The Sun Rose on America

I am still processing the last 48 hours.

When I got home last night, I laid down, and fell asleep  on and off for about 90 minutes as my husband anxiously watched the returns. I informed him that the decision would not be drawn out, rather, the people were clear and this election  would be swift when the returns came in, no questions.  We, the people were going to be very decisive about our next president, Barack Obama.

Around 10:30, I woke up with a start.

Shortly thereafter, the new president elect was announced.  I cannot find the words to describe the feelings and emotions that I am experiencing in all of this.  I received an email from a friend in Albany who told me I was wrong.  She was referring to a conversation we had in 1998 in which she insisted that a Black man would be president before a White woman, I insisted the opposite.  I told her I was happily incorrect in this case.

And yet, as I look at what has been achieved, as I look at this accomplishment, one thing is for certain, to me.  My generation of young Blacks and Latinos no longer have the crutch that they sometimes cling to at times.  “Da man”, while he does still exists and presents challenges to us, Obama is proof positive that perseverance can overcome obstacles, given the right support, given the right time, given the right circumstances.

We now are being called to the mat to set an example of achievement, of producing results and outcomes that support rather than detract from our communities.  Because the reality is that we are not saddled with the baggage of living in a  Jim Crow America.  We did not have to experience physical bondage.  The America of George Wallace and legal barriers do not represent today’s America.  We know we can be whatever it is that we wish to achieve IF we are willing to work and struggle and remain focused.  We must put in the work to make it happen.  The days of claiming can’t due to racism is no longer an acceptable.  We have to own our successes and failures.  We have a responsibility to ourselves, our ancestors, and our children to get past the ignorance of some and ensure we reach our end goals for the many.  It is what was done for us.  Last night, we smashed one of the hardest glass ceilings that could be smashed in this country.  It was done with the blood, sweat, tears, sacrifices, and struggles of those who came before us and those who come with us.  It was done in a collective manner, hand in hand, with multicultural and multiracial support.  We have to now honor this legacy by being true to who we are as a people, all human beings.   While we are in some measure, representatives of our cultural and racial collective, the fact is that we form into a whole country, America.

I am humbled by the work that people put in, all people put in to make Senator Obama into President-elect Obama.  The real work starts now, it will be imperfect as we all are, it will require the collaborative spirit and energy to push this agenda forward.  But today, as I wake up, I am more hopeful than I was 2 years ago.  I watch Obama and he makes me want to be and do better in my commitment to faith and community.

Today, the sun rose on America and it was beautiful.

Why I voted

Today, I was up and in line at my polling site by 6am. By the time I arrived, there was a pretty substantial line for those going in to vote. I’ve been voting since I was 18, I am now 35 years old, I have never in my life seen one line at my polling site. My husband is currently standing on a line which extends around the corner and two blocks down from our polling site. So why did we stand on line? We did we vote?

As I was standing on line with my mother, she kept saying, “I have been waiting since 1963 for this.” As I speak to adults of my parent’s generation, I listen to their stories. Stories of sitting on lunch counters while being yelled at, protesting abuses of civil rights and liberties, being treated less than for the color of their skin or based on their gender. I listen to stories of bombings, killings, lynchings, Emmitt Till, the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, sacrifice and suffering… I watched my mother cry as Barack Obama spoke at the DNC to accept his party’s nomination… and one thing has struck me as consistent.

No one alive in this country of African descent who has the right to vote should dishonor or disrespect the memory of our ancestors by not voting. These lines are nothing compared to what others have experienced in fighting for the right to pull a lever here in America. To complain about this not only indicates how soft we’ve become as a generation, but it smacks of ignorance. Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of this shared and inherited history. While he is not running as a Black man, he does represent a historically significant moment in this country’s history. He represents the hopes of the slaves who have long passed, he represents Harriet Tubman’s push to free her people so they might have the opportunities that many of us take for granted. He represents the dream of the civil rights movement. He represents in real form the vision that the Kennedy’s and MLK shared. He represents the children of those who came before him, he represents movement, opportunity, possibilities, sacrifice, and suffering…

Regardless of who wins today, Obama has been able to put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling which had so many cracks from so many previous attempts. And I want to help bust through it. That is why I voted today and I hope everyone does.

This is for you Terence, I know you are watching. RIP. You will be missed!

