The Conventions:                                                                  Back
 
The Democratic National Convention
 
   I watched the Convention on CNN and was very surprised at the lack of attacks on the Bush Administration. Oh! I know there was Ted Kennedy, Al Sharpton  & others but by and large it was a positive convention. They mostly tried to stay on message and that message was where we should be going as a nation.
   The Democrats seem to think that, as every other industrial nation already does, the United States should guarantee every citizen health care. Do you think that's a bad idea? Do you believe that the lottery of birth should give some people the right to a healthy life & deny it to others? 
   They also think that the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries should not be subsidized by American taxpayers.
   They feel that we went to war in Iraq to fast & without a plan to win the peace. They feel we should have waited. Your going to hear, if you haven't already, that John Kerry now says that even knowing the facts that he has found out recently, he would have still voted to give President Bush the authority to declare war. (The problem with that is that Americans only want sound bites. anything longer then a sentence makes them think & that's to hard.) He did say that but he continued by saying that if he had been president he would have waited & tried harder to build a consensus & only gone into the war with more international commitment. It seems that most of the legislative branch who voted on that authority felt the same way, that George Bush would do every thing possible not to use the authority unless absolutely necessary but that he should have it. What they didn't realize was that being patient is not one of George Bush's strong points.
 
Other speeches at the D.N.C
John Kerry Teresa Heinz Kerry John Edwards Elizabeth Edwards
Jimmy Carter Al Gore General Wesley Clark Bill Clinton
Senator Hillary Clinton Howard Dean Senator Max Cleland Ron Reagan
You can see the transcripts of all the speeches Here
 
   Let's see what's said a the Republican Convention? What will their platform be?
 
Republican National Convention.
 
If you ever wondered why our country is so divided, you only had to watch the Republican National Convention. 
 
   How come even though George Bush is an ultra conservative & the Republican party if largely far right, almost all of their prim time speakers are moderate republicans? Are they embarrassed by the far right or are they just trying to mislead the voters on what their real agenda is. I mean the democrats didn’t try to hide Ted Kennedy, Al Sharpton, or Jessie Jackson. So where are Pat Roberson, Alan Keyes or Tom Delay?
Day 1
Rudy Giuliani
     Talking about the differences between the Democratic & Republican parties? “We don’t have all the right ideas. They don’t have all the wrong ideas, but I do believe there are times in history when our ideas are more necessary and more important and critical, and this is one of those times when we are facing war and danger. There are times when leadership is the most important.”
   Now let me remind you that we fought & won world War I under Woodrow Wilson (A Democrat)  World War II under F. D. Roosevelt & Harry Truman (Both Democrats) The Korean War under Harry Truman (Democrat)  We pulled out of Vietnam under Richard Nixon (Republican) but that was the right thing to do. Had the Cuban missile crisis under J.F.K. (a Democrat) Kosovo under Bill Clinton (Democrat) I’d say that Democratic Presidents have been fairly good war time presidents. How about you?

   Giuliani again “President Bush decided that we could no longer be just on defense against global terrorism, we must also be on offense.” Great I’m all for that as long as it is done intelligently. I’ve said it before. I was elated when we invaded Afghanistan. I was shocked when we invaded Iraq. I felt & still do that we dismantled one of the few governments that (Although I despised what it stood for.) could keep control over the radical Islamic movement. See War in Iraq.

John McCain

   John McCain made a great speech but it was, guess what?, a Flip Flop. After complaining consistently about our not having a exit strategy, he praised the Bush record in Iraq.

   Both men talked about the war on terrorism & the war in Iraq as if they were one. Believe me there not.
Day 2
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
   "Speaking of acting, one of my movies was called "True Lies." And that's what the Democrats should have called their convention."
   Arnold, come on I think I've found enough lies at your convention to fill a small book. If your going to say things like that gather your proof and let us see it and you better back it up with facts. I have.
   "If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican."
   If that's the definition of a republican how come all our environmental regulations have been changed to help large corporations to the detriment of the people. If the government should be accountable to the people, how come the people can't find out what corporate leaders Dick Chaney met with when setting our energy policy.
   Arnold spend more time with your in-laws. "Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country."
   "If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group, then you are a Republican."
   Unless of course you represent a chemical or energy company.
   "Now, there's another way you can tell you're a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people and faith in the U.S. economy. And to those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don't be economic girlie-men."
   Who are the ones who are pessimistic? The ones who say this economy is doing great, or the ones who say America is great and it can do better, a lot better. It seems to me that the democrats are the optimists we know how great this country can be with the right leadership.
   "The U.S. economy remains the envy of the world. We have the highest economic growth of any of the world's major industrialized nations. Don't you remember the pessimism of 20 years ago, when the critics said Japan and Germany are overtaking the U.S.? Ridiculous."
   If he right how come we have such an extremely large trade deficit with Japan?
   "Now, they say that India and China are overtaking us. Don't you believe it. We may hit a few bumps, but America always moves ahead. That's what Americans do."
   China? isn't our trade deficit with them huge? India? Isn't that where most of our outsourced jobs are going? Arnold get your facts together.
   "Now, the other party says that we have two Americas. Don't you believe that either."
   I don't know but I've never seen as much partisanship in our government or on the streets in my lifetime, well maybe during the Vietnam war. No, I'm sorry but not even then.
   "That's what I admire most about the president. He's a man of perseverance. He's a man of inner strength. He is a leader who doesn't flinch, who doesn't waiver, and does not back down."
   Maybe that's the problem. He makes up his mind, then no matter anyone else tells him, he just closes his ears. I learned along time ago that I can't be right about everything, so I listen and maybe I change my mind & maybe I don't but I try to get other opinions. George Bush isn't resolute he's stubborn.
   "We are the America that sends out the Peace Corps volunteers to teach our village children. We are the America that sends out the missionaries and doctors to raise up the poor and the sick." 
   Does he forget who started the Peace Corps. Hay Arnold! It was a democrat named John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
   "We are the America that gives more than any other country to fight AIDS in Africa and the developing world." 
   Ask the U. N. about that one. If you teach birth control instead of abstinence you can't get help from the administration.
   His speech was a very inspiring one, He really loves his adopted land but he just didn't do his homework.
 
Day 3
Zell Miller
   I saw the face of the clan.  Democrat Sen. Zell Moller  took off his robes and stood a the podium. I have never seen such hate. A man who praised John Kerry just four years ago was like a rabid wolf in his attacks on him from that podium. I won't even dignify his speech by critiquing it. Read it yourself, you'll see what I'm talking about.
 
