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Presidential Campaign Web Sites:
| Biden | Clinton | Dodd | Edwards | Gravel | Kucinich | Obama | Richardson |
| Barack | Bill | Chris | Dennis | Hillary | Joe | John | Mike |
I can't imagine why anyone would be interested, but here are some other presidential campaign web sites. Mark requested this.
| Brownback | Giuliani | Huckabee | Hunter | McCain | Paul | Romney | Tancredo | F. Thompson | T. Thompson |
Feb 22, 2010 Economic Report Of The President - February, 2010. Main site is still Steve's Politics Blog.
Dec 19, 2007 Steve's Politics Blog - I am shifting to a blog format in order to promote bidirectional communication. If you register at my blog, you will be able to post your comments too.
Dec 18, 2007 Santa Claus Thanks Chris Dodd For the FISA Filibuster. I did too, with a donation to his Presidential campaign.
Dec 18, 2007 speech by Al Gore on the acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize December 10, 2007 Oslo, Norway
Dec 18, 2007 Al Gore on protecting our civil liberties.
Dec 18, 2007 Immigration and Social Issues, Not Iraq, Dominate Among Iowa Republican Voters - Another article for which Steve did some work.
Dec 12, 2007 Oprah's Speech in Des Moines. You've heard the pundits, now hear what she actually said. Hear what Barack Obama had to say, too.
Dec 10, 2007 Obama Portrait Music Video By Bjarne O. - Get a higher quality version and the music track alone for free at the web site www.bjarneo.com
Dec 06, 2007 'Bush Fatigue' Unlikely to Increase Caucus Turnout by Much - Another Huffington Post story for which Steve did some work. This time he interviewed four of the Democratic County Chairs. Iowa Independent carries the rest of the story. The flavor of the story as written was a little surprising to Steve.
Dec 05, 2007 Documents Expose Huckabee's Role In Serial Rapist's Release - If this does not sink Huckabee's candidacy, then there is no justice in the world.
Dec 05, 2007 Seymour Hersh: Bush Administration Has Known of Iran Intelligence All Year - How much more proof of the Bush administration's lies does the public need?
Nov 30, 2007 John Edwards on Charlie Rose. What is John Edwards really about?
Nov 30, 2007 Barack Obama's video prepared for Iowa supporters.
Nov 26, 2007 John Edwards' Alamo: An Inside Look at His Make-Or Break Iowa Campaign - I just found out that this November 7, 2007 article on The Huffington Post also credits me in the byline.
Nov 24, 2007 Political Commercial About Experience:
Woman #1 says, "I have watched many brain surgeries, I will perform your brain surgery for you."
Man #1 says, "I have watched many brain surgeries, too. I will find the best brain surgeon there is to perform the surgery for you."
Nov 24, 2007 Ex-Fed chairman denies economic slump his fault - The Worcester Telegram & Gazette published this item from Bloomberg News. I found it interesting that it states "... along with a hands-off approach to regulation, has brought Greenspan under fire as the bursting of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis threaten to sink the economy."
This is exactly the point I was making in my item below critiquing Paul Krugman's column.
Nov 24, 2007 Banks Gone Wild - In this column Paul Krugman blames lack of reform in corporate governance for the housing bubble. I think he has missed the mark. The board of directors and stock holders are equally as guilty of greed as are the chief executives.
Moreover, if you aren't affected by greed, you are affected by the need to keep your job. When the regulators don't regulate and allow your competitors to gain market share and profits by making imprudent decisions, what is the prudent executive to do? Is she/he just going to explain that he/she is losing market share and foregoing profits because she/he is smarter than the other companies?
A few executives that own a large number of shares in their own company might survive in this scenario. The rest will be fired pretty quickly. So even if they are right and are courageous, they won't be running any companies of influence.
This reminds me of Gresham's Law, which states that bad money drives out good money. In this case, bad executives drive out good executives.
Nov 20, 2007 Bill Clinton: Hillary's Rainmaker - article on The Huffington Post. Steve was one of the contibutors to the article given credit by name.
Nov 15, 2007 - Brian De Palma's Redacted opens 11/16 - Don't let Bill O'Reilly's protests succeed - See Trailer
Nov 07, 2007 Torture knowingly used to provide false information to justify the war. How is Colin Powell's conscience doing these days?
