Grand Rapids Hearts Barack Obama

Well we just concluded our Obama convention speech watch party here in southeast Grand Rapids. It was an amazing time with a great group of people who support change, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and love to get together and talk about it and do something about.

Give us clean energy

Michelle Obama's Speech: Hope over Fear, Optimism over Doubt

My favorite part is where she talks about being in love with Barack Obama. He is the same man she fell in love with and married 19 years ago.

John McCain on the other hand cheated on his ex-wife, divorced her, and married his new extremely rich girlfriend. Think about what he'll do to us.

Ehlers Won't Commit to Protecting Worker Health and Safety

In a previous post, I noted that I sent a letter to Rep. Vern Ehlers about new proposed Bush administration Labor Department that would make it easier for corporations to ignore safety and health standards. I asked him to join other members of Congress in blocking them.

His response more or less acknowledged my letter, but it failed to commit to protecting worker safety and health. This is a real problem, in my view. The gist of his response? "I will carefully study it if it moves through the legislative process."

Nowhere did he say that he prioritizes the health and safety of working men and women. He is just going to study it?

At best this milk toast response suggests that Rep. Ehlers flip-flops on issues when it suits him bests and makes no effort to be a real leader in Congress. He collects a paycheck and free taxpayer-funded health insurance.

At worst, it highlights that Ehlers is another typical Republican who bends to corporate interests over the needs of working families.

It is time for an alternative.

John McCain is confused about how many homes he owns

Think this ad hits the nail on the head. McCain has too many times not been able to answer direct questions about his position on the issues, but surely he must know how many houses he owns.

Video: Energy Independence Requires Alternatives to Oil

Check out this new ad from WeCanSolveIt.org and sign up:

Video: McCain Lies on Taxes...Again

John McCain has given up on fighting to keep jobs here

Under the guise of "straight talk," John McCain has given up on fighting to keep jobs in the US. During the primary campaign, McCain told Midwestern workers that jobs will be lost and they would continue to be lost under his presidency.

So it is ironic that McCain chose to attack Barack Obama on the issue of jobs and energy policy at a biker rally earlier this month.

According to new post at AFL-CIO Now, McCain opposed provisions in 2005 that would have required the US government to purchase Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

McCain has called such provisions "disgraceful."

To quote the AFL-CIO post:

"As we’ve noted, McCain has supported the outsourcing of jobs. His campaign is staffed and funded by corporate lobbyists, including Rick Davis, the lobbyist whose DHL deal could result in thousands of lost jobs in Ohio, and Randy Altschuler, an outsourcing guru who advises companies on how to ship jobs overseas."

McCain favors "free trade" agreements that have cost Michigan tens of thousands of jobs, and opposes provisions that protect workers and the environment. He prefers to hand authority over the US economy to international financial institutions that make judgments about how our policies impact "free trade."

Michigan workers simply can't another four years of George W. Bush under John McCain.

Jerome Corsi's: Paranoid Conspiracy Buff

Jerome Corsi has written a factually-challenged book about Barack Obama, so here is some background info on him:

ONE PARANOID BOOK OF LIES AFTER ANOTHER

Corsi Wrote a Book Saying Bush's "Globalist Agenda" Is Leading to a North American Union. "The real reason behind President Bush's push for immigration reform, says author Jerome R. Corsi, is to unite the United States, Mexico and Canada by erasing borders and creating a "North American Union." That is the theme of Mr. Corsi's new book, "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," which says the Bush administration's 'globalist agenda' is leading to a merger of the countries through the implementation of policies and laws to open trade barriers and renovate the highway systems in anticipation of increased travel within the new megastate. Mr. Corsi said a growing number of Americans think the North American Union is being forced onto Americans. Government officials say the idea is no more than an unjustified conspiracy theory spread through the Internet. Mr. Corsi said the impetus of the plan was the creation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, announced by leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada at Waco, Texas, in 2005." [Washington Times, 7/18/07]

