" I have one question for political leaders, when will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?"[1]

GOOD MORNING FLINT! date 1/9/13.GUN CONTROL IS COMING. THANK GOD.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57562795-10391739/biden-to-meet-with-nra/

Children are dying in the streets and in the school because we drank the Kool Aide of the gun industry. The " Responsible Gun Owners " ,when the NRA is neutered ,will lead the way to responsible gun reform.[trb]

"I have one question for political leaders, when will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby? Whose child has to die next?" [1]

-----
By Terry R. Bankert [trb] terry@attorneybankert.com
www.attorneybankert.com , https://www.facebook.com/attorneybankert, Flint Divorce & Bankruptcy 810-235-1970

...Vice President Biden is scheduled to meet Wednesday with victims groups and gun-safety organizations....The meeting is to be part of a series of gatherings Biden is conducting this week at the White House aimed at building a consensus around proposals to curb gun violence following the horrific elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.[1]


It appears that the Republicans have been very effective in giving human qualities to inanimate objects. Corporations are labeled as people and given the right to contribute to political campaigns and manipulate national politics. We should follow this lead and assign legal human like responsibilities to an inanimate object that kills indiscriminately women,children,the elderly and the rest of us. Guns are killers. Guns must be removed from our common areas. Guns protectors like the NRA and other Gun coddlers are nothing more than co-conspirators to murder. Enough is enough. Bear all your arms in your home or in other highly regulated ways.Guns should be treated like any other serial killer. Guns do kill.[trb]

President Obama has indicated that he wants Congress to reestablish the ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004, and limit the size of magazines and expand background checks, including closing the gun show loophole, which allows unlicensed sellers to sidestep checks.The task force is also expected to look at broader efforts that might include a national database and proposals that can be implemented without congressional approval.[1]

Biden has also been conferring with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a vocal advocate for gun regulation. His group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, launched a TV ad Tuesday to pressure lawmakers to "stand up to the gun lobby."[1]

Giffords — came as the former congresswoman and her husband announced that they are forming a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence. [2]

Giffords and Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, wrote in an op-ed published in USA Today that their Americans for Responsible Solutions initiative will raise money to support greater gun control efforts and take on the powerful gun lobby. [2]

“Achieving reforms to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources,” the couple wrote, and they will “raise funds necessary to balance the influence of the gun lobby.”[2]


I predict at the end of the day after the positioning of responsible gun owners and those of us tired of being slaughtered law enforcement will be given more tools and non responsible gun possessors will face new sanctions. [trb]

One of the issues sure to come up in the Biden group's discussions is the role of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.[3]

The ATF is the primary enforcer of the nation's gun laws, but advocates and former ATF officials say the agency has been underfunded, understaffed and handcuffed in its abilities to go after gun crimes.[3]

I suggest

1.law enforcement will be allowed to profile vehicles to search for weapons and seize same. No open carry in a vehicle.[trb]

2. Illegally transport a weapon and the weapon is forfeited owner driver or passenge[trb]r.


3. Give police authority to search your home for ammunition and any weapon in it if an illegally transported gun is seized from a vehicle you are in or you own the vehicle.[trb]

4.Tax ammunition. If a bullet cost $5,000.00 gun violence would go down.(name the stand up comedian)[trb]

5.Make Flnt a very expensive city to transport a weapon illegally.[trb]

6. Politically take on the NRA. [trb]

Standing up to the gun lobby is seen by gun control advocates to mean not only banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, but restoring some teeth to the ATF.[3]

When gun safety advocates refer to the gun lobby, there are numerous organizations that promote less gun regulation, but the most powerful is the National Rifle Association, which has spent nearly $10 million since President Obama's inauguration on lobbying activity, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That number doesn't include the more than $30 million the NRA's political action committee and the organization's affiliated political nonprofits spent to influence the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.[1]

The NRA has proposed placing armed guards in schools to clamp down on shootings. It's a proposal the president has rejected.[1]

A Face book friend said:James L. Smith And the responsible gun reform will lead to what? I'm not a gun owner or supporter, but I do know this. People who own guns responsibly already comply with the myriad of existing gun laws. Those that use guns illegally will not turn in their guns or respond to any other "responsible gun laws." It's like spanking all your children because you can't determine which one committed the offense. Sounds good, accomplishes nothing. What really needs to happen is that we address the issues of mental health and finally determine to house and treat people with mental illness. That will do more than any legislation about guns. But maybe lawyers want more laws so they will have more people to defend in court. I'm all for anything that will stop the violence, but when I see these knee jerk solutions they make no sense. I'm open to be changed.

