Caroline Kennedy Endorses Barack Obama
As a child, my mother would make a point of using Caroline Kennedy as a role model. I was a somewhat raucous, talkative, rambunctious child, and so I would hear the stories of how Caroline Kennedy curtsied to the Queen so nicely, or how at-home she looked in the White House, or how lucky I was to have a life that didn’t include a camera hiding behind every tree recording how naughty I was.
Over time, my mother’s admiration of Caroline stuck, and my admiration for her is as deep as my mother’s. As I was celebrating the election returns from South Carolina, the news came in that she had written an Op-Ed for the New York Times endorsing Barack Obama’s candidacy. And with characteristic class and poise, she articulated what I have been trying to say as well.
I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.
I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.
I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.
Thank you, Caroline.
Technorati Tags: Caroline Kennedy, endorsement, Barack Obama, Obama 08, inspiration
Sphere: Related Content935 Lies Told. 135,482 Lives Lost.
According to a report released earlier this week by the Center for Public Integrity, the Bush Administration orchestrated the Iraq War by lying to the American public 935 times about the national security threat posed by Iraq.
They repeated the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction on 532 separate occasions. Bush made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and lied 28 separate times about Iraq’s relationship to Al Qaeda.
Here’s a visual shocker:
Source: Center for Public Integrity: “The War Card: Orchestrated Decetion on the Path to War”
This chart illustrates the orchestration staged by the Administration to convince Congress and the American People that war with Iraq was necessary.
In retrospect, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to discover that the decision to wage war on Iraq was based on a lie. Just about everything this administration has undertaken has been based on lies and deception. Iraq is no exception. What should surprise and dismay us is that we continue to give the Bush Administration a pass on the evil they have brought upon us, holding no one accountable and making no attempt to learn from past mistakes.
As of this writing, at least 135,482 lives have been lost in Iraq. The number of American dead in Iraq now outnumbers the number of those who died in the attacks on 9/11/2001. The number of Iraqi dead is even more stunning.
Remember these lies when you hear the Administration claim that Iran is building nuclear weapons and should therefore be the target of our aggression. Compare the statements of the administration on Iraq with recent statements on Iran:
- Bush, in September, 2002:
“The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given…”
- Bush, in December 2007:
“Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” Bush said, pointing out that Tehran continues to try to enrich uranium for civilian purposes and therefore develop technology that could be used for a weapon.
“They had the program. They halted the program. It’s a warning signal because they could restart it,” he said.
- Bush, September, 2002:
Al Qaeda hides, Saddam doesn’t, but the danger is, is that they work in concert. The danger is, is that Al Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam’s madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world.
- Bush, on January 13, 2008:
“Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror…”
“Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere,” Bush said. “So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late.”
There is a pattern of behavior here, a pattern of lies and deceit and twisting the truth into a message of aggression that has to be stopped. I don’t believe we can sit back and say “Well, he only has a year left.” A year is a very long time. A year is enough time for irrational acts to cost many more thousands of lives. Every single statement that comes from the administration should be assumed to be a lie, and the press and public must be ready to identify and publicize those lies, because if we don’t, we’re guilty of passive conspiracy.
George Bush is an unbalanced, dangerous man who would not think twice about aggressive action against Iran in the name of oil supremacy. He does not care about the lives he wastes in that quest, American or otherwise. We must.
Technorati Tags: Bush, Iran, Iraq, 935 lies, center for public integrity, truth, deception
Sphere: Related ContentDon’t Spy on Me
This week, the Senate is debating FISA, the law that has been in effect since the 1970′s that puts limits and constraints on the government’s ability to spy on us. The provisions of FISA include expanded language to cover new technology, including email, cell phones and other communications. FISA has specific requirements for wiretaps, including showing cause for such wiretaps to a judge before setting them up.
