Sarah Palin VP Nominee

Sen. John McCain has proven once again that he is not the typical "in the box" Republican. His choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate makes that perfectly clear to this old-time Democrat.

Sen. Obama has touted all too often in his many speeches that his campaign is all about change, in essence running against the so-called Washington establishment as an almost "outsider." (He fails to remember that he is, of course, one of the Washington elite.) Well, when push turned to shove he chose a very Washington "insider" to share his ticket in Joe Biden of the "good old boy" network.

John McCain on the other hand chose "outsider" Gov. Palin to fill his ticket to the amazement of all the party faithful, let alone all the talking heads in the media.

Democrat Party front persons are crying publicly that Palin has no real experience and that should McCain become President and die in office the former Mayor of a tiny Alaskan town would take over, a person with no experience. Heaven forbid! What they fail to admit is that if Obama is elected, we will have a president with NO EXPERIENCE from the get go. You decide. Furthermore the spin doctors keep preaching to us that electing McCain is like having a third Bush term. That is a bunch of bull and thinking people know it. I'd rather have someone occupying the White House that I believe will not cause immediate drastic change than someone I no idea in the world what he will do.

Professional politics is the biggest game in our country giving every eligible citizen an opportunity to play. The great pity is that so many opt out. In total, we are governed by a minority. A minority that takes the time to express themselves at the polls. These are the folk who make the difference.

John McCain is running against two people; Barack Obama and George W. Bush and his legacy. If defeated it will be solely due to the legacy and not to Obama's campaign.

Is Joe Praying Already?

Has Joe figured out what a fine mess he has gotten himself into and is he praying for Divine intervention from above? Sure looks like it to me. Now that he has to play "nice" with Sarah Palin, what will he do? What will he do?

Bill's Convention Speech

(My personal note: I wouldn't trust the former President alone in a room with my sister; but my respect for him as a thinker and a world-class leader is unparalleled. This is why it is so hard me to stomach the following after all was said by him during the primary season. He was right then and so dead wrong now. I wonder if this left a bad taste in his mouth once delivered. Bet it did, at least I hope so. He can't really, totally believe what he told the convention, surly!)

