The Swift Boats Are Running Again

  This time the Swift Boaters are firing their truth-less torpedoes at Sen. Obama.  Sen. McCain’s TV commercial claiming the Obama plan to rebound the economy will raise taxes and slow down the economy is flat out false. According to Dean Baker, writing for Truthout,  history shows that the tax rates proposed by Sen. Obama worked in the past because they are basically the same rates on the wealthy that President Clinton had. The economy was quite good during the Clinton presidency, much better than now.

  Check out the article by going to this link.

Who Does Sen. Chamliss Represent?

    Who do you believe, the lawyer that accused Senator Saxby Chambliss of using questions prepared by Imperial Sugar or Chambliss, who said he asked his own questions? The lawyer said Chambliss was trying to discredit his client Graham H. Graham, an Imperial VP whistle-blower who told a Congressional commitee that he had been stymied and repremanded for making suggestions to make the plant safer. 13 people died in a fire at Imperial Sugar in Savannah in Februrary.

  Chambliss was given a $1 thousand campaign contribution by an Imperial Sugar political action committee. Whether such a contribution would impact on Senator Chambliss selection of questions, I’ll leave up to you decide.

  A University of Georgia political scientist says that  businesses or other organizations  provide questions for Senators and Congress members all  the time. He also said it is common pratice for the questioners to throw softball questions to their friends and hard ball to others. Common Cause Georgia’s Bill  Bozroth says the problem is the  way that campaigns are financed. He’s for public financing exclusively. There is, as you kinow, optional public financing for presidential campaigns, but when the candidates see they  can a lot more money privately, the opt to do so.

  I guess it just boils down to who you think would be fairer regardless of campaign contribtions. Martin probably  would. Hopefully, we’ll get the chance to find out.

The Road to Victory Is Uphill, but Martin Can Beat Chambliss

Jim Martin, Dem. Candidate for U.S. Senate

  Now Democrats have a chance to unseat Saxby Chambliss. Jim Martin’s victory in the Democratic primary runoff election puts the state in play. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial stated that if Dekalb County CEO Vernon Jones had won, Sen. Saxby Chambliss could sit back, put up his feet and relax because he could have coasted to victory.  

  The Martin victory was significant for more than one reason. To have won that runoff by a whopping 60 percent he had to get a lot of black votes and he obviously did. Though Jones is an African American, he lost a key endorsement when nationally known civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery gave the nod to Martin, saying that Martin was a consistent Democrat. Jones had voted for George W. Bush twice.  This is a very healthy situation for Georgia Democrats.  Democrats are voting for the candidate without considering his or her race. Yes, with the record turnout expected in November, Barack Obama could carry Georgia and Jim Martin, a Vietnam War veteran could beat the man who questioned the patriotism of former Senator Max Cleland, a wounded Vietnam War veteran. Saxby Chambliss is not a military veteran. We can expect another dirty campaign because that is the Republican speciality. The attack ads will fill the airwaves because Chambliss has a huge, corporate PAC campaign war chest. 

  Hopefully, Martin is up to the fight he faces. The road to victory is definately uphill for him. But, timing could be on his side and victory is definately possible.  Registering new voters was never more important for Democrats than it is right now. It appears that younger voters are engaged politically more than they have been in a long time, and they are trending Democratic at this point. They want change, becasue they know that Republican control of government has put their futures in jeopardy.  It won’t be easy, but Martin can win.

Big Oil’s Buddy, Sen. John McCain

  The Republicans are off and running with their latest con game, off-shore drilling. It’s going to solve the energy crisis andbring down gasoline prices. One, it’s not by any means going to solve the energy crisis and, two, it will take ten years for it to have any effect on prices and the effect will be tiny. But, it’s a battle cry that serves Republicans running for the House of Representatives and their supporters, big oil. That’s hard to beat for a Republican.

  Senator McCain, said Barack Obama to an audience in Michigan, got one million dollars in campaign contributions from big oil last month, right after he announced he was for off-shore drilling. Exxon just announced the biggest profits of any American corporation ever.  Well, they are going to plow a lot of that profit into renewable energy sources development - right?   A huge part of those profits will not be spent on developing new oil supplies, but on a stock buyback and on dividends to stock holders.  We’re paying $4.00 per gallon at the pump, the economy is reeling and big oil is awash in profits.  

  Senator McCain cannot support the Democratic sponsored energy legislation in Congress because it would stop giving big oil tax breaks, according to Senator Obama. In fact, he says, McCain wants to give big oil even more tax breaks. $4.00 a gallon, record profits and even more tax breaks just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  Well, if you are following in the tradition of big oil domination of the Whitehouse, it does. We have two oilmen there now and it looks as though we could have a new one after November if the American public buys the latest Republican dog and pony show.

  Senator McCain’s campaign counters Senator Obama’s assertion by saying that Obama also trolled for campaign contribution from oil companies employees. Well, there are employees and then there are employees. Some very few of those employees, Exxon’s executives, made $70,000,000 last year. Want to bet on who they gave their campaign contributions to?

