94% of Senate Bills Passed Without Debate
Why are over 94% of Senate Bills passed without debate?
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Is this really how our government is supposed to work? What do you think? Let me know in comments.
Barack Obama’s Speech In Berlin - Full Video
Here is the full video of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin…
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Obama’s Berlin Speech Appears To Resonate With Crowd…
Tens of thousands of Germans, along with some resident Americans, filled Berlin’s Tiergarten park to hear Barack Obama talk about the U.S., Europe and their shared visions and challenges. It was a remarkable turnout for the lazy days of late July, when most Germans are more focused on summer vacations than foreign politics.
The audience repeatedly interrupted his speech with applause and cheers, and erupted in chants of “Yes, we can!”
A lot of Europeans are hoping Obama will give them a reason to love America again.
“I expect Obama to be a president who makes it possible to be proud of being a fan of the USA,” said Gerda Schulz, a 72-year-old retiree. Schulz has watched historic speeches here by a string of American presidents — John F. Kennedy in 1963, Ronald Reagan in 1987 and Bill Clinton in 1994 — and on Thursday added the Democratic presidential contender to the list.
Did you hear Barack Obama’s speech? What did you think?
CBS Aires Edited Interview of McCain with Katie Couric?
John McCain Iraq surge blunder. Why did CBS air a heavily edited interview of John McCain with Katie Couric?
Part One…
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Part Two…
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From America Blog…
This one is hard to even explain, it’s so bizarre. McCain, looking just awful on camera, made yet another major gaffe about national security policy, on CBS. So what did Katie Couric do? She aired the interview with McCain, aired the question that led to the gaffe, and then inserted an “answer” to the question that wasn’t the real gaffe-filled answer - it was something McCain said in a total other part of the interview. It’s absolutely astounding how far the corporate media is willing to go in order to defend John McCain. And seriously, take a good look at McCain in this video, I was kind of shocked by his appearance - he doesn’t look well at all.
From A Long Tough Blog…
This is ugly. Katie Couric asks John McCain a question - and she and/or her producers air his answer to another question. Because his actual answer was so embarrassingly wrong. That her firing hasn’t been announced already shows us how bad off we are.
From Crooks and Liars…
As I reported earlier, CBS violated their own Standards when it aired the heavily edited interview of John McCain with Katie Couric. A CBS spokesman tried to defend their behavior and told TV Newser:
Of the 14-minute interview, a little less than three minutes was used on the Evening News. A CBS spokesperson tells TVNewser, “As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night’s Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates’ major differences. The full transcript and video were and still are available at CBSNews.com.â€
OK, so this person is saying that they edited these segments to ‘ give viewers a fair expression of the candidates’ major differences’.
I’m sorry that is not what CBS did in this case and maybe the spokesman should look at their own standards in editing and then get back to me.
From Media Matters…
On the July 22 edition of the CBS Evening News, while airing portions of an interview she conducted that day with Sen. John McCain, anchor Katie Couric removed a part of his response in which he falsely asserted that the 2007 U.S. troop surge “began the Anbar awakening.” In fact, the so-called Anbar awakening reportedly began in September 2006, months before the surge was even announced. Couric had asked McCain, “Senator [Barack] Obama says while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shia government going after militias, and says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What’s your response to that?” But rather than airing McCain’s direct reply, including the false claim that the surge “began the Anbar awakening” — an agreement by some tribal leaders in western Iraq to accept U.S. aid and cooperate with anti-Al Qaeda operations — Couric aired comments by McCain spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview, one of which responded to a different question. Couric gave no indication that these comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note McCain’s falsehood.
So…Why would CBS edit this interview with John McCain? How do we know this is the only time they have done something like this? What do you think?
Afghan Surge Not Likely
Even though Afghanistan has become more deadly for our troops than Iraq, there will be no surge. It’s because of the war in Iraq, that there is just not enough troops available for a surge in Afghanistan. This will be another mess that the Bush administration will leave behind for the next President.