We need an intense focused national debate on the issue of Gun Control.[trb]

-----
[source]
[trb] & CAP’S
Terry Bankert
[1]
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57562942/bidens-meetings-spotlight-gun-control-divide/

[2]
http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/01/09/giffords-kelly-launch-gun-control-lobbying-effort/ZCMZlyQYtxTkwr5RMofykL/story.html
[3]
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/08/168889491/gun-control-advocates-say-atfs-hands-have-been-tied

Sphere: Related Content

Its the economy...stupid!

MIDDLE CLASS SLIPPING AWAY,
FORECLOSURES HAPPENING OR THREATENED ,
NO MONEY TO EDUCATE YOUR KIDS,
NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOUR ELDERLY,
NO GAS TO GET TO WORK OR FOOD TO FEED YOUR KIDS.
THIS HAPPENED ON THE REPUBLICAN WATCH, CAN WE SURVIVE 4 MORE YEARS OF GEORGE BUSH POLICIES THROUGH MCCAIN?-NO!

Volcker said at a Sept. 5 banking conference in Calgary that the U.S. financial system is broken and may contribute to the weakest expansion since the 1930s. [1]

*****
GOOD MORNING FLINT! 9/16/09
By Terry Bankert http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/
Above Longer article , mostly research so you can draw your own conclusions, with citations, short summery below at http://flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=36162#36162
* * * * *
REFLECTIONS: Can we allow our middle class to slip away? Experts say our financial markets are broken. Who do you want in charge to fix it. The party that has broken us, Republicans? Some say our financial systems are imploding. If you have rotten garbage in your house you put it out. The republicans must be put out. Obama has long urged a modernizing of the financial system. What is understood is that protecting our financial markets with governmental regulation and intervention is a necessity. Irresponsible republican deregulation and lack of oversight has let the fox into the chicken coop. We shall most certainly suffer with out leadership. Bush 3 and thumper cannot offer meaningful financial leadership for America. The answer is Obama/Biden.[trb]
* * * * *

OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM IS BROKEN If many voters are fuzzy on the events that over the weekend forced Lehman Brothers Holdings into bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch & Co. to be swallowed by Bank of America, the continuing chaos among the most venerable names in American finance — coming on top of the recent government seizure of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the demise of the Bear Stearns — has stoked their anxiety for the economy, the foremost issue on voters' minds.[5]

USA FINANCIAL SYSTEMS ARE IMPLODING: GEORGE BUSH HAS DESTROYED AMERICA AND MCCAIN IS HIS NUMBER ONE CHEERLEADER. The U.S. banking crisis is shaking up the presidential race as well as the agenda of the next president, forcing both candidates to confront a financial calamity.[2] Obama said McCain "doesn't get what's happening between the mountain in Sedona where he lives and the corridors of Washington where he works." [5] But the Democrats repeatedly tried to bring voters back to their core message: that the economy was in serious trouble after two terms under President Bush and that McCain would continue Bush's policies. "Ladies and gentlemen, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn't run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well, unless I ran into John McCain," Biden said during a campaign stop in Michigan. [6]

OBAMA HAS A PLAN Obama has long urged a modernizing of the financial system. He called for it in a speech at NASDAQ a year ago and outlined a plan for an overhaul of Wall Street regulations in March.[4] In March 2007, however, he warned of the coming housing crisis, and a year later in a speech in New York he outlined six principles for overhauling financial regulation.[5]

OBAMA HAS SPECIFICS, MCCAIN ONLY GENERALITIES Obama set out his general approach to financial regulation in March, calling for regulating investment banks, mortgage brokers and hedge funds much as commercial banks are. And he would streamline the overlapping regulatory agencies and create a commission to monitor threats to the financial system and report to the White House and Congress.[5]

IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID, Y’ALL BETTER HAVE A PLAN....NOT A PALIN... A PLAN. As Wall Street's financial crisis deepens, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are looking to some of the nation's top economists for advice. [1]

THE ONLY PLACE TRICKLED DOWN HAS WORKED IS IN A CRAP HOUSE Obama yesterday held a phone call with one-time Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, who won praise a decade ago for helping avert other potential meltdowns, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, credited with halting the raging inflation of the late-1970s and early-'80s. [1] Sen. Obama singled out the Bush administration's deregulatory push for what he described as "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression." While Sen. McCain wasn't at fault, he said, "I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to...one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down."[2]

