Palin's Worldview Out Her Window

New Yorker Cover, October 6, 2008

Stockton Record Endorses Obama: First Democrat in 72 Years

"Obama can inspire, and our nation desperately needs an inspirational leader. And he does not carry the deep scars of Vietnam, as do many of McCain's generation.

He offers hope. A new way of doing business. And a belief that our system of government can be made to work.

He's the clear choice."
-The Stockton Record

For the first time in 72 years, the Stockton Record has endorsed a Democratic Candidate for President. Not since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second term, right after John McCain was born, has the Stockton Record endorsed a Democrat. Until now. And it was a unanimous decision by the editorial board.

Choice is clear: Obama for president

Uncommitted Voters: Obama Won the Debate

Uncommitted voters: Obama won the debate

American Rain

Gregg Chadwick
American Rain (Thunderhead)
48"x36" oil on linen 2008

Chris Rock: "It's simple, vote for the guy with one house."

Chris Rock interviewed on the Presidential Election by Larry King-

Chris Rock: " I think Obama would be great. I mean, just look the big thing right now is the economy. And people are going broke. And here: The choice isn't Republican or Democrat. The choice is you got a guy that's worth $150 million with 12 houses against a guy who's worth a million dollars with one house."

Larry King: "Well --"

Chris Rock: "The guy with one house really cares about losing a house, because he is homeless. The other guy can lose five houses and still got a bunch of houses. Does this make any sense? Am I the only one that sees this?"

Larry King: "It's unique way of ..."

Chris Rock: "I'm just saying, John McCain could lose half his houses ..."

Larry King: "You got a point."

Chris Rock:" - And sleep well."

~

Chris Rock: " You know, I hope Obama wins just because, you know, the country needs it. The country needs a change. We kind of seen what this whole McCain thing is. And I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house."

Larry King: "I never thought of it that way."

Chris Rock: "It is that simple."

Full interview at:
Vote for the guy with one house

La Cucina At The La Femme Film Festival

Update: December 11, 2009 - La Cucina on Showtime and available on Blu-Ray and Dvd
Details at: Art and Film

The film La Cucina is gathering praise and awards as it makes its way along the film festival circuit. La Cucina won Best Picture at the Beloit International Film Festival and the Backlot Film Festival. We are fortunate to be able to catch the film in Beverly Hills on Sunday, October 19th at noon. A number of my paintings were used in the film to provide silent visual insights into the character's lives and actions. The cinematography by Alan Caudillo is simply stunning. The film is rich in color and light and presence. Each shot is composed as if it were a painting.

On a sidenote: Alan Caudillo has been busy. He was the cinematographer and associate producer on the upcoming comedy, Waiting for Ophelia, which stars Yeardley Smith who is known for her work as the voice of Lisa Simpson on the Simpsons.
Alan was also the cinematographer on Henry Jaglom's, Hollywood Dreams, which is now available on iTunes. I am providing a link to Alan Caudillo's film reel so you can catch a glimpse of his artistry:
Alan Caudillo's Film Reel
And check out Alan's blog: The Caudillo Blog





Joaquim de Almeida Christina Hendricks


Rachel Hunter Leisha Hailey


La Femme Film Festival Screening: Sunday, October 19th -12noon

Location/Parking: Fine Arts Theater 8556 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 360-0455 The Theater is Just West of La Cienega on Wilshire. Street Parking is available and there are lots in the surrounding office buildings with available parking.

Tickets: Tickets are available at the door.

For More About The La Femme Film Festival Visit www.lafemme.org


Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Joaquim de Almeida (Clear and Present Danger), Leisha Hailey (The ‘L’ Word), Rachel Hunter (Rodeo Girl), Oz Perkins (Legally Blonde), Clare Carey (Jericho), Kala Savage (That 70’s Show), Michael Cornacchia (The Bernie Mac Show).

Directors: Allison Hebble & Zed B. Starkovich
Writer: A.W. Gryphon
Producers: Starlotte Dawn Smith, Jackie Olson, Zack Kahn, Allison Wilke
Cinematography: Alan Caudillo


La Femme Film Festival – Official Selection
Beloit International Film Festival - Best Picture
Backlot Film Festival Los Angeles - Best Picture
Hollywood International Film Festival - Official Selection
Bragacine Film Festival, Braga, Portugal - Special Screening
The Cinema Festival – Special Screening



La Cucina. The Kitchen. The Heart of The House.

On one warm summer evening, four very important meals are being made.

Thirty year old Lily Ireland (Christina Hendricks) is making a Insalata Caprese for the new and much older man in her life; a photo journalist, born and raised in Spain named Michael (Joaquim de Almeida), who she couldn’t be more excited about.

In the apartment just across the courtyard, a very pregnant Shelly Hynd (Leisha Hailey) is making her best attempt at Lasagna, while her husband Chris (Oz Perkins) looks on, knowing he is moments away from ordering a Pizza… and when he does, the highly hormonal Shelly is out the door and straight up the stairs to her friend Jude’s (Rachel Hunter) house for some comfort.

