Following Thomas Jefferson

Hillary Clinton has been accused in recent years of riding coattails and following big men through the doors of power.  For her historic candidacy for the Democratic Nomination, she was eschewed and derided, told to “iron shirts” and mocked for choking up.  On these very pages, she was told to step aside once the nomination was secured, rather than hold her personal ambition up over the good of the Party and the Nation.  And while the path she trods now is not the one she’d have chosen had she been able to write the script, it seems that she, like President Obama, can look to the past perhaps to see her future.

Thomas Jefferson was a young man when he was tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence.  Thirteen years later, when George Washington was elected unanimously to lead our infant nation, Jefferson was tapped to serve as the first Ambassador of the United States to the world.  Much like Secretary Clinton is at this very moment traversing Asia, signing accords to draw down US military presence in Japan while “extending the hand” to North Korea, visiting the President’s childhood home in Indonesia and navigating the United States’ role in South Korea, Jefferson was sent abroad soon after his swearing in to make plain the intentions of the United States to those corners of the world concerned with our intent and prescient enough to understand that we had achieved “that separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature’s God entitle[d]” us.  Jefferson’s service then moved closer to home, as he served the second president, John Adams as Vice President, and being elected as the nation’s third president.

Watching Secretary Clinton step off the plane on her first sojourn as the nation’s ambassador gave me a sense of quiet relief.  The ridiculous nattering about whether she’d be able to subsume her ego to the task, whether she’d chafe working for President Obama, whether there were too many egos on the national security team all fell into white noise.  I do notice, by the way, that none of the skepticism or criticism had to do with her capabilities or dedication to service, which should be the criteria.

Secretary Clinton is, as did Jefferson, representing the United States abroad and assisting the President with foreign policy by applying her acumen to the tasks at hand: Japan, China, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Israel and Gaza.  In the next eight years, she will prove as she did in the Senate that she is capable, courageous, personable, intelligent, and successful.

Jefferson moved from State to the White House over the course of twelve years.  I don’t think it will take her that long.  Clinton 2016.  You heard it here first.

Clinton discusses her trip to Asia

Clinton warns against N. Korean missile launch

President Obama approves troop buildup in Afghanistan

Clinton in South Korea

Big World Keeps On Turnin’

Secretary of State Clinton is in Japan, touring Asia  on her first trip in the office rather than visiting the Middle East or Europe.  With a special envoy already appointed and journeyed to the Middle East, talking to China and Japan and Korea exemplifies the Obama Administration’s ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.  There was much speculation about whether President Obama’s team of rivals would work out.  While none of us can tell the future, it is apparent that they are all working from the same playbook, and they are in full court press from the first quarter.

If Kobe and Shaq can quell their differences enough to lead the West to a devastating defeat of the East (no metaphor intended, but you can read one in if you want to) and win Co-MVP’s of the 2009 All-Star Game, then I think Secretary Clinton and the rest can learn to work with and for President Obama to help us help the world.

 

Clinton visits Asia to send key message

Kobe, Shaq turn back the clock

He kept US safe

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush and his administration decided to keep the United States safe.

A little late, but a good move nonetheless.

Of course, having failed to do so on September 10 was irrelevant.  The briefing titled, “Bin Laden determined to strike in US” was forgotten or ignored.  So the United States invaded Afghanistan, failed to capture or kill the ringleader of the attacks, partially destroyed a repressive, Islamo-fascist group called the Taliban, and then moved on to invade Iraq under the auspices of being the military backup for the United Nations, an organization so respected by our government that we were the largest debtor nation, owing dues of close to half a billion dollars.  But they’ve kept us safe . . .

What we did find in Afghanistan were informants who turned in other people they knew, some terrorists, most not, to our armed forces in exchange for money.  And those unfortunates were thrown in dark holes called detention centers, which President Bush on his magical history tour claimed “kept us safe.”

He and his people authorized torture in order to “keep us safe.”

They deviated from the moral high ground that our country has always espoused (not necessarily lived up to, but espoused nonetheless) to keep US safe.

But, according to the CIA, some of the people treated to Bush/Cheney hospitality and then released actually didn’t like the United States when they left, so they took up arms against our country.  Imaging that.  People were kidnapped, held, “interrogated”, released, and they had some aggression toward their captors.  That doesn’t sound too safe . . .