Since 9/11/2001, the Bush Administration has engaged in warrantless wiretapping with no prior approval by the court, claiming that national security depended upon the ability of the administration to wiretap at will without waiting for a court order, despite the fact that the orders were relatively easy to obtain in circumstances that justified them. The Administration now threatens to veto any FISA amendments which do not include retroactive immunity for the telephone companies who so easily obliged the administration requests to spy on their customers.
According to the EFF, AT&T (who assisted in the drafting of the original FISA statutes) engaged in wholesale spying on their customers.
AT&T Corp. (which was recently acquired by the new AT&T, Inc,. formerly known as SBC Communications) maintains domestic telecommunications facilities over which millions of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications pass every day. It also manages some of the largest databases in the world, containing records of most or all communications made through its myriad telecommunications services.
The lawsuits alleges that AT&T Corp. has opened its key telecommunications facilities and databases to direct access by the NSA and/or other government agencies, thereby disclosing to the government the contents of its customers’ communications as well as detailed communications records about millions of its customers, including the lawsuit’s class members.
AT&T maintains one of the major Internet backbones. That means you don’t even have to be a customer of AT&T to be caught in their net. They intercepted every email. Every phone call. They rerouted it all into a top secret room. They saved it all. Every stinkin’ piece, so that our elected officials could, at will, decide that you or I could be a terrorist or whatever else they despised that day.
Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) gave a 30-minute impassioned speech on the Senate floor yesterday about the immorality, the illegality, and the unconstitutionality of what the Administration has done. Here’s his bottom line:
The President’s favorite corporations will be unchallenged. Their arguments will never be heard in a court of law. the truth behind this unprecedented domestic spying will never see the light of day, and the book on our government’s actions will be closed for good and sealed and locked and handed over to the safekeeping of those few whom George Bush trusts to keep a secret.
Because he has threatened to veto any legislation which crosses his desk without the retroactive immunity provisions, George Bush has proven that he cares less about our national security than he does about protecting his cronies. Not expanding FISA robs the government of necessary and limited powers to conduct warrantless (but court-approved) wiretaps. Here’s what Dodd said about that:
Secrecy in place of openness; fiat in place of law. Two simple words he offers: “Trust me”. Mr President, I would never take that offer, not even from a perfect president. Because in a republic, power was made to be shared, because power must be bound by firm laws, not the whims of whomever happens to sits in the executive chair. Because only two things make a difference between a president and a king: the oversight of a legislative body and the rulings of the courts and it’s why our founders formed this government the way they did, wth three branches of government co-equally sharing the powers to govern…”
The EFF is asking us to send a message to Congress: Stop The Spying. The picture above is my message to Congress. You can do one too…just get out your cell phone or digital camera or video camera and send a message to Congress that it’s time for the illegal surveillance of this country’s citizens to stop. Put your city and state on it and send it in.
H/T: Liz Henry, BlogHer
Technorati Tags: EFF, FISA, spying, wiretaps, telcos, warrantless wiretap, christopher dodd, legislation,
Sphere: Related ContentInspiration
I was disappointed in the debate on Sunday. Although I didn’t get to see it live, I’ve pieced it together from different clips on YouTube and around the web.
Barack Obama is not a master debater. I’m hoping that he’ll step back and above the attacks from Hillary Clinton, stop attacking back, and return to discourse like the speech he gave here. It’s worth the 34 minutes to watch it, if only to revive the hope that the Democrats will not fracture the party completely, but will discuss the issues without personal attacks and gutter sniping. ‘That goes for all of them, including the proxy candidate, Bill Clinton. They would do well to read Lawrence Lessig’s blog post today suggesting that they’re becoming infected with the Karl Rove virus.
Our California primary is less than 2 weeks away. I have put my name into the lottery for a ticket to the last debate, hoping to see a true discussion among the candidates of what can be done to set our country back on course. I do not want to hear more distortions from Hillary about whether Barack Obama supports Reagan (he doesn’t), Bill Clinton needs to back off and let his wife be heard, and Barack Obama needs to remember that part of his appeal is that he is trying to conduct a positive campaign. I want to support that.
