A message from Jennifer Beals:
We've noticed how engaged and passionate you all are about the 2008 presidential campaign! I am, too. I have never been so excited about a political campaign in my life. I think we all know how much this campaign
means to us — personally, nationally, and globally. We all realize: WHAT WE THINK MATTERS. Never before have I personally known how important it is to speak up and to question the candidates, ourselves, and each other. I
know you've all been speaking out and questioning each other. Along with some of you on OurChart, I am a Barack Obama supporter (Hi there Melanie) and, as an Obama supporter, I wanted to facilitate a conversation between the OurChart community and the Obama campaign.
Here's the plan:
Next week I'll be interviewing Tobias Wolff, an accomplished law professor, civil rights lawyer, AND the Chair of the National LGBT Policy Committee for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. What I would like is to ask YOUR questions. I want the interview questions I'll be asking Professor Wolff to come directly from you — the OurChart community. And not just from the Obama supporters (Hi there Isa, tvethiopia, Dyke Money, and brooklyngrrl) but from everyone who is interested, concerned, or still deliberating.
So, please post your questions in the comments below and I'll ask Professor Wolff as many as I possibly can in our time together - marriage equality, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, workplace discrimination, hate crimes legislation, anything and everything affecting the LGBT community. Ask away. Your questions will benefit all of us.
The full video and transcript of our interview will be posted here on OurChart in early March so stay tuned!
Jennifer
1123 Comments
Hello Jennifer
Hi Jenny,
I think what you are doing in the Obama campaign is wonderful. I'm a Canadian woman and know that we have rights that have been given to us and not to others. This is an outrage and I believe the time has come for all of us to stand up and say enough is enough. Obama needs to address the nations shame as well as the people. Please open your hearts and minds to the need for change. NOW is the time to stand tall and speak up, we have a leader who can make the changes we want so speak up and be proud of who you all are.
Peace and love to all
Kaz
I met Jennifer last night :)
yea... she's even more beautiful in person... :) Thank you so much for coming to sisters!!! :)
She went to Sister? DOH!
She went to Sister? DOH! Lucky you! - thank you for sharing. :) Philly is where it's at - at least until midnight Tuesday.
Bill Clinton was at my high school this past Tuesday. The school wasn't notified until the day before...it's weird, all the eyes are on Pennsy.
rovermom :)
Life is a 3D puzzle and everyone has a piece!
NEW! OurChart Photo Assignment and My Blog
French LGBT community is also concerned...
Hi Jennifer,
thank you to be so engaged in the politic life and specially about rights of LGBT community. I'm french but I am really concerned about american presidential campaign because you know, everything that happens in your country will happen 5 or 10 years later in my country (the good and the bas things!!). Of course, there is some important international issues like war in Irak or the position with Iran that are really important for all the international communtiy and particularly for all the occidental world. This issues and the entire world will be influenced by the next president of the USA. So I hope that the amercian people will do the good choice! Concerning, rights of LGBT community, I hope so much that progress will be possible in America with the next president concerning marriage, adoption and discriminations because in my country, this subject is totally absent of the political world since we have our president Bush named Sarkozy! And I know that if the subject is important in the amercian campaign, it will become important in my country and maybe contribute to leave in a better and more equal world.
In conclusion, thank you so much to fight for us and I hope, a little beat also for you too. Thank you very much and sorry for my english!
Laura
Don't Drink the Kool-Aid!
Thankfully, unlike the majority of the media, the clear-headed people at "Saturday Night Live" haven't yet fallen under Obama's spell.
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=224734.
And Hillary's "Editorial Response":
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=224732.
Hillary in '08
Obama in '16
Love, Peace, & Tongue
As Wolf Blitzer looks on...
Obama and Hillary Caught Kissing!
Barak Obama
Thank you Ms. Beals for taking on the role as ambassador for the Our Chart community.
I have particular questions concerning health care. I am an ardent supporter of a single payer health care delivery system for many reasons. Particularly because of my experience as part of the broken delivery system we have now and as a public health issue.
1. Could Mr. Obama please comment on why he does not support this as a solution to the current crisis of uninsured and underinsured people living in the U.S. especially since he supports prevention and approaches to wellness?
2. Could he specifically address how he would deal with the disparity between the availability of mental health/chemical dependency services and physical health services?
3. Specifically concerning LGBTQ youth- There are federally funded programs that provide free contraceptive services including health exams that accompany prescribing contraception but youth who are not in need of contraception but need health exams because they are sexually active have no such funding available. How would he remedy this situation?
After Dennis Kucinich dropped out of the race, I became an Obama supporter. I am hoping he may look at some of Kucinich's very progressive platform and incorporate it into his own because I am hoping that he is truly a forward looking man.
