The Obama Victory Lap Finds Its Way to Troy, MI

Senator Barack Obama is poised to take the nomination tonight and we Michiganders were given the opportunity to share in the celebration yesterday in Troy, Michigan. The primary has obviously worn Obama down. At the Troy rally, the Senator haggardly walked through the hall to center stage as he slowly opened on his address before the town. Obama was visibly tired as he uncharacteristically hunched over the microphone. This body language is a far-cry from Obama’s usually straight posture. However, Obama demonstrated his ability to appeal to the crowd. From Obama reciprocating an “I love you” to an audience member to the electricity of him handing his microphone to an American Axle employee during the question and answer period, Obama lit the crowd up.

Yet, Obama has been on a victory lap since his rally in Grand Rapids over two weeks ago, which has been characterized by Obama going on the offensive against Senator John McCain. The rally in Troy was no different as Obama used all of his time to separate himself from the Republican Senator. Obama was able to overcome his obvious weary and delivered a pitch perfect, intense, crowd pleasing speech that took the campaign from the trenches of the primary and moved it into the war against John McCain. “Because Senator McCain says we have made, and this is a quote, ‘great progress economically’ these past eight year, and he promises more of the same.” The inevitable comparisons to George W. Bush were a damning scorecard of McCain’s transformation into a far-right winger. This is merely a preview of the direction this campaign will follow as we head into late summer leaving me to wonder how McCain plans to shake the baggage that comes from his party’s nomination.

As Obama closes in on the nomination, the VP rumors are flying. Obama had nothing but praise for Hillary Clinton at his rally in Troy, MI on Monday. He even hinted that they would be working closely come November. Also, there is talk that Clinton is warming up to the position of VP. Will he offer her a spot on the ticket or will the delegates/superdelegates force him to? I would be surprised if Senator Clinton does not receive some cabinet position offer. I would also be greatly surprised if the Clinton campaign headed into the convention without an agenda to promote a runner-up prize that could be enforced by the 17 million people who voted for her. One thing is clear, however, the convention is no longer going to be about the presidential nominee, but about the vice-presidential nominee. Tonight, Obama will likely reach the 2, 118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination and the race once again changes.

Keith

Time for Our Government to Start Supporting the Troops

This Memorial Day weekend, remember our troops who are tirelessly fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 160 Michigan soldiers (here is a list of those who have died for our freedom from MI) have been lost in the War on Terror and the number of American casualties has climbed past 4,000. Yet, many members of our armed forces are frustrated with our government’s unwillingness to stick to its half of the deal. Some of our soldiers have been lied to by recruiters about the amount of money they would receive for college and the support they would receive as veterans of war. This government has had a hard enough time funding body armor and adequate health care facilities for our soldiers, yet, it routinely "misplaces" large sums of money appropriated for the war effort. Now the government refuses to pay the bill for having a well trained, standing army. Private employers are not allowed to get away with not paying the promised compensation to employees (see Fair Labor Standards Act), so why should the government? There is hope however. This week the United States Senate, in a rare show of bipartisanship, passed a funding bill for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan 70-26 that increases the benefits under the GI Bill for all soldiers who were active after 9/11. This support includes funding for college tuition. President Bush continues to threaten veto, but if these numbers continue in the House then Congress may be able to overturn. Surprisingly, JOHN MCCAIN DID NOT SUPPORT THIS BILL. The bill goes before the House next week. Let's make our voices heard and keep our Representatives responsible to our troops.

Additionally, our soldiers are being stop-lossed and forced into an extension of their active duty service. The president is granted this power under 10 U.S.C. § 12305(a), which states, “... the President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States.” Soldiers are being told that their service will be over after a specific period of time; however, always remember to read the fine print. In the Armed Forces Enlistment Contract, paragraph 9(c) states that “In the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends, unless the enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States.” Not only are our soldiers not being payed as agreed, the government has used deceitful contractual language to extend the duration of contract. In the law of contracts, individuals only have to pay damages to the other party if they choose to breach the agreement. Unlike normal contracts, a soldier's breach of contract means court martial. If the government wants to enforce these contractual agreements then they should be bound to the same principles of private contract that our soldiers are bound to as well as all Americans. Let's do right by our fighting men and women. These people deserve our support and admiration, and I for one refuse to let my country shove these people off the side of the cliff like it did with the American Vietnam Vets. Let's remind our legislators of our soldiers on this Memorial Day.

- Keith

Slogans without Substance

Although the presidential primaries have monopolized most of the political discussions for the past year, the starting gun on the 2008 congressional races has been fired. Over the past several weeks there have been three special elections in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi. Usually special elections serve as a harbinger for the upcoming general elections where each party tests the themes, ideas and strategies which they will employ in the fall. This time around all three races were to fill seats in mildly or considerably conservative districts, all of which were carried easily by George W. Bush in 2004.