"I am honored to be here tonight to support Barack Obama. And to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden, though as you'll soon see, he doesn't need any help from me. I love Joe Biden, and America will too.
What a year we Democrats have had. The primary began with an all-star lineup and came down to two remarkable Americans locked in a hard-fought contest to the very end. The campaign generated so much heat it increased global warming.
In the end, my candidate didn't win. But I'm very proud of the campaign she ran: She never quit on the people she stood up for, on the changes she pushed for, on the future she wants for all our children. And I'm grateful for the chance Chelsea and I had to tell Americans about the person we know and love.
I'm not so grateful for the chance to speak in the wake of her magnificent address last night. But I'll do my best. Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.
That makes two of us.
Actually that makes 18 million of us — because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.
Here's why.
Our nation is in trouble on two fronts: The American Dream is under siege at home, and America's leadership in the world has been weakened.
Middle class and low-income Americans are hurting, with incomes declining; job losses, poverty and inequality rising; mortgage foreclosures and credit card debt increasing; health care coverage disappearing; and a big spike in the cost of food, utilities, and gasoline.
Our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation; a perilous dependence on imported oil; a refusal to lead on global warming; a growing indebtedness and a dependence on foreign lenders; a severely burdened military; a backsliding on global nonproliferation and arms control agreements; and a failure to consistently use the power of diplomacy, from the Middle East to Africa to Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe.
Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American dream and restore America's standing in the world.
Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.
He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful president needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever-more inter-dependent world. The long, hard primary tested and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park.
With Joe Biden's experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama's proven understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need.
Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.
He will work for an America with more partners and fewer adversaries. He will rebuild our frayed alliances and revitalize the international institutions which help to share the costs of the world's problems and to leverage our power and influence. He will put us back in the forefront of the world's fight to reduce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and to stop global warming. He will continue and enhance our nation's global leadership in an area in which I am deeply involved, the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria, including a renewal of the battle against HIV/AIDS here at home. He will choose diplomacy first and military force as a last resort. But in a world troubled by terror; by trafficking in weapons, drugs and people; by human rights abuses; by other threats to our security, our interests, and our values, when he cannot convert adversaries into partners, he will stand up to them.
Barack Obama also will not allow the world's problems to obscure its opportunities. Everywhere, in rich and poor countries alike, hard-working people need good jobs; secure, affordable health care, food, and energy; quality education for their children; and economically beneficial ways to fight global warming. These challenges cry out for American ideas and American innovation. When Barack Obama unleashes them, America will save lives, win new allies, open new markets, and create new jobs for our people.
Most important, Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.
Look at the example the Republicans have set: American workers have given us consistently rising productivity. They've worked harder and produced more. What did they get in return? Declining wages, less than 1/4 as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s. American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage.
I will never forget the parents of children with autism and other severe conditions who told me on the campaign trail that they couldn't afford health care and couldn't qualify their kids for Medicaid unless they quit work or got a divorce. Are these the family values the Republicans are so proud of? What about the military families pushed to the breaking point by unprecedented multiple deployments? What about the assault on science and the defense of torture? What about the war on unions and the unlimited favors for the well-connected? What about Katrina and cronyism?
America can do better than that. And Barack Obama will.
But first we have to elect him.
The choice is clear. The Republicans will nominate a good man who served our country heroically and suffered terribly in Vietnam. He loves our country every bit as much as we all do. As a senator, he has shown his independence on several issues. But on the two great questions of this election, how to rebuild the American Dream and how to restore America's leadership in the world, he still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years, a philosophy we never had a real chance to see in action until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades were implemented.
They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 1/2 million falling into poverty — and millions more losing their health insurance.
Now, in spite of all the evidence, their candidate is promising more of the same: More tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy. More Band-Aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families and increase the number of uninsured. More going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.
They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more. Let's send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm.
My fellow Democrats, sixteen years ago, you gave me the profound honor to lead our party to victory and to lead our nation to a new era of peace and broadly shared prosperity.
Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.
His life is a 21st Century incarnation of the American dream. His achievements are proof of our continuing progress toward the "more perfect union" of our founders' dreams. The values of freedom and equal opportunity which have given him his historic chance will drive him as president to give all Americans, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability, their chance to build a decent life, and to show our humanity, as well as our strength, to the world.
We see that humanity, that strength, and our future in Barack and Michelle Obama and their beautiful children. We see them reinforced by the partnership with Joe Biden, his wife Jill, a dedicated teacher, and their family.
Barack Obama will lead us away from division and fear of the last eight years back to unity and hope. If, like me, you still believe America must always be a place called Hope, then join Hillary, Chelsea and me in making Sen. Barack Obama the next president of the United States.

The Candidate of Change Went With The Status Quo.

In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness — inexperience in office and on foreign policy — rather than underscore his strength as a new-generation candidate defying political conventions.

He picked a 35-year veteran of the Senate — the ultimate insider — rather than a candidate from outside Washington, such as Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; or from outside his party, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; or from outside the mostly white male club of vice presidential candidates. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't even make his short list.
The picks say something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old Illinois senator worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack. The Biden selection is the next logistical step in an Obama campaign that has become more negative — a strategic decision that may be necessary but threatens to run counter to his image.

So the question is whether Biden's depth counters Obama's inexperience — or highlights it? After all, Biden is anything but a change agent, having been in office longer than half of all Americans have been alive. Longer than McCain. And he talks too much.

101 US deaths in Afghanistan

Taliban insurgents once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops have transformed into a fighting force — one advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace. The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., a 36-year-old from Marrero, La., died of gunfire wounds while helping train Afghan police in the northwest. The total number of U.S. dead last year — 111 — was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed.
Top U.S. generals, European presidents and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.

Where are all those "warlords" that was given so much credit for dethroning the Taliban after 9-11? There have been U.S. forces in Afghanistan for over 5 years waging a half-hearted military effort. Its amazing how we can win a war and not the peace. Same is true for Iraq.