The slow death of democracy…

Lincoln once said, “‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” And my experience of the average American voter is that we can be a bit fickle and forgetful, so I suppose that quote is fitting. Politicians have to be experienced in something, typically it is the propensity to be charming and a capacity to ‘woo’ people. If they have a modicum of intelligence, then that is a great combination that is hard to beat. Some start off to really be of service their community, they want to do better, economic development, workforce development and resources, lower child asthma and mortality rates, provide care and services to struggling families, bring hope and inspire… heck, its great to get paid to try to help and save. I can’t knock it and once toyed with the idea of running myself. But there is another side of the political game that many voters don’t get to see. That is what is commonly referred to as the backroom deals. I can’t say it doesn’t happen. It does, on occasion, by some.

Bloomberg ran on a platform of reform. He went from being a Democrat, to a Republican, to an Independent. It strikes me as being inconsistent and a bit fickle. Now, I was a Republican once, this was in college, I was 18 and wanted to be the polar opposite of my father. I voted for Clinton in the first election I was eligible to vote in and have been a card carrying Democrat ever since. That doesn’t mean I agree with my party consistently, quite the contrary, I don’t. But that is what makes me a good democrat, I think, when I can question the actions, motives, and decisions that my party engages in.

As a native New Yorker, I haven’t seen Bloomberg do that. I have seen, during his tenure, the elimination of real parent advocacy in the public school system (its hard to advocate for your children in the public school system, so I went private), I have seen an over the top (and overblown) pro-developer, pro-landlord, pro-wealthy agenda under the Bloomberg administration. I have seen the isolation of both the middle class and of those that don’t quite meet the poverty line but are damn close. I have seen the schools run like businesses under the guise of performance management with the wrong measures/metrics and a complete lack of understanding around what results they are trying to produce in the school system for the kids, teachers, etc… its a recipes for disaster. As a woman who has worked in government all her life, gets paid as a consultant to do performance management and leadership development in the public sector, and teachers organizational leadership for public employees, I saying, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, especially when the middle class tends to be what stabilizes most economies. Sure, it makes sense to drive the middle class out…

So, it is not big surprise that the Bloomberg legislation would pass the City Council. It would not have been introduced or put before the Council without the votes. The undecided knew in general which way they were leaning. So what does that mean today?

Well, other than being deeply disappointed in Speaker Quinn, it means that during the Mayor’s remaining tenure, he should put in front of the the people, the citizens, you know, the customer, what he plans to do to get NY’s economy stabilized for the next 13 months. He should also explain why, with his financial savvy, he made decisions to nearly triple our debt while failing to see the collapse of the markets. Bloomberg should also pledge to cease running for another term if the economic begins to stabilize itself, since this is his primary argument for seeking another term.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Mayor hasn’t been such a whiz at ensuring the health of our economy. I have cited this article before but on October 16, 2008, editorial board member Jason L. Riley wrote, “But the argument for extending the two-term limit for Mr. Bloomberg — a self-made billionaire who got his start on Wall Street — is that the city needs someone with his financial acumen to help weather the fallout from the banking crisis. The biggest problem with that argument is that Mr. Bloomberg hasn’t been very adept at managing the city’s finances, even though he’s had record revenues to work with.

Between 2000 and 2007, New York’s tax receipts grew by 41% after inflation. “That’s something that’s never happened or come close to happening in the city’s modern history,” says Nicole Gelinas, who follows municipal finance at the Manhattan Institute. This windfall had everything to do with the Wall Street bull market, and everyone knew that the rate of growth was unsustainable. Instead of using the flush-year surpluses to put New York’s fiscal house in order, however, Mr. Bloomberg mostly squandered them.

The four big costs to New York’s budget are Medicaid, pensions, debt and health care for public employees. Since the mayor took office seven years ago, those costs are up 57% after inflation. His handling of the city’s debt is particularly disappointing, if not irresponsible, since debt-service payments are legal obligations that can’t be suspended during economic slowdowns.

Since 1990, debt per person in New York is up by 185%, exceeding inflation by 118 percentage points and exceeding tax revenue growth by 27 percentage points. By most measures, New York has higher per-capita debt (about $7,000) than any other city in the nation. And while the problem obviously predates the current mayor, the future burden has worsened substantially on his watch.

Instead of cutting other parts of the budget and using the city’s swollen coffers to service debt and pay for capital projects out of operating spending, Mr. Bloomberg chose to increase borrowing. Between 2000 and 2007, debt grew by 5.7% annually and will continue to grow by 5.9% annually over the next four years. By increasing the city’s debt obligations while doing nothing to decrease the city’s overdependence on income tax revenue from Wall Street wages and bonuses, Mr. Bloomberg has exacerbated a bad situation.

