Observing from beyond the solar system, a cultural outsider looks in.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Edwards Won Big in Nevada Debate!
“And by the way, Edwards, I thought he personalized...I thought he did a really good job tonight. I thought he, we talked about the fierce urgency of facts, right, that Clinton brought out. He was heart. He was the heart and gut campaign tonight. He was very good.”
Two days ago on Daily Kos, KingOneEye proposed that Edwards supporters everywhere try to beat Ron Paul's impressive $6 million dollar in one day grassroots fundraising effort. The theory here is that a big fundraising push would not only help the Edwards campaign financially, but help him break through the mainstream media blackout on Edwards news.
Perhaps you have noticed the deafening silence from the media on John Edwards, even though he is in a very close race with Clinton and Obama in terms of the number of pledged delegates, after having come in 2nd in Iowa and 3rd in New Hampshire. The delegate total is really the only number that matters, so they should by all rights be giving him equal time.
The goal is for grassroots supporters to raise $7 million for Edwards in one day on Friday, January 18th.
There's one caveat to this effort: because it's a grassroots effort not sanctioned by the campaign, we won't know how we did unless the campaign tells us afterwards. BUT, I hope Edwards supporters will forward this to all their friends and help us raise as much money as possible on Friday!
In other news, the Edwards campaign released 4 new ads in South Carolina today that challenge the media's framing of the race as a two person race. These are great!
Narrator: Who’s the only Democrat that beats all the Republicans in the recent CNN poll? John Edwards is the only one. John Edwards: I’m John Edwards and I approve this message
Narrator: Which Democrat opposed NAFTA and other trade deals that send American jobs overseas? John Edwards is the only one. John Edwards: I’m John Edwards and I approve this message.
Narrator: Which Democrat has never taken a dime of campaign money from Washington lobbyists? John Edwards is the only one. John Edwards: I’m John Edwards and I approve this message
Narrator: Who’s the only Democrat who would ban Washington lobbyists from the White House staff? John Edwards is the only one. John Edwards: I’m John Edwards and I approve this message.
This is going to be a very short diary, because I just want to give Edwards supporters some excellent news.
The race for the Nevada caucus is in a statistical dead heat, according to a new poll.
A new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a neck-and-neck three-way race among Democrats for Saturday's caucus. On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain has taken his first lead in Nevada of the election season, and Mitt Romney, who has been working Nevada harder than any other Republican, is trailing in fourth place.
A look at the top line results (more will be posted later this morning):
Exciting Pre-Debate Gathering Jan 15, 2008 3:30 p.m. Cashman Field Corner of Las Vegas Blvd & Harris Avenue Las Vegas, Nevada
**Our supporters and staff will gather before the debate to show all of the caucus goers and members of the local and national press on hand just how strong our grassroots campaign in Nevada really is. Click here to RSVP.
MSNBC Democratic Debate Jan 15, 2008 6:00 p.m. Pacific Cashman Center 850 Las Vegas Boulevard 55 E. Twain Avenue Las Vegas, NV
Town Hall Meeting with John Edwards Jan 16, 2008 12:30 p.m. Grand Sierra Resort, Silver State Ballroom Reno, Nevada Click here to RSVP
Town Hall Meeting with John Edwards Jan 16, 2008 7:00 p.m. Carpenters Union Hall 501 N Lamb Blvd, between Stewart and Bonanza Las Vegas, Nevada Click here to RSVP
Town Hall Meeting with John Edwards Jan 17, 2008 NEW TIME: 9:00 a.m. Henderson Convention Center 200 Water Street Henderson, Nevada Click here to RSVP
Have you heard about the My Vote, My Voice contest? The winner will have their ad concept aired on TV and will get to travel to meet John Edwards! Sweet! To enter, go here, read the rules, then create a 30 second ad to upload to YouTube in response to the contest. Hurry! The deadline is January 16th.
Happy New Year to everyone! I'm in Iowa volunteering for the Edwards campaign. I had a memorable New Years Day, and this will be my photo and video essay. There won't be much text in this diary, because I don't have much time today. Enjoy the photos and videos.
Yesterday morning I attended an Edwards town hall in Ames, Iowa. John and Elizabeth were there with their two youngest children, Emma Claire and Jack.
Elizabeth spoke briefly at the beginning. Here is an excerpt:
Jack came and stood next to his mother during part of her speech. He was a big hit without saying a word.
Elizabeth introduced Mari Culver, first lady of Iowa, who introduced John.
John spoke briefly, but passionately.
And then took several questions...
On whether he would have Colin Powell in his cabinet...
On third party candidates in debates...
On health care...
On disability, immigration, and energy policy...
Great event, and I have been very happy to meet some friends here whom I have previously known only online.
