SodaHead - Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!'s Blog

A Yom Kippur Letter to Joe Lieberman's Rabbis: Please Ask Him...

2008-10-10T07:16:25Z

+1 raves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/a-yom-kippur-le... Jesse Kornbluth Posted October 9, 2008 | 11:30 AM (EST) A Yom Kippur Letter to Joe Lieberman's Rabbis: Joe Is McCain's Best Jewish Friend. Please Ask Him To Beg McCain to Stop Encouraging Hate Yom Kippur, 5769 New York City Rabbi Daniel Cohen Congregation Agudath Sholom Stamford, Connecticut Rabbi Barry Freundel Kesher Israel Congregation Washington, D.C. Dear Rabbis Cohen and Freundel, Please forgive the presumption -- not only don't we know one another, I'm the kind of "cultural Jew" who makes even Reform Rabbis weep. But as far as I can tell, now that Joe Lieberman and his family have moved from New Haven to Stamford, you, Rabbi Cohen, are his primary Rabbi in Connecticut. And you, Rabbi Freundel, lead the congregation where Sen. Lieberman worships in Washington. Sen. McCain loves Joe Lieberman -- he wanted him as his running mate, if press reports are accurate. Sen. McCain listens to Joe Lieberman. Sen. Lieberman is, if you will, John McCain's rabbi. So I thought I would write to you and ask you, as Sen. Lieberman's rabbis, to talk to Sen. Lieberman about the hatred that the McCain-Palin campaign is encouraging --- and the special understanding we Jews have of how that hatred plays out. Why this public forum? Because I feel this is an urgent moment for American Jews. And because, in this moment, the men who can perhaps do the most to help us all -- Jews, Gentiles and Muslims alike -- should be identified and challenged to step up and do the right thing. And make no mistake: Your voices do matter. If Joe Lieberman is the devout Jew he professes to be, you two are the most influential voices he can hear. He'd never listen to me. But to you -- how can he turn away? I often think about Kristallnacht http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht , that terrible night in Germany when it became unmistakably clear what the Nazis intended for the Jews. Almost a hundred Jews murdered, tens of thousands deported, windows smashed, businesses seized -- and hundreds of synagogues burned. Quite the "November surprise," if you will. But even after this horrific orgy of violence in 1938, there were many German Jews who didn't get it, who thought they were safe, who thought this was where it ended. Now we know better. We say "Never again." But look around you, gentlemen. History does repeat, and in this case, with spooky echoes of Germany's darkest decade. A bad economy. A search for someone who can be dehumanized and blamed. The cries for "justice". And then....? How would we recognize Kristallnacht if it happened today? My fear: It's on the horizon, and coming closer every day. Today "The Other" is Barack Obama. At a McCain-Palin rally the other day, there was a cry from a yahoo in the crowd: "Off with his head!" http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/08/1517943.aspx John McCain and Sarah Palin have not condemned that man. Indeed, they promise to ratchet up their "questions" about Obama in the final weeks of the campaign. At this point, it seems, they'd find nothing upsetting if the audiences at their rallies showed up with torches and pitchforks. Jews, above all others, should fear this kind of hate speech. It may start with the demonization of one black man. Then it will move on to greedy Wall Streeters and "Jewish bankers" and a "liberal media" owned and controlled by Jews. [It's already happening: The Anti-Defamation League http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Internet_75/5366_75.htm reports "a dramatic upsurge in anti-Semitic statements" on financial message boards on the Web. ] And then -- it sounds crazy, but it sounded crazy to many Jews in Germany -- the mob will come for us. Because that's where this goes. It's where it always goes. No matter where it starts, it ends with the Jews -- we're the ultimate "Other." On your synagogue's web site, Rabbi Cohen, I note that you have a large family. Six daughters? Mazel tov. We have only one, but she is as precious to us as your girls are to you and your wife, and the thought of having her wrenched from my hand at some 21st century equivalent of a railroad freight yard -- it wakes me in the night. I know I am asking a hard thing of you -- to confront Joe Lieberman and ask him to talk to John McCain, and, if McCain won't stop this madness, to call upon Sen. Lieberman to condemn his friend. But maybe if I make this request both public and personal -- maybe if I invoke the images of Germany, just seven decades ago -- and ask that you do what you can to keep our children from harm, you will see how crucial this moment is to each and every Jew. And how much power you have to help us, all of us, who dare to hope for better from this country but find ourselves, in the middle of the night, awake and terrified. A healthy and productive New Year to you and yours. Jesse Kornbluth

