I’d like to make a suggestion for those of you wishing to honor all veterans - regardless of when they served, where they served, if you agreed or disagreed with with their reason for serving, or even for what country they served:

Treat Veteran’s Day as the day of rememberance it’s intended to be.

There is a reason we create national holidays: to remind us not to forget! To remind us there are people, events and actions more important than ourselves, who have, in some small or large way, contributed to our having if not a better life then at least having the opportunity for a better life than those who came before us. We’re supposed to spend that time with our loved ones, many of whom are undoubtedly veterans, enjoying their company, thanking them for what they’ve done, hearing the stories of their time in service (and that just never gets old), laughing with them and sometimes crying with them, going to the parades and parks and beaches having events that do honor them - not showing up at Macy’s at 5am for another holiday sale.

And yet, every year, I see fewer and fewer businesses honor Veteran’s Day by closing their offices. Yes, banks close (most of them, anyway), the post office closes, state and federal offices close - but few others do. Personally, it angers me no end. It angers me all the more considering WE’RE AT WAR! Could we possibly show less thanks, admiration and respect for our troops right now than by not even being able to take one day out of our lives for them? After all, they’ve taken several years, and in far too many cases - all their years - out of their life for us.

Thanks for listening.

This Tuesday is going to be a very important day. Voters will head to polling sites throughout the country -- but there's one race in particular that I'd like to draw your attention to, a race the Republicans want to use as a referendum on Barack Obama's presidency.

That race is the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District.

The Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, has devoted his life to creating jobs and developing Upstate New York's economy, helping to bring over 2,000 jobs to the region. He is also a veteran, having nobly served our country as a Captain at the Plattsburgh Air Force Base. He is exactly the sort of person we need working for us in Congress.

Help me elect another veteran to Congress. Contribute to Bill Owen's campaign today!

Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman's entry into the race has mobilized those who want to damage President Obama and his progressive agenda. Radical tea party activists from across the country have come to New York to volunteer for Hoffman's campaign, seeing the race's outcome as a first electoral test of their movement's strength.

Hoffman has even been endorsed by the conservative Club for Growth, Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson, and Dick Armey -- and they are all working overtime to ensure a conservative victory.

While Doug Hoffman's campaign has been fueled by right-wing tea party leaders, Bill's has been fueled by everyday New Yorkers who recognize Bill's ability to drive economic revitalization within the region.

Help us send a powerful message to the country about the support for progressive values -- contribute to Bill Owen's campaign before Tuesday's election!

Whoever gets the most votes Tuesday will win the seat. There are three candidates in the race, and with the low turnout in special elections, every vote is that much more important.

A recent poll gives Bill a slight lead in the race, but this is a swing district that narrowly voted for President Obama. We still need to do everything we can to ensure a Democratic victory.

Please contribute to Bill in these final days before the special election.

Join me, and scores of others, including Vice President Biden and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, in supporting Bill Owens in this important House race. With the election just days away, we need to act quickly to ensure a Democratic victory!

You have done so much to elect new leaders to Congress, especially veterans. Thank you for everything.

Sincerely,

Wes Clark

P.S. This important election is just a few days away. Help us ensure a Democratic victory, and the defeat of a right-wing activist by contributing to Bill Owen's campaign today.

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This just in from the AP:  SC lawmakers nix considering Sanford impeachment…

Good!

Correction:  My apologies. I misspelled Rep. Delleney’s last name in the previous post.  Probably should have clarified, too, that he is a state Rep. (R) from Chester.

Wow!  I just re-read the first paragraph of the post below:

“…emergency session of the South Carolina legislature convened for emergency…”

Yep!  I’m sorry - what are emergency sessions for, again?  Oh, right, emergencies!  Silly me.  Gawd but I’m stupid sometimes.

Looks like Rep. Delaney is planning to introduce a resolution today, in an emergency session of the South Carolina legislature convened for emergency (and wholly unrelated) session, to impeach Governor Mark Sanford.

Besides just being sad, this is an enormous waste of time and taxpayer’s money (in my opinion, anyway).  Sanford’s got about 14 months left in office, and is possibly more single-mindedly focused on helping his state now than he has been in some time.   - I’m not referring to The State’s poor math skills and even poorer attempt at correcting it , but to Sanford’s own words of being, “…stupidly busy…” with added political responsibilites outside his home state, in the recent video interview below:

Does Delaney make a compelling argument?  Strictly speaking, and despite the fact I like Mark Sanford, yes.  But - there’s a far more important issue to be addressed than impeaching a sitting governor for physically leaving the state and leaving it without someone else in charge, and that is…the problem that the governor leaving the state doesn’t automatically put someone else in charge while he/she is absent!