Nov 06, 2007 Keith Olbermann special comment on waterboarding Nov 5, 2007. If I were a Senator, I could not let it be on my conscience to vote to approve an Attorney General nominee who did not know waterboarding was torture. As a voter, I could not let it be on my conscience to vote for a senator who had this blight on his or her conscience. The same goes for my attitude to any person running for any office.
One can only hope that someday they will be able to make a movie called "Judgment at Washington" as a companion piece to "Judgment at Nuremberg".
Oct 13, 2007 A (possibly artificial) controversy is being generated by the news media and the campaigns. Here are some links to videos of what the candidates have actually said. You can decide for yourself what to make of all of this. Clinton Calling for Negotiating with Iran without Preconditions. Barack Obama, had this to say some weeks ago. Kucinich and Gravel have their say. Here are the comments from the July 23, 2007 YouTube debate that may have started the brouhaha.
Oct 05, 2007 Ted Sorenson Introduces Barack Obama - "The Only Serious Candidate...".
Oct 04, 2007 Obama Blocks Vote on Von Spakovsky in Senate! Stops Harry Reid's 'Deal' to Move Forward with GOP 'Voter Fraud' Zealot's FEC Nomination... . Who else in the Democratic party cares whether or not we have elections controlled by voter fraud zealots? Is it time for Harry Reid to go?
Sep 25, 2007 Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report. Yet the American press is so sure that Ahmadinejad is crazy for wanting to talk about the root causes of the 9/11 attacks and who really is responsible.
Sep 21, 2007 General Petraeus or General Betray Us?, the Sep 10, 2007 ad by Moveon.org. The Congressional Republicans arrived at the Iraq War hearings prepared to attack the ad and divert attention from the ad's accusations. The Congressional Democrats arrived completely unprepared. In the 10 days since the ad ran, the Congressional Democrats have still not prepared.
I am starting to wonder what the Congressional Democrats think they are doing. Apparently the following Democratic and independent senators voted to condemn the ad: Baucus (MT) Bayh (IN), Cardin (MD), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Feinstein (CA), Johnson (SD), Klobuchar (MN), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Leahy (VT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (NE), Nelson (FL), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Tester (MT), Webb (VA). Apparently Obama and Biden thought that refusing to vote on the measure was the way to go.
Not one Congressional Democratic had the sense to say the following during the hearings:
My Republican colleagues seem to be very upset by the ad placed in the New York Times by MoveOn.org. To put this matter to rest, I am going to give you, General Petraeus, an opportunity to address each of the charges in the ad.
- 1. The Pentagon has adopted a bizarre formula for keeping tabs on violence.
- Can you give us a written description of the exact methodology that the Pentagon is using to generate the graphs that you have presented? Can you summarize the methodology for us now?
- 2. For example, deaths by car bombs don’t count.
- Do your statistics count deaths by car bombing?
- 3. The Washington Post reported that assassinations only count if you’re shot in the back of the head - not the front.
- Can you explain to us how you determine what incidents you count as assassinations?
- 4. According to the Associated Press, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than in any other summer we’ve been there.
- Is this Associated Press report true? If so, how do you reconcile the statistics that you are presenting with this report?
- 5. We’ll hear of neighborhoods where violence has decreased. But we won’t hear that those neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed.
- To what extent do you attribute the ethnic cleansing of areas of Iraq as the cause of the decrease in violence? If the sides of the conflict have already separated themselves from each other, what was the benefit of our troop surge in relation to the stress that it has put on our military preparedness and on our resources?
It is never too late for the Democrats to figure out the questions that they should have asked. I am still waiting.
Sep 12, 2007 - Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Turning the Page in Iraq. This is the speech he prepared for presentation in Clinton, Iowa today.
Sep 11, 2007 - Letter to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette about the book "Peace Be Upon You". I discussed how the Eurocentrism of our education in the West blinds us to the history of that time when Muslim dominated societies also dominated so much of the world.
Sep 07, 2007 - Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The previous link takes you to an article by Sidney Blumenthal on Salon.com. If you are not a member of Salon, you will have to use the daily site pass and temporarily accept some cookies from Salon and Ultramercial to see the article. Thanks to Richard H. for pointing me to this article.