Alaskan Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

2008-10-10T07:11:33Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+1 raves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/alaskan-ind... Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Posted October 9, 2008 | 11:28 AM (EST) Alaskan Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel In 2004, America's malleable mainstream media allowed itself to be manipulated by artful Republican operatives into devoting weeks of broadcast attention and drums of ink to unfairly desecrating John Kerry's genuine Vietnam heroics while obligingly muzzling serious discussion of George W. Bush's shameful wartime record of evasion and cowardice. Last week found the American media once again boarding Republican swift boats against this season's Democratic candidate armed with unfair and hypocritical attacks artfully designed by GOP strategists to distract attention from the cataclysmic outcomes of Republican governance. Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin has taken to faulting Senator Barack Obama for his casual acquaintance with a respected Illinois educator Bill Ayers, who forty years ago was a member of the Weathermen, a movement active when Obama was eight and which he has denounced as "detestable." Palin argues that the relationship proves that Obama sees "America as being so imperfect that he is palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." The Times dedicated a page one article to Obama's relations with Ayers and CNN's Anderson Cooper obliged Palin by rewarding her reckless accusations about Obama's patriotism with a major investigative report. Fox, meanwhile, is still riveting its audience with wall to wall coverage of this pressing irrelevancy. But if McCarthy-era guilt-by-association is once again a valid political consideration, Palin, it would seem, has more to lose than Obama. Palin, it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man--her husband, actually--who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land base--an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy. AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska," from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law." AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." According to Vogler AIP's central purpose was to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. Alaska, says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, "should be an independent nation." Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism. Palin's husband Todd remained an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration, she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006 convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention. In other words, this is not something that happened when she was eight! So when Palin accuses Barack of "not seeing the same America as you and me," maybe she is referring to an America without Alaska. In any case, isn't it time the media start giving equal time to Palin's buddy list of anti-American bombers and other radical associates?

