Sarah Palin? No offense Sarah, but I feel for you to accept this position is a slap in the face of the people of this country. Perhaps spending a little more time in the political and public arena would be a better move before taking on this position. I do want a woman to be in the White House, but one with some experience. Shit!
When I was listening to this yesterday on NPR I was nearly driving off the road with amazement that this was even taking place. The idea that this hockey mom (no offense to women, but this country needed a woman with some Washington experience not simply experience of being a woman) is ready to go Saudi Arabia or Iran or Darfur and Congo, and deal with the highly political needs of the world and this country and representing the most powerful country on the planet, if John McCain becomes John McCant due to death or sickness, this is a travesty. I am not Republican, but if I were I would be shamed and change my party. This is such a slap in the face to this country and what it means to the job of President or Vice President of the United States. I must say, though, that from political posturing, it is a fairly good move. But this shows a lack of regard for the respect of this country and the power of the position that this is to be filled. A major slap of disrespect to the people of this country due to that.
The fact that the Repugnicants are using her down syndrome child as a point of character for her is another sorry case for this election process. With so many other parents throughout the US that have a Down child, does this make them capable of being in the VP position? They are soccer moms, too!? They have written checks at the grocery store and balance their family checkbook, too! Shit, even McCain doesn’t do that and he’s going for president.
Her being governor for only 18 months of the state of Alaska, and she is already being investigated for misuse of her power makes her a perfect Republican candidate. She is right in there with her party for sure on that!
At least, it was four years ago, when the Democrats introduced Obama to the world stage at the previous convention to which he gave a speech that blew everyone away. Then he went on to be a part of global politics in the Senate. What he stated then, and what he stated the other night exemplifies his passion for this country and the people. This is simply an act that represents this party’s passion for themselves.
Her background in politics is so short it is a joke to this system for the assumption that she is ready for this position. I’m sure that behind closed doors there was a payoff of some sort to her family that she do this, step into the background and shut the hell up. For the Repugnicants to put a woman in power and for her to assume that she will have any power from this party is a joke. Anonz, a republican blog participant from my favorite blog, A Day in the Life... has given us quite the background on these issues previously.
I am blown away by this action. If the public makes this one happen there is literally no more help for this country. The lemmings of thoughtless or no common sensed voting practices of this country will certainly put this country to shame throughout the world to a point to which it will take generations to repair.
What Obama said, that this isn’t about him and it was about the public, should be the mantra at this point forward. What the Repugnicants are doing here is what Bush has done for 8 years is slap everyone in the face while laughing at us as he and the party cronies and elitists have their way with this country and world at everyone else’s expense while the public smiles, bends over, and takes the repugnicants “desired to be” big one up the ass!
This is probably the saddest moment in our country’s history!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Obama's Acceptance Speech
I have included the entire speech below in text and video-
It is amazing how the Repugnicants respond to Obama's speech. Upon giving one of the most powerful political speeches of our time since...the last time Obama spoke in 2004 at the previous convention, the Repugnicants seem to only be able to come up with "...he's still not ready."
Leslie Sanchez, a Republican strategist and former adviser to President Bush, stated that Obama missed a chance to offer "tangibility" and "real solutions" to how to pay for some of the promises Obama made. She went on to grade the speech as a "C". He did state how he would pay for this (as you can read or hear below), and he outlined things very clearly for a Presidential nominee. At least having a plan is a step forward. Something the Repugnicants should try, rather than the continued Texas two steps back!
Obama speech stated, "I'll help our auto companies re-tool so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars."
"And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy: wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced."
Sanchez said Obama didn't explain where he would get the money for the $150 billion plan. Obama spent "half his time bashing McCain" and "talked loosely about the same old Democratic solutions that have failed,"
My response is quite simple to the Repugnicants who can't seem to find a clue. As to the question on where will the $150 Billion come from? I have been asking that same question as to where the $1 Trillion that the Repugnicants have pissed away on an illegal war. This taking of our country's money that could have been used over these past 8 years of rebuilding our country and its own infrastructure has been pissed away to fund an illegal operation that has not only failed, but has not even gotten the perps that brought down the towers on 9-11. Where is all of this money coming from, yet the Bush administration continues to simply spend. Eventually, someone has to raise taxes to pay for all of this piss poor management of an administration's failures.
I am happy to see someone step up to a platform and come to the table with viable solutions to a future result than the continuation of shit policies that put this country into the toilet in all facets of governance. Another 4 years of this will do exponential damage to a system that is failing. This failure is continuing daily and compounding to become a result that the next four generations will find difficult to get out of.
In one of the harshest quotes of the night, Obama said, "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives." Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman said on the Larry King show, that the statement an "insult", saying it "ignored" everything McCain had done." Ignoring everything John McCain has done would be for Obama NOT to bring McCain's time in Vietnam to the forefront whatsoever. He did so, and has acknowledged this publicaly at nearly every speech. But this history for McCain is not what make a President makes. This also was forty years ago.
Obama is simply stating that Bin Laden is not hiding in Iraq. If we want the perps for 9-11, then we need to be out of Iraq and somewhere else. Iraq is a failed situation that was designed and orchestrated by crusty old politicians (Cheney and Rumsfeld)with small penises to create a place to funnel money siphened from the American public for their own off shore accounts and to fill the pockets of thier crony friends.
As Obama has stated in his speech, "Eight(years) is enough!" We are a better country than this.
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Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
"The American Promise"
Democratic National Convention
August 28, 2008
Denver, Colorado
As prepared for delivery
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To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
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Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia - I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
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Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American - if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us - that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours - a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.
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To see the speech!!
This is much too important an election!! Educate yourself before you vote!!
It is amazing how the Repugnicants respond to Obama's speech. Upon giving one of the most powerful political speeches of our time since...the last time Obama spoke in 2004 at the previous convention, the Repugnicants seem to only be able to come up with "...he's still not ready."
Leslie Sanchez, a Republican strategist and former adviser to President Bush, stated that Obama missed a chance to offer "tangibility" and "real solutions" to how to pay for some of the promises Obama made. She went on to grade the speech as a "C". He did state how he would pay for this (as you can read or hear below), and he outlined things very clearly for a Presidential nominee. At least having a plan is a step forward. Something the Repugnicants should try, rather than the continued Texas two steps back!
Obama speech stated, "I'll help our auto companies re-tool so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars."
"And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy: wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced."
Sanchez said Obama didn't explain where he would get the money for the $150 billion plan. Obama spent "half his time bashing McCain" and "talked loosely about the same old Democratic solutions that have failed,"
My response is quite simple to the Repugnicants who can't seem to find a clue. As to the question on where will the $150 Billion come from? I have been asking that same question as to where the $1 Trillion that the Repugnicants have pissed away on an illegal war. This taking of our country's money that could have been used over these past 8 years of rebuilding our country and its own infrastructure has been pissed away to fund an illegal operation that has not only failed, but has not even gotten the perps that brought down the towers on 9-11. Where is all of this money coming from, yet the Bush administration continues to simply spend. Eventually, someone has to raise taxes to pay for all of this piss poor management of an administration's failures.
I am happy to see someone step up to a platform and come to the table with viable solutions to a future result than the continuation of shit policies that put this country into the toilet in all facets of governance. Another 4 years of this will do exponential damage to a system that is failing. This failure is continuing daily and compounding to become a result that the next four generations will find difficult to get out of.
In one of the harshest quotes of the night, Obama said, "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives." Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman said on the Larry King show, that the statement an "insult", saying it "ignored" everything McCain had done." Ignoring everything John McCain has done would be for Obama NOT to bring McCain's time in Vietnam to the forefront whatsoever. He did so, and has acknowledged this publicaly at nearly every speech. But this history for McCain is not what make a President makes. This also was forty years ago.
Obama is simply stating that Bin Laden is not hiding in Iraq. If we want the perps for 9-11, then we need to be out of Iraq and somewhere else. Iraq is a failed situation that was designed and orchestrated by crusty old politicians (Cheney and Rumsfeld)with small penises to create a place to funnel money siphened from the American public for their own off shore accounts and to fill the pockets of thier crony friends.
As Obama has stated in his speech, "Eight(years) is enough!" We are a better country than this.
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Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
"The American Promise"
Democratic National Convention
August 28, 2008
Denver, Colorado
As prepared for delivery
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To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
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Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia - I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
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Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American - if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us - that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours - a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.
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To see the speech!!
This is much too important an election!! Educate yourself before you vote!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Visualize Success
Imagine yourself successful and always picture yourself successful. Visualize the person you desire to be. Visualize things in the present. Set aside some time each day to be alone and uninterrupted so that you can get comfortable and relax. Close your eyes and begin to concentrate on your goals and desires. Relax. Breath. See yourself in the new environment, capable and self confident.