Sep 06, 2007 - Brimfield undermining 'just war’ on terror
Sep 04, 2007 - interview with Lawrence Summers on Charlie Rose. This interview has great insights into globalization and American competitiveness. The interview gets better as it progresses. I could not view this with the Firefox browser, but I did get it to work with Internet Explorer. Others have had no problem using Firefox.
Aug 30, 2007 - Barack Obama speaking about a plan to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
Aug 27, 2007 - according to an email from www.democrats.com, the movie No End in Sight, "is a remarkable and powerful film that will give you the facts you need to demolish Bush's latest lies". For a fuller description of the movie read Roger Ebert's review. We saw the movie and agree.
Aug 25, 2007 - Left-wingers spread un-American drivel. This letter is an example of the type of thinking that goes on around here. If you want to find out more about the "cats and rats and elephants" referenced in the letter, use this link.
Aug 20, 2007 - Why Iraqis oppose U.S.-backed oil law. Workers think foreign firms will take over - If you didn't believe it when I pointed this out on May 19 and May 13 maybe the article above will make you a believer.
By the way, this oil deal information is not news. I first read about it in the Thomas E. Ricks book, "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq". This is copyrighted in 2006 so you can imagine the dates of the information he is reporting on.
I keep wondering when the question will come up in some presidential debate or even in a presidential news conference, "Since the proposed oil revenue sharing bill that is in front of the Iraq Parliament is so detrimental to the welfare of Iraq's people, why do you keep insisting that its passage is a sign of political progress in Iraq?"
Aug 18, 2007 - Letter to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette putting to rest the idea that free markets solve all problems and the government merely needs to stay out of the way.
Aug 15, 2007 - Dick Cheney was right about Iraq. Follow the preceding link to watch the video.
Aug 10, 2007 - Give Peace A Chance in Brimfield as published in the Southbridge Evening News.
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Sharon is to the left of the large sign in the picture. Her head is just below the middle line of text on the sign. Steve is standing behind her.
July 31, 2007 - FoxAttacks - They distort. We reply. I have not been watching, but apparently Faux News is now attacking progressive bloggers. This web site tries to fight back.
July 25, 2007 - I am hearing some remarks about disappointment that the candidates didn't have anything new to say in the recent CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate.
If the candidate really believes what she or he is saying, why would you expect them to give a different answer from one debate to the next?
If you want to hear a new answer, you have to ask a new question.
To some degree the YouTubers did ask some new questions. At least the framing of many questions was more realistic.
The average voter is not really going to pay attention until after Labor Day 2008. That is September 2008. Until that time the professional journalist is going to hear a lot of repetition. If the reporter is bored by this, then she or he should seek a new profession that is more exciting.
The "professional" journalist does not need to invent fictitious controversy in order to make things more exciting for the reporter. The reporter should be serving the consumer, not the reporter.
July 23, 2007 - Notes on CNN/Youtube Democratic Presidential Debate.
July 20, 2007 - Reid pulls the DoD bill - Maybe I was asleep, but this may the the most important story I never heard in the mainstream media.
July 20, 2007 - Stanford Commencement Address of Dana Gioia (Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts). Thought provoking analysis of what art means to our culture. Thanks to Richard H. for suggesting the link.
July 13, 2007 - Why so angry? How rage can make you ill - this isn't politics by any stretch of the imagination, I just found this interesting and worthwhile.
July 12, 2007 - International Association of Fire Fighters video about Rudolph Giuliani's effectiveness on 9/11.
June 30, 2007 - PARENTS INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS v. SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 ET AL. By following the preceding link, you can read the Supreme Court decision for yourself.
In the above pdf document, Syllabus begins on page 1, Opinion of ROBERTS, C. J. begins on pdf page 8, THOMAS, J., concurring begins on pdf page 49, Opinion of KENNEDY, J. begins on pdf page 85, Stevens, J., dissenting begins on pdf page 103, and Breyer. J., dissenting begins on pdf page 109.
June 22, 2007 - Bill Richardson on leaving no troops behind in Iraq
June 3, 2007 - Are the "rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer"? I report, you decide.
Here is the Congressional Budget Office Paper Changes in the Economic Resources of Low-Income Households with Children.
Here is how this report was described in an editorial in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Here is a link to my letter to the editor.