Well what do you know, but there are now three new Democratic Congressman in the House of Representatives! We swept all three races, surprising both national and local pundits. Apparently, these Democratic successes got the attention of GOP leaders who sunk over $3 million dollars into these losing special elections. The leadership of the GOP have decided that to win they need to stand for change.





Given the rising gas prices, the increased cost of living, a depressed housing market, the endless disaster in Iraq, and high unemployment at home, you would think that change from the GOP would mean moving away from the disastrous policies of George W. Bush which have led America to our current predicament.

Alas, no the GOP leaders are advocating "Change" as a buzzword and not as a shift in policy.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002827818

The GOP strategy for the congressional elections will be to offer the same old Bush policies re-branded as "The Change You Deserve."

This amounts to a Slogan without Substance!

With Congressional Democrats offering long term energy relief for our economy:

http://www.democrats.org/a/national/clean_environment/energy/

The GOP will counter with an empty slogan.

With Democrats offering concrete solutions to address America's housing crisis:

http://www.speaker.gov/legislation?id=0196

The GOP will counter with just an empty slogan.

And with national and local Democrats (including our own Congressman Dale Kildee) supporting a national single-payer health care plan:

http://www.pnhp.org/publications/the_national_health_insurance_bill_hr_676.php

&

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00676:@@@P

The GOP will counter with, you guessed it, another empty slogan.

Good luck with that!

- Kyle M.

The Beginning of the Beginning

There has been hand wringing and discussion about the results from Tuesday's elections in Indiana and North Carolina. The blowout win by Sen. Obama in the Tar Heel State combined with Sen. Clinton's razor thin margin of victory in the Hoosier State have denied her any realistic chance of winning are party's nomination. The epilogue on this primary season will be written at a later date. Politics can be a cold business and to ask someone, after nearly two years of campaigning to abandon a lifetime ambition in one night, is probably too much to ask. The Clinton's are experienced enough to read the proverbial tea leaves and know that her campaign will not suceed. If she wishes to ignore reality and go further into debt to contest the last few races it frankly won't matter much (as long as she drops the 'kitchen sink' strategy and says nary a negative word about Sen. Obama for the next six months).

Tuesday night was not the beginning of the end. It was the end. Remember the old adage about a tree falling in a forest? Well if a campaign has no mathematical chance of succeeding and the candidate keeps campaigning, did the campaign really end. I would argue that yes it did!

With all of these contests and elections, the speeches and rallies we may have lost sight of the prize. The reality is that the only thing Sen. Obama has secured is the right to challenge Sen. McCain and end the Senior Senator from Arizona's bid for George W. Bush's third term.

Folks, this is the beginning of the beginning.

The unfortunate thing about the long primary season is that by going two months longer than normal, we do not have the luxury of having a training camp. When a football team prepares for the season, they take a couple months in the summer getting into shape. They prepare themselves for the upcoming campaign. Normally in presidential politics we have training camp period for a few months to prepare for the general election.

Not this time. For the past few months, John McCain has been traveling around the country and the world saying crazy things, proposing ideas that won't work, and just generally messing up. The bad thing is that we've been so busy attacking each other that we haven't been able to effectively counter his claims. With the beginning of the beginning, we can now focus our attention to Sen. McCain. Our campaign dollars won't be used for ads attacking fellow progressives they will be used to unite our party, build our base, and convince voters why four more years of Bush/McCain policies would hurt our Country.

The beginning of the beginning, whether or not Sen. Clinton is ready to admit it, is upon us. There will be over 100 voter registration drives across the US this weekend to kickoff the general election campaign. Here in the Flint area we will kickoff the campaign just like folks all over the country. For more information here is the link:

my.barackobama.com/voteflint

-Kyle

MDP Jeff-Jack Recap

Yesterday the Michigan Democratic Party held the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner at Cobo Hall in Detroit. I thought I would post a not so brief recap for those of you who couldn't make it to the event.

The event started out with a reception for the Youth Caucus. It was great to see all of the elected officials and party leaders who came out to support the young folks like us who are active in the party. Our own congressman Rep. Dale Kildee was among those who came to start the evening with the youngest members of the party. We heard from Gary Peters who is running a great campaign to become the next congressmen from Oakland County. He encouraged us to stay involved in politics. Even though I enjoyed seeing the older crowd, the highlight of the Youth Caucus reception was hanging out with other folks (read: ladies) our (my) age interested in politics.