Later that evening, I went to a phone bank at the Steelworkers union hall. John Edwards came by and spoke briefly to a large and extremely enthusiastic crowd of volunteers (and media).
I'm off to do more canvassing and phone banking today and then there's the rally with JRE and John Mellencamp this evening...and of course, the caucus tomorrow.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne open a town hall in Lebanon, New Hampshire for John Edwards. They played to a very enthusiastic crowd at the Lebanon Opera House, which seats 800 people, and from what I could see, it was pretty nearly full. The main floor was entirely full. I'm not sure about the balcony, but in any case, it was at least 500 people -- a good-sized crowd for a New Hampshire town hall.
At the start of the show, Peter Coyote, the actor, introduced Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne.
Raitt and Browne opened their short but sweet set with "World in Motion." The lyrics were right on target for the setting.
Sun going down in the USA Down on Main there's a family sleeping in a doorway Around the corner you can hear the sound People dancing around the golden calf Those who have not, those who have
On the billboards and the T.V. screens They got food and cars and toys and trucks and jeans Like a homeless child's fitfull dreams Smiling faces free from wanting Life's abundances beyond counting
World in motion -- speed your changes Close your distances, find your angels Lose your fears and meet your dangers World in motion
Bonnie Raitt talked about why they are touring with Edwards, and said they don't give their endorsements lightly. She talked about Edwards being a man of integrity and said we have to get him elected. Then she dedicated the next song to Elizabeth - "Angel From Montgomery."
They played at least one other song that I don't know the name of, but my video camera is really a digital camera with a 2 GB card that can take some video. I had to conserve space on my card so I could get some of John's speech. So I took some photos instead during their 3rd song.
There was no way I could resist recording this song, one of my favorites by Bonnie Raitt - "Thing Called Love."
After Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne played about four or maybe five songs, Elizabeth and Cate Edwards came out on stage.
Elizabeth was looking very well. She spoke about the way her husband's platform comes deeply from his own personal experience. Specifically, she told a story about how John's mother Bobbie was forced to leave her dream job refinishing antiques when the mill that John's father worked in closed, and their family needed health care. She said that nobody should have to stay in a job they hate or leave a job they love for healthcare.
I recorded some of her introduction on video, but I still had to deal with those limitations of my camera. I had to cut it short to have room for some of John's speech.
Elizabeth is just so straightforward. You know she's not telling you any bullshit. And she's so sweet, with a nurturing "mom" kind of energy. I could just tell everyone in the room loved her.
She introduced her husband, and as he came out I captured this lovely photo of the two of them.
The real star of the show, however, was John Edwards, who gave a fiery passionate speech about the need to reclaim America from corporate interests.
I recorded a good portion of his speech on video. He was really on fire! Talk about showing some passion for the cause! The speech was incredible. Well, you should just check it out...
After a brief, heartfelt speech, he took several questions from the audience on issues ranging from ending the war to health care, to Israel and the Palestinians to Social Security. He gave detailed, specific answers to all of them. I wish I'd been able to record those too, because I think he was really connecting with the voters.
I hope those New Hampshire voters heard what I heard, because what I heard was a man who will fight with everything he's got for you and me, because that's just who he is and that's what it means to be true to himself.
If you can be in Manchester, New Hampshire this evening, there is a similar event at 6:30 p.m. at the Palace Theatre.
John Edwards wins Republican debate - without even showing up!
Last night in a surprise upset, Democrat John Edwards won the Republican debate without even showing up! Check out this reaction among CNN's panel of undecided Republican voters.
She's not alone. I've had several Republicans tell me that if John Edwards wins the Democratic nomination, they would vote for him. Electability, for sure!
Folks, this year we have an amazing, unusual opportunity where the most progressive of the major candidates is also the most electable candidate in the Democratic field. I think it couldn't come at a more important time.
Let's face it. The Republicans have made a horrible mess during the past 13 years, ever since Bill Clinton lost the Democratic Congress in the midterm election of 1994.
The past 13 years of bad luck have been a time of doom, gloom, and despair for the entire country. As a result of bad trade policies like NAFTA, huge numbers of American jobs have gone overseas, including so many manufacturing jobs that you almost cannot buy anything made in the United States anymore. We've seen our Constitution shredded and our civil liberties taken away. We've seen an increasingly corrupt Congress selling legislation to the highest corporate bidder, while more and more Americans go without healthcare, housing, and even food. Meanwhile, nothing has been done about impending disasters like global warming. Make no mistake about it. This is one of the darkest of times in American history.
