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October 23, 2007
Is Anyone Interested
Posted by sjames at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
Flip Flop Romney
"We have to start acting like Republicans, not earmarking Republicans, not big spending Republicans but Reagan Republicans." Mitt Romney during the 2007 Presidential Campaign.
Is a Reagan Republican pro choice?
Posted by sjames at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2007
Ending the Stalemate in Iraq
Harold Ford Jr, Chair of the Democratic Leadership Council
Al From, Founder and CEO Democratic Leadership Council
President Bush's approval rating is in the low 30s. Congress's is even lower. Voters want a new strategy in Iraq, and they are clearly disgusted at the inability of the President and Congress to agree on one.
The logjam in Congress on the most pressing issue of the day is fresh evidence to most Americans that Washington isn't working.
Posted by sjames at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
State Senate Candidates and Immigration
State Line News from Pew reports that Republican State Senate Candidates are raising illegal immigration as an issue. In Chattanooga, Tennessee Republican Candidate Oscar Brock lists illegal immigration as an issue on his website. Brock is running for State Senate in solidly Democratic District. His opponent Andy Berke, the Democratic nominee, appears to be concentrating on issues such as education and jobs.
Posted by sjames at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2007
Strangers Contacting Teens Online
Posted by sjames at 06:12 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2007
The war in Iraq continues to dominate the public's list of the most important problems facing the nation. About four-in-ten (37%) cite Iraq as the most important problem, down slightly from 42% in January. The economy is a distant second, at 10%, followed by healthcare and dissatisfaction with the government and politics (7% each). Terrorism and immigration also are frequently mentioned as the country's top problem.
Posted by sjames at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)
Bruce Plante: Thompson on the Move
Posted by sjames at 05:47 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2007
Scalia Joins Fox's 24
Justice Scalia joins Fox's 24 emulating his hero Jack Bauer in this video from Slate V.
Posted by sjames at 06:31 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2007
Public Service?
“Enter to Grow in Wisdom, Depart to Serve Better thy Country and thy Kind.”
A GI Bill for the 21st Century: Loan Forgiveness for Public Service
by Ganesh Sitaraman
After World War II, the GI Bill helped 2.2 million veterans get an education and become successful businessmen, doctors, engineers, and scientists. For every dollar invested, the country got five dollars back over the next 35 years. The GI Bill fueled the sustained post-war economic boom - and the spectacular growth of the middle class.
Posted by sjames at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2007
Nixon on Thompson: Dumb as Hell
Fred Thompson has made much of his role 30 years ago as a young Senate lawyer helping to lead the investigation of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon.
But a much different, less valiant picture of Thompson emerges from listening to the White House audiotapes made at the time, as President Nixon plotted strategy with his aides in the Oval Office.
Posted by sjames at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2007
Dalton Roberts: Long John Cardinal
The birds that come to your feeding area become part of your family as surely as your dogs and cats. You actually bond with some of them and are able to communicate with them.
A perfect example was my one-legged cardinal I named Long John. In case you were not receiving my stories back when Long John came into my life, let me briefly tell you about him.
One day I saw him fluttering furiously when he would try to hang onto a feeder that other cardinals had no trouble clinging to. I got my binoculars and saw he only had one leg.
Posted by sjames at 10:08 AM | Comments (1)
Too Much Celebrity News
When asked about which issues, if any, get too much attention from the news media, fully 40% of the public cites celebrity news. That is more than three times the number citing any other subject. About one-in-ten Americans (12%) say the news media has devoted too much attention to the Iraq war, while 5% each mention politics generally, the presidential campaign or crime and violence.
Posted by sjames at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2007
Federal Broadband Policy
A New Federal Broadband Policy
by Laura Spining, 9.24.2007
In today’s world of YouTube video sharing, online conferencing, animated advertising and lightning fast music downloads, it’s easy to forget that less than a decade ago, the Internet was mainly a source of text data, and many of the people who used it were content with the connectivity provided by dial-up connections. In less than a decade, the Internet has become an essential utility in our nation’s economy, in the way we communicate and the way in which we do business
Continue reading "Federal Broadband Policy"
Posted by sjames at 06:58 AM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2007
Hiding the Past
It seems that politicians are always getting in trouble. Most recently, Senator Larry Craig pled guilty to soliciting sex in the men's bathroom. After his guilty plea he subsequently resigned, and after his resignation he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea and he did not succeed--now he has withdrawn his resignation until the end of his term.
During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Representative Newt Gingrich was forced to resign because he, like Bill Clinton, was having an extramarital affair.
