"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
But no reformer can admit he's simply refusing to surrender his huge dollar advantage. So as Sheila Krunmholz of the Center for Responsive Politics perfectly puts it, "Barack Obama is taking the high road all the way to the bank."
The Illinois Democrat argues the "public financing system as it exists today is broken." But indefatigable campaign reformer Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 notes Obama "knew the circumstances surrounding the presidential general election when he made his pledge to use the system."
Obama also charges his GOP opponent's campaign and the Republican National Committee "are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and PACs." And what about those "so-called 527 groups who will spend millions of dollars in unregulated donations?"
Sounds good until you check the facts.
McCain has raised a grand total of $650,000 from the lobbying industry (Obama pledges not to accept lobbyists' or PAC money), according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and just 1 percent of his contributions are from PACs. Talk about a paper tiger.
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Obama did not "aggressively pursue" any agreement. He did not sit down with John McCain.
He did not do what he told us he would do. He may very well win the White House. But even if he does, Barack Obama will still be just one more politician who broke his word.
Listening to political talk requires a third ear that hears what is not said. Today's near silence about crime probably is evidence of social improvement. For many reasons, including better policing and more incarceration, Americans feel, and are, safer. The New York Times has not recently repeated such amusing headlines as "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling" (1997), "Prison Population Growing Although Crime Rate Drops" (1998), "Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction" (2000) and "More Inmates, Despite Slight Drop in Crime" (2003).
If crime revives as an issue, it will be through liberal complaints about something that has reduced the salience of the issue -- the incarceration rate. And any revival will be awkward for Barack Obama. Liberalism likes victimization narratives and the related assumption that individuals are blank slates on which "society" writes. Hence liberals locate the cause of crime in flawed social conditions that liberalism supposedly can fix.
Last July, Obama said that "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities." Actually, there are more than twice as many black men ages 18 to 24 in college as there are in jail. Last September he said, "We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives." But Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, writing in the institute's City Journal, notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population. Furthermore, Mac Donald cites data indicating that:
"In the overwhelming majority of cases, prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Absent recidivism or a violent crime, the criminal-justice system will do everything it can to keep you out of the state or federal slammer."
Gallup's annual update on confidence in institutions finds just 12% of Americans expressing confidence in Congress, the lowest of the 16 institutions tested this year, and the worst rating Gallup has measured for any institution in the 35-year history of this question.
It’s difficult to contemplate solutions to this problem when so few politicians, civil servants, and academics seem willing to talk about it—or even to admit that it exists. Janikowski and Betts are in an awkward position. They are both white academics in a city with many African American political leaders. Neither of them is a Memphis native. And they know that their research will fuel the usual NIMBY paranoia about poor people destroying the suburbs. “We don’t want Memphis to be seen as the armpit of the nation,” Betts said. “And we don’t want to be the ones responsible for framing these issues in the wrong way.”
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Senator David Boren, former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Greg Craig, former director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning
Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig
Representative Lee Hamilton, former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder
Dr. Tony Lake, former National Security Advisor
Senator Sam Nunn, former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Secretary of Defense William Perry
Dr. Susan Rice, former Assistant Secretary of State
Representative Tim Roemer, 9/11 Commissioner
Jim Steinberg, former Deputy National Security Advisor
Back when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Dr. Barack could have taken positions on politically uncomfortable issues. But Fast Eddie Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times. From time to time, he threw his voting power under the truck.
Dr. Barack said he could no more disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than disown his own grandmother. Then the political costs of Rev. Wright escalated and Fast Eddie Obama threw Wright under the truck.
Dr. Barack could have been a workhorse senator. But primary candidates don’t do tough votes, so Fast Eddie Obama threw the workhorse duties under the truck.
Dr. Barack could have changed the way presidential campaigning works. John McCain offered to have a series of extended town-hall meetings around the country. But favored candidates don’t go in for unscripted free-range conversations. Fast Eddie Obama threw the new-politics mantra under the truck.
And then on Thursday, Fast Eddie Obama had his finest hour. Barack Obama has worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent much of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works. In February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a longtime advocate of the public-financing system.
But Thursday, at the first breath of political inconvenience, Fast Eddie Obama threw public financing under the truck. In so doing, he probably dealt a death-blow to the cause of campaign-finance reform. And the only thing that changed between Thursday and when he lauded the system is that Obama’s got more money now.
Do you think the Reverend will stand in front of his congregation and cry those Jimmy Swagert crocodile tears?A year after the Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposed Gore’s prodigious personal use of electricity at his Nashville mansion (20 times the national average), the center reported this week that Gore’s personal electricity consumption during the past year actually increased by 10 percent.
So while he campaigns for Americans to curtail their electricity use — you should take cold showers, forego air conditioning and dry your clothes on a clothesline — Gore is plugging in and turning on more than ever.
