Michael Johnson's Blog
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Random thoughts and rants that come across my mind.

Gov. Palin or should I say her speechwriter from "the good ol boy's club" should have considered the following when writing her speech.

She said Obama would increase the size of the government. Who increased the size of the federal government in recent history? Reagan and Bush. Who lowered it? Clinton.

The money she said "she" returned to the taxpayers of Alaska came from the Permanent Fund. This money came from royalties as a result of oil and natural gas sales. Of course there was a larger surpluss with the rising cost of oil and natural gas.

She said after Obama talked to his foreign policy advisors he changed is mind and changed 3 days later to John McCain's position and should have just called him to begin with. Has she forgotten that Obama has called for a timeline for US troop withdrawl in Iraq? This is something that the Bush administration has now had to agree to after the Iraqis called for it. McCain has yet to change his stance.
This "fiscally" responsible governor did not just tell Congress "thanks but no thanks" for the "bridge to nowhere" that she initially supported. She kept the money! Why not return it to the federal government and say put that money back in the general treasury to reduce the budget? She also cut her salary as mayor, only to hire a city manager raising the budget to more than what it was when she started.
Remember back to the tracking polls in the North Carolina primary? They said it was going to be close. Obama won soundly. The problem with polls as has been brought up by many people including the very astute Chuck Todd on MSNBC is that many of the new voters do not have land lines. They have cells as their primary phone line. Most polls are made to land lines. Since the younger voters which make up a large segment of Obama supporters are not polled, it is hard to tell if the numbers are accurate. Obama's lead could actually be larger than it is because of this phenomena which started to emerge in the '04 campaign, but is even larger today.
The Democratic nominee leads among gays, independents, Latinos and blacks and leads John McCain by nine points overall, finds a new Harris poll.

Barack Obama leads John McCain among registered voters 44 percent to 35 percent, while Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate and Ralph Nader each receive 2 percent, a new Harris Interactive poll reported.

Sixteen percent of registered voters are not sure whom they will vote for.

Among LGBT adults, 60 percent favor Obama while 14 percent favor McCain.

Three percent of LGBT adults favor Barr, while 1 percent choose Nader. Six percent choose "other," while 17 percent of all LGBT voters are not yet sure which candidate to support -- comparable to the general population.

Among independents, Obama has a 12-point lead (38 percent to 26 percent), but one-quarter of independents are not sure, 4 percent would vote for Bob Barr and 3 percent for Ralph Nader.

The findings also show that 90 percent of African-Americans are voting for Obama, as are six in 10 Latinos. Whites, however, are leaning towards McCain over Obama (40 percent versus 34 percent).


Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved
How about agreeing to disagree and move on. Passion about a subject is a great thing, however when the name calling and personal attacks begin, people loose sight of the big picture. As a former Hillary supporter, I am following in the footsteps of my choice and am supporting Obama. For those who don't ok. I can accept that. But instead of fighting about our differences, why not work together on our similarities. Since this is democrats.org I would HOPE that would be to defeat McSame and to kick the GOP (Going Out Pouting) out of as many seats downticket that we can.
If Hillary is not able to get enough delegates to switch (which she is not asking for) and Obama does not pick her for VP, by working her heart (and Bill his) for and Obama victory while mending fences in the Senate, maybe her clout can be used to become Majority Leader. Just think TWO women as the leaders of our party in both chambers of the Congress. Just an idea. I'll shut up.
Evidently based on the press coverage, the media thinks that during a presidential election year, it is more important to talk about Hillary's new hairstyle and the fact that it is parted to the right vs. the left than the important speech Obama gave on security. His speech talked about what he would do to make us safer, unlike the GOP (Going Out Pouting) and McSame who wants to keep us scared.
Obama has talked about a timeline of withrawl. He talked about talking to Iran. Bush said talking to Iran was "apeasement". McSame said Obama is wrong about a timeline, that he must do what the military leaders on the ground say. HMMMM did you hear that Bush and Iraq talked about a "time horizon" for troop withdrawl? Sounds like a fancy way of saying TIMELINE. Did anyone catch the news that the third hightest ranking diplomat in the State Dept. will be at a meeting with Iraq's nuclear negotiator?
Sounds like Obama knows more about foreign policy than what Bush and McSame and their talking heads are saying in the press.
Did anyone notice in Obama's speech that he wants to make sure rouge organizations (not countries) are stopped from getting WMDs. Why didn't the press report that he will make sure the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is ratified and enforced along with meeting with Russia about cutting even more nuclear weapons. Making us secure by getting rid of nucs that our enemies could get hold of. Doesn't sound like a bad idea. I wonder how long until Bush acts on it and McSame takes credit for the idea. But no the press would rather talk about Brad and Angelina's twins and if Madonna is the reason why A-Rod's marriage broke up. Where is their priority. Thank God for BBC News, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and the web.
The DCCC shows the IL 6th district as one of twenty emerging races. Col. Jill Morgenthaler a retired 30 year vet in active and reserve duty including Bosnia and Iraq is running to turn our district from red to blue. Pete Roskham is completely out of touch with his district. He is friends with the Telcoms (voted for FISA), sides with big oil (voted against the Clean Energy Act in 2007) and voted against extending emergency unemployment benefits.

