Wow. Scrolling through some recent Star Ledgers I find these two goodies:
This is a phony issue. The Bush Republicans have succeeded in painting Democrats as softies, one-worlders, U.N.-lovers lacking in patriotism -- never mind that the Bush administration is host to the largest collection of Vietnam-era draft-dodgers ever assembled anywhere outside Canada. LINK
AND
The only reason the Republican Party supports the cigarette industry is that the cigarette industry supports the Republican Party. Take those contributions away, and the tobacco executives would be treated the same as the cocaine executives. LINK
Farmer right on the money and Mulshine (in a bizarre out of sorts way) admitting that the Republican Party is in the pocket of executives. Nice.
Quick links thanks to the good people at Gephardt Grassroots (even though they seem hesitant to make me one of the "good people"): This Wesley Clark poll shows Gephardt's tremendous strengths This Post article has the most meaningful statement about the campaign so far:
No major Democratic presidential candidate is promising to change the country more dramatically than Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.).
At a time when many voters complain of little distinction between the two political parties, Gephardt is calling for a bigger and more activist federal government, one markedly different from the one envisioned by President Bush and by the other contenders for the Democratic nomination.
Gephardt stands far and away the most liberal, New New Deal candidate there is, despite his being a sort-of-self-described moderate (hit next twice.) And that's why he is number one right here. Not that you can see it, but I vaguely point to my heart area. I hit this gap-thingy near my shoulder, but you know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, for a while I've been meaning to sum the difference between Dean and Gephardt. For a while I was a Dean guy, as I've written, because I like dark horses and I like liberals. Now that it's clear Dean is neither I can drop him like a molten, two-faced rock. Such rocks may have existed here. But I saw neither them nor magma. I like this. It's snappy, it's simple, it's alliterative somewhat, and it's Labor-Day-themed.
Wherever there is a protest, there is Dean. Wherever there is a picket, there is Gephardt. And it really boils down one of the biggest differences between the two. A protest of the type I'm referring to is a desparate, no-rules, no-money, no-cares struggle. Burned out hippies and Al Sharpton in Vieques. Keep in mind that I love protests, but I'm trying to malign the Dean campaign here. Two different things. Someone looking for attentio, and someone with nothing to lose because they're well off enough to begin with.
Wherever there is a picket, there is Gephardt. Gephardt is the candidate of the people who need help to fight against a corporate class, to fight against (however much I may disagree with "fair trade") a trade policy that sends jobs to foreign countries, to fight against a president and a party that values wealth and not the wealth that creates it. I use the Edwards quote because Edwards is running as a Gephardt that won't do anything so his rhetoric is pretty close to Gephardt. A little tricky, huh? But he has to fight, and the fight is to preserve and create necessities: health care and jobs, among others. He's not out there complaining and stealing the spotlight shamelessly: stuff like Bob Baines' filing for office and the MLK III rally. Just ridiculous. He's working to make America better.
They're so lost as to believe it's a generational thing that people follow Dean off a cliff. Gephardt knows that he can't just be a celebrity, railing against Washington politics just because he has no national experience. This is the best quote I ever heard from Gephardt:
"Every single day that I've been in public service, I have tried to represent people like my parents- the hard working people that make this country great. This president has declared war on the middle class, on labor unions and on working families. He doesn't care about the people who are just trying to get ahead. When I am President, you will never have to wonder or doubt who is fighting for you. This isn't about me, this isn't even about the Democratic Party, it's about what kind of country we can be. It's about what kind of jobs, health care and education, we can have." LINK
So that's it. I'm personally off my game. I can tell. Sorry for the disappointing, off-key post. But, hey, check me out.
OK, so the problem is that the host does not accept passive FTP and that's the only way Blogger works. Yeah, I don't think I can fix that so my choice is to abandon Blogger or the host at some point in the near future. 'K.
Happy Labor Day! I'm hoping to get up'n'rantin' some time soon.
Greetings,
citizen, and welcome to the official website of "Levy for President 2020." I'm hoping you'll find that I'm true to my
word - that my candidacy and my campaign is radically different from every political campaign in the last half-century.
Like most Americans, I believe honesty is an asset. I also believe that ideas are the strongest facet of any
candidate. Although I am not a believer in the somewhat inconsistent New Democrat ideals, I believe the American
people will best be served by the idea primary. (And, hey, with the increasingly front-loaded primaries, I have until
June 2015 until the citizens of New Hampshire vote in the 2020 primary.) This means that I will not tell you about
growing up the son of a blue-collar laborer, because I did not. Rather, I will tell you that I support the cause of
the union, and the working man, and one of my first priorities as President will be universal, single-payer health
care. I can't tell you that I grew up in a diverse environment, but that I support affirmative action and removing the
Confederate flag from state governments across the nation. And so on.
Though this webpage officially
declares my candidacy, I feel that it is important to note that "Levy for President 2020" has not officially registered
with the FEC as either an exploratory or campaign committee. The FEC requirements essentially consist of having a
$1,000 balance. My first and foremost interest is to fight for every American, not to hoard money. As the website
gears up, I will be looking to sell campaign memorabilia and advocacy items and ask for donations for two reasons. Of
course, the first is that I would like to file with the FEC to prevent any misunderstanding. The second is that money
will ultimately be necessary for primaries and to buy server space to host things like forums and pictures of me on the
campaign trail.
On this website, in addition to championing your cause, I will respond to current events as I
see them. No punches will be pulled. My character, my views, and my sense of humor will be evinced by the watchdog
campaign that I will run over the next decade-and-a-half. Sorry for the color scheme, but orange and green are the
colors of the campaign for metaphorical reasons.
Thank you for visiting levy2020.com, the official website
of your next-next-next-next (give-or-take a couple) President of the United States.