Politics and Hair

  The first comment I have gotten on the candidacy of Stephen Camp for Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District seat is not about his position on anything, but about his hair. The commenter writes that he needs to comb it. She says the disheveled look ”may be the in fashion, but some of us don’t like it.” Wonder if she would vote for Lynn Westmoreland because he combs his hair better than Camp.

  How do you like John McCain’s hair, or Barack Obama’s? Should they change their style? 

  I suppose hair does matter. Just think about Ronald Reagans hair, or John F. Kennedy, or Jimmy Carter, or Bill Clinton. But, then, Dwight David Eisenhower didn’t have any hair and he got elected president twice.

Camp Scores Westmoreland for “Political Theater”

  Stephen Camp told cheering Muscogee County Democratic Party members that 3^rd District Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican, engaged in “political theater” Friday when he staged a Republican protest demonstration in the U.S. House. Republicans failed in an attempt to get Democrats to vote on a Republican-backed energy bill that relies on off-shore drilling. Westmoreland, talking until he lost his voice, was joined by 20 other Republicans who kept on talking for five hours after the House adjourned. Finally, C-Span cameras and the House lights were turned off.    

 

  Camp said, “Westmoreland has again used America’s energy crisis as an excuse for political theater rather than an opportunity to work towards a meaningful solution for our energy needs now and in the future.

 

  Westmoreland is trying to address the country’s complex problem with a two-word solution. America must work toward a comprehensive approach to meeting its energy needs.  All viable options need to be considered, which include domestic production as well as renewable energy sources that will pave the way to a sustainable future.

 

  Westmoreland’s “drill now” mantra is a misleading bill of goods that is high on promises but that ultimately will leave our tanks empty.”

 

Who is Stephen Camp? Don’t know? Well, that’s a problem for him, one that Democrats in the 3^rd Congressional District are going to have to change. Name recognition is critical to any political campaign.

 

  Stephen Camp is a Newnan, Georgia lawyer, who is married to a Newnan, Georgia lawyer. They have a 3-year-old son, Jack.  Stephen says his concern about Jack’s and all children’s future in America is a major reason he decided to give voters a choice in the 3^rd District race. He has decided to take on a really hard job, defeating Republican 3^rd District Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, an incumbent with an incumbent’s impressive war chest. He gets a lot of money from political action committees or, PACs, as they are known. Camp doesn’t have much of a war chest.

 

  But he does have guts; he is articulate and passionate about change in Washington, and that accounts for a lot. If he can convince enough people that he has a decent chance to unseat Westmoreland, perhaps that his campaign funds will grow. He is running in a district that is considered safely Republican. However, he says that district has changed in the last few years. There are now more Democrats in it and with the economy being what it is, he believes that even some who used to vote for Westmoreland will change their minds this time. Most people blame the Bush administration for the state of the economy and Westmoreland’s record of rubber-stamping just about everything the president has done ties him to the president.

 

  While Camp was the main speaker at the monthly breakfast at Ruth Anne’s Restaurant in downtown Columbus, there were local candidates who made their appeals for support, also. We’ll get into their races in future posts on The Political Thinker. Stay tuned.

Stephen Camp, GA 3rd Cong. Dist. candidate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Republicans Put Confederate Flag in Play to Combat Obama Candidacy in Georgia

  

 

We now know which way the Republicans in Georgia will go to fight to keep the state from helping elect America’s first African American president. They are waving the Confederate flag. Governor Howard Dean, Chair of the Democratic Party, gave them that opportunity by bringing the Obama drive to register new voters to Georgia.

Dem. National Chair Howard Dean at Macon, GA Meeting

  

 

  The Macon Telegraph reported that the Republicans put out a release saying Dean and Senator Barack Obama are “out of touch” with the South, calling attention to Dean’s past remarks he made in 2003 about the Confederate flag as being a “racist symbol” and saying “Southern whites with decals on their trucks  should vote Democratic “because their kids don’t have health insurance either.” Dean replied that Republicans “will always go negative. We think it is time to bring people together.

 

 Saturday he made appearances in Savannah, Macon and Atlanta.  I was at the one in Macon where the State Committee of the Georgia Democratic Party gathered to elect four new Democratic National Committee members. When he walked in the door of the hall during the meeting, the audience came to its feet, giving him a thunderous reception. They were delighted that the Democratic Party is paying attention to Georgia this time and not just conceding the state to the Republicans.

 

GA Democratic Party State Committee Meeting in Macon, GA

  

 

  Governor Dean drew applause many times as he castigated the Republicans for practicing the “politics of hate.” “They may think it’s good for America, but Democrats don’t.”

 

Dem. Party Chair Howard Dean

 

 

  He thinks Georgia could play a key role in putting Senator Obama over the top in the election and he is calling for the registration of 600,000 new voters. Obama supporters all over the state are engaged in the registration drive. He believes Georgians have had enough of the policies of the Bush administration and are as ready for change as the rest of the country.  

   It’s hard to think that Georgia will desert the Republicans after the last three presidential elections, but with young people and minorities registering in big numbers, it is possible that change will come to Georgia and it will return to the Democratic fold.