Use your past successes to reflect on. Whether they be large or small successes it is proof that you are capable of reaching and achieving more success. Celebrate your successes. Find a gesture or a move ( a power move) that you do when you are successful. Jump, cheer, scream, clap, whatever it may be, but celebrate your life and its successes. Celebrate each success and you will be able to recall these when you begin to lose faith in yourself.
Set definite goals. Have a clear direction of where you want to go with your life. Be aware when you begin to deviate from these goals and take immediate action to correct you to your path.
Live life positively. Respond to life positively. Find your happy place. Develop a positive self image. This is your image. Your image and reactions to your life and decisions are completely within your control. If you do not like how you are feeling, change that feeling. You choose to be happy!
Go out an make it a great day.
Use your past successes to reflect on. Whether they be large or small successes it is proof that you are capable of reaching and achieving more success. Celebrate your successes. Find a gesture or a move ( a power move) that you do when you are successful. Jump, cheer, scream, clap, whatever it may be, but celebrate your life and its successes. Celebrate each success and you will be able to recall these when you begin to lose faith in yourself.
Set definite goals. Have a clear direction of where you want to go with your life. Be aware when you begin to deviate from these goals and take immediate action to correct you to your path.
Live life positively. Respond to life positively. Find your happy place. Develop a positive self image. This is your image. Your image and reactions to your life and decisions are completely within your control. If you do not like how you are feeling, change that feeling. You choose to be happy!
Go out an make it a great day.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Why Some People Have it All...
How many times have you met people who seem to have "it all" and yet, all they do is complain about how bad they have it? Then there are others who in spite of having to cope with unusually difficult challenges see themselves as fortunate and even blessed. I think this goes further than simply letting a smile be your umbrella. Rather it's the deeper perspective they hold for themselves and the world around them that colors every event and interaction of their daily lives. For those who see the glass as half-full, the voice is a friendly one. However, wouldn't it be great if those who live in a world of half-empty glasses could change their perspective to bring more joy and satisfaction to their lives?
HEARING THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD
All of us have constant and highly dictatorial voices in our heads that we are so used to hearing that we believe them to be real and wise. This voice is very much in control of many of your actions, much of what you think, what you will and won't say. The inner voice constantly frets about the future... it chatters away about its worries concerning life, people and how things will go. And it seems to us that the voice is just being smart by warning of danger and by being protective from all of the bad people and events in the world or is being smartly speculative... we think it's completely rational, understanding, even brilliant, especially in a world filled with terrorism, natural disasters and economic uncertainty.
WHAT YOU SAY IS WHAT YOU GET
The problem is that the explanations that our inner voices provide about events in the past and predictions for the future leave us stuck with low expectations and a sense of resignation. This voice's confident assessment of future reality may thus lead you to lock yourself into patterns of behaviors in small ways and large ones. For example, you might refuse to go out to dinner with your spouse because "we always argue when we go out to dinner" or "we never have anything to talk about so it's not fun." Another possibility is that you may live with chronic, low-level melancholia because your life never seems to work out the way you would like.
Your voice is really telling you the story of your life -- the reason it is the way it is, why you are the way you are, and who you can blame." Listen carefully, to hear how it drones on in a constant state of sameness and how its themes become the themes of your life. By listening to and following the guidelines of these inner voices, people get exactly what they expect from their lives -- dissatisfaction. But no one really wants to be unhappy in life,we'd all prefer to be happy and fulfilled.
THOUGHTS CAN BE CHANGED
The good news is thoughts can be changed. They can be denied, laughed at and even eliminated -- and you can bring your inner voice in line to harmonize with what you want for your life. You must learn to understand what it is saying and how that affects what you do... what you believe... and who you are.
The point is you are not your inner voice. You are a person who actually has a choice whether or not to listen to your inner voice. Your voice may tell you "you'll never do that"... or "you can't succeed"... when you're considering a new job. Or, it may make excuses that sound more like "I don't have time," "I can't take a class that's so far away" or "my spouse would never let me spend money on that." Beneath those excuses, however, is the real message: "I'm scared to ask for what I want and go for it." The voice may seem like it is keeping you safe, helping you avoid rejection or keeping you from getting hurt... but it is really just holding you back.
With such discouragement coming at you all day, is it any wonder you can't muster a productive attitude and therefore end up perceiving your life as lacking? Be aware that wherever in your life you lack satisfaction, the voice is probably running rampant. Its many versions keep you the innocent victim with a no-fault policy. This, however, is exactly what stops you from believing in yourself. Regardless of how much you have, there is always what you still want. If you're not moving toward getting there, you may well be listening to your own drama or resignation that explains why you can't.
CHANGING THE MESSAGE
And so the first step in revising the messages is to discover exactly what they contain. Here's how to do that: For a week or two or maybe even a month, keep a "thought log" detailing the comments you make in your head. This teaches you to hear how your voice talks to you -- about you, about others, about your body and the events of your day. Get to know this voice and really hear the dialogue that plays endlessly in your head. List the excuses ("no time" or "no money," for instance). The point is to become so present to your themes that at last you can see where you have been dwelling. What you discover doesn't have to make sense initially, but if you approach this exercise with humor you can enjoy discovering your hidden influences. This practice begins to separate you from your inner voice.
The next step is to identify your themes. Give them nicknames -- are you a sourpuss, always looking to the bleak side? A know-it-all martyr, endlessly doing for others and never for yourself? Perhaps you are a mean saint or a better-than-everyone-else Goodie Two Shoes. Probably your voice has several themes and this is your opportunity to discover them all.
A NEW VOICE
The most challenging task follows -- putting into practice the commitment to changing your thoughts. Having exposed them and interpreted their themes and messages, the odds are that you've realized these are not the themes you want to be living with. By taking charge of your thoughts you can take charge of your life.
Make rules that help you accomplish this. For instance, you might make a rule that you don't allow yourself to make snide remarks to yourself about people you see on the street. Another one: Your internal voice is not allowed to tell you that life is short-changing you... and it is never, ever to announce negative conclusions about anything you are facing. To be effective, these rules demand vigilance, diligence and discipline -- otherwise your life will slip back to being what it was.
LEARNING TO LAUGH AT YOURSELF IS A MAJOR STEP
No doubt you will find that much of what your voice says concerns others in your life, since your inner voice is practiced at coming to conclusions about what others think, including about you. Your inner voice is really a lot like a bad journalist -- reporting what it decides is true without bothering to check the facts. Challenge yourself to do the research by asking the other person or people for their input about what troubles you. It calls for personal courage, but it can be done with honor and respect. When you "hear" such a fear or concern three times, ask questions. Start by saying something like, I'm saying this stuff to myself and I think you could clarify it for me... since it is about you and I want to know if I am nuts or not.
When walking down the street, remind yourself to love people, not pick on them. Assigns light consequences to yourself if you starts to fret, replacing worries with positive thoughts. "This is the most important work you can do. "It's like building the muscle of the mind. If your thoughts run you and you don't manage them it is a bit like allowing your child to watch television all the time. We know how that turns out -- inconsistent and most likely unhealthy."
Once you introduce yourself to the storyteller inside your head, you can start working at last on the life and relationships your true self has long hoped to have. With effort, your cup may indeed begin to run over.
HEARING THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD
All of us have constant and highly dictatorial voices in our heads that we are so used to hearing that we believe them to be real and wise. This voice is very much in control of many of your actions, much of what you think, what you will and won't say. The inner voice constantly frets about the future... it chatters away about its worries concerning life, people and how things will go. And it seems to us that the voice is just being smart by warning of danger and by being protective from all of the bad people and events in the world or is being smartly speculative... we think it's completely rational, understanding, even brilliant, especially in a world filled with terrorism, natural disasters and economic uncertainty.
WHAT YOU SAY IS WHAT YOU GET
The problem is that the explanations that our inner voices provide about events in the past and predictions for the future leave us stuck with low expectations and a sense of resignation. This voice's confident assessment of future reality may thus lead you to lock yourself into patterns of behaviors in small ways and large ones. For example, you might refuse to go out to dinner with your spouse because "we always argue when we go out to dinner" or "we never have anything to talk about so it's not fun." Another possibility is that you may live with chronic, low-level melancholia because your life never seems to work out the way you would like.
Your voice is really telling you the story of your life -- the reason it is the way it is, why you are the way you are, and who you can blame." Listen carefully, to hear how it drones on in a constant state of sameness and how its themes become the themes of your life. By listening to and following the guidelines of these inner voices, people get exactly what they expect from their lives -- dissatisfaction. But no one really wants to be unhappy in life,we'd all prefer to be happy and fulfilled.