The issue doesn't stop on the national level, and it certainly doesn't stop with Republicans. Democrats have had their fair share of controversy, with their fair share of politicians getting into trouble over mistakes they made both in the present, and in the past. However, it is the Republicans that talk ethics, godliness, and perfection. Republicans claim to have the moral high road, but on all levels of government one discovers that they are just as human as the next person. Republicans have made mistakes, Democrats have made mistakes. Wouldn't it be nice to have our leaders admit their mistakes, and genuinely ask for forgiveness?
In Hamilton County Tennessee, the Chattanooga Time Free Press reports that Oscar Brock, the Republican nominee for State Senate, was "convicted of driving under the influence in 1987..." The article reports that the charge was dismissed on appeal, and that Mr. Brock was 24 at the time-he is now 44.
Mr. Brock responded to the charges. His response is eloquent, and moved me to immediately say to myself "big deal, let's get on with the election." In his response Brock stated "[he] made a poor choice. I'm accountable for my actions and take responsibility for placing myself in that situation. In your youthfulness, we often do things that we later regret and this is one of those moments."
Continue reading "Hiding the Past"
Posted by sjames at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2007
Iraq: Latrine Commentary
Graffiti in the bathroom of an American forwarding base in Kuwait. While some stalls were constantly scrubbed clean of such commentary, bathrooms in transient bases were covered with the hopes, fears, frustrations, anger and humor of the troops, as well as confessions
Posted by sjames at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2007
Bushisms
Another week of Bushisms.
Posted by sjames at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
Religion and Politics
Religion and Politics
Mitt Romney, John F. Kennedy-both politicians dealt with religion in their political careers--Mr.Romney is still answering questions about his Mormon faith.
Mitt Romney's Mormon faith comes up over and over in the presidential election. When John F. Kennedy ran for president, his Catholicism was an issue.
What difference does it make? The United States is a great melting pot of people, people who practice different faiths-this is the land of religious freedom.
Using religion in a political race is simply inappropriate. The question shouldn't be whether a person is of a particular faith, the question should be how does that person's faith guide them through life?
I personally do not care whether a person is Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist, Jewish, or Mormon. What is important is that the people believe in their faith, and they use faith as a guiding light. Even more important, we must elect people who will not impose their faith upon us-but who use their faith as a guiding light, as a source of inspiration to help them do the right thing in elected office.
Our country was founded, in part, because of religious persecution. We fought and died for religious freedom. We are a country of many faiths, religions, and ideas. Our elected leaders, regardless of their particular religion, must understand that we are a melting pot, and that we are free to practice any religion-we are free not to practice any religion at all.
The question of whether a particular candidate is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Mormon or any other faith really should be irrelevant in elections-the relevant question is whether a candidate elected to office understands the many faiths that make up our country-that the candidate understands there are people who live in this land that practice no religion at all.
It will be a bright day in American politics when politicians stop wearing their religion on their sleeve, when those reporting politics understand that we are a land of many faiths, and when we all understand that we can elect people who have faith, but who do not impose their faith, or their will, on others.
Stuart F. James
Posted by sjames at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2007
Ken Jordan or Bob Corker: Democrats will Decide
"Call me Harold" is a famous political commercial aired during the Bob Corker/Harold Ford Jr. campaign. The Republican National Committee attempted to paint Harold Ford Jr. as liberal, as a person who had possesses no values, as a bachelor who is a Playboy party attending bachelor. The ad by critics was called racial because of a white woman, who appeared to be naked, saying "call me Harold" after she claimed she met Harold Ford Jr. at Playboy party.
In the State of Tennessee, a local candidate for state Senate race admits to being a supporter of Mr. Corker, Ken Jordan a black Democrat, admits that he campaigned for, worked for, and appeared in television commercials for Bob Corker. The fact that his candidate, Ken Jordan, worked for the Corker campaign as a black resident of Chattanooga Tennessee brings into question his democratic credentials. Democrats will have to decide whether a man who actively worked for Bob Corker, a Republican, who was associated with a call Me Harold ad is worthy to be elected as the Democratic nominee. Bob Corker did call for the RNC to pull the commercial, and sometime after the request the RNC pull the commerical--but not before it was seen all over the state, and across the nation.
In a Democratic Primary, can a black candidate who worked against a black runnng for the United State Senate (a Democrat by the way) gain his "party's" nomination?
Paul Smith, a past chair, and current member of the Executive Board of the Democratic Party is endorsing and working for Mr. Jordan and believes Jordan is a Democrat representing the values of the voters in the Tennessee State Senate District 10 race. This Thursday the voters will decide the issue.
Posted by sjames at 09:49 AM | Comments (2)