Cindy McCain, your husband was right about you

Today, Cindy McCain attacked Barack Obama for voting against funding for the troops. She did this in the most classless way by omitting the fact that her own husband made the same vote two months later. Then she dares Obama to spend a day in her shoes. Are you kidding me?

“The day that Sen. Obama cast a vote to not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body let me tell you,” Cindy McCain said in introducing the GOP ticket. “I would suggest Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day. I suggest he take a day and go watch our men and women deploying.” HuffPo

Cindy, anyone in this country (with very few exceptions) would gladly switch places with you, if only for a day. Why? Because we all used to call ourselves middle-class, and now we wonder if we’re just poor. Furthermore, simply watching soldiers deploy means nothing. Maybe try not sending those men and women into an unjust and unneccessary war? Or maybe just try not to lie about your own husband’s record? 

Your reckless, lying husband helped Charles Keating destroy the lives and life savings of thousands of American families. How did you feel about that? Or how about his first wife, or does adultery not matter to a beer heiress? Your husband and the cronies in his campaign are partly responsible for the national economic crisis we face today. And by we, I mean everyone but you. Of course, what could we expect from someone who steals drugs from a charity?

Cindy McCain – was she funding genocide, or is she helping to stop it?

A recent AP article describing the mutual fund sale of $2 million in oil-related companies operating in Sudan by Cindy McCain. The information actually came from a McCain campaign spokesperson, which I take to mean it is relevant for public consumption of the entire picture of all three candidates. We can discuss acquaintances, pastors, spouses and certainly investments in order to find out what kind of character will lead our nation. This sale led me to some digging, where this Reuters article on a possible cure for the genocide going down in the Darfur region of Sudan offered a chance to split my perspective.

Cindy McCain sells funds, ceasing her investment in a company doing business in Sudan. Was she funding the genocide, or is she now helping to stop it? Or both? Possibly, the answer is that her investment was in fact helping to fund militant groups responsible for murder, rape and torture at alarming rates and that pulling support does remove her influence from the conflict. Her husband, however, would have a larger responsibility in this region if he were to be confirmed by the people this November 4th.

McCain: Cutting taxes more important than balanced budget

Republican John McCain said Sunday that cutting taxes and stimulating the economy are more important than balancing the budget, and accused both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama of supporting tax hikes that would worsen the impact of a recession.

read more | digg story

Senator McCain thinks he’s going to reverse our $3 trillion deficit by cutting wasteful spending. That’s great, Mr. McCain, but after that $18 billion, what then? We’re 0.6% better-off. The “wasteful spending” he should target is the $500 billion/year war festering a cauldron of anti-American sentiment and making orphans out of Iraqi children. We can’t afford McBush, John McCain is a far better human being and more worthy than Bush to lead the free world, but that was in 2000.

Today he is too out of touch to be effective, associates far too often with Bush administration cronies and knows absolutely nothing about the biggest issue this election cycle: the economy. Sure, he can get advisers who understand the economy, but without some independent understanding he won’t even know who to pick as advisers. That’s a dangerous situation given what has happened to this country as a result of the neo-conservative hijacking of the Republican Party in the last 7 years.

I also noticed on CNN and MSNBC today he’s reportedly aiming for energy independence within 5 years. This is an admirable goal. I just keep thinking “who’s the one spouting empty rhetoric again?” It seems to me that because Senator McCain has been in Washington for a quarter century, he gets a free pass. Anything he proposes is assume to be a good enough idea and above careful scrutiny. A major goal for energy independence should be in 5 years, but to say a candidate can eliminate reliance on foreign oil in that short time almost reeks of corporate greed over the last 8 years.

If this is/were possible, we basically fought a war on a lie, helped our enemy gain footing in a new part of the world. Our true enemy had never been allowed or accepted within Iraq (and isn’t in Iran, for that matter). We’ve stayed 5 years, as long as McCain thinks it would take to gain energy independence. Over that time, only oil companies and corporate executives have benefited from any Bush administration policy.

As this administration destroyed the economy, it sends us $600 checks to make us feel like we’re not being ignored and our rights trampled. As this administration has needlessly put our servicemen in harm’s way, we’ve only heard fear mongering from the White House and most of the news media. As schools have become re-segregated, this administration has standardized tests, so that those with the fewest opportunities and resources are graded on the same scale as those in $100 million high schools.