The mayor’s spending record isn’t much better. Between 1975, when New York faced its last fiscal crisis, and the Giuliani era, city spending rose by just 9% after adjusting for inflation and population growth. Mr. Bloomberg’s 2008 budget is nearly 50% larger than the one he inherited from Mr. Giuliani in 2001. That far outpaces inflation, which rose 21% over the same period. Nor has the mayor shown any sustained interest in working with the state to reform a Medicaid system that costs the city $6 billion per year and is rife with waste and abuse. New York state’s per-capita Medicaid spending is easily the highest in the U.S.”

I would like the Mayor to answer the charges in this article. I would not and could not in good conscious cast my vote for Bloomberg based on this information. If the economy is indeed the reason why he says New Yorkers need to have a choice to vote for him, then let’s look at his record. I plan to begin my research and urge voters to do the same. Of the three candidates running for Mayor, Congressman Anthony Weiner, Comptroller Bill Thompson, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg… who adds up and who does not? This is how you ensure the viability of democracy.

Let ‘em vote

Yep, back on my soap box around the term limits discussion taking place in the City of New York.  Look, my personal opinion, I could take or leave term limits, there are plenty of good arguments on both sides.  That said, let’s discuss principles.  You don’t give people a vote and then attempt to change the city Charter to overturn that vote.  Now, there are plenty of people that I know that gain from Bloomber remaining in office, there are plenty of people that I know that will gain with a new Mayor in office.  My position is solely focused on presenting the elimination or temporary suspension of term limits for referendum in front of the people.

Councilmembers Bill De Blasio (who will run against Marty Markowitz for Brooklyn Borough President regardless of how the term limit issue ends) and Letitia James (who has another term) have drafted a piece of legislation that would put to referendum another term for City Council members.  So instead of 2-4 year terms, there would be 3-4 year terms.  I would argue that you should also put the entire question of term limits in front of the people.   I know plenty of people who feel term limits are undemocratic.

All I am saying is, let the people vote, let them lend their voice to the process, we have a ton of new voters who would be more than happy to lend their fresh ideas to the question of terms limits.  So, let ‘em vote.

Overturning Term Limits (the Gangsta Way)

The logic for extending term limits in NYC for the Mayor and City Council is Wall Street. The argument being that Wall Street will ultimately impact Main Street so Bloomberg should run to help us out by seeking a third term.

Stop. Let’s rewind this because its a very interesting issue (to me anyway) and smacks wholly of a very anti-democratic approach to governance. And maybe, just a little, feeds my weird conspiracy theory that NY is becoming a city by and for the elite. And that democracy is fading at a faster rate than initially thought.

In 1994 I think the people of New York voted in favor of term limits via a referendum. I pretty sure… no, wait, I know because I voted in this referendum. A second referendum in 1998 reaffirmed that the people were resolved in their believe that term limits should stand by virtue of the fact that New Yorkers overwhelmingly supported this measure (that means they voted for it 2x and really really really really wanted it for those city council folks who don’t get it).

In 2001, shortly after the World Trade Center terror attacks, questions were raised as to whether Mayor Bulliani (not a mistake because he was brutish and a bully and just plain mean) should remain another year as Mayor in the face of chaos and concern by the citizenry of New york. Bloomberg was a vocal opponent to this idea and instead insisted that the rules and regulations governing election law should be recognized and Guilliani should allow the elected leadership (Bloomberg) to take their elected posts. (that means he demanded his mayorship from Bulliani regardless of what was going on because he felt he could handle it for all you council people who don’t get it).

All in all, most people will probably say that Bloomberg handled the hand off of the crisis well and NYC stood resiliant and moved forward. So, why should this situation be any different? I mean, the Senate passed the $850B bail out ($150B in pork projects for those who opposed the first measure) just last night. So what makes our Mayor believe that this situation is any different?

In spite of Secretary Paulson’s experience and knowledge about corporations and the economy, we find ourselves in the situation that we are in (one could argue because of Paulson and Republican ties to Wall Street we are in fact in this predicament). In spite of Mayor Bloomberg’s ability to turn himself into a millionaire, NYC is still facing economic problems and there have been consistent cuts across City agencies which of course impact services provided to the most needy. And he’s been Mayor for 8 years. Has the City prospered? I don’t know about you, but my pockets have not become fatter (ode to my hip hop roots).