Turned in by someone I know to a foreign army for $5000.  Taken away from home, and held without charges or opportunity to confront my accusers for a couple of years.  Released and exported like cattle, dropped off in a country where people hate my captors, and given the opportunity for payback.

I’d be fighting, too.  And those people wouldn’t be safe at all.

Now the same people who supported the camps like Gitmo are claiming that President Obama is doing the wrong thing by shutting it down.  Actually behaving as if we have a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution that reflect the values we hold dear and espouse as a nation is considered unsafe?

The noises they’re making about, “if we’re attacked, it’s his fault,” totally fail to take into account two obvious facts:

1.     There are already people who were held and released back on the front lines attacking us; and

2.     The innocent people who have been held without trial and interrogated now have a pretty good reason to hate us.

From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay, the lack of moral leadership and the authorization of torture by the Bush Administration recruited terrorists for the “far flung networks of hatred and violence,” that President Obama and his administration are left to deal with, and put some of our troops and intelligence operatives on pretty shaky ground.

But president bush kept us safe . . .

What’s next for Gitmo detainees?

Transcript: Bin Laden determined to strike in US

U.S. uses dues to push reform

Obama orders Gitmo closed.  Now the hard part.

Security experts skeptical on Gitmo detainee report

What’s next for Guantanamo Bay detainees?

Bush: I would have done some things differently

Detainee went from Gitmo to al Qaeda

Lame Ducks, Broken Records & New Year’s Eve!

George Bush has issued talking points to his top lieutenants to rehabilitate his legacy.  He is, without question, the worst president in the history of the United States of America. He is reminiscent of George III, except George III was literate.  Not to beat a dead horse, or sound like a broken record, or keep repeating the same thing over and over, Inauguration Day is a month away, and that is a month too far.

And as for the lie that he’s telling . . . that he wants to have a smooth transition.  Actions speak louder than words.  President-elect Obama has stated that he’s going to close down the illegal torture center that President Bush has been running as soon as he takes office. Bush is attempting to keep Guantanamo open by putting the “enemy combatants” on trial.  On trial?  They’ve been there for three, five, seven years, and all of the sudden, he’s putting them on trial!  He is also working to ease environmental restrictions (because deregulation works so well) surrounding national parks and endangered species.  The lip service that he gave to a smooth transition, the bushlit answers he gave in his exit interviews about how he’s “kept the country safe” by observing that we haven’t been attacked since September 11, 2001 (like he wasn’t President when that happened, with a warning memo on his desk in August), the ghost in the machine image that he’s been cultivating since John McCain got the GOP nomination are all pieces of his lame duck puzzle that don’t fit.  And now he’s trying to gain sympathy by focusing attention on his “past battles” with alcohol.

His record of leadership, I know, I know, oxymoron, his record of leadership is horrifically broken.  And he’s attempting to call the invasion of Iraq a success – where’s Osama Bin Laden?  He’s setting timetables for withdrawal, ala President-elect Obama, but refuses to acknowledge he was wrong about the invasion.  The closest thing he has said to oops is, “I wish the intelligence had been better.”  So do we, Governor Bush, so do we.

And he’s raising funds to build a PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY?  Are you kidding me?  When was the last time he was in a library?  When was the last time he read a book?  September 11, 2001?  To some second graders?  The hubris of George W. Bush is astounding.

New Year’s Eve has officially been moved.  You heard it here first.  It used to be December 31.  Then a whole lot of people got together, and worked to CHANGE it to November 4.  But I’m moving it, all by myself, to January 19.  And there will be plenty of us going to Washington, D.C. to celebrate.

Defense chief asks for plans to close Guantanamo camp

UPDATE:  What do Iraqis think of President Bush?

I Feel Safer Now

Like Phil Jackson with Shaq and Kobe, or Doc Rivers with Garnett, Pierce and Allen, President-elect Obama is stepping onto the world court leading a team to be reckoned with.  Clinton, Rice, Napolitano, Holder, Daschle, Gates, Geithner, Jones, Orszag, Biden and Emmanuel.  Many have questioned whether he will be able to marshal this “team of rivals.”  My answer is ‘Of Course.’  As a matter of fact, this is a team to be rivaled with.