What we really need now is a leader. We need someone who will take bold and correct stands on the issues, lead the country in the direction it needs to go, and be willing to fight the special interests in Washington to get there. We are not going to get where we need to go or get ourselves out of this mess if we elect someone who is so enthralled with the idea of political negotiation and compromise that they're willing to give up a lot of what we need before negotiations even begin. In short, we are not going to get there with a political insider.
Enter John Edwards. John Edwards has spent his life fighting against big corporate interests. He made a living doing so as one of the most successful trial attorneys in the entire country. In fact, he was so successful at it that he joined a club comprised of the 100 most successful trial attorneys in the country at the age of 37 and was the youngest member to join. In case after case, he represented average people who had been hurt by the neglect of big corporations and, as he is fond of saying, he beat them, and he beat them, and he beat them again.
In both his legal career and his time in the Senate, Edwards has a reputation for standing up for the little guy against powerful corporate interests. It's exactly what we need, and it couldn't come at a better time.
Edwards has shown his leadership in the presidential race by laying out a progressive agenda based on carefully thought through, detailed policy proposals the scope of which lays out a bold vision for the future the likes of which I have never seen from a presidential candidate. This is the stuff American dreams are made of.
Best of all, head to head matchup polls done by various polling organizations throughout the year have shown Edwards as the most electable candidate against the likely Republican contenders. Not only would he beat the Republicans by wider margins nationally than Clinton, but he also would bring into play red states that neither Clinton nor Obama could hope to compete in. By winning some additional states and their electoral votes, Edwards increases the margin of victory and gives us some insurance against losing another election to Republican shenanigans.
I may as well say it: Edwards is my dream candidate. Edwards is exactly the kind of guy that I've always wished would run as the Democratic nominee, the kind of candidate we deserve, but never quite seem to get. This time around, we have an historic opportunity to elect a truly great president.
So I'm really excited about Edwards as a candidate, but time is running short. As of November 27, we have only 37 days until the Iowa caucus. The race is currently a dead heat in Iowa, according to polls. There are only 42 days until the New Hampshire primary, the first primary in the nation.
Last week, I was up in New Hampshire volunteering on the ground. A lot of voters in New Hampshire are still undecided, which means there is a big opportunity there.
I think it's likely that in all of the early states, there are a lot of undecided voters and that anyone could win in any of those states, but those states will determine the outcome of the presidential race. If you live in any of the early states, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina, or if you can travel to them or even make calls into them, now is the time to volunteer for Edwards.
Get in touch with the campaign in your early state of choice and volunteer. Give money if you can afford it.
We can have the president we really deserve. John Edwards -- a president who will really inspire us. But now is the time to make sure we make that happen.
Throughout the past 11 months, I've been blogging about John Edwards and his incredible platform for transformational change, and in the course of that time, I've met some fellow Edwards supporters who are real American heroes. Some of the Edwards ads talk about heroes of One America, well, my friends and fellow Edwards supporters are my heroes.
I want to talk about some of them today, because these heroes of One America are truly inspiring to me.
NCDem Amy, OneCarolinaGirl, sgary, ashlarah, and marratha are citizen journalists and video uploaders who regularly bring us news and video content about the campaign, much of it original.
Regular commenters on Edwards diaries and on the Edwards blog bring us updates from their efforts on the ground, including some people living and volunteering in the early states, such as RunawayRose, Im4JRE, desmoinesdem, and Smucci. Some regulars have been volunteering for John Edwards for years, like nannyboz, Persiflage, bettync, and suswa.
I know I have left some people out and I apologize for that. I couldn’t possibly list all of you who make a difference in your efforts to create One America that works for all of us. I didn't list some people by name because they may not have a blog that I can link to, or in some cases, I may just have forgotten. I know there are One Corps members all over the country and right in my own back yard in Maryland who are working hard to elect JRE. Thank you for all of your work. Each and every one of you is a hero to me. May your efforts come to fruition.
I also want to give a shout out to all the Edwards campaign staffers I’ve met, either online or in person. You all work very hard and I’m thrilled to have such a dedicated group watching the back of our future president day in and day out. One thing is for sure, Edwards supporters, volunteers, and staffers are an incredibly wonderful group of individuals. It makes me proud to volunteer for this campaign.
John Edwards to Hillary Clinton: Tell the Truth on Iran
I applaud John Edwards for continuing to point out that Hillary Clinton is going along with the Bush administration's push toward war with Iran. My gawd! Someone has to! Here's his statement from today:
"When Senator Clinton voted to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, she only aided and abetted George Bush and Dick Cheney's march to war.
"We now have clear confirmation that the administration is planning attacks on Iran. This morning, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell reported that Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on a flight back to the United States last night that there are 'contingency plans for an attack on Iran' and that 'the planning has been done.'
"Republican candidates are also beating the drums of war. In an interview yesterday, Rudy Giuliani also said the military stage is 'closer than some of the Democrats believe.'