Perhaps Mayor Mike’s business associates and his real estate developer friends have prospered as we become more and more a pro-developer/pro-landlord city.

I would submit to the Mayor that he’s served his elected term, the people have spoken and by virtue of the public outcry relative to this discussion, if the City Council and the Mayor determine that should overturn the will of the people, the people should open the door to a hard election for select City Councilmembers and the Mayor. While Bloomberg can purchase his seat with unlimited funds, perhaps voters will keep an eye on his challengers and vote accordingly.

City Councilman Ted Koppel has no authority or right to bypass the will or voice of the people for his own political gain or that of his colleagues. Neither does Mayor Bloomberg or Speaker Quinn. However, if they decide to play God/dess with the City Charter which will then designate them the right to do so, I think the people should speak. Loudly.

I suggest that the people become very actively engaged in the political process and vote out every single councilperson who supports this measure. Democracy in American has been severely compromised for some time, but these days, it looks like fascism is the politics of choice and we really need to do something about it. And if we don’t, per Gore Vidal, we get the government we deserve.

No Bailout…

Washington. D.C. legislators and Wall Street executive types are too closely linked.  For example, Senator McCain’s economic advisor had close ties to Freddie Mac.  The head of our country’s Treasury Department (Paulson) is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs who is a millionaire…  no, we do not need tycoons working with tycoons to bail out tycoons.  It’s not justifiable for a tax payer like myself who makes less than some of these guys’ cars to have to bailout their corporations.

So, what are the alternatives?  Well, we could allow the markets to correct themselves, it could happen.  We could look at our own history when we actually had leadership in Washington during FDR’s tenure.  I wondered if I was alone in this thinking but lo and behold, I realize I have some really really smart friends.  One of my financially brilliant friends has her own blog here on wordpress called Crib Notes.  My suggestion to all you readers out there is to check it out and then consider what the alternatives are and call your congressional representative and your state senator and tell them to get it right and stop pandering to the corporations and represent the people who elect them…  The reason the country is not behind this is because history has shown that politicians, for the most part cannot be trusted.  I respectfully issue a challenge to all elected officials, prove us wrong.

Coporate Welfare in America: A National Disgrace

I think there are so many people responding to the economic crisis in America and the fall of financial institutions on Wall Street that I figured, I would stay mum on the topic. But then there was some discussion around bailing out these financial institutions with corporate welfare. I was amazed, not surprised, but amazed that the Dems would actually agree to this form of welfare… but hey, still, stayed mum. Then the US electorate voted to put money we don’t have as a country to use our taxpayer dollars to bail out these corporations. Um, I have $2 in my bank account as of today and the United States government is going to spend $700 billion to bail out corporations???? WTF?

Seriously? We cut social welfare programming consistently over the last 2 decades, we cannot seem to put financial investments into education, but we can bail out Wall street because as Pat Buchanan stated today on MSNBC, “Because we have to.” Yet, there has been absolutely no real discussion about corporate accountability and regulation. I don’t understand how this makes sense. So, I did some research…

The NY Times did a great job of attempting to explain this mess. Essentially, must bail out Wall Street because if we do not, our economy collapses. Additionally, our illustrious national leaders will include assistance to some homeowners who cannot afford their mortgages. The US Treasury will purchase this debt which ultimately will be purchased by other countries. In short, this whole fiasco brings to light just how corrupt and ass backwards this country is with respect to its financial institutions. In the end, this whole situation makes its citizens and the world painfully aware of how in debt we are; in short we are a national disgrace.

White Privilege

I admit to finding it quite interesting when white men blog about white privilege. Why? Because my experience is clearly that of a young urban female professional from Caribbean American roots flavored and influenced strongly by the African American and hip hop cultures. So I am always curious to people’s reaction to the concept of white privilege, particularly when authored by white males.

Dan Charnas and Tim Wise are masterful at this and I wanted to take a break from providing my own opinions on politics and society and share some from others. Enjoy and feel free to comment.

Why Vote?

If you are like me, you have a diverse group of friends who run the gamet from being conservative christians to liberal earth mama pagans. From being straight laced heterosexuals to outrageous drama queens. From living check to check to support a family with husband wife and baby to being of means or living as a same sex couple rasing one or two children. They are a Gen Xers like me, have parents who marched on Washington for civil rights, some were hippies promoting love not war. And through all the diversity and differeces and similarities, I hear the same moaning and groaning with respect to American politics. All politicians are corrupt, they don’t care about the people, they aren’t community focused.

