Category: Uncategorized

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Where do you stand?

A co-worker sent me a link to GlassBooth. This is an interesting way to see how close your core principles and issues are lined up with the candidates running for President this year. I’m grateful that they’ve chosen to include the independents as well.

Glassbooth is a nonprofit organization that is creating innovative ways to access political information. An informed and interested democracy is a powerful thing. As an organization acting in the public’s interest, we are very serious about our core principles:

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Peanut butter and jelly

John McCain is losing and now he’s pulling out all the stops. He’s accusing Obama of being a communist and recently I’ve seen that some of the right wing talk show hosts are insisting that Obama is a marxist.  This short video clip of Barack is quite funny and I’m looking forward to having an intelligent, thoughtful and humorous person at the helm of our government.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMfeypnAz6k]

I ought to mention that I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday for my lunch on Monks Bread.  Unlike Senator Obama I rarely share them. They have been my lunch time staple for years dating all the way back to my days at St. Pius X School in Delevan, New York.

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Sir Charles endorses Barack Obama

I’ve long been a fan of Charles Barkley. I’ve enjoyed watching him when he played on the Sixers with Doctor J. I’ve seen him in person when he played with the Phoenix Suns at the end of his career. He’s always right to the point and I enjoy that.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSngF6jL8m8]

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Third wave

In 1995 or 1996 I read a book by Alvin Toffler that was entitled, “Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave. It was a very interesting book at the time and one of the salient points that Alvin Toffler made in the book was that American politics and political campaigns would continue to be negative until someone came along with a vision. When the visionary appeared the masses would flock to him or her and the old politics and policies would be undone. Ironically the forward of that book was written by Newt Gingrich. I believe Barack Obama is the first candidate to really tap into that wellspring. Just yesterday Senator Obama spoke before a crowd estimated by the local police in Denver at 100,000 strong. Police are usually conservative and the crowd could have been larger. Obama has drawn crowds wherever he’s gone because there is a real hunger for something new. There is a general distaste for campaigns that highlight the negatives of an opponent and nowhere is that more evident than in the campaign of Senator McCain and Governor Palin. The tired rhetoric of division is actually backfiring on the political operatives and they are mystified by Obama’s meteoric rise.

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Barclay Hastings

I never heard of Barclay before and I could not agree more with him. He’s a little older than me, but we’re on a similar wave length.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7TO1Rcx8jQ]

See more videos from Local Voices for Obama.

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Consistent ethic of life

Jim Wallis of Sojourners has a timely piece on Huffington Post today.

Choosing life is a constant biblical theme, so I will choose candidates who have the most consistent ethic of life, addressing all the threats to human life and dignity that we face — not just one. 30,000 children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease is a life issue. The genocide in Darfur is a life issue. Health care is a life issue. War is a life issue. The death penalty is a life issue. And on abortion, I will choose candidates who have the best chance to pursue the practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America and therefore save precious unborn lives, rather than those who simply repeat the polarized legal debates and “pro-choice” and “pro-life” mantras from either side.

Read more here.

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This can’t be happening

For over thirty years I’ve listened to a litany of lies and subterfuge from politicians and pundits about the wrong headed New Deal policies of Franklin Roosevelt. The global economy called for new ideas and well we just couldn’t have another 1929 because we had protections in place. Earlier this year our President said we weren’t in a recession. John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy were strong. Both McCain and Obama went along with the bailout as did most of the rest of Congress and the President signed it into law.

Wise people have long said that those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it. I wonder what the punditocracy will say now. How will Fox, CNN, CBS, MSNBC et al spin this?

Wall Street joined world stock markets in a precipitous plunge Friday, with the Dow Jones industrials dropping more than 400 points in early trading and all the major indexes falling more than 4 percent. The growing belief that the world will suffer a punishing economic recession has investors furiously dumping stocks.–Huffington Post

Read more here. The good news is that oil futures are down to $65 a barrel.

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CC Goldwater weighs in

I came across this well written piece on HuffingtonPost.com as I was eating my lunch. It’s written by CC Goldwater, the grand-daughter of the late Republican icon, Barry Goldwater. If you like the excerpted quote below then follow the link after it to read the rest of her thoughts.

My grandfather (Paka) would never suggest denying a woman’s right to choose. My grandmother co-founded Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the 1930’s, a cause my grandfather supported. I’m not sure about how he would feel about marriage rights based on same-sex orientation. I think he would feel that love and respect for ones privacy is what matters most and not the intolerance and poor judgment displayed by McCain over the years. Paka respected our civil liberties and passed on the message that that we should conduct our lives standing up for the basic freedoms we hold so dear.

Read the rest.  I supported Barry Goldwater and William Miller in 1964. I was the only student in my seventh grade class who did.

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Open my eyes

O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others; open my ears that I may hear their cries; open my heart so that they need not be without succor; let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong, nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich … And so open my eyes and my ears that I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.
– Alan Paton