Democrats debate in NH

If you missed the democratic debate last night from New Hampshire I strongly encourage you to watch the above and as many other clips you can get your hands on. You can see more clips at msnbc.com but will have to go to Mike Gravel's youtube page to see more from him.

Other highlights include exit strategies for "Bush's War," Clinton dissing Cheney...



...and what each candidate wishes to accomplish in their first few months in office:

Edwards: “travel the world” and “re-establish America’s moral authority.”
Clinton: bring home U.S. troops from Iraq.
Obama: bring home U.S. troops and push for national health care.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: upgrade U.S. schools and push a $40,000-a-year minimum wage for teachers.
Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: end the war in Iraq and defuse tensions with Iran and North Korea.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: help “reshape the world for peace” and end all nuclear weapons.
Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel: Remind Congressional leaders they can end the war in Iraq now.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: “Restore constitutional rights in this country.”

Also I was looking through clips from the democratic debate from April in South Carolina and felt guilty for not posting this earlier!

Bush applauded on global warming stance

President Bush recently proposed a step towards a global cooperative effort to fight global warming. Suggesting the 15 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases hold meetings and set an emissions goal. This proposal differs from other UN attempts (which have still yet to be ratified by the US) in that each country - including the U.S., China, India and the major European countries - would determine individually how to implement the goal.

"The U.S. initiatives on climate protections are very welcome to us, under the condition that they are channeled into the framework of the U.N. program," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel

A three day G-8 summit, hosted by Merkel, will take place on Wednesday. Though the main focus will be global warming, Tony Blair and Merkel have also discussed proposing aid to Africa to the agenda. In response to the U.S.'s recent positions on global warming treatie Merkel said:

"Every initiative must be channeled into the entire United Nations process. If that happens, this would mean that the United States is back in the community of those who are concerned about reduction, and that would already be something."

Future of the United Nations

Has the UN become obsolete? With the U.S. ignoring the UN and choosing to work unilaterally on most issues (global warming, terrorism, Iraq, etc.) our commitment to the organization is minimal and our opinion of the organization is for the most part negative.

"The fanatical Right...think the UN is a conspiracy to create a world government and destroy America's freedom" said former UK cabinet minister Clare Short

BUT I feel, despite recent U.S. dismissal of the IO, that it is an organization worth of preservation. Especially with the rising threats from non-state actors this is the time to act with the fellow citizens of this globe to defend our nations against looming crises. Short further examines the U.S.-UN relations in her commentary
What future for the UN?.

No More Blood for Oil

Here is another ad I really like though Dennis Kucinich goes in completely different direction than Richardson. This was just posted today on YouTube. I really wish more candidates could be as passionate and unwavering as Kucinich is in his beliefs. Though I do disagree with some of his proposals (some measures are just too liberal for me) I truly like him and can confidently say that his heart is in the right place and I would trust him to do what is best in the interest of the United States and more importantly the world.

Bill Moyer

This is a little preview of Bill Moyer's special "Buying the War" on how the administration marketed the war to the media and the general publice. The special aired in April but you can view more clips of his documentary on youtube.com. The Bill Moyer journal airs on PBS at 8pm or you can read his blog anytime.

More reasons to love him..

Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama opt to skip a FOX news/Congressional Black Caucus sponsered debate in September. The debate would be aimed at expressing the concerns of minority voters but despite the goodwill of the debate the three candidates are not attending most likely out of fear or disdain of the pro-Republican/conservative news outlet. I think this is the wrong move. They should learn something from Kucinich and jump at the chance to present themselves to the fox audience.

"Certainly many Fox viewers are not part of the traditional Democratic base but they have a right to hear from the Democratic candidates and we as candidates have an obligation to reach out to them." said Kucinich in his defense of the debate.

Here is the full article: Kucinich Defends Fox News

baby steps

Another step towards equality was reached today when Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire signed a civil union bill into law. The new law not only enables homosexuals to enter into a legally binding commitment it also entitles same-sex couples entering a civil union to the same (state-level) rights granted to married couples.