One thing on the Reagan nonsense that Hillary should remember: Barack Obama spoke about Reagan in an intellectually honest way. Facts are facts. Like him or not, Reagan did what he was elected to do at a time where the public was calling for change. That’s all Obama said. He didn’t say what Reagan did was good, he didn’t say he admired Reagan’s policies, and he didn’t say he wanted to be like Reagan. He said the truth, even if it meant an opening for Hillary Clinton to distort it. It is that propensity to distort and be intellectually dishonest that turned me away from supporting Hillary Clinton.
I don’t care what her gender is any more than I care what Obama’s race is. If she can’t trust me to hear the truth, she isn’t going to get my support.
Do we really want more years of the backbiting and bickering? Or is it time for a new style? One that calls us to sacrifice, to hope, and to be honest with one another?
Technorati Tags: obama, clinton, democrats, debate, speech, great speeches, politics, conversation
Sphere: Related ContentAffirmation
|
Who You Should Vote For |
 Barack Obama: 69% John Edwards: 69% Dennis Kucinich: 63% Mike Gravel: 63% Hillary Clinton: 56% Ron Paul: 50% John McCain: 44% Rudy Giuliani: 31% Mike Huckabee: 25% Mitt Romney: 13% Who you agree with on the war in Iraq: John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul Who you agree with on the economy: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Ron Paul Who you agree with on health care: Hillary Clinton and John Edwards Who you agree with on taxes: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards Who you agree with on abortion: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Rudy Giuliani Who you agree with on gay rights: Ron Paul and John McCain |
Barack Obama is my choice
After writing about last week’s New Hampshire primary, I spent some time doing my homework. I bought and read The Audacity of Hope
The truth is, none is that far apart from the other. They all oppose Bush policies, have specific plans for health care reform, for withdrawing from Iraq, for the economy, for the environment, for tax policy, for education, for the poor, for the infrastructure and for the future of our country. They are not all that far apart, even on the specifics. Reading Obama’s book and then reading all three candidate’s position papers convinced me that he is not so short on specifics as we’d think.
In fact, he has a delightfully realistic and sometimes sarcastic view of what politics is about, why campaigns turn dirty, and what it means to serve in elected office.
But Barack Obama has something more. He has the ability to transform the attitudes in this country from mistrust and fear to community and participation. He has the ability, more than any other candidate, to inspire the best in us, to call the GOOD in people out for the bettering of our country.
I was especially struck by the absence of vitriol in his blog comments. In fact, the supporters clustered around the comments were calling for action, but only positive action. No negativity, no underhanded dirty internet flaming tactics, no nasty letters to the editor. Instead, they were called to be positive, to focus on the positive, to relay a positive message.
Imagine if we all decided to shake off the dirt of the last 40 years and choose to step up and be positive, to think before reacting, to consider our community as something to be nurtured, served, loved.
It almost sounds utopian, doesn’t it? Yet, I really do think that there is the possibility for this to happen. I see Barack Obama as a man who understands himself, understands his country, and has a vast wealth of life experience to draw upon. And yes, he is an amazing, dynamic speaker who inspires every time. His debate skills are not quite as well-honed, yet when he gets passionate, he is a formidable foe.
I have voted in every election since I turned 18 in 1976. I have not felt as optimistic and empowered as I do when I consider the direction that Obama wants to lead us and the skills with which he can lead us.
Some people have made much over certain belief areas they feel he has not stated a clear position on; namely, evolution and a woman’s right to choose. I suggest they read the position papers on his site. He is clear: Government does not have the right to legislate faith and should not stand in the way of a woman’s right to choose. He is also clear about evolution, stating that sound science is to be respected and taught. I believe him.
He is the first candidate since Bill Clinton (ironic, isn’t it?) that makes me want to step up and help him get elected. And that’s what I plan to do. I’ve joined his Facebook group, am following the Twitter feeds, will be placing a widget on the blog here, and will be doing what I can in California to help him win this primary and the Democratic nomination.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Obama 2008, primaries, california, campaign, optimism