The dinner was well a dinner. There was chicken which was both well seasoned and tender. For the price of the ticket I would have expected a Porterhouse steak or a bucket of crab legs. There was also pretty decent cheesecake (I'm a cheesecake snob) and the rest of the food wasn't really worth mentioning.

The dinner included lots of awards, but since I was sitting in the corner and they didn't show the award recipients on the jumbo tron screen I can't tell you who won what. There were a lot of speakers including Gov. Granholm, Lt. Gov. Cherry, Sen. Levin & Sen. Stabenow. The main speaker was the Gov. Brian Schweitzer from Montana. He seems like a regular guy who just happens to run a state. He had a funny metaphor about driving a car backwards you put it in 'R' and when you want to go forward you put in in 'D'. I used that metaphor with someone at work and they laughed so I will plagiarize it liberally.

After the dinner, we met at the lounge in Cobo for refreshments. I had a good time and it was great to spend time with new and old friends. Plus, if nothing else, by attending the Jeff-Jack Dinner I didn't have to watch the Tigers get whooped by the White Sox.

Enough of my ramblings, it is almost tip off of the title game where I hope Memphis will beat Kansas.

-Kyle

MSU Anti-War Protesters Try to Intimidate the State News

Typically, I am as pro-civil liberties as a person can be, but this video really made me angry. I am also a MSU grad student, but I have a different perspective of the protest. In the video, a mob of anti-war protesters at MSU were angry about the recent decision of the State News (MSU's student newspaper headquartered in downtown E. Lansing on Grand River) to not cover some of their recent protest events. This protest group drew crowds of over 400 on several occasions, but had been covered in the paper previous years.

Regardless of one's stance on the Iraq War, this behavior is appalling. First, I object to the use of numbers to intimidate the editorial board at the newspaper. The students were chucking newspapers at the window, cussing, and mocking the newspaper employees who refused to unlock the door. Second, the vulgar language was unacceptable on such a busy street. Third, many students used this protest as a means to protest administration decisions that had nothing to do with the paper including a University safety policy that prohibits skate boarders. Wow, how altruistic of them. That brings me to my fourth point. It seems incredibly selfish of the protesters to intimidate the newspaper into re-printing the issue because it did not cover the protesters' event or put their names in the paper. This "we want to be in the paper" mentality seems antithetical to the altruistic mission of stopping the war in Iraq. Fifth, the entire protest wrongly criticizes the character of those who are merely working on a student newspaper. Especially the lady with the blood red paint on her hands who smeared the window. What is their point? Are the student editors responsible for the number of casualties in Iraq?

There are those who support this protest in the Michigan Liberal community. They seem to believe that the ends justify the means. They do not. Feel free to protest, but please do not attempt to intimidate and harass others in the process. They believe that they are conforming to a great tradition of anti-war protests in the 1960's. However, this current anti-war movement is just a cheap knock-off of the Vietnam anti-war movement, where the issues mattered and not the egos.

-Keith

Mideast Politics and Religon Quiz

Given the issues of the day and the current events in the news, I thought it would be great if we had a short three question quiz about religon and politics in the Mideast. The answers are at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!



Question #1:

Which branch of Islam is the dominant religous group of the nation of Iran and has complete control of the Iranian government:



A) Sunni

B) Shia



Question #2:

Which branch of Islam do the members of Al-Qaeda follow:



A) Sunni

B) Shia



Question #3:

Would a Shia or Sunni government provide material support to a violent extremist group of the opposing branch of Islam when the two branches have waged an often violent struggle against each other for over 1000 years?



A) Yes

B) No



Now check your answers at the bottom of the post.



Questions Answered Correctly:



3- You are a brilliant foriegn policy mind. The breadth and depth of your knowledge of geopolitics and religous affairs is astounding.



2- Not bad. You have a good grasp on the issues of the day but you could do better.



1- Well, there is room for improvement. Don't be discouraged, watch the evening news or visit websites other than ESPN.com or Facebook!



0- Great News!!! You are the presumptive Presidential Nominee for the Republican Party Arizona Senator John McCain. Continue talking about subjects that you obviously don't understand and rationalizing an irrational war.



That's right folks John McCain got all three questions wrong. From the washingtonpost.com :



http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/18/a_mccain_gaffe_in_jordan.html

Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back."
Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate."



Fourtanately for Senator McCain, his pal Sen Lieberman was there to help his illiformed collegue.

It is all on video courtesy of the good folks at CBS News and YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v6GBdyws5YU

The Answers

1) B

2) A

3) B

Hat tip to Daily Kos for first bringing Senator McCain's gaffe to my attention.

-Kyle