MCCAIN HAS BEEN WRONG ALL ALONG But his record on the issue, and the views of those he has always cited as his most influential advisers, suggest that he has never departed in any major way from his party's embrace of deregulation and relying more on market forces than on the government to exert discipline.[5]

DEREGULATION OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS IS THE PROBLEM (MCCAIN)...he has consistently characterized himself as fundamentally a deregulator and he has no history prior to the presidential campaign of advocating steps to tighten standards on investment firms.[5] (MCCAIN)He has often taken his lead on financial issues from two outspoken advocates of free market approaches, former Senator Phil Gramm [5] In early 1995, after Republicans had taken control of Congress, McCain promoted a moratorium on U.S. regulations of all kinds. He was quoted as saying that excessive regulations were "destroying the American family, the American dream" and voters "want these regulations stopped." The moratorium measure was unsuccessful.[5]

FROM THE ASHES MCCAIN TURNS TO DADDY McCain on Saturday talked with Harvard economics Professor Martin Feldstein, a onetime adviser to President Ronald Reagan, Stanford University economist John Taylor and former Hewlett- Packard Co. Chief Executive Carly Fiorina. [1] These advisers are helping shape the messages of Democrat Obama and Republican McCain, as the latest upheaval in the financial markets and the credit crisis begins to crowd out other issues on the campaign trail. [1]

MCCAIN HAS NO PLAN. “On just about every economic issue, there is not a dime’s worth of difference between John McCain’s proposals and what we have right now. In 19 months, he has not named one thing he would do differently from this administration on the central issue of this election, not one thing.[3]

... BIDEN ON MCCAIN Joe Biden threw his hardest punches yet at John McCain on Monday, linking the Republican presidential candidate to the economic policies of the Bush administration, describing him as out of touch with middle-class Americans and claiming he is in the pocket of big oil and other corporations.[7] “John McCain doesn’t seem to understand what middle-class people are going through today,” Biden said at a campaign stop. “I don’t doubt that he cares. He just doesn’t think that we have any responsibility to help people who are hurting.[7]

TWO DECADES OF DEREGULATION AND REPUBLICAN RULE HAVE OUR COUNTRY ON THE BRINK OF A DEPRESSION. TIME FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS TO RISE UP ``You won't be able to get the economy moving again, create jobs, without fixing the mess in our financial system,'' said Obama economic adviser Jason Furman. [1] McCain ``has been calling for some time for a focus on the economy,'' Fiorina said in an interview. [1]

WE DO NOT CARE WHO SEES THE FIRE FIRST. WHO IS GOING TO PUT IT OUT IS WHAT WE CARE ABOUT Both campaigns argued that their candidate was first out of the gate in warning of the credit crisis, which led to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America. [1] Power to the Fed [1] Obama's advisers point to a March speech in New York, in which he called for giving the Federal Reserve greater supervisory authority when it acts as a lender of last resort, strengthening the capital requirements for financial companies and streamlining the collection of overlapping regulatory agencies that oversee Wall Street. [1] ``The main thing we're advising is the ideas he laid out as long as three years ago and as recently as March of this year are still the right ones to deal with our financial problems,'' Furman said in an interview. [1] In a March speech on financial-market overhaul, Sen. Obama called for extending commercial-banking regulations to investment banks, hedge funds and mortgage brokers. He called for a commission that would monitor threats to the financial system. He said deregulation that culminated in 1999 with a partial repeal of the 1930s' Glass-Steagall Act, which had separated investment banks and commercial banks, had been driven by lobbyists and was intended primarily to facilitate mergers.[2] "I certainly don't fault Senator McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to," Obama told several hundred people who gathered for an outdoor rally in Grand Junction, Colorado.[5]

MCCAIN HAS A PALIN... BUT NO PLAN, ...THE THUMPERS CANNOT HELP YOU WITH THIS ONE JOHNNY Adviser Fiorina said McCain would address the situation by ``making sure that it never happens again.'' [1]McCain is offering no specifics.[trb]

OUR COUNTRY HAS BEEN HOODWINKED INTO THINKING THAT THE REPUBLICANS KNOW HOW TO HANDLE MONEY. Obama, 47, an Illinois senator, yesterday said Bush's policies have caused ``the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression'' and called for ``modernizing'' regulations, at a rally in Grand Junction, Colorado. [1] `Clean Up Wall Street' [1]

MCCAIN SAYS WE WILL BE GOOD FROM HERE ON ..PUT US BACK IN POWER...PLEASE McCain vowed to ``clean up Wall Street'' and ``replace the outdated, patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight,'' at an event in Jacksonville, Florida. ``We will never put America in this position again,'' he said. [1]

