Fire-Keepers

Hillary for Secretary of State? Yes, please!

From Jake Tapper at Political Punch:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?
November 14, 2008 12:58 PM

There’s a lot of buzz in DC about the fact that the Obama Transition Team is, according to one knowledgeable source, "very serious" about Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, being under consideration for Secretary of State.

ABC News can confirm that President-elect Barack Obama met with Clinton on Thursday afternoon at Obama’s downtown office in Chicago. The AP first broke the news and reported that the motorcade of Clinton, who receives Secret Service protection as a former first lady, was seen leaving the office complex shortly before Obama left for the day.

 George Stephanopoulos reported Clinton’s name being in the mix last week on Good Morning America, but the buzz grew louder after Clinton was spotted boarding a flight to Chicago.

Her spokesman Philippe Reines would not discuss Clinton’s schedule, and of course the Obama Transition Team would not comment.

The thinking about a Secretary of State Clinton is simple, I’m told: she’s smart, she’s strong, she’s experienced, she’s a team player, she is usually pretty diplomatic, and she also brings some gender diversity to an Obama Team concerned about such matters.

She brings instant stature to the job, one Democrat told me. Many world leaders have known her for almost two decades.

"Clinton is the gold standard around the world, " said Chris Lehane, a former spokesman for Vice President Al Gore.

[...]

And of course, she and Obama famously and repeatedly clashed over international issues during their contentious primaries. She assailed as "naive" his willingness to speak to the leaders of hostile regimes without preconditions and she assailed as reckless his public discussions about his willingness to attack high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan with or without Pakistan government permission.

Obama "basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don’t think was a particularly wise position to take," Clinton said at the Democratic debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 26.

[...]

In Boca Raton in May, Obama — asked by a vote if he would consider putting Clinton on the ticket — said, "I’m a practical-minded guy. And, you know, one of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln. And a while back there was a wonderful book written by Doris Kearns Goodwin called ‘Team of Rivals.’"

The book, Obama said, discussed how "Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his Cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was how can we get this country through this time of crisis. And I think that has to be the approach that one takes, whether it’s vice president or Cabinet, whoever."

– Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller

Cross posted from RiverDaughter-The Confluence:

Urgent! Pine Ridge Reservation Needs Help.
Posted on November 13, 2008 by shtuey

The Pine Ridge Reservation has been in a state of crisis since its creation by the United States government in the late 1800’s. It is a sordid and painful history, part of the great genocidal stain on the fabric of American society, and one that continues to fester.

The economic situation is desperate. The unemployment rate is 85%, and 97% of residents live below the Federal poverty line. The average annual income was $3800 in 1999. Adolescent suicide is four times the national average. The infant mortality rate is 5 times the national average. If not for AIDS related deaths in Africa, Pine Ridge would have the lowest life expectancy on the planet (47 years for men, and low 50’s for women).

There are many families living without electricity, telephones, running water, or sewers, and often rely on wood stoves to heat the broken down trailers and shacks that serve as their homes.

There are hundreds of families living in overcrowded conditions. It is not uncommon for single-family homes to be occupied by 10-12 people comprised of 3 generations. This is third world poverty right here in America. In a nation that raised over $1 billion for a presidential election it is a disgrace that this goes on.

As PUMAs, part of our mission going forward must be to serve as a voice, not just for Pine Ridge, and similar places in Indian Country, but for all communities across our nation that have been marginalized, and left without a voice.

This email was forwarded to me from Debi McLeod from Native Americans Against Obama regarding an emergency situation at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  The situation there is always dire, but now even more so. [...]  It is a continuing disgrace that this goes on in America.  Let’s do what we can.

Where is the Red Cross? Where is FEMA? Where is the National Guard? The Lakota Reservation in South Dakota has been struck with a huge, early season snow storm. Elderly people are without propane, there is a great lack of food, medicine and warm winter clothing.

According tho the president of the Reservation, the State of South Dakota is doing almost nothing. The roads are still not plowed and people are dying.

They need our help in way of wood, propane, warm winter clothing, food and assistance with plows.

If you are in the area and have the heart to help these folks, go to the Porcupine School or call 605-867-1111.

If you can, send money, call and get details on arrangements. If you can send materials, as this is going to be a long winter for the sick the elderly and the children, the address is

Republic of Lakotah
P.O. Box 99
Porucupine, SD 57772

Winters are brutal in this area, and this one is worse than they can deal with. Any and all help will be remembered by the people for their entire lives, and lives is what this is about.