“This is not a state that believes in discrimination. And once people understood that same-gender couples were being denied rights like hospital visitations and the right to inherit the homes they’d shared with their loved ones — stories like that opened our eyes. And once your eyes are opened, you can’t close them again. This is the right thing to do,” said New Hampshire Senate President Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord.

Now, ten states have laws providing some form of recognition and rights for same-sex couples despite the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

scare tactics

Cheney spoke at the West Point Graduation on Saturday. Here are a few quotables from his speech (attempting to scare us into supporting the war) which paints the picture of unstoppable, relentless terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens as a result of pulling out of Iraq.


"Al Qaeda's leadership has said they have the right to 'kill 4 million Americans, 2 million of them children, and to exile twice as many and to would and cripple thousands,"

"Their cruelty is not rebuked by human suffering, only fed by it,"

"(our enemies) oppose and despise...every notion of upright conduct and character,"

"America is fighting this enemy in Iraq,"


What did Iraq do to us to provoke this war? I keep forgetting...


"...we are there because the security of this nation depends on a successful outcome,"

Happy Memorial Day!

A personal note: This day always had special meaning to my grandfather, a WWII veteran who recently passed away. He worked very hard to compile a list of those from their community who honorably served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, and Desert Storm for the Grove City, Pennsylvania Community Roll of Honor. This type of dedication to honor those who have risked their lives for this country (whether or not we agree on if we should be involved in the conflict) I hope will not be lost with my generation.

Pelosi in Europe

Speaker of the House, Nance Pelosi is currently in Europe. She is travelling to Belgium, Greenland and Germany for meetings with other politicians and scientists on ways to reduce greenhouse emissions.
Hopefully more participation like this by U.S. politicians may push the U.S. to finally ratify the Kyoto protocol (which would require the U.S. to reduce emissions by 7% below 1990 levels) and any forthcoming amendments to the United Nation's international treaty on climate change that may come out of the climate change summit that is meeting in June.

U.S. embassy in Iraq

The U.S. is in the process of building the world's largest and most expensive embassy in Iraq. The 104 acre site will be a constant, and I am sure greatly appreciated (did you catch that sarcasm?), reminder of western penetration of the Middle East. The embassy makes the statement that not only are we going to continue to occupy your country but we are here for the long haul. Not suprisingly, the embassy has and will be a prime target for attacks (the construction site was already hit with mortar fire this month).
You can view the full article from the Associated Press here.

Breaking the Iron Triangle?

Will the House vote to expose the role lobbyists play in soliciting and donating to politicians really limit the influence powerful lobbies have on politics? Democratic presidential hopefuls pushed hard for the bill wanting to live up to their promises to clean up congress. This bill passed with an overwhelming majority 396 to 22 but as Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts put it, “As long as campaigns can spend an unlimited amount of money, they will find a way to get their hands on it.” Past limits to the dollar amount of contributions only pushed for politicians to find more contributors so the likelihood that this bill will make a difference in who has the most influence on our legislators is slim.

"The entire government has failed us..."

Keith Olberman speaks out against the current administration, Iraq, the republicans, the democratic candidates and Bush's criticism of Congress for not funding the war.

You win this round

The new Iraq spending bill will not include a time table for withdrawl of U.S. troops or any notion of an exit from the war. Despite my original belief that the democrats would stand strong and refuse to fund this mockery of a war without contentions for an end, the presidential veto of the last proposed bill (and threat to veto any further bills similar) has cracked them. Though I take comfort that Pelosi shares in my dissapointment alluding to the idea that she will most likely not vote for the bill, which she helped create. The new bill will dish out around $120 billion and establish 18 political and legislative benchmarks for the Iraqi government. Starting in late July Bush will be required to report on their success in reaching these benchmarks and if the Iraqis fall short, they could forfeit U.S. reconstruction aid. You can read the full story here.

