John Kerry: A Senator For Massachusetts
John Kerry, with long roots in Massachusetts, has worked hard to improve the lives of Massachusetts residents. From his work trying to improve the economy as Chair of the Small Business Committee to working with the Senate to bring projects and jobs to Massachusetts, John Kerry takes his responsibilities as the Senator from Massachusetts very seriously.
And the trust the Massachusetts voters have shown John Kerry by re-electing him to the Senate 3 times has placed him in a senior position in the Senate, giving him even more opportunities to do what he can to improve the state that has been home to his family for generations.
Here are just a few of the most recent things Senator Kerry has done for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
May 23
Senate passes Kerry-Obama legislation to close KBR tax loophole, provide tax relief for troops
May 22
Kerry’s Disaster Reform Law Will Benefit Massachusetts Businesses, Homeowners
May 19
Kerry announces Waquoit Bay to receive $555,000 for research, education
May 16
Kerry: Farm bill will provide immediate help to Massachusetts farmers, consumers
May 09
Kerry: President signs into law three conservation bills for Massachusetts parks
May 02
Massachusetts Small Businesses Hurt by Drought to Get Help from Kerry Law
April 29
Kerry endorsed by Human Rights Campaign for his leadership on GLBT rights
April 28
Kerry earns 100% rating from anti-poverty advocates
April 23
Democrats Highlight Big Wins for Small Businesses During National Small Business Week
April 22
Kerry Congratulates Wilmington Small Business Owner Award Winner
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Link:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/4/145255/2358/1021/518684
Wednesday : The Day After History was made
by John From Cape Cod Mass
Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 11:52:55 AM PDT
What's Up Wid Dat?
The Dems Vs The GOP in 2008
A brief discussion of the Draft, the GOP, life in the "Fab" 60's
The argument for Unity among all Democrats, Independents, Republicans
Green Party members...Human Beings in general. One guys time in 1971
and 2008 and how they relate. Theres even a Poll <G>
John From Cape Cod Mass's diary
The Primarys are finally over. The three rallys come to a close last night.
Phones ring in the night..some unanswered. What's Up Wid Dat?
We all know the GOP rap....never surrender..100 years!
We hear the words from two of the Senators...Bomb Iran!
I like the Beach Boy song much better.
We heard one Senator say ...hold on..Lets talk to our enemies
Lets talk to those folks who HATE us. That makes sense to me.
Well I'm a Vet..and nope..never fired a shot in anger..nor had one fired
at me. HM2 USN/USCG 1978-1988. My job was to save lives..they told me that
in Navy Hospital Corps School, over in GreatLakes, Ill. I believed it too.
Yes i know..where was i during Nam? On the New Years Eve night of my 19th
birthday, me, like many others, we watching a LOTTERY decide if we were
going to live or die.That was the only lottery i ever made out on...i was to live..born May 22 1952.
Now this Iraq War
Hows it going folks? We have a few thousand dead.
We have God knows how many injured and What's Up Wid Dat?
The Military.com site has an article, here the LINK
They say 50% of our Folks aren't fit (healthwise) to return to Duty.
WHATS UP WID DAT?
To pursue the goals of the GOP a DRAFT is certain. I hear its no longer
"safe" to be a female like it was in 1971..Can they draft our Sisters,
Our Wives, Our Daughters, Our Grand Daughters now too? Or just the males?
That Senator who wants to talk..yea...THAT GUY...He's the Democratic
Nominee for President now. So Brothers and sisters What's Up Wid Dat?
The GOP = DRAFT So what are you going to do? Unite? or Fight?
Peace
John
Thats the Article and by following the Link you can comment directly..take the Poll
If you wish. I will end up doing at least five more, using research already gathered.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/us/politics/29mccain.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: May 29, 2008
WASHINGTON — At a meeting in his Pentagon office in early 1981, Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman told Captain John S. McCain III that he was about to attain his life ambition: selection for admiral.
