CNN Live Democratic Debate

The fire is in the air and the candidates are no longer being absolute friends and playmates anymore. Two words, About TIME!

This is a rambling typing so forgive my typing errors and grammar. I had to kick the kids off of Disney for kids to get to CNN and missed the first thirty or so minutes.

Denis Kucinich slammed John Edwards on the China tainted products being shipped into the USA with the fact that Edwards is a trial lawyer and should know what liability is.

Obama fired one over the bow with a fact of what the Japanese do to have trade with China, they send inspectors to China before the products ship. We should do the same.

Hillary doused the question on the so called “Boys Club” issue with her campaign for President pointing out that it has been the achievements of woman in her lifetime that have made it possible for a Latino, an African American and a woman to be able to run for President.

Biden blew his top with the fact that none of the people on the stage know that the WTO agreement with China has the enforcement written into the agreement to shut China down till they clean up their act. He is calling to shut down the agreement today!

Edwards pointed out the fact that we do not need to elect or replace a corrupt corporate Republican government with a corrupt Democrat government.

Richardson blew the Nuclear waste and not in my back yard issue off the table with the fact that we need to stop giving incentives to oil, coal and nuclear energy corporations and change our nation to renewable energy incentives.

Audience / Questions

Biden called for Bush impeachment on the lack of a full vote from Congress to go to war in Iraq.

Edwards wants to stop the Bush, Cheney Neocons with stopping the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He was the only one that stated God bless you and your mother for your service to the questioner.

It’s Bill Richardson birthday, pointed out by a questioner. He would pull out all of the private contractors and our troops within the year. War in Iraq has bled our military and he would renew the GI Bill. New VA health care card for veterans care anywhere not just at VA hospitals and including mental health care. Mental health care for our troops does not get the coverage they need.

Harassment of immigrants. Edwards wants to review Patriot act and racial profiling. Close Guantanamo, and no more torture as President. Restoring respect for America.

Kucinich on the patriot act… I did not vote for it because I actually read it! He slammed all of the opponents on flip flopping on everything from Iraq to Nafta and the border. Richardson called him on the carpet that he is just a Governor.

Biden voted against funding Gitmo. Called for closing it three years ago. What are the other candidates going to do to change things now.

Mexican border… Richardson, deals with immigration locally. Two years ago declared a border emergency and is against the fence. Secure the border, detection equipment, employer prosecution. Mexico needs to give jobs to your people and stop handing out maps to the easiest place to cross the border.

Chris Dodd, Spanish… have no freaking clue what he said to the questioner. Oath of office is not about giving up rights.

Baby boomers retirement. Pensions and many will not have them. Social Security and Medicaid. Protecting Social Security

Obama, not raising age requirement is the way to go or failing to adjust the income cap is wrong, Warren Buffet pays less in tax and higher income needs to be looked at. Medicare… Premiums up 78% under bush, health care for all.

Clinton raising tax on higher income levels to fund Social Security and Medicare and she fuddled against it. Crisis with healthcare and Medicare. Fiscal responsibility is the way to go. Bipartisan commission to look at the entire issue. Not for lifting the cap on higher income. Trillion dollar tax increase if that is the route taken.

Obama slammed her on the top six percent of income earners paying into Social Security and Medicare. Hillary went back to Reagan and Tip O’Neil on bipartisan committees to solve the Social Security and Medicare problem back in 1983. Double speak and avoid the question.

Dodd on the Supreme Court… Against anyone that would even think of overturning Roe Vs Wade.

Biden, enough proffesors on the Supreme court bench. Wants real people on the SCOTUS bench. Wants someone with real life experience and not

Would you support abortion? Richardson, yes, Kucinich, great divide in our country, we need a healer in the White House? Clinton, privacy is inbedded in the constitution. Yes! Kudos to Biden on this issue from Hillary. Slammed Bush. Obama, What makes a good justice, outsider and poor vunerable, wants an outsider. Edwards, for privacy, back bone in judges and respects that courage and wants that in SCOTUS.

Middle East divided electorate, what message can unite our country?

Obama blah blah blah not answering. Restoring Habius Corpus?
Clinton… Working together, looking for common ground. There is differences but we can work together. Smart people can get involved and get back to being Americans again.

Biden… Gain respect with the truth. Repbulicans think this war and our policy stinks. Loyalty to bush is key. Republicans are afraid to take on Bush.