"Even though she's cozying up to the Republican approach when she's inside the Beltway, when she's in Iowa, Senator Clinton tells a different story. But with a question so critical, the American people deserve the real truth, not more doubletalk. And they need members of Congress to stand strong and fight the president on his march to war with Iran - not quicken the pace."
The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.
Mrs Clinton's wooing of the defence industry is all the more remarkable given the frosty relations between Bill Clinton and the military during his presidency. An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts.
Employees of the top five US arms manufacturers – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon – gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans. "The contributions clearly suggest the arms industry has reached the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed," said Thomas Edsall, an academic at Columbia University in New York.
Republican administrations are by tradition much stronger supporters of US armaments programmes and Pentagon spending plans than Democratic governments. Relations between the arms industry and Bill Clinton soured when he slimmed down the military after the end of the Cold War. His wife, however, has been careful not to make the same mistake.
After her election to the Senate, she became the first New York senator on the armed services committee, where she revealed her hawkish tendencies by supporting the invasion of Iraq. Although she now favours a withdrawal of US troops, her position on Iran is among the most warlike of all the candidates – Democrat or Republican.
JRE endorsed by half of Maine's congressional delegation!
I just got off of a press conference call with the New Hampshire Edwards campaign. Representative Mike Michaud from Maine's 2nd district is endorsing John Edwards! Maine only has two representatives in Congress, so he represents half their congressional delegation. As Maine is right next to New Hampshire, I would think that this is a pretty important endorsement.
Mike Michaud is a lifelong millworker. He made the point that John can win in red states, because of his message. He believes that the other Democrats will not be able to win in red states, so that if we want to elect Democrats down the ballot, we need John as our presidential nominee.
It's pretty clear that corporate lobbyists have too much influence in Washington, DC, and that the corruption caused by big money interests giving legalized bribes to politicians is out of control.
John Edwards has never taken a dime from a Washington lobbyist, not only in this campaign, but in any political campaign he has ever run, since his first race for the Senate. In this, he is different from the other candidates, and way ahead of them, in my opinion, although Obama has, to his credit, also rejected lobbyist money for his first time in this presidential race.
At Yearly Kos, John Edwards challenged Hillary Clinton to stop taking campaign contributions from lobbyists, and she refused.
MODERATOR: Senator Edwards has a very straightforward question here, which is will you continue to take money from lobbyists?
CLINTON: Yes, I will. I will. Because you know, a lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans. They actually do.
Later, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Clinton asserted that the solution to the corruption in Washington is public campaign financing. We already have a public campaign financing system in place for presidential elections. John Edwards then committed to take public campaign financing for the primary, and challenged the other candidates to do the same. Once again, Clinton has refused (as has Obama).
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Clinton said the following when asked about her connection to disgraced donor Norman Hsu:
CLINTON: I think that we've done all that we can do at this point, including returning the money, but I believe that the only answer to this entire set of circumstances is public financing, something that I strongly support, that I'm going to try to do when I'm president, because there is no doubt that the cost of campaigns, particularly trying to get on television with our advertising, and all the things that people have to do in a modern campaign, are just out of control. It's not good for the country, and it's not good for the system.
Perhaps Hillary Clinton is actually in favor of some ideal form of public campaign financing that we don't have yet, however, we do already have a public campaign financing system in place for presidential elections. The existing public campaign financing system for presidential elections does not require mandatory participation, however, because the Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory participation in that system would be unconstitutional.
Many people, including John Edwards, have said that they would support an improved system of public campaign financing. Hillary Clinton appears to support that, too, although it's not clear what her proposal is.
A true commitment to public financing would involve both being willing to work within the existing public financing system and proposing serious reforms that would strengthen our existing public financing system, and obviously it would be easiest to actually accomplish this if it can be done in a way that could be upheld as constitutional. Although I'm no constitutional expert, it seems that John Edwards has done both.
Here's a little bit of history on our current public financing system for presidential campaigns, from Wikipedia:
All of these efforts were largely ineffective, easily circumvented and rarely enforced. In 1971, however, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act, requiring broad disclosure of campaign finance. In 1974, fueled by public reaction to the Watergate Scandal, Congress passed amendments to the Act establishing a comprehensive system of regulation and enforcement, including public financing of presidential campaigns and creation of a central enforcement agency, the Federal Election Commission. Other provisions included strict limits on contributions to campaigns and expenditures by campaigns, individuals, and other political groups.
