Make no mistake, this election is the most important one that any of us will have ever taken part in.
On the one hand, you have John McCain, who has been voting in lockstep with the Bush Administration over the last eight years, endorsing Bush's foreign policy and financial strategies.
What have these policies brought us? We're currently spending of $10 billion per month to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, wars that have lasted longer then either World War I or World War II. Thousands of young Americans have given their lives in a war that John McCain said would be quick and easy with the Iraqis, "greeting us as liberators." And the deregulation of the financial markets helped get us into another situation that is costing us an additional $700 billion.
On the other hand, we have Barack Obama. In 2002, before we invaded Iraq, Barack warned that "a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences." And he was right.
In 2007, Barack made a strong statement about the looming subprime mortgage crisis that has thrown the world economy into chaos saying that, "we should finally enact the meaningful mortgage disclosure laws that the mortgage industry has been lobbying against for far too long." And he was right.
McCain claims that we need someone with "experience" at times like this, and that we can't trust a relative newcomer. But his "experience" has been nothing but one mistake after another. McCain has also credited his "experience" in the Navy for having made him into the man he is today. But when you take some time to truly examine his service in our armed forces, you will perhaps see why his judgment has been so thoroughly wrong time and time again (check out this article from this month's Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain)
And now, as he trails in the polls and sees the Presidency slipping through his fingers, McCain has gone against his promises to run an honest campaign. He and Sarah Palin have repeatedly accused Barack of "palling around with terrorists" because he has done some work with William Ayers, founder of the radical Weatherman group that did commit some violent acts in the 1970s.
The truth is yes, Barack Obama was on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Anneneberg Challenge. William Ayers helped to write the grant proposal that this group used to land $49.2 million for the Chicago public schools. Where did this money come from you might ask? It was donated by Walter Annenberg, a lifelong Republican who served as the US Ambassador to the UK under President Richard Nixon and is well-known to have been good friends with Ronald Reagan.
We're not a rocket scientists, but we have to believe that getting more money into the local public schools would be considered a good thing. And getting $49.2 million? That would be an amazing thing! We ask you reader, what more can William Ayers do to show that he's changed his ways? And besides that, even the lead federal prosecutor of William Ayers in the 1970s, William C. Ibershof, has said that he is "outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayer's terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was just a child."
But sadly, no matter how ridiculous it is to say that Barack is "palling around with terrorists", these words coming from McCain and Palin stir up the most disgusting and intolerant part of the American soul. In their desperate attempt to dig up votes, both McCain and Palin are appealing to the racism and intolerance that has kept our society separated from one another for far too long. Even now, when supporters of theirs shout out "Terrorist!" and "Kill Him!" in reference to Barack at their rallies, McCain and Palin are silent, allowing this kind of hate and ignorance to grow.
This election started out being about the issues, but now that John McCain has chosen this path, this election is about a lot more. A lot of you out there might think that both of them are just corrupt politicians, but I'm sure that all of you agree that we simply cannot tolerate the divisive tactics that John McCain and Sarah Palin are now using in their attempt to win this election. This election is now giving us all the opportunity to say that enough is enough, that we won't tolerate this kind of world any longer.
That's why Dub Is A Weapon is endorsing Barack Obama this November. Barack is a once-in-a-generation leader that can actually inspire Americans, to make them believe again. We're clearly heading into an era of our history where we are going to need inspiration, not four more years of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and an outright imperialist foreign policy.
Stand up for what is right this November. Join us in electing Barack Obama this Tuesday, November 4th.
Head on over to the new and improved dubisaweapon.com for new music, new pictures, new videos, new everything for your viewing and listening pleasure. Let us know what you think. Thanks to all of you dubheads out there who have been helping us spread the gospel of live dub over the last six great years, peace and love.
t is with much regret that we must inform all of you wonderful music fans that Lee 'Scratch' Perry will be unable to appear tomorrow evening as previously planned, so the entire show has been cancelled.
Without invading Mr. Perry's privacy, we can let you know that he's currently experiencing some medical issues that would make the long journey from Switzerland to New York City exceedingly uncomfortable for him. The situation is NOT life-threatening, but serious enough to keep him at home.
Obviously this is very disappointing news - but no one is more disappointed then those of us in Dub Is A Weapon. Performing with Mr. Perry is a constant inspiration, and any chance we have to perform with the legendary Upsetter is a blessing.
It is with quite a bit of regret that we must inform you that neither Dub Is A Weapon nor Lee 'Scratch' Perry will be appearing at the upcoming Vermont Roots Reggae Festival as was previously planned.
The promoters of this festival have been running into some difficulties in the weeks leading up to this event. They had made many, many promises to us that were left unfulfilled. As much as the whole Dub Is A Weapon crew loves to play in the Green Mountains of Vermont, we cannot justify the time and effort spent on our part to work at an event that is operating under these circumstances. The management teams for both Dub Is A Weapon and Lee 'Scratch' Perry notified the promoters over a month ago we would not be participating.
As disappointed as we are not to be appearing, we're even more disappointed that the organizers of the festival have continued to advertise our involvement despite our cancellation. Tickets are still being sold to fans under the mistaken impression that we will be there along with our good friend Lee 'Scratch' Perry, and both of us our advertised on their website as being part of the lineup.
We hope that the promoters of this festival will come to their senses and stop this deception. Reggae music is famous for its righteous messages of justice - but its hard to see what is righteous about these actions.
We offer our most heartfelt apology to those of you who have purchase tickets based on the mistaken impression that ourselves and Lee 'Scratch' Perry would be performing. Our only hope is that there will be another time and place when we'll be able to bring our musical message to the wonderful fans in Vermont.