On every front so far in his burgeoning administration, President-elect Obama has shown that he is not afraid: not afraid of intelligent subordinates or opposing opinions, not afraid to reach across the aisle, not afraid to take the necessary steps despite his critics, not afraid to be unpopular in order to do the right thing, not afraid to ask questions, not afraid to seek help when he needs it, not afraid to be the man in charge, not afraid to lead the country.  To mix my metaphor, he is also like Kobe in his rookie season, unafraid to take the game-winning (or losing) shot.

It is refreshing, even comforting, to transition into appreciation for the leaders of our country.  As President Bush pardons turkeys, President-elect Obama is passing out meals to the homeless; as Dana Perino speaks for the President about not blaming Pakistan for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, President-elect Obama is speaking to the Indian Prime Minister.  And while I don’t like to dance on graves, because it really does send the wrong message, right now the differences between what we’ve had and what we’re getting is so stark that the comparisons cannot be avoided.

And like the new Lakers, the purple and gold warriors in 2008-2009 who’ve flanked the reigning MVP Kobe Bryant with Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Sasha Vujavic, Jordan Farmar, and Vladimir Radmonavich and established a 14-win, 2-loss record so far, President Obama has surrounded himself with heavyweights:  the Senator from New York; the former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; the former Senate Majority Leader; the Governor of Arizona; the current Secretary of Defense; the former Assistant Secretary of State; the former Assistant Attorney General;  and the list is destined to continue (look for the Governor of New Mexico to be drafted next, followed by Rep. Xavier Becerra for United States Trade Representative). Update:  Since my original post, President-elect Obama has also tapped General Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs.

Like the hordes of us who rolled into the Staples Center all those years ago (and who are starting to roll in again, eh) or those fans entering the Fleet Center with a grin, relaxed shoulders, and anticipation of good things on the immediate horizon, I as a citizen am feeling good about where we as a country are headed.  Yes, I know things are grim:  one war (Afghanistan), one invasion (Iraq), two financial crises (Wall St. & Main St.), illegal detentions (Guantanamo), a defunct second political party (GOP), bitter partisanship (Rush Limbaugh), public ignorance (Sarah Palin), terrorist attacks around the world (Mumbai), home loan default, unemployment (auto industry?), homelessness, the public “mis”education system (“no child left behind”), lack of homeland security (the dismantling of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and a President in George Walker Bush who can’t seem to grasp the fact that his low popularity ratings are not a repudiation of the Republican Party or philosophy, but a repudiation of him personally and politically.  Even with all of these serious issues, I am HOPEful.  I feel good about where we are heading, because I believe in the skills, intelligence, passion, prognostication, discipline and perspective of this team, of President-elect Obama and his supporting players.  I feel safer, knowing they are not waiting idly in the wings, but actively, ears to the ground, eyes to the sky, looking, listening, learning, planning.

I just can’t wait for tip-off.

Clinton wants to be part of Obama’s ‘exciting adventure’

Obama chooses experience over politics

Obama rolls out national security team

No one ‘more qualified’ than Shinseki to head VA

Palin hits the campaign trail for Georgia senator

US warned India about possible Mumbai attack

GM plant’s closing like death knell in Dayton

Obama nominates Richardson for Cabinet

Following the Leader

The Leader.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. is the President-elect of the United States of America.  Ever since his landslide victory over Senator McCain, everyone from Chris Matthews to Sean Hannity has been attempting to pick his cabinet, appoint his staff, choose his daughters’ dog, measure the drapes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and criticize him when he does something that they don’t like.  He’s said himself that people often “reflect their feelings on me” rather than listening to what he’s got to say.

He campaigned on a platform of Change; changing the way that politics have been engaged in the past; changing the partisan nature of government discourse and action; changing how we view ourselves as liberals and progressives, democrats and republicans, conservatives and independents.  And as he transitions (too slowly, for my taste) into his new job, he has begun to implement that change by reaching out to defeated opponents like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Bill Richardson (even saying a good word for Joe Lieberman’s traitorous person) and others who have opposed him recently, recognizing that they are part of the best and the brightest already in Washington, creating his own Team of Rivals.

His choices, though, have been met with criticism, surprise, indignation, and shock from the left, and hypocritical mewling and whining from the right.  Much like the fictitious slanders regarding ACORN before the election, these tactics serve only one purpose:  to de-legitimize his administration before he’s sworn in.  The MoveOn progressive crowd is attempting to call into question his sincerity because he’s not picking Representative Barney Frank as his chief of staff.  The Pat Buchanan cabal is crowing because he did choose Rahm Emanuel, and he is mining the successful Clinton administration for experienced operatives who will be able to forward his agenda for the United States, working within to change the vision and direction our federal government has been lurching in during these past eight years.

I voted for Barack Obama because I felt that I can trust both his judgment and his integrity.  He has said that he is going to bring a new way of politics to the Presidency, and his forgiveness of Joe Lieberman and meeting with Richardson, Clinton and McCain so soon after the election give proof to his words.  I voted for Barack Obama because even though I disagree with both the $700 billion dollar bailout and the $25 billion dollar used car loan being considered, I trust he is advocating both because that’s how he feels we will best begin to climb out of the hole we are in economically.

He has already brought change to my political life.  I am working for change and trusting in my elected officials to be working in my best interest, even though they may be doing things I disagree with.  During the course of the campaign, opponents called supporters of President-elect Obama by any number of names, all of which implied that we are somehow naïve to trust, naïve to believe that change is possible and that someone may be doing what he said he was going to do.

That cynicism saddens me.  I am following the leader I chose because that is how I think we are going to best reconstruct what is our national image, both self-image and the one projected to the rest of the world.  I am following the leader because I feel that for my entire adult political life, almost twenty years, I haven’t had a leader I believed in – Reagan and Bush I didn’t feel had the best interests of the country at heart, based on the decisions they made in the White House and before; I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop (much like Senator Clinton, I suppose) when William Jefferson was in the White House; and the last eight years have been a nauseating ride on a self-indulgent rollercoaster, concerned only with making me sick enough to toss my cookies and my change in the air, all the while scaring me silly.

I am proud that I helped elect Barack Obama.  I am willing to follow the leader because I like where he says he wants to go, and I think he will actually get us there.  And twelve days into the transition to his administration, it’s a little boring, a little too many sour grapes by idiots like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, to be crying foul, with their ridiculous “Obama market crash” and “Obama recession.”  Those on the left, too, are getting a little hyper in their anxiety to criticize what they perceive as his move toward the center.

I know trusting our elected public officials is a change.  Let’s try it.  Let’s follow the leader . . .

Lincoln and the myth of ‘Team of Rivals’

McCain may face bumpy shift from White House run

Lieberman credits Obama after Dems let him keep post

Sources: Holder is Obama’s choice for Attorney General

Obama outlines job-creation plan

Big Three Automakers Beg Congress for $25B Lifeline

Bill Clinton could pose Cabinet problem

An American Revolution

I don’t often rail against fate.  I find it useless, and energy unwisely spent.  But today I am breaking my calm, unruffled demeanor because I’m angry, frustrated – frankly, I’m pissed off.

As a student and teacher of history, I know what has happened in the United States over the last two hundred plus years:  Tupac and Biggie got shot, and their murders are “unsolved”; Clarence Thomas got confirmed to the Supreme Court, filling the seat vacated by Thurgood Marshall; King, Malcolm, RFK and JFK were assassinated; Jesse Jackson was “the black candidate” for president, not a candidate; Emmett Till; Rosa Parks; my grandfather got to serve his country but could only serve with other “colored” soldiers; two separate laws (15^th Amendment & Voting Rights Act of 1964) were passed so that my people (black men) could vote; three different laws (15^th & 19^th amendments & VRA) so that black women could vote; Hillary supporters marginalized black women, saying they were traitors to their gender; Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days are “idyllic representations of American life” with one or no black people in them; Denzel Washington doesn’t get an Oscar for portraying Malcom X, but gets one for being a cracked-out lying, thieving stereotype in Training Day; Abraham Lincoln frees the slaves over which he had no authority, but leaves enslaved the ones he could free; Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence, then fathers five children with his dead wife’s enslaved half-sister whom he owns; the assassination of Medgar Evers; the Little Rock Nine; Plessy v. Ferguson; Jim Crow; the Ku Klux Klan; people spat on Jackie Robinson because he was good at baseball; white people who get offended when they hear the term white privilege; Bill Clinton notes that “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina, too”; the cover of TIME magazine trumpets “The economy trumps race” like race was an obstacle in the presidential election; John McCain tells his supporter, “No ma’am, he’s not an Arab.  He’s a decent, hardworking, family man.”