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From Jessica…
First off, let’s be clear about what “surge†was supposed to mean in reference to Iraq. It was supposed to mean that troops would be added to trouble spots in Iraq for a period of six months. The addition of these troops was supposed to bring down violence so that political reconciliation could take place (as the violence levels were being blamed for the lack of political reconciliation). After the six month period, the troops were to be withdrawn, this was why the administration was calling it a “surge†and not what it really was, an escalation. (Keen observers might note that the “surge†has, in fact, lasted an entire year and that the ultimate goal - political reconciliation - is still very far from being achieved.). . .
Afghanistan has needed reinforcements for a long time as the forces there have, for many months, been losing the ground that was initially gained. Resources were directed away from Afghanistan when we went to war in Iraq and we’ve been paying the price for it dearly. This month will likely be the third month that U.S. casualties in Afghanistan are outpacing those in Iraq and considering we a much smaller force in Afghanistan, that’s really not good. Paul Reickhoff, Executive Director of the veteran organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America says that many soldiers that served there call it “Forgotistan.â€
So, we hear a lot about how the surge in Iraq is working, and how important it is for us to “win” the war in Iraq. But…Are we winning the war in Iraq at the expense of our troops in Afghanistan? Could we “lose” the war in Afghanistan? Let me know what you think in comments.
Housing Bill Passes - Will It Help Home Owners?
The House has passed the Housing Bill after Bush says he will now sign it.
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From The New York Times…
But the legislation, much of which has been debated and fretted over on Capitol Hill for months, also leaves numerous questions unanswered. The biggest unknown is whether the measure will be adequate to slow the downward spiral of home prices and help the economy recover from what many analysts now expect to be a prolonged slowdown.
Perhaps most significantly, the legislation hardens the government’s long-implicit assurance that it would step in to rescue the two mortgage giants who together own or guarantee about $5.2 trillion of the nation’s $12 trillion in mortgages. Currently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee financing for about 80 percent of new mortgages.
To accommodate a potential rescue for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bill raises the national debt limit to $10.6 trillion, an increase of $800 billion.
From Tami Winfrey Harris at The Political Voices of Women…
What Your President Says When He Thinks You’re Not Listening.
Of course we knew this all along. When President George W. Bush is with his cronies behind closed doors and the cameras are (supposedly) turned off, sometimes he lets a little truth slip out.
Greg Mitchell of The Huffington Post reports that Houston’s ABC affiliate has produced embarrassing footage of Bush at a local fund-raiser for Pete Olson, blaming Wall Street for “getting drunk†and screwing up the American economy.
In footage obtained by reporter Maya Shay, a smirking Bush says…
From the Politisite…
The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed the long-awaited housing rescue bill (H.R. 3221) sending it now for a last Senate approval before President Bush can sign it into law.
From The Back Story…
There has been a lot of wrangling over this bill. Until today, the president has been threatening a veto over $3.9 billion in grants to local governments to buy up abandoned houses. The president called that a bailout.
But included in the bill are guarantees to back housing mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and those guarantees sure look like bailouts as well. I’m not referring to the loan guarantees. I’m talking about the government’s promise to use tax dollars to buy Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae stock, in the event that their stock prices tumble.
What do you think about the Housing Bill? Will it help the average homeowner?
What Your President Says When He Thinks You’re Not Listening
Of course we knew this all along. When President George W. Bush is with his cronies behind closed doors and the cameras are (supposedly) turned off, sometimes he lets a little truth slip out.
Greg Mitchell of The Huffington Post reports that Houston’s ABC affiliate has produced embarrassing footage of Bush at a local fund-raiser for Pete Olson, blaming Wall Street for “getting drunk” and screwing up the American economy.
In footage obtained by reporter Maya Shay, a smirking Bush says:
It is uncertain, there’s no question about it.
Wall Street got drunk, it got drunk, (it’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off your tv cameras.) It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up, and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.
And now we got a housing issue, not in Houston, and evidently, not in Dallas, because Laura was over there trying to buy a house today. (laugher.. Crawford!)
I like Crawford, unfortunately after eight years of asking her to sacrifice, I’m now no longer the decision maker. She’ll be deciding, thanks for the suggestion! I suggest you don’t yell it out when she’s here. Later, telling her “Hey honey, we’ve been on government pay now for 14 years… so go slow!”
It’s uh.. caused me to lose my train of thought. Anyway.