May 27, 2007 - Richard H. asks "Do you remember Tom Rush? He doesn't remember you."
May 26, 2007 - Some Democrats can actually explain why it was necessary to vote NO on the final version of the Iraq Supplemental Funding Bill. Here are a few notable responses- Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Chris Dodd, Senator Barack Obama, Representative Dennis Kucinich.
May 24, 2007 - Bird Poops On President. What did the bird know that 25% of the electorate cannot figure out?
May 24, 2007 - Yesterday, I called my U. S. Representative and asked him to vote NO on the Iraqi funding bill that had no timelines. To my great joy, Rep. Richard Neal of Springfield did vote NO today. I have sent emails to Kerry and Kennedy to ask them to vote NO.
May 24, 2007 - Olbermann: We have been betrayed SPECIAL COMMENT By Keith Olbermann on the Democrat's capitulation to George Bush on the war in Iraq. When you need outrage expressed, no one does it better than Keith Olbermann.
May 19, 2007 - Interview with Greg Palast - the story is the theft of the 2008 election, not the firing of the 8 U. S. Attorneys.
Here is another story on the same theme.
Here is another piece of evidence that I found on May 21.
May 19, 2007 - Maybe it takes a cartoon to make the point about the Iraqi oil law.
May 13, 2007 - Letter to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette on the need to report the truth of why the U.S. is pushing the Iraqis to pass an oil revenue sharing bill that is detrimental to them.
April 29, 2007 - Great moments in Punditry - When you listen to pundits on TV, remember these words that they have spoken. Then you can decide whether or not to pay any attention to anything they are saying.
April 27, 2007 - Keith Olbermann's blistering counter-attack on Giuliani's outrageous claim that only Republicans can keep us safe from terrorists.
April 14, 2007 - The Establishment Rethinks Globalization - at last here is some new thinking about the benefits and costs of free trade. One can argue with the solutions proposed, but at least this is one of the first attempts that I have seen to deal with reality on free trade.
April 10, 2007 - Richard Dawkins Talks To Bishop Of Oxford About Evolution.
Had they permitted the posting of replies, I would have posted the following:
This conversation was very enlightening as to how a non-dogmatic religious person can view the world.
However, I think there is a common point of view that is limiting to both the Bishop of Oxford and Richard Dawkins.
I would have liked to have had a part of the discussion to include how the Bishop reconciles his views with those of equally spiritual people who have no influence from Judaic nor Christian theology. How does the Bishop justify basing his beliefs specifically on Christianity?
I think that even Muslims recognize the existence of Jesus. I would imagine that we would need to contemplate religions or spirituality that developed in civilizations before they had any contact with Muslims, Christians, or Jews.
April 9, 2007 - How the Main Stream Media could label their news reports so that you could tell what kind of reporting you were getting.
March 11, 2007 - How to Save the Middle Class from Extinction - Paul Krugman explains it all.
March 9, 2007 - here is a link to Paul Krugman's startling information on ProsecutorGate.
If there is one thing I have faith in, it is that when the facts come out George Bush always screws up worse than even I thought.
I take it that it is not lost on the electorate how different it is having Democrats in control of congress. The level of oversight that they are giving to the workings of government is far more appropriate than we have seen in the recent past.
I don't think you would have seen this level of scrutiny from Democrats who had not been wandering in the wilderness of minority status for a decade or more.
It just occurred to me that rather than the Democrats getting on their high horse about ethics and hypocrisy, there is a better way to cast the current situation. The way the Republicans have behaved is pretty normal for a group with power and no checks and balances. The constitution sets up our government the way it does for a very good reason. When any branch of the government fails to do its job checking and balancing, then we will end up in a mess sooner or later.
March 3, 2007 - Turn Ann Coulter's nasty remarks about John Edwards into a significant fundraising event for John Edwards.
March 1, 2007 Unpublished Letter to the Editors of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and of The Southbridge Evening News. The subject is the tragedy of our President preferring to send new troops to Iraq without the proper training. If this were not enough, his minions are smearing a Congressman who is trying to introduce legislation to require this war to be run competently.