Shelly finds her friend lost in her passion, and just beginning an elaborate Italian meal for she and her lover, Celia (Clare Carey), whom they both know won’t make it home in time.

And finally, there is the culinary extravaganza being prepared in front of Celia, who works on a movie set, where on that particular day, they are shooting a couple cooking, while the crew devours pizza on the side-line.

Over the course of the evening, all of the cooks and the guests of the kitchen, truly experience why it is called “The heart of the house.” The discussions organically flow to a place where they are all about relationships, and they are all about truth, and desire, and no one is allowed off the hook about all that they are not saying amidst their words.

Lily and Michael dance around what they want in life as they dance around the kitchen in a seductive and emotional game, that never even allows them to make it to the dining table.

As Shelly unloads all of her fears of motherhood and the future of her marriage, Jude’s acceptance and knowledge of Celia’s infidelity rises to the surface without a word being said between the bruschetta and the cannoli.

All the while, Chris has settled into an evening of Pizza and Adult Entertainment on DVD, and Celia has decided to reel in a young actress (Kala Savage) curious about lesbians, just for sport.

…And in the end, there is no resolution, but there is hope, and there is love, and there is life, unveiled and unapologetic in La Cucina.

Israelis for Obama

This is a beautiful video. It is well produced, heartfelt and continues the positive message that Obama is sending across the globe. This spot was put together by Israelis and Israeli-Americans who believe Barack Obama will be good for America and good for Israel. They explain their hope that the world in such dramatic times needs an American leader who is able to employ intelligent diplomacy hand in hand with a strong defense. These characteristics are embodied by Obama and are crucial to our shared global future.

This Doesn't Smell Right: David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign

McCain Says He Needs a Time Out. Obama says, "Play Ball!"

Despite John McCain's desperate and cynical call for a political "time out", Barack Obama reflected the public's need to hear the candidates debate the issues in a difficult moment: “This is exactly the time when people need to hear from the candidates,” Senator Obama said. Barack finished strongly, “Part of the president’s job is to deal with more than one thing at once. In my mind it’s more important than ever.”

The Commission on Presidential Debates said the debate will go on Friday despite McCain's request:

"The plans for this forum have been underway for more than a year and a half," the commission said. "The CPD's mission is to provide a forum in which the American public has an opportunity to hear the leading candidates for the president of the United States debate the critical issues facing the nation. We believe the public will be well-served by having all of the debates go forward as scheduled."

"Indeed, both campaigns, without public controversy, with quiet cooperation and with minor revisions, have agreed to The Commission on Presidential Debates' (CPD) proposal that each debate will be divided into issue segments allowing time for each candidate to comment on that issue followed by a free-flow conversation/ discussion between the candidates including the possibility of direct exchange between the candidates."

"These formats are an historic breakthrough in the history of televised debates. Televised debates have been hampered by restrictive time limits resulting in scripted, poll-tested, bumper sticker responses. In 2008, when stakes are higher than ever, issues more complex than ever, voter interest more intense than ever, voter education calls for a more expansive discussion between the leading candidates for president and vice president of the United States on the issues confronting America. The Commission commends Senators Obama and McCain for their understanding and acceptance of this need."
-Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., the co-chairmen of The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)

“Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."
-George Will

More on the debates at:
The Commission on Presidential Debates

Thanks Bono!

"John McCain and Sarah Palin’s meeting with Bono was canceled Wednesday due to scheduling reasons, according to the McCain campaign. Instead, McCain and Palin will chat with Bono by phone this afternoon about the ONE Campaign, the U2 front man’s initiative to raise awareness of AIDS and global poverty."


U2
Bullet the Blue Sky
Live - Los Angeles - During the Joshua Tree Tour


U2
Bullet the Blue Sky
Live - Chicago - 2005

An open letter to Bono the night before his meeting with Governor Palin

Bono and Barack

An open letter to Bono the night before his meeting with Governor Palin:

Bono,

I hope that you hold dear to your comment that the meetings this week at the Millennium Development Goals summit will be "judo in a suit." I know you are a cagey and intelligent man. But don't be fooled by Governor Palin's crocodile tears and false down-home banter. The McCain campaign wants nothing more than a photo op and the chance to fool voters in the USA into thinking that you and your band have endorsed the McCain/Palin ticket. Bono, you are walking a tightrope here and the majority of the voters in the United States want to put an end to the Bush years and the Bush legacy. McCain is nothing more than George III. Please remember what America means. Please remember your inspiration to write and perform "Bullet the Blue Sky" as you watched the Reagan administration's support of Salvadoran death squads and Nicaraguan contras. America is not torture, Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. America is the promise of hope and liberty. Barack Obama is the promise of hope and liberty. As you well know, Senator Obama will lead the American people back into the world community. Be sharp tomorrow. Godspeed!