If American corporations are drunk, then surely it is the Republicans (with their deregulation, tax cuts and adoration of greed) that bought Wall Street the hooch. Officially, we’ll hear that the economy is correcting itself…that the bad times are in our heads…that we’re whining. But in private, Bush and his ilk know exactly what happened. Indeed, they made it all possible.
For any Joe or Jane Q. Public who still believes the Bush administration and Republicans care about average people, take note: There is no housing crisis, because Laura is able to go a-hunting for mansions in Dallas. (And you wondered how long it would take the Bushes to leave Crawford, Texas, once their reign of terror ended. Now you know.)
This video, which has already disappeared from You Tube, ought to awaken the American public to the wanton callousness of the Republican Party. But will it?
Women Leading in Technology and Politics or Policy
This list began at sairy.com as a response to a Mother Jones issue about the movers and shakers in tech and politics that only included two women. I knew there were a lot more incredible people they did not include in their piece and I blogged about that, citing a few names as examples. Catherine then asked me to turn it into a list and using her list of bloggers as an example, I came up with what’s below.
These women work in areas related to technology and government who are based (at least most of the time) in the U.S.. That could mean anything related to online politics, digital democracy, or information technology policy. I had a difficult time trying to narrow the list any farther because there’s so much overlap involved and because all of these women are amazing. This is a list independent of the women political blogger list, although there is some crossover.
We hope this list will become a living document with changes added as we receive updates and new information, and we expect this list will grow. We hope that everyone included on the list will appreciate our wanting to share this information as resources for others. Any updates, errors or additions, please contact me or Catherine Morgan.
Women in Technology and Politics &/or Policy
Morra Aarons - Internet communications expert, Political Director for BlogHer, former VP of Interactive at Edelman, former Director of Internet Marketing for DNC & John Kerry for President
Ruchika Agrawal - Co-founder of the Stanford Student Computer and Network Privacy Project, IPIOP Policy Analyst Fellow for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Annie Anton - Member of U.S. Association for Computing Machinery (USACM) Executive Board; Professor at North Carolina State University
Joan Blades - Cofounder of MoveOn.org & MomsRising.org, author of The Motherhood Manifesto
Becky Bond - Political Director at CREDO Mobile and Working Assets
Danah Boyd - PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley’s School of Information Sciences, Social Media Expert
Jamie Brown - Federal Relations Counsel for Google
Jean Camp - Professor for Informatics, Telecommunications and Computer Science at Indiana University, former board member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) and IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology, USACM member
Emily Campbell - senior strategist for DonorDigital, formerly of DNC, DCCC and Alliance for Justice
Tuna Chaterjee - Fellow at the Berkman Center and a Staff Attorney with the Citizen Media Law Project
Judi Clark - Formerly of CPSR, Net Action Board Member, Technology Policy Expert & Attorney
Wendy Cohen- Manager of Community and Alliances at Participant Media and the Co-Founder and National Director of Screening Liberally, former Community Manager at the Huffington Post
Cindy Cohn - Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Lillie Coney - Associate Director for EPIC, USACM Member & former Analyst, CPSR Board Member
Cheryl Contee - Consultant & Partner at Fission Strategy, former West Coast Lead Digital Strategist for Fleishman-Hillard
Alissa Cooper - Policy Analyst for the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
Gina Cooper - Founder of Netroots Nation (formerly Yearly Kos Conference)
Lorrie Cranor - EFF Board Member, Internet Privacy Policy Expert, Professor and Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, USACM Member
Susan Crawford - Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School, former Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, Member of the Board of Directors of ICANN, Founder of OneWebDay
Laura Dawn - Creative and Cultural Director of MoveOn.org
Rebecca Donatelli - Chairman of Campaign Solutions & former lead Internet consultant for John McCain 2000
Judith Donath - Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab
Esther Dyson - Founding Chair of ICANN, Former Chair of EFF Board, Author of Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age