Obama's New Deal for America

2008-10-10T07:05:03Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+1 raves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-marc-ginsberg/obamas-new-de... Amb. Marc Ginsberg Posted October 8, 2008 | 03:04 PM (EST) Obama's New Deal for America Kudos to Sen. Obama for hard-wiring an empathetic connection to the beleaguered American middle class at last night's debate. His winning performance inspired me to go outside my normal national security box to consider how he could construct a greater economic recovery program to meet dead on the fear and apprehension that is undermining confidence in our future. I believe now is the time for Obama to consider a bolder and more historic approach to the financial crisis by presenting to middle income Americans a step-by-step "big think" FDR-style New Deal program to add greatness and urgency to his economic recovery plan. Tough times call for urgent and big-think measures. Surely, we are in this era, once again. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt unveiled a landmark economic recovery plan that created a "New Deal" for America's middle class and restored confidence to a hard-pressed nation. It was imaginative, bold and daring and lifted America up by its bootstraps and restored confidence and stability. It took several years, but it worked. A similar type of "new deal" program aimed principally at the crux of our financial crisis -- the falling U.S. housing market -- is now urgently needed by our Democratic standard-bearer to create an indelibly understandable and comprehensive framework in the minds of voters that he has the most coherent and bold recovery program that gets at the very heart of what plunged our financial markets into chaos (aside from greedy Wall Street executives peddling credit default swaps, etc.) . Another financial infusion of funds to average Americans modeled after the last economic stimulus proposal may just be too insufficient to meet the emergency that will surely follow us well into 2009. Accordingly, coupled with his affordable health care program, necessary tax reductions and renewable energy incentives the components of the Obama "New Deal" for middle-income America could include the following options: -- Setting the table, so to speak: take one day out of the campaign to convene an emergency economic summit of key financial advisors, business leaders and economists to discuss and assess the credit and liquidity crisis with the objective of legitimating this "New Deal" style-emergency recovery program for the middle class, and present it in a easily comprehensible speech to the American people (fireplaces always a good backdrop). Program elements would include a new across-the-board housing-focused economic stimulus package. It would be be designed to ensure that the plan is directed at incentivizing prospective and existing home buyers to re-enter/remain in the housing ownership market. Such a stimulus would include the following components: 1. A tax credit on 2009 taxes in the amount of $10,000 used to purchase a principal residence for qualifying buyers whose FICO scores are deemed above the sub-prime lending qualifications and who can meet reasonable credit worthiness and income qualifications to manage the special mortgage requirements noted below. 2. A government-guaranty fixed rate mortgage program offered through banks that would set a federally-mandated interest rate ceiling of 5.5% on 30 year fixed rate conforming mortgages. The fixed-rate mortgage would provide an adequate return to banks that would be compelled to hold these mortgages in to assure the government-backed guaranty (thus avoiding the securitization shenanigans that got us into the fix in the first place). 3. A tax credit in the amount of $3,000 on 2009 and 2010 taxes to cover moving and out-of-pocket costs (excluding points) for qualifying purchasers of principal residences. -- Propose to offer banks that are holding delinquent but not defaulted mortgages a federally financed .875% discount off the then federal rate on short term borrowings in exchange for converting conforming adjustable rate mortgages to fixed rate mortgages plus a "payment holiday" of 90 days to enable borrowers to regain their financial footing. This is significantly different than McCain's plan for the federal government to purchase mortgages. -- Create a new series of 3-5 year U.S. Treasury bonds targeted to be purchased by Americans participating in 401K plans through licensed asset managers who would be incentivized to promote the purchase of such bonds by receiving a personal tax credit in 2009 and 2010 for the amount of such bonds sold. Pre-redeemed bonds would be used to finance the housing stimulus package components and interest earned would be tax deductible if/if purchasers use bonds as collateral toward housing purchases or qualified renewable energy improvements in existing or newly purchased houses. -- Given the escalating unemployment rate and the lack of financial incentive to maintain current employment levels, propose an new Unemployment Recovery Program that would extend existing unemployment benefits for unemployed whose benefits have lapsed, AND provide a two year tax credit to employers who maintain their 2008 full and part-time time employee roster at levels not less than two-thirds existing salary and benefits equal up to 33% of any salary reduction for each employee retained; provided that any former full time employee that was laid off due to the economic crisis is rehired at comparable levels. -- For Americans aged 55 or older who have lost at least 20% of the value in any annuity, retirement or 401K plan in 2008 due to losses directly attributable to passive equity portfolio losses, establish a one-time 2009 and 2010 tax deduction equal to 50% of the loss up to a maximum of $50,000. OK...I will keep my day job, but I hope that between now and the election this meager attempt at rolling up my inexperienced sleeves in Economic Recovery 101 will generate additional ideas so come inauguration day our new president demonstrates to the nation and the world an audacity for FDR-style leadership at a time of national crisis since he represents that best hope for a more secure financial future for our nation.

Yitzhak Rabin and Barack Obama

2008-10-10T07:00:30Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+1 raves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-lubetzky/yitzhak-rabin-a... Daniel Lubetzky Posted October 9, 2008 | 12:07 PM (EST) Yitzhak Rabin and Barack Obama Yesterday at a rally when John McCain asked, "Who is Barack Obama?", a supporter shouted back, "Terrorist." And at a rally led by Sarah Palin, when she mischaracterized a New York Times story http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r... as pointing to an alliance between Obama and Bill Ayers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers , someone screamed "Kill him." Neither McCain nor Palin have actually advocated such actions or said that Obama himself is a "terrorist," but they and their campaign have certainly engaged in smear campaigns creating enough innuendos to cause an atmosphere where such rants would not be totally unexpected. This eerily reminds me of the atmosphere before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Israel. Far-right Israelis had been engaging in a campaign of vilification against Rabin for months. Right-wing politicians had done nothing to discourage extreme incitement or death threats against Rabin. Posters filled the walls across Israel with horrifying statements and dehumanizing captions against Rabin. Extremist Rabbis said Rabin was betraying Jews and was cursed to death. Then came Yigal Amir, the assassin who shot Yitzhak Rabin at point blank. When asked, he said he was inspired to kill Rabin to avenge the Jewish people and prevent him undermining Israel. Suddenly after Rabin's chilling assassination, everyone was against dehumanization and incitement. Everyone had condemned such vitriol all along. Everyone loved Rabin, the martyr and hero. It was unclear how all those posters got posted on the walls, or who had made all those calls into radio stations with threats against Rabin. Before Rabin's fate presages Obama's, McCain and Palin -- and in particularly Sarah Palin, whose hateful accusations earlier today were only little short of the more fanatical ones out there -- have the responsibility to draw the line and demand from their followers a civil discourse based on the issues, recognizing the patriotism of their counterpart, instead of raising suspicions about Obama's commitment to America, as Palin explicitly did throughout her rally earlier today. If something happens to Obama, not only the McCain campaign but also all the "swift" teams and fear-mongering groups that are crossing the line will share in the responsibility for creating the environment that caused some fanatical follower to avenge the American people.