POLITICAL DEAMENSHIA SPELLED MCCAIN The Arizona senator, 72, told several thousand supporters that while these are difficult times, ``the fundamentals of our economy are strong.'' That prompted the Obama campaign to call the Republican nominee ``out of touch.'' [1]

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WILL BE THE FIRST POLITICAL VICTIM, WE NEED A BIG BROOM AND A CLEAN SWEEP The fallout from the financial markets is dominating the presidential race as Americans look to the candidates for solutions after Lehman, the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The company lost 94 percent of its market value this year. [1]

HEY REPUBLICANS ....THIS IS WHAT LESS GOVERNMENT GETS YOU AFTER INADEQUATELY FUNDING THE AGENCIES TASKED WITH PROTECTING OUR ECONOMY.... I BET CHENY HAS MOVED HIS MONEY OFFSHORE Neither Obama nor McCain has offered specific fixes. And the two campaigns are using similar language to blame regulators and the banks themselves for the mess. [1] That may stem from a view shared by their advisers that the situation may worsen and that it would be hard for the government to stay on the sidelines. [1]

WE ARE IN A TIME LIKE PRE-DEPRESSION Rubin, in a Sept. 10 television interview with Charlie Rose, called these times ``probably the most complex and difficult since the 1930s in the financial markets.'' [1]

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION ONLY ALTERNATIVE He said for the next year and a half ``we could be in a highly proactive mode'' on public policy. ``We should do whatever seems sensible and also accept undesirable side-effects if necessary in order to try to promote better economic conditions,'' he said. [1]

IF YOU RIDE THE WAVE YOU CRASH INTO ROCKS Summers, another Obama adviser, said in the same interview that the situation ``isn't something we can ride out with the hope that somehow, in a deep sense, the fundamentals are strong.'' [1] He said there will likely need to be ``more active interventions in the financial and housing markets than we've seen.'' [1] System Is Broken [1] Volcker said at a Sept. 5 banking conference in Calgary that the U.S. financial system is broken and may contribute to the weakest expansion since the 1930s. [1] Some McCain advisers also foresee greater government involvement. [1] Feldstein, in an Aug. 26 Financial Times column, warned that ``the risk of a downward spiral of house prices is the primary danger facing the American economy.'' [1] He proposed a federal program of ``mortgage replacement loans'' to provide financial incentives that would stop defaults among those who still have positive equity but face further price declines. [1] Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and now a Harvard professor, said the crisis ``had to happen'' because the financial system was ``bloated and overgrown and reckless to some extent,'' in an interview published Sept. 15 by Der Spiegel.[1] If the system continues to ``implode,'' he said, ``it's going to be very difficult for the Fed to step back and let all the banks go under. They're clearly going to have to throw taxpayer dollars in.'' [1]

WHO ARE YOU VOTING FOR? So when you walk into that voting booth in 50 days, ask yourself, Can your family afford to take a chance on an economic policy that offers $200 billion in tax breaks to the biggest corporations, including the oil companies, but not one penny of relief to more than 100 million Americans? ... [3] Biden condemned what he said was "a culture in Washington where the very few wealthy and powerful have a seat at the table and the rest of us are on the menu."McCain's economic programs are virtual copies of Bush's, he charged. "If you're ready for four more years of George Bush, John McCain is your man," Biden said. [6] McCain, who has voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, would offer more of the same, Biden said.[7] “Just as George Herbert Walker Bush was nicknamed ‘Bush 41' and his son is known as ‘Bush 43,’ John McCain could easily become known as ‘Bush 44,’” he said.[7]

Posted here by Terry Bankert 9/16/08
http://attorneybankert.com/
-
[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ajMl5w.sSXGo&refer=us
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122151017079138227.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/us/politics/16words.html
[4] http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1536198820080916
[5] http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/16/business/16record.php
[6] http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.candidates16sep16,0,24366.story
[TRB] Comments of Terry Bankert to include unattributed cap headlines http://attorneybankert.com/
[7] http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/15/biden-calls-mccain-out-of-touch-with-middle-class/

93004/18033

Sphere: Related Content

Obama on policy

Presidential candidate Barrack Obama promises at Flint appearance to help auto industry refashion itself [8]

*****
GOOD MORNING FLINT!
9/9/09 By Terry Bankert
http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/
Longer article with citations
http://www.flinttalk.com/viewforum.php?f=2

* * * * * REFLECTIONS:

The next President of the United States appeared in Flint MI USA 9/08/08.The next Democratic administration is committed to re-industrialization of American and specifically re-birth of the automobile industry.What Obama demonstrated is ability to advocate positive policies for change. But he cannot help us if he does not win. To win the Palin bump must be addressed. The Democrats will defeat the republican by the strength of policy argument. Our chant to McCain/Palin should be WHERE’S THE BEEF.In Flint, Obama said" that he -- not McCain -- has consistently advocated changes in tax policy, education, the war in Iraq and the U.S. auto industry that will create jobs and help average families who are struggling.""You can't just make stuff up. You can't just reinvent yourself," he said of McCain. "The American people aren't stupid. What they're looking for is someone who has consistently called for change."Polls have shown that voters consistently rate the economy as the top issue facing the nation this election season. Obama/Biden are talking economics, health care, good alternative fuel, national security, and correcting the chaos Bush has caused our national economy and international image. McCain/Palin are talking religious conversion and 4 more years of Bush policies. Its time for a change.[trb]
* * * * *

He cannot help if he does not win.To win the Palin factor must address. Here Obama by talking economics, auto industry. McCain/Pailin will be defeated by the strenght of the democratic arguments on policy.[trb]

AMERICA TO SELECT A VP THAT COULD BECOME PRESIDENT

Eight weeks from Tuesday, Americans choose a president and a vice president. That deputy job matters. Eight times in U.S. history, vice presidents have replaced presidents who died.[6] Gerald Ford stepped up when Richard Nixon resigned. If Bill Clinton hadn't barely escaped conviction by the Senate after he was impeached by the House, Al Gore would have been the 10th veep thrust into the top job on short notice.[6]

WHO THEN ARE THESE CANDIDATES

In Flint, Obama said that he -- not McCain -- has consistently advocated changes in tax policy, education, the war in Iraq and the U.S. auto industry that will create jobs and help average families who are struggling.[6]

"You can't just make stuff up. You can't just reinvent yourself," he said of McCain. "The American people aren't stupid. What they're looking for is someone who has consistently called for change."[6]

Polls have shown that voters consistently rate the economy as the top issue facing the nation this election season.[6]

Obama noted in Flint that the national unemployment rate soared to 6.1 percent last month, the highest jobless mark in five years, even as McCain pronounced the nation's economy fundamentally sound. He added that Michigan's rate is at 8.5 percent and unemployment in Flint is over 12 percent. [7]

"If John McCain thinks the economy is fundamentally sound, he needs to come to Flint," Obama said at a gathering of about 300 at Mott Community College. [7]

"You don't have to tell people in Michigan the economy is not in good shape. But you do need to tell John McCain." [7]

Obama touched on Flint's high unemployment and housing crisis, all the while criticizing McCain's recent claims that the Republican ticket is for change."Government can't be for change when you brag about supporting George Bush," said Obama.[8]

The latest statewide polls have shown Obama leading in Michigan and Genesee County by a small percentage, with 23 percent of voters in the area still undecided and Obama underperforming amongst union workers.[8]

THERE IS NOT JUST ONE AMERICA, THERE IS NOT ONE CORRECT POINT OF VIEW

Palin, with her meat loaf and rifles, reminds us that there are two hopelessly incompatible Americas[1]

McCain through palin is exploiting our division.

With the most recent decision which could impact our great nation; John McCain has once again demonstrated his poor judgment, lack of concern for the American people and his contempt for women's issues. By secretly selecting a running mate whom he had only met once, who was not fully vetted, and who lacks the years of experience governing, which was an issue in his campaign, shows it was designed to appease the evangelical base of the Republican party and to attract disaffected Hillary Clinton women voters.[5]


SOME HAVE A RIGHT TO MAKE PALIN THEIR POSTER GIRL

A Photo shopped picture of Sarah Palin has been doing the rounds for the past few days; it shows her in a stars and stripes bikini toting a rifle - patriotism, hunting and cheesecake all combined in one image.[1]

Two minutes of Googling reveals that the rifle has been identified by gun nuts in Republican chatrooms as a Crossman pump pellet gun. Soft porn for rednecks. Expect to see it pinned to the wall in every gas station in Texas and tacked to the dashboard of every long-haul truck. But this cartoon-like depiction of her smothers what we need to understand about why Palin appeals to American voters and why American elections have been so deadlocked for the past decade, as if there were two Americas, doomed to lived on the same landmass under the same government, like hopelessly incompatible spouses.[1]