Thanks Jennifer!
As an Obama supporter, I was thrilled to read your post tonight. Thank you for seeking to connect our community with Obama and illuminate further his support of GLBT issues. He is the most vocal and progressive candidate on equal rights and seeks to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. I read this weekend about how strong he has railed against the legendary homophobic policies in Texas in almost every speech in every town there this week. He mentions our community and voices our concerns on a consistent basis, dating back to his riveting speech at the DNC in 2004. Because of this support, it's now being pondered on many political sites if Barack Obama could actually be our first gay president, much like Bill Clinton was considered by many to be our first black president. I look forward to hearing the questions and answers from the Obama campaign to ourchart! Thanks again!! OBAMA 08.
Obama on Clinton in 2006
March 02, 2008
Obama and his 2003 Vote: Lacking Intelligence
Clarice Feldman
These days Obama cannot remind us enough that he voted against authorizing force in Iraq and Clinton authorized it. As Tom Maguire joked of Obama's response to Hillary's latest red- phone- ringing- in-the-White-House-at- 3 am.- advertisement:"Obama's response we have only heard about ten thousand times - if the phone rings at 3 AM we can be sure that he won't invade Iraq in 2003."
But earlier on --in an interview in November 2006--he was more candid about what separated his and Hillary's votes on this important issue--She knew more about the matter than he did:
[Question:] Where do you find yourself having the biggest differences with Hillary Clinton,
politically?
[Obama:] You know, I think very highly of Hillary. The more I get to know her, the more I admire her. I think she's the most disciplined-one of the most disciplined people-I've ever met. She's one of the toughest. She's got an extraordinary intelligence. And she is, she's somebody who's in this stuff for the right reasons. She's passionate about moving the country forward on issues like health care and children. So it's not clear to me what differences we've had since I've been in the Senate. I think what people might point to is our different assessments of the war in Iraq, although I'm always careful to say that I was
not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn't have the benefit of U.S. intelligence. And, for those who did, it might have led to a different set of choices. So that might be something that sort of is obvious. But, again, we were in different circumstances at that time: I was running for the U.S. Senate, she had to take a vote, and casting votes is always a difficult test.
From:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/03/obama_and_his_2003_votelacki...
NObama Accomplishments?
Barack Obama missed 193 of 1113 votes (17%) since Jan 6, 2005 (Exceedingly Poor relative to peers).
Hillary Clinton missed 167 of 2421 votes (7%) since Jan 23, 2001
Sen Watson Humiliated, Unable to Name 1 Obama Accomplishment
Goodbye To All That
I love when other people do my venting for me.
Goodbye To All That (#2)
By Robin Morgan
February 2, 2008
“Goodbye To All That” was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting women (for an online version, see http://blog.fair-use.org/category/chicago/).
During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and contemporary women’s movements, I’ve avoided writing another specific “Goodbye . . .” But not since the suffrage struggle have two communities—joint conscience-keepers of this country—been so set in competition, as the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls. So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .
—Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who’s emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.
—She’s “ambitious” but he shows “fire in the belly.” (Ever had labor pains?)
—When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.
—Young political Kennedys—Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr.—all endorsed Hillary. Senator Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort “See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him.” (Personally, I’m unimpressed with Caroline’s longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary’s “thick ankles.” Nixon-trickster Roger Stone’s new Hillary-hating 527 group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (check the capital letters). John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?" with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged—and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.
Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan “If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!” Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central’s “Southpark” featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC’s vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?
Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .
The women’s movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments (www.womensmediacenter.com). But what about NBC’s Tim Russert’s continual sexist asides and his all-white-male panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN’s Tony Harris chuckling at “the chromosome thing” while interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And that’s not even mentioning Fox News.
Goodbye to pretending the black community is entirely male and all women are white . . .
Surprise! Women exist in all opinions, pigmentations, ethnicities, abilities, sexual preferences, and ages—not only African American and European American but Latina and Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Arab American and—hey, every group, because a group wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t given birth to it. A few non-racist countries may exist—but sexism is everywhere. No matter how many ways a woman breaks free from other discriminations, she remains a female human being in a world still so patriarchal that it’s the “norm.”
So why should all women not be as justly proud of our womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are justly proud of their struggles?
Goodbye to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which whites—especially wealthy ones—adore), while she has to pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and then found unforgivable). If she were black or he were female we wouldn’t be having such problems, and I for one would be in heaven. But at present such a candidate wouldn’t stand a chance—even if she shared Condi Rice’s Bush-defending politics.
I was celebrating the pivotal power at last focused on African American women deciding on which of two candidates to bestow their vote—until a number of Hillary-supporting black feminists told me they’re being called “race traitors.”