A Question for Sarah Palin

2008-10-10T06:42:40Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+2 raves

Correction to This Article | This op-ed incorrectly stated that Palin favors "policies that prohibit teachers from explaining the benefits of contraception and condoms." Palin has said that she supports teaching contraception as well as abstinence. A Question for Sarah Palin By Amy Schalet Thursday, October 9, 2008; Page A21 Sarah Palin faced a variety of questions at last week's debate, but not the one I would have asked: "Should public school students be taught that contraception and condoms can prevent unintended pregnancy and disease?" Palin has referred to her teenage daughter's pregnancy as a normal "up and down" of family life. Sympathetic politicians and commentators, including Bill Clinton, have concurred, attributing teenage pregnancies to "raging hormones" and saying that since the couple plans to marry, Bristol Palin's pregnancy is really an early awakening to adult responsibilities. But left obscured by the raging-hormones explanation is the fact that teen pregnancy is far from inevitable. Like some other controversies at the heart of the culture wars, this problem -- which, after receding nationally since the early 1990s, appears to be worsening again -- need not exist. High teen pregnancy rates result in part from our inability to talk honestly and wisely about teen sexuality. And they are exacerbated by policies that prohibit such talk. American teenagers grow up in environments that inhibit them from making conscious choices about sex and using contraception effectively. Sarah Palin supports programs that contribute to that environment, favoring policies that prohibit teachers from explaining the benefits of contraception and condoms and that require teaching that sex outside of marriage is unacceptable. Such "abstinence-until-marriage" policies are built on the myth of a past when people did not have sex until they were married and, this thinking goes, prevented many of the troubles that plague society today. But for more than half a century, the majority of Americans have been having premarital sex. In the 1950s, one in three teenage mothers conceived out of wedlock. And many "shotgun" marriages ended in divorce. Teenage parents face an even taller order today; it is no longer as easy for a man without a college degree to get a well-paying job to provide for a family, and young women rightly expect to pursue their talents both inside and outside the home, a challenge to pull off without higher education. Simply put, the circumstances and aspirations of young people have changed since the 1950s, but our society's narratives about the place of sexuality and the nature of relationships do not reflect these changes. And we pay a price for that inability to talk realistically about teenage sexuality and love. Just how steep, and unnecessary, that price is becomes clear when we look at countries where teenagers do not pay it. In the Netherlands, young people become sexually active at the same age as their American and other counterparts across the developed world -- around 17 -- but teenage pregnancy rates are six times lower than they are here. In 1950s Dutch society, most young people began having sex when they were in their 20s and were married or engaged. During the 1960s, unintended teenage pregnancies rose alarmingly. Seeing this, family physicians and clinics were quick to make contraceptives easily accessible to youth. Dutch teen pregnancy and abortion rates are now among the lowest in the developed world. National surveys show that most Dutch parents accept that young people choose to have sex in committed relationships during their later teens. Research I conducted found that a majority of Dutch parents are even willing to permit such couples to spend the night together in their homes, but only when they see that they have formed a loving relationship, feel ready for sex and understand how to use contraception responsibly. By accepting teen sexuality within these parameters, Dutch parents can stay involved, monitor relationships and urge proper contraceptive use. This shift from a "marriage-only" to a "love-only" sexual ethic happened because parents, aided by honest and informative public conversations about sex, grappled with how to marry their aspirations -- about the children they wanted to raise and the relationships they wanted to foster -- to times that were changing. The result is an environment in which young people receive support from parents and other adults as they learn about relationships and wise sexual choices. American teenagers lack such an environment. All too often, they feel sex is a secret that can ruin their lives. Bristol Palin's pregnancy does little to dispel the fear that the risks of sex cannot be controlled. With impending parenthood a surely unintended byproduct of her youthful experiences, at age 17 hers is a life constrained in ways that few of us would want for ourselves or our loved ones. The Palins, of course, deserve credit for their public embrace of their eldest daughter, which shows that, ideology notwithstanding, parents still love their daughters even if they have sex. If that embrace allays fears that prompt girls to keep sex a secret from their parents, then the Republican Party may have, inadvertently, facilitated the honest conversations we need to move beyond the myth-only approach to adolescent sexuality. The writer is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

A Question for Sarah Palin

2008-10-10T06:42:10Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

0 raves

The Lost Eight Years. The Action We Must Take.