THOUGHTS CAN BE CHANGED
The good news is thoughts can be changed. They can be denied, laughed at and even eliminated -- and you can bring your inner voice in line to harmonize with what you want for your life. You must learn to understand what it is saying and how that affects what you do... what you believe... and who you are.
The point is you are not your inner voice. You are a person who actually has a choice whether or not to listen to your inner voice. Your voice may tell you "you'll never do that"... or "you can't succeed"... when you're considering a new job. Or, it may make excuses that sound more like "I don't have time," "I can't take a class that's so far away" or "my spouse would never let me spend money on that." Beneath those excuses, however, is the real message: "I'm scared to ask for what I want and go for it." The voice may seem like it is keeping you safe, helping you avoid rejection or keeping you from getting hurt... but it is really just holding you back.
With such discouragement coming at you all day, is it any wonder you can't muster a productive attitude and therefore end up perceiving your life as lacking? Be aware that wherever in your life you lack satisfaction, the voice is probably running rampant. Its many versions keep you the innocent victim with a no-fault policy. This, however, is exactly what stops you from believing in yourself. Regardless of how much you have, there is always what you still want. If you're not moving toward getting there, you may well be listening to your own drama or resignation that explains why you can't.
CHANGING THE MESSAGE
And so the first step in revising the messages is to discover exactly what they contain. Here's how to do that: For a week or two or maybe even a month, keep a "thought log" detailing the comments you make in your head. This teaches you to hear how your voice talks to you -- about you, about others, about your body and the events of your day. Get to know this voice and really hear the dialogue that plays endlessly in your head. List the excuses ("no time" or "no money," for instance). The point is to become so present to your themes that at last you can see where you have been dwelling. What you discover doesn't have to make sense initially, but if you approach this exercise with humor you can enjoy discovering your hidden influences. This practice begins to separate you from your inner voice.
The next step is to identify your themes. Give them nicknames -- are you a sourpuss, always looking to the bleak side? A know-it-all martyr, endlessly doing for others and never for yourself? Perhaps you are a mean saint or a better-than-everyone-else Goodie Two Shoes. Probably your voice has several themes and this is your opportunity to discover them all.
A NEW VOICE
The most challenging task follows -- putting into practice the commitment to changing your thoughts. Having exposed them and interpreted their themes and messages, the odds are that you've realized these are not the themes you want to be living with. By taking charge of your thoughts you can take charge of your life.
Make rules that help you accomplish this. For instance, you might make a rule that you don't allow yourself to make snide remarks to yourself about people you see on the street. Another one: Your internal voice is not allowed to tell you that life is short-changing you... and it is never, ever to announce negative conclusions about anything you are facing. To be effective, these rules demand vigilance, diligence and discipline -- otherwise your life will slip back to being what it was.
LEARNING TO LAUGH AT YOURSELF IS A MAJOR STEP
No doubt you will find that much of what your voice says concerns others in your life, since your inner voice is practiced at coming to conclusions about what others think, including about you. Your inner voice is really a lot like a bad journalist -- reporting what it decides is true without bothering to check the facts. Challenge yourself to do the research by asking the other person or people for their input about what troubles you. It calls for personal courage, but it can be done with honor and respect. When you "hear" such a fear or concern three times, ask questions. Start by saying something like, I'm saying this stuff to myself and I think you could clarify it for me... since it is about you and I want to know if I am nuts or not.
When walking down the street, remind yourself to love people, not pick on them. Assigns light consequences to yourself if you starts to fret, replacing worries with positive thoughts. "This is the most important work you can do. "It's like building the muscle of the mind. If your thoughts run you and you don't manage them it is a bit like allowing your child to watch television all the time. We know how that turns out -- inconsistent and most likely unhealthy."
Once you introduce yourself to the storyteller inside your head, you can start working at last on the life and relationships your true self has long hoped to have. With effort, your cup may indeed begin to run over.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The secret to success of anything...
The difference between success and failure or happiness and misery can be found in our level of resistance and our willingness to be fully present. We must take action, be willing to make a change, continue to shift our thinking, and take risks. If you’re not willing to do all of these things, you can be 100% certain of the results and your experience. Your life will look exactly as it is and what you’re experiencing right now. If you keep doing the same things you’ve always done; you’ll keep getting the same results, history repeats itself. It's time to change history!
Do you sometimes get in your own way? You can do this without even knowing it...but, then if you really try to feel it, you know you are. Do you find yourself sabotaging your own best efforts? Again, when you allow yourself to really feel if this is true, you know it. Do you find yourself going in the same circle over and over with your finances? The world spins, we don't have to!
Joseph Campbell said, "We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
The personal mindset of money, relationships, health, spirituality all boils down to two pairs of emotions. Those being fear/opportunity and scarcity/abundance. If you fear that world doesn't have enough to go around, that is what your world will be. If you feel that there is plenty for everyone, then it is so. There is opportunity everywhere, but you must be open to receive it. Not just see it, but receive it. You must be ready to take action, and you must be ready to do something that you have never done before. This is where the juice of life is. If you tell the universe you are ready, then you better be ready, because it only does what you tell it to do.
We'll discuss finances here and they are pretty easy at its core. Create more than you spend, save, and when you spend spend wisely. Numbers don’t lie and usually our financial challenges have far less to do with facts and more to do with our relationship to money. Money is an amazing mirror into how we feel about ourselves. Make sure you are seeing what you want to see when you look in that mirror!
The universe allows for mistakes, but history can teach us. This makes us capable of learning, growing and changing. We must go with those changes and make a new history for ourselves.
Do you sometimes get in your own way? You can do this without even knowing it...but, then if you really try to feel it, you know you are. Do you find yourself sabotaging your own best efforts? Again, when you allow yourself to really feel if this is true, you know it. Do you find yourself going in the same circle over and over with your finances? The world spins, we don't have to!
Joseph Campbell said, "We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
The personal mindset of money, relationships, health, spirituality all boils down to two pairs of emotions. Those being fear/opportunity and scarcity/abundance. If you fear that world doesn't have enough to go around, that is what your world will be. If you feel that there is plenty for everyone, then it is so. There is opportunity everywhere, but you must be open to receive it. Not just see it, but receive it. You must be ready to take action, and you must be ready to do something that you have never done before. This is where the juice of life is. If you tell the universe you are ready, then you better be ready, because it only does what you tell it to do.
We'll discuss finances here and they are pretty easy at its core. Create more than you spend, save, and when you spend spend wisely. Numbers don’t lie and usually our financial challenges have far less to do with facts and more to do with our relationship to money. Money is an amazing mirror into how we feel about ourselves. Make sure you are seeing what you want to see when you look in that mirror!
The universe allows for mistakes, but history can teach us. This makes us capable of learning, growing and changing. We must go with those changes and make a new history for ourselves.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Obama's tax ideas to save a country...