So goodbye to conversations about this nation’s deepest scar—slavery—which fail to acknowledge that labor- and sexual-slavery exist today in the U.S. and elsewhere on this planet, and the majority of those enslaved are women.
Women have endured sex/race/ethnic/religious hatred, rape and battery, invasion of spirit and flesh, forced pregnancy; being the majority of the poor, the illiterate, the disabled, of refugees, caregivers, the HIV/AIDS afflicted, the powerless. We have survived invisibility, ridicule, religious fundamentalisms, polygamy, teargas, forced feedings, jails, asylums, sati, purdah, female genital mutilation, witch burnings, stonings, and attempted gynocides. We have tried reason, persuasion, reassurances, and being extra-qualified, only to learn it never was about qualifications after all. We know that at this historical moment women experience the world differently from men—though not all the same as one another—and can govern differently, from Elizabeth Tudor to Michele Bachelet and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
We remember when Shirley Chisholm and Patricia Schroeder ran for this high office and barely got past the gate—they showed too much passion, raised too little cash, were joke fodder. Goodbye to all that. (And goodbye to some feminists so famished for a female president they were even willing to abandon women’s rights in backing Elizabeth Dole.)
Goodbye, goodbye to . . .
—blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys—though unlike them, he got reported on). Let’s get real. If he hadn’t campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over what that meant. Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it.
—an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience, and skill is actually seen as attractive, when celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that it’s “cooler” to glow with marquee charisma than to understand the vast global complexities of power on a nuclear, wounded planet.
—the notion that it’s fun to elect a handsome, cocky president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance.
Goodbye to the accusation that HRC acts “entitled” when she’s worked intensely at everything she’s done—including being a nose-to-the-grindstone, first-rate senator from my state.
Goodbye to her being exploited as a Rorschach test by women who reduce her to a blank screen on which they project their own fears, failures, fantasies.
Goodbye to the phrase “polarizing figure” to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the women’s movement that quipped, “We are becoming the men we wanted to marry.” She heard us, and she has.
Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing their hands, because Hillary isn’t as “likeable” as they’ve been warned they must be, or because she didn’t leave him, couldn’t “control” him, kept her family together and raised a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush twins!) Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn’t bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist movement. She’s running to be president of the United States.
Goodbye to the shocking American ignorance of our own and other countries’ history. Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir rose through party ranks and war, positioning themselves as proto-male leaders. Almost all other female heads of government so far have been related to men of power—granddaughters, daughters, sisters, wives, widows: Gandhi, Bandaranike, Bhutto, Aquino, Chamorro, Wazed, Macapagal-Arroyo, Johnson Sirleaf, Bachelet, Kirchner, and more. Even in our “land of opportunity,” it’s mostly the first pathway “in” permitted to women: Representatives Doris Matsui and Mary Bono and Sala Burton; Senator Jean Carnahan . . . far too many to list here.
Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous “Obama Girl” flaunting her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it wasn’t her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and dictated the clothes, which she said “made me feel like a dork.”
Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking “what if she’s not electable?” or “maybe it’s post-feminism and whoooosh we’re already free.” Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, “I could have saved thousands—if only I’d been able to convince them they were slaves.”
I’d rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart men—of all ethnicities and any age—who get that it’s in their self-interest, too. She’s better qualified. (D’uh.) She’s a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail, ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping on. (Also, yes, damn it, let’s hear it for her connections and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was awfully glad about those when she raised dough and campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)
I’d rather look forward to what a good president he might make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned by practical know-how—and he’ll be all of 54. Meanwhile, goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually he’s an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who’ve worked with the Kennedys’ own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson. If it’s only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run. But isn’t it about getting the policies we want enacted?
And goodbye to the ageism . . .
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse U.S. youth from torpor it’s useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country’s history: the boomer generation—the majority of which is female?
Old women are the one group that doesn’t grow more conservative with age—and we are the generation of radicals who said “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality of the United States. And though we never went away, brace yourselves: we’re back!
We are the women who brought this country equal credit, better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a family-focused workplace; the women who established rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and environmental movements; who insisted that medical research include female anatomy; who inspired men to become more nurturing parents; who created women’s studies and Title IX so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography, who put childcare on the national agenda, who transformed demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years, won us the vote.
We are the women who now comprise the majority of U.S. voters.
Hillary said she found her own voice in New Hampshire. There’s not a woman alive who, if she’s honest, doesn’t recognize what she means. Then HRC got drowned out by campaign experts, Bill, and media’s obsession with everything Bill.
So listen to her voice:
“For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words.
“It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
“Women’s rights are human rights. Among those rights are the right to speak freely—and the right to be heard.”