2008-10-10T06:33:12Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+2 raves

Dear Environmental Activist: http://action.edf.org/ct/IpMUt6F1vmJN/ Check out our interactive "Lost Eight Years" timeline. http://action.edf.org/ct/IpMUt6F1vmJN/ Then, support our 2009 Green Energy Agenda. This historic election year calls for historic action. That's why today we are launching our interactive Green Energy Voter Guide. http://action.edf.org/ct/IpMUt6F1vmJN/ Please forward it to everyone you know. The focus of our campaign is simple: We cannot solve our economic crisis without solving our energy crisis and we cannot responsibly solve our energy crisis without stopping global warming. Our environmental and economic future is in our hands. We must keep the pressure on our federal candidates to support real action to stop global warming and unleash our green energy future. I know our Action Network—all 500,000 of you—can help. The center piece of our Green Energy Voter Guide is an interactive "Lost Eight Years" timeline http://action.edf.org/ct/IpMUt6F1vmJN/ that documents America's global warming inaction during the Bush administration. As the timeline makes clear, we are running out of time to solve this urgent environmental threat. I hope that you will use the timeline and our other campaign tools to spread the word by engaging all your friends and family members. It's up to us to make sure that the green energy economy and global warming are front and center in voter's minds when they go to the polls on November 4. If each of you tells 5 friends, we can reach over 2.5 million people. Will you help? Our Green Energy Voter Guide also features: * Our 2009 Green Energy Agenda – the strategic principals supporting our 2009 Battle Plan which show how a strong economy and our clean energy future are closely intertwined. * Jargon Watch – a jargon glossary that will help decode greenwashing in political speeches and debates. * Ask the Green Energy Dream Team - use our blog pages to ask our experts on the policy, economics and science underlining our 2009 Green Energy Agenda. * Other actions you can take to help spread the word. Thank you so much for your help. Together, we can keep the focus on the environment, the economy, and our children and grandchildren as voters make their final decisions between now and November 4. Sincerely, Sam Parry Director Online Membership

Equal Pay for Equal Work

2008-10-10T06:27:15Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+3 raves

OurFuture.org Equal Pay for Equal Work So far this year, one issue of special importance to women has largely been ignored: pay equity. In 2004 election exit polls, sixty-percent of women said that “equal pay for women” was not discussed enough. In 2006, over half of women said that gender equality should be a high priority for Congress. Any progressive advocate seeking to persuade women this year should have the facts on pay equity. Sources http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ * Women are being denied equal pay for equal work. Women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Over the course of her career, the typical working woman loses almost a quarter of a million dollars in wages, simply for being female. Losses for women with advanced degrees or careers in high-paying fields can total as much as $2 million over their working lives. Across the nation, the gender pay gap costs families $200 billion every year. Sources http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ * Gender—not education, experience, or achievement—is the sole cause of the pay gap between men and women. A longitudinal study of male and female professionals found that the gender pay gap begins immediately after college, when women take first jobs that pay only 80 percent as much as men’s first jobs do, and continues throughout women’s lives. Women are paid less though they earn higher college GPAs, are more likely to complete graduate work or advanced training, and spend about as much time at work as men do. Sources http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ * Current efforts to ensure pay equality are insufficient. Since the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, the gender wage gap has narrowed by less than half a cent per year. At this rate, women and men will have to wait another fifty years to earn equal wages. The Government Accounting Office reported that the federal government is not doing enough to address gender pay discrimination. Sources http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ * Conservatives have a terrible record on equal pay. Conservatives in Congress have called the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act “unnecessary” and blocked cloture on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the Senate. George Bush’s Labor Secretary even recommended that he veto the bill. John McCain didn’t show up to vote on the Ledbetter Act and told a 14-year old girl at a townhall, “I don’t think [the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is] doing anything to help the rights of women, except maybe help trial lawyers and others in that profession.” Sources http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ * Current economic conditions are likely to hit women hardest. Women are at risk in the current foreclosure crisis, since they were targeted by subprime lenders. Though women on average have higher credit scores than men do, women are 32 percent more likely than men to have subprime mortgages. Women were also hurt by past recessions: during the 2001 recession, the rate of job loss among women was higher than it was for men in many industries. Sources http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ Progressive Solution The Paycheck Fairness Act http://ga3.org/ct/D7Niw6K1nSjW/ will make filing a discrimination claim easier, provide protection for workers who blow the whistle on pay discrimination, and strengthen the Department of Labor’s efforts to ensure fair pay for all workers. Making Sense Alerts and Fact Sheets: For Equal Pay for Equal Work, click here. http://ga3.org/ct/DdNiw6K1nSjO/ For Manufacturing an Economy that Works for Working Americans, click here. http://ga3.org/ct/D1Niw6K1nSj6/ For What About Our Sinking Economy, click here. http://ga3.org/ct/JpNiw6K1nSjb/ For others on education, energy, health, taxation, trade, social security, and more, click here. http://ga3.org/ct/J7Niw6K1nSjg/ About This Email ---------------- This is the forty-first of CAF's Making Sense 2008 emails. We're sending brief talking points to our progressive allies throughout 2008 regarding kitchen table economic issues. Please feel free to share these with your colleagues. They can subscribe to our Making Sense 2008 email list here: http://ga3.org/caf/making_sense_2008_email_signup.html Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend! http://ga3.org/join-forward.html?domain=caf&r;=x1Niw6KqJVvD If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Campaign for America's Future. http://ga3.org/caf/join.html?r=x1Niw6KqJVvDE

