Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

Monday, August 11, 2008

Fight the Smears

Bekkieann posted this link in a comment on Utah Amicus. I guess to combat all the silly email forwards circulating, Obama created this website for people to find the truth.

Enjoy...

Fight the Smears

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Not voting for Hillary Clinton doesn't mean I don't care about women!

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

I am astonished by the number of 20-, 30- and 40-something women who don't support Hillary Clinton for president. Have they forgotten (or never learned) that it took brave, strong women working hard to get us the rights we now have? Do they not see that electing a woman will help get us the pay equity we deserve, break the glass ceilings and dismantle the good ol' boy network? Electing a woman who shares our values will make tremendous strides in obtaining equal footing with the men who run this country.
Clinton is just that woman. She has worked hard for women and children during her entire career. She was instrumental in getting the Children's Health Insurance Program legislation passed. She has the best plan for universal health care. She is leading the effort in the U.S. Senate to get equal pay - women are still making 77 cents for every dollar of our male counterparts. From her days at the Children's Defense Fund, she has been an advocate for children with special needs. Her list of accomplishments is deep and important to me as a woman.
She'll be a great president, and it's our time.

Lisa Tzovolos Allcott
Salt Lake City


Lisa Allcott may be right on some points, but voting for HIllary Clinton just because she is a woman, doesn't cut it (for me). I'm supporting Obama because I think he's the better candidate and it bothers me that people think I ought to vote for Hillary Clinton because I am a woman and she is a woman. It has nothing to do with being loyal to my sex, or breaking through the glass ceiling. It has to do with voting for the PERSON who will do the best job. I'd love to see a woman president, but I don't currently see one that inspires me.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Dear Friends.... A Message From Dave Matthews

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

A question, a reflection, and an endorsement.

Why is our country divided?
Why has this division been growing?

Can we not all agree that we are a country that supports its families, that protects its citizens and respects its neighbors?
A country that educates its children?
Are we not a country that can lead by example rather than by force?
Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people?

I would like to think so.
But I believe that corporate greed and its involvement in policy making, along with political cronyism have made it nearly impossible for the people to govern.
So we fight amongst ourselves over the spin of political slogans and half truths.
And so we are divided.

It is time for a change and that is why I support Barack Obama for President.

Respectfully,

Dave Matthews

Monday, November 05, 2007

Barack Hussein Obama: Oh what a evil man!

I got this email forward today:

Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin stand during the national anthem.
Barack Hussein Obama's photo (that's his real name)......the article said he REFUSED TO NOT ONLY PUT HIS HAND ON HIS HEART DURING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, BUT REFUSED TO SAY THE PLEDGE.....how in the hell can a man like this expect to be our next Commander-in-Chief????



First off, I find it incredibly irritating that the email assumes we should all be outraged at Obama's name. If he has a name like that he's probably a terrorist, right? Maybe President Bush should just lock him up as a preventetive measure.

Second of all, what does the picture really tell us? It bothers me that things like this are forwarded soley to be divisive and lead people to jump to conclusions.

At Snopes.com I looked up the picture and discovered that Senator Obama wasn't refusing to say the pledge. The picture wasn't even taken during the pledge.

From Snopes: The photograph itself is real, one of several images of the Iowa steak fry event published by Time, and shows Barack Obama standing with his hands clasped just below his waist, while New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, New York senator Hillary Clinton, and Ruth Harkin (wife of Iowa senator Tom Harkin) stand with their hands held over their hearts. It's difficult to judge exactly what's going on from a single still image (it's possible, for example, that the photograph captured an instant just before or just after the national anthem was played, and Senator Obama had not yet raised his right hand or had just lowered it), but other accounts (including the following ABC News video of the event) indicate that the picture is as described:



(It's also not clear from the photograph or the video just what the candidates are looking at. The Flag Code advises that they should be "standing at attention facing the flag," but none of them is facing the flag displayed behind the platform on which they're standing. Presumably there's another flag off to the right of the platform, since most of them are facing that direction.)

Such an act would be consistent with Senator Obama's response when he was asked in October 2007 interviews about his not wearing a U.S. flag pin in his lapel, a gesture which he said he had abandoned in favor of actions he considered more meaningfully patriotic:
The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security. I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead I'm gonna try to tell the American people what I believe what will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.