Richardson… Diplomacy and negotiations and talk to the world Syria and Iran and repair the last eight years.

End of the Debate… Man this was great but it sucked.

It was clearly evident that Hillary Clinton was the go to candidate by CNN and Wolf Blitzer. Obama was next and the rest of the field including John Edwards were second class candidates according to how the debate aired.

You could see that Biden, Richardson, Kucinich were pissed off that they were cut off time and time again because Hillary or Barack had the next question.

I do have to say that Kucinich impressed the crap out of me with his performance and you could actually see the passion and the reason why he does not want to be the soft candidate. Biden was cut off every single time he spoke and so was Richardson.

While Hillary was allowed to run on and on and so was Barack, anyone else was coldly cutoff. I would have liked to hear more from Biden and Richardson. Kucinich had the guts to call them all on the carpet for not having the ability to stick to a position and live with it.

Feel free to tell me what you thought about the debate!

Papamoka

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Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

Others talking about the Debate...
The Left Coaster...
Crooks and Liars...
Informed Comment aka Juan Cole...

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Politics and Presidents... And Money!

Politics and running for President is now more about what the people want to hear and not what the government they aspire to represent is all about. Somewhere in the translation of what our nation is really all about the message was lost. Hope and the transition to change for the people was left by the way side for the dreams and aspiration of just one individual to be elected to the highest office in the land.

While Fox News, or CNN of ABC is telling you who is the front runner the message is the same. They are telling you who to vote for by putting candidate X from party Y who you should vote for.

Following the money is an old tale to tell but it is just as true today as it was one hundred years ago when it comes to politics. Those with the largest war chest will have the most coverage and that in the television nation that we are will be the front runners in the election.

My point for this post is simple and it is up to you as an individual to sort out the wheat from the chaff. With our nation politics comes the opportunity to choose a leader for your nation. Whatever position you have on our military events across the world the time to speak you peace is by voting. Be you rich or poor the vote you have is your vote and nobody can ever take that right from you. Unless of course you fall pray to the MSM explanation as to whom is the pre determined winner before the vote ever happens.

America is riddled with a history of the millionaires amongst us that just happened to become President of the United States. It goes all the way back to George Washington. Reflection on our history proves that our nation is an experiment on economics that defends the powers that monetize the system best. Follow the money and that unfortunately is the American experiment.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see that no matter how much we bitch and complain about the loss of freedoms in this nation that we continually elect yet another millionaire President. Money is following money and KBR didn’t do that bad off by this President.

Think about it!

Papamoka

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Religion and Politics is Not like Honey and Bees

Picture courtesy of the White House

No matter who you think you are backing for President of the United States of America you really never know whom the real person is. Running for the highest office in the land is supposed to be of high morals and even higher expectations. I’m beginning to think that that is the problem with the current process. Is it not ironic to think that a candidate for President should mirror the values of all of the people and all of our faiths?

In the upcoming election for President there has been placed an abundance of attention on the candidates religion or practice there of. We even have a Reverend running for President in this latest round of political showmanship and who’s who on the Marquee of politics today that we call a ballot. Who is going to question a Reverend’s faith in God and weekly participation in a religious service? You should and that is who!

Over at the Pew Forum they have an interesting little piece on politics and religion and this little paragraph has my noggin a rocking…

The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state, but an equally powerful inclination to mix religion and politics. Throughout our nation's history, great political and social movements – from abolition to women's suffrage to civil rights to today's struggles over abortion and gay marriage – have drawn upon religious institutions for moral authority, inspirational leadership and organizational muscle. But for the past generation, religion has been woven more deeply into the fabric of partisan politics than ever before. - The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

In politics and in the main stream media they keep bringing up the question of religion when it comes to our election process for President. It confuses me as to why they do that. If you were to walk up to anyone on the street and ask what that persons religion and practices are you better duck fast because either a shopping bag or a fist is coming your way. Why should it be any different for someone running for President?

We are a nation of many religions and many political factions and ideologies that would make a Suduko champion give up. In the cloth and puzzle that is America there is all of our religions and all of our political belief’s. Looking at any individual thread under a microscope only shows you the make up of that one strand that really isn’t America. Back away from the microscope and sit about twenty rows back on the fifty yard line and right in front of your eyes is the giant quilt that is America. All the faiths, belief, politics, ethnicity and personal choices are melded together to form something beautiful and a pleasure to the spirit of its people.