This article also brings up William Ayers, 1960s-era (as in, when Obama was under age 10) radical who admitted to setting bombs. They were the most extreme part of the anti-war movement, and truly detracted from many of the ideas they tried to uphold. The interesting thing about this, however, is that this man is an English professor. He’s not in jail. I know some Americans read this and think, well WHY NOT? That is a perfectly natural reaction, but the simple fact is that he has not been convicted of a crime in a court of law. Why should Obama be guilty by association? He points out, when asked about Ayers, that he was 8 years old at the time. I believe he was living in Indonesia or Hawaii, far away from Ayers and the Weather Underground.

I’m no TV Guide, but any show with Sean Hannity will discuss this for the next 6 months. I’m also no psychic, but he’ll probably never mention McCain’s wife stealing drugs from her non-profit organizations, his absolute ignorance of economic issues and his utter confusion concerning our enemy. He thinks the way to fix our tax code is to build another, optional system and have it run alongside the current system. That will sure save money for our economy, bloat the government and tax code even more. Vote for a better economy and a safer America, pass on John McCain.

Collateral benefits of a people’s candidate

I don’t know about you, but to me the election coverage seems more like a highly sophisticated episode of Jerry Springer by the day. After wading through the bitter debate over the insignificant phrases of candidates for over an hour, I was simply looking for anything else to read. End Politics as Usual talked about something I saw on the Colbert Report the other day called DonorsChoose.org. This website allows teachers to post the needs of their classroom and the specifics of the project the supplies will be used for, and donors can pick and fund the projects. It’s a great example of how the internet and technology can benefit public education.

Stephen Colbert posed the challenge to his Nation to donate in the name of whichever Democrat they prefer. I guess John McCain is just left out of this contest, but it’s still interesting to see the results. At the time of this posting, these are the totals:

Colbert will have Michelle Obama as his guest on the Colbert Report tonight, April 15, 2008. Hillary Clinton will be his guest on Thursday, April 17th. It should be an exciting week for his show and the Democrats. I sometimes have a knee-jerk reaction with Michelle Obama as if she might end up saying something seeped in a culture many Americans don’t understand. It’s really the same with Cindy McCain, who is constantly showing just how much of a princess she’s been all her life. As far as spouses go, Michelle Obama has overcome more in her life. The role of the First Lady is often to facilitate humanitarian and charitable work, which makes me wonder about each of the three spouses. Bill Clinton’s involvement in Kiva has been of particular interest to me.

It’s got to be near impossible to be a terrible First Lady (or First Husband), but this season I give the edge to former President Clinton, who has been there through it all, helped the economy, and works for some great humanitarian groups. The beauty of Kiva is that they don’t donate, they facilitate microcredit loans. It’s the same idea as that “give a man a fish / teach a man to fish” quote. This is a great PBS film detailing the history and effectiveness of microfinance. The pioneer of this concept, Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on this project. Here’s what the Norwegian Nobel Committee said about him:

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.

Just a few thoughts about the positive things these people are doing every day, when not getting attacked for their word choice.

Cindy McCain plagiarizes, the youth vote and Obama’s immediate review

Just a small non-issue because I found it funny. According to the LA Times blog, Cindy McCain’s family recipes on her husband’s campaign website were plagiarized from the Food Network website and Rachel Ray. This is pathetic, but again not a major issue or a reason to vote. Personally it’s hard to see Cindy McCain on TV without getting this overwhelming feeling of privilege. She’s actually a teacher, which is very respectable. The problem is that she doesn’t feel the same hard times as most teachers. Most teachers don’t get labeled an heiress by any newspaper article. The more absurd notion of this whole plagiarism fiasco is that she’s actually a cook, with her own recipes. As the heiress to the Budweiser empire in Arizona, she’s probably never tasted Ramen noodles or eaten dog biscuits for sustenance. Just a guess.