he is not the best person to ask financial questions to, as well as, he has no idea how many homes he owns, as well as, when we was asked what he thinks constitutes being rich he stated he thinks that $5M in income per year... He will put this country into a tailspin for decades leaving our children and their children's children left to scrape up the mess. It's quite simple, from the financial side of politics, if you make $5M a year or more you might want to vote for McCain. Otherwise, you would be wise to vote for Obama. That leaves out approx. 99.07% of the people...This has nothing to say regarding women's rights issues, the fact that McCain has no idea what some country's are and where they are. As Biden, the great new pick for Democratic VP, has stated that just because John is a war hero does not mean he is ready for president. I agree!! Both of their tax plans are out and should be reviewed. With help from The Wall Street Journal, you can see some of those ideas here. | |||||||
The Obama Tax PlanBy JASON FURMAN and AUSTAN GOOLSBEE August 14, 2008; Page A13 The Wall Street Journal Even as Barack Obama proposes fiscally responsible tax Many of these very same critics made many of these same
Overall, Sen. Obama's middle-class tax cuts are larger Both candidates for president have proposed tax plans. But they are starkly different in their approaches and their economic impact. Sen. Obama is focused on cutting taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, and investing in key areas like health, innovation and education. He would do this while cutting unnecessary spending, paying for his proposals and bringing down the budget deficit. In contrast, John McCain offers what would essentially be a third Bush term, with his economic speeches outlining $3.4 trillion of tax cuts over 10 years beyond what President Bush has already proposed and geared even more to high-income earners. The McCain plan would lead to deficits the likes of which we have never seen in this country. It would take money from the middle class and from future generations so that the wealthy can live better today. Sen. Obama believes a focus on the middle class is appropriate in the wake of the first economic expansion on record where the typical family's income fell by almost $1,000. The Obama plan would cut taxes for 95% of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples. In addition, Sen. Obama is proposing tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth. The Obama plan would dramatically simplify taxes by consolidating existing tax credits, eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms, and enabling as many as 40 million middle-class filers to do their own taxes in less than five minutes and not have to hire an accountant. Sen. Obama also recognizes that small businesses are the engine of job growth in the economy. That is why he is proposing additional tax cuts, including a tax credit for small businesses that provide health care, and the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups. The vast majority of small businesses would face lower taxes under the Obama plan than under the McCain plan. In addition, Sen. Obama supports reforming corporate taxes in a manner that would help create jobs in America and simplify the tax code by eliminating distortions and special preferences. Sen. Obama believes that responsible candidates must put forward specific ideas of how they would pay for their proposals. That is why he would repeal a portion of the tax cuts passed in the last eight years for families making over $250,000. But to be clear: He would leave their tax rates at or below where they were in the 1990s. - The top two income-tax brackets would return to their 1990s levels of 36% and 39.6% (including the exemption and deduction phase-outs). All other brackets would remain as they are today. - The top capital-gains rate for families making more than $250,000 would return to 20% -- the lowest rate that existed in the 1990s and the rate President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut. A 20% rate is almost a third lower than the rate President Reagan set in 1986. - The tax rate on dividends would also be 20% for families making more than $250,000, rather than returning to the ordinary income rate. This rate would be 39% lower than the rate President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut and would be lower than all but five of the last 92 years we have been taxing dividends. - The estate tax would be effectively repealed for 99.7% of estates, and retained at a 45% rate for estates valued at over $7 million per couple. This would cut the number of estates covered by the tax by 84% relative to 2000. Overall, in an Obama administration, the top 1% of households -- people with an average income of $1.6 million per year -- would see their average federal income and payroll tax rate increase from 21% today to 24%, less than the 25% these households would have paid under the tax laws of the late 1990s. Sen. Obama believes that one of the principal problems facing the economy today is the lack of discretionary income for middle-class wage earners. That's why his plan would not raise any taxes on couples making less than $250,000 a year, nor on any single person with income under $200,000 -- not income taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend or payroll taxes. In contrast, Sen. McCain's tax plan largely leaves the middle class behind. His one and only middle-class tax cut -- a slow phase-in of a bigger dependent exemption -- would provide no benefit whatsoever to 101 million families who do not have children or other dependents, or who have a low income. But Sen. McCain's plan does include one new proposal that would result in higher taxes on the middle class. As even Sen. McCain's advisers have acknowledged, his health-care plan would impose a $3.6 trillion tax increase over 10 years on workers. Sen. McCain's plan will count the health care you get from your employer as if it were taxable cash income. Even after accounting for Sen. McCain's proposed health-care tax credits, this plan would eventually leave tens of millions of middle-class families paying higher taxes. In addition, as the Congressional Budget Office has shown, this kind of plan would push people into higher tax brackets and increase the taxes people pay as their compensation rises, raising marginal tax rates by even more than if we let the entire Bush tax-cut plan expire tomorrow. The McCain plan represents Bush economics on steroids. It has $3.4 trillion more in tax cuts than President Bush is proposing, largely directed at corporations and the most affluent. Sen. McCain would implement these cuts without proposing any meaningful steps to simplify taxes or eliminate distortions and loopholes. In addition, Sen. McCain has floated over $1 trillion in new spending increases but barely any specific spending cuts. As previously mentioned, the Obama plan is a net tax cut -- his middle-class tax cuts are larger than the rollbacks he has proposed for families making over $250,000. Sen. Obama would pay for this tax cut by cutting spending -- including responsibly ending the war in Iraq, reducing excessive payments to private plans in Medicare, limiting payments for high-income farmers, reducing subsidies for banks that make student loans, reforming earmarks, ending no-bid contracts, and eliminating other wasteful and unnecessary programs. While Sen. Obama would shrink the deficit from its current record levels, he recognizes that it is even more important to confront our long-term fiscal challenges, including the growth of health costs in the public and private sector. He also believes it is critical to work with members of Congress from both parties to strengthen Social Security while protecting middle-class families from tax increases or benefit cuts. He has done what few presidential candidates have been willing to do by making a politically risky proposal to strengthen solvency by asking those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound. Sen. Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax of 12.4% rate. Instead, he is considering plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2% to 4% more in total (combined employer and employee). This change to Social Security would start a decade or more from now and is similar to the rate increases floated by Sen. McCain's close adviser Lindsey Graham, and that Sen. McCain has previously said he "could" support. In contrast, Sen. McCain has put forward the most fiscally reckless presidential platform in modern memory. The likely results of his Bush-plus policies are clear. As Berkeley economist Brad Delong has estimated, the McCain plan, as compared to the Obama plan, would lower annual incomes by $300 billion or more in real terms by 2017, costing the typical worker $1,800 or more due to the effect of large deficits on national savings and thus capital formation. Sen. McCain's neglect of critical public investments would further impede economic growth for decades to come. Do not take the critics' word for it. Go look at the plans for yourself at www.barackobama.com/taxes1. Get the facts and you will see the real priorities at stake in this election. America cannot afford | |||||||
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Manifest Destiny...
"Manifest", is that one would create from thought, and to bring forth the obvious. This is what would give one their power to their own life. The ability to overcome and the courage to move through some of life's difficult situations.
"Destiny", would be to live that life you have by manifest. By creating this life you are certain it will become, as you are the creator.
Thus, Manifest Destiny, is the ability to bring forth from thought, and manifest one's life to create one's destiny and as by creator of your life you are also creator of your destiny. You, by simple human will and desire manifest your own destiny. Your life will be lived this way due to the power of the self that creates it.
"Destiny", would be to live that life you have by manifest. By creating this life you are certain it will become, as you are the creator.
Thus, Manifest Destiny, is the ability to bring forth from thought, and manifest one's life to create one's destiny and as by creator of your life you are also creator of your destiny. You, by simple human will and desire manifest your own destiny. Your life will be lived this way due to the power of the self that creates it.
Friday, August 22, 2008
You know...those Forged Documents
Ron Suskind dropped a bombshell in his new book, The Way of The World, by alleging that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter from a top Iraqi intelligence official to Saddam Hussein claiming 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta trained in Iraq.
There is no reason, as a modern civilized society, that we should NOT let this go without legal repercussions simply because of their held power. If we let this pass by us, as that civilized society, we then tread on thin ice as to the creation of precident to future leaders of this country. We are coming very close to losing our status as a free republic and entering into the realm of a democratically elected dictatorship.
That does not say that the elections are fair whatsoever...
Special Thanks to Alex Koppelman and Justin Jouvenal for content and writing
Victor Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter and the newly released "The Prosecution of George W Bush for Murder", as well as, arguably the greatest prosecuting attorney's of our time, discusses the serious legal implications that we must adhere to as a civilized society of truth and justice. If the charge turns out to be true, it means the White House manufactured evidence to bolster one of its major rationales for the Iraq invasion: that Saddam Hussein aided and abetted al-Qaida. The White House adamantly denies it forged the letter. Lost in the shuffle of the coverage is that the letter also lays out another important, but debunked, rationale that was central to the Bush administration's justification for invading Iraq -- one that was based on documents now known to be forged.
Here's Con Coughlin, the Sunday Telegraph reporter, who first wrote about the letter back in 2003 (via the Anonymous Liberal):
The second item [in the letter] explains how Iraqi intelligence, helped by "a small team from the al-Qaeda organization," arranged for an (unspecified) shipment from Niger to reach Baghdad by way of Libya and Syria.Iraqi officials believe this is a reference to the controversial shipments of uranium ore that Iraq acquired from Niger to aid Saddam in his efforts to develop an atom bomb.
If you remember, the Niger uranium story was a linchpin in the Bush administration's case for the war. Secretary of State Colin Powell assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September 2002 that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium ore from Niger. President Bush pushed the claim with the infamous "16 words"
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
in his famed State of The Union address in January 2003. The story also touched off the Valerie Plame affair when Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, questioned the tale's veracity in an Op-Ed in the New York Times.
The Niger uranium story unraveled quickly. Even before the Iraq invasion in March 2003, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei, reported that his agency had determined, with the help of outside experts, that the documents were "not authentic." One of those outside experts was, reportedly, Google. You may also recall that there were serious questions about the role of Bush administration officials, specifically current National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, in the acquisition of these forged documents.
We are certainly in some serious legal territory to which Bugliosi shows us the validity to legal grounds for prosecution for a variety of actions from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and others.There is no reason, as a modern civilized society, that we should NOT let this go without legal repercussions simply because of their held power. If we let this pass by us, as that civilized society, we then tread on thin ice as to the creation of precident to future leaders of this country. We are coming very close to losing our status as a free republic and entering into the realm of a democratically elected dictatorship.
That does not say that the elections are fair whatsoever...
Special Thanks to Alex Koppelman and Justin Jouvenal for content and writing
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Be like a duck...
