Monthly Archives: March 2008

Election

to transform a nation

The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.

For years, we’ve watched politicians divide us, seen lobbyists put their interests ahead of ours, and heard our leaders tell us what we want to hear, instead of what we need to hear.

The question you have to ask yourself is this:

Who can take can take us in a fundamentally new direction? I’m running to finally solve problems we talk about year after year after year.

To end the division, the obscene influence of lobbyists and the politics that value scoring points over making progress. We can’t afford more of that — not this year, not now.

I’ve spent my life working for change that’s made a real difference in the lives of real people. That’s why I passed up a job on Wall Street — to fight joblessness and poverty on the streets of Chicago when the local steel plant closed.

That’s why I turned down the corporate law firms to work as a civil right lawyer — to fight for those who have been denied opportunity. That’s why I fought for tough new ethics law in Illinois and Washington — to cut the power of lobbyists — and I won.

That’s why I brought Democrats and Republicans together to provide health care and tax relief to working families. And that’s why I opposed this war in Iraq from the start. It wasn’t popular, but it was right.

This country is ready for a leader who will bring us together. That’s the only way we’re going to win this election. And that’s actually how we’ll fix health care and make college affordable, become energy independent and end this war.

I’m reminded every day that I’m not a perfect man. And I won’t be a perfect President. But I can promise you this: I will always tell you where I stand and what I think. I will listen to you when we disagree. I will carry your voices to the White House and I will fight for you every day I’m there.

On Tuesday, help change Washington; let’s bring Democrats, Republicans and Independents together, not just to win an election, but to transform a nation.

The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

Election

The Next 3AM Ad

A red phone is ringing the middle of the night at the White House. After a long time, Cindy McCain’s voice says, “John. John. Oh, my god, no! JOHN!” Another long pause before John McCain grumpily says, “Huh? What the fuck?! Where am I?”

After “where am I,” he could add “Mommy” or the name of some lobbyist. Let me know if this one shows up on YouTube. peace, mjh

Election

Republicans for Obama

 

Recent News:

Republicans for Obama in the Los Angeles Times: They’re Republican red, and true blue to Obama by Mark Barabak | Give to the Obama campaign…or, buy some R.F.O. gear and we’ll give the proceeds to the campaign!

Republicans for Obama was founded in late 2006 as part of the nationwide effort to encourage Senator Obama to run for the Presidency.  Since that time, our volunteer-run, grassroots organization has grown to include over 1000 members from across the country.  Find out more

Throughout the Presidential campaign, RepublicansforObama.org will continue to serve as an online forum for the growing number of Republican Obama supporters to discuss the election, and to encourage other Republicans to embrace Obama’s message of unity and competency and support his candidacy.

Republicans for Obama

Dump Duhbya

We don’t need no stinkin’ immunity

Duhbya is desperate for immunity for the telecoms who rolled-over for him. Only they don’t even care. They’re actually insulted he things they need immunity. peace, mjh

Think Progress » Communications trade group opposes retroactive immunity.

In a letter to Congress late last week, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) — which represents groups such as Google and Microsoft — said that it “strongly” opposes retroactive immunity for firms that cooperated with the administration’s warrantless wiretapping. CCIA President and CEO Edward Black writes:

CCIA dismisses with contempt the manufactured hysteria that industry will not aid the United States Government when the law is clear. As a representative of industry, I find that suggestion insulting. To imply that our industry would refuse assistance under established law is an affront to the civic integrity of businesses that have consistently cooperated unquestioningly with legal requests for information. This also conflates the separate questions of blanket retroactive immunity for violations of law, and prospective immunity, the latter of which we strongly support.

Think Progress » Communications trade group opposes retroactive immunity.

Uncategorized

The joy of boredom – The Boston Globe

I’m not sure I agree with the use of “boredom” in this article. “Idleness” isn’t quite right, either. Perhaps, “unplanned” or “unstructured” time is better.

But are we too busy twirling through the songs on our iPods — while checking e-mail, while changing lanes on the highway — to consider whether we are giving up a good thing? We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling around in a state of restlessness is one of life’s greatest luxuries — one not available to creatures that spend all their time pursuing mere survival. To be bored is to stop reacting to the external world, and to explore the internal one. It is in these times of reflection that people often discover something new, whether it is an epiphany about a relationship or a new theory about the way the universe works. Granted, many people emerge from boredom feeling that they have accomplished nothing. But is accomplishment really the point of life? There is a strong argument that boredom — so often parodied as a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness — is an essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science, and even love.

“If you think of boredom as the prelude to creativity, and loneliness as the prelude to engagement of the imagination, then they are good things,” said Dr. Edward Hallowell, a Sudbury psychiatrist and author of the book “CrazyBusy.” “They are doorways to something better, as opposed to something to be abhorred and eradicated immediately.” …

That means steeping in uninterrupted boredom may be the first step toward feeling connected. It “may take a little bit of tolerance of an initial feeling of boredom, to discover a comfort level with not being linked in and engaged and stimulated every second,” said Jerome C. Wakefield, a professor of social work at New York University and co-author of “The Loss of Sadness.” “There’s a level of knowing yourself, of coming back to baseline, and knowing who you truly are.”

The joy of boredom – The Boston Globe

Dump Duhbya

Authors: U.S. economy could fall casualty to wars – CNN.com

In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

Beyond 2008, working with “best-case” and “realistic-moderate” scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more — by 2017.

Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.

Authors: U.S. economy could fall casualty to wars – CNN.com