What we have never learned it that these are tribal societies whose people have no allegiance outside their extended family group. Our western culture and way of thinking won't allow us to comprehend their rational. Uneducated people cannot rule themselves in a so-called democratic elected government that we are so determined to force on them. They do not have the socio-economic where-with-all that fosters independent thinking outside the group. It appears to be a fact that it takes a heavy fisted leader to keep all the different factions in line. Fear seems to be the greatest motivator of people. When we successfully topple dictatorial governments we open the barn door and all hell breaks. Especially in countries that our world leaders created after WWII forcing people with centuries old hatreds to live under one roof so to speak.

Look what happened to Yugoslavia after the death in 1980 of Communist Marshal Tito who was its leader from the inception March 7, 1945. The "Democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" was proclaimed in 1943 eventually encompassing Istria, Eijeka, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Vojvodina, Kosovo and Slovenia. Yugoslavia ceased to be in 2006 when Serbia and Montenegro declared independence. Peoples forced together had to break free from one another, even after 61 years. We have all witnessed the violence and loss of life in the region since.

The same is true of Iraq. The strong arm leader is dead who once held all the different warring groups and political parties together. Civil war will surely breakout after our departure dissolving what is now Iraq into possibility 3 autonomous regions ruled by Kurds, Sunnies and Shites respectfully. The sad part is counting all the innocent civilian lives lost there because of our unwarranted invasion. People who may well be alive today if George W. Bush had not attempted to prove his manhood at cost U.S. and Allied soldiers lives and the billions, if not trillions, of dollars spent. All for what? Nothing! I puzzles me how George W. Bush can sleep at night when knowing of the suffering he has caused. My only conclusion is, he has no conscience.

Brother George ~ Obama's Not Liberace's

George Obama says he is sure his half-brother will win the U.S. presidency in November.

HURUMA, Kenya (CNN) -- We found Barack Obama's half-brother living in a Nairobi slum. George Obama, whose birth certificate shows that he is Barack Obama's half-brother, lives in a small house in Huruma that he shares with his mother's extended family, far away from the presidential campaign circus.
In his memoir, "Dreams for my Father," the Democratic presidential candidate describes meeting George as a "painful affair." Barack Obama's trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known.
In the book, which is popular in Nairobi and can be found in almost any supermarket, Obama looks back at his personal story and his struggles to reconcile with a Kenyan father who left him and his mother when he was just a child.
Barack Obama Sr. died in a car accident when George was just 6 months old. And like his half-brother, George hardly knew his father. George was his father's last child and had not been aware of his famous half-brother.
"I think I wanted to learn about my father the same way he did," George Obama told me about why he read the book. "He came here searching for his roots, and I was also trying to find my roots."

Unlike his grandmother in Kogela, in Western Kenya, George Obama had received little attention from the media. But reports surfaced in the past few days, springing from an Italian Vanity Fair article saying George Obama is living in a shack and "earning less than a dollar a day."
The reports left him angry. "I was brought up well. I live well even now," he said. "The magazines, they have exaggerated everything.
"I think I kind of like it here. There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges," Obama said.
Obama, who is in his mid-20s, is learning to become a mechanic and is active in youth groups in Huruma. He said he tries to help the community as much as he can.
At least one of his neighbors feels that perhaps the candidate should help the brother.
"I would like Obama to visit his brother to see how he is living, to improve his way of life," said Emelda Negei, who runs a small dispensary near Obama's house.
But George Obama will have none of it. He draws inspiration from his famous half-brother. He acknowledges that he is biased but said he knows that his half-brother will be the next president.
"Because he wants to be [president]," he said. "I think in life, what you want is what you are supposed to get."

Joe's The Man

Obama chose long winded Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, an eastern liberal, as his vice presidential running mate. Isn't Biden the man who had, "denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgment and had strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be president." Later when asked; Biden said he would stand by his earlier statement that Obama was not ready to serve as president in an ABC interview. In the same interview last year, Biden also said, "the presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." Guess he changed his mind!