Let things simply flow off of you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived.
- Do One Thing At A Time.The world's greatest achievements were made by people who gave the task in front of them their undivided attention. Tackling multiple activities at once might feel efficient, but is it really productive? Is giving each task 30% of your attention for three hours as effective as giving each task 100% of your attention for one hour each? If something doesn't deserve your undivided attention, maybe it's not worth doing at all.
- Slow down. Why the rush? If what you're doing is important enough to warrant your time, you might as well enjoy it. Cleaning the house for an hour with your favorite music playing and your bottom shaking is better than cleaning the house in half that time but in a frantic state of mind. Plus, if you're having fun with your chores, maybe other people will be tempted to join. Don't just "get it over with"--find a way to make every activity something that you look forward to doing.
- Stop Being A Perfectionist. High standards have their place--when performing surgery, for example, or designing a building--but when applied to other areas of your life (your appearance, your home's appearance, your hobbies, your handwriting, whatever) you're practically inviting anxiety into your life. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have any standards at all; it's when you start stressing out about the details that you need to ask yourself: "Will doing this right now make me truly happy? Will it make me a better person? Will it make the world a better place?" Usually, the answer is no. Don't allow perfectionism to become the enemy of your potential.
- Step aside. When you close your eyes and imagine your role in the world, do you see yourself as Atlas, the mythological Titan, holding the weight of the world on your shoulders? Do you feel like you want to relax, but worry that if you do, everything will fall apart? If so, you need to delegate some responsibility. You might think other people won't do as good a job, but that's the thing: they'll never do it just like you do. So give them responsibility, give them advice, and pass the reins. Don't be surprised if they make mistakes; just be there to support them, and let them fix (and learn from) their mistakes. Not only will this take some weight off of your shoulders, but it can be very fulfilling to watch someone grow and mature as a result of your guidance
- Remember That It's Not The End of The World. Many people spend their entire lives trying to prevent bad things from happening. But guess what? They happen anyway. And life goes on. That's not to say you shouldn't take any kinds of precautions in life, but if the majority of your thoughts are consumed in contingency planning, you're not enjoying life. You're preventing it.
- Focus on what you have, not what you have to do. Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking I have to straighten this up...I have to correct him...I have to stop her..." but the truth is, we don't have to do anything. You can walk away from any task, any time. Try replacing every "have to" with a "want to" and see if the statement still holds. Meaning, is it something that you'll look back on when you're in your deathbed and be happy you did? Probably not. So appreciate what you have, while you have it.
- When bad things happen (and they will, no matter what) shrug and smile. Remind yourself that:
- Life goes on.
- Don't let things make you upset or angry. Remember it's your choice to get bent out of shape. Learn from the experience. Focus on the big picture.
- You win some, you lose some.
- You can't please everybody.
- We live and learn.
- Shift your mindset so that you concentrate on what makes you feel happy, not on what makes you feel safe.
- Don't confuse being laid back with being lazy. The goal is to be happy.
- Showing a laid back attitude in the workplace can have risks. Many employers may confuse "laid back" with "lazy" and think one does not take the job seriously. It is important to show that this attitude can actually be very productive, often even more so than others which demand greater stress.
- Many environments prefer a cool, calm demeanor over an extreme results oriented approach. Be sure to identify your role and pick your battles very carefully.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wake the fuck up!!
I get so frustrated with how we are continuously able to see, in hind sight, all of the things that we, as a society, know are wrong on so many levels. As history repeats itself we find that we keep seeing the same things. Well, if hind sight is 20/20 and we keep repeating our mistakes we are none the better as a society. It's time to wake the fuck up!
Our attention span as a society is...what...what was I saying...oh...10 seconds...
Don't people remember who voted for the Iraq war and who didn't? Don't people remember who stood beside Bush for this illegality for years stating that he believes the President is doing a great job. Don't people remember who stated that we should be in Iraq for the next 100 years, and now who says we should get out, but only as soon as we "win"? Don't people remember that our administration has already declared that it won in Iraq over 1000 days ago? Don't people remember the Rupugnicant platform of not wanting to send jobs oversees, and has subsequently sent tens of thousands of people to Iraq to destroy and rebuild a sovereign country on our dime? Don't people take the time to see the lies espoused by McCant about his exemplary voting records for the veterans? Don't people take the time to...?
By taking approx. $1 Trillion dollars away from our own country's infrastructure and policy necessities they have left our economy in ruins. This has also massive global repercussions as well. They don't care one bit. The privacy of war has allowed these men to fill their offshore havens and manipulate those hundreds of billions of dollars to their liking. With no oversight to these private firms most of this money has disappeared.
Don't people remember when this same administration chided Saddam Hussein for his corruption and financial misgivings with money's that our country sent as aid? Don't people remember that Al Qaeda was behind 9-11 and not Iraq? Don't people remember...? Don't people know how we as a country have become despised throughout the world due to our greed, complacency and arrogance? What about our "Christian" society that states- do not kill, love your brother as yourself, do unto others as you would have them do unto you?
Wake the fuck up, all of you heretics!
If we keep doing the same things, we keep getting the same results. If we vote for another old white guy elitist, we will end up in the same place we are now, asking the same damn questions.
Let's try something different this time. It certainly can't hurt. Vote for Obama!!
Our attention span as a society is...what...what was I saying...oh...10 seconds...
Don't people remember who voted for the Iraq war and who didn't? Don't people remember who stood beside Bush for this illegality for years stating that he believes the President is doing a great job. Don't people remember who stated that we should be in Iraq for the next 100 years, and now who says we should get out, but only as soon as we "win"? Don't people remember that our administration has already declared that it won in Iraq over 1000 days ago? Don't people remember the Rupugnicant platform of not wanting to send jobs oversees, and has subsequently sent tens of thousands of people to Iraq to destroy and rebuild a sovereign country on our dime? Don't people take the time to see the lies espoused by McCant about his exemplary voting records for the veterans? Don't people take the time to...?
By taking approx. $1 Trillion dollars away from our own country's infrastructure and policy necessities they have left our economy in ruins. This has also massive global repercussions as well. They don't care one bit. The privacy of war has allowed these men to fill their offshore havens and manipulate those hundreds of billions of dollars to their liking. With no oversight to these private firms most of this money has disappeared.
Don't people remember when this same administration chided Saddam Hussein for his corruption and financial misgivings with money's that our country sent as aid? Don't people remember that Al Qaeda was behind 9-11 and not Iraq? Don't people remember...? Don't people know how we as a country have become despised throughout the world due to our greed, complacency and arrogance? What about our "Christian" society that states- do not kill, love your brother as yourself, do unto others as you would have them do unto you?
Wake the fuck up, all of you heretics!
If we keep doing the same things, we keep getting the same results. If we vote for another old white guy elitist, we will end up in the same place we are now, asking the same damn questions.
Let's try something different this time. It certainly can't hurt. Vote for Obama!!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Life's ebb and flow...treading water...
I must apologize to all of my readers for the delay in submitting. My mind has been awash with amazement at the state of our world. I know that we can turn things around, but it must take knowledge and enlightenment in order to do so.
I would suggest some summer end reading to you now and will follow with a video that I hope you all see. I am reading, for the second time around, Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth". He is also the author of "The Power of Now" which I read numerous times years ago. These books discuss the necessary personal work that must be done for our world to find some solace and repair for all of our global misgivings. We must act personally, and not sit back and think that God or everyone else is going to do the work. We have been given a life with the gift of thought and choice, and it is up to us to use this gift and act accordingly!
I was given and cannot put down Vincent Bugliosi's new book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder". For those that are unfamiliar with Bugliosi, he is the greatest prosecuting attorney of our time and is responsible for high end cases such as Charles Manson, as well as, the author of Helter Skelter. This book discusses the open and shut legal issues regarding the charging Bush for murder. This is a must read for all people as they need to understand the legalities and results of our decisions. As well as, the repercussions of our inactions and others actions.
I have also been reading Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World". He is also author of "The One Percent Doctrine". This Pulitzer Prized author sets a tone of how the world works and what we can do to change things.
I urge all to watch the following video before making your decisions for your future.
I would suggest some summer end reading to you now and will follow with a video that I hope you all see. I am reading, for the second time around, Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth". He is also the author of "The Power of Now" which I read numerous times years ago. These books discuss the necessary personal work that must be done for our world to find some solace and repair for all of our global misgivings. We must act personally, and not sit back and think that God or everyone else is going to do the work. We have been given a life with the gift of thought and choice, and it is up to us to use this gift and act accordingly!
I was given and cannot put down Vincent Bugliosi's new book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder". For those that are unfamiliar with Bugliosi, he is the greatest prosecuting attorney of our time and is responsible for high end cases such as Charles Manson, as well as, the author of Helter Skelter. This book discusses the open and shut legal issues regarding the charging Bush for murder. This is a must read for all people as they need to understand the legalities and results of our decisions. As well as, the repercussions of our inactions and others actions.