The new law was immediately challenged on First Amendment grounds in Federal Court, resulting in a landmark Supreme Court decision, Buckley v. Valeo. The Buckley decision recognized that regulation burdened the rights of free speech and assembly, but held that the compelling government interest in preventing corruption or its appearance justified some restrictions on free speech. The resulting decision upheld contribution limits, so long as they were not so low as to prevent campaigns from amassing the resources necessary to communicate effectively with the public, disclosure requirements, and voluntary public financing. It found limits on expenditures to be unconstitutional infringements on free speech. It also restricted the reach of the law to speech by candidates and parties, that is, groups established for the purpose of electing candidates, and to communications that expressly advocated the election or defeat of a candidate, using phrases such as "vote for," "vote against," "support," or "defeat."
I understand this quote to be saying that the Supreme Court has said campaign finance law can limit the maximum amount of donations, in order to prevent corruption or even the appearance of corruption, but cannot require candidates to participate in a public financing system, and cannot limit their spending. On Friday, John Edwards proposed a new public financing system that would go much further toward preventing corruption, but would fall into these guidelines.
Reforming Campaign Finance to Strengthen Small Donors: John Edwards believes elections should be about ideas rather than money. Few Americans can afford to make $4,600 contributions to gain access to presidential candidates, and the integrity of our campaign financing system depends upon smaller donors continuing to play an important role in the political process. Edwards' campaign is built upon the support of small donors – in fact, 93 percent of the campaign's donations come from donors contributing less than $100. As president, Edwards will create a new Grassroots Presidential Financing System to match small donations under $100 by eight to one, making two $100 donations as valuable to a campaign as a single $1,000 donation. He will also reduce the maximum contribution from $2,300 to $1,000 per person, to better reflect the incomes of most Americans. Edwards will create a system of full public financing for Congressional candidates and require corporations to disclose their political activity and spending.
Eight to one matches for small donations would sure go a long way toward maximizing the power of small contributors, while a lower maximum donation of $1000 would limit the influence of wealthy people and corporations. Edwards would also prevent lobbyists from giving campaign contributions, again, to prevent corruption.
Ending the Unique Power of Lobbyists: Edwards will prohibit all candidates and federal office holders from accepting contributions from lobbyists and will prohibit federal lobbyists from acting as fundraisers or bundlers for federal candidates. He will limit the ability of lobbyists to secure lucrative earmarks by enacting a Constitutional version of the line-item veto, where the president can require an up or down vote on special-interest spending. Edwards will close the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street by reinstating the five-year ban on lobbying by former top government officials and by banning former lobbyists from taking executive branch positions related to their former clients. Finally, he will curb lobbyists' influence by increasing disclosure requirements for lobbyist activity and by prohibiting government executives from accepting gifts and travel from lobbyists and their employers.
Strengthening the Voice of Ordinary Citizens: To ensure everyone's vote is counted, Edwards will require that all voting machines, including electronic ones, use paper ballots that can be verified by voters. He will also give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress, allow Election Day Registration in federal elections, fight voter suppression and intimidation and end the disenfranchisement of former prisoners who have served their time. In order to increase citizen engagement, Edwards will ask one million citizens to participate in biennial Citizen Congresses – national town hall meetings where regular Americans tackle national issues together, without the filters of interest groups and the media. Similar projects have given citizens a voice in community solutions across the country, including in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards unveiled a "One Democracy" initiative last week to enlarge the role of ordinary Americans in politics. The "Citizen Congress" is the most original part of this policy. If elected, he would convene millions of Americans in town halls throughout the country every other year to deliberate and advise public leaders on difficult issues such as healthcare, poverty, and foreign affairs.
The idea that government should talk directly to citizens about political issues, and that citizens should talk to each other, has the potential to reinvigorate American democracy. Citizen participation through influential assemblies such as Citizen Congresses would address three critical failings of the political system.
Here's a citizen journalist video report of John Edwards proposing his One Democracy Initiative, recorded by YouTube user dteubner. These are parts 2 and 3 of the speech, which gets into the meat of his proposals. Part 1 can be found here.
If you're interested in hearing more from that day in Keene, NH, you can download an MP3 here that includes the speech, as well as a question and answer session that followed it. Also, here is part of a Q&A session with CSpan viewers that aired before the speech (I didn't tune in early enough to catch it all).
Edwards has been talking up public financing and government reform and deriding the corrupting influence of lobbyists for quite some time now. Here he discusses these issues on a recent edition of Meet the Press:
"California SEIU members know that John Edwards will be the best labor president in the history of the United States," said Sal Rosselli, president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West. "His proposals are far and away the best among the candidates on the issues that matter most to working Americans. Edwards has taken principled stands on workers' behalf, when others took more cautious positions on issues that demand bold action."
This brings his labor union support up to nearly 3 million union members nationwide.