That was Hillary Rodham Clinton defying the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing (look here for the full, stunning speech).
And this voice, age 21, in “Commencement Remarks of Hillary D. Rodham, President of Wellesley College Government Association, Class of 1969.”
“We are, all of us, exploring a world none of us understands. . . . searching for a more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating mode of living. . . . [for the] integrity, the courage to be whole, living in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence. The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. . . . Fear is always with us, but we just don't have time for it.”
She ended with the commitment “to practice, with all the skill of our being: the art of making possible.”
And for decades, she’s been learning how.
So goodbye to Hillary’s second-guessing herself. The real question is deeper than her re-finding her voice. Can we women find ours? Can we do this for ourselves?
“Our President, Ourselves!”
Time is short and the contest tightening. We need to rise in furious energy—as we did when Anita Hill was so vilely treated in the U.S. Senate, as we did when Rosie Jiminez was butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women globally who are condemned for trying to break through. We need to win, this time. Goodbye to supporting HRC tepidly, with ambivalent caveats and apologetic smiles. Time to volunteer, make phone calls, send emails, donate money, argue, rally, march, shout, vote.
Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she’s the best qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I support her because her progressive politics are as strong as her proven ability to withstand what will be a massive right-wing assault in the general election. I support her because she knows how to get us out of Iraq. I support her because she’s refreshingly thoughtful, and I’m bloodied from eight years of a jolly “uniter” with ejaculatory politics. I needn’t agree with her on every point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are identical with Obama’s—and the few where hers are both more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I support her because she’s already smashed the first-lady stereotype and made history as a fine senator, because I believe she will continue to make history not only as the first US woman president, but as a great US president.
As for the “woman thing”?
Me, I’m voting for Hillary not because she’s a woman—but because I am.
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html
Clinton and Obama
First, I want to thank you and Second Wave Feminists for all you have done to change the landscape of this country. I have read some of your writings which were revolutionary for their times. I am part of the Boomer generation but am part of the mid Boomer generation.
While, I also consider one of my identities to be feminist, it is just that, one of my identities. I have become disillusioned with identity politics since over the years I could not find anyway to express who I am in totality.
If 97% of Clinton's and Obama's policies are really the same why then are Obama's ideas considered less substantial?
As for who the President is screwing whether it's FDR, JFK, or Bill, I don't dismiss what they may have accomplished otherwise, I frankly don't give a flying crap about their sex lives.
Both Clinton and Obama are liberal politicians in the true sense of that word and are by no means particularly progressive or left leaning in any way.
Finally, a comment on the "practicality" of HRC's "universal" health care plan, please it's an insult to call it to the left of Obama's plan, as one health policy expert states, "it really takes a national, social problem and "solves" it by making it an individual problem." My service in healthcare has been exclusively in clinical environments serving uninsured, underinsured, poor, legal and illegal immigrants and her solution will do little to alleviate their lack of access to solid medical care and prevention.
Last, I found interesting a discussion at Democracy Now with a Black feminist professor discussing some of the race and gender politics of this election. It was aired in late January right after Steinem's NY Time Op Ed piece. THe professor gave voice to many of the things I thought.
BTW, I only became an Obama supporter after Kucinich dropped out of the race.
Wow
I'm blown away by some of the post in here. I believe debating is healthy & often necessary. But, some of the commentary in this room has such a hurtful & non-productive under tone it saddens me. It takes away from the thought provocking & educational post that have a greater impact.
video: obama borrowing rhetoric
For those who want to see some visuals of Obama borrowing freely some of his rhetoric, take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuB_W8o_UsU
PS THanks guys, this blog has been so interesting and has brought up so many excellent points to ponder
In Nov if Obama is the nom
John McCain WILL crush him on foreign policy ,I do not feel safe under Obama .He wants to talk to ppl who want to kill us and while she is having his little eat outs with them ,they will be bombing us .This is what I fear most, would this man know what to do if we are attacked again or would he just want to hold talks.Obama needs to get with it on foreign policy .This is why I like Clinton she knows foreign policy.
McCain may well best him at
McCain may well best him at foreign policy, but I think things in November are going to be so bad economically that foreign is going to be the last thing anyone wants to hear about. Not to mention every time McCain says foreign policy all the democrats need to say is how much the war itself has cost and how much more it is going to cost.
Just a guy, but not just any guy!
http://bradleyandkaty.com/bradblog/
http://www.bradstinyworld.com
John McCain on Economics
John McCain on Economics...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu-tg1kQ8dk
Just a question DeeDee. Do
Just a question DeeDee.
Do you want a child to hit another child and not try talk out their differences first?