Freddie Mac paid $15,000 a month to McCain's Campaign Manager's Company

"The disclosure contradicts a statement by Senator McCain that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, right, had no involvement with the company for the last several years."

Breaking News from the New York Times:

"WASHINGTON-- By JACKIE CALMES and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager from the end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement. The disclosure contradicts a statement Sunday night by Mr. McCain that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had no involvement with the company for the last several years. Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the people said.

"They said they did not recall Mr. Davis doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than speak to a political action committee composed of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the coming midterm congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, was kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who was widely expected by 2006 to run again for the White House."

More at:
McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

Obama Apple

(Flickr user aar0n5150 has a really nice looking Obama image which mashes up the Obama and Apple logos released under a Creative Commons license…)

Obama Apple

Van Gogh's Night Poet

Vincent Van Gogh
Eugène Boch (the Poet)
23 5/8 x 17 11/16" oil on canvas 1888
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Bequest of Eugène Boch through the
Société des Amis du Louvre, 1941
Photo: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Reunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource

"It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly coloured than the day."
-Vincent van Gogh
Arles September 8, 1888

In his letters Van Gogh describes the genesis of his portrait of the poet:

"I should like to paint the portrait of an artist friend, a man who dreams great dreams.... I paint him as he is, as faithfully as I can to begin with.

"But the picture is not yet finished. To finish it, I am now going to be the arbitrary colorist. I exaggerate the fairness of the hair, I even get to orange tones and pale citron yellow. Behind the head, instead of painting the ordinary wall of the mean room, I paint infinity, a plain background of the richest, intensest blue that I can contrive, and by this simple combination of the bright head against the rich blue background, I get a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky."
- Vincent Van Gogh, 11 August 1888, Letters 3:6.

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night is featured in an online exhibition at the MOMA site: Van Gogh's Night Paintings at MOMA

Obama Field Office In Santa Monica Needs Volunteers

The Obama campaign has opened a new field office in Santa Monica and needs your help. The office is looking for volunteers to phone bank and do data entry in the office whenever you are available but especially 2:00P.M. to 8:30P.M. M-F & Saturday and Sunday from 10:00A.M. to 8:00P.M. The office is located at 900 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica (the corner of Wlshire & 9th on the south side of the street).

Lars Thorn is the volunteer coordinator. Please shoot him an email at larsthorn@hotmail.com and let him know what area you can help out with. Also, feel free to just drop in and the campaign will put you to work.

The Santa Monica Obama office invites you to, "Please come in and HELP US HELP BARACK!"

Obama: Bailout Plan Must Address "The Crisis On Main Street And Around Kitchen Tables Across America"

News agencies are reporting that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday that the government should resist including households in its bailout plan despite calls from Democrats to do so: continue reading

Who made Secretary Paulson emperor? His plan is nothing more than an Economic "Patriot Act" which would give power and money back to the same people who are destroying our economy. I stand with Obama when he says, that any financial bailout plan for Wall Street must address "the crisis on main street and around kitchen tables across America." Contact the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate now. Let them know that we the people will not stand for Paulson's ill-conceived buyout plan.

Contact your Senators and Congresspersons now by using the contact info below:
Members of the United States Senate
Members of the United States House of Representatives

Obama Statement on Treasury Proposal
Full text of Barack Obama's statement of principles for the Treasury proposal:

"The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led to a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression.

"But regardless of how we got here, the circumstances we face require decisive action because the jobs, savings, and economic security of millions of Americans are now at risk.

"We must work quickly in a bipartisan fashion to resolve this crisis and restore our financial sector so capital is flowing again and we can avert an even broader economic catastrophe. We also should recognize that economic recovery requires that we act, not just to address the crisis on Wall Street, but also the crisis on Main Street and around kitchen tables across America.

"But thus far, the Administration has only offered a concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan.

"Even if the Treasury recovers some or most of its investment over time, this initial outlay of up to $700 billion is sobering. And in return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects some basic principles.