"the worst in history"

I found these Jimmy Carter quotes criticizing the Bush administration quite entertaining (enjoy):


"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,"

"For the first time since Israel was founded, we've had zero peace talks to try to bring a resolution of differences in the Middle East,"

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered,"

Bill Richardson

Finally a political ad that I thoroughly enjoy! It leads me to believe he has a good personality, gives my a nice little synopsis of his resume, and demonstrates that you don't always have to throw mud at another candidate to make yourself look better! I think this just moved Richardson up a notch or two in my book (perhaps the pro-choice stance and support of LGBT rights has something to do with it too). He also has a good deal of knowledge on foreign relations (something our current president lacks). He was appointed by Clinton as U.S. ambassador to the UN and also worked for the Department of Energy. It is a shame that not all the democratic candidates get there fair share of coverage by the mainstream media outets.

Pop Quiz...

....courtesey of Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.


Pop quiz: Before last week's House hate crimes vote, which of the following absurd tactics did anti-gay groups use to try to stop the vote?


a. Manufacture a blatantly fake House transcript.
b. Promote the work of a known racist filmmaker (whose other titles include "Keep America White").
c. Claim this law would make it a crime to "read the Bible a certain way" or have anti-gay thoughts.
d. Callously invoke the Virginia Tech massacre.
e. All of the above.
If you answered 'E', you've been doing your homework.


The hate crimes legislation currently trying to make it through the Senate known as the Matthew Shepard Act hopefully wont suffer the same fate as the legislation that went through the house (which does not have a large enough majority to override the promised presidential veto). Our own California Senators Boxer and Feinstein are cosponsors of the bill, which proposes to expand federal hate crimes laws to include crimes commited against a person based on their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability (current laws only include race, color, religion or national origin).

Veterans Speak Out

The veterans group VoteVets.org is launching a half-million-dollar TV ad campaign featuring Maj Gen John Batiste (Ret.), former commanding general of the first infantry division in Iraq to speak out against President Bush and the war.

and the winner is?

Hopefully, with a new leaders afoot, the U.S. and France can ignore the stereotypes which have fostered animosity between the two countries in the past and embrace newly elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement that, “friendship means accepting that friends can think differently.” Though Sarkozy shares his predecessors anti-Iraq war stance he embraces the U.S. as an ally. Turkey is not so lucky. Sarkozy is very admit in preventing Turkey from joining the European Union. Turkey has been working to adhere to the reforms needed to become an EU prospect but recent turmoil (and a near coup d'etat) may make Sarkozy's wish to shun the country come true.

"Pornography and violence poison our music and movies and TV and video games. The Virginia Tech shooter, like the Columbine shooters before him, had drunk from this cesspool." said (potential GOP presidential candidate) Mitt Romney yesterday in his graduation speech at Regent University (a conservative Christian school).

Oh Mitt Romney! Thank goodness we have you and others from the Christian right enlightening us on who is to blame for the evils in this world.

"The beauty of literature, poetry, and music is that they leave room for the audience to put its own imagination, experiences, and dreams into the words" said Dee Snyder at a Senate hearing September 19,1985.

Romney went on to persecute single people (because if you aren't marriend and making babies you can't be a good Christian human being) and crticize French marriage law. So, he is for gay marriage right?

An end to capital punishment?

America joins the ranks of China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Vietnam, and Kuwait in that these are the ten countries with the most executions in 2006. Though the U.S. method of lethal injection claims to be more humane than the execution styles administered by many other countries.
Idealy lethal injection consists of three shots: the first renders you unconscious, the second paralyzes muscles and blocks breathing and the last is to stop the heart. In actuality sometimes the inijections are administered wrong or simply do not work leaving a conscious convict to suffer a slow and painful death from suffocation.
Out of the 37 states that allow the death penalty New Jersey, Maryland, Montana and Nebraska are moving towards a ban of this form of punishment.
America is one of the few democracies, along side Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan, that still has a death penalty. Perhaps it is time to move on from this barbaric method of punishement? Or at least have the decency to kill them quickly...