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Navy Captain John McCain served as assistant director, Office of Legislative Affairs, Senate Navy Liaison Office, from July 1977 to March 1981. Pictured from left to right at a Senate reception: Senator John Glenn, Navy Captain John McCain, Senator William S. Cohen and Senator Barry Goldwater.
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Associated Press
John S. McCain with his first wife, Carol, and son Doug, arriving in Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida in March 1973.
But Mr. McCain, the son and grandson of revered Navy admirals, was having second thoughts about following his family’s vocation. He had spent the previous four years as the Navy’s liaison to the Senate, sampling life in the world’s most exclusive club as he escorted its members on trips around the globe — sitting with the Sultan of Oman on the floor of his desert tent, or smuggling a senator’s private supply of Scotch through Saudi Arabian customs.
He had found a sense of purpose in an apprenticeship to some of the Senate’s fiercest cold warriors. And in Senator John G. Tower, a hawkish Texas Republican, he had found a new mentor, beginning a relationship that many compared to the bond between a father and son.
With Mr. Tower’s encouragement, Mr. McCain declined the prospect of his first admiral’s star to make a run for Congress, saying that he could “do more good there,” Mr. Lehman recalled. But he knew duty to country was only part of the reason.
“He just loved it up there,” Mr. Lehman recalled. “Like very few military people, John heard the music up there, and he really wanted to do it.”
From prisoner of war to politician in a hurry, it was the turning point that started Mr. McCain on the trajectory toward this year’s Republican presidential nomination.
After five and a half years of listening to senators’ antiwar speeches over prison camp loudspeakers, Mr. McCain came home in 1973 contemptuous of America’s elected officials, convinced Congress had betrayed the country’s fighting men by hamstringing the war effort. But in the halls of the Senate, Mr. McCain discovered a new calling, at once high-minded and glamorous.
One of several senate military liaisons assigned as advocates for their services and escorts for official travel, Mr. McCain quickly emerged as the senators’ favorite. He had a thick head of hair as white as his dress uniform and he showed a natural politician’s gift for winning over an audience. He excelled at leavening official business with a spirit of fun — telling deadpan stories about his years “in the cooler,” playing marathon poker games on flights overseas, or surprising senators at a refueling stop in Ireland with a sidetrip to Durty Nelly’s, a 17th century pub. He was the epitome of cool, one senator’s son recalled, with a pack of Marlboros in one hand and Theodore H. White’s memoir “In Search of History” in the other.
He relished the push-and-pull of legislative battles, eventually even plunging into defense budget fights with a personal agenda that was sometimes at odds with the Carter administration’s secretary of the Navy. He built personal friendships and professional collaborations across ideological divides, a hallmark of his later Senate career. And he applauded the Senate’s leading hawks as they waged what they considered an epic struggle with the Carter administration over America’s place in the post-Vietnam world.
Under Mr. Tower’s tutelage, Mr. McCain turned his anger over the management of the Vietnam war into an all-or-nothing view of international conflict that became one of the few guiding principles in his otherwise unpredictable political career — from his opposition to sending Marine peacekeepers into Lebanon in 1983 to his current staunch support for the Iraq war. And when prominent conservative Christians later protested Mr. Tower’s nomination as defense secretary over allegations of drinking and womanizing, Mr. McCain’s furious counterattack opened the hostilities with that wing of his party that still dog his presidential campaign.
Mr. McCain has often said that he decided to run for office because he felt his war injuries would make attaining the same rank as his father and grandfather “impossible.” But Mr. Lehman, now an adviser to the McCain campaign, and two other top Navy officers familiar with Mr. McCain’s file insist that was not the case.
POLITICO ARTICLE
By JOHN F. HARRIS & JOSH KRAUSHAAR | 5/14/08 8:09 PM EST
For the past 18 months, ever since the 2006 elections, congressional Republicans have been like a hospital patient trying to convince visitors that he is not really all that sick: a bit under the weather; actually feel better than I sound; should be up and about any day; thanks for asking.
Suddenly â€" belatedly â€" all pretense is gone.