Foreign policy should be about talking and not letting it get to the war stage. Bush's foreign policy was shoot first and fuck the questions! Do you know how many years he erased of building friendly ties? Do you really want to keep that type of policy going? It's not making us any safer - nor is it making us any new friends, just more enemies and a new generation of reasons to hate America.
---
To Bush, with love...
- thanks fucktard!
rovermom :)
Life is a 3D puzzle and everyone has a piece!
NEW! OurChart Photo Assignment and My Blog
Is It NOT the JOB
Of the President of the USA to keep HIS country safe .
No DeeDee, that is the job
No DeeDee, that is the job of countless soldiers who actually fucking die for the country. The job of the president is to make sure he doesn't have to use them!
War is a last resort.
rovermom :)
Life is a 3D puzzle and everyone has a piece!
NEW! OurChart Photo Assignment and My Blog
I am NOT
A Obama supporter and I will NEVER be,I do NOT feel safe under this man and I never will no matter how much you want to BITCH about MY OPINION.So get the FUCK over it ROVER MOM.
Get the fuck over what
Get the fuck over what DeeDee? The fact that I can answer your question, but yet you can't answer any of mine? I wasn't bitching about your opinions, just asking you some questions...
Answer this, do you want kids to hit each other first and not talk their differences through?
It's not a hard question...
rovermom :)
Life is a 3D puzzle and everyone has a piece!
NEW! OurChart Photo Assignment and My Blog
Yup it is
But sending people into war, invading other countries and telling them how to live is not a way to protect the United States. It's a way of creating hate.
A lot of countries, including those who are with the coalition, the people are damn sick and tired of the US strong arming people into doing what they want to do.
Foreign Policy is far more important then people want to believe, and to be honest that helps effect the economy.
umm
yes, she knows foreign policy so well, she voted to authorize Bush to invade Iraq and then, incredibly, Iran.
not exactly
she voted to approve naming the iranian national guard a terrorist organization - obama missed that vote (as usual - never wants to take a political stand on anything) but still criticized her for it. as for the iraq war, it's easy to say your opinion and another to have to actually vote on it. obama was not in the senate and was not privy to the intelligence information that was given to them. he even said later on that he didn't know how he would have voted if he were in the senate since he didn't have access to that info.
and god forbid she voted "no" and the nation was attacked...if this war hadn't been so utterly mismanaged we could have been out of there by now.
personally, obama scares me. i feel that we don't even know him and he consistently fails to take stand on anything because of political reasons; if i were a resident of illinois i would have wondered why i was spending my tax dollars on a "present" legislator. he would make a better v.p. or should come back in four to eight years.
the sad thing is..
Both might do that. Both are CFR members, both are supported by AIPAC. Chancellor Merkel (Germany) has just been approached by Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Ms. Knobloch "expects German to support the Israeli view that a hard line needs to be taken against Tehran". Is a coalition being organized? Hope that Merkel stays strong. Obama has already talked about invading Pakistan. So much for peace *head hanging, sadly*.
Question for Sen. Obama
What factors led you to seek the nomination? Thank you from someone who supported John Edwards' candidacy but now supports yours.
thanks for the obama post
I wasn't sure on his stance with LGBT's because all I ever heard was Clinton's position. I am glad to hear his message.
civil union/civil rights
Jennifer, thank you so much for your ongoing support and the effort you are making to bring some light to thsese civil rights issues.
My partner and I are in our early sixties and healthy. We own a small farm with five dogs, two horses, three cats. We are now retired and enjoying our "family". My concern is that because we're not recognized as a married couple would be, that if one of us became so ill that we needed to be in a nursing facility and had to me on Medicaid, the house that we've worked so hard to pay for would be up for grabs by the US government. If one of us died, the house would have to be sold so that those debts to the government for the nursing care would be paid out of the half that was owned by that half of the partnership. I guess my question is this: what are Obama's plans to implement civil unions in this country so that we all have equal rights to property, health care, etc.? I'm personally paying a huge amount of money now each month for health care. If we were straight, there would be no problem, I'd be covered under my partner's government retirement benefits. I am not eligeble for her benefits at all. So I have to make personal investments. Thanks so much for the work you're doing on our behalf. We are great fans of your work, love your character. You have incredible insight. love
There are options though
There are options though many times they are not as simple as being married. I would talk to a lawyer in your area who specializes in contract law and have them write up a business partnership for the two of you that would include your transferring your assets to the partnership make sure it includes contractual disillusionment and survivorship clauses as well as reference to your separate wills. I have seen this done several times and enforced just as they planned when someone died once. I have also seen the disillusionment clause enacted a couple of times as well. The whole thing won't cost more than a few hundred dollars from a decent lawyer.