Allison Fine - Senior Fellow, Democracy Team at Demos, Former CEO of E-Volve Foundation, author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age
Mindy Finn - former eStrategy Director for Mitt Romney
Judith Freeman - Co-Founder and CEO of the New Organizing Institute, former Senior Political Strategist at the AFL-CIO, Internet operations for John Kerry’s ‘04 campaign
Gisele Garelik - New York Director for EchoDitto, former Assistant Director of UJCweb
Catherine Geanuracos - Principal at Cader Strategies, Strategist for LiveEarth, Co-founder at YrMomma4Obama, former Senior Analyst with Grassroots Campaigns, Inc., former CTO for MomsRising.org, former Strategist for MoveOn.org
Lauren Gelman - Executive Director of Stanford Center for Internet & Society, Board Treasurer for CPSR
Julie Barko Germany - Director for Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at the George Washington School of Political Management & Author
Susie Gorden - VP of Campaign Strategy of E-Advocates, former Director of Government Outreach and Citizen Communications for Capitol Advantage
Sarah Granger - Founder of FutureCampaigns, former Project Director for CPSR, former Director of Internet Strategy & Operations for U.S. Senator Gary Hart’s ‘04 presidential exploratory organization, USACM member, technology & politics National Correspondent for The Huffington Post “Off the Bus” Project
Jennifer Granick - Civil Liberties Director for the EFF, former Executive Director for Stanford Center for Internet & Society
Lisa Green - Team Manager for Campaign & Elections Group at Google
Robin Gross - Executive Director of IP Justice, former Staff Attorney for EFF, Member of Advisory Group to U.N. Internet Governance Forum, Board Member, Union for the Public Domain, Advisory Board Member for CPSR Peru
Leslie Harris - President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, former Director of Public Policy for People for the American Way, former Chief Legislative Counsel for the Washington National Office of the American Civil Liberties Union
Gwen Hinze - International Policy Director for the EFF
Marcia Hofmann - Staff Attorney for the EFF, former Director for the Open Government Project for EPIC
Heather Holdridge - Director of Political Advocacy for Care2, former Online Organizing Director for Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group (CTSG)
Deborah Hurley - Chair of EPIC Board, Consultant to NGOs in ICT Policy, former Director of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project
Karen Jagoda - Co-Founder and President of E-Voter Institute
Dana Kaplan - Cofounder & COO of blip.tv
Lorraine Kisselburgh - USACM Member, PhD candidate at Purdue University, former Director of Information Technology at Purdue University
Kathryn Kleiman - Director of ACM Internet Governance Project, Founding Member of ICANN Noncommercial Users Constituency, USACM Member
Michelle Kraus - Managing Partner for Technlogy & Politics, former CEO of Digital Campaigns
Audrie Krause - Founder of Net Action, Former Executive Director for CPSR
Justine Lam - Director of Online Marketing for Politicker.com, eCampaign Director of Ron Paul ‘08
Heather Mansfield - Founder of DIOSA Communications, formerly of Pew Center for Civic Journalism, founder of eActivist.org (sold to Capitol Advantage)
Amanda Michel - Director of Huffington Post’s “Off The Bus” Project, former Assignment Zero staff, former National Director of Generation Dean, former MediaCorps manager for Kerry-Edwards in ‘04
Ellen Miller - Cofounder & Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation
Shireen Mitchell - Founder & Director of Digital Sisters/Sistas, Inc., President of Community Technology Centers’ Network, Chair of Media & Technology Task Force for National Council of Women’s Organizations
Deirdre Mulligan - Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic and a Clinical Professor of Law at Boalt, former Staff Counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology
Annalee Newitz - Board Vice President for CPSR, technology journalist
Karina Newton - Director of New Media, Speaker Pelosi’s Office
Perla Ni - Cofounder of Voterwatch & Great Nonprofits.org as well as Grassroots.com, Founder & publisher of Stanford Social Innovation Review
Beth Noveck - New York Law School Professor of Law, Director for the Institute for Information Law and Policy, Director of the Democracy Design Workshop
Crystal Patterson - Blog Manager for Hillary Clinton for President, former Online Operations Manager for Senator Edward Kennedy ‘06, formerly of DCCC
Sylvia Paull - Founder & Facilitator of Cybersalon and GraceNet
Michelle Peacock - Senior Director for Government Global Relations at PayPal (eBay)
April Pedersen - Executive Director & Co-Founder of Democracy In Action and Wired for Change, former Acting Executive Director of CIVIC
Erika Shehan Poole - USACM Member, PhD Candidate at Georgia Tech, former employee of the Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security and CERIAS