Really - this is just incredibly stupid, short-sighted, and dangerous.  In many states - the moment the governor steps across the state line, power shifts to the next person in the chain of command still in that state.  It’s a-u-t-o-m-a-t-i-c. This is not the case in South Carolina apparently.

So - here’s my outsider’s suggestion to the South Carolina state legislature:

Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen of South Carolina,

Instead of wasting time and money you don’t have, to impeach Mark Sanford for, frankly, having the temerity to fall off a pedestal he had a lot of help from you all of being stuck on, and having goals/ideas for the health of the state government that aren’t always in lockstep with his political party, why not fix the problem his “fall” so glaringly illuminated?

As for what would be a suitable punishment for Sanford’s error?  I think the media’s already handled that about as eggregiously as possible, don’t you?

General Wesley Clark on MSNBC

October 26, 2009

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BY BRENT SNAVELY | DETROIT FREE PRESS | BUSINESS WRITER | October 20, 2009

Photo courtesy The Detroit News

During a speech today in Detroit, retired U.S. Army General and former presidential candidate Wesley Clark cast the effort to develop electric vehicles as a critical national security need that is essential to help the United States reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

The issue “is absolutely dead center in the bull’s-eye for national security,” Clark said during a three-day conference called “The Business of Plugging In,” which is being held at Motor City Casino in Detroit.

Clark also compared the current status of electric vehicles to the early stages of development for personal computers, cellular telephones and the Internet. He said the industry could be standing at the cusp of a similar technological revolution that could create jobs and boost the U.S. economy.

“We spawned a whole new industry off of personal computing,” Clark said. “We need that next big thing for America, and it could be right here at this conference. It could be in electric vehicle technologies.”

The conference has drawn more than 600 professionals from utilities, automotive companies and suppliers to discuss how to overcome infrastructure, development cost and policy issues so that electric cars can be a viable choice for consumers.

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By Sharon Silke Carty | USA TODAY | Oct 22, 2009

DETROIT — At a three-day conference on the future of plug-in hybrids, one lingering question kept coming up: Who's going to buy these things?

The answer, according to outsiders and industry leaders here: no one, if they're not fun to drive. Fun to play with. And fun to look at.

Naturally, people want safe and reliable cars, but, they said, the key to wide public acceptance of more expensive plug-in and electric cars is making them fun.

"We're asking, 'Can you give us the next big thing? Can you make a profit? And can you make it fun?' " said Wesley Clark, former presidential candidate and keynote speaker at the Business of Plugging In conference. "If you can do that, it's a whole new age for Detroit and a whole new age for America."

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On Saturday, October 17, 2009 General Wesley Clark spoke to Kentucky Democrats at the annual Jefferson-Jackson DInner. The Hillbilly Report captured his speech.

Courtesy of the Hillbilly Report

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Jack Brammer | Herald-Leader | Staff report | October 17, 1009

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000 and ran for president in 2004, came to Lexington Saturday to rally Kentucky Democrats.

Clark was the keynote speaker at the state Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner at the Red Mile.

Herald-Leader political reporter Jack Brammer interviewed him.

Question: What is your primary message to Kentucky Democrats?

Answer: Stay on course. The American people last year said 'yes, we can,' to Barack Obama and said we want change and want to bring jobs and prosperity back to this country. The country finally is headed in that direction.

Q: How is the president doing?

A: I think he's doing great. I'm very much excited about what he is doing.

Q: Outside the urban areas, Obama appears to be a political liability for Democrats in Kentucky. Would you advise Kentucky Democratic candidates to distance themselves from him?

A: Absolutely not. As Democrats, we have to stand up for what we believe in. We believe in jobs, jobs, jobs. Of course, we have to have a strong national security. But it's really about the economy. And this economy is turning around. It's coming our way, thanks to the leadership of all our Democrats in Washington.

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BY JOSEPH GERTH | COURIER-JOURNAL | OCTOBER 17, 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Democrats came together Saturday to rejuvenate themselves as national polls suggest uncertainty about the party’s policies on health care and the economy.

“We are on the right side of history,” U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, told a gathering at a Democratic picnic at The Red Mile race track in Lexington.

He acknowledged that Democrat’s in congress have seen their approval ratings fall in the past year “but we aren’t anywhere near as low as the Republicans in Congress and we’re not as low as (Republican U.S. Senator) Jim Bunning’s and were not anywhere near as low as (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell’s.”

The picnic preceded the party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner where Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark, who ran for president in 2004, was the event’s headliner.

At the picnic, Clark told the crowd to “Stand up for your values. … We know what we stand for as Democrats.”

He called on President Barack Obama to continue a new national defense policy where the idea is “not to just carry a big stick but to make more friends than enemies.”

More at the COURIER-JOURNAL

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General Wesley Clark on Fox's Geraldo at Large

October 11, 2009

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General Wesley Clark on ABC's Good Morning America

October 7, 2009

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