Having spent my life in politics (the daughter of a Puerto Rican activist and Bajan educator/workforce developer) and working for state Assembly on and off since 1997, I can say I have spent nearly all of my life working in and around government and politics. I don’t always agree with all elected officials, I have at times questioned their decision making, but I can name at least two or three who I know are deeply committed to their communities, Eric Adams, Hakeem Jeffries, and Kevin Parker come to mind. Again, I don’t necessarily agree with everything they do, but I do know they are committed to public service and their respective communities. I also am accutely aware of the work it takes to be a public servant.

I say all of this to say, simply… it’s important to vote and it’s more important to be an informed voter. We, the people, directly impact politics and policy on a local and state level. So why vote in the presidential campaign? I mean, the arguments are pretty well known why we should not. Electoral colleges, “stolen elections”, popular vote vs electoral vote… we could go on. The fact is, it’s still pretty important to get out to every election (primary and general) and vote. My mother took me with her, I take my six year old inside the booth with me…

While factually, there is more overt democracy in local and state races, federal (ergo presidential elections) races are pretty important as well. Again, one may ask why it is important to vote in a presidential election when the electoral college may vote differently than the popular vote? Because in spite of the two historic occasions where the vote was split between the popular vote and the electoral vote (in the case where the electoral college voted in contast to the popular vote such as in 2000), in general, the electoral college votes in the same vain as the American public because the American public votes for the electoral college.

First, a lesson in history… let’s go back to what the electoral college is. The electoral college is made up of elected offcials, 538 elected representatives who vote on behalf of the public for the next president. Voting for electoral reps is not consistent state to state but it is written in the Constitution that every state must have electoral reps. Simply put, “Only 538 persons, representing the slates of electors chosen by voters in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, actually vote directly for president. The person receiving a majority of the votes of electors becomes the president. In the event that no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the decision falls, under the 12th Amendment, to the House of Representatives.” (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/electoralcoll.htm)

Many times, these electoral reps are pledge delegates, which is why we saw a discrepency in 2000. Often times, we can argue the question of accountability to the public. For example, here in Brooklyn, there were many elected officials who supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. In fact, quite a number of Black elected officials who supported Clinton found that many of their constituents supported and voted overwhelmingly for Obama. So I do agree that there is something very wrong in a system where the elected officials who are supposed to represent the people are not representing the interest of the people. I stronly believe that people should hold their elected officials accountable and more importantly they should informed and organized before going into the voting booth.

Ultimately, this presidential race is not about McCain, its not about Obama. It is about the people, the “us”, the American populace. We are the movement of voters who make up a diverse population of people who must take back ownership of government and put pressure to reform government and institute accountability in government on all levels.

Some of my readers have heard of Dan Charnas, who is an awesome blogger that provides a fresh and different perspective of society, politics, etc. Some of my friends know that I just absolutely love this man’s mind. He said it best, I think when he quoted Gore Vidal in his most recent video blog, “American’s get the government they deserve.”

On Tuesday, September 9th, which was a primary day, I stood at the train station in front of the Brooklyn Museum of Art for 6 1/2 hours as a volunteer passing out literature and urging my fellow community residents to vote. Those two or three invested ones stopped to ask questions about my candidate, his views, ask questions about state and local politics. But most had no idea that we had a district leader/state committeman race, between a new guy and an incumbent (Walter T. Mosley vs William “Bill” Saunders). Walter won 60% to 40% but no one I’ve spoken to knows the role of the District Leader, a role Saunders had for almost 20 years! No one knew that there were a ton of County Democratic Committee seats open (roughly 6000 seats representing various election districts here in Brooklyn.) And we heard too many times from people, “There is a primary today?”

While I am happy with the outcome, having worked on Walter’s campaign and petitioning to obtain a County Committee seat, I am deeply troubled that most people had no idea that it was a primary day. More still did not want to be bothered and I found myself saying, more often than not, “If you don’t vote, don’t complain, if you don’t seek the information to be an informed citizen, then you do yourself a huge diservice.” And America, when you don’t vote, you will get the government you deserve.

Palin for President?