PALIN DOES HAVE HER CRITICS

While most praise her bold, tough approach, they also point out her lack of follow-through and seeming disinterest in the details of governing, and her inability to work with those who disagree, the Los Angeles Times reports. [2]

Others note that Palin's governing style is to stifle dissent and criticism rather than hear all sides of an issue[2]

Democrats Barrack Obama and Joe Biden went after rising GOP star Sarah Palin Monday, casting the vice presidential nominee as a flip-flopper with "extreme" views.[3]

In fact, Palin at first supported the bridge, numerous records show. As recently as July, she told reporters she pulled her support only after the bridge became a symbol of pork-barrel spending and she saw "the writing on the wall," a video Monday showed.[3]

Earlier, Biden ramped up his rhetoric against Palin, saying the Alaska governor would soon have to defend her "fairly extreme" positions.

Asked to elaborate, aides to Biden later cited Palin's past statements expressing doubt that manmade pollution contributed to global warming as well as her opposition to stem-cell research and abortion, even in cases of rape.[3]

The Democratic duo got an assist from former primary rival Hillary Clinton, who stumped through Florida for Obama.[3]

Clinton argued that returning Republicans to the White House "is like asking the iceberg to save the Titanic." With News Wire Services[3]

BUT WHO IS OR WHAT IS PALIN?

Dan Hardy, a 60-year-old business owner from West Bloomfield, thinks Palin's appeal is fleeting. Once she submits to interviews, he said, people will realize "how shallow she is." [7]

PALIN HAS CHANGED THE POLITICAL PICTURE, WHAT WILL IT DO TO THE DEBATE.

Governing a state with fewer people than San Francisco, and just two years ago a small-town mayor, Palin has already sucked the air from both parties' nominees and has scrambled the debate between feminists and cultural conservatives.[3]

But Palin owes Americans much more opportunity to scrutinize her—and many more answers to questions: How did a mayor who secured congressional earmarks for her community convert to McCain's belief that earmarking is irresponsible? What positions does she hold on Iraq, Afghanistan, national security and the U.S.-led war against global terrorism? What are her thoughts on economic policy—and do they square with her record as governor? [6]These aren't trick questions. And we're not here to shill for "those reporters and commentators" Palin mocked in her speech to the Republican National Convention. On a personal level, sure, she has a right to be miffed: The disdain of PBS' Gwen Ifill and some other TV journalists after Palin's speech was visible to millions. But the issue here isn't anybody's personal peeve. It's about giving all Americans time to absorb and approve, or disapprove, of a candidate's record in office and her stance on key issues.[6]

SO..WE ARE MORE THAN ONE AMERICA

It's true. One America is the envy of the world-filled with intellectual and artistic achievement, culture, and filled with thoughtful, intelligent people. The other US loves guns, believes God controls everything, and have little or no culture. (There is also a third America, which is the poor black/Latino America that is so disenfranchised it doesn't, or can't, vote.)[freemtspeech comment at 1]

WE SAY WE RESPECT PLURALISM...BUT WE REALLY DO NOT,.ITS OUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

A new novel, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, published in the US this week, tells a fictionalised and thinly veiled story of Laura Bush, from small-town girl in the 1950s midwest to school librarian to Republican bride to President's wife. What you learn from the novel is that, like it or not, the American heartland is not so much a political ideology but an actual place with people living in it. Small-town Americans have values and a lot of those values are good ones: neighbourliness, family life, a knowledge of the land and what grows in it. The other America they see on TV seems without ethics - crime, violence, drug addiction, pornography and prostitution - and they don't want any part of it.[1]

ULTRA RELIGIOUS NON HISPANIC WHITE REPUBLICANS OR FOR SHORT WHITEBRED REPUBLICANS

So clear is the divide between big-city and small-town America that one American friend said to me: "These whitebread Republicans are like children - someone has to tell them what to do and what to think, they're incapable of independent ideas." [1]

ULTRA RELIGIOUS RIGHT

All countries have different socio economic groups. I do not know how widespread the ultra religious right is despite that fact the Republicans courted and won them.