Join us here on the group I formed for her supporters at Col. Jill Morgenthaler for Congress IL 6th CD. I also have a fundraising link on my page for her.

Tomorrow Dupage Democrats and WCPT 820AM are hosting Blue Fest. It will be the largest Democratic event in Dupage County. Let's get together for fun, food, games and music provided by 4 bands. Part of the proceeds will go to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

We have a great chance of turning DuPage County blue this election. Come out for some fun and get together with other Democrats in the area. If you're in the city, come on out to the 'burbs and spend some time with us in Willowbrook.

www.dupagedemocrats.com 

 

 

 

 

WCPT 820AM and the DuPage Democrats are presenting Blue Fest this Saturday July 18th in Willowbrook IL. DuPage is turning blue and we have a chance of switching Congressional districts from Red to Blue in November.

Come join us for some good music from 4 bands, food, games and fun for all ages. It is a chance for us to get together and have some fun before the push to increase the Democrats majority in the House. Part of the proceeds of the ticket cost will go towards the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

www.dupagedemocrats.com

On Tuesday a caller said he was ready to take action. Thom mentioned a number of organizations incuding DFA. One organization that he failed to mention was PDA of which Thomm is a member of the advisory board. www.pdamerica.org/about/board.php






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McSame copy Obama on Afghanistan by adding troops? Nooo that could not be possible. He had tocome up with this idea on his own. Remember Senator McCain is the foreign policy expert. After all he talked about the current events involving Czechoslovakia two days in a row. I guess that "internets" homework he was given did not include how to goggle. Did he not get security briefings back in '92 and '93 as Czechoslovakia was breaking up into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic?
Somebody better tell Gramps while he was napping earlier this month, the Czech people got upset about a plan between the US and Czech governments (not Czechoslovak) about the missile defense deal. At least he remembered to call the people from Russia Russians and not Soviets.
I'm sure Fixed Noise will report that McSame was going to make this announcement all along, but had to wait until after the last of the surge troops were pulled from Iraq. I wonder what took him so long to make the announcement since this "expert" on Iraq announced a while back in a town hall meeting that troops were already back to pre-surge levels.
What I can't figure out though is if McSame was going to balance the budget by the money we would be saving after "victory" in Iraq, how is he going to accomplish this if the troops are just going to be re-deployed to Afghanistan where they should have been all along.

During his press conference today, President Bush said he was not an economist in response so he could not speculate to a question from a reporter about the economy. However, when he talked about the increased drilling he wants (even though there are 68 million acres the oil and gas companies are not using) he admitted that any drop would not be immediate, but it would be a "psychological" boost for Americans. If he can't talk about the economic impact because he is not an economist, how can he talk about the psychological impact? I thought he was an oil man, baseball team owner and politician and did I forget a lying crook.

 I said in a previous blog that any oil that was drilled would go on the open market and any country including China and India could buy it. I said there was no guarantee that it would stay in the U.S. I was told I was wrong.  Anyone watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight on MSNBC guest hosted by Rachel Maddow would have heard her make the same statement.  Thanks Rachel. I wish I knew where you got your information from so I could correct those who said I was wrong. 

 I've said it before and I'll say it again. Bush can let his oil buddies drill all they want. But make them drill on the onshore and offshore leases they already have but are not developing before giving them more land. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#25695960

Source for information regarding oil drilling leases and usage are from the House of Representatives. The last time I checked it was a reputable source.  www.resourcescommittee.house.gov/?option=com_content&task=view&id=389&Itemid=1

President Bush's press conference

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25691295#25691295

President's own Energy Information System said offshore drilling will have "insignificant" impact on prices. Thanks to Countdown with Keith Olbermann and the "Bushed" segment from Monday 14Jul for this one

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25691295#25681508

 

Age and Citizenship requirements - US Constitution, Article II, Section 1 No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A2Sec1.html

Natural-born citizen?

Who is a natural-born citizen? Who, in other words, is a citizen at birth, such that that person can be a President someday? The 14th Amendment defines citizenship this way: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." But even this does not get specific enough. As usual, the Constitution provides the framework for the law, but it is the law that fills in the gaps. Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in those gaps.