Obama made statements in '04 that Trent Lott should step down from his GOP leadership post due to the remarks he made praising Strom Thurman at Strom's 100th birthday party, He also said that Don Imus should be fired for the derogatory remarks made jokingly about the Rutgers ladies B-Ball team.
All this would fine and dandy, but Obama does not hold himself or his friends to the same standards, he sat in a church for 20 yrs where his so called "adopted uncle of choice" Rev. Wright said far worse, supported far worse, slandering people such as racist Louis Farrakhan.
Obama is not on record as ever uttering a peep against it, until the sermons blew up in the media. There are videos on youtube of before and after this. First, he claimed he never heard anything in 20 years, and then he all of a sudden, while running for office, heard the slander and dropped out of the church. Amazing!
Dave, don't believe the hype, i'm sure there were people praising George W. Bush in 2000, and now look how dumb they look!
you wrote:
"In 2007, Barack made a strong statement about the looming sub-prime mortgage crisis that has thrown the world economy into chaos saying that, "we should finally enact the meaningful mortgage disclosure laws that the mortgage industry has been lobbying against for far too long." And he was right."
This couldn't be further from the truth... If you do not research history, you will be doomed to repeat it...
It started out like this:
In 1977, J. Carter and the democrats thought it would be a great idea to enact special privileges for people who couldn't afford to buy a home. This put pressure on banks to delve into the realm of "sub-prime mortgages". When Bill Clinton was president, he strengthened these rules and added hefty fines to banks for not giving out enough loans to low income home buyers.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama was hard at work with ACORN, and as a lawyer, suing banks that did not comply with this new law. Banks were forced to give out loans, and only did so because they did not want to be fined. The banks did not care too much about this, because they are backed by the Federal government. Even if the loans were bad, they would be reimbursed and insured.
In 2003, it was actually John McCain & George W. Bush who brought to congress a bill that would have provided for a "checks and balances" to banks, ensuring that the loans they gave were sound. The democrats would have no part of it.
Obama finally admitting there is a problem in 2007 was too little, too late.
Obama's "friend" Franklin Raines made 92million before resigning from Fannie Mae, Barack said nothing about that.
Franklin Raines, while Chairman and CEO, began a pilot program in 1999 to issue bank loans to individuals with low to moderate income, and to ease credit requirements on loans that Fannie Mae purchased from banks. Raines promoted the program saying that it would allow consumers who were "a notch below what our current underwriting has required" to get home loans. The move was intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners.
The Investor's Business Daily editorial staff has noted that the expansion of easy credit to home buyers with a lesser ability to pay them back was one of the major contributing factors to the sub prime mortgage crisis. Although under Raines, Fannie Mae invested in some securities backed by sub prime loans, it didn't start buying sub prime and Alt-A loans directly (and bundling them into securities) until late 2004 after the accounting scandal. Purchasing of sub prime and alt-A mortgages expanded under the guidance of Raines's successor Daniel H. Mudd.
In the New York Times John Steele Gordon wrote an opinion criticizing Raines' contribution to the 2008 financial crisis caused by the failure of Fannie Mae. "He cooked the books at Fannie to increase his compensation" (more than $90 million)
Obama saw nothing wrong with this corruption.
Obama and congress were warned in 2004 about an impending economic issue, and democrat Maxine Waters said "nothing was wrong" "We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and in particular, Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Franklin Raines"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related
So basically, Barack ignored all the warning signs, until 2007, then he changed his position and did a 180, admitting there was an issue.
In this video, Obama is touted as "family" by a corrupt Fannie Mae CEO. Obama has recieved over $150,000 from Fannie Mae in campaign contributions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0&feature=related
Basically, the democrats were bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue their disastrous policies, ultimately failing. Obama denied the warning in 2003 by republicans and let Fannie and Freddie continue whatever policies they wanted, unchecked. Finally in 2007, to save face, he admits there is a problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nU3fNh-PRk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYz1rbB5V1s&NR=1
watch this video, it goes through the time line of the financial crisis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM
In the end, Obama may have been a better candidate than John McCain. But writing a blog about how great Obama's achievements are going to be without researching his past is a big mistake.
Can you believe it, but we did it!
YES WE CAN.
william ayers - "i'm as guilty as hell, and free as a bird. america is a great country"
an unremorseful, unrepentful murderer.
not to mention obama's campaign advisor took $75,000,000 from fannie mae and freddie mac. he can make whatever statement he wants, they're all on the take.
and in obama's desperate attempts to get votes, ACORN fraudulently registers felons, the dallas cowboys offensive line, and dead people.
i'm not exactly the biggest mccain guy but i'm not exactly a socialist either.
Fortunately, Barack, once again, had great foresight in seeing these gutter attack coming. This was his main reason for optting out of public campaign financing. He has shown by staying calm, not sinking to the republican Rove style politics, and keeping his message positive, ULTIMATELY folks have looked past his skin pigment and straight into his content of character. Dr King would be so proud!
Thank you for your indorsement of Senator Obama! Jon McCain and his "mavericky" side kick Sarah are learning first hand that THIS TIME the American people will not be swated by outright lies and the slimiest of innuendo. We WILL HAVE CHANGE, we will once again be viewed by other nations as good opposed to evil, WE WILL TAKE BACK OUR DEMOCRACY and THIS TIME we will not be fooled.
peace
B'rack n Roll
red
I guess he is the lesser of two evils. I will vote.