The Republican defeat in Tuesday’s special election in Mississippi, in a deeply conservative district where, in an average year, Democrats cannot even compete, was a clear sign that the GOP has the political equivalent of cancer that has spread throughout the body. Many House GOP operatives are privately predicting that the party could easily lose up to 20 seats this fall.
Combined with the 30 seats that the GOP lost in 2006, that would leave the party facing a 70-vote deficit against Democrats in the House â€" a state of powerlessness reminiscent of Republicans’ long wilderness years in the 1960s and ’70s.
Things are not particularly more hopeful on the Senate side, where most analysts say Democrats have a strong chance of adding five or more seats to their current majority.
Panic and blame-casting for the dire condition were flowing in equal measures Wednesday inside the House Republican Conference and among party elders and operatives outside.
In the crossfire, there was a bracing new spirit of candor that has largely been missing since 2006, when many Republicans tried to convince the public â€" and perhaps themselves â€" that the defeat was the result of temporary setbacks, such as the House page scandal or bad headlines for Tom DeLay, rather than something more fundamental.
Please use the Link Provided to Comment
Link:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0504chapmanmay04,0,6238795.column
McCain finds his own radical friend
Steve Chapman May 4, 2008Can a presidential candidate justify a long and friendly relationship with someone who, back in the 1970s, extolled violence and committed crimes in the name of a radical ideology—and who has never shown remorse or admitted error? When the candidate in question is Barack Obama, John McCain says no. But when the candidate in question is John McCain, he's not so sure.
Obama has been justly criticized for his ties to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who in 1995 hosted a campaign event for Obama and in 2001 gave him a $200 contribution. The two have also served together on the board of a foundation. When their connection became known, McCain minced no words: "I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."
What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers—in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him.
How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns—including $1,000 this year.
Steve Chapman Bio | E-mail | Recent columns Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."
Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?
Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history—and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner of war."
All this may sound like ancient history. But it's from the same era as the bombings Ayers helped carry out as a member of the Weather Underground. And Liddy's penchant for extreme solutions has not abated.
In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he gave some advice to his listeners: "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. . . . Kill the sons of bitches."
He later backed off, saying he meant merely that people should defend themselves if federal agents came with guns blazing. But his amended guidance was not exactly conciliatory: Liddy also said he should have recommended shots to the groin instead of the head. If that wasn't enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets "Bill" and "Hillary" when he practiced shooting.
Given Liddy's record, it's hard to see why McCain would touch him with a 10-foot pole. On the contrary, he should be returning his donations and shunning his show. Yet the senator shows no qualms about associating with Liddy—or celebrating his service to their common cause.
How does McCain explain his howling hypocrisy on the subject? He doesn't. I made repeated inquiries to his campaign aides, which they refused to acknowledge, much less answer. On this topic, the pilot of the Straight Talk Express would rather stay parked in the garage.
That's an odd policy for someone who is so forthright about his rival's responsibility. McCain thinks Obama should apologize for associating with a criminal extremist. To which Obama might reply: After you.
Steve Chapman is a member of the Tribune's editorial board. E-mail: schapman@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us/politics/12vote.html?th&emc=th
Please read and comment..the info from the databank is sold and used by both DNC Candidates, according to the Article.
Clinton Aides DataBank Venture Breaks Ground In Politicking
New York Times
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: April 12, 2008
When Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton needed help rounding up superdelegates, she turned to Harold M. Ickes, the ultimate Democratic fixer, who is now working round-the-clock for her, drawing on his vast energy and decades of political connections.
Andrew Councill for The New York Times
Harold M. Ickes, a senior adviser to the Clinton campaign, is the president of Catalist, a for-profit voter databank company. No matter who the Democratic nominee is, Mr. Ickes stands to profit.
But, at the same time, Mr. Ickes is also wearing another hat. He is president of Catalist, a for-profit databank that has sold its voter files to the Obama and the Clinton presidential campaigns for their get-out-the-vote efforts. With his equity stake in the firm, Mr. Ickes stands to benefit financially no matter which candidate becomes the Democratic nominee.