Fox (Faux) News attacks Barrack Obama. February 22, 2007
General Wesley Clark has started a web site to try to stop the war in Iran. Yes, I did say Iran. That is not a misspelling nor a typographical error. For those of us who remember how the war in Iraq was fomented by George W. Bush, we can see dangerous parallels with what this administration is now doing with Iran.
I posted a link to the Playboy article below in response to a Huffington Post commentary on the Washington Post Article about Walter Reed Medical Center. Search for the item by ssg13565.
The Real Cost of War, Playboy, March 2007. The problems caused by politicizing the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One wonders who really supports the troops.
Al Franken running for Senator in Minnesota.
February 13, 2007 - Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that he has no information indicating Iran's government is directing the supply of lethal weapons to Shiite insurgent groups in Iraq.
Obama vs. the mainstream media Obama on whether or not Obama has any substance to match his rhetoric.
Here is what The Huffington Post had to say about this on February 12, 2007.
Here is Barack Obama's web site.
February 2, 2007 Letter to the The Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Published on February 11, 2007. The subject is the fallacy of stories claiming a negative personal savings rate for the people of the United States.
Since then, I have received the February 2007 edition of Fidelity+. In the Market Insight article there is the following:
... according to David Wyss, chief economist of Standard & Poor's. "A record 76 percent of household borrowing is mortgage debt, and the rise in that category reflects, in large part, the rise in the home-ownership rate to nearly 70 percent at the end of 2005," Wyss says. "This debt is 'good,' in that it's used to acquire a presumably appreciating asset. Although the mortgage shows up as debt, the home's value shows up as wealth."This wealth, when combined with financial assets, pushed the net worth of the average American household to 5.6 times annual income in the second quarter of 2006, well above the historical average of 4.8 ...
Of course, mentioning net worth averages is misleading if you use the number to judge how well most people are doing. That requires a median. Nevertheless, this article does rightly contribute support to my idea that widely publicized numbers of the American decline in savings rate are also highly misleading.
The link below points to an interesting conversation among some people in the Middle East about the Iraq predicament.
Congressman Jim McDermott participating in an Amman, Jordan Dinner Meeting November 2006
I chose my weasel words above very carefully. I know that I have friends on different sides of the Middle East situation. I am not asking anybody to agree with anything that they hear in the above conversation. All I suggest is that you view it with the attitude of trying to see if there is anything that you want to take away by listening to these people. I am strongly not implying what it is that you should take away. Take whatever you want, if anything, from what you hear.
Video of Ted Kennedy on the minimum wage bill in the Senate. 25-January-2007.
Even a brilliant general may not succeed in saving the Iraq situation.
Unpublished 2007 Jan 15 Letter to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The subject is Bush and Cheney's ignorance of credible Iraq war alternatives proposed by Democrats.
Daryl Cagle cartoon on a similar subject. This was published on January 19, 2007 in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Video of Senator Ted Kennedy's speech on Iraq escalation.
Unpublished 2006 Dec 15 Letter to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The subject is how not to escalate the war in Iraq.
Emergency Rally to Stop Iraq Escalation January 11, 2007
Letter to the Editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette published 2007 Jan 08. The subject is keeping an open mind on alternate hypotheses to accepted scientific theories.
Solution to immigrant work status verification
In Depth Analysis of American Income and Taxation
The Randi Rhodes Show Official Website
The President's Real Goal in Iraq, By Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept 29, 2002
'Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have, alarmingly, come true.' : John Pilger :12 Dec 2002
You may think the above two articles are way over the top. Maybe they are too outrageous to believe. Then see for yourself some of the original source material on which these articles are based. The web site http://www.newamericancentury.org/ lays it all out for you courtesy of an organization founded by the people surrounding George Bush.
Part I and Part II of an interview with George Lakoff whose expertise is the framing of social issues. He is a founding member of the Rockridge Institute.
Rockridge Institute: The mission of the Rockridge Institute is to help achieve a just, democratic, environmentally sustainable, and humane society.
Rockridge works to:
Marketing Campaign for Iraq War |
Axis of Innuendo |
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The Post-Modern President Deception, Denial, and Relativism: what the Bush administration learned from the French - brought to my attention by a friend who probably does not want to be spammed for being recognized on this web site - Richard, you know who you are.
Brought to my attention by the same source - Interview with Paul Krugman, New York Times Columnist and Author of "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century"