Dick Chaney
   Zell Miller was followed by Dick Chaney, The Vice President, who while the Secretary of Defense under the presidents Father opposed some of the same weapon systems that Zell Miller condemned John Kerry for voting against. See This.
   He (Dick Chaney) talked about many things but this one jumped out at me. He said that under their administration home ownership is at an all time high. I like to remind them that because of Bill Clinton's fiscal responsibility in bringing down the national debt, mortgage rates have been the lowest they've been in decades. Is that going to last with the increase in the national debt that Bush is creating? This home market is a direct product of Clinton policies.
   "Four years ago, some said the world had grown calm, and many assumed that the United States was invulnerable to danger.  That thought might have been comforting; it was also false.  Like other generations of Americans, we soon discovered that history had unexpected duties in store for us."
   Read the 9/11 report Bill Clinton, his administration and advisories were all warning of the mounting Terror threats. Warning so often that after Bush took office and they were hearing so much about al-Qaeda that Donald H. Rumsfeld Bush's Secretary of Defense Said he didn't want to hear anymore about terrorists.  So it wasn't their predecessors but they themselves who were under the illusion that the world had grown calm. So calm in fact that George Bush took the longest vacation of any president, ever.
   "Just as surely as the Nazis during World War II, and the Soviets during the Cold War, the enemy we face today is bent on our destruction.  As in other times, we are in a war we did not start, and have no choice but to win.:
  He's right of course but not entirely. We had to go to war with al-Qaeda and we had to go into Afghanistan to get them. Destroying the Taliban was just an added benefit. He's wrong though when he puts Iraq in the same basket of rotten apples. Iraq had nothing to do with with our war on terrorism. Again in the 9/11 report My own believe is that, if anything, we'll find out that Saddam Hussein, because of his paranoia, was helping our war on terrorism by keeping the radical Islamic movement in Iraq under control.. (He feared them.) 
   "Our nation has the best health care in the world, and President Bush is making it more affordable and accessible to all Americans."
    I don't know about you but in the last four years my health insurance went from $323. to $477. per month. My proscription drugs almost doubled & my dental costs which are not covered by my insurance have also gone up. How about your insurance? 
   Near the end of his speech Chaney said. "The historian Bernard DeVoto once wrote that when America was created, the stars must have danced in the sky. Our President understands the miracle of this great country." I wonder if they are still dancing? I have to wonder because I can't see them very well through the smog & pollution that this administration has allowed their energy friends to create.
   He made many other misleading statements, so I'll be coming back to his speech at a later date.
Day 4
Governor Pataki
   "He inherited a recession, and then came September 11th. But George Bush said he would turn around the economy and create new jobs."  "He said he'd do it. And he did."
   All I can say to that is Wow! If you think the loss of real income is turning the economy around or if you think a net loss of jobs is turning the economy around, or higher gas prices, higher insurance rates, more bankruptcies, higher medical costs, higher college tuition is turning the economy around. Then you probably agree with the governor.
   "He said he would cut taxes on the middle class, and ease the tax burden on all Americans." "He said he'd do it. And he did."
   He did cut taxes but as we recently learned he transferred the burden from the richest Americans to the middle class.
   "He said he'd help small businesses, protect social security, and expand home ownership." He said he'd do it. And he did."
   Most small business owners I've talked to say that business is down. People aren't buying gifts, their cutting their own grass etc. The store owners in the little art town of New Hope, Pa. told me that people are still coming but they're not buying. The best way to help small business owners isn't a tax break it's a growing, vibrant economy.
   He hasn't done a thing about Social Security. It's the same as it was four years ago.
   As for home ownership, we have the highest rate of bankruptcy since the great depression. Plus the low mortgage rates created by Bill Clinton's fiscal responsibility which gave us surpluses instead of national debt helped people buy homes. It sure wasn't George Bush's economy. Just how far can a $300.00 or even a thousand dollar tax cut go toward a mortgage. What George Bush did accomplish was the to create the amount of people who after buying a home, had to sell that same home or loose it because they were out of work.
   "You know the history. Osama bin Laden declared war on America -- and then came the attacks -- the first World Trade Center, the embassies, the USS Cole -- hundreds dead, thousands injured." "How I wish the administration at that time, in those years had done something."
   May I remind the good governor that when Bill Clinton fired a Cruise Missile at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan almost every republican in both houses yelled. "He's wagging the dog, he's trying to take the heat off the Monica Lewinsky case". When he left office he warned George Bush that the most important thing his administration would have on it's agenda was Usama Bin Ladin. George Bush ignored that warning. (9/11 commission report.)
   "And President Bush understands we can't just wait for the next attack. We have to go after them in their training camps, in their hiding places, in their spider holes, before they have the chance to attack us again".
   If he understands that then why didn't we finish off Bin Ladin when he was holed up in Tora Bora Washington Post April 17, 2002.
President George Bush
   George Bush made a point to remind us how John Kerry voted against weapons systems. What he didn't say was how Dick Chaney tried to eliminate some of those same systems when he was Secretary of Defense. 
   You have to remember that these weapons didn't all come to the floor of the senate at the same time. (An impression the republicans would like you to believe.) Some of the Systems were considered obsolete before they even came on line. Now picture yourself as a senator who has to make a decision on which systems to vote for. You decide that you like the B 1 Bomber but the vote is for the B 14 bomber so what do you do. I'd vote against the B 14 and wait for the B 1 to come to the floor. Now the B 14 is voted into production & up comes the vote for the B 1 but we already have a B 14 so it's a little redundant to have more then one bomber in the fleet so do you vote for another bomber? I wouldn't. So now I've voted against both of the new bombers even though I wanted the B 1. You have to remember that that's one of the reasons Dick Chaney tried to eliminate some of the redundant systems. Now if they were redundant why  were they voted in? Pork! I'm the senator from Michigan & Lockheed Martin is in my district and they have the contract if it passes. Don't I pull strings, call up favors and do anything I can to bring those jobs to my state. So what if we overspend on defense, American can always use more bombers & since I brought jobs to my state I have increased my political base.
   "To create jobs, we will expand trade and level the playing field to sell American goods and services across the globe."
