I Support Obama To Preserve The U. S. Constitution
If this message sounds the least vituperative, please know I do not mean it to be that way. I am passionately involved with politics because I see the ship of state in danger of being sunk by a tsunami of ideology, and it scares me to death.
So, what about this VP pick, Sarah Palin? I heard her speech at the Republican National Convention.
You know, the only reason I can see why she was chosen was this “narrative” thing her party’s strategists seem to think they can pull over on the American public. She was glib and patently dismissive of Sen. Barack Obama’s real experience and community service. She could stand in for Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter any day.
In fact, “conservative” spin doctors have been spinning the outrageous (and cynical, which is antithetic to John McCain’s essence) claims that she has more experience than the entire Democratic ticket combined, and much of the folks for whom red meat is red meat regardless of how putrid, will swallow it.
Here’s what they’re basing that claim on: the positions of mayor and governor are executive branch positions. Never mind the fact that the town had fewer than 7,000 people and the state of Alaska is one of the least populous states in the union; she has had to make “executive decisions.”
According to the town’s meeting minutes, the most momentous decision she had to make as town mayor was where to move the town dump. And she’s been guv all of 20 months.
Let’s forget for a moment that she is a woman and look at the qualifications. McCain has never been a mayor, a governor or the head of a company. He has never made an executive decision in his life, so following their own logic, Sarah Palin has more experience than John McCain!
So, that shows you how much value their statement about the Democrats versus her experience contains – none. She was not chosen for her statesmanship, but for her ability to attack. Fact is, she has a bachelor’s degree in journalism (versus Obama’s graduate law degree and professorship teaching constitutional law for more than a decade), is an extreme-fringe evangelical who wants creationism taught in public schools, and believes Jesus will soon return, as soon as the Apocalypse happens (I suspects she wants it to).
This from a woman who says the war in Iraq is “God’s task.” Never mind that oil and war profiteering long have been proven to be the true reasons we’re there.
She has often been observed hunting wolves and bear from a helicopter, does not believe global climate change is caused by humans and wants to take the polar bear off the endangered species list. As mayor, she tried to ban books from the local library.
Six months ago, Palin told members of the Alaska Independents Party – who advocate for a vote on secession from the union – to “keep up the good work” and wished the party luck on what she called its “inspiring convention.”
Do your own digging, if you don’t believe it.
Just recently, a Dutch intelligence team that had infiltrated the Iranian nuclear industry for purposes of sabotage were tipped off that an American attack on Iran was imminent, and fled Iran.
And in the midst of all this, Palin would be a literal heartbeat away from having to take over the presidency if McCain, who would be the oldest candidate ever to be elected to a first time as president, and who has had several bouts with melanoma, can no longer perform his duties.
You’ll have to excuse me if I find that quite worrisome. I think that would worry anyone who truly ponders the facts as they are, not as they are portrayed on television most of the time.
“Straight talk” is fine and dandy if the shortest, most simple answer makes you feel better, but the real world is a great deal more nuanced than that.
I want a president who will weigh the options in an international crisis from a standpoint of knowledge and understanding of differing global zeitgeists, not one of the ideology of military strength. The idea is to defuse or contain the bomb, literal or cultural, not to let it wreak destruction, damn the likelihood of collateral damage.
McCain could have chosen from any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could indeed step in and be an effective president. I find this choice ill-conceived and cynical.
Darn right, I am upset. I don’t think a bosun’s mate can captain the ship of state.
Three more thoughts when it comes to citizen versus corporate culture:
Thomas Jefferson warned the Continental Congress against the proliferation of corporate takeover of the commons, which is why we have socialized institutions like public education, libraries, law enforcement and fire protection, highway infrastructure and defense.
Why the phobia about socialized medicine, I don’t know? Yes, the Canadian system is far from perfect, but the Danish, Swedish and English systems are exemplary, according to citizens of those countries. We don’t need to pattern single-payor medicine after the worst example.