Friends of the Earth Action enthusiastically endorses John Edwards for President. He has led the way among the candidates in addressing global warming and ruling out a new embrace of nuclear power. He has also demonstrated himself to be the top-tier candidate most likely to stand up to the powerful, corporate polluters and their lobbyists. After seven years of the most destructive environmental president in modern history, we feel strongly that John Edwards will fight for a healthy and just planet as President.
Edwards, who has an excellent plan to stop global warming, get us off our addiction to oil, and create a new energy economy, was the first candidate to commit to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, and he is running a carbon neutral campaign. His environmental platform has been widely praised by environmentalists, and he won the MoveOn town hall on global warming earlier this year.
Friends of the Earth Action will run an independent campaign to educate their members and other environmentalists about Edwards' platform and to get people out to vote, particularly in New Hampshire.
Here's a video of the endorsement bye Friends of the Earth Action:
And here are John's remarks at the event, video by YouTube user guerillavlogger:
John Edwards on Countdown: End Outsourcing of Military
John Edwards was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, and he called for an end to the outsourcing of military work to contractors like Blackwater.
The answer to this is to get American troops out of Iraq, which is why I'm committed to getting our combat troops out of Iraq, stopping combat missions, doing it the right way. But these things that are going on with Blackwater, they worry all Americans. I hear it everywhere I go. You know, people wonder, first of all, why a company whose executives gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush and to Republicans are getting these no bid contracts with hundreds of millions of dollars. There's something wrong with this picture.
Edwards also attacked his main rival for the nomination, Hillary Clinton, for her plan to continue combat missions in Iraq, and for her yes vote on the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, which takes us one step closer to war with Iran.
I respect Senator Clinton, but we disagree about this. I think if you're going to continue combat missions in Iraq, that is a form of war, and I think the war needs to be ended. I think the combat missions need to be stopped. I think our combat troops ought to be out of Iraq, so there's a very clear choice for Democratic voters. One candidate, Senator Clinton, will continue combat missions. She's said that repeatedly now. I will end combat missions. If the Democratic voters want a candidate for president who wants to continue combat missions, they should vote for her. If, on the other hand, they want this war actually ended, they should vote for me.
Snip...
What we need to do is continue to make clear to voters that they have choices. They have a different choice between me and Senator Clinton on Iraq. They have a different choice on Iran. I mean, I listened to Senator Clinton's explanation for voting for a Senate resolution that declared the Iranian National Guard a terrorist organization, which to me is the equivalent of giving George Bush the authority of the first step to go to war in Iran. I'm against that. And there's another choice that voters have, and we want voters to know what those choices are.
John Edwards doesn't trust Bush. Hillary Clinton does.
I hope you saw the debate last night on MSNBC. Last night proved that John Edwards would end the war in Iraq, and would not get us into a new war with Iran, unlike Hillary Clinton the hawk.
The end of the quarter is coming fast! Please give to help put an anti-war president in the White House!
John learned something from his mistake in voting for the Iraq war. Among other things, he learned that George Bush cannot be trusted.
Hillary Clinton did not learn the same lesson. On September 26th, 2007, she voted for the Lieberman – Kyl amendment, which is a first step toward war with Iran. According to ThinkProgress:
By a vote 76-22, the Senate passed the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, which threatens to “combat, contain and [stop]” Iran via “military instruments.” Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the amendment “Cheney’s fondest pipe dream” and said it could “read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action.”
Hillary Clinton voted for this!
John Edwards called her out for it in the Democratic debate on the night of September 26, 2007:
But I want to come back to a discussion that took place a few minutes ago to make everyone understands what Senator Gravel is talking and Senator Clinton was talking about. Because there was a very important vote cast in the United States Senate today. And it was, basically, in a resolution calling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
I voted for this war in Iraq, and I was wrong to vote for this war. And I accept responsibility for that. Senator Clinton also voted for this war.
We learned a very different lesson from that. I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran.
And I think that vote today, which Senator Biden and Senator Dodd voted against, and they were correct to vote against it, is a clear indication of the approach that all of us would take with the situation in Iran because what I learned in my vote on Iraq was you cannot give this president the authority and you can’t even give him the first step in that authority because he cannot be trusted.
Watch the video:
Barack Obama DID NOT VOTE AT ALL on Lieberman-Kyl, because he was at a campaign event in New Hampshire. This is after all his rhetoric about how he would have voted against the Iraq war!
Please support the only major Democratic candidate who will keep us out of another war. Please support John Edwards!
It is almost the end of the fundraising quarter. Can you give to help put an anti-war president in the White House?
"Tell Congress you know the truth," Edwards says. "They have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it. When the president asks for more money and more time, Congress needs to tell him he only gets one choice — a firm timeline for withdrawal."