No blank check. If we grant the Treasury broad authority to address the immediate crisis, we must insist on independent accountability and oversight. Given the breach of trust we have seen and the magnitude of the taxpayer money involved, there can be no blank check.
Rescue requires mutual responsibility. As taxpayers are asked to take extraordinary steps to protect our financial system, it is only appropriate to expect those institutions that benefit to help protect American homeowners and the American economy. We cannot underwrite continued irresponsibility, where CEOs cash in and our regulators look the other way. We cannot abet and reward the unconscionable practices that triggered this crisis. We have to end them.
Taxpayers should be protected. This should not be a handout to Wall Street. It should be structured in a way that maximizes the ability of taxpayers to recoup their investment. Going forward, we need to make sure that the institutions that benefit from financial insurance also bear the cost of that insurance.
Help homeowners stay in their homes. This crisis started with homeowners and they bear the brunt of the nearly unprecedented collapse in housing prices. We cannot have a plan for Wall Street banks that does not help homeowners stay in their homes and help distressed communities.
A global response. As I said on Friday, this is a global financial crisis and it requires a global solution. The United States must lead, but we must also insist that other nations, who have a huge stake in the outcome, join us in helping to secure the financial markets.
Main Street, not just Wall Street. The American people need to know that we feel as great a sense of urgency about the emergency on Main Street as we do the emergency on Wall Street. That is why I call on Senator McCain, President Bush, Republicans and Democrats to join me in supporting an emergency economic plan for working families - a plan that would help folks cope with rising gas and food prices, save one million jobs through rebuilding our schools and roads, help states and cities avoid painful budget cuts and tax increases, help homeowners stay in their homes, and provide retooling assistance to help ensure that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built in America.
Build a regulatory structure for the 21st Century. While there is not time in a week to remake our regulatory structure to prevent abuses in the future, we should commit ourselves to the kind of reforms I have been advocating for several years. We need new rules of the road for the 21st Century economy, together with the means and willingness to enforce them.
"The bottom line is that we must change the economic policies that led us down this dangerous path in the first place. For the last eight years, we've had an "on your own-anything goes" philosophy in Washington and on Wall Street that lavished tax cuts on the wealthy and big corporations; that viewed even common-sense regulation and oversight as unwise and unnecessary; and that shredded consumer protections and loosened the rules of the road. Ordinary Americans are now paying the price. The events of this week have rendered a final verdict on that failed philosophy, and it is a philosophy I will end as President of the United States."
- Barack Obama

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night

Opening this weekend at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is an exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh's night paintings.
The immense tactical appeal of Van Gogh's swirling brushstrokes never fails to draw me into his world. I am reminded of the scene in Akira Kurosawa's film Dreams in which the camera brings you into the vibrant landscape of Van Gogh's mind. Vincent Van Gogh has given our world much to dream about.


Vincent Van Gogh
The Starry Night Over the Rhône
oil on canvas 1889
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

" This work was made toward the beginning of the 12-day, or 12-night, stint of painting outdoors after dark that culminated in the hallucinatory fireworks of “Starry Night,” wheeling freely, splintering the velvety blue."
-Roberta Smith in the New York Times



Crows from Akira Kurosawa's Dreams


Vincent Van Gogh
The Starry Night
oil on canvas 1889

"Van Gogh discovered new colors everywhere, and especially at night. Peripatetically, briefly yet fulsomely, this little show explores his special relationship with darkness. It provides a view of the tenderness, urgency and brilliance at the core of his art, as well as the openness to nature that set it aflame."
-Roberta Smith in the New York Times


Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night continues through Jan. 5 at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400, moma.org (Please note: Gallery occupancy is limited and timed entry is necessary to visit this exhibition. Your regular Museum admission will permit you to all other Museum galleries, exhibitions, and films, but access to Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night will require a separate, timed-entry ticket (at no additional charge), available at the exhibition entrance on the second floor. The next available entry time will be noted on this ticket. Timed-entry tickets are first come, first served, so it is possible that no tickets to Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night will be available at the time of your visit.

Members and accompanying guests are not required to obtain timed tickets. Simply present your membership card and/or member guest admission ticket at exhibition entrance.)

More at:
-Van Gogh at moma.org
-Roberta Smith in the New York Times

Thank John McCain

Remembering the Missing in Action

McCain and the POW Cover-up:
The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam
(Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. This is a link to the expanded version, with primary documents attached, of a story that appears in the October 6, 2008 issue of The Nation.)
By Sydney H. Schanberg

The third Friday in September is set aside to remember the members of the United States Armed Forces who were imprisoned during war or went missing in action on battlefields across the globe. Take it upon yourself to read all of Sydney Schanberg's article, McCain and the POW Cover-up, which is linked above. The Nation Magazine describes Sydney Schanberg's career and dedication to honest journalism:

Sydney H. Schanberg, a journalist for nearly 50 years, has written extensively on foreign affairs--particularly Asia--and on domestic issues such as ethics, racial problems, government secrecy, corporate excesses and the weaknesses of the national media.

Most of his journalism career has been spent on newspapers but his award-winning work has also appeared widely in other publications and media. The 1984 movie, The Killing Fields, which won several Academy Awards, was based on his book The Death and Life of Dith Pran - a memoir of his experiences covering the war in Cambodia for the New York Times and of his relationship with his Cambodian colleague, Dith Pran.

For his accounts of the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Schanberg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting "at great risk." He is also the recipient of many other awards - including two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism.

Sydney Schanberg is not a conspiracy theorist and he has been meticulous in his research. The article begins:

"John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.

Almost as striking is the manner in which the mainstream press has shied from reporting the POW story and McCain's role in it, even as the Republican Party has made McCain's military service the focus of his presidential campaign. Reporters who had covered the Vietnam War turned their heads and walked in other directions. McCain doesn't talk about the missing men, and the press never asks him about them.