Obama, McCain Transition Efforts Are Worlds Apart

2008-10-10T06:19:53Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+1 raves

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/obama-mccain-transit... Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting From DC Obama, McCain Transition Efforts Are Worlds Apart October 8, 2008 10:46 PM As the 2008 campaign nears its conclusion, the presidential transition efforts of the two major candidates have become a study in contrasts: Sen. Barack Obama has organized an elaborate well-staffed network to prepare for his possible ascension to the White House, while Sen. John McCain has all but put off such work until after the election. The Democratic nominee has enlisted the assistance of dozens of individuals -- divided into working groups for particular federal agencies -- to produce policy agendas and lists of recommended appointees. As evidence of their advanced preparations, officials provided a copy of the strict ethics guidelines http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/text-obama-transitio... that individuals working on the transition effort are required to sign. John McCain, by contrast, has done little. Campaign spokespersons did not respond to requests for elaboration. But one official with direct knowledge, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed concern with McCain's approach. The Arizona Senator has instructed his team to not spend time on the transition effort, according to the source, both out of a desire to have complete focus on winning the election as well as a superstitious belief that the campaign shouldn't put the cart before the horse. Virtually every modern non-incumbent presidential candidate has organized, during the course of the campaign, a transition effort to prepare for the early months of a potential administration. These teams help build lists and vet individuals who could serve in key government posts. They hammer out proposals to facilitate policy making from day one. And they work closely with outgoing administration officials to better understand the true lay of the political land. Governance scholars consider the process invaluable, particularly as the nation struggles with a major economic crisis, two active wars, and a range of domestic security threats. "Our enemies understand how potentially vulnerable we are in the transition from one administration to the next," Clay Johnson III, former Executive Director of the Bush-Cheney Presidential Transition, said recently at a forum on transition planning. "This is something we need to be very, very seriously prepared for." With 100 or so days before the next president takes office, Obama's transition effort has been organized into roughly a dozen teams of six to eight people to plot out the approach for each agency, according to a Democratic official. The ethics code governing the process prohibits staff from working on subjects that could be deemed a financial conflict of interests, either to that member or that member's family. Under the code - a copy of which can be viewed here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/text-obama-transitio... - lobbyists will be able to serve on the Obama transition team provided it has been more than a year since he or she lobbied on the subject to which they have been assigned. Current federally registered lobbyists will not be "permitted to serve in a titled role for the Obama Transition Project," nor for that matter will they be allowed to "contribute to or collect contributions for the Obama Transition Project." There is less known about what the McCain campaign has been doing, partially because there are fewer details to unearth. The GOP nominee has tasked his transition to William Timmons, a well-known Washington hand and long-time lobbyist. According to a source close to the effort, Timmons has held conference calls with campaign officials and is plotting out various aspects to the impending transition. There is not, at this time, an ethics policy in place, the source says. A call to Timmons went unreturned. "Bill does not talk to the press but I'll tell him you called," said his secretary. "Thank you." The disparate approach that each campaign has taken to the transition process is in some ways a reflection of the personality of the candidates themselves. Obama's efforts have been criticized as presumptuous by the McCain campaign. But veterans of the process argue that the well-organized plan that Obama is pursuing will help ensure smooth continuity between administrations, not to mention avoid embarrassing political hiccups. "Government is becoming more complex and the time it is taking to put a leadership team in key departments is taking longer," said P.J. Crowley, who heads the Homeland Security Presidential Transition Initiative at the Center for American Progress. "I think that if a campaign is waiting until November 5 to start the transition process, they are going to be behind. It is not being presumptuous -- it is being prudent to be prepared before the election so that you can at least make the transition process effective as possible and be ready to govern on January 20." The president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, former White House chief of staff John Podesta, is reportedly heading up Obama's transition team. McCain, in contrast, appears willing to tackle important aspects of his potential transition in real time. It is a stance that fits the Senator's sometimes ad hoc approach to politics, and one that allows him to focus staff and resources on the pending election. McCain's transition would also be less drastic than Obama's since, in all likelihood, there will not be as vast an ideological and staff shift. But this approach could create significant obstacles down the road. For example, as Crowley notes, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had only a fraction of his leadership team in place on 9/11 - roughly eight months after his President Bush took office. "It is irresponsible not to have a well organized, thoughtful vigorous transition, right now," said Mickey Kantor, a Clinton administration official who was there for the 1992 transition and who has consulted with the Obama campaign about its efforts. "I am surprised that John McCain would take that position. This government is very complicated. And I don't care how many years you have spent on it you don't truly understand it until you get to the middle of it."