The one thing I want to see in civil unions is a mandatory prenup. This will save a lot of hassles. I also think if we get civil unions on the books, most states in the next couple of decades will all move away from their arcaic marriage laws and adopt whatever the fed put together for civil unions. A lot of states know their marriage laws are poorly written, but they also know if they rewrite them they will be forced to include GBLT unions in the new laws, which is what is keeping it from being done. If the feds do it for them, they don't have the political fallout over it on either side.
Just a guy, but not just any guy!
http://bradleyandkaty.com/bradblog/
http://www.bradstinyworld.com
Brad
Why mandatory pre-nups for civil unions and not for hetero marriages? I'm trying to consider your ideas in the same way I consider other posts, but when I look at your profile, I say to myself, more like any guy than not. Sometimes I forget about some of the benefits of being a Lesbian so thanks for reminding me.
Lezbeth
I would like to see
I would like to see mandatory prenups for hetero marriages too, but that is harder to fix with fifty different marriage laws. The only way I see civil unions being widely accepted is if it is forced on the states at a federal level. I also don't see civil unions being exclusively a gay thing either, in fact it would be illegal to make them as such, not to mention politically stupid for both parties.
What I do hope to see is a national standard set out for a generic marriage(lacking a better term at the moment) that every state could easily adopt or would supersede all other marriage laws. The problem with getting most of those old laws fixed is the fact there isn't a state legislature in the country who wants to open up the can of worms because it would force them to consider provisions for gays.
For example I am sure all the states would like to raise the age girls can legally get married to a minimum of sixteen or most likely eighteen, but the fact they are scared of opening up new marriages to gays we still have states that have marrying ages of twelve through fifteen. I believe it is Iowa who has one of the most inane marriage laws, girls can get married before they are old enough to legally consent to sex.
I am sure other states would like to change who can get married, but won't do it so for the same reasons. In at least six states including California you can marry your first cousin. As of a few years ago it was still legal to marry the children of your half brother or sister in several states. It is because of those attempted changes states became aware of the fact gays and lesbians will fight to make gay marriage legal every time a marriage law is being reconsidered.
I may be more like a guy than not, but that is who I am. Although not just any guy cares about these issues, most of them haven't been influenced by the people I have or ever stop to think about what is really right and wrong either. As a straight guy who posts here and and starting to look the political nature of other mostly gay online communities I will always have a different way of looking at things. Even issues where our end goal is the same, I am often going to have a different take on how to get there.
I wouldn't be a responsible friend to the community not to put those points of view out there, even if you don't want to hear.
When I say things like don't bring out the big angry flamboyant and fabulously dressed mob, or the Dykes on Bikes motorcycle clubs it isn't because I am telling people to be different. I say those because if you want change to happen, it isn't going to happen by scaring the hell out of Joe and Jane Liberal or infuriating Chuck and Connie Conservative.
Just a guy, but not just any guy!
http://bradleyandkaty.com/bradblog/
http://www.bradstinyworld.com
Deadline for questions?
I have cut and pasted the post below which were the last words on the dealine by the Editor on this thread..
**
2/23/08 | 8:24 PM
We'll be accepting questions through next Thursday, February 28th so keep asking away!
**
So I think the date for accepting any further questions has passed.. maybe the Editor could confirm...
To Jennifer
First, thank you for taking your time to help us get the answers we want.
My question for obama concerns the Donnie McClurkin controversy. I would like to know if Obama shares McClurkin's belief that gays are sinners against god and need to be saved.
This is bigger than all of us!
There are a lot of research, commentary and opinion that hasn't been discussed in the National Media. I think that we all should seek out this information. My hope is that we are women aren't, in the excitement to constribute to 'change' and 'history', being used to accomplish some clandestine political goal! The following is an excerpt from a piece that was published by TheCityEdition on 2/29....
--------------
Bamboozling the American electorate again
Bush-Cheney strategy involves G.O.P. crossover voting to take out Hillary, marketing newcomer Obama, a possible "independent" ticket, and maybe even martial law...
Updated February 29, 2008
Evidence of a covert campaign to undermine the presidential primaries is rife, so it's curious that the Democractic Party and even some within the G.O.P. have ignored the actual elephant in the room this year. That would be Karl Rove. Long accused of rigging the two previous presidential elections, this master of deceit would have us believe that he's gone off to sit in a corner and write op-eds.
Not so. According to an article in Time magazine published last November, Republicans have been organized in several states to throw their weight behind Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic rival of Hillary Clinton. At least three former fundraisers for President Bush flushed his coffers with cash early on in the race, something the deep pockets haven't done for any candidate in their own party. With receipts topping $100 million in 2007, the first-term Illinois senator broke the record for contributions. It was a remarkable feat, considering that most Americans had not even heard of him before 2005.