I have also been reading Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World". He is also author of "The One Percent Doctrine". This Pulitzer Prized author sets a tone of how the world works and what we can do to change things.
I urge all to watch the following video before making your decisions for your future.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Great tidbit for the day!
6 Cures for the Chronically Late
Diana DeLonzor
Approximately 20% of American adults are chronically late, creating unnecessary friction in their relationships and careers. The vast majority of chronically late people dislike living their lives behind schedule, but they can’t seem to change. Here’s how to break the tardiness habit — and what to do if you’re the one left waiting…
BREAK THE HABIT
If you’re always late…
Learn to tell time honestly. The chronically late underestimate the amount of time things take by about 25%. They remember only the day there was no traffic and they made it to the office in 15 minutes, not the days the trip took longer. Make a list of things you do on a regular basis — shower and dress, drive to work, pick up a few things at the store, answer E-mail. For a week, time how long each task takes you. In the future, budget the amount of time it took on the slowest occasion.
Plan to be early. If your schedule is designed to get you where you need to be just on time, you’ll be late whenever the slightest thing goes wrong. Instead, aim to arrive 15 minutes early. Carry a magazine or some work with you so that you don’t waste time if you are early.
Free up your morning. Are you frequently late to work? Don’t leave everything to the morning. Shift as many tasks as possible to the night before. Pack your briefcase, locate your keys and lay out your clothes before going to bed.
Include time estimates on your to-do list. Many chronically late people expect to get everything on their to-do lists done no matter how much they pack in. Instead, block out time for each chore to get a better idea of what you can accomplish in a day. Write down the time estimates, and rank each chore in order of priority so that you know what to pursue first if anything runs longer.
Forget perfection. Perfectionists find it difficult to move on to a new task until a current project is completed perfectly, often leaving them far behind schedule. Be aware that 95% correct and on time tends to be better than 100% correct and late. If perfectionism is your problem, make “It doesn’t have to be perfect!” your mantra.
Wean yourself off the addiction to deadline pressure. Some people are drawn to the adrenaline rush created by looming deadlines and have difficulty motivating themselves without that pressure. They often develop a “just-in-time” mentality, tackling tasks only at the last moment. To change the last-minute mind-set, you have to practice every day. Each morning for one month, write down three things that you will do ahead of time that day and then do them.
Examples: Fill your gas tank before the warning light comes on… turn in a report a day early… pay a bill as soon as it arrives. Eventually, completing tasks early will become a habit, and you’ll find that life is more enjoyable without the constant deadline pressure.
LEFT WAITING?
It can be extremely frustrating to live or work with people who are always late. What to do…
Understand that it isn’t personal. Punctual people often think they’re being taken for granted, but late people don’t lack respect for you — they lack the ability to control their own time.
Explain — don’t complain. Venting pent-up anger adds to friction. Instead, explain how the tardiness makes you feel — anxious and disrespected, perhaps. Agree to preset penalties. If the late person keeps you waiting for more than 10 minutes, he/she pays for dinner… does some chore for you… or owes you $1 for every minute of your time lost.
Fib about the schedule. If all else fails, tell the late person that the time is earlier than it really is — for example, a 10 am meeting is at 9:45.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The Olympic spirit is in us all...
The Olympics have a tendency to substantially penetrate the consciousness of our society every four years. We are a country with the strong desires to win, to conquer, to be the best, that the concept of being like an Olympian is a dominating force within many aspects of our lives.
I know that I always enjoy the news feeds and short clips of inspirational stories with so many of these athletes. The stories that tell the plight of the fallen spirit or beaten athlete that learns from the hurdles that life has thrown them to become the phoenix that their spirit embodies and rise from the struggle to become one of the best in the world, at whatever it is that they might be doing.
Dara Torres is an amazing athlete. She is competing in her 5th Olympiad. This in its own right is an amazing accomplishment. She has become the physical specimen that any person from their teens and on would enjoy. Her work is exemplary to becoming a champion. After her last Olympics she was 33 years old and felt as if she had nothing left to prove. With her neck filled with numerous medals and awards she retired and set out for what was to be next. Upon the realization that she is a swimmer, she decided to return to the Olympics and try again. Now at 41, she has returned to the arenas and pools to show her drive and determination to be the best.
Another American athlete named Raj Bhavsar is ready to show the world his spirit. After the 2004 Olympics to which he was an alternate he set out to find the missing link to his life. He delved deeper into his meditation and yoga practices to open up the more spiritual side of himself. In that process he has unlocked the soft, resilient, master of his artform while finding the peace and concentration necessary to become the champion.
He agrees with the Olympic motto: “The important thing in the Olympics is not to win but to take part, just as in life the important thing is not the triumph but the struggle.” Most athletes that go to the Olympics lose in their competition. Most athletes in any competetive sport lose to a point that they don't even get the chance to make it to the Olympics. It is not about the winning. It is about the personal spirit to become the best that we all can be at whatever it is we choose to do.
To take the struggles and use them as fuel and learn from them to become a better person, this is where life's juice is. It takes courage to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and rise above the ashes and become the phoenix of your life. If this says anything is that there is an Olympian in all of us. Perhaps the Olympics has come at the perfect time for America. It is time for our country to see this and experience this kind of energy. It is time that we find the gold in the dust of our country's past seven years and rise to meet the occasion to become a better people, a better society with a more open and inspiring agenda to the world.
I know that I always enjoy the news feeds and short clips of inspirational stories with so many of these athletes. The stories that tell the plight of the fallen spirit or beaten athlete that learns from the hurdles that life has thrown them to become the phoenix that their spirit embodies and rise from the struggle to become one of the best in the world, at whatever it is that they might be doing.
Dara Torres is an amazing athlete. She is competing in her 5th Olympiad. This in its own right is an amazing accomplishment. She has become the physical specimen that any person from their teens and on would enjoy. Her work is exemplary to becoming a champion. After her last Olympics she was 33 years old and felt as if she had nothing left to prove. With her neck filled with numerous medals and awards she retired and set out for what was to be next. Upon the realization that she is a swimmer, she decided to return to the Olympics and try again. Now at 41, she has returned to the arenas and pools to show her drive and determination to be the best.
Another American athlete named Raj Bhavsar is ready to show the world his spirit. After the 2004 Olympics to which he was an alternate he set out to find the missing link to his life. He delved deeper into his meditation and yoga practices to open up the more spiritual side of himself. In that process he has unlocked the soft, resilient, master of his artform while finding the peace and concentration necessary to become the champion.
He agrees with the Olympic motto: “The important thing in the Olympics is not to win but to take part, just as in life the important thing is not the triumph but the struggle.” Most athletes that go to the Olympics lose in their competition. Most athletes in any competetive sport lose to a point that they don't even get the chance to make it to the Olympics. It is not about the winning. It is about the personal spirit to become the best that we all can be at whatever it is we choose to do.
To take the struggles and use them as fuel and learn from them to become a better person, this is where life's juice is. It takes courage to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and rise above the ashes and become the phoenix of your life. If this says anything is that there is an Olympian in all of us. Perhaps the Olympics has come at the perfect time for America. It is time for our country to see this and experience this kind of energy. It is time that we find the gold in the dust of our country's past seven years and rise to meet the occasion to become a better people, a better society with a more open and inspiring agenda to the world.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
back to the travel story...
We were traveling from Turkey to Dubai, then New Delhi to end up in Nepal. All of this was to happen within 24 hours. A simple seamless nighttime jaunt to get us into Kathmandu so we could find a meditation retreat that we wanted to do. (Even this ended up not happening, as we eventually found out that we would be separated from eachother to be men with men and women with women for the entire 10 day retreat. Also, I was unfamiliar with the fact that I wouldn't have been able to talk for the entire 10 days...You see we had just gotten engaged only a month before in Greece, and there was NO way I was going without my woman for 10 days NOW...are you kidding me?!)
But I digress...We were late in our arrival at 3AM and were running through the airport to get to the gate to reach our connection. There running with us was a little man, not much older than we were at the time. He was keeping up with us every step until we reached the new gate. The plane was out the window, the door was open for passengers, and this Indian man showed his ticket and ran down the gangway. We showed our tickets and were halted. We stood there and watched our plane disappear into the darkness as we were told we would be set up for the night to figure out why we were not in the computer. It should be fixed tomorrow and we would be put on another flight...at 3AM tomorrow...or would that be the next next day?!...
They took the video camera and SLR camera from me. Or I could take out the film and give them that, basically ruin all of the shots...I was promised that it would be returned when we board the next plane. I gave them the cameras.