Conservative Human Events Writer: Corsi Isn't "Any More Worthy Of Being Taken Seriously Than Those Who Think Jews Rule The World Or The 'Truthers' Who Think President Bush Is Responsible For 9/11." Under the headline "There Isn't Going to Be a North American Union," John Hawkins wrote, "Yesterday, Jerome Corsi was prattling on about the North American Union again after Michael Medved deservedly spanked him for spreading conspiracy theories. While I don't think Corsi is any more worthy of being taken seriously than those who think Jews rule the world or the 'Truthers' who think President Bush is responsible for 9/11, I thought I would respond to him one last time. (I think that's about the fourth time I've said that.) Now, why respond again? What's the point? Well unfortunately, a lot of conservatives consider this conspiracy theory to be so preposterous that they believe it's beneath them to even bother discussing it, and that leaves Corsi and his ilk to dominate the debate. And since there are a lot of conservatives being taken in by this North American Union nonsense, somebody has got to step up to the plate." [Human Events Online, 1/10/07]

Editor of Human Events: "I Guess There Are People Who Believe In" Corsi's North American Union Conspiracy, "But There Are People Who Believe In Bigfoot." "Corsi plays on growing nationalist fears. He sees a scenario in which a North American Union is born and shares a currency, the "amero." Even some right-wing standard-bearers regard the fears as over-blown. Jed Babbin, editor of the conservative newspaper Human Events, says: "I guess there are people who believe in [the plan for a North American Union]. But there are people who believe in Bigfoot." [Newsweek, 12/10/07]

Corsi Wrote a Book Disagreeing With Most Scientists That There is a Limit to Oil. "All his life, Jerome Corsi's been told that we're running out of oil. "I remember driving with my dad in a 1952 Plymouth and listening to him talk about the end of oil," says the 59-year-old New Jersey author. "Hasn't happened yet, and it's not going to happen." What makes him so sure? He doesn't buy the fossil fuel theory--that oil comes from dead plants and dinosaurs. He believes it comes out of the ground naturally, and that there's more coming up all the time...Eighteenth century Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov found biological debris in oil and concluded that it must have biological origin. "I'm at the point where the dinosaur theory seems silly," says Corsi. "You take a pile of cats and you bury them, dig them up 10 years later and you don't get oil." "The truth is that there is so much oil around the world that it's been easy to find," Corsi says. "We're awash in oil. There's more oil today in proven reserves than ever before in human history." [Western Standard (Alberta), 2/13/06]

Corsi Wrote a Book Claiming Democrats Were Being Corrupted by Iranian Funding and Helping Iranians Get Nukes. "After their bitter campaign 2004 experience with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John Kerry and his fellow Dems aren't waiting to be shot at again. Yesterday, aides to Sens. Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy jumped all over literary mugger Jerome Corsi, co-author of the Kerry-bashing best seller 'Unfit for Command.' They knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the face (metaphorically, anyway) over his next Democrattrashing tome, 'Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians.' The book - which Nashville's Cumberland House Publishing won't release till next month - claims Democratic pols are being corrupted by Iranian money and helping the nuke-seeking mullahs in Tehran." [Daily News (New York), 2/24/05]

Corsi Wrote Unfit For Command Although He Was Not a Veteran. "Though not a veteran himself, Corsi co-authored "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." [Boston Herald, 1/25/05]

Learn more here.

Deployed Troops Give More to Obama

Obama 80%

McCain 20%

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• Troops abroad give to Obama at a 6:1 ratio
• All military troops, abroad and at home still give more to Obama then McCain:

Troop Abroad- Obama $60,642 vs McCain $10,665

All Troops - Obama $335,536 vs McCain $280,513

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.htm

The Truth about Jerome Corsi

Jerome Corsi is the conspiracy theorist and religious bigot who wrote a book in 2004 attacking John Kerry's exemplary and courageous military service. Ironically, Republican attack dog Corsi is not a veteran, but what they call a "chickenhawk." Now he has a new book smearing Barack Obama. So here are some facts about Corsi (check back for more later):