Okay, I have to ask, “Has it really come to this level of silliness?” I mean, it was only nearly two weeks ago when Sarah Palin was being painted as the “tough as nails” broad who was boasting that she was a pitbull in a skirt. Men and women alike across this nation were drawn to her biting sarcasm, her brawler attitude. I mean, this is a woman who hunts and shoots moose! (As an aside, she is a better shot than our current VP.) I hear that she even skins and cooks these beasts for consumption. Bison burger anyone? No doubt about it, hear them tell it Sarah Palin can make an Brooklyn gang banger looks like a pampered pooch.

Seriously, consider that this is the woman who single handedly bucked her own party in Alaska, is she not? According to the McCain camp, she’s taken on the very corporations and industries that make elder politicians turn ashen and tremble in their boots. And even as she cast the stone by taking the proverbial the gloves off at the RNC while looking at the camara informing Obama and the rest of us community activist/organizers that there was no pride or strength or responsibility in serving the poorest of the poor, trying to empower the most disrespected and forgotten (or ignored), Palin made in abuntdantly clear, she is a tough chick.

So imagine my surprise when the McCain decided to change the conversation from real issues to instead focus on a comment Obama used a couple of days ago about putting lipstick on a pig and smelly fish and possibly molding bread. (I admit, it wasn’t important enough to me intially to warrant a reaction.) But can you imagine how surprised I might have been that they have further demanded that Senator Obama provide a formal apology to Palin. This surprises me greatly. Afterall, this is politics, this is the way it is, Sarah knows this, McCain knows this. And hasn’t McCain used this old saying with respect to Hillary Clinton? In a very obvious way? Btw – where was his apology? This is the same method of distraction often used to get us off message and onto the entertainment of campaigning. But let us not be fooled.

Sarah Palin is the big girl, or should be, afterall, she’s tough, lives in one of the coldest states in the country (close to Russia and all). She hunts, handles guns with ease, has five kids and seems okay (trust me, I am a mom). She can handle it, if she can’t, then she should go back home. Political campaigns in America, unfortunately, aren’t for the faint hearted and there is little to no honor when twisting words and misconstruing truths are the norm. It’s how it is. The facts are, when you have no experience or basic competencies, it becomes essential to create distractions. When you can’t handle the media and your camp must control the media’s access to a candidate to the point of censorship, yeah, you REALLY need these distractions.

I am no slouch in the area of brawling having grown up in Brooklyn, NY. I must admit that as I size Palin up, I think she could handle herself physically here. Which means, she can handle getting over a misunderstanding. So Republicans, please, let’s get back to the issues. Stick to prepping your candidate for her debate with Biden. I want to hear more about McCain. First, I’d like him to stop being a hypocrite and stop acting like you guys have not been using the race card (remember the emphasis on Barack Hussein Obama?) and other means at your disposal to discredit Obama (and previously Hillary). Focus on the issues, the economy, the housing crisis, education, healthcare, social security, economic development, the war, and getting America back on track.

We rank woefully low in academic preparedness in comparison to similarly advanced nations, we have some of the most unhealthy citizens, including alarming rates of obesity among children and adults, along with cancer and diabetes. As of last week, the unemployment rate in this country reached an alarming 6.1%, up from 5.7% in August. (Bureau of Labor Statisitcs, U.S. Department of Labor) The rate of housing foreclosures in this country has increased by 90% since last May. (CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/19193611/) The US can boast a national average of 70% with respect to their dropout rate, according to writer Barry Grey.

These are the issues that impact an entire country, that as this country suffers, we all suffer. So I am wholly offended that both the media and the McCain camp would seek to focus on this unimportant issue. I am offended that people would consider Palin such a wilting flower after all that bravado I witnessed at the RNS. I am offended that people would think that Obama is so crass as to offend the former beauty queen (who clearly is in top form) and compare her physically to a pig. Let’s move on people. We are in the midst of a recession, we have a war that has claimed more lives of our soldiers than Vietnam, we have an administration that abuses power and lies so much we may as well be living under the Mussolini regime. The McCain/Palin approach is not pro-American, its in fact anti-Democracy. The Bush agenda follows a fascist approach to governance.

No, Palin is no pig, she is no weak wilted flower… McCain is scared and using her to deflect how poorly he actually measures up on his own to Senator Obama. So, I am going to be politically incorrect and say directly to Senator McCain, Listen, you old fish man, let’s stop the hypocrisy and get back to the issues because I frankly don’t want to hear about Palin. She is a secondary issue since she’s runnig for the number two slot. If you want to be the next Commander and Chief of this nation, and you want my vote, then start acting like freaking a presidential candidate and put yourself out there.  We know that she has balls, but do you?  Or is it Palin for President?