Isn't he the fellow who said, "I am not running for vice president," in a Fox interview. "I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I'd rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president." Isn't he also the fellow who stumbled on the first day of his race for the 2008 presidential Democratic nomination, apologizing for having described Obama as "clean." It was Biden's second try for the White House. The first ended badly in 1988 when he was caught lifting lines from a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

We all know that politics makes for "strange bedfellow." Biden may appeal to insider Democrats but out here in the heartland, is doesn't mean much. I can't see that his being the one picked will sway many voters who don't now support Obama. In parting all I can say is, "Thanks goodness it wasn't Hillary." She need not be associated with a failing campaign. Make ready for 2012.

Agreeable John McCain Quote

"Washington is full of talented talkers," McCain said. "The bottom line is that Sen. Obama's words, for all their eloquence and passion, don't mean all that much."

Zippers

When I entered the workforce after college my Dad tended to give a lot of advice or as my brother and I termed it, "the benefit of his sage wisdom." As boys we were often to told by him when he was ill humored with us, "I've told you enough to make a lawyer out of you!" Since he wasn't a lawyer we couldn't figure how he knew exactly how much a lawyer had to know. Anyway back to my point. One important thing he did say, and one that I adhered to all my working life was, "Don't look at the world through the fly of your pants."

What brings to mind now is the latest stupidity of John Edwards'. (Her photo upper left corner) What is mind boggling to me is how these guys think that they can shag some sweet thing and the world never be the wiser. To prove that most do not get by with it, check out this list: Marc Dann - Ohio Attorney General - extramarital affair / Paul Morrison - Kansas Attorney General - extramarital affair / Eliot Spitzer -Governor of New York cavorting with a prostitute / Kwane Kilpatrick - Detroit Mayor - extramarital affair / Antonio Villaraigosa - Los Angeles Mayor - extramarital affair / Gavin Newsom - San Franciso Mayor - extramarital affair / Jim McGreevey - Governor of New Jersey - homosexual extramarital affair / Bob Wise - Governor of West Virginia - extramarital affair / Paul Patton - Governor of Kentucky - affair / Gary Condit - (D-CA) affair with intern / Newt Gingrich - (R-Ga) - affair with congressional staffer / Bill Clinton - President of The United States - whatever it was with Monica Lewinsky.........HAD ENOUGH?

The pity is that I could list dozens more. These are men that we expected better of. These are men who proclaim from roof tops their stand on morality, common decency, mother and apple pie. Oh "they're just humans with normal human frailties" they say. Well in my way of thinking, when a person stands for election, he/she must be beyond reproach personally as well as publicly. In other words, keep your zipper tugged all the way to the top. These are no longer the days when men like FDR, JFK amd LBJ can have their little flings while we look the other way. We ought not and will not take it in stride any longer.

My last thought. How the hell did Elizabeth Edwards have the nerve to stand by John's side after she knew of his acts of adultry and tell the world by her presence that he was the best moral person to lead our great nation.

"Big Mouth Diplomacy"

Whatever happened to, "Speak softly and carry a big stick?" Around a hundred years ago then President Theodore Roosevelt made this phrase his foreign policy. Now "Big Stick Diplomacy" has been replaced by what I choose to call "Big Mouth Diplomacy." If any sovereign nation belches the Bush administration grabs a microphone and spouts off.

Our "Fearless Leader" reminds me of the school-yard bully's name calling and blustering to those gathered around. How can the President expect the leaders of a targeted country to give an ear when he's pissed them off. It's fine to speak one's mind if one indeed has a mind to speak. In his case that surely is in doubt. If I said everything out loud that I thought privately at times, there wouldn't be a soul in the country speaking to me ever. This country has fallen in disrepute in the eyes of the world because of George W. Bush and his near-sighted foreign policy (if it can really known as such). The respect we had as a country when Bush took Office has evaporated. We as a people are embarrassed by him at every turn. Being the "good old boy from Texas" wore thin pretty darn fast. His Dan Quayle-like "mis-speaks" was funny for awhile until we sadly became aware that they happened all too often and at inopportune times. Google his quotes. It's not funny! A man whose wayward mouth and misuse of American English ought not be allowed to speak publicly about America's concerns on the world stage. George all I have to say to you is, "Shut the hell up - shut your spokespersons the hell up - allow the State Department and the CIA to quietly go about the business of getting whatever needs to be done....done.

