Obama Wins?

A bi-weekly newspaper here in Santa Fe (The New Mexico Sun News) has taken the bold step of announcing on its front page OBAMA WINS!, accompanied by a full color picture of the candidate. Their reasoning was that the paper would not be published again until after the election and by then it would be old news. 

Personally, I'm a little superstitious about such bold statements, being old enough to remember Harry Truman holding up the newspaper announcing that Dewey had won. I'll just keep doing what I can to get out the vote here in the "city different" and hoping against hope that the margins hold and we really do get a chance to put this country right again.

But, just in case we prevail in this election, I'm going to be among the first to say that our job will not be over as citizens of the US. If we want to achieve a true democracy in this country, which has been so massively manipulated by right wing and corporate interests, we must pledge ourselves to ongoing critical thinking and fact checking of everything we hear and see, particularly in the corporate media. It will be all too easy to sit back and relax with a job well done, only to be sold down the river again. We must become informed and let our politicians know that we are informed and have opinions about how we want to be governed.

I'd like to believe that the Democrats will be more honest and trustworthy than the pack of criminals who are currently running things, but I know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can anticipate that in future years I'll be writing posts that make it look like I'm a Republican, but I consider it my duty to my country to do whatever I can to keep our politicians honest. Perhaps the best strategy in the long run will be to vote to throw the bastards out every eight years. That might keep the absolute power drug in check to some extent.

Perhaps it is time for the two-party system to finally be broken. Other countries have quite workable governments that must always be stitched together out of coalitions. Ron Paul and Ralph Nader, we may need you in the future! It seems strange, as a life-long registered Democrat to be writing this, but it is how I feel. I would welcome comments from my fellow left-wing liberals and even from my right-wing conservative friends.

A New Low in Campaign Ads

A group calling itself the National Republican Trust PAC is running a TV spot that hits a new low for telling lies in this presidential campaign. The ad claims that Obama would give drivers licenses to illegal aliens and terrorists, provide health insurance to illegal aliens and give illegal aliens Social Security coverage. EVERYTHING in this ad is a lie, without exception. Please go to FactCheck.org (CLICK HERE) to get the truth about this piece of trash.

As I continue to repeat, it is vital that we citizens of the US fact check everything we hear or read in this election season. We have been lied to for years now by the Republican party (and Democrats have not been 100 percent truthful either) so we MUST get the truth to be able to cast our votes.

Medicare Scare

Obama campaign ads are claiming that McCain is advocating major cuts in Medicare benefits to pay for his health care plans. These claims are simply not true. McCain claims that he would find savings in Medicare totaling $880,000,000 without cutting benefits. While one could argue that such savings are unlikely to be possible, it is not true that he is advocating cuts in benefits.

It is important that we fact check everything we hear for the next two weeks of the presidential campaign. Here is the FactCheck.org article. CLICK HERE

ACORN's response to the media blitz

Here is a video concerning the current controversy about ACORN voter registration. It is from their perspective but it rings true to me: