Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama sparked controversy with a February 16th Wisconsin speech,
where he used lines from Gov. Deval Patrick's "Just
Words" speech almost word for word (pun intended). The
similarities - which hit the internet long before Hillary
Clinton's campaign latched onto it, contrary to popular belief
- were dismissed by Patrick's camp, now, as well.
Gov. Patrick is
taking the stance that he basically asked Obama to use his words - just
not in so many words. AH, the puns are endless. The Raw Story's got the transcript on Patrick's Diane
Sawyer interview, in which the Massachusetts Governor says, "I've known
Barack for almost 15 years now. We talked a good deal during my
own campaign and his. We fully expected - I fully expected he
would sus...sustain a charge at some point trying to belittle his
ability to motivate people with language."
Oh, so it's just
language, and it's just being used as a motivator. Hell, let's
just decide not to hold anybody accountable for anything they say at
all, then.
As one of our readers so astutely commented
yesterday: "If you pass off your friend's essay as yours, it is
still cheating even if your friend freely gave it to you." Which
Patrick didn't - not specifically.
Barack admitted he used the
words from Deval's 2006 speech, saying they often borrow from each
other, making sure to add "I know Senator Clinton on occasion has used
words of mine as well."
The two speeches were broadcast
side-by-side on video on the net, though, so its not like he could deny
it.
Hillary Clinton campaign spokeswoman KiKi McClean said, "The
focus of the speech is how important words are; then you find out the
words weren't his. That's the irony of the whole issue here."
HA!
So Barack is now on our
home turf in Ohio, speaking to Youngstown State University yesterday, and
moved onto topics that made us skeptical beyond mere
who-said-what's: Obama talked of funding children's
educations, raising minimum wage every year, how he wants to address the
mortgage and foreclosure problems plaguing
America.
"I want to
make sure we are dealing with the home foreclosure crisis," he said
yesterday. "People being lured into mortgages they couldn't afford
- we're going to set up a $10 billion fund to make sure the
people who are paying their mortgages can stay in their
homes."
A $10 billion fund? Gee, that's a lot of
money. Yes, Barack has a fancy "Obama Keeping America's Promise"
PDF booklet you can download from his website, yet
nowhere in that plan - which reiterates in various places that
"Barack Obama will provide $10 billion in additional Mortgage Revenue
Bonds" to assist those who cannot afford their mortgage payments -
nowhere does it mention where this mysterious $10 billion is going to
come from.
Money must exist to be offered. Money must be
printed to exist.
Nor does this assist any of those who have
already lost their homes: it's being called a
foreclosure crisis because so people have
already been foreclosed upon. And if the money only goes
to those that have been paying their mortgage, than those who couldn't
make every payment on time could be left out. And those
who have been renting vs. buying to avoid losing their homes in rough
economic times would still be SOL, and kicking themselves to boot (we're
full of puns today).
Our government is over $9 trillion in
debt. Regardless of whether or not Barack would make good on
his word to funnel less jobs overseas, we will continue to
leak hundreds of millions of dollars per day overseas
as long as we're still at war with Iraq. The war is where all of
our economic hardships are stemming from, and we should be addressing
the root, not the veneers.
American employers -
especially those that do not contract out jobs and
manufacturing to China - sure as shit can't afford an increase in
minimum wage every year while the war is going on, which is what Obama
proposes. No more than our government can afford to offer those
corporate tax cuts when our soldiers need uniforms, equipment, ammo,
Humvees. Therefore this vicious cycle of debt and the
decrease in value of the dollar will continue, until we start getting
our troops out of the Middle East - and not at the rate of a couple of
combat troops per month, with troops to take up permanent residence
there, as our lead Democratic candidates allude to.
Engaging in
battles of words and speeches and prose - both Clinton and
Obama - is getting us nowhere, faster and faster. Both of
them voted in favor of this war. Go look it up: here's her voting record, and here's his: use "Edit -> Find" in your top
toolbar (or hit CTRL+F) and search for the word Iraq on both of those
pages. Keep hitting "find next," and you'll find all of the
answers you need.
Conveniently, Obama was not present to vote on
many of the bills as 2008 election season neared; but they both have
long voting records that you should know about if you're
voting.
The "War of the Words" means nothing to us in the first
place - the importance lies in their actions, not their
words.
There's only one candidate left in the race who has
staunchly opposed the Iraq invasion since before the war even
began. Who has said time and time again, we need to
withdraw now - not just tiny piece by tiny piece - and
begin a true policy of non-intervention (not just the word). Stop
policing the world, and attempting to democratize a world that doesn't
want us as a big, bullying, older brother - the same thing the Bush
administration is trying to do to with Serbia and Kosovo right now.
It's definitely
not John McCain, nor Mike Huckabee, who have both voiced the possibility
of the U.S. occupying Iraq for years and years to
come.
It is Libertarian-turned-Republican Ron Paul. He
is also the only one warning us about printing and spending,
and whose voting record matches what comes out of his mouth; and who is
fading off into the media sunset as you sit there
Googling Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Take the time to learn about
him, and what he stands for - what the corporate media refuses to
report on - before it's too late. 64% of
Americans oppose the Iraq War. First
learn. Then vote.
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