For these reasons and more, I am not happy right now.  Five days before Election Day, I am consternated, frustrated, worried, paranoid, tense, exhausted, ecstatic, tearful, anxious, hopeful, euphoric, confused and angry.  The free market philosophy that rose to power with Ronald Reagan, the Milton Friedman “market is god” ideal that George Bush and his henchmen have nearly perfected and ruined the country with is shredded.  The stock market is a roller coaster without seatbelts; white, black, brown, yellow, red and every other color people are losing their homes, their jobs, their teeth, themselves; the United States is fighting a war on an esoteric noun and losing an invasion that shouldn’t have occurred; and still, people are questioning, the polls are tightening in the final four days.

The cable-news beast, jaws slathering and salivating without much meat to chew since the McCain campaign is off the rails, and Obama seems to be pitch-perfect, is manufacturing more doubt by questioning yet again whether race will play a “secret part” in the voting booth.  Their buying the obvious psych-job by McCain’s campaign who claim their “internal polling” shows the race a dead heat.  Here’s the hard, cold fact:

The black man IS going to win this race.

Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.

And I want to celebrate this, want to hug my children tight because they are helping to make it happen, they are my motivation for helping to make it happen, I want to cry over them because We are one step closer to realizing the vision of the founders, even when they didn’t see what that vision truly was.  I want the liberty to be happy with anticipation, without the dread of seeing it stolen like my ancestors were from Africa and Mexico or like my dignity when I get pulled over for driving while black.

You know what?  That’s exactly what I’m going to do.  I’m going to work each and every day to help get Senator Obama elected.  And I’m going to do it with a smile.  I’m going to do it with joy in my heart.  I’m going to do it with the Obama Inauguration Day Countdown application on my iPhone.  Because being a student and a teacher of history, there’s one more thing I’ve learned:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

This is the new American Revolution.  And we’re going to win it one person, one ballot, one vote at a time.

McCain looks to turn Obama’s Ohio Advantage

Obama’s prospects in Missouri may hinge on the economy — and race

That’s Not the Fat Lady Singing, That’s John McCain!

That’s not the fat lady singing.  That’s John McCain.

Fat Cats?

A couple of things are on my mind these days.  The first is the Alfred E. Smith charity dinner.  The Second is John McCain’s new war on black and brown people.  The third is what I am going to do about both.

Senator Obama and Senator McCain sat down together once again, Thursday night, after the third debate, to help support a 60-odd year old charity honoring the first Catholic candidate to win the Democratic nomination for president.  Fundraisers are all well and good, but McCain’s first joke was about “Joe the Plumber . . . sign[ing] a lucrative contract with a wealthy couple to take care of all eight of their houses.”  How many people, worrying about their mortgage and their bills, faced with too much month at the end of the money, struggling to cope with the loss of THEIR ONE HOME, thought that was funny?  Senator Obama made a joke about “no expense being spared . . . it must be a dinner for AIG executives,” because those bastards spent half a million dollars on a retreat, complete with spa treatments after they got their $85 million “bailout”, and no one laughed, because that one hit a little too close to home.  And Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and a host of other powerful people laughed and yucked it up.  (Confession time:  I laughed, too.)    I even told my students to watch it, because it was an example of how though these two men are competing against each other, and have said some pretty nasty and insulting things, they can still come together, setting aside their differences for a good cause.

Upon more sober reflection, it began to bother me.  White ties.  Bone china.  Champagne flutes.  I felt like one of those people who talks a good game about helping the less fortunate, but aren’t really working for it, like a voyeur watching the pigs and humans playing poker in Animal Farm.  The whole dinner gave me a squirmy feeling that said, “none of these people really know what struggling is, even if they used to.  Because this show is wrong, even if it’s for a good cause.”  I am supporting Senator Obama for president, but . . . I think he needs to rethink his participation in this one.