Please, with our Holidays coming, help these people NOW while we can still help. People are dying right now.

Feel free to contact John for more information.

John Stroebel
PO 166 Centennial Wyoming 82055
307-745-3493

The priorities seem to be monies for the propane fund, winter clothing, and blankets.  Another source of contact information is Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation. If  you look around the site you will find various drives.  I will be provide more information as I receive it.  We have a unique opportunity to show the nation just what PUMAs are made of.  I have taken preliminary steps to start a drive for propane funds and dry goods at my place of work.  We can do the same in our communities.  We’ve been dealing with so much darkness; let’s shine some light.

Follow this link to find out how to aid the utility fund, and the battered women’s shelter at Pine Ridge.

This link will direct you to organizations collecting clothing, winter coats, and other dry goods at Pine Ridge.

You can donate to the Conflucian Pine Ridge Blizzard Fund here.

Please, do anything and everything you can to help. People -Americans- are dying. And please pass this information on to local, social and/or church organizations.

Another one of those [sodahead] comments that begged to be a blog post…

I was thinking this morning about just that [people too accepting of their loss of freedoms/rights]… but my mind automatically swung to the belief that as Americans, who we fundamentally ARE, surely the majority of us cannot -will not- allow the very foundation, and fundamental beliefs, of our country to be rewritten.

We are a relatively young country and unique in that we were founded on and for the establishment and preservation of democratic rights; that, where there would be government, citizens would play a very strong role in exactly *what* that government was. Now many seem to have forgotten that and want to hand those rights off to the government as if any group of people, with their own agendas, know better that any citizen what is best for us.

I agree with much zyriana said in a comment on one of my blogs in reference to… "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." In a perfect world we would be able to rise up and sweep clean, not the government, but the people that have tried to harness it for their own ends.

Don’t get me wrong… I abhor the rights being covertly and overtly stripped from Americans; I abhor the way the reins have been taken from ‘we the people’ and are now firmly held by elected officials of both parties. And I do not believe it is something that has been limited to the last administration but rather something that goes back a lot further.

Having said that I have to acknowledge that, at this time, we have few choices. With all my heart, and love for this country, I do not believe becoming a collectivist society is the answer. It may sound all ‘new world’ and kumbaya to imagine a brighter world where we can all hold hands and help one another by sacrificing. But we would simply be sacrificing MORE rights and freedoms and giving more power to a government that cares for nothing more than gaining more power and silencing dissent. That is exactly what that kind of society would mean.

I am not a hard core fan of John McCain… I disagree with him on some issues important to me… but in looking at the bigger picture of what America fundamentally IS I see him as the only currently available genuine solution -because he falls more in line with what is intrinsically and historically American… less government, reduced spending, controlled taxation- and I have to be honest enough to admit that while he may not be *the* solution he is at least standing in the center. It’s not a matter of voting against Obama but rather the choice of voting what I think is ‘in defense’ of historic America.

We can look at history, recent and ancient, at societies that have failed… and collectivist societies fail every time and fail dramatically. As I said, America was and is an experiment in Democracy and to end that in some rash hope for change is, in my opinion, a big mistake.

[morning rant over... time for breakfast lunch!]

And the band plays on. Eleven days to go and the depth and breadth of rumors are enough to make Pelosi’s face actually move, just not enough to derail the Obama Bullet Train… yet! [the optimist in me had to add that last bit]

Biology - Is he actually Barry Davis, as in ’son of’ Frank Marshall Davis?

Geography - Or born in Kenya as his Kenyan (step)grandmother and other family members tell the story?

Threats and Threats Plus - Enough is enough? Is Michelle cracking under the ‘audacity’ that some people actually do not worship him and could she be naive enough to think a foreign reporter would not… report?

Ghostwriter - Were Obama’s Dreams of his supposed father actually Ayers’ prose and poetic revenge?

Father #2 (or 3?) - And not to forget the innocent and apparently kind Lolo Soetoro. Did his kindness include adopting a young fatherless boy, rendering him an ex US citizen and creating legal and lasting Indonesian citizenship?

Waiting for ANY other shoe to fall is frustrating and a virtual tilt-a-whirl of speculation, pondering, blogging, hysteria, anger and vitriol across the vast intertubes. …..: Sigh :….. And eleven whole days left??? What WILL we do when it’s all over, no matter the outcome?

Why am I, again and still, not surprised?  From PoliticallyDrunk:

Media Silent On Collapse Of Obama’s Energy Plan!