Corsi Was Dropped From Unfit for Command Promotions Because of His Anti-Muslim, Anti-Catholic Comments. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in an editorial, "Consider the book "Unfit for Command," put out by a collection of partisans who have now made it acceptable for veterans to attack each other's war records. The current National Review carries a piece decrying the bookstores that fail to carry "John O'Neill's book." This is curious in that the volume has a second author, but Jerome Corsi has dropped from the marketing because he has been revealed as the author of religiously bigoted remarks published on a Web site. Corsi not only considers Muslims to be pederasts, but he took the trouble to slam Catholic priests and refers to the pope as senile. Rather than wonder whether a book written by such a man can be trusted, the marketing tactic has shifted to pretend Corsi doesn't exist." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), 9/19/04]

O'Neill Tried to Minimize Corsi's Role in Unfit for Command After Bigoted Comments Came to Light. "In a bit of historical revisionism, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth founder and Unfit for Command co-author John O'Neill distorted Jerome Corsi's role in co-authoring the book. O'Neill's backtracking comes on the heels of Media Matters for America's documentation of Corsi's history of posting bigoted comments. During appearances on MSNBC's Scarborough Country on August 10 and CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports on August 11, O'Neill downplayed Corsi's role in writing the book. When asked about Corsi's involvement, O'Neill asserted, Corsi was "simply an editor and not really any sort of co-author." But an MMFA item entitled "Unfit book materials show Corsi more than just an 'editor,'" revealed Corsi to be much more than simply an editor of the anti- Kerry book. [Media Matters Press Release, 8/13/04]

"Anti-Kerry Book Author Apologizes for Slurs." "One of the authors of a new anti-John Kerry book frequently posted comments on a conservative Web site describing Muslims and Catholics as pedophiles and Pope John Paul II as senile. In chat room entry last year on extreme right-wing attack site, freerepublic.com, Corsi writes: 'Islam is a peaceful religion - just as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered and the infidels are killed.' In another entry, he says: 'So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that's probably about it'." [AP, 8/10/04]

Learn the truth here.

Barack Obama. The Middle Class First.

McCain's Favorite – Big Oil – made $5 million in profit every hour of every day

From ProgressMichigan.org:

$5 million in profit every hour of every day

The latest news reports that America's biggest oil company announced it is now
making $5 million in profit every hour of every day, the most profits of any American company ever in a single quarter. (AP 7/31/08)

With this report, the world's top five oil companies are now on track to make more than $160 billion in profits this year, dramatically outpacing last year's $123 billion.

Out-of-state Big Oil executives from Houston to Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are personally making millions on the backs of all of us.

Sign the petition to end government subsidies and special tax breaks for Big Oil and instead, invest in clean renewable energy and good paying jobs of the future.

John McCain lies about energy policy

Have you seen the McCain TV ad where he levels a smear against Barack Obama and then shifts to promising "energy independence" with wind generators spinning in the background?

Well guess what. It's misleading, or what some of us in mid-America call a lie.

John McCain opposed tax breaks to the wind power industry and alternative fuel additives like ethanol, even has he proposes billions in new tax breaks for Big Oil.

According to a post at TPM Election Central, "McCain recently opposed the big $300 billion farm bill, which itself is extremely popular throughout the upper midwest, describing the bill as 'a $300 billion, bloated, pork-barrel-laden bill' because of subsidies for industries like ethanol."

Michigan has developed several new initiatives to attract farmers to biofuel production. McCain's true record suggests that he wouldn't support such an initiative.

Even further, the post adds, "the bill also contained a measure extending a tax break for developing wind power, which McCain specifically opposed."

Oh, and guess what else, Obama supported the wind energy measure.

Wind power is a growing industry that already employs 50,000 people and creates electricity that does not rely on greenhouse emitting fossil fuels that cause global warming. With serious investment, we could see new job growth and a reliable source of clean energy. This is Obama's plan.

McCain's record is opposition to wind energy and more tax breaks for Big Oil.