Kanye West got some notoriety after President Bush and his cronies f*cked up the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, when he said, “President Bush don’t like black people.”  I’m going one step further:  neither do John McCain and Sarah Palin.  The “war on ACORN” that he’s fighting, to de-legitimize an Obama victory in November, is pre-conditioned on disenfranchising the poor, mostly minority, people that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is working to register and involve in the body politic of the United States.  Much like his tax policies, and his stance on immigration (which isn’t discussed on his website except in the context of  Homeland Security), this latest campaign attack only seeks to disenfranchise citizens who aren’t going to support his candidacy anyway.  By attacking another non-issue, though, he effectively tells citizens who did register with ACORN that they’re suspect, and to people who aren’t political junkies like me, that Obama is doing something wrong even though ACORN is not associated with the Obama campaign.  However, as we’ve come to see in this campaign, facts don’t mean much to Senator McCain and Governor Palin.  As long as they repeat what they want people to believe loud and long enough, they think that citizens will believe it.  Country First?  Apparently not.

And just what am I going to do about these things?  First, I’m going to continue speaking truth to power.  Yes, I support Barack Obama for president, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things I think he needs to reconsider.  I expect McCain to pull stuff like the Smith dinner, but Obama, Clinton, Schumer, the Catholic Church!, all have some explaining to do.  Second, I’m going to march my happy behind right down to 3619 Motor Avenue in Los Angeles, and spend at least 30 minutes a day volunteering for the Obama campaign between now and November 4^th.  I think that the tenor of the campaign says much about the style of governance of the candidate, and by all rights and examples, the choice for me is clear.  Just like former Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Kansas City Star, and a whole lot of other people and organizations, I am endorsing Barack Obama for president, and I’m going to work to make that happen.  And so should you.

McCain Acorn Fears Overblown

Obama, ACORN, and Voter Registration

ACORN and the FBI

Barack Obama for President

Cross posted at Will Rhodes Portmanteau on October 18, 2008.

Thanks for calling, this department no longer exists.

Imagine my chagrin today when I called my personal banker to discuss a matter concerning my mortgage and received a recorded message that said, “Thanks for calling, but this department no longer exists. Please hang up and call, 1 (800)…” Although I had been listening with shock to the news of this past weekend involving the purchase of Merrill Lynch by B of A, the restructuring of AIG and the imminent collapse of Lehman Brothers, all hot on the heels of the bail out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week, I wasn’t prepared to lose Greg (not his real name). I wanted to wail, “Say it aint so.” And, yet, I knew that some financial chickens had finally come home to roost. Who hadn’t seen it coming? The deregulation of the banks, the merging of our financial institutions, the borrowing beyond our capacity to pay back, the lax and relaxed oversight, the musical chairs of the gents at the top.

Didn’t we think it odd that there seemed to be no limits to anything?

I think I date my first awareness back to the demise of Security Pacific National Bank? Do you remember Security Pacific? I do. I opened my first 25 cents-a-week savings account there as a kid and then proudly opened others over the years. I knew every time they stamped my savings deposit book that my hard earned funds were secure and growing. Back then, we were being taught to save for what we wanted rather than to buy it now and pay later. I think when Security was “acquired,” my child’s heart wailed, “Say it aint so.”

That may not have really been the beginning, but that’s how I feel.

Now, I ask, how could we go from money in the bank eight years ago when President Clinton left office to bankruptcy under a Republican administration that contiually chants, “Democrats are spenders, we are fiscal conservatives?”

Here we are, standing on the precipice of the next Great Depression. How could we be so quickly and so completely bankrupt? How could we be a debtor nation with debt so deep that none of us common folk even know what trillions of dollars look like? How many zeroes add up to nothing?

Maybe now we can get back to the real matters at hand. We need to focus on the real decisions that need to be made. Let’s discuss the foxes who have been guarding the hen house. Let’s talk about the worthless paper that fills our wallets, if we are lucky. Let’s talk about the thousands of people who have lost and will lose their jobs, not only in the financial industry but all of those ripples up and down the line.

