10 Reasons to Vote for the Democrats!
1. A Democratic Congress will not simply rubberstamp everything, from Pres. Bush’s exorbitant spending bills (when we’re in debt up to our ears), to Cheney’s continued plan to “just stay the course” in Iraq, when the ‘course’ has got us lost in a wilderness of chaos and death.
2. A Democratic Congress will provide the check and balance to this administrations extreme grab for executive branch power. Our forefathers intended Congress to prevent the President from overreaching for power. The present Republican Congress has not provided any check or balance and has allowed the President to illegally wire-tap American’s phones and suspend Habeas Corpus (thus shredding our bill of rights).
3. Power corrupts. The Republicans have been in sole control of Congress for 12 years and have proven this adage true with the likes of indicted and/or convicted; Tom Delay, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Bob Ney, Scooter Libby, James Tobin, Ralph Reed and their favorite lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
4. They say the economy’s good, but middle-class salaries are stalled, energy prices continue to rise, our national debt is in the trillions and the vast majority of the jobs that have been created pay about $7.50 an hour. Meanwhile manufacturing plants in the U.S. continue to pack up and move over seas taking our decent paying jobs with them.
5. In their famous, “Contract with America”, the Republicans promised to balance the budget, cut pork-barrel spending and lobbyists influence and bring morality back to Washington. Have they kept that promise?
6. Republicans say we’re safer now, but while the vast majority of our military forces are mired in a war with a country which was never