Pick the best points of the best examples, and fine-tune it to the American way of life.
Point two: Republican Teddy Roosevelt warned the American public that there is a global “shadow government not beholden to any citizen or country.” Yes, he really said that, as have many others of both parties.
It is not conspiracy theory, but fact. Follow the money: Who is pulling the strings?
Point three: Republican Ike Eisenhower warned the American public against the proliferation of the military-industrial complex. Ever since the onset of neoconservative ideology in American government, there has been a total disregard for this warning.
This is why I support a true patriot, a constitutionalist who will preserve the constitutional intent of our founding fathers: Barack Obama.
Jan Benschop lives with his wife, Linda, in Abingdon, Va., and is a retired science and technical writer. He is also a musician/songwriter and is working on a sci-fi novel.
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Obama spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your
organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to
$400,000 from donations and grants because of the effectiveness of your work.
Then Obama become the first black President of the Harvard Law
Review; created a voter registration drive that registered 150,000 new
African American voters.
Obama spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor at Harvard.
Then he spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator
representing a district with over 750,000 people in his district even becoming chairman of the state of Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services committee.
Obama has now spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the
Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees.
Now exactly where is Obama missing experience ?
We need Obama in office to get a law passed to prevent any President from ever using signing statements to prevent laws passed by Congress from being implemented. The use of signing statements has allowed Bush to set himself up as King basically. He is not vetoing the laws so Congress can not vote to over ride him he just blocks what he chooses to from any bill.
Watch the C-SPAN Iraqi and Contractor Corruption hearing in Iraq where the Iraqi Witnesses tell of U.S. Taxpayers money being used to buy weapons for the enemy!
The corruption that is happening because of Bush’s signing statment blocking the AUDITS of Military Contractors in Iraq.
How does it feel to know that your Tax Dollar may have been the difference between a Soldier comnming home alive or in a casket ?
Obama spent 8 years Teaching Constitutional Law and he can get a law past that will prevent another Despot from talking powers never outlined in the Constitution. He will get one past that even this Right Wing Supreme Court will never be able to overturn.
I can’t believe people have laughed off Bush setting him self up above the Law and the Constitution.
Do you see now what his actions have done?
It has allowed so much corruption to exist that they are flying around the world despoiting U.S. Taxpayer money into banks and Investment accounts to provide funds for these Terrorist for many years to come !
I know Republcains love Chaos because there is Profit to be made in Chaos. But allowing so much corruption to exist that a Parents Tax Dollar could end up buying the weapons that killed their child is just damn stupid!!!!!!!
“This is why I support a true patriot, a constitutionalist who will preserve the constitutional intent of our founding fathers: Barack Obama.“ Science fiction is definitely this guys forte.
The entire column was nothing more than a hack job. Nearly everything he spewed has been covered by the media and proven false. From Sarah Palin shooting wolves from the air (By the way, I don’t know if this is needed or not, and I don’t know if Mr. Benschops knows either. Why don’t we let the people in Alaska handle this, after all who would know better than they, Mr. Benschops, I doubt it.) to her membership in a third party.
The other irony here is the BHC gives this hack job a third of a page to publish this, great job BHC!!! Unbiased, yeah right.
Linda, slap him for me. And tell him to lay off the weed, and quit reading those talking points.
I can see that you are afraid that Gov. Palin is a threat to the election of Obama. Palin is running for VP and is not a threat to Obama, but she will get votes for the McCain ticket.
You mentioned Glob…oops Climate Change. This is theory. There is no proof that human activity causes Climate Change.
VOTE McCAIN/PALIN.
James Fred xxxx.
South Burlington, VT
jan—-obviously you need to do your own fact digging.
1) she did not try to ban books
2) she said it would only be right to teach evolution and creation,,,both of them,,not just one
3) has been a registered republican sinse 1982
4) she does have more executive experience than McCain,,,and also more than Obama and Biden
5) Obama preaches change from the same old Washington politics,,,yet he chooses a running mate that has been in Washington for 36 years.