The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a special forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington—and even sworn testimony by two Defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—the documents indicate probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held by Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain."...

Continue Reading McCain and the POW Cover-up

Obama's Plans to Help the American Economy

Obama on the Economy:

You Can Still Register to Vote for Change

Thought I would pass along this email from Barack Obama. Take a moment to register to vote or check your voter registration status. And make sure that you pass this information along. We need to get the vote out for Obama on November 4th!

Register to Vote Now

You'd be surprised by how many people you know who aren't registered to vote.

Registration deadlines are coming up soon, and we need every single vote we can get to win this election.

Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to check out our new one-stop voter registration website: Register to Vote for Change Now

VoteforChange.com
makes it easier than ever to register. Instead of tracking down the right forms, all you need to do is answer a few basic questions and you'll be ready to vote. You can also:
Confirm your existing registration
Apply to vote absentee
Find your polling place

If you don't know your own registration status or you'd like to learn more, take a minute to visit the site right now.

This race is too close and too important to stay home on Election Day.

If you take the time to register and vote -- and make sure everyone you know is registered as well -- we'll be able to turn the tide of the past eight years.

It's people just like you who will transform this nation.

Thanks,

Barack

FOX News Analyst Push Polling for McCain?

Chris Wilson - founder and chief executive of Wilson Research Strategies which is actively push polling Jewish voters to garner support for McCain

It seems that a Fox News political analyst, Chris Wilson, as founder and CEO of Wilson Research Strategies is allowing and perhaps backing his companies ongoing push polling efforts toward Jewish voters.
The Huffington Post and Politico are reporting that a Republican oriented organization: "Research Strategies" which is Wilson Research Strategies, a company which, according to their web site, is an "opinion research firm serving Republican candidates, conservative organizations, public affairs campaigns, and major corporations." is currently conducting push polling towards Jewish voters in Pennsylvania and Florida. This is an egregious affront that needs prompt attention. When members of the mainstream media are actively involved in manipulative, covert scare tactics on behalf of a conservative candidate we know that the McCain campaign and its supporters have moved towards Nixonian hubris and Orwellian thought control. Fox News should be held accountable for these grave events. Push polling was described by Kathy Francovic of CBS News as "political telemarketing masquerading as a poll. No one is really collecting information. No one will analyze the data. You can tell a push poll because it is very short, even too short. (It has to be very short to reach tens of thousands of potential voters, one by one). It will not include any demographic questions. The"interviewer" will sometimes ask to speak to a specific voter by name. And, of course, a push poll will contain negative information - sometimes truthful, sometimes not - about the opponent. "

The Huffington Report via Politico writes "Jewish voters are complaining of a poll that, after confirming their religion, asks a series of questions that appear aimed at alarming Jewish voters, including linking Barack Obama to Palestinian terrorist groups. Debbie Minden of Pittsburgh described receiving the call from "Research Strategies" late yesterday afternoon. And a Key West woman, Joelna Marcus, reportedly received a similar-sounding call from the same group, according reports from the Obama-backing organization JewsVote.org and from a local blog.
Minden, a psychologist who lives in the Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, said the poll -- which came from an identified number -- began with relatively innocuous questions about what organizations she belongs to, whether she prefers CNN or Fox News, and how Obama and McCain compare on a range of issues, from national security to the economy to education."

Politico reports that: "The caller also asked whether she was Jewish."

"It sounded like a real poll," Minden, 56, said.

Then the caller asked, as she recalled: "Would it change your mind about Obama if you knew that his church was anti-Israel? Would it change you rmind if you knew that the leaders Hamas had endorsed Obama? Would it change your mind if you knew he had met with the leaders of Hamas?"

She also said one question asked whether it would change her mind if she learned he were a Muslim, though she didn't recall the precise wording."

Full story at: push polling

Honor

"Following a weekend of scathing media reports and editorials on John McCains unprecedented campaign of dishonor and dishonesty, the Obama campaign today released a new 30 second TV ad called Honor."

The sequel is always worse than the original- George III

"We've seen this movie before. And we know, the sequel is always worse than the original. If you're ready for four more years of George Bush, then John McCain is your guy. McCain could easily become known as 'Bush 44' (a reference to Bush being the 43rd U.S. president)"
-Senator Biden



Political spot produced by cartwrightdale, a former Republican who voted for Bush twice. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina opened his eyes as to what the current Republican party stands for so he quit the GOP in disgust and is channeling all his efforts into electing Barack Obama as President.

More at:
truthandhope.org

What is truthandhope.org?
"The recent GOP convention culminated in John McCain’s acceptance of his party’s nomination at the end of a four day effort to convince the American public that his Presidency would be something other than a third Bush term and that he is still the maverick many of us believed in when he ran for President in 2000. However, the facts simply do not bear this out. Senator McCain’s voting record, the clearest indicator of his support of the Bush Administration’s policies regarding the economy, the Iraq war, personal privacy, healthcare and the other issues facing our nation, has only increased in the past 8 years to 95% in 2007 & 100% in 2008 while the American public’s support and approval of President Bush and his Administration’s policies has dwindled to record levels in that time."

