With the state of the nation today one can't help but look back and reflect from time to time how things could have been different. How things would be today if the Federal Supreme Court had not overruled the Florida Supreme Court and Al Gore had of been the presiding officer of our executive branch the past 90 months instead of Richard Cheney.
If Al would have been our nation's leader the past 7 years America likely would not have invaded Afghanistan, much less Iraq. Instead of invading two countries Gore would have implemented what needed to be done to capture and prosecute the ringleader who put together the plan to fly planes into American landmarks occupied by innocent human beings. The world would have looked on with admiration at how our nation did not allow the attack to change the character of our nation.
If Al had been our president the past 7 years I have a hunch oil would likely be around $30 a barrel and gas less than $2 a gallon because steps would have been taken years ago that would have us well on our way to within the not too distant future allowing our nation to celebrate when the last gas burning automobile is removed from our streets.
There are probably more, many more videos out there. Will this open the floodgates. Will this video, the first released to the public, one day be used as evidence in war crime trials?
Hard to have sympathy for these guys but they do have families so I can find it within myself to have sympathy at least for the families.
When I think about Snow himself and all of the obvious lies he told to go along with the Cheney/Bush administration's actions that lead to thousands of innocent Americans dieing, many very young, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens dieing, it's really very difficult for me to feel much sorrow for Snow himself.
Just curious as to how others feels about this and look forward to your comments.
I believe free global wireless world wide web access will happen. I believe that over half of the world's population will have free wireless access to the internet no later than the year 2020.
Free internet access will do more, and do it more quickly, to bring economic equity to people throughout the world than anything else in human history. With free wireless access and the price of a computer dropping to probably less than a tank of gas all barriers will be removed preventing the world's poorest from being educated.
One of my area newspapers ran a column today title "Obama is not qualified to be president." The column had the standard blah, blah blah, yada-yada-yada that is written and spoken by others on this topic.
I have about one letter-to-the-editor published a month in this paper, Clarksville (Tn) Leaf Chronicle, and just sent them a letter-to-editor reply to the column. This diary will be a bit short but I just wanted to drop by and post my reply.
When I started these I said I'd try to keep them going until Senator Obama was the "official" nominee of the Democratic party. Missed some days here and there but have tried to keep my word. If today or later this week Barack does become the "official" nominee I may take a couple months off from the daily videos diary but I think I'd like to possibly start it up again with a couple of months to go in the general election. Thanks for all the nice comments and tips. I've just tried to do my small part like tens of millions of others have in trying to do what we can to help put a competent and talented person in the White House. Today are a few of what I would call "all-star videos", at least for me, from and about the good Senator from Illinois.
Video #1: Four minutes of highlights from Senator Obama's 2004 Convention speech. I suppose like many people I believe this is the first time I had heard of Barack Obama.
Video #1: How nice it is going to be when hopefully in just a few days Senator Obama can focus 100% on John McBush and winning the general election. This video is about 4 minutes of what that is going to be like.
I know many in the Jewish community across the nation have been a bit hesitant about coming on board in full support of Senator Obama. I'm hope I'm not insulting anyone by me saying this but probably for a certain small percentage getting past Senator Obama's name has been something of a challenge. The first question Senator Obama got at the townhall meeting in Boca a gentleman said a friend of his told him "if Barack Obama would change his name to Barry, I would vote for him." As you will see if you watch the 3rd video he handled it BEAUTIFULLY! (USA Today column about the question) I believe Senator Obama's talk and question and answer session yesterday in Boca Raton will resonate positively throughout the Jewish community across the nation and could be the beginning of a new era of dialog, support and cooperation between Senator Obama and the American Jewish community for the next 8 years.
I included a 10 minute segment of Senator Obama's talk in Boca Raton in yesterday's diary but ran across the entire 30 minutes or so on youtube and have included all of that today.
I have tried to be as respectful and civil as possible to Senator McCain because somehow I thought he might, MIGHT, actually not run a gangster campaign as Repubs have done in recent years. After recent comments from McCain it is now obvious he is nothing more than another say-anything, do-anything, political candidate. Gloves are off and a terrific and quick response from Senator Obama today on the recent Bush/McCain lies.
Video #1: Senator Obama in Watertown South Dakota addresses the Bush/McCain pathetic comments and lies. "Fired up and firing back" was a headline one of the news shows used. (9min)
Disclaimer: This diary is a cross-post of a recent letter-to-editor to one of my local newspapers which is near Fort Campbell, Ky which is the reason for the letter on the VA. I do what I can to support the good Senator from Illinois every chance I get :-)
LETTER-TO-EDITOR: OBAMA PROPOSES 21ST CENTURY VA.
The Walter Reed disgrace shown a spotlight on the facts that the current administration is much more gung-ho on sending young Americans in to battle than they are about caring for them when they return home wounded.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has a different view. He says " "Keeping faith with those who serve must always be a core American value and a cornerstone of American patriotism. Because America's commitment to its servicemen and women begins at enlistment, and it must never end."
In keeping with those views Senator Obama has proposed the creation of a 21st century VA. His plan would overturn the 2003 ban of some veterans and allow ALL veterans back in.
Usually just 3 or so but got a bunch today -- why not. They're all short, the 15 finalists from the Obama in 30 Seconds contest from MoveOn. Shout out to whoever came up with the idea, to all those who submitted videos (hear it was well over a 1000) and of course to the finalists and the winner.
If America is wise enough to elect Senator Obama as its next president for the next 4 or 8 years an important part of an Obama administration will be restoring respect for America throughout the world. A large part of the task of restoring respect to America will be dealing with the issue of torture.
Getting the facts of what actually happened and then if, and how, to hold accountability. If the courts decide that war crimes are committed then I don't really see how we can justify not holding those responsible accountable. We can never regain the respect of the international community if we are seen as a nation that is a harborer of war criminals.
On this issue British Professor of International Law at University College of London, Philippe Sands, recently testified before Congress.
These numbers have been bouncing around several websites the past few hours but in case you missed the final official vote totals in Indiana had Senator Obama within 1% 626,642 or 49.6% to Clintons 637,814 or 50.4%. Now we see why everyone but CBS saw this as too close to call until about 99% of the votes were in.
Just 2 videos today
Video #1: From youtuber 1962verbodivino titled "BUSH CALLS MCCAIN "MINI-ME"
Video #1: Clip from February 27th, 2008. "McCain likes to say he'll follow Bin Laden into the gates of hell. So far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq." (3min)