NEXT

What was the nation of Georgia thinking? Take on Russia's military might? No David and Goliath here. A lesson is to be learned. Want your ass kicked? Challenge an army who is gnawing at its sabers desperately needing to prove that it is still viable as the defender of a once great power.

White People No Longer Majority By 2042

White people will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2042, according to new government projections. That's eight years sooner than previous estimates, made in 2004. The nation has been growing more diverse for decades, but the process has sped up through immigration and higher birth rates among minority residents, especially Hispanics. It is also growing older.

"The white population is older and very much centered around the aging baby boomers who are well past their high fertility years," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "The future of America is epitomized by the young people today. They are basically the melting pot we are going to see in the future."

The Census Bureau Thursday released population projections through 2050, based on rates for births, deaths and immigration. They are subject to big revisions, depending on immigration policy, cultural changes and natural or manmade disasters.

The U.S. has nearly 305 million people today. The population is projected to hit 400 million in 2039 and 439 million in 2050. That's like adding all the people from France and Britain, said Steve A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that advocates tighter immigration policies. White non-Hispanics make up about two-thirds of the population, but only 55 percent of those younger than 5.

By 2050, whites will make up 46 percent of the population and blacks will make up 15 percent, a relatively small increase from today. Hispanics, who make up about 15 percent of the population today, will account for 30 percent in 2050, according to the new projections. Asians, which make up about 5 percent of the population, are projected to increase to 9 percent by 2050.

The population 85 and older is projected to more than triple by 2050, to 19 million.

Bush At The Olympics

2008 The Presidential Campaign Mess

I supported Hillary and now I'll vote for John. This will be the second time I have abandoned my party to vote for a Republican presidential candidate. The first was in 1972 when McGovern hi-jacked the Democrat Convention to face off against Nixon. I wasn't the only one who didn't care for our nominee. Nixon carried 49 states with 520 electoral votes opposed to McGovern's winning Massachusetts and D.C. with a grand total of 17 electoral votes. We real Democrats don't like being hi-jacked and now it has happened again. The Obama's bandwagon has rolled over the nation spreading good cheer, pretty words and nothing else. Yeah, I'll vote for John.

http://www.cecilsportal.com/interview_with_barack_obama.htm

The coming general election in November may prove to be more important to the future of the Democrat Party than the pundits realize. One must take notice of the make up of all the new registered party members touted by Obama's campaign and where are they are mostly located. Believe it or not, race is an issue. Should Obama win the general election certain leaders of the national black community, Al Sharpton comes to mind, will attempt to become power-brokers in an attempt, and maybe successfully so, to gain power in determining the outcome of future campaigns and elections. You can bet your sweet "patootie" I'm not the only one who has come to realize this. It is a proven fact in 2008 that the inner-city voters swung the final outcome of many State primaries. Had that adulterer John Edwards been found out prior to Iowa, it would be a Clinton-McCain battle this fall. In hind sight, Hillary's campaign could been more aggressive in this matter since we know now that it was aware of John's bed hoping. I for one will no longer vote for a smiling southern politician nor an ultra liberal north-easterner like John Kerry.

What I see as "the" problem for McCain is that people who don't support him are in all actually voting against Bush and John is their moving target. Bush will go down in history more despised than Lyndon Johnson.

Who benefits the most if Obama wins? The Republican Party! It will be rewarded by a mass migration of white voters. Watch and see fellow Democrats if my words don't prove to be right. Yes, race is an issue and may become more of one should Obama be come Commander and Chief.

http://www.cecilsportal.com/arrest_bush.htm