We were driven from the airport to a hotel. We were unable to see anything, literally, anything except the road in front of us as we left the airport as the night sky was BLACK! We approached the hotel. This amazing luxurious building coming out of the darkness was quite a site. We were greeted with smiles from everyone. It was an incredible place. Very high end! Not bad for someone traveling the world on only a few dollars a day! This was a country filled with money. We think that we have money here in the US...HA! We found later...
We were set up in a room. The porter dropped our bags, again with a big smile. We were both quite tired, but I wanted to see if I could put some direction as to where we were so I went on to the balcony to see anything...blackness. We went to sleep.
Upon waking in the late morning I opened the blinds that had totally shut out the morning sunshine. Yes, it was bright and daytime. I slid the door open to feel the wall of thick hot air hit my face. I walked out on the balcony and looked out to a horizon of sand. No plants, no life, nothing moving...sand. As far as one could see from this 5th floor.
We decided to go down to get some food and maybe head into Abu Dhabi. We figured we would probably never be here again, so it would be cool to get a cab ride into town and see a few things since our plane wasn't until the evening. We checked with the front desk to find that a ride into the downtown area, about 10 miles, would cost the equivalent of approx. $70. We found that our dollar was worth something in the ballpark of $.05 exchange rate at the front desk...What an eye opener that one was! We now know what it feels like to be financially strapped. We were unable to do anything except sit in the hotel room or walk the grounds.
The place was a grand type of palace with beautiful grounds, marble everywhere, wonderful plants and fountains, elegant. But, there was no one around. The place was empty. It was rather eerie. It was as if we were the only people in the place, excepting the staff. I couldn't quite place what was up...Everyone was pleasant and helpful, but it was weird.
We decided to walk a bit. We went down to see if there was a gym or a pool. We ventured to the basement and followed some signs, although we didn't know what they said. We could hear some music coming from down some hall so we followed that. The halls were long, narrow, and had few doors. As we turned another corner we could see someone sitting on a stool outside a door at the far end of this particular hallway. It seemed straight out of a David Lynch film.
We slowly walked down the hall toward the sound coming out of the room. The man at the doorway was dressed in full Arab attire with the head wrap and such. The middle eastern music coming from the room was getting louder as we approached. By the time we reached the door the man had stood up all the while staring at my woman. I looked into the room and saw a dark bar filled with Arab men. This was where everyone was! The Bar! The place was packed. A few of the patrons looked out into the hallway where we were and stopped and stared at Michelle. She was the only woman around. Hell, for all we knew she was the only woman in the building. The bar filled with men, down a long hallway in a hotel with no one around, with a doorman...It was a bit uncomfortable. We smiled and turned and walked away.
We went back to our room to hibernate and wait for our plane.
Very bizarre...
But I digress...We were late in our arrival at 3AM and were running through the airport to get to the gate to reach our connection. There running with us was a little man, not much older than we were at the time. He was keeping up with us every step until we reached the new gate. The plane was out the window, the door was open for passengers, and this Indian man showed his ticket and ran down the gangway. We showed our tickets and were halted. We stood there and watched our plane disappear into the darkness as we were told we would be set up for the night to figure out why we were not in the computer. It should be fixed tomorrow and we would be put on another flight...at 3AM tomorrow...or would that be the next next day?!...
They took the video camera and SLR camera from me. Or I could take out the film and give them that, basically ruin all of the shots...I was promised that it would be returned when we board the next plane. I gave them the cameras.
We were driven from the airport to a hotel. We were unable to see anything, literally, anything except the road in front of us as we left the airport as the night sky was BLACK! We approached the hotel. This amazing luxurious building coming out of the darkness was quite a site. We were greeted with smiles from everyone. It was an incredible place. Very high end! Not bad for someone traveling the world on only a few dollars a day! This was a country filled with money. We think that we have money here in the US...HA! We found later...
We were set up in a room. The porter dropped our bags, again with a big smile. We were both quite tired, but I wanted to see if I could put some direction as to where we were so I went on to the balcony to see anything...blackness. We went to sleep.
Upon waking in the late morning I opened the blinds that had totally shut out the morning sunshine. Yes, it was bright and daytime. I slid the door open to feel the wall of thick hot air hit my face. I walked out on the balcony and looked out to a horizon of sand. No plants, no life, nothing moving...sand. As far as one could see from this 5th floor.
We decided to go down to get some food and maybe head into Abu Dhabi. We figured we would probably never be here again, so it would be cool to get a cab ride into town and see a few things since our plane wasn't until the evening. We checked with the front desk to find that a ride into the downtown area, about 10 miles, would cost the equivalent of approx. $70. We found that our dollar was worth something in the ballpark of $.05 exchange rate at the front desk...What an eye opener that one was! We now know what it feels like to be financially strapped. We were unable to do anything except sit in the hotel room or walk the grounds.
The place was a grand type of palace with beautiful grounds, marble everywhere, wonderful plants and fountains, elegant. But, there was no one around. The place was empty. It was rather eerie. It was as if we were the only people in the place, excepting the staff. I couldn't quite place what was up...Everyone was pleasant and helpful, but it was weird.
We decided to walk a bit. We went down to see if there was a gym or a pool. We ventured to the basement and followed some signs, although we didn't know what they said. We could hear some music coming from down some hall so we followed that. The halls were long, narrow, and had few doors. As we turned another corner we could see someone sitting on a stool outside a door at the far end of this particular hallway. It seemed straight out of a David Lynch film.
We slowly walked down the hall toward the sound coming out of the room. The man at the doorway was dressed in full Arab attire with the head wrap and such. The middle eastern music coming from the room was getting louder as we approached. By the time we reached the door the man had stood up all the while staring at my woman. I looked into the room and saw a dark bar filled with Arab men. This was where everyone was! The Bar! The place was packed. A few of the patrons looked out into the hallway where we were and stopped and stared at Michelle. She was the only woman around. Hell, for all we knew she was the only woman in the building. The bar filled with men, down a long hallway in a hotel with no one around, with a doorman...It was a bit uncomfortable. We smiled and turned and walked away.
We went back to our room to hibernate and wait for our plane.
Very bizarre...
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Freedom..of the press, search and seisure...
I find it interesting how a "civilized" industrialized country, such as the United States, is able to do the same things that a country like China does to their people, but get no serious thought about it from the American people dumbfounds me. We state that it is all because the government is doing its best to help keep terrorists from out of our borders. That is a line of shit.
Bush has the nads to go on a short foreign visiting spree, thinking this is to show the American people that he is a well traveled diplomat...right...(once he is out of office he will never leave Texas again)he then makes assertions of his disappointment with the Chinese government and how it handles the imprisonment of some of their people. What about Gitmo and the other secret prisons throughout the world our government has and the continued rationalizations this administration has done to keep the American people from looking past the end of our noses.
These are war criminals. But then when this case is brought up as to the Geneva Convention and its rules for the imprisonment of war criminals, the administration state s that they are in a gray area due to the fact that they are not from a specific country or army...
It is interesting on how if something is labeled as "a war on" it gives our government the constitutional right to do whatever they please through the power of the president. This administration knows this rule better than anyone and has run their entire Presidency on this issue. Yet, they still claim that they are looking for accountability...try the mirror!!
Freedom, my ass. There is nothing they cannot do, if they simply want to, anymore. You thought your life was safe and free...Safe is relative, free is a facade.
I found this article a bit interesting. It seems that there has been more and more incidents of this action occurring, therefore the civil liberties organizations and others have decided to bring this out more to the public.
Fri Aug 1, 7:31 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.
Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.
DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.
The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.
The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.
The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.
(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)
I have traveled throughout the world and only once have I ever had something confiscated. That was when I was in Dubai, in the Arab Emirates. We didn't show up on the computer from Turkey to Nepal via India with this stop in Dubai. On our stopover to change planes at 3AM we were told that we would have to wait until tomorrow for a new flight as they needed to get things figured out...They took my video camera for the night...This was 15 years ago.
I'll tell this story further as that 48 hours was quite the experience...tomorrow.
Bush has the nads to go on a short foreign visiting spree, thinking this is to show the American people that he is a well traveled diplomat...right...(once he is out of office he will never leave Texas again)he then makes assertions of his disappointment with the Chinese government and how it handles the imprisonment of some of their people. What about Gitmo and the other secret prisons throughout the world our government has and the continued rationalizations this administration has done to keep the American people from looking past the end of our noses.
These are war criminals. But then when this case is brought up as to the Geneva Convention and its rules for the imprisonment of war criminals, the administration state s that they are in a gray area due to the fact that they are not from a specific country or army...
It is interesting on how if something is labeled as "a war on" it gives our government the constitutional right to do whatever they please through the power of the president. This administration knows this rule better than anyone and has run their entire Presidency on this issue. Yet, they still claim that they are looking for accountability...try the mirror!!