A SMALL FANATICAL SECT USED BY BIG MONEY TO DOMINATE AMERICA

I suspect they are really a small subset but a vocal one and one that has put itself on school and library boards, is active in state and local government and in the US Congress. As an American who was raised in NYC area and has lived in most of the regions, I think most people are moderately conservative, but not radical.[comment elsafromlndy at 1]

REPUBLICAN PARTY ..JUST A MOUTH PIECE FOR A RELIGIOUS SECT

I think the Republican party has become the mouthpiece of the religious right so this small group has amassed an inordinate amount of power. I always think Washington is more ultra conservative than my conservative midwest neighbors and friends.[comment elsafromlndy at 1]

JUST WHERE IS THE FREE SPEECH WE SAY IS SO IMPORTANT TO US

Because the Republican party is controlled by this faction, the US has been deprived of a responsible sober conservative voice. It is a pity because I feel the US is being destroyed by the lack of civil discourse due to the right wing's control of the Republican party.[comment elsafromlndy at 1]

LIBERALS

The conviction by the left that the right is stupid is one of the defining and least attractive characteristics of contemporary politics. Assuming that anyone who disagrees with you is too dim to get your point is not itself a particularly brainy way to win others over to the essential correctness of your views. But it is true that to small-town Republicans the world is not a complicated place, because they have seen so little of it. [1]

LIBERALS ARE AS FULL OF THEMSELVES AS THE ULTRA CONSERVATIVES ARE OF THEIR NARROW INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE...LETS BROADEN THE DISCUSSION

Liberals are the overly touchy-feely group that want to help everyone as the right wingers like to derisively point out, we do not discriminate based on IQ. Personally I do not think the right are a bunch of dimwits. I think the right seems like the party of the angry and fearful who like to define a clear enemy so they can unite behind a clearer goal. Standard Machiavellian strategy 101, and this strategy is getting old.[comment of photoelastic at 1]

THE HARD WORKING CONTRIBUTORS VS THE LAZY CONSUMERS

I asked a sophisticated and well-travelled Republican why he voted the way he did. He described growing up "dirt poor" in a small town in Northern California where joining the military was your sole ticket out; where the people in his family who depended on welfare stayed where they were and the ones who worked their fingers to the bone managed to make a better life for themselves. For him, joining the army led directly to an education. In fact, it led all the way to Princeton. But how, I asked him, baffled, could someone as intelligent as he is believe that George W Bush was anything but a cretin? [1]

WE CANNOT BREAK THIS COALITION BY CALLING THEM STUPID

Because, he explained, people in small towns don't like or trust intellectuals, particularly ones who appear to be sneering at them for their supposed stupidity. They admire a plain-speaking man; it's what they know and what they are used to. [1]

They always assumed Bush was a regular guy who could keep his thoughts concise. [1]

WHY NOT PICK ONE THING YOU BELIEVE IN AND STICK WITH IT?

I grew up in a state that has since become about as Red as any. There are plenty of people of conscience and intellect there. What distinguishes those states is a fairly slight preponderance of people who feel free to invent the world the way they want it to be -- or more likely, to embrace the world handed to them by some shamanistic personality -- and to simply disregard all contrary evidence. Sadly, they have been holding the balance of power on which the fate of the whole planet may depend. If that does not change this year, I'd start saying my prayers, wherever I lived.
[comments of druid at 1]

OUR MULTIPLE AMERICAS ONLY COLLIDE DURING ELECTIONS

So America is stuck. Two countries, mutually irreconcilable, who never meet each other and don't want to, either. Who distrust each other at best, despise each other at worst. And who have absolutely no understanding of the other. [1]

Reading Sittenfeld's thinly disguised account of Laura Bush and her upbringing, it was possible to see that the modest lives of her midwestern characters both had dignity and made sense. But I only have to meet them in a novel, which I can snap shut as soon as I've finished it. Were I an East Coast Democrat, which is the only kind of American I can ever imagine being, I would have no objection to small-town Republicans - to their church-going and their hunting rifles and their flag-decked porches and their meatloaf with gravy, and their lemon chiffon cake. I could admire their intimacy with the wide prairie and the vast sky. [1]

MCCAIN HOPED TO SELL HIS VP WITHOUT QUESTIONING TO SMALL TOWN AMERICA

McCain's decision to select a one-term governor in office less than two years, from one of the smallest states in the nation; a two-term mayor of a town with less than 6,500 residents; with no foreign policy experience; who has ties with the Alaskan Independence Party (who advocates secession from the United States); a hockey mom who opposes woman's right to choose; supports drilling for oil in ANWR; and is currently under investigation for abuse of power and lying; is a pathetic example of what poor judgment John McCain actually has.[5]

CAN SMALL TOWN VALUES RUN A COUNTRY...YES THEY CAN AND BUSH IS THE RESULT..BUT THEY GIVE THEM SELVES OVER TO BIG MONEY, BIG OIL AND BIG MILITARY.