There are two topics I want to hear discussed for the next 50 days: the invasion/occupation in Iraq and the economy.  I want a candidate who is smart enough to know where and how they both intersect and diverge. I want to hear a candidate who can articulate not only what has happened but what needs to happen to begin to set this shi_ straight. I want someone who understands that there are still people who count on each and every paycheck to not only pay the rent, but to buy food and diapers and put shoes on their children’s feet. I want a candidate who knows that winter is coming in the east and the cost of heating fuel is as important as the cost of gasoline. I don’t want to hear another word that sounds like “destroy your opponent, politics as usual, personal attacks.” And I want some facts and a strategy for regaining our footing. I want to know where poor folks will go for medical care when the flu season hits and their wallets and gas tanks are empty.  By the way, some of those young folks who were wearing suits and carrying out boxes this weekend from their formally well paying desk jobs at Lehman can now count themselves among the hughly undercounted unemployed and soon to be uninsured.

It’s time to “tell the truth and shame the devil.”  (Please be assured, Senator McCain, that this is a commonly used expression and there is nothing sinister or untoward about its use - Ed.)

Wall Street met Main Street for me when no one answered my call. I knew I was missing Security Pacific National Bank. But it wasn’t until today that I heard my inner child wail, “Say it aint so!” and I’m one of the lucky ones. I have paper in my wallet, a roof over my head and did in fact have a personal banker. That is, until today.

I want to be a part of the CHANGE that we seek.

A Voice From Denver

As I listened to John McCain speak last week, I heard excerpts from Senator Obama’s speech and I heard distorted accusations against Obama. I was there in Denver when Senator Obama spoke, as were many of you while others heard him via television. I did not hear what McCain and his ultra-conservative running mate, Palin who is a NRA member and hunts moose, claimed Senator Obama had said.

The “Straight Talk Express” says McCain does not lie, yet I heard several lies this evening. Palin was selected only to draw Hillary’s voters. I do like the fact that both Obama and McCain have taken the high road in campaigning but wait, the dirty politics is coming.

Democratic women wanted Hillary Clinton as the vice president candidate and attempted to intimidate Obama into selecting her. Many of them have declared not to vote for Obama because he did not select Hillary. Is that really the real reason? Any Democratic woman who chooses McCain over Obama will have signed the death certificate of a female member of their family. While I do not believe in abortion as a form of birth control, I do believe a woman has the right to have control over her body and not the government. I believe abortion is warranted in cases of incest or rape. Have these women considered:

·   An anti-abortion administration (good-bye Wade vs. Roe)

·   School vouchers (no problem for the wealthy; what about poor inner-city kids?)

·   Who will select the next Supreme Court Justices?

·   Women rights including equal pay

·   Fewer job opportunities (men vs. women)

McCain’s total platform has been on his military experience and being a POW. While I commend him for his military service and I applaud him for withstanding, I want to hear more. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-military. I am a veteran of the US Navy who served during the Cuban Crisis and the onset of the Vietnam War. My brother, a Marine, was seriously injured in Vietnam and almost lost his leg. My nephew, who just retired from the Navy, served in Desert Storm and other members of my family have also served in the military. We are all proud of our service to this country. But, from a presidential candidate, I need more than just your military history.

I do like the fact that McCain has separated himself from the Bush administration but, he is still very conservative and the separation is no doubt a ploy for votes. After all, Democrats and Republicans collectively dislike the Bush administration and the damage he has done to this country. While many citizens lost much or everything, McCain is still wealthy.  I am a Democrat who once said I would vote for McCain if I did not like the Democratic candidate and when I said that I meant it. However, I like the Democratic candidate and I see a different McCain than I did then. The election of the next president has to be one who will resolve this country’s major problems and concerns, including:

·   Getting us out of the two wars we are currently involved in

·   Improving our economy

·   Resolving our energy crises

·   Retaining women’s rights

·   Improving education

·   Taking care of the people of this country

·   Bringing jobs back to the USA

·   Keeping the remaining jobs within the USA

·   Improving our world image & regaining our high level of respect

I attended the Democratic Convention and when Sen. Obama spoke, I did not see a black man. Instead, I saw a brilliant man, with an equally intelligent wife, whom I believe is very equipped to lead and heal this broken country. The Democrats, including the Clintons, made it clear that they are supporting Obama for president. Several leading Republicans were in attendance who had crossed over because they believe Obama is the better candidate. My European friends think too many Americans are still living in the past and can’t get beyond race. I hope they are wrong.

Just felt like expressing myself…