He tried to defend himself by stating that his family "has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power …, installing solar panels and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy-saving technology."
A woman appeared in court Wednesday on accusations that she helped her daughter beat up another girl.
Police said Duyanna Anderson held the 12-year-old girl down so her 12-year-old daughter could hit and choke her.
Taxpayers spent more than $170,000 to send Gov. Mike Easley, his wife and a dozen others on a nine-day business-recruiting trip to Italy.The expenses ranged from $700 for a lunch for eight in Rome to $61,000 for a daily chauffeured Mercedes just for North Carolina's first couple, referred to on the invoice as "Governor Easley and Lady Easley."
The state released documents concerning the April trip after a public records request, but the bills are still coming in. Still unknown are expenses for Easley's security detail and the head of the state Commerce Department.
The question class. What party is he?
A secure retirement is no longer a guarantee for the middle class. It's harder to save and harder to retire. People are losing their pensions. If we do not act, the promise of Social Security will grow harder to keep. That's why I will fight every day to extend the promise of a retirement that is dignified and secure when I am President of the United States.
It starts with protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever. For millions of Americans, Social Security is the difference between a comfortable retirement and the risk of poverty. We have an obligation to secure the future of one of the most successful programs in our history. And that starts with talking straight to the American people about the challenges that lie ahead.
Maryland state prosecutors raided the home of Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday as part of an investigation into past spending practices at City Hall, the most aggressive move so far in the years-long probe.
After spending more than seven hours inside, state prosecutors and police emerged from Dixon's house - in Hunting Ridge, along the city's western border with Baltimore County - carrying boxes, folders and a blue cooler they had brought in with them.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the search and gave no indication of what they were looking for or what they removed from Dixon's home. Asked about the raid as she left her house yesterday morning, Dixon responded: "Ask them."
The mayor kept to her schedule, and several political allies defended her publicly, but the search - a strong indication that Dixon is at the center of the investigation - had a disquieting effect on City Hall.
Two Muslim women at Barack Obama's rally in Detroit Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women's headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.
The campaign has apologized to the women, all Obama supporters who said they felt betrayed by their treatment at the rally.
"This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers."
BOTH THE CREATION of the Contract with America in 1994 and its subsequent abandonment can be explained in terms of the conflict in government between what I call legislative entrepreneurs and legislative bureaucrats. In 1994, when we wrote the Contract, entrepreneurs were strong. Today, as most of the time, bureaucrats are running things.
By legislative entrepreneur, I mean a person who has a set of principles and is willing to take risks on its behalf. A legislative bureaucrat, by contrast, seeks only to perpetuate the current situation with the motive of remaining safely in office. The fact that legislative bureaucrats are usually in command reminds me of Armey’s Axiom Number One: “The market is rational. The government is dumb.” I know the former to be true as someone who has studied economics. I know the latter to be true as someone who spent a long time in Congress.
One of the greatest entrepreneurial moments in the history of human government was the writing of our Constitution. America’s Founders understood clearly what it means to accomplish a goal on behalf of ideas and principles that rise above self-interest. George Washington might have become our king, but chose not to. His governing idea was that government is our servant because we are inherently free. It is an idea too many in government today forget.
Manon Jones, 18, suffered bleeding and went into shock after part of the embryo remained inside her.I guess condoms weren't available since someone sent 16,000 down to Antarctica.Doctors admitted her care on the night she died was compromised because they were so busy dealing with other cases and had they had more time to treat her "things could have been different".
Apparently the Obamas of Kenya have been reading those scurrilous emails to which Barack likes to refer, because they have no doubt -- contrary to the claims of the Obama campaign, that the presidential candidate was raised a Moslem. They take that as a given.
As the Jerusalem Post reports, "Barack Obama's half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background. In an interview with Army Radio he expressed a special salutation from the Obamas of Kenya."
Meet Diane Usher. Why is Diane in the news?A Milford mother was arrested late Monday and charged with participating in a drug transaction while her two small children in tow, police said.Now come November, will Diane cast her presidential ballot for ....Diane Unser, 38, is held this morning at the Hamilton County jail on charges of drug possession and child endangering, court records show.
She was arrested about 11 p.m. on Globe Avenue after Norwood police’s drug task force discovered her with crack cocaine, court records show.
A judge in Ohio says the state's method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs used in the lethal injection process can cause pain.Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said Tuesday the state's lethal injection procedure doesn't provide the quick and painless death required by Ohio law.
Burge said Ohio must stop allowing a combination of drugs and focus instead on a single, anesthetic drug.
The ruling is likely be appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ohio has executed 26 inmates since it resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999.
HT Brian Thomas
So the state increases the minimum wage so I make less money and pay less in taxes, then they ban smoking in my bar which has reduced my business by 20%. Now I get a letter from the governor asking for my support of on line Keno. He can kiss my ass.You go Pops.
Where was all this interest in my business before all that other shit passed?