Freedom, my ass. There is nothing they cannot do, if they simply want to, anymore. You thought your life was safe and free...Safe is relative, free is a facade.
I found this article a bit interesting. It seems that there has been more and more incidents of this action occurring, therefore the civil liberties organizations and others have decided to bring this out more to the public.
Fri Aug 1, 7:31 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.
Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.
DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.
The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.
The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.
The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.
(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)
I have traveled throughout the world and only once have I ever had something confiscated. That was when I was in Dubai, in the Arab Emirates. We didn't show up on the computer from Turkey to Nepal via India with this stop in Dubai. On our stopover to change planes at 3AM we were told that we would have to wait until tomorrow for a new flight as they needed to get things figured out...They took my video camera for the night...This was 15 years ago.
I'll tell this story further as that 48 hours was quite the experience...tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Best Vacation spots, Paris...Politics?
Well, I think we have now seen it all. I think I said that last week too...
When Kennedy was running for President and became the first Presidential candidate on television it was clear then that this forum would be a new a powerful medium to get politics to the broad populace. Plus, it helped that he looked good, spoke good, had good ideas, was successful, and had a great looking wife and kids...
Well, now 45 years later, we have a new horizon. Is what it took then good enough for the White House. Obama, looks good, speaks good, has some good ideas, is successful, has a good looking wife and kids, I'd say yes...McCain doesn't really look good anymore, doesn't speak well, doesn't really have good ideas, has a good looking wife...is this enough for the White House?
Now, we reach a new playing field through technology, the elite family money, and celebrity politics as we will see in this video...
It's a brave new world out there folks! You gotta love it!
Never did I think that I might see this woman say something, even if she didn't think it or write it, that would have some substance to it. Perhaps her writers should move to the McCant camp to help them out a bit.
When Kennedy was running for President and became the first Presidential candidate on television it was clear then that this forum would be a new a powerful medium to get politics to the broad populace. Plus, it helped that he looked good, spoke good, had good ideas, was successful, and had a great looking wife and kids...
Well, now 45 years later, we have a new horizon. Is what it took then good enough for the White House. Obama, looks good, speaks good, has some good ideas, is successful, has a good looking wife and kids, I'd say yes...McCain doesn't really look good anymore, doesn't speak well, doesn't really have good ideas, has a good looking wife...is this enough for the White House?
Now, we reach a new playing field through technology, the elite family money, and celebrity politics as we will see in this video...
It's a brave new world out there folks! You gotta love it!
Never did I think that I might see this woman say something, even if she didn't think it or write it, that would have some substance to it. Perhaps her writers should move to the McCant camp to help them out a bit.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Lies, deceipt, ...just another day in politics!
I got an email from a friend, who I am hoping sent it by mistake, but it discussed the "disgrace" that Obama spent money refurbishing a plane, and it seems "took the flag off" the tail of the plane. Perhaps this action was done in order to PAINT the plane, and is all out of context. The email goes on about patriotism and such...
I get so tired of people stating that McCant is more patriotic than Obama, simply due to his service and a war prisoner. This does not a President or patriot make. The people that wave the flag issue around like this are usually the same people that have no other thoughts regarding issues and must resort to meaningless issues such as this. I use the word meaningless to make a point. That being, patriotism is when people force themselves to think about what is NOT right about this country, and force themselves to continuously ask questions and question authority and make things better because of it. This is true freedom and patriotism! These flag concerned citizens need to open their eyes as to what is happening to our country, and how it has gone down the toilet and deeply into debt due to total mismanagement and excess spending that this current administration has done. Through lies, deceit, and manipulation we have watched our country go to shit!
If being President and running things in this manner, or wanting to have the same again, is Patriotic, something is seriously wrong with our moral structure in America today.
The following article comes from Salon.com. Whether than question its authenticity and find its proof, the faithful Repugnicants will simply disavow it as false and state that our government wouldn't do something like this...Like finding a fall guy and drug addict lying therapist to bring the Anthrax scare to be falsely linked to Al Qaida.
This Al guy seems to be guilty of everything in the world, based on this administration. Perhaps this is due to the fact that they want to find accountability, as long as it is not them.
War Room
By Alex Koppelman
Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008 10:34 EDT
White House ordered forgery
I'll of course leave it to Glenn Greenwald, since this story falls right in his wheelhouse, to put this news into greater historical context, but I am honestly not sure whether to scream or yawn anymore when informed of new evidence of how mendaciously the Bush administration behaved in the run-up to the Iraq war.
The latest development is the alleged attempt by the administration to get the CIA to forge and backdate a memo concocting some bogus link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, as reported in Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism." The White House, of course, denies the allegation. "The allegation that the White House directed anyone to forge a document from [former Iraqi intelligence director Tahir Jalil] Habbush to Saddam is just absurd," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
Yes, Mr. Fratto, how absurd -- because, like, there's just no historical precedent with this administration for lying, misleading or manipulating intelligence. We should all be ashamed of ourselves for such absurdities.
― Thomas Schaller
I get so tired of people stating that McCant is more patriotic than Obama, simply due to his service and a war prisoner. This does not a President or patriot make. The people that wave the flag issue around like this are usually the same people that have no other thoughts regarding issues and must resort to meaningless issues such as this. I use the word meaningless to make a point. That being, patriotism is when people force themselves to think about what is NOT right about this country, and force themselves to continuously ask questions and question authority and make things better because of it. This is true freedom and patriotism! These flag concerned citizens need to open their eyes as to what is happening to our country, and how it has gone down the toilet and deeply into debt due to total mismanagement and excess spending that this current administration has done. Through lies, deceit, and manipulation we have watched our country go to shit!
If being President and running things in this manner, or wanting to have the same again, is Patriotic, something is seriously wrong with our moral structure in America today.
The following article comes from Salon.com. Whether than question its authenticity and find its proof, the faithful Repugnicants will simply disavow it as false and state that our government wouldn't do something like this...Like finding a fall guy and drug addict lying therapist to bring the Anthrax scare to be falsely linked to Al Qaida.
This Al guy seems to be guilty of everything in the world, based on this administration. Perhaps this is due to the fact that they want to find accountability, as long as it is not them.
War Room
By Alex Koppelman
Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008 10:34 EDT
White House ordered forgery
I'll of course leave it to Glenn Greenwald, since this story falls right in his wheelhouse, to put this news into greater historical context, but I am honestly not sure whether to scream or yawn anymore when informed of new evidence of how mendaciously the Bush administration behaved in the run-up to the Iraq war.
The latest development is the alleged attempt by the administration to get the CIA to forge and backdate a memo concocting some bogus link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, as reported in Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism." The White House, of course, denies the allegation. "The allegation that the White House directed anyone to forge a document from [former Iraqi intelligence director Tahir Jalil] Habbush to Saddam is just absurd," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
Yes, Mr. Fratto, how absurd -- because, like, there's just no historical precedent with this administration for lying, misleading or manipulating intelligence. We should all be ashamed of ourselves for such absurdities.
― Thomas Schaller
Monday, August 4, 2008
and nothing but the truth...
There is an unknown line that people know exists in order to reach, rich. That is, that it is a relative term, rich. In regards to the monetary definition it takes a bit more today than it used to twenty years ago. Back then, rich might have meant a few hundred million or so. But now...it takes a billion or more. There are over 1000 known ( I will add) billionaires in the world. This elite group of people keep getting richer and richer...exponentially.
Oh, by the by, I think minimum wage increased recently after about ten years.
If aliens were to show up here, with their advanced minds, and technologies and see the means of living with global business and commerce would they find our capitalistic means of opportunity (or control) good? Would they see that this fair, NOT, and balanced, NOT, process of economics appropriate for the long term survival of our species? As a global community it has come to that phrase.
Are what we doing and the road we are all traveling in this global community feesible to sustain ourselves as a specie? For how long? Do we continue despite the fact that our actions will create timetables for not only our survival as a specie, but perhaps the survival of the planet as well?
Oh, by the by, I think minimum wage increased recently after about ten years.
If aliens were to show up here, with their advanced minds, and technologies and see the means of living with global business and commerce would they find our capitalistic means of opportunity (or control) good? Would they see that this fair, NOT, and balanced, NOT, process of economics appropriate for the long term survival of our species? As a global community it has come to that phrase.
Are what we doing and the road we are all traveling in this global community feesible to sustain ourselves as a specie? For how long? Do we continue despite the fact that our actions will create timetables for not only our survival as a specie, but perhaps the survival of the planet as well?
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Opus...not the wine...the Penguin!
I thought this would be good for a Sunday "school" lesson...Click it so that it is large enough to read, as I thought it was hilarious! I love the penguin dude!
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