Kucinich 2008

Dennis Kucinich, sadly he has no chance of being the democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential election. As somewhat of an old hippy he is too liberal (the green party vowed that if he ran for office they would not run a candidate against him). I really stand behind some of his ideas such as establishing a department of peace, keeping politics away from a woman's right to choose (despite the fact that his personal feelings are pro-life) and has a formulated a seemingly realistic 12 step exit strategy for the Iraq War (which he never supported).

"I am offering the following approach to change America's direction away from death and disintegration and towards life and social cohesiveness," Kucinich in reference to his desire to establish a department of peace.

The house stands firm

"Earlier today, the leader and I sent to the president a bill that made a strong commitment to support our men and women in uniform, and a strong commitment to honor our promises to our veterans. This was a bill that was worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. It was a bill that honored and respected the wishes of the American people to have benchmarks, to have guidelines, to have standards for what is happening in Iraq.... The president vetoed the bill outright and, frankly, misrepresented what this legislation does," said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi n response to President Bush's veto of the Iraq supplemental bill. Pelosi's full commentary.

Despite lacking the majority to overrule the presidential veto Pelosi and fellow democrats stand strong. I hope that they continue to do so until the President is forced to compromise on a committment to leave Iraq in exchange for funding.

Mission Accomplished?

It is the FOURTH anniversary of Bush's mission accomplished speech and with it comes a presidential promise to veto the Iraq funding bill that will pass through congress. The bill would order that troops begin leaving Iraq by October 1st of this year but will doubtfully get the 2/3 majority needed to override the expected veto.
In fairness to the President I agree that we must view the war in Iraq as two wars: the fist, which entailed taking Saddam's regime out of power, was a quick success but the second, constructing a predominately western democratic regime that would have at least of inkling of stability, has and will be a failure. This reconstruction should be handled either multilaterally (working intensely with and in the interest of the people of Iraq) or unilaterally, with the people of Iraq taking full control of stabilizing a regime. What makes us more capable then them? It is merely an elitist notion that they are incapable of handling this situation as well (if not better) than the U.S..

California emission regulations

Since 2002 California has wished to reduce auto emission of carbon dioxide by 25% but are waiting on EPA approval before the state can implement the new regulations. California's application for a waiver was turned in 16 months ago but the EPA did not begin the evaluation of the application until Tuesday, April 25th.
You would think being the environmental protection agency they would understand the necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emmissions BUT apparently it is not high on the agenda. The EPA claimed that they wished to move cautiously and further excused the delay by stating that the Bush administration has already done a lot to regultate greenhouse gas emissions. You can read the full article here.

You Tube

Candidates have taken over You Choose '08 republicans and democrats alike, each equiped with their own profiles and video feed. Ploys to appeal to the youth of America have worked in the past, ie Bill Clinton's memorable appearence on MTV in 1993, and youtube is the perfect medium for these potential candidates. Candidates are given a chance to present themselves to the masses in a way they see fit (without the filter of the cable news outlets).

Mind your own beeswax

Oh, how I love when decisions are made for me by my governement. From the New York Times Yesterday, the Supreme Court backed the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. We are inching closer and closer to completely banning abortion (which I am suprised has not happened yet under the current administration). The real kicker to this story was Justice Kennedy vocalizing, "It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form.” Justice Kennedy apparently knows me better than I know myself. I think my stance on abortion is blatantly obvious. I am 100% pro-choice though that does not mean that I would make that choice.