"Clearly, Senator McCain is out of step with mainstream America, for as the nation as with increasing strength has cried out for change voicing disapproval of the Bush administration in ever increasing numbers, McCain has taken the opposite path in supporting President Bush to a greater degree each passing year. The recent GOP convention took great pains to turn the focus of the American public away from John McCain’s voting record of support for the unpopular Bush administration, and instead use slight of hand tactics to turn voter’s attention to his life story. Our primary focus this election cycle is to reach individuals who already oppose Bush, but believe McCain would be "different".

Out of Touch McCain

From the New York Times:
''Today is the first day of the rest of the campaign,'' Obama campaign manager David Plouffe says in a campaign strategy memo. ''We will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain's attacks and we will take the fight to him, but we will do it on the big issues that matter to the American people.''

The newest ad showcasing their hard line includes unflattering footage of McCain at a hearing in the early '80s, wearing giant glasses and an out-of-style suit, interspersed with shots of a disco ball, a clunky phone, an outdated computer and a Rubik's Cube.

''1982, John McCain goes to Washington,'' an announcer says over chirpy elevator music. ''Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't.

''He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail, still doesn't understand the economy, and favors two hundred billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class,'' it says. It shows video of McCain getting out of a golf cart with former President George H.W. Bush and closes with a photo of him standing with the current President Bush at the White House. ''After one president who was out of touch, we just can't afford more of the same.''

What America Means: Badlands Live ~ Richmond 8-18-08

"Poor man want to be rich, rich man want to be king, king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything."

Listen and remember Springsteen's impassioned version of this song played in 1980 the night after Ronald Reagan was first elected. VA nurse and music writer, John Ford , explains that evening " Bruce Springsteen opened his show with an especially roaring, impassioned performance of Badlands. He saw it coming: the rape and pillage that would be the Reagan years. Springsteen's still at it, though with a new group of pillagers to confront. His defense against the Reactionary tide in America has long been to shout about where we are going wrong, but also to present an alternative view of what "America" means. It's not support of Salvadoran death squads and Nicaraguan contras, nor Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and torture."

Bruce Springsteen supports Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The stakes are just as high as they were in 1980. Remember what America means. America is not torture, Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. America is the promise of hope and liberty. Barack Obama is the promise of hope and liberty. I donated to the Obama campaign again today. We all need to pitch in and get our country back!

Donate to the Obama Campaign

The Space of Memory

Gregg Chadwick
Speed of Life
65"x49" oil on linen
private collection San Francisco

Just months before his death, I saw the painter RB Kitaj after a UCLA sponsored presentation he gave at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Kitaj saw a card gripped in my hand of my painting, A Walk with Ganesh, and he started our brief conversation saying, “Is that for me? I would like to have that.” I handed him the card and watched him examine the image of the painting in his hands, and then my face as we talked. Moved by our discussion, I went home and painted Kitaj as he appeared that evening; white beard, roaring voice, stern focus, like a prophet calling figurative artists, in particular, to “paint their worlds.”

My world today is a fusion of the present moment, tempered by the memory of the past, and thrust into the future by the motion of time. Travels since childhood have taken me from the U.S. to Asia to Australia to Europe and back, again and again. These wanderings provide a series of spaces that appear within my paintings.

My painting process is grounded in traditional materials. I start with primed linen canvas made in Belgium, as it has been done for centuries. For each painting I grind some of my pigments into linseed oil to make oil colors. As I use these methods, I am physically engaged in the now, pulling moments from our flux of time and space. The figures in my paintings express what it means to be alive in the mixing and crossing of the 21st century, here in the U.S. and across the globe.

After I finished my Master’s Degree in Fine Art at NYU, I moved for a time to London to seek out the spaces of RB Kitaj’s paintings and the light of JMW Turner. In a small studio at the Royal College of Art I painted in a space in which Kitaj also had painted. The window beside my easel opened to a vast Turnerian sky. Past, present and future fused into the now. Inspiration was made current by the very space in which I stood in that moment, with such awareness and clarity. Today in my studio in Santa Monica, as I press into the future, that moment echoes and beckons and urges me on.

Gregg Chadwick
September 2008

Dream of the East

Gregg Chadwick
48"x38" oil on linen
private collection San Francisco

Palin's Failure

"it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme."
-Joe Klein, Time

"Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and former John McCain adviser, Time columnist, and MSNBC contributor Mike Murphy were caught on tape disparaging John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate:

"It's over," Noonan said.

When Chuck Todd asked her if this was the most qualified woman the Republicans could nominate, Noonan responded, "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives. Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and that's not what they're good at, they blow it."

Murphy characterized the choices as "cynical" and "gimmicky."

