In 1976, I unfortunately didn't have the chance to watch Barbara Jordan's Keynote Speech to the Democratic Convention in New York (I think I was at work). I do remember hearing and reading about her landmark speech. Jordan was the first Black Woman to give the keynote address to a national convention of a major American political party. Like the Gettysburg Address Barbara Jordan's 1976 Keynote Address will stand out in American History as one of great speeches. Barbara Jordan's visionary Keynote Address stands the test of time and sounds just as relevant today as it did in 32 years ago at the Democratic Convention that nominated Jimmy Carter.
Last year John McCain voted to repeal the Federal Minimum Wage Law. A law millions of Americans depend on to keep their sub-poverty wages from falling even further behind the cost of living. The hardship involved in lowering the already shamefully low standard of living that America's working poor now must endure may boggle your and my mind, but not John McMaverick's. He thinks its a good idea.
JOHN McCAIN'S FAILING RECORD ON GOOD JOBSMcCain voted with the Republicans in 2007 to stall a clean minimum wage increase for working families--before bowing to public pressure and voting to pass the final bill that included tax breaks for businesses. He even voted to completely repeal the minimum wage laws in 45 states and allow the other five states to opt out of any future minimum wage increases above $5.15 an hour. [H.R. 2, Vote #23, 1/24/07; Vote #24, 1/24/07; Vote #25, 1/25/07; Vote #37, 1/31/07; Vote #39, 1/31/07; Vote #42, 1/31/07; S. 2766, Vote #179, 6/21/06; S. 256, Vote #26, 3/7/05]
Like many Americans I work for a corporation. I am lucky because I belong to a Union that helps give employees some say in the decisions our employer makes that govern our working lives. Being part of a union has improved my standard of living significantly.
This has not come without having to fight for it. We had to strike in 2005, in 2002, in 1995, and in 1989. Our employer keeps trying to give workers the shit end of the stick, and we have to keep clobbering Management with the blunt interment of a strike to remind the corporate elite that they don't constitute the whole company.
This year the company seems to want another strike. The company's contract proposal if full of putrid take away provisions, like the ones that would eliminate pensions, and retiree health care for new workers.
So now I am saving my money for a strike that is looking more and more likely. This strike could go on for weeks or it could go on for months, like the Strike in 1995 did, when we had enough backbone to reject the company's paltry fall back offer after being out for more than 2 months (after that second rejection the company caved).
Bush wants Congress to lift the ban on developing Oil Shale on federal lands on the Green River Plateau in Colorado and Utah.
That brought an immediate response from Colorado's Democratic Governor Bill Ritter:
GOV. RITTER CRITICIZES FEDS OVER OIL SHALE REGULATIONS"Someday the technology may exist that will allow us to responsibly extract oil from Colorado shale. But that day is years away. That day will only come when crucial questions about impacts to water, air quality, wildlife and our local communities -- are fully understood and answered. That day is not today. This was a premature and unnecessary act by the federal government that is not supported by science or technology.
Extracting oil from shale rock is an extremely dirty, insanely carbon intensive process, that will dump huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere because the shale rock has to be heated to 700 degrees to get the oil out.
The Editor of the The Austin American-Statesman has apologized for the Front Page Story that upset me and many other attendees of Netroots Nation 2008 at how we were portrayed, and especially upset the American-Statesman's readers in Austin.
Editor's note: Netroots Nation storyTuesday, July 22, 2008
Readers expect front-page stories to speak directly and clearly about events and issues. Eliminating the possibility of misunderstanding from our work is a critical part of our daily newsroom routine. When we communicate in a way that could be misinterpreted, we fail to meet our standards.
Our front-page story Sunday about the Netroots Nation convention included doses of irony and exaggeration. It made assertions (that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might find herself at home politically in Beijing, for example) and characterizations ("marauding liberals" was one) meant to amuse. For many readers, we failed.
Follow the Money: Who Profits?
In the four years leading up the Iraq War Exxon averaged a yearly net profit of $11.95 Billion. In the years since George Bush, started the Iraq War Exxon has averaged a yearly net profit of $32.6 Billion, an increase of 273% over the pre Iraq War average profit.