The problem is that when they're running the whole country, they want to take away abortion rights, drill for oil in Alaska (a Palin policy), ignore climate change, and start unwinnable wars. With the small-town Republican mindset in charge, the rest of America and the rest of the world is forced to live by small-town values, which aren't much help when you're trying to decide what, if anything, can be done about Iranian nuclear ambitions or more humbly, workplace date rape. [1]

ONE MANS SAINT IS ANOTHER MANS BUMPKIN, THIS DOES NOT HELP THE DEBATE

Growing up dirt poor and living in a small town is no excuse for thinking like a bumpkin, I come from a working class family and live in small town I have no delusions about Jesuss, the end of the world or the age of it, guns, sex-ed or contraception.[comment karmapolice1 at 1]

STOP TAKING THE BIBLE SO SERIOUSLY, ITS OVER A THOUSAND YEARS OLD

How does this nonsense stop? Perhaps it can be as simple as getting people to stop taking the bible so seriously. Easier said than done, but it’s a cause worth fighting for. The way things are going with the Dems sucking up to Religion now it looks abysmal.[comment karmapolice1 at 1]

LIBERAL MUST SIMPLIFY POSITIONS FOCUS IDENTIFY A CLEAR ENEMY BUILD A BROADER COALITION AND STICK TOGETHER

This is, I'm afraid, hopelessly simplistic and uninformed. America is infinitely more complex than this. One of the reasons the Republicans keep winning is that the Democrats keep abandoning the Left in a hopeless attempt to win over this imaginary and homogeneous heartland.[comment attw at 1]

AFTER THIS ELECTION WILL AMERICA BE MORE DIVIDED?

Can America survive another photo-finish election which the Republicans win, or will it be out and out war between the red and the blue states? Perhaps only small-town America itself can prevent it, such as the dental nurse who asked how the mother of five kids, one with Down's syndrome, could hold down a full-time job, one step from running the United States[1]

Today, some Democratic women question whether Palin is putting career ahead of family.[3]
"You have women in particular looking at this situation with her daughter and saying, 'How could you put her through this, you knew she was pregnant, you accept this nomination and you know what's coming for her,' " said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics.[3]

The Obama campaign will have to limit itself strictly to issues, said Maria Elena Durazo, a Los Angeles labor leader working with the Obama campaign. "If anybody says she can't do her job because she has a 6-month-old child, I would say that's sexist," Durazo said. "What I think voters want to hear about is what have you done every single day to help the cause of women. ... I don't think there is any other credible way of dealing with her."[3]

Sarah Palin, bad mom. That might finish her.[1]

Posted here 9/7/08 by Terry Bankert
http://attorneybankert.com/

-
[1]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/04/sarahpalin.johnmccain

[2]
http://www.newser.com/story/36881/palin-swings-hard-lacks-follow-through.html

[3]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/03/MNIU12MMIH.DTL

[4]
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/08/2008-09-08_barack_obama_joe_biden_bite_back_at_sara-2.html

[5]
http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080909/OPINION03/809090313

[6]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0909edit1sep09,0,3791866.story

[7]
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080909/NEWS15/809090358

[8]
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/


[TRB]
Comments of Terry Bankert to include unattributed cap headlines
http://attorneybankert.com/


SEE ALSO
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/09/presidential_candidate_barack_1.html

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Its the Evangelicals

GOOD MORNING FLINT MI USA!,
Posted by Terry Bankert 8/31/08
http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/
and http://flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=35291#35291

This is the greatest country on the planet earth. Our politics have evolved into two major parties selecting nominees to battle each in a November election. At this level nobody is stupid. In fact they are all smart and accomplished. They just stand for different values and policies. Alliances and coalitions will form.

Big money and big organizations will join in for this test of strength to select a president and vice president that will lead the most powerful nation on earth, the United States of America.

Each can expect to stand a vigorous review of who and what they are with unkind words being exchanged. That is the process. Lets keep the families out of it and focus on the candidates. As the New Orleans emergency fades and the Republican Convention takes center stage I will be listening. Others will have not so nice things to say about Obama and Biden. I do not think well of the histories as I currently know them of McCain and Pailn. Nothing personal, it’s the process.

We are not just electing individuals. We are giving control of this country to coalitions that succeed in electing their candidate.

America cannot allow the coalition of McCain and Pailn, the same one that put George Bush in the presidency, to succeed. Those who do not support McCain and Pailn must recognize who the real enemy is.

Its big money, the NRA and Evangelicals.

posted here by Terry Bankert 8/31/08 http://attorneybankert.com/ 88581

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