With prices dropping to as low as $2.59 in some states, the media is eerily silent on the reality that Senator Obama’s Energy Plan has essentially collapsed along with oil prices that have dropped to around $70/barrel. Most Americans, with the willful help of a silent media, will never realize that even as Senator Obama is attacking big oil companies and continuing to call for an energy plan that would cost $90 billion in the first year alone, that oil company profits and stocks have taken a beating and more importantly the Windfall Profits Tax that Obama will use to pay for his Energy Plans will not generate a single penny. [...]

Senator Obama’s Energy Plan is predicated upon two investments: A $15 billion per year ‘green’ investment and a one-time $75 billion energy rebate. On the campaign trail, Senator Obama continues to state that his energy plan will pay for itself through his proposed Windfall Profits Tax. Yet, that very Windfall Profits Tax is based upon a tax that is imposed when oil prices exceed $80 per barrel. In order for Obama’s WPT to generate $15 billion per year, oil prices would have to remain above $92 per barrel. Of course if oil prices were to increase to $120 per barrel, the tax would impose a $58 billion per year cost to the oil companies (over 1/3 of their profits).

So as of today, in a weak global economy, Senator Obama’s plan has no funding. As a result, his Energy Proposals would add over $90 Billion dollars to the federal deficit in the first year alone. In addition, we know that even if oil prices were to re-emerge above the $92 per barrel mark, the WPT (which failed miserably the first time) would create an environment whereas producers would maximize their profits by producing oil overseas and selling that oil overseas where there is no additional tax. Ultimately, if energy prices continued to rise, the oil industry would abandon US production and limit importation to the US. After all, if you could make more money by selling your oil to Britain, or China, or India, wouldn’t you do just that?

Obama’s Energy Plan is nearly identical to that of Jimmy Carter 30 years ago, and like that of President Carter, Obama’s plan is destined to drive away US production. Even Senator Clinton, another supporter of the WPT had enough sense to recognize that Obama’s WPT proposal was unrealistic and abusive. Senator Clinton’s proposed WPT was designed to provide a minimal tax, that would generate a total of $2 billion per year, 8 times smaller than that of Senator Obama.

But the real issue today is not the long term failure of this tax that history has proven will reduce domestic production. Today’s issue is the fact that at current prices, the plan has failed before it has even begun. The media is silent and willfully overlooking the fact that every time Senator Obama mentions his plan, he is failing to tell the American public that they will have to endure much higher fuel prices in order for the tax to generate a single penny for the government.

So this election day every American has a choice, you can support a candidate who wants to keep short term energy prices low, thereby retaining US wealth to be invested in alternative energies; or we can support a candidate whose entire energy plan is based upon funding that can only occur if we are willing to pay much higher gas and energy prices both today and in the future.

I’ll say it again… someone please find the ‘unbiased’ media and point them home.

_{[relevant re-post............. imo]}

Check this out… from someone called dday on digby:

"There’s nothing shadowy about this - it’s an extension of what the Obama campaign has been doing since he entered the race. He’s building a new Democratic infrastructure, regimenting it under his brand, and enlisting new technologies and more sophisticated voter contacting techniques to turn it from a normal GOTV effort into a lasting movement. The short-term goal is to increase voter turnout by such a degree that Republicans will wither in November, not just from a swamp of cash but a flood of numbers. The long-term goal is to subvert the traditional structures of the Democratic Party since the early 1990s, subvert the nascent structures that the progressive movement has been building since the late 1990s, and build a parallel structure, under his brand, that will become the new power center in American politics. This is tremendous news."

Now I know that to most of us this reads as just hyperbole but for his supporters to think or believe this and think it is "tremendous news"… that’s insane.

Bat shyt crazy and scary as hell.

I’m sometimes a lazy blogger and tired tonight so, for now, just a copy/paste from a comment/reply I made tonight on sodahead:

-      No offense but, irrefutably, Obama’s plan for America is socialist at it’s very heart. That is not rumor, lies or spin. It is fact. Historical, political, social and financial… it is socialist. We can ignore it or avoid it but that still won’t change it.

How does Obama’s plan ‘help’ Americans? It doesn’t. Not beyond the next government subsidized check; a check that gets you a few tanks of gas, a few bags of groceries and, if you’re lucky a few bills paid. Then what?

Bottom line? These are merely more misdirections and rhetoric from Obama to vulnerable Americans. And I find that unconscionable. Obama IS good at psychological manipulation. He repeats the same words and phrases day in and day out, playing on the desperation and fears of many Americans who are looking into a dark tunnel wondering what will come down the tracks next.