   Does leveling the playing field mean not enforcing trade laws. For the past four years while we ran up the largest trade deficits with countries around the world. (China for one has been subsidizing their manufacturing base & putting embargos on some of our exports. European markets won't allow the import of some of our produce saying that it is genetically changed to produce more & better crops.)  The administration has taken as many cases to court in it's four years as the Clinton administration did every year it was in office. People that's eight times less. Just who does he think he's kidding when he says even playing field? 
   I don't know if I even want to compete with a person who will work for (I don't know what the average pay is in India but I do know what it was in Indonesia three years ago.) three dollars a day. If we try to compete with them we will become a third world country. How can they buy our products at their wages. Oh! we'll sell some things. There are some rich people in those countries but we won't sell a lot.
   "We will offer a tax credit to encourage small businesses and their employees to set up health savings accounts, and provide direct help for low-income Americans to purchase them. These accounts give workers the security of insurance against major illness, the opportunity to save tax-free for routine health expenses, and the freedom of knowing you can take your account with you whenever you change jobs. And we will provide low-income Americans with better access to health care: In a new term, I will ensure every poor county in America has a community or rural health center."
   Another joke. Do you realize how long you would have to save (If your reading this, your probably in at least the lower middle class.) for even a tonsillectomy? How many jobs would you have to take that account to for open heart surgery? Remember during his watch millions of Americans have lost their heath insurance & the cost of that insurance has skyrocketed. I've seen people loose their homes because of health problems. 
   "We will make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by bureaucrats in Washington, DC."
   I don't know about you but it's not the government in Washington, or anywhere else, but my insurance company that has the final decision, even over my doctor, on whether or not I have a certain medical procedure. We need a patient's Bill of rights. Another promise he has failed to keep.
   "In an ownership society, more people will own their health plans, and have the confidence of owning a piece of their retirement. We will always keep the promise of Social Security for our older workers. With the huge Baby Boom generation approaching retirement, many of our children and grandchildren understandably worry whether Social Security will be there when they need it. We must strengthen Social Security by allowing younger workers to save some of their taxes in a personal account -- a nest egg you can call your own, and government can never take away."
   The system is now overburdened. What will happen to it when we start taking money out of it to allow people (Who have little or no real knowledge of Wall Street & even less time to do the research needed to invest in it.) to own their own personal retirement accounts? What do we do for the ones who fail? Not to long ago the market took a huge dip, it has since recovered. What would you have done if you were, at that time, living on your annuities? By the time it came back you wouldn't have any stock left. Why do you think F. D. R. implemented the FDIC? Something stockholders don't have.
   "To build a more hopeful America, we must help our children reach as far as their vision and character can take them. Tonight, I remind every parent and every teacher, I say to every child: No matter what your circumstance, no matter where you live -- your school will be the path to the promise of America."
   I keep hearing about all he has done to improve schools. What I'd like to know is where's the money? I'd also like to know, if charter schools are such a good idea, how come they fell below public schools in a recent test?
   "America's children must also have a healthy start in life. In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention, or information, to stand between these children and the health care they need."
   Where has he been for the past four years? These people should have been informed long ago. We have school records, tax records and other ways to find out where children are. how come they haven't received a letter explaining what benefits they are eligible for?
   "and opposed lowering income taxes for all who pay them. To be fair, there are some things my opponent is for -- he's proposed more than two trillion dollars in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts. To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes -- and that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps."
   Here he puts words in Kerry's mouth that he never said. What I heard Kerry say every time I heard him talk about taxes was that he'd raise the taxes in anyone who makes two hundred thousand or more, not as Bush said, "for all who pay them"
   Also how much does he think his proposals will cost & does he think he's going to pay for them, through a questionable economy? 
   "Because we acted to defend our country, the murderous regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are history, more than 50 million people have been liberated."
   Liberated to what? The Taliban is now regrouping in southern Afghanistan & al-Qaeda is still in the north. In Iraq there are more terrorist then ever. The murderous regime of Saddam Hussein may well be replaced by an even more despicable government like the one in Iran or Saudi Arabia, where females of all ages are oppressed & sometimes tortured or killed.
   "and democracy is coming to the broader Middle East."
    Where? Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran? We still don't know what is going to happen in Iraq or Afghanistan. 
    "Iraq now has a strong Prime Minister, a national council, and national elections are scheduled for January." 
     How will they vote? Until we know that we have no way of knowing what we accomplished. Ayad Allawi a strong leader? How come neither he nor the entire interim government could do anything about Muktada al Sadar and had to bring in the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (An Iranian living in Iraq.) to broker a peace.
    "Our Nation is standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, because when America gives its word, America must keep its word."
    Yah! he got one right. We will keep our word, we have no choice.
   "Free societies in the Middle East will be hopeful societies, which no longer feed resentments and breed violence for export. Free governments in the Middle East will fight terrorists instead of harboring them, and that helps us keep the peace. 
   If you don't believe George Bush just ask Israel. 
   "Our troops know the historic importance of our work. One Army Specialist wrote home: "We are transforming a once sick society into a hopeful place ... The various terrorist enemies we are facing in Iraq," he continued, "are really aiming at you back in the United States. This is a test of will for our country. We soldiers of yours are doing great and scoring victories in confronting the evil terrorists."
   I'd like to see that letter. It sounds more like something a speech writer would write.
   He goes on to praise the American people and well he should. I only wish he counted us all as equals or that he cared as much for the land as he does for his rich cronies.
   The one thing I noticed during this speech is his lack of understanding of the Arab mind.