Laura Quinn - CEO of Catalist, Founding Partner of QRS Newsmedia, Inc., DNC strategist, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Vice President Gore, former Director of the Democratic Technology and Communications Committee for the Democratic Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate
Laurie Racine - Co-founder of Public Knowledge, former President of the Center of the Public Domain
Tanya Renne - Founder of Orchid Suites
Jennifer Rexford - Professor of Computer Science and Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, USACM Member, Chair of ACM SIGCOMM
Tracy Russo - Founder at Women in Politics & Technology, President of Russo Strategies, LLC, former online communications staffer
for DNC, former Deputy Online Communications Director for John Edwards for President
Virginia Rezmierski - USACM Member, University of Michigan Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Information and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, former Director of the Office of Policy Development and Education within the Office of the CIO at the University of Michigan
Julia Rosen - Online Political Director for the Courage Campaign, formerly of Common Cause
Liza Sabater - Founder of Feminist Bloggers Network, Digital Ethnorati Project, and the Digital Civil Rights Workshop, Blogger for Culture Kitchen, BlogHer
Katelyn Sabochik - Senior Strategist for Blue State Digital, formerly of AFL-CIO
Pam Samuelson - Co-Director for UC Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, Professor at School of Information and Law, EFF Board Member, Advisor for Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic
Nancy Scola - Writer & Blogger for TechPresident, Personal Democracy Forum, and Creative Commons, former Internet team member and Outreach Coordinator for Forward Together
Suzanne Seggerman - Cofounder and President of Games 4 Change (G4C), former Director at WebLab
Barbara Simons - USACM Founder and Co-Chair, Former ACM President
Ruby Sinreich - Founder and Editor of Orangepolitics.org, nonprofit technology advisor
Jenn Smith - Executive Vice President for Watershed, former Vice President of DonorDigital, strategist for CARE, Human Rights Campaign
Gigi Sohn - President & Co-Founder for Public Knowledge, former Executive Director of the Media Access Project, former Adjunct Professor for Georgetown University
Madeline Stanionis - Cofounder and CEO of Watershed, Internet activism strategist, former President and Creative Director of DonorDigital, author of Raising Thousands (if not Tens of Thousands)of Dollars with Email, strategist for NARAL and CARE
Shari Steele - Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), former EFF Legal Director
Zephyr Teachout - Visiting Assistant Professor for Duke University School of Law, former National Director of the Sunlight Foundation, America Coming Together and Current TV, former fellow for the Berkman Center for Law & Technology, former online organizing director for the Dean for America
Gisele Toueg - Senior Strategy Architect for EchoDitto
Emy Tseng - Project Director for Digital Inclusion Initiative for the City & County of San Francisco, former Managing Director for Innovation Funders Network, formerly of Ford Foundation
Gina Vanderloop - Founder of ROI Solutions
Katrin Verclas - Co-Founder of MobileActive.org, former Executive Director of NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network)
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Sarah Granger writes about technology and politics for FutureCampaigns, The Huffington Post “Off The Bus“, and MOMocrats. She’s on this list and she is a new contributing writer for The Political Voices of Women.
Satirical Election Video By JibJab
JibJab has a new satirical video on the election. So, let’s lighten things up a bit. Enjoy
In our first election satire since 2004’s “This Land” and “Good to be in DC”, we bid farewell to Bush and give Obama and Mccain a proper JibJab hazing! And, of course, who could forget about Hillary and Bill? This rip-roaring musical romp gives the election process the proper spanking it deserves!
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What do you think of the video? Let me know in comments.
[Cross-posted at the Care2 Election Blog]
One Small Step - Backward?
In many ways the summer of 1969 was the most magical in my life. It changed my life, or rather formed the foundation for all that I am. It had nothing to do with sex, drugs, or rock and roll. It wasn’t about Woodstock, even though my parents and grandparents were actually in said town antiquing the weekend there-of. It was about scientific and engineering feats that captured our imagination. As a nation we held our heads high. My girlish fancies were captured by a ‘fairy tale’ young prince who was finally allowed to meet his public in pomp and ceremony that set many young hearts aflutter.