In creating Catalist, Mr. Ickes, who was deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House, has formed a rare entity on the political scene, a for-profit limited-liability corporation that allows wealthy Democratic donors to help progressive organizations and candidates by investing in the company. And if Catalist, which has data on 230 million Americans, is successful as a business, these donors-turned-investors stand to reap financial returns from using their money to help elect Democrats.
But some campaign finance watchdogs say they wonder whether Catalist was established not so much to make money but to find a creative way to allow big-money liberal donors to influence the election without disclosing the degree of their involvement or being subjected to other rules that would govern spending by an explicitly political organization.
Catalist has raised over $11 million in venture capital, including more than $1 million from the billionaire financier George Soros, according to his aides. It also counts on such large unions as the Service Employees International Union and the A.F.L.-C.I.O., to buy its products and create revenues. And it plans to be the go-to source for voter data for a broad swath of groups often aligned with Democrats â€" like the Sierra Club, Emily’s List and Clean Water Action â€" as they embark on ambitious get-out-the vote efforts this fall.
These liberal clients will buy lists of likely voters based on information that Catalist has gleaned from voter registration files and commercial data providers. For instance, Catalist computers will take voter registration information along with data from appliance warranties, hunting and fishing licenses, charitable memberships and other data points to draw models of potentially sympathetic voters that these clients can approach.
Catalist grew out of the embers of two groups that Mr. Ickes headed in the 2004 election, Americans Coming Together and the Media Fund, which, in part, conducted strong get-out-the-vote efforts. But when the Democrats failed to take the White House in 2004, wealthy donors believed that one reason they had failed was that Democrats lacked the sophisticated voter databanks of the Republican Party, its celebrated “voter vault” that can pinpoint likely supporters.
Out of that analysis came a decision to set up a Democratic voter databank outside the formal party apparatus and structured as a business, with investors and customers drawn from the same pool of those who had worked closely together in 2004.
“We wanted to come at this differently,” said Laura Quinn, chief executive of Catalist. “We needed people with a business background and a political background. Putting together a business model was critical to our effort, but we also needed someone who understood the political space, and that was Harold.”
Mr. Ickes, though a spokeswoman, declined to be interviewed for this article, and the company declined to discuss any details relating to his financial stake or how much he stands to make from it.
The company itself operates in a Washington office building, where rooms of young computer engineers hunch over laptops and personal computers, giving it the air of a Silicon Valley start-up.
Some campaign finance watchdogs, however, say one concern about Catalist is that its precursors â€" America Coming Together and Media Fund â€" were found by the Federal Election Commission to have illegally spent $150 million on federal campaign activities without registering as political committees. The two groups were fined a combined $1.35 million.
The political world is filled with polling firms, consultants and others that operate for profit. But Catalist’s business structure â€" and the political motives of its backers â€" have raised questions about whether the company is using its status as a for-profit company to shield its investors from disclosure and spending rules that would apply to more traditional political organizations.
Catalist’s backers, along with Mr. Ickes, are some of the same people involved in America Coming Together and the Media Fund, which have since disbanded. As a private company, Catalist does not have to disclose its investors or the amounts they put up, which have run well into the six-figures.
The company has said it will not turn a profit until 2010, making it difficult to determine whether its backers are business investors or political donors, as well as whether or not it is helping to subsidize the liberal groups that are its clients.
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http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/NEWS06/80409025
Welcome to The Star Press Muncie
Republican staffer attacks reporter
By RICK YENCER
ryencer@muncie.gannett.com
85 Comments
MUNCIE â€" A Republican voter registration deputy faces battery charges after he tackled a newspaper reporter and hit the Democratic 6th District congressional candidate after a contentious Delaware County Election Board meeting this afternoon.
The meeting had just ended when Will Statom, GOP registration deputy and secretary of the local Republican Party, attacked Star Press reporter Nick Werner while Werner was interviewing Ball State University student Johanna Perez about hundreds of last-minute voter registrations for Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign.