The Time article went on to explain that rank and file Republicans were switching parties this spring to vote for Obama in the Democratic primaries. Though not mentioned in the piece, a group called Republicans for Obama formed in 2006 to expedite the strategy. Many states have open primaries, allowing citizens to vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. In Nebraska, the mayor of Omaha publicly rallied Republicans to caucus for Obama on February 9th, according to Fox News Channel. Called crossover voting, the tactic is playing a crucial role in what appears to be a Rove-coordinated effort to deprive Clinton of the nomination. Even with his more well-known dirty tricks arsenal - phone bank sabotage, fake polling data, swiftboating, waitlisting, electronic voting equipment, Norman Hsu, etc. - Rove would be hard pressed to defeat Clinton in November, since she's generally popular nationwide and has promised an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. If the contest isn't close, the vote-rigging won't matter. (Several influential Republicans admit as much in a February 11th story for Politico.)
If, on the other hand, Obama wins the nomination (or even the VP spot), Rove's prospects brighten considerably. Largely unvetted by the media, the senator carries considerable baggage from his stint as a state legislator, particularly his 17-year relationship with Chicago slumlord Tony Rezko. So far, the mainstream press has paid lip service to the particulars of Obama's past and instead portrayed him as a fresh new face in American politics. For instance, the author of the Time article, Jay Newton-Small, offered the following explanation to account for the bizarre love affair G.O.P. voters say they're having with an African American senator on the other side of the aisle. "It seems a lot of Republicans took to heart Obama's statement in his rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that 'there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America.'"
Is he kidding? The conservative publication National Journal claims Obama's voting record is the most liberal in Washington, even moreso than Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Not everyone agrees with that assessment by a long shot, but it's nevertheless hard to picture the voting pattern Mr. Small implies here: Nixon - Reagan - Bush - Dole - Bush - Obama. And this through-the-looking-glass rationale is widely shared by journalists, pundits and politicians across the political spectrum, many of whom advance the equally suspect position that Clinton, the first viable female candidate for president, represents the past.
Last year, at the same time she commanded a huge lead in the national polls, political analysts and professional strategists retained by CNN and other broadcast networks began hammering across the notion that "the voters don't like her". In a peculiar way, the adjectives "unlikable", "divisive" and "polarizing" used to characterize the New York senator have been repeated over and over in the same manner terms like "biological warfare" and "weapons of mass destruction" were employed during the lead-up to the Iraq War. In both cases, the terminology traces back to a cadre of right-wing, neocon ideologues who keep the studio seats warm at Fox News. "There is no candidate on record, a front-runner for a party's nomination, who has entered the primary season with negatives as high as she has," Rove told Reuters last August. Earlier this month, Bush's former senior political advisor joined Fox as a part-time election analyst.
Obama himself recites Rove's "high negatives" comment in press interviews whenever discussing Clinton. His often bitter criticism of the former First Lady and other "Washington insiders", who he says want to "boil and stew all the hope out of him", represents a staple of his core political message. His campaign slogan "I'm a uniter, not a divider" is also reminiscent of the Bush 2000 campaign, which Rove managed. Perhaps that's not suprising when you discover that one of Obama's speechwriters is Ben Rhodes, the brother of Fox News VP David Rhodes. (Marisa Guthrie, of BC Beat, reported this connection recently.) The latter Rhodes has been with the network since its inception in 1996. You may recall that on election night in November 2000, it was Fox that called Florida for Bush, even though the other networks declared Gore the winner, citing the exit polls. How Fox knew the polls were wrong in advance of the vote tabulation has never been explained.
Her naysayers aside, on Super Tuesday, Clinton captured sizeable majorities in the population-rich states of California, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. While Obama won most of the the red states in play, Clinton took Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Arkansas. Earlier winning in Nevada, Florida and New Hampshire, Clinton had reached the peak of her campaign. It has been all uphill ever sence, however, with Obama emerging victorious in the caucus states of Washington and Nebraska, the Louisiana primary, then Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Wisconsin and Hawaii. Obama currently enjoys a 90-delegate lead, according to the Associated Press. Neither candidate is expected to reach the 2025-delegate mark needed to cinch the nomination before the convention in August.
- Rosemary Regello editor@thecityedition.com
(Thanks to everyone who's posted this article on blogs, emailed it to friends, or sent us links to additional story sources.)
Copyright 2008 TheCityEdition.com
obama wins texas
yes, obama will win texas because it's an open primary and republicans are going to be voting for him (mccain's already won the nomination) because they think mccain will beat him (posts from people on cnn show this is true). i think obama is a big mistake at this point in time. it's amazing with all of the qualifications of senator clinton, obama may be the nominee. in reality, obama is just the anti-candidate, like ralph nader. it's not so much obama people like, they just want something "new" and just don't like hillary. he's young and hip and speaks well, but i think that hillary would make the much better president.