John Edwards: A Tough New Strategy Against Terrorism
Yesterday, in a major policy speech at Pace University in New York, John Edwards laid out a tough new strategy against terrorism that is winning rave reviews in the press and the blogosphere. Matthew Yglesias of the Atlantic blog calls it "brilliant."
CNN gave a fair review of the speech, even if their report did fit the mold of typically shallow mainstream media reporting:
Edwards shows that he is using creative thinking to come up with smart new ideas on how to not only combat existing terrorists, but prevent new terrorists from being recruited. He rightly points out that the Bush administration has used outmoded thinking and that their approach has made us less safe, not safer.
There is now only one key question we must ask ourselves: are we any closer to getting rid of terrorism than we were six years ago? And the terrible answer is no, we're further away. Today, terrorism is worse in Iraq, and it's worse around the world. So what does all this mean? It means the results are in on George Bush's so-called "global war on terror" and it's not just a failure, it's a double-edged failure.
The Bush approach hasn't only made the terror problem worse. The Administration has rigidly stuck to outdated approaches that are ineffective against the modern terrorist threat. We need a counterterrorism policy that will actually counter terrorism. That matches 21st century threats with 21st century tactics. That replaces Cold War thinking designed to defeat a single, implacable enemy with new world thinking that can defeat a multi-national, diverse, and often hidden foe—not just now, but for the long-term. That's strong, fast, and hard enough to stop terrorists cold, but also smart, honest, and prescient enough to draw people away from terrorism in the first place.
The strategy that Edwards proposes is groundbreaking and comprehensive, and he went into it in good detail in his speech. But the Bush administration has become an irresistible target to just about everyone, so it's kind of fun to listen to Edwards smack Bush hard a few times.
President Bush, like the Republicans following him today and even some Democrats, was stuck in the past, and he still is. He had no grasp of the new threats we faced, so he failed to offer a vision to keep us safe in a world that had changed. Saddam Hussein was the threat he knew, so Iraq was the war he waged.
We needed new thinking and a bold vision to protect the world for our children; instead, George Bush literally gave us his father's war—but without his father's allies or his father's sense of decency. What's more and what's worse, the so-called "war on terror" he used as his excuse for war in Iraq became his excuse for trampling our Constitution and, most perversely, for ignoring the demands of the actual struggle against terrorism. Because in George Bush's reality, disagreement is called weak, challenge is suspect, and opposition downright unpatriotic.
Six years later, the devastating consequences of the Bush "war on terror" doctrine are so clear that his own Administration has had to admit them.
A recent National Intelligence Estimate found that Al Qaeda is now as strong as it was before 9/11. In a recent survey of America's most respected foreign policy experts, the vast majority said the world is becoming more dangerous for Americans and the United States. The State Department recently released a study showing that terrorism has increased worldwide 25 percent in 2006, including a 40 percent surge in civilian fatalities.
And as everyone here knows, Osama bin Laden is still at large. Six years ago, President Bush declared that he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive." This is his starkest failure. Apparently, bin Laden plans to address America on the anniversary of 9/11. But I don't need to wait and hear what this murderer has to say. My position is clear. I can make you this solemn promise: as president, I will never rest until we have hunted bin Laden down and served him justice.
Well, all that was a lot of fun, but let's get to the meat of Edwards's proposal. Edwards believes in multilateralism, so at the heart of his new proposal is an international Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization (CITO).
As president, I will launch a comprehensive new counterterrorism policy that will be defined by two principles—strength and cooperation.
The centerpiece of this policy will be a new multilateral organization called the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Treaty Organization (CITO).
Every nation has an interest in shutting down terrorism. CITO will create connections between a wide range of nations on terrorism and intelligence, including countries on all continents, including Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. New connections between previously separate nations will be forged, creating new possibilities.
CITO will allow members to voluntarily share financial, police, customs and immigration intelligence. Together, nations will be able to track the way terrorists travel, communicate, recruit, train, and finance their operations. And they will be able to take action, through international teams of intelligence and national security professionals who will launch targeted missions to root out and shut down terrorist cells.
The new organization will also create a historic new coalition. Those nations who join will, by working together, show the world the power of cooperation. Those nations who join will also be required to commit to tough criteria about the steps they will take to root out extremists, particularly those who cross borders. Those nations who refuse to join will be called out before the world.
It's important to note that CITO is not a panacea, nor will it be perfect. But it would represent the first step in a new direction. As President John F. Kennedy observed when he signed the treaty that first limited the testing of nuclear weapons, we must begin with the common recognition of a common danger. President Kennedy said then, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Today, this new anti-terrorism organization would be such a first step.
A major emphasis of this new international effort would be improved human intelligence, and Edwards would work to recruit counterterrorism experts who can relate to local cultures and speak local languages. As part of this effort, scholarships would be provided for students willing to enter the appropriate fields.