Another interesting tidbit is that Giuliani has decided to support the supreme courts decsision (despite his 1997 stance against legislation that would outlaw partial birth abortions) perhaps in a desperate appeal to potential voters? You can read the story here. I will comend Giuliani not for his usually unwaiving support of abortion rights and funding but for commenting that the Republican Party "has to get beyond issues like that." That is a statement that I can agree with 100%! Domestic technicalities such as gay marriage and whether or not pre teen girls should be forced to recieve a vaccine that may help prevent cervical cancer (when long term affects of the vaccincation are still unknown). Issues such as these are too personal the government should not make it their business. But I am sure some politicians see the issues as a nice distraction from what is going on with the War on Terror, gas prices, the trade deficit and that little thing called global warming...

33

The shootings at Virginia Tech...I really have nothing that could describe how apauleed I am by such a massacre. Why take so many people with you? My naive and innocent mind just cant comprehend the motivation to committ such a horrendus act. Virginia and Colorado are such seemingly pleasent and peaceful states. I hate to profile a city but it seems that such an act would be more likely in Los Angeles or Oakland. I lived 20 minutes from Littleton when the Columbine shootings occured. The highschool was close to the bowling alley we frequented. That town is so welcoming and peaceful such violent acts are not a regular occurence. What prompts such agression and dismisal of respect for human lives?

I understand this isn't very political but I needed to vent.

Global Warming

Why is it that the United States continually chooses to act unilaterally when dealing with prevention and preperedness for the feasibly looming climate crisis? "Act" was really the wrong term for the federal governments dealings with global warming I should say inaction because the current administration has yet to allow any regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.


I'm starving...more to come on this later.

Shield Law?

After a 226 day serve Josh Wolf was released from prison on April 3rd. In 2006 he was put away for refusing to testify and release footage from a 2005 street demonstration in San Francisco at which a police officer and vehicle were injured. Many states, including California, have laws protecting journalists from having to reveal such information but in this case the federal government became involved, apparently overriding in protections provided by the state. Luckily there is proposed legislation out there to provide such protection at a federal level but the question that arises is who should be protected? Blogging gives anyone and everyone the capacity to be a journalist in their own eyes. My questions are: what constitutes a true journalist opposed to a casual blogger? and Who should be protected by shield legislation?

Day two

Hope every one is having a wonderfull weekend, My brain shuts down on the weekend, so check back during the work week for some actual political talk!!!

Iraq? Iran? Where to next?

"Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Iran had stepped up uranium enrichment in defiance of a second UN Security Counci resolution ordering it to stop." From the Economist April 14th.

Interesting that the U.S. chose to invade Iraq on a purposely misguided premise that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons when in actuality Iran should be the real concern (though before the war in Iraq I doubt many people knew the difference between the two anyway).

Kurt Vonnegut died the other day at the age of 84. The infamous author of Slaugherhouse-five (and many other classics) will be missed. Outside of being a great author he was an amazing personality, a humanitarian, a soldier (former POV) and a lifelong member of the American Civil Liverties Union. Below is a great clip with him on the Daily Show in 2005.



Vonnegut was very outspoken against the war and the Bush administration and I think he articulated this better than anyone:

"By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas."[

EU's oil dependency

I pillaged this picture from the economist website. The article discussed Russia's new "tool of influence" as the supplier of half the EU's gas imports. Europeans were reminded of this dependence on Russian gas and the Russian owned pipelines, which run through Europe, when Russia turned off the gas supply to the Ukraine last year (and the Ukraine syphoned gas from pipes headed to the EU). Despite this fiasco Europeans should not fear another shut off because Russia is as dependent on the EU market as the EU is dependent on their Gas.

UN Human Rights Council reemed

This clip is from March 23. The UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer gave a speech at the Human Rights Council criticizing its record of ignoring human rights violations worldwide unless they can be blamed on Israel. The speech was banned and stricken from the record at the UN.



UN Watch is an NGO based in Geneva whose aims are to monitor the United Nations and promote human rights throughout the world and not suprisingly has an affiliation with the American Jewish Communitee.

My First Posting

Day one of many postings! I will keep this one short and sweet.... Welcome to my politcal Blog page!! Guess I should say something Political.........ummmmm...... Something Political!!.... Stay tuned for more indepth Blogs in the Future!