More at:
Swampland
Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy

Leading Art Historian Michael Baxandall Dies at 74

“A 15th-century painting is the deposit of a social relationship.”
-Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in 15th-Century Italy, 1972

According to William Grimes in the New York Times, Baxandall in his ground breaking work of art history,Painting and Experience in 15th-Century Italy , " laid bare not only the patron-client transactions that influenced the making of an artwork, but also something he called the period eye: the act of perception determined by social circumstances. In a famous example, he showed how Italians knew how to appraise the volume of a barrel by sight, and how artists played to this carefully cultivated skill."

“Baxandall provided the tools we needed to take works of art out of the frame and off the pedestal to see how they really worked,” said Thomas Crow, a professor of modern art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. “Baxandall made it possible to see, through the art, how societies organized themselves and, conversely, how individuals perceived their own experiences and inner lives.”

More at:
New York Times on Baxandall

Bless New Orleans

Matthew Hinton/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A storefront, boarded-up to protect against the coming storm, awaits Hurricane Gustav in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

As Hurricane Gustav speeds towards New Orleans, our thoughts and emotions turn to this historic city and its residents, again, and, yes, again. On this Sunday morning, we all are citizens of New Orleans. Over the last three years, as organizations and individuals have collaborated in the slow, complex rebuilding of this amazing city a couple organizations stand out to me. Habitat for Humanity and Music Rising are two noteworthy groups. It is astonishing to contemplate how much will be needed after Gustav moves through beginning Monday morning. It will call upon all of us to turn our concern into action. Lets all start now.


Gregg Chadwick
Ghost of New Orleans
48"x36" oil on linen 2006
Julie Nester Gallery
featured in the film La Cucina


Follow the storm at:
National Weather Service, Hurricane Gustav
Remember to help the victims of Katrina at:
Music Rising
Habitat for Humanity

Sarah Palin Loves Bears, Dead Ones That Is

- As Carl Pope of the Sierra Club says, “No one is closer to the oil industry than Governor Palin.”


Biologists who have studied polar bear populations have concluded that Sarah Palin's assertion that polar bear populations are on the rise is mere fiction and a politically motivated misreading of the facts:
Ian Stirling's, an emeritus scientist with Canada's Department of the Environment and a professor at the University of Alberta, peer-reviewed research conducted with other scientists for the US Geological Survey clearly shows that "polar bear populations have not been increasing for the past 30 years, and that's a well-known fact." Stirling has studied polar bears for 37 years which puts him at the top of his field. "In fact, the polar bear population has actually declined by 20 percent in Alaska's Southern Beaufort Sea since the mid-1980s," Stirling said. "The research reports with this information have been available to Palin for more than a year", Stirling said.

What is the reason for the decline in the polar bear population? - Loss of their habitat in the form of melting ice, due to global warming.

Anchorage Daily News/MCT—Landov
-Sarah Palin sits on dead and stuffed friends.


Even with this knowledge, Sarah Lai Stirland writes in Wired Magazine, that "Palin sued the Interior Department for putting polar bears on the endangered species list. In the lawsuit, filed this month in federal district court in the District of Columbia, Palin argues that the government's move to list polar bears as endangered is not based on sound science, and restricts oil and natural gas development. The Interior Department had put the bears on the list in response to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, who argued that the bears are being threatened by global warming. In an interview on the conservative CNN talk show hosted by Glenn Beck earlier this year, Palin said that she was worried that environmentalists are using the Endangered Species Act to block the extraction of oil and gas."
During this interview Palin claimed erroneously that " the number of polar bears has risen dramatically over the past 30 years."
Of course Ian Stirling's peer-reviewed research clearly shows Palin to be wrong.

Palin could care less about the bears, instead she supports increased drilling in protected areas of the Outer Continental Shelf and the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge. But the Department of Energy has concluded that offshore drilling “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.”

Opening the Arctic Refuge would most likely lower gasoline prices by two cents in 17 years. For two cents, Palin would destroy the home of America’s native polar bears, seriously jeopardizing the future of the bears and other species native to the Outer Continental Shelf and the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge.

Palin champions oil drilling, and rejects clean renewable energy that is an alternative to oil. Earlier this month, she claimed that “alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop. Palin would help John McCain's energy policies mirror those of Bush-Cheney which brought us more than $4.00 per gallon gasoline and the rising threat of global warming. Like McCain, Palin believes that oil drilling is the only solution to our energy problems. “I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem,” she says.

Scientists are growing clearer in their understanding that Alaska has become a poster state for the damages of global warming as the climate gets hotter and sea levels rise due to melting ice. In Sarah Palin's home state of Alaska, more than 100 towns are vulnerable due to eroding sea lines. Is she worried? Nah, global warming according to Palin doesn't exist. Her pseudo science extends to the realm of creationism, which was part of her gubernatorial platform.