Somebody noticed I wasn't wearing a flag lapel pin and I told folks, well you know what? I haven't probably worn that pin in a very long time. I wore it right after 9/11. But after a while, you start noticing people wearing a lapel pin, but not acting very patriotic. Not voting to provide veterans with resources that they need. Not voting to make sure that disability payments were coming out on time.

My attitude is that I'm less concerned about what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart. And you show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who served. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and our ideals and that's what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals.


As for whether this incident was an "accident," whether Senator Obama habitually declines to perform the hand-over-heart gesture, or whether there's any particular meaning to the (non-)action, an Obama campaign spokesperson said:
Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. In no way was he making any sort of statement, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous.

We could not find any information substantiating the claim (made in the text accompanying some versions of the e-mailed photo) that Senator Obama "refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance."

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Not SOCIALIZED healthcare!

Over the holiday I had the chance to discuss the state of health care in our country with some family members. It frustrates me that so many people seem to take the phrase "socialized health care" and run screaming with it.

Socialized health care! What's wrong with that? I hate to point it out, but what we have now is not working. My brother-in-law, who is wonderful in many ways, didn't have any reason for his knee-jerk reaction to the idea of socialized health care other than "people in Canada hate what they have and come here for medical care". Perhaps that does happen, but I can find just as many, if not more examples of Canadians who love their health coverage.

In our discussion we talked about the cost of the babies his wife and I both have had recently. Our medical insurance has a $5000 deductible on maternity, the bills came to $4995. He and his wife are "poor college students" and qualify for medicaid. I'm not sure if he paid anything at all for his baby. Yet, even after receiving free or very low cost health care he assumes that because he is a hard worker, he could pay any medical bills that he had to.

I'd encourage health-care-conservatives to actually read about "socialized" health care plans before dismissing them. The link is to the Barack Obama for President website. Also, it might be helpful to look up the definition of Socialism. I don't think anyone is advocating a complete switch to a socialist state. But what is so wrong with a health care system that is controlled by the state so that all citizens can benefit fairly and equitably. Think "Law of Consecration".

My husband and I have had to opt out of his employer sponsored plan because it has gotten too expensive. He works for a small business, and his bosses have a real concern about the possibility of one employee having a major medical problem and the entire company being priced out of the health insurance plans altogether.

It's passed the time for a change, and if you are lucky enough to have not realized that yet, take a look at some real people sharing their medical nightmares.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

So much for food...

A few months ago, after my Mr. turned 30, our health insurance premium went up by $70/month. Now it's going up another $70. It's ridiculous, especially since I am one of the lucky ones. At least I have insurance, and can pay for it (although it's starting to hurt). We've had our current insurance for less than 3 years, and our monthly premium has nearly doubled. If this keeps up, we're not going to be able to afford it anymore.

Maybe more of us need to get angry about our lousy health care system and insist on some sort of health care reform?

Write your elected officials. Please.

(really, it's enough to make me become a one-issue voter- Barack Obama says he'll get universal healthcare going if he's elected....)

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Obama


I'm skeptical about any politician's motives, especially when that politician wants to be president. That said, I like what I have read about Barack Obama. His background may be a bit short on the political side (which is probably a good thing), but it is full of dedication to helping others. He seems genuine, and I would like to think that it is more than just political staging.

Here are a couple of quotes from his website...

On Families:

Strong families raise successful children and keep communities together. While Senator Obama does not believe that we can simply legislate healthy families, good parenting skills or economic success, he does believe we can eliminate roadblocks that parents face and provide tools to help them succeed.

On Health Care:

"In the 2008 campaign, affordable, universal health care for every single American must not be a question of whether, it must be a question of how. We have the ideas, we have the resources, and we will have universal health care in this country by the end of the next president's first term."

A friend sent me a copy of a New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman. You have to subscribe to the NY Times to read it, so if you are interested, send me an email or something and I'll send you a copy. Friedman starts the editorial by talking about his wife's visit to a school house in Kenya. On the wall of the school house is a poster of Senator Obama and his wife. He also talks about pictures of Senator Obama at the offices of public officials in Kenya.

Friedman then writes, "Yes, Mr. Obama’s father was Kenyan, but nevertheless, that poster and those pictures got me thinking: when was the last time you saw a U.S. president or politician being held up as a role model abroad? It’s been awhile. And that got me thinking about Mr. Obama. It seems to me that the strongest case one could make for an Obama presidency right now is rarely articulated: it is his potential to repair the broken relationship between America and the world."

The ability to repair broken relationships with the rest of the world just might be a good quality for the next president to have...