1969 was topped by the most remarkable march to a World Series victory that still is synonymous with the world “miracleâ€.
Have you ever noticed how “trios†of names dance in our heads. Larry, Moe, Curley; Grucho, Harpo, Chico; Tinkers to Evers to Chance; Huey, Dewey and Louie; Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Pompeius Magnus then they were followed by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Marcus Antonius.
Until the death of the Great Luciano the cultural world waxed poetic about the Three Tenors. You may not know who Patty, LaVerne and Mazene were were, but my father sure does. (Look up their music, they were icons).
Why don’t we think of them as the Four Musketeers?
There were Three Wise Men.
Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
Or what about Peter, James and John?
How about Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan?
Little kids start out with the Three Little Pigs. If they are fortunate someone reads the poem featuring Wynken, Blynken and Nod. They learn the nursery rhyme of Three Blind Mice. They know about the Three Little Kittens. Then they start watching television and can tell you who Jan, Marsha and Cindy are. They learn about Alvin, Simon and Theodore.  If they have any depth they know who the father of Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe is. If they are truly educated they learn the difference between Kirk, Spock and McCoy.
Television, history, and culture aside, none of these have reached the status of three intrepid explorers who’s very names bring with them awe and the very definition of heroism: Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins.
Neil Armstrong
‘Buzz’ Aldrin
Michael Collins
On July 16, 1969 the powerful Saturn V launch vehicle slipped the bounds of earth and sailed into the sky.
Four days later on July 20, 1969 the small vehicle composed of the Columbia and the Eagle orbited the Moon. A few hours alter they separated and the Eagle landed on the surface of another world.
Were those our greatest moments as a nation and as a species? I truly hope not. The one federal program most important to the survival of our species is NASA. Because of my dedication to space and our future, I fear Barack Obama’s election. Like every other topic, Obama has bounced back and forth like a sugared up four year old. The most concrete thing I can find about his lack of dedication to our future in space comes from Space Politics:
“…Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released today the education plan he would enact if elected. The full 15-page plan includes a variety of proposals, including reforming early education programs. The last section of the plan, titled “A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility†explains how he would pay for these initiatives. The passage of relevance here: “The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years,†among other steps. According to MSNBC, Obama would leave in place $500 million/year for Constellation’s “manufacturing and technology baseâ€, but would otherwise transfer the funding to the education effort. None of the campaign’s official statements or other media reports indicate any alternative measures the campaign would take to address what, on its face, would appear to be a five-year delay in the introduction of Ares 1, Orion, and the other main components of NASA’s current exploration architecture….â€
Our future is in space.
Let’s put the matter of space exploration aside for a moment. By delaying the deployment of a new generation launch vehicle Barack Obama is literally damning the United States to a second class status in technology.
How do we service our satellites?
How do we link with the space station?
How do we deploy certain satellites?
What if some unforeseen emergency arises, how do we handle it?
In other words, those magical moments of “The Eagle has landed†are gone forever. We lose our technological edge to China, Japan, Russia, and Europe as Barack Obama plans to invest more in an educational system that is broken beyond repair.
Obama In Afghanistan and Iraq
Barack Obama meets Afghan leader and discusses terrorism, and he is also going to Iraq. Check out the video clip and let me know what you think? Is this trip going to help or hurt his campaign?
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From The New York Times…
In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Mr. Obama said: “We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front on our battle against terrorism.
From Politico…
In a presidential campaign where the Democrat faces an especially intense variation of a familiar Republican assault-that he is, in some sense, not “one of us,” the trip abroad represents an opportunity for Obama to assert that he is, rather, not one of them.
He began with stops in which he has been pictured largely in the company of American soldiers. In Kuwait, he examined military vehicles and signed autographs for soldiers on a military base. The first images out of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where he landed after a brief visit to a base in Kuwait, show him with two uniformed members of the military, three other American officials, and a large statue of a bald eagle.
From Washington Street Journal…
I believe U.S. troop levels need to increase. And I for at least a year now have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three. I think it’s very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough. The Afghan government needs to do more, but we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front on our battle against terrorism. …
I think one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq.
Let me know what you think about Obama’s trip to Afghanistan and Iraq in comments.