Year Exxon's Profit in
Billions of Dollars
1999 7.9
2000 10.9
2001 17.5
2002 11.5
2003 21.5
2004 25.3
2005 36.1
2006 39.5
2007 40.6
This is just so scary that the thought sends chills down my spine.
Going further, McCain even told Hayes in comments heretofore unpublished that he'd consider Cheney for an administration post.Asked whether he'd be interested in Cheney had the vice president not already have served under Bush for two terms, McCain said: "I don't know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah."
Hell, yeah?
Would McCain give Cheney his old job as Secretary of Defense back? The possibility just boggles my mind.
They have the same strengths? Well I guess they both share the paranoia common to NeoCons, and then there is their explosive tempers.
Obama is taking on McCain over Iraq, and specifically McCain's poor grasp of the situation in Iraq as revealed by McCain's erroneous claim that the U.S. has fewer troops in Iraq now than it did before the troop surge began. Obama is using McCain's gaffe to focus attention on McCain's abysmal record on Iraq, and undermine McCain's national security credentials in voters minds.
Here is the text of Obama's speech in Montana tonight.
"There are honest differences about how to move forward in Iraq, just like there were honest differences about whether or not we should go to war," Obama is supposed to say. "John McCain was for the invasion of Iraq; I opposed it. John McCain wants to continue George Bush's war in Iraq indefinitely; I want to end it. So there's going to be a clear choice for the American people this November.""But that's not what John McCain's been talking about the last few days. He's been proposing a joint trip to Iraq that's nothing more than a political stunt. He's even been using it to raise a few dollars for his campaign. But it seems like Sen. McCain's a lot more interested in my travel plans than the facts, because yesterday - in his continued effort to put the best light on a failed policy - he stood up in Wisconsin and said, 'We have drawn down to pre-surge levels' in Iraq."
"That's not true, and anyone running for commander-in-chief should know better. As the saying goes, you're entitled to your own view, but not your own facts. We've got around 150,000 troops in Iraq -- 20,000 more than we had before the surge. We have plans to get down to around 140,000 later this summer -- that's still more troops than we had in Iraq before the surge. And today, Sen. McCain refused to correct his mistake. Just like George Bush, when he was presented with the truth, he just dug in and refused to admit his mistake. His campaign said it amounts to 'nitpicking.'"
"Well, I don't think tens of thousands of American troops amounts to nitpicking. Tell that to the young men and women who are serving bravely and brilliantly under our flag. Tell that to the families who have seen their loved ones fight tour after tour after tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged."
"It's time for a debate that's based on the truth, and I can't think of anything more important than how many Americans are in harm's way. It's time for a debate that's based on how we're going to end this war -- not a debate that's based on raising a few dollars for John McCain's campaign."
"The American people have had enough spin. Just this week, we were reminded by President Bush's own former spokesman of how it was deception -- not straight talk -- that misled the American people into war. It's time to cut through the tough talk so that we can be straight with the American people about a war that's cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars without making us safer. It's time to end the political game-playing so that we can finally end this war. That's what I'll do in this campaign. And that's what I'll do when I'm President of the United States."
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2 008/05/30/1086950.aspx
Obama hit McCain HARD exactly where he is perceived as being strong. If Obama can drive home this message that McCain will continue to make America less safe by stubbornly clinging to Bush's occupation in Iraq for the foreseeable future, then McCain is toast.
· FL-21: Democrat Raul Martinez Leads Lincoln Diaz-Balart by 2 (HellofaSandwich)
· Richardson to speak at Invesco Field (fbihop)
· West Virginian rebuttal to Sen. Rockefeller DNC08 speech (WVaBlue)
· PUMAs are like the tooth fairy (fbihop)
· Start Preparing Now: Hurricane Gustav Aiming At New Orleans (NickD)
· NRCC Reserves $8.8M in Ad Time in 14 Districts (HellofaSandwich)
· DNC Turns Away Bloggers from Seating Area When Jack Danforth is Sitting There (NickD)
· MN-03: Madia hits the airwaves 'Running' (MN Campaign Report)
· A view from the convention floor (fbihop)
· Tim Pawlenty puts his foot in his mouth (MN Campaign Report)
· Twittering the Democratic National Convention (Jonathan Singer)
· Mark Warner Conference Call: Keynote Speech Preview (lowkell)