On the contrary and about her husband, I just watched John McCain on the Hardball College Tour from Villanova University and I was very impressed. I still question his sharpness and bearing with the economy, but he’s more human and personable than he has appeared in other venues. Is it just me or are candidates much more sincere and human when speaking to college campuses and other gatherings of youth? Barack Obama communicated well during his Hardball College Tour visit, but to see Senator McCain come to life was a surprise to say the least. His evasion of the “typical white person” question was truly noble, as well as his rambling response to the question about having a shot. He revealed more of himself without taking easy opportunities to take jabs at his opponents.

Finally, the Huffington Post reports that Barack Obama would carefully, but immediately review evidence to decide if any further inquiry should be launched into possible Bush administration war crimes. Personally the jury is still out on this issue. I realize that many within the administration are certainly worth an inquiry, but the overall process may prove counter-productive. I agree with the caveat that it runs the risk of creating a partisan witch hunt. The last thing this country needs is for both sides to continue swinging the pendulum back-and-forth.

I also wanted to make one comment about a video I saw on MSNBC of Michelle Obama speaking before some crowd, emphasizing that she herself worked hard for everything. She also sees herself as a testament to the value of investment in public education. I couldn’t agree more. I constantly hear one rebuttal when I begin to make an argument for funding education and paying teachers more: simply throwing money at the problem doesn’t work. The problem is, we’ve never tried. We’ve tried throwing money at the problem of needing a strong democratic ally in the Middle East, but not at better preparing our children for the future. Does that make any sense?

Is this the anti-Obama crowd? Fueled by politics or emotions?

I just read the most angry and bitter blog today, apparently a response to some of the comments Senator Obama made in Pennsylvania. Like I said, they were dumb statements, but I can’t imagine Barack Obama is anywhere near the season’s lead for dumb statements, next to Hillary Clinton or John McCain. I would concur that Hillary Clinton would be a good president, possibly even great. I am not convinced she actually has the same economic bearing as her husband, but I’m not convinced he won’t be valuable in the White House. I just know that half of this country basically hates her, as evidenced by her high negatives.

This poster simply makes him or herself sound ignorant in the process. They’ve somehow extrapolated a novel out of a few lines of a conversation from earlier on the campaign trail. Taking a glimpse at the tags reveals the level of education and judgment the poster exercises.

Obama may have finally killed his campaign. I hope so. I genuinely think Hillary would be better for the country than Obama, who is starting to really sound like a fucking asshole. All this Messiah shit has gone to his head in a big way.

1) I’m going out on a limb to say you haven’t seen Senator Obama speak in person? If you have, did he give you this condescending attitude? Anyone have this experience?

2) Nobody has dubbed Senator Obama a Messiah in any way. Maybe some biased elements of the media have tried to paint the picture as though he and his supporters were some sort of group of jaded followers as if he were a rock star, or that they were the educated elitist far-left… Which is it? They are two distinct groups. You are talking about your teachers, your medical community, many journalists, researchers and university personnel; also your labor workers and service industry workers. This isn’t some group of stupid people following a herd, they are awake, and not responding to spin and propaganda.

I have a problem not seeing his base as an extremely broad swath of the American people. He has mobilized the youth vote and brought it into the mainstream election efforts, something we haven’t seen to this degree in the history of American politics. Past efforts to rally the youth vote have not been near as effective as giving everyone, youth or life-long worker an equal opportunity to participate, donate, campaign, make phone calls and spread the word. He’s also collected money from smaller donors, which not only tells me he’s collecting from people like me, but that A LOT of people like me have contributed to his campaign. That gives me hope for a government more “of the people, for the people and by the people.”

To act like people who get bitter and ignorant don’t cling tightly to traditions unknown and misunderstood is not an acceptable observation is in itself stunning to me. Tradition is not always a good thing, and though religion has brought many people inner peace and happiness, its mark on the world has been far different. Guns are a great part of American tradition and the 2nd Amendment should be protected at all costs, but it comes with a bill of 9 other rights, equally as important. Antipathy for others? Seriously, I hear a lot of people tell jokes about trailer parks who have never actually lived in one. I hear more racist jokes in the more vanilla neighborhoods I visit than in the diverse communities. I’m not sure how exactly the poster was trying to spin that one, but yes…bitterness over jobs being shipped overseas can create anti-other sentiments. It’s absolutely foolish to think otherwise.