Tip a Fence-Sitter

2008-10-10T06:12:42Z

Stacey A. Ward ~ No McCain!

+1 raves

OurFuture.org Dear Stacey, Tip A Political Fence-Sitter http://ga3.org/ct/jdNiw6K1nS7-/ Help build an unstoppable mandate for progressive change by convincing fence-sitting Americans that progressive ideas are what America needs now! To start, adopt just one fence-sitter that you're close to, and give them a first nudge off the fence with some compelling progressive points from Tuesday night's debate. GO » http://ga3.org/ct/jdNiw6K1nS7-/ The most important American election in recent memory will be here in less than 30 days. With deepening crises at home and abroad, millions of previously disengaged citizens are tuning in to try to make sense of it all. So, how can we progressives make the most of this historic moment? We build an unstoppable mandate for progressive change by convincing hundreds-of-thousands of fence-sitting Americans that progressive ideas are what America needs now! Here's how you can start helping, in two easy (and fun) steps: 1. Adopt a "Political Fence-Sitter": Adopt one person you know who's open to progressive values, but hasn't fully embraced our platform for change...yet. GO» http://ga3.org/ct/jdNiw6K1nS7-/ 2. Give 'em A Nudge: Give your favorite fence-sitter a first nudge off the fence with compelling progressive points from Tuesday night's debate. GO» http://ga3.org/ct/jdNiw6K1nS7-/ Click here to start tipping your favorite political fence-sitter today! http://ga3.org/ct/jdNiw6K1nS7-/ If you're like me, you're close to at least one "fence-sitter". For me, it's my mother-in-law. She's progressive at heart, but gets bombarded by conservative arguments from neighbors and her family's default "news" channels. But, when I take time to share progressive viewpoints with her, I see the lightbulbs flash on. The fog of conservative misinformation lifts, and she "gets it!" If anyone can tip your fence-sitter friends, it's you. The Campaign for America's Future to committed to help -- by offering compelling progressive messages (daily!) that resonate with fence-sitters. It starts now... Check out our first fence-sitter tipping tips from Tuesday night's debate, and use them to start tipping your favorite political fence-sitter today! http://ga3.org/ct/jdNiw6K1nS7-/ Happy tipping. Ian Mishalove, Director Online Communications Campaign for America's Future Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend! http://ga3.org/join-forward.html?domain=caf&r;=SpNiw6Kqvlrh If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Campaign for America's Future. http://ga3.org/caf/join.html?r=SpNiw6KqvlrhE