from history.

Materials: Wood, parchment reproductions of the Bill of Rights, burgundy velvet, metal hardware, paper, amber varnish.

Cross-Posted on my BLOG (where you can see larger images) and at DailyKos.

John McCain was out of the torturous grip of the North Vietnamese for approximately one year when Congress passed Public Law 93-531 in 1974. Public Law 93-531 was called the Relocation Act, and was falsely justified by what “Peabody Coal Company’s public relations and lobbying firms” falsely constructed  as the “Hopi-Navajo land dispute.” This “range war” was not true. What was true, was lawyer John Boyden with the assimilated Hopi Tribal Council.

Source

Boyden formed a Hopi Tribal Council that consisted of several First Mesa Hopi who had been converted to Mormonism, based on an election in which about 10 percent of the Hopis on the reservation voted. The newly elected Tribal Council then hired Boyden as their lawyer.

John Boyden with his assimilated Hopi Tribal Council wanted Peabody Coal to strip mine Black Mesa after the natural resources had been discovered. More than 10,000 Navajo and 100 Hopi did not want Black Mesa stripped.  

Dennis Kucinich is running for re-election to his House seat in Ohio’s 10th District.  Please donate to his campaign.

http://www.kucinich.us

Cindy Sheehan is running to unseat Nancy Pelosi in California’s 8th District.  She needs your help to remove the failed speaker.

http://www.cindyforcongress.org

Anthony Pollina is running for governor of Vermont on the Progressive Party ticket.

http://www.anthonypollina.com

Also on the Progressive Party ticket in Vermont is state attorney general candidate Charlotte Dennett, who vows to prosecute the shrub for murder.

http://www.charlottedennettfor…

Thomas Hermann, an Iraq war veteran running on an anti-war platform, is another Progressive – he’s running for the U.S. House of Representatives.

http://www.votepeacevt.com/hom…

Ralph Nader is running for president again.  I’m not voting for him, for reasons I’ll explain later, but I do support his message.

http://www.votenader.org

Cynthia McKinney is running for president on the Green Party ticket.  She, more than Nader, perhaps has the organizational power to make some kind of impact in November.  She isn’t going to win, obviously, in this rigged system – but enough votes may begin to help build the Green Party further.

http://votetruth08.com

Please donate whatever you can to these progressive candidates.

I’ve been sitting back, taking in as much of the facts about this economy meltdown as I could stand.  I’ve also sat reading conservatives who, after voting election after election for candidates who gave Big Business whatever they wanted, now lament how it must have been some racial thing that brought our country to collapse.  It would probably take a legion of psychologists decades to deduce the reasons for this denial in conservatives.

In 1974 the U.S. Government legally endorsed genocide when Congress passed Public Law 93-531, which enabled Peabody Coal Company to strip mine Black Mesa by ripping the traditional Navajo and Hopi peoples from the land.