"A polar bear is seen in the water during an aerial survey off the Alaska coast in this photo taken August 15, 2008. Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest level ever, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday, with particular melting in the Chukchi Sea, where polar bears were recently seen swimming far off the Alaskan coast."
-REUTERS/Geoff York/World Wildlife Fund/Handout


No matter what silly tales Palin tries to spin, it is obvious to real scientists that polar bears are threatened by the melting ice in the Arctic. Recently, polar bears were spotted swimming nearly 50 miles offshore in a desperate attempt to find intact ice and cling to their vanishing habitat.

As Carl Pope of the Sierra Club says, “No one is closer to the oil industry than Governor Palin.” Sarah Palin has taken positions that would ensure a continuation of the Bush-Cheney energy policies. Palin supports drilling everywhere, including National Parks, and ignores the need for binding reductions in emissions that lead to global warming- even though her state is melting. Sarah Palin's policies will lead to an environmental train wreck, higher energy costs, more severe weather patterns including hurricanes and droughts, and despoiled natural treasures. In essence - a despoiled America for our children's future.
The United States of America and the world cannot afford to have a George III administration of McCain & Palin wreaking havoc on the globe by continuing and expanding the failed energy and environmental policies of the current administration.

McCain VP Pick No Friend to Polar Bears
Arctic ice second-lowest ever; polar bears affected
Ian Stirling
Palin and the Environment

Carl Pope:
"Mr. Pope is co-author -- along with Paul Rauber -- of Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress, which the New York Review of Books called "a splendidly fierce book." Mr. Pope's other books include Sahib, an American Misadventure in India (1971) and Hazardous Waste in America (1981).
Mr. Pope graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1967. He then spent two years as a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Barhi, Bihar, India, where he helped communities and families address the human and environmental impacts of overpopulation."

More on Palin and the environment from the New York Times:

"--Palin's administration disputes conclusions by the federal National Marine Fisheries Service and its science advisers that the beluga whale population is in critical danger. The state argues that 2007 data shows the whale rebounding.

--Palin opposed a state ballot initiative to increase protection of salmon streams from mining operations. It was defeated.

--Palin also opposed a ballot initiative barring the shooting of wolves and bears from aircraft except in biological emergencies. It was also defeated.

Under Palin, the state Board of Game authorized for the first time in 20 years the shooting of wolves by state wildlife officials from helicopters. The order resulted in the controversial shooting this summer of 14 one-month-old wolf pups taken from dens on a remote peninsula 800 miles southwest of Anchorage -- an act that environmentalists claim was illegal."

Obama's Political Masterpiece

" I saw Obama's speech tonight at the Democratic Convention in Denver as a political masterpiece. As I had a chance to say on CNN a few moments ago, it was in many ways less a speech than a symphony. I also sensed that we saw tonight an Obama who is growing into a new, more mature leader — stronger, tougher, harder-hitting."
-David Gergen


Full Video: Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech at Democratic Convention
August 28, 2008



Full Text: Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech at Democratic Convention
August 28, 2008

To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;

With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest – a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.

To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia – I love you so much, and I’m so proud of all of you.

Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story – of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.

It is that promise that has always set this country apart – that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.

That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.

We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.

Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.

These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.

America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.



This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.

This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.

We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.

Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough! This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.”



Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.

But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives – on health care and education and the economy – Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made “great progress” under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors – the man who wrote his economic plan – was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a “mental recession,” and that we’ve become, and I quote, “a nation of whiners.”

A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.

Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?

It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.

For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own.

Well it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America.

You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.

We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President – when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.

We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job – an economy that honors the dignity of work.

The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great – a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.

Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton’s Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.

In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.

When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.

And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She’s the one who taught me about hard work. She’s the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she’s watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.

I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.

What is that promise?

It’s a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.

It’s a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.

Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.

Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work.

That’s the promise of America – the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.

That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.

Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.

Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.

I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.

And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.

Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.

As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.

America, now is not the time for small plans.

Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don’t have that chance. I’ll invest in early childhood education. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.

Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.

Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.

Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.

And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.

Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime – by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less – because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.

And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America’s promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our “intellectual and moral strength.” Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can’t replace parents; that government can’t turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.

Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility – that’s the essence of America’s promise.

And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America’s promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.

For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just “muddle through” in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.

And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we’re wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.



That’s not the judgment we need. That won’t keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.

You don’t defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don’t protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can’t truly stand up for Georgia when you’ve strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice – but it is not the change we need.

We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans – have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.

As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.

I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.

These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.

But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism.

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.

So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can’t just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose – our sense of higher purpose. And that’s what we have to restore.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that’s to be expected. Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

And you know what – it’s worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn’t work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it’s best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.

I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my career in the halls of Washington.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you.

For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us – that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it – because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.

America, this is one of those moments.

I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I’ve seen it. Because I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I’ve seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.

And I’ve seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they’d pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.

This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.



That promise is our greatest inheritance. It’s a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours – a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.

And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.

The men and women who gathered there could’ve heard many things. They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.

But what the people heard instead – people of every creed and color, from every walk of life – is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.

“We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”

America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.


"Good Morning Mr. President" - January 20, 2009