If our government is based on freedom of religion, freedom of speech and separation of Church and State, then why do people insist that religion should be a top priority for selecting our President today. If our Presidency is to govern to the Constitution as intended, but given the current religious litmus test to do so, then most of our past President’s would never have passed that test. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have been just a blip in our nations history as just a General that won a war and Jefferson was just an innovative thinker that lived and dreamed beyond his years.

Religion and politics do not mix for a reason. In one venue the ultimate truth is the ultimate truth and in the other is the combined agreement of man choosing the lesser of two evils that becomes the law of man. It isn’t perfect but it is what we call democracy.

Big difference, HUGE!

We should not vote based on our faith but vote our continued experience that is the American experiment. Faith in change is part of the never ending cycle of politics in America and that you can count on.

Papamoka

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You Tube Democrat Presidential Election Debate

Picture courtesy of CNN

For the most part this was the first time that I have ever seen such a great debate because the questions were from real people. I have to give CNN some serious kudos for hosting it and especially the folks that contributed questions to the event through You Tube.

I’m not writing this piece to point fingers at who was for what and who had a better plan for any issue. This piece is about the process and what it takes to learn about the candidates you are leaning towards. This was a debate of the candidates like no other before and it was very informative to the voters.

I’ve always questioned the strict formats of the past Presidential election debates where a panel of reporters or only a moderator is asking the questions. Events like that seem canned to me and questionable and the questions presented to the candidates are not coming from the people but a reporter thinking that they know what people want to hear.

Tonight’s debate on CNN was all about the questions from the people that want to know where every single candidate stands on issues that actually effect them as an individual. Real people, real lives, real questions that the responses from the candidates showed the differences amongst them all.

I learned a lot and frankly I was shocked on some of the candidates answers. It never occurred to me that some of these folks are not totally against building new nuclear power plants. I didn’t know that some of the candidates are against scrapping the current No Child Left Behind educational program for our children. I did not know that some of the candidates are very green when it comes to our nations future energy policy. I did not know that the games played to fund political campaigns are still on and one of the candidates wrote legislation making that kind of political donation reportable.

Part of the process of picking a candidate is not just reading what they stand for but understanding where they stand for any given issue. Tonight it was clear who stood for what on several issues from socialized medicine for all and that includes illegal aliens. Confirming plans to sure up Social Security was an interesting point of the night and once again I learned something new when it comes to the cut off point in personal compensation that you no longer have to contribute to the system. Very interesting answers.

War, the war in Iraq was raised and they all have plans. Mix and match but there is a plan from all to bring our troops home from the Democrats and it was amazing to see how each candidate had a different avenue to accomplish the same objective. Passions were raised in each candidate on how soon it should be done but reality was also inserted into the debate on how soon it could actually be done. I for one did not know before tonight’s debate that the Pentagon has refused to answer questions on any plans for a pull out of Iraq? Does that mean that the Pentagon does not have a plan to get our troops out of Iraq? I don’t have that answer but the main stream media will cue up on that response to a grieving You Tube parent that lost a son in Iraq.

Religion and personal belief in God was raised and it was interesting to see that some of the responses clearly made a defined line in the sand that being President comes with the responsibility to know that church and state can not mix. Even Planned Parenthood had a question about teaching your kids on sex. I thought it was inappropriate but it was a legitimate question. I’m sorry to say but all of the candidates failed the question. When one went on the sexual predator trail they all grabbed onto the trolley car and rode it.

Public schools or private schools for their own children was brought up. Most people would think that the children of the candidates all went to private schools. WRONG! Surprised me too. Some did but it seemed more for personal religious choice, security reasons, and educational choice that every parent has. That leads me to ask the hypocrites if it is wrong to seek a better education for your kids if you as a parent choose to do so? I personally would love to enroll all five of my daughters in a Catholic school system. Does that make my political opinion null and void when it comes to public school education? Space shuttle to Houston, we have an educational system problem.

Winners of the debate tonight, you the voter. Many topics were covered and many questions were raised. I for one am very thankful to You Tube and CNN for hosting it. Tonight was not about canned answers to the media but answers to the people selecting a Democrat for President.

Transcript courtesy of CNN

Papamoka

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