Section 1401 defines the following as people who are "citizens of the United States at birth:"

* Anyone born inside the United States (that would include Hawaii my comment)

* Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national

* Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year

* Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21

some others and finally

* A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

Anyone falling into these categories is considered natural-born, and is eligible to run for President or Vice President. These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, for example.

Separate sections handle territories that the United States has acquired over time, such as Puerto Rico (8 USC 1402), Alaska (8 USC 1404), Hawaii (8 USC 1405), the U.S. Virgin Islands (8 USC 1406), and Guam (8 USC 1407). Each of these sections confer citizenship on persons living in these territories as of a certain date, and usually confer natural-born status on persons born in those territories after that date. For example, for Puerto Rico, all persons born in Puerto Rico between April 11, 1899, and January 12, 1941, are automatically conferred citizenship as of the date the law was signed by the President (June 27, 1952). Additionally, all persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, are natural-born citizens of the United States. Note that because of when the law was passed, for some, the natural-born status was retroactive. The law contains one other section of historical note, concerning the Panama Canal Zone and the nation of Panama. In 8 USC 1403, the law states that anyone born in the Canal Zone or in Panama itself, on or after February 26, 1904, to a mother and/or father who is a United States citizen, was "declared" to be a United States citizen. Note that the terms "natural-born" or "citizen at birth" are missing from this section. In 2008, when Arizona Senator John McCain ran for president on the Republican ticket, some theorized that because McCain was born in the Canal Zone, he was not actually qualified to be president. However, it should be noted that section 1403 was written to apply to a small group of people to whom section 1401 did not apply. McCain is a natural-born citizen under 8 USC 1401(c): "a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person."

www.usconstitution.net/consttop_citi.html

See the same argument was made against McCain. And was also incorrect. First and foremost if you are born in the United States, according to the above mentioned FEDERAL statues, Article of the Constitution and Amendment to the Constitution, you are a natural American citizen. While I am not a Constitutional attorney like Senator Obama. I would THINK the U.S. Constitution requirements were met since Senator Obama was BORN in the United States. I also believe that the U.S. Constitutional requirements would supersede a Hawaiian law. Since you are so verse on Hawaiian law, was this included in the State Constitution to prevent Japanese from becoming citizens following WWII.

Well it took him long enough. Georgie overturned an EO that HIS father signed in 1990 to stop offshore drilling. He says it is now up to Congress. Now more than ever we need to make sure that Congress acts on and passes Rep. Nick Rahall's H.R. 6251 the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act of 2208. It would force oil and gas companies to use the 68 million acres of federal land already leased onshore and offshore but are not using.

Permits for drilling have increased over 300% from 1999 to 2007, but gas prices have not dropped. Didn't President Bush and Sen McBush say just the opposite would happen if they were given more permits? The oil companies have plenty of public land that they are not using. What we need to to work for peace and stability in the Middle East so the market will not keep raising prices due to tensions in the area. 

From www.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

 ...Bush's proposal echoes a call by Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, to open the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration. Democrat Barack Obama has opposed the idea and instead argued for helping consumers with a second economic stimulus package including energy rebates, as well as stepped up efforts to develop alternative fuels and more fuel-efficient automobiles.

"If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks," spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither. It would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for thirty years."

For more information on HR 6251 please see the following:

http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/?option=com_content&task=view&id=389&Itemid=1

www.resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=389&Itemid=1

Here is just part of the article from Tommy Christopher:

 So, now there is factual proof of what any objective observer already knew had to be the case: That this "movement" to harness the ire of Hillary supporters in McCain's favor is actually the work of Republican provocateurs.

For the full story plese click on the link below

www.news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/07/13/puma-poor-unsuspecting-mccain-androids/

 I supported Hillary financially. She moved on. I moved on. So have other Hillary supports. Do PUMA supporters really think she would win as a write in candidate? Do they think that by not voting, that is what she would want? Do they deep down want McCain aka McSame aka MCBush in the White House? Does anyone remember 2000 and Ralph Nader? He is part of the reason (ok yes Gore should have not assumed he would win TN and should have known it had become more red than blue) that we have had the Crook in Thief in the White House the last 4 years. McCain's "maverick" claim is a farce. His voting record is a rank and file Republican according to govtrack.us

 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=300071

 

 

I like Rachel Maddow. I listen to her every night on WCPT 820AM here in Chicago. This past week however, I missed having Keith on Countdown. While he was on a well deserved vacation, I wanted to see his expression when McCain just sat there when asked a question about his voting record for contraception, or Phil Gramm or Jesse Jackson.