“He did not seem very happy that we were stating our opinions,” Perez said afterwards about Statom.
Werner said Statom seemed critical of his reporting, sarcastically saying to make sure he screwed up the story again.
Statom had just walked past Werner when Statom turned around and pushed Werner against the wall, grabbed him and they fell to the ground, according to witnesses.
Barry A. Welsh, Democratic 6th district congressional candidate, who attended the meeting, stepped in, and Statom turned around and hit Welsh in the eye.
“When Nick went to the floor, I tried to break it up,” Welsh said.
County sheriff’s deputies then stepped in and broke up the fight outside the commissioner’s courtroom in the third floor of the county building. More deputies arrived when 911 dispatch informed police of an emergency in the county building involving a scuffle outside of the commissioners office.
Statom refused to comment when he walked out of the county building. He was taken into custody of county sheriff’s deputies.
Sheriff’s investigator Todd Daily said Statom was interviewed, and would be booked on battery charges, based on a battery affidavit signed by Werner.
(For more on this story, check www.thestarpress.com and Thursday’s print edition of The Star Press.)
Please examine the record of all three senators in relation to how they have voted on the various Bills that have addressed or are trying to address, the actual Issues in Election 2008. The War, The Economy...jobs..housing crisis ,Taxes, Foreign Relations..such as our future relationship to Cuba, Veterans Rights , Health Care ,Social Security, Immigration, Environmental Concerns, Homeland Security and the entire Homeland Security Act, Womens rights to Choose and any i may have missed. Thank-you for your interest and your concerns for accurate and responsible journalism.
John From Cape Cod, Ma.
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for peo ple facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought th e political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0--yes, zero--from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10
PEACE
One makor reason we need to stop fighting each other and face our common foe. Heres the link to the story that was published in the Washington Post:
PEACE
Heres a link to an article telling about what the GOP and McCain have been up to
while we are still selecting our Nominee
http://www.campaignsandelections.com/stories/?StoryID=ECE1F0FA-1422-17E0-F825654EA0D91290
Peace
He addresses the concerns about our party imploding and goes on to comment about Fla and Mi delegates Link:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/28/dean-primary-system-not-a-mess/
I hope this helps with some of the concerns expressed in various Blogs/Posts on the Site. Yes somebody is actually at home there and working on the various problems.
Its from the Pew Research Center and gives stats in alot of difference areas between the two Democratic Candidates. I'm sort of getting "polled" out by now but heres the link
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=1278
Comment away of course.
A group of Clinton donors has threatened to pull their support if the Super Delegates won't play their way. Heres the Link
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/26/17848/0725/266/484853
I say let them keep their money and their agendas out of the DNC.
Are we so desperate that we need to whore for their money?
We as Dems can beat the GOP this year more so than any other year.
Between a hated G.Bush and a Hated War how can we fail unless we do it to ourselves?
Stop fighting and start uniting!
The only thing you have to lose is the fate of your Country and your grandchildrens grandchildren.
LETS ROLL!
Only days after the attack on 9/11 Sen Clinton told a story about Chelsea, barely missing being killed heres the Link
http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/chelseas.htm
In a stement today supporting Rev Wright, Clintons former Paster..of the Church the Clintons attended during the White House years says.........
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/25/pastor-of-clintons-forme_n_93418.html
How much more do you need?
It may as Hillary and Bill say, far from over
But it will soon be over for the Dems in Nov if this continues.
http://www.hnn.us/blogs/entries/47929.html
The above link is to a story written concerning Clintons claims that Obamas commitee has the power over the War and it goes on to say why that isn't true
Senator McClain missed 56,4% of the Senate Vote
Link is here
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/
While we are all busy fighting this fella is getting a free ride,
This needs to get widely sentout to the Media
Heres a link to News from Pa.
This link also has several links to the actual ads being seen in Pa for Obama.
http://obamesque.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/the-road-to-change-pa-voters-all-fired-up/
This is the first time i had access to see what was being played on TV in another state.
Link to story
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/16947761.html
Posts