6) use the entire quote from the “god’s task” state ment ,,not just an Obama ad soundbite
7)there are millions of reasonable people who do not buy into the global warming,climate change,and now global climate change hysteria. some of the original climatologists have sinse backtracked on a bunch of their statements.
i urge you to do a lil reserchabout the topics in which you write about and not parrot Obama’s tv ads.
a good bipartisan source is factcheck.org,,,,,,it slams both candidates equally.
This is quite a well written article and I see this “side” of the argument regarding whom is best to lead this country. There is also another “side” which makes just as many points as to why the other party is best to lead.
Yet, as I watch the Sunday morning news magazines on TV, I am reminded why we are exactly where we all are at this time. WE HAVE BEEN MISLEAD for so long by BOTH dominant parties, this, today is the result.
Our entire political system is broken and the presidential hopefuls we have to choose from are more of the same old “misleaders” that got us here.
Think about it, all of our jobs are now overseas, we borrow money from other countries to pay bills of state, we print money like it was used to play a board game, depleting it’s worth in the act. All we get from government is rethoric, propoganda, indifference and lies.
Furthermore, did anyone besides me contact our wonderful Senators regarding the recent TVA rate increase? Did these same misleaders NOT answer you like they did not answer me?
As far as restoring or protecting our constitution, I am afraid that document is soon going the way of the Edsel.
Our elected “leaders” are not listening although they are good actors and their ability to appear concerned is amazing..
I also wish to ask the author of this letter, what part of “social” does not eventually end up as becoming “socialist”? How could anyone expect this government could manage to administer social medicine? Look how they run the business of state. If I run my business like that I would be put in jail on day one.
It seems to me that whichever choice we make, it will be the wrong direction for this once great nation.
One thing Benschop fails to mention in his bio is that he is a prolific writer of fiction. In his assertion that Barack Hussein Obama will defend the Constitution he mentions what he obviously belives are facts about Senator MacCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin. Benchops also asks readers if they don’t believe what he says then to dig into it for themselves and find out. Well, I did find some of those answers and more information on other lies being spouted in blogs and commentaries by others and here is where he is wrong.
Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.
* She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a “What if?” question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin’s first term.
* She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982. One article that has ALWAYS been a part of Alaska’s Constitution is “to sucede” from the U.S.But it has never been an article that anyone has ever tried to enact.
* Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a “courtesy” when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.
* Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska’s schools. She has said that students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of the evolution question, but she also said creationism “doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
So apparently Benchop needs to re-dig and try digging in the right place for the answers before he spreads more lies about Gov. Palin. Maybe he may want dig into Barack Hussein Obama a little harder than he did on Palin since he believes Obama has all the answers.
Finally, Benschop apparently eludes to the war in Iraq in his article and seems to indicate that we need global permission before any military undertaking. Well is Benschop will grab his shovel and dig he will find out that Sadaam was given more than enough opportunity by the global community to follow United Nation resolutions but defied the global requests. Iraqi people are grateful that America did what no one else was willing to do in freeing them from a dictatorship who killed his own citizens with chemical and biological weapons.
After today Benchops can now add to his bio that he is a poli/sci-fi novel writer.
Gee—
I didn’t realize that our founding faters were marxist socialists like Obama Sr. and Obama Jr.
That’s news to me- I hope he does better on his Sci-Fi novel…
This article is nothing more than a hit piece on Sarah Palin. While I agree with most of your points on Palin, it’s asinine to then call Obama a Constitutionalist. Take one look at his platform, and it’s chock full of “progressive” plans that are blatantly unconstitutional. Give me a break. Where in the Constitution does it give the Federal Government the power to take over the health care system (or have anything to do with it in any way whatsoevoer)? What about the banking system? To stick its nose into Education in any way, shape, or form? The list goes on and on and on.
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