The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

OH! I love this! Now everyone will be collecting pennies! How cool!

QT
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I”m glad a lot of commenters are pushing back on this entry. Seriously – having a higher degree of difficulty on a Fleish-Kincaid reading analysis is NOT a good thing. Almost certainly, the increased count is because of the higher number of passive sentences. Using your same wordprocessing software to do a spelling and grammar check, you’ll get lots of requests that you fix the passive sentences, because they are harder to understand.

If the goal of communications is to ensure that the listener understands what you’re communicating – Bush wins this round. And since we all know that Obama is actually a better communicator – I think we need better measurements than Fleish-Kincaid.

QT (An avid Obama Supporter!)
More on President Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

There’s been a lot of talk on the left that Michael Steele’s ascension to the head of the Republican party represented a degree of tokenism. I’ve long argued that tokenism or not, the fact of the matter is that years ago (not too many) it wouldn’t have even been possible, and furthermore – the man won by election – not by fiat. And of course, he won because President Barack Obama led the way to making it possible for the a black man to be the recognized leader of a major United States political party. Stomping all over that achievement just because it was republicans and not democrats, doesn’t work for me.

Anyway – here’s a news story that demonstrates even more powerfully, just how much Steele’s election really DOES matter: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18627.html

Michael Steele owes his dramatic victory in the race for Republican National Committee chairman to votes from island territories outside the 50 United States. Now, the question is what else he owes them.

The residents of the five territories, from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea to the tiny Northern Marianas in the Pacific Ocean, provided Steele with a bloc of 15 votes – one more than his margin of victory – when they swung into his camp late in the balloting last week.

Interesting. 15 votes from the islands. You know what? I’m betting that most of those voters are black and hispanic. Call me crazy, but – I think Mr. Steele has an agenda.

Moreover – the “black vote” is nowhere near as homogenous as people claim. African-Americans form only one part of the “black vote” and I’d argue that it is probably a solid block – maybe about 75% democratic leaning. But Africans and folks from the Carribean are more than likely a bit less homogenous – their experience in America differs significantly from the African American experience, though there are many touchpoints of solidarity, including the confrontation with racism on a daily basis. Hispanics, on the other hand, have never been a solid block – there’s always been a republican set and a democratic set of voters within the Hispanic community.

Anyone really want to shortchange Chairman Steele? I recommend seriously against it.

I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for him to say exactly this…. my favorite parts highlighted. You can read the entirety of the letter here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020403174.html?nav=rss_opinion%2Fcolumns

In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We’ve seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.

Every day, our economy gets sicker — and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now.

Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process.

Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years.

Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans.

And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway.

These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. They’re patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide.

Seriously – it’s going to be a long, unpleasant 4 years if our discourse can’t elevate past “oh look! Obama did something that Bush did and liberals whined about! Let’s go kick some liberals in the teeth” versus “Oh look! obama did something better than Bush did! Let’s go rub it into the faces of the conservatives that Bush lost!”

There are plenty of things worthwhile talking about – and we are all going to have our differing points of view. For instance – I’m not convinced that there’s any way at all for Obama supporters and liberals (not all the same thing) to see eye to eye on the recovery package (conservatives want more tax cuts, liberals want more spending, and depending if they are Obama supporters specifically, or liberals generally, there may be differences on kinds of spending desired). But that’s an ideological difference worth having, without claiming a priori, that anyone doing it differently than how your ideology dictates, is “screwing everything up.” Etc.

As someone who hasn’t been on the liberal side of the fence until Obama became my favorite candidate, this back and forth is wearying, depressing, and really uninviting. Personally – as an Obama supporter, I am genuinely appreciative of the President’s effort to change the tone of dialogue.

Is this what we’ve been reduced to? Years of Clinton/Bush fighting has reduced us to being fundamentally incapable of civil discourse – only able to receive news that suits our own ideas, incapable of even giving real respect to one another? Seems to me the bible spoke about this tendency in people to seek only what they want to hear. I’m sure the Apostle Paul was speaking on more spiritual matters when he said in 2nd Timothy

4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

… but I’m also sure that spiritual conditions affect every other condition. This way we have of dealing with one another is unhealthy, a sickness, no less so than the unhealthy greed and lack of discipline/self-restraint that landed us into this economic mess. If we (liberals/Obama supporters) are angry with Bush for not listening to opposing points of view, how much more should we be doing better? And if we (conservatives) are angry for hypocritical posturing just to pile on to a beleaguered presidency, how much more should we avoid continuing in the same vein? In other words – must we continue this dance? No one seems to be having fun with it – I certainly am not.

Apologies for the judgmental tone of this post, but I mean every word of it, just the same.

QT

http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2009/02/scarboroughs_re.html#comments

I am an American Soldier. I have served my country honorable in Iraq. After surviving both of my “DO NOTHING” deployments I was eligible for the EITC. The reason I was eligible for the EITC was that all my income in a COMBAT ZONE was non taxable income. This is the same for every soldier, sailor, marine and airperson that makes less than $88,000 of base pay in a COMBAT ZONE. I was extremely grateful to receive this tax credit. It felt like my government was honoring my service. So yes, dodging IEDs and small arms fire is “DOING NOTHING” and running you fat mouth for millions of dollars every morning is “WORK”.

Arianna Huffington talks about the Marie Antoinette attitude of some – wall street/bank/automobile ceo types. But the fact is – it permeates every facet of American life. Even the middle-class has this completely out of touch attitude toward the genuinely poor, or the lower-middle class stuck in slum conditions through no fault of their own.

GItheJoe’s comments are in response to Joe Scarborough’s pontifications on whether or not working people deserve and earned income tax credit. At a time when our nation is suffering – when the well off are watching their shares decline – how much more so are the poor watching their ability to make ends meet decline? Isn’t this a time for openheartedness and opennhandedness? I mean – we don’t have unlimited resources, but this isn’t a time to ask why some are getting. It’s a time to ask – will giving in this way help? Any other question is heartless, and deserving of contempt.