On the surface tax breaks, stimulus packages and more government assistance sounds like a godsend to Americans that are having trouble affording even the most basic necessities and THAT is what Obama and Democratic ‘leaders’ are *banking* on. What they do NOT want Americans to know is that those are the very same things that will keep them right where they are… down.

Beyond the dangerous (socialist) meme of ‘fair and equitable’ there is the ugly truth about ‘wealth re-distribution’. It simple does not work and creates a welfare state where moving forward and getting ahead become almost impossible. It undermines and even destroys personal incentive to do more or do better for yourself and your family. When government involvement, and more government programs, suppress growth and economic gains then people have far fewer choices and become mired in less… less employment opportunities, fewer new business starts, less growth, less capital and investments to stimulate growth.

Sadly, more government ‘help’ simply makes more people dependent on the government, instead of encouraging people to rely on themselves and it severely decreases their ability to reach for the opportunities that America has historically offered to her citizens.

"Guaranteed equal outcome is socialism." - Cal Thomas

"The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and in all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success, but to create conditions under which everyone will have a better chance to be successful." - Calvin Coolidge

All day I was almost swearing at the tv, changing news channels over and over… yelling at them to change the focus. Yes, there IS an economic crisis but there is zero the average American can do to change it in any way… AND, the endless reporting of it is a dangerous distraction.

We have a monumentally important general election in less than four weeks and, with all the news and multiple stories this week that affect THAT in many serious ways, we are being led -yes, manipulated- like sheep away from the things we need investigated and the questions we need answered.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I would be trying to connect the dots from oil prices going sky high, to Pelosi’s refusal to give-up a vacation to deal with energy issues, to the 1st bailout bill ‘fumble and failure’, to the market crisis. Because this media blitz, reporting little else, is a Godsend to Obama. He gets to make more false promises and tell more lies… all the while avoiding public accountability that would definitely change the race and the election.

I just want to run to the window and scream "Wake Up!"… but I’d likely only hear crickets.

[/rant]

Please! No more stimulation packages that we cannot afford. Jesus wept, has this woman no shame? Is getting Barack elected, by promising  more suicidally expensive government freebies, more important to this damn woman that this country’s survival??? Oh, right. Pelosi. Stupid question.

Nancy Pelosi’s latest ‘Get Out The Vote’ drive:

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that a $150 billion economic stimulus plan is needed now because of the faltering economy and she may call the House into session after the election to pass it.

    Pelosi told reporters that the stock market meltdown, which has caused an estimated $2 trillion loss from pension funds, was a factor in her recommendation for a second stimulus bill. The first relief plan sent out $600-$1,200 tax rebate checks to most individuals and couples this year.

    The House did pass a $61 billion economic aid proposal last month before lawmakers left Capitol Hill ahead of the Nov. 4 election. But a similar plan failed to pass the Senate. President Bush had promised a veto anyway.

    If Democratic nominee Barack Obama wins the White House and if Capitol Hill Democrats make gains in the elections as well, it might be easier to pass a stimulus measure over dispirited Republicans, especially if the economy remains in big trouble.

Promises of handouts to come… IF we elect Barack of course… Buying votes again, Pelosi???

    The Senate is expected to be back at work after Election Day to complete a public lands bill and perhaps deal with other matters, such as a measure to extend unemployment benefits. The House also could return to consider a stimulus plan and additional issues in a lame-duck session before the newly elected Congress takes over in January.

Enough already.

I started typing some thoughts this morning and realized I was echoing previous comments… Errands are calling me out the door so copy and paste will work just fine!!! =)

I like John McCain the man. I believe he will do his best and stand as a centrist. I honestly believe he will not touch Roe v Wade or weight the SC. But I’m afraid that our Senate and Congress will continue to fail at their doing their jobs. I’m afraid of more of the same and the possibility that , if we lose the majorities now or in two years, that [an extreme] conservative agenda will [...] assert itself.

I do not like Barack Obama. I do not like the way he ran his campaign. Not to get into any debate but I *saw* the race card more than I saw racism. I have listened to people talk about caucuses taken over and manipulated. I have read volumes about his past and his past associations and, though I do not think they ‘made’ the man I think they say something about the man.

I do not want more government, repeats of past failed economic policies, a weakened military or national defense. I want to TRUST my president and I simply do not trust Barack Obama.

Our only hope? Divided government and the Democrats doing their damn jobs.