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Saturday, August 28, 2004

  A real 9/11 Memorial for the Delegates to Visit during the Convention

As a native New Yorker the most moving memorial for the victims of 9/11 were the flyers of Missing People that their family members and friends made when people still had hope their loved ones might be missing instead of dead.

On 11th street and 7th ave is St. Vincent's Hospital, and they have save a very small number of the flyers that were posted outside it. The wall is maybe 1000 to 2000 square feet. When you visit you should in silence walk to the middle of the wall and start reading these paper prayers. Read as long as you can, look at then try to imagine all of NYC covered with the flyers, ever subway station, ever wall, every phone booth, on the way work, after dinner out. Everywhere.

Its has become unacceptable to remember the loss, the sadness, the evil of that day. Take a moment to remember these victims. They weren't victims of America's foreign policy as Chomsky would like you to believe they were victim of evil men.

Friday, August 27, 2004

  What Bush needs to say at the Convention to put Kerry Down and out : Part 2


Continuing from Part 1:

We are in an economy of transformation. Thanks to our policies our economy is growing at an unprecedented rate. In July 660,000 jobs were created but only 32,000 of them came from big business. In the past big business created jobs, provided health insurance and provided pensions for retirement. Today small business and individuals are creating the jobs, and my policies are allowing individuals to provide their own health insurance and retirement income.

I believe in the drive, creativity of the American people and my policies are designed to help the people. When I cut taxes I cut them for individuals. Sen. Kerry wants to cut taxes for corporations and increase them for individuals. Every plan he has is a another tax cut for corporations. I don't work for corporations, I work for the American people so my tax cuts are for you. When you go into the voting booth on Nov 2, I want you to ask yourself. Who should OWN your retirement plan you or a corporations ? Who should OWN your health insurance you or a corporation ? When you OWN your retirement plan and you OWN your health insurance you can move from job to job. You can take time off to raise your children. You can start your own business and pursue your dreams without the fear of not having health insurance. When you OWN your future its good for your and its good for America.

Kerry has not pledged to make the tax cut permanent because he and his supporters don't trust the America people to OWN their future. We must make the tax cuts permanent not only so you can save more in your IRA so you can OWN your retirement, and not only so when you die your family whom you have worked for your whole life gets your savings not the government but so you have more money today. Its not just YOUR FUTURE its your family's future.

Lets talk health care. In my first term I passed a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens as I promised in 2000. Of course its not prefect but it better than what existed before that is why the AARP supported it, its not everything I wanted for you but it has one key feature to help every American. I would like to tell you about it. Its called an Archer Medical Saving Account (MSA). It works just like and IRA where all of the money you put into it can be deducted from your taxes. The savings in your medical saving account grows tax free. This allows you to pay for your day to day medical expenses with tax free dollars. I encourage everyone who is unhappy with other people OWNing their medical insurance to get a MSA so you can OWN your medical insurance.

In my first term I have laid down the foundation for every American to OWN their Future. But we are also fixing things that went wrong in the 90's. Not only are we prosecuting the corporate criminals of the 90's who abused our trust, we are restructuring the tax code to encourage long term investment and make it a safe and profitable place for everyday Americans to invest for their essential needs such as retirement and medical care. But we are not stopping there. In my second I will push for lifetime Saving accounts that will allow all Americans to save up to $5000 a year which will earn interest tax free. These savings can be used to save for any use at anytime. This will be in addition to your retirement savings and medical savings account.


On Nov 2 ask yourself. Who do you want to own your future ? If you want to own your future vote For George Bush and your republican congressmen, Senators and local officials.


Who should OWN your future ? I want YOU to own it, John Kerry want big corporations and the government to OWN your future. On Nov 2 you do have a Choice.




Thursday, August 26, 2004

  What Bush needs to say at the Convention to put Kerry Down and out : Part 1

We are at war, it was not a war of our choice. On 9/11 over 3000 of our citizens were killed in a terrorist attack. Since then we have struck back on all fronts. The treasury department has worked with all of the modern countries across the world cutting off their funding. We have pushed the countries of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to get serious on fighting terrorism, which has stopped numerous terrorist attacks. Our FBI has worked throughout the world in conjunction with the police forces of over 100 (Bush insert real number here) countries to find and stop terrorist from attacking us and our allies.

In this war we have paid a high price, I am not talking about the billions of dollars we have spent attacking the root cause of terrorism I am talking about lives of near 1000 brave young men and women that have been lost across the world removing terrorist regimes. I would like you all to join me in 30 seconds of silent prayer to the memory of the 3000 Americans who died on 9/11 the 1000 American soldiers that have died fighting for freedom. (30 seconds of silence).

I vow that these lives will not have been lost in vain. Freedom will reign, country by country year by year America will continue to be the light and prime mover for increasing worldwide freedom and worldwide justice. My goal is our goal as so eloquently stated by FDR in 1941 "we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear."


Wednesday, August 25, 2004

  The Housing Reform That Backfired
Housing vouchers—in New York and across urban America—originated 30 years ago, with “Section 8” of the Nixon-era National Housing Act. The program’s rationale was straightforward: instead of placing an aid recipient in a housing project—viewed as a failed experiment because of the projects’ expense and disorder—the federal government would provide a voucher that subsidized the rent in a privately owned apartment. Conservatives have supported the voucher plan over the years chiefly because of its seeming free-market component, and because it does not impose on the government the considerable cost of building and maintaining public housing. But whatever Republican hopes, the voucher initiative operated from its inception just like any other no-strings-attached welfare program—and it continues to do so today, eight years after the nation ended the federal welfare entitlement and lifted hundreds of thousands of formerly dependent welfare mothers into lives of work and greater personal responsibility.

To begin with, the route to a housing voucher in New York, perversely, begins in that great school of dependency, the homeless shelter.

NYCHA gives families in the shelters highest priority for receiving apartment vouchers, viewing them as the neediest of the needy. As an equally perverse result, no matter how many vouchers NYCHA hands out to shelter families, the number of families entering the shelters continues to rise, rocketing to 9,200 in 2003, up from 5,192 three years earlier. A NYCHA official characterizes the process as “feeding the monster”—an increased supply of subsidized housing boosts demand and spurs thousands of New York families, almost all of them headed by single mothers, to flood the shelters so that they can move to the head of the line to get vouchers. In other words, increased subsidized housing creates more homelessness.


Recommended reading, and the article doesn't even touch on the biggest problem which is that it destroys the market for low income housing. And reduces housing supplies.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

  Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn

I have only watched the last 2 episodes, but I think its a great show. I have never seen a better more comfortable dialog between whites and blacks.
  Change in Employment Level: +629,000 Jobs in Jul 2004
  Finally Back in the Big Apple

Tried to log on no net connection, wife confused. I calmly send a prayer up and turn off router and cable modem and PC.

A few minutes later joy.

Monday, August 23, 2004

  Ralph Nader: 'Once you accept the anything-but-Bush position, the brain really does close down'

Ralph is "Dropping Science Like Galileo Dropped the Orange" - Beastie Boys

He is, say his critics, nothing more than a spoiler, driven by ego and self-indulgence. Mr Nader dismisses such talk. First, he says the Democrats can blame only themselves for allowing Mr Bush to steal an election he did not win. Second, he says, exit polls showed that up to 25 per cent of those who voted for him in 2000 would have otherwise voted for Bush, up to 41 per cent for Gore but that the rest would not have bothered to vote at all.

He adds: "The other thing is that 10 times more Democrats voted for Bush than voted for Nader." Democrats never want to discuss the matter he says. "Once you accept the anybody-but-Bush position the brain really does close. They don't want to hear anything."

But however he may wish to frame it, Mr Nader's argument boils down to a choice between incremental change in November or more radical change over a longer period. For Mr Nader there is little practical difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.

"The corporations have won this election. They have been winning these elections for years ... If there is a difference [between the parties] it is rhetoric. Why is Kerry identical to Bush on Iraq? I evaluate the Democrats on defence as well as offence ... Why did they not stop Bush? They [say] they were against the tax cuts for the wealthy but they did not stop it even when they controlled the Senate."

He is fond of quoting the 19th-century Indiana socialist Eugene Debs, "I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it". He concedes that if someone is adamantly of the anyone-but-Bush mindset they should not vote for him but Kerry, "if your expectations levels are so low".

The Democrats, he says, have lost sight of what they were supposed to be fighting for. "It's all about money, who has raised the most. It becomes the end itself. When you ask the members of the House and Senate why they lost [seats] in the 2002 election they say they did not have enough money."


Once again I recommend reading "Ralph's Revolt: The Case for Joining Nader's Rebellion". Buyer's note: the price is twice as high at Amazon.


Sunday, August 22, 2004

  Let the market decide

Blogger has added a commenting system to make blogger blogs much like typepad style blogs. I have decided to activate it while leaving the haloscan commenting system too. Please feel free to use either.

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