Edwards would also emphasize protecting the world from nuclear and chemical weapons, discouraging extremist ideologies at home and abroad, and freeing America from our dependence on oil.
As president, I will create a Global Nuclear Compact to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would support peaceful nuclear programs, improve security for existing stocks of nuclear materials, and ensure more frequent verification that materials are not being diverted and facilities are not being misused. And I will lead an international effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Our chemical plants are also targets for terrorists. A successful attack on any of these targets would be devastating. Because of industry pressure, new watered-down security rules imposed by the Bush Administration may actually weaken security at many chemical plants. I support implementing tough new safety standards at plants vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
We must also work hard here at home to ensure that extremist ideologies do not take hold in our own Muslim communities—and we must do so in a way that respects diversity and civil liberties and avoids practices like racial profiling against both Arabs and Muslims. We must encourage American Muslim participation in public life. I will put new resources toward engaging American Muslims, empowering local mosques to counter extremist ideas, and working hand-in-hand with Muslim communities to identify and isolate threats.
Finally, we must achieve energy independence. If we reduce our reliance on oil from instable parts of the world, Middle Eastern regimes will finally diversify their economies and modernize their societies. And fighting global climate change will reduce global disruptions that could lead to tends of millions of refugees and create massive new breeding grounds for desperation and radicalism.
I like the fact that Edwards is clearly willing to work with other countries that we share interests with, but that he's not going to give them something for nothing. In particular, I was happy to see him clearly state that we have been giving Saudi Arabia too much for too little for too long.
And Saudi Arabia is a country we have given too much in return for too little. We must require the Saudis to do more to stop the flow of terrorists to Iraq. As president, I will condition future arms packages on Saudi Arabia's actions against terrorists.
John Edwards continues to prove that he is the inspirational leader for a new generation, so it is fitting that he closes with a Kennedy-like call to service.
We have a choice today, and it rests in your hands. You are the generation who will help decide whether America will stick with the failed policies of the past, or whether we will aim for the horizon.
Every generation of Americans has faced grave challenges. We have overcome great foes in the past, and we will do so again—in the last century, we closed the chapters on Nazism, Fascism, and Communism through courage, bold new ideas, and strength.
Today, we stand on the shoulders of the generations who faced those challenges in their own time, and who rose to meet them.
Just as they rose to meet the enemies they faced, we must rise to meet ours.
And just as they did, we rise to meet them as Americans.
So challenge your leaders—hold them accountable for creating a safer world. And challenge yourselves—hold yourself accountable for creating a better nation. That is what it means to be American. To reach, to keep on reaching, to never, ever stop reaching for the best that any nation can ever be.
You can watch the entire speech, including the introduction by 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser, below:
After the speech, Edwards was interviewed by Talking Points Memo on the Petraeus report and the situation in Iraq.
Edwards endorsed by Steelworkers and Mine Workers Unions
Today, John Edwards won the endorsement of the Steelworkers and the Mine Workers Unions. I have previously reported that the Steelworkers Union was set to endorse Edwards today, but the Mine Workers Union came as a pleasant surprise. These two great organizations join the Carpenters Union in endorsing Edwards. This makes him the candidate with the most union support so far. These three unions combined represent almost 2 million workers.
"I am especially honored to receive the support of the Steelworkers and Mine Workers unions," said Edwards, "These are the workers who built the middle class in America, and they are the backbone of the American labor movement. They understand how important it is to fight back when jobs, safety, standards and our values are at risk—and they know what's at stake in this election."
"These workers have felt the negative impact of a broken system in Washington that is rigged against America's working families for far too long—whether it's the tragic lack of oversight in mine safety, trade agreements written to benefit multinational corporations while they ship American jobs overseas, or the millions of working Americans who still can't afford health insurance," added Edwards. "As president, I will proudly lead the fight on behalf of working families with their support—and together we will win."
Check out what the union leaders had to say about Edwards:
"Senator John Edwards is committed, as he has been throughout his life, to going to bat for everyday Americans and to changing a broken political system that leaves millions of Americans without a voice in their government," said Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard. "Edwards is right on the issues that matter to us, and he's the candidate with the best chance of winning in the general election. The big corporations don't need another president who does their bidding. It's time we had a president who will fight for working people—and that's what John Edwards will do."
"Senator Edwards' positions on the issues of importance to UMWA members make him the best fit of all the candidates for president," UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. "We need a president who cares about ordinary working people instead of the richest Americans and the big multinational corporations. We believe John Edwards is that person, and we will work as hard as we know how on his behalf anywhere and everywhere we can."
I'd like to thank these great unions for supporting John Edwards, the best candidate for president of the United States. Happy Labor Day to everyone!