Another post at CarpetBaggerReport, shows that another bi-partisan bill currently making its way through the Senate would provide some resources for clean energy alternatives like wind power, r&d for new alternatives, tax breaks for production of hybrid vehicles, and even some new offshore drilling. (Some might call this the Paris Hilton compromise.)

McCain opposes it. According to the post, McCain doesn't like this compromise measure solely because it removes tax breaks for Big Oil. (Recall that big McCain donor, ExxonMobil, raked in close to $12 billion in the last quarter alone in profits.)

So let's boil this down. McCain is on the record opposing wind power, but runs commercials talking about energy independence with wind generators in the background.

He opposes a compromise measure that brings together new oil drilling and more investments in alternatives because it won't give big fat tax breaks to Big Oil.

John McCain. Big Oil First.

John McCain lies about taxes

According to analysis of the McCain tax plan in comparison with the Obama tax plan by the Tax Policy Center, recent McCain commercials that insist Obama wants to raise "your" taxes are lies.

Unless the ads are targeted for the very tiny group of the richest Americans. But that doesn't seem likely does it?

According to the analysis, posted here, Obama's plan would cut taxes for everyone making $227,000 or less.

That is me and most every person and family in Grand Rapids. McCain probably has Dick DeVos's vote.

In fact, Obama's tax cuts for people who make less than $112,000 would be higher than those proposed by McCain.

The overwhelming majority of people in Grand Rapids – and the country for that matter – would see tax cuts under an Obama administration of around $600, for the lowest income tax payers to $2800 for people earning under $227,000. I think the Obama campaign pegs the average at about $1,000 per person.

I sure could use $1,000.

What is the difference between the two plans? Obama would raise taxes on the very wealthiest people. People with incomes between $227,000 and $603,000 would pay $12 more. That's three cheeseburgers. And the biggest increases would be imposed on the very richest, most successful people.

McCain, on the other hand, would give tax breaks to the very richest people equal to or greater than than the median income of working Americans. Up to $269,000 in tax breaks per individual. The average worker has to work about 5 years for the same amount.

The difference is in priorities. McCain would simply continue Bush's tax relief for the people who need it the least while starving the federal budget and cutting back on public services. All while waging a $10 billion per month war in Iraq for more oil and more profits for McCain's other constituency: Big Oil.

See the video here:



If you're going to vote based on the honesty and integrity of the candidate, you have to vote Obama.

If you're going to vote based on your pocketbook, you have to vote Obama.

John McCain: Washington's Biggest Celebrity

After nearly 3o years in Washington accomplishing nothing for working families and cozying up to big oil and lobbyists, John McCain has a lot of nerve criticizing Barack Obama.

Bush admin. to issue secret rules to gut health and safety standards

I wrote the following letter to Vern Ehlers to urge him to stand up to Bush on workplace safety, and will let you all know what he says in reply:

I am writing to urge you to stand up for working families and health and safety.

In a last minute action, political operatives at the US Department of Labor are rushing to lock in new requirements that would make it harder for the next administration to develop and issue protective workplace health rules. This new rule would change the procedures and criteria OSHA and MSHA use to assess worker health risks when developing new standards. It would add years of delay to the standard setting process and weaken protections for workers.

I would like to see you take stand to join other members of Congress in a bipartisan effort to block these regulations.

Please help protect the health and safety of working people.

You can write your own letter to him here...

Learn more...

Sign Petition to Create Jobs and Rebuild America

I just signed LIUNA's Petition to Build America, so America works. You can find out more and take action here...

America was the first to put a person on the moon, to build a super-highway system, to create unrivaled air and rail transportation, and first-class public spaces. But today, we can no longer be assured of crossing the Mississippi River safely, of protecting our families from failing dams or levees or of providing a transportation system that works.

I hope you will add your voice to the petition and urge Congress to make building America a national priority.

To sign the petition:

Video: John McCain caught agreeing with Obama again...

McCain Campaign Thinks You're Whining