Facts, Fervor, and Economics
It seems as if no matter how many facts the Obama skeptics present as way of warning, the Obama fans just want to believe! It's shocking to see how they constantly return to their fervent broken-record litany of "change", "bringing people together" & "yes we can", as if the country needed a therapist first and foremost.
One of the most important aspects of this election is economics. People who don't travel to Europe might not notice that the value of the dollar has been falling steadily since 2002 (gee, who was President then?). At the introduction of the Euro in 1999, 1 dollar was worth approx. 117 Euro cents. In 2007 alone the dollar took a 10% dive. It continues to plummet and is at an all time low, now worth only 65 Euro cents. The housing market is in a crisis. This means inflation and a serious recession. This means ALL AMERICANS ARE LOSING MONEY EVERYDAY!
Bloggers on this site seem unaware that a 9 TRILLION DOLLAR & GROWING DEBT has dire, serious consequences. And so the anti-Hillary comments about the monarchy & the Bush/Clinton ownership of the Whitehouse continue while probama bloggers ignore the fact that Obama is not an economist and has no experience in the field (even if he did get a nice shady deal on his house from Rezko). The probama people seem incapable of differenciating between George Bush (voters were warned that the guy had utterly failed at every buisiness venture before entering the Whitehouse) and Clinton, who left the office with a surplus of $559 billion at the end of his presidency AND an unprecedented post WW2 approval rating of 65% after two terms.
But why listen to me? Maybe Ellen and Jim Cramer can convince you to pause and think:
Host of Mad Money says Hillary is Best for Economy
Hillary Talks to Jim Cramer about the Economy
To Delphina below: With your background you MUST be familiar with Deval Patrick's speeches & politics. If you scroll through these blog pages you'll find an entire article about D. Patrick's inefficiency as well as my link to the vid "Traders Cheer" and other informative links regarding Obama's voting record (often non-commital votes of "present", when he was indeed, present). Here's a link to a vid described so:
Barack Obama and Deval Patrick ran identical campaigns - including the same consultant David Axelrod. After a landslide victory in Massachusetts, Gov. Patrick has replaced hope and fervor with underperformance and disappointment.
It takes more than a Hope For Change
LET'S TRANSCEND OUR FEARS & OUR DIFFERENCES
I have been a lifelong student of politics and have a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts. Despite the incredibly heroic efforts of so many who have worked and sacrificed for the American ideals of democracy and equality over the centuries, neither is anywhere near being achieved in the United States. Despite the grand words of our founding documents, true political discourse has been supressed throughout our history. We the People have been divided and isolated from one another, making it easy for political campaigns to exploit our psychological hot-buttons (racial tensions, homophobia, religious hysteria, fear of foreigners, etc.) and creating a feeling of doubt and mistrust of each other. The reason we all expect to be betrayed by politicians and the political process is because to a great extent, we always have been. I recommend Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States" to anyone who wants to better understand why America is the way it is today. In a way, our current political system gives us the "right" to vote for a king(queen). Once elected, the new President thinks of the desk in the Oval Office as his(her) throne. They feel empowered to do whatever they want/can get away with. I believe the Clintons have this mindset, although I believe Hillary wants to be a benevolent and enlightened queen -- a CHANGE AGENT on behalf of her subjects. If there is anything different whatsoever about the Obama campaign, it's that Barack is asking each of US to join together and be the POLITICAL CHANGE AGENTS ourselves. This doesn't just mean electing someone to lead the country in a new direction. It means creating a powerful grassroots network for collective political effort similar to Dr. King's Civil Rights Movement (which should never have lost momentum). It means using the internet as a tool to unite all of the people who were formerly isolated from one another, just like OurChart does for all those who would otherwise be alone and afraid and hopeless about being "different" out there in the wider homophobic world. It's hard to imagine what our country might be like today if Martin Luther King had had the internet! I believe that President Obama, a scholar who has taught courses on the Constitution, will use his position and his broad access to the media to help Americans understand in a way never before possible, that democratic government means EACH CITIZEN IS THE GOVERNMENT. This means we have to take personal responsibility for the state of our political system. This will take personal sacrifice on the part of each citizen to make time to remain engaged in a meaningful way in the political process throughout each 4 year term of the President. If you're willing to make that sacrifice to remain engaged, you and I and President Obama can transform the United States into the kind of nation we aspire to be and people around the world need us to be. I want to say a special thank you to Jennifer for initiating this OurChart thread. I have always felt that she is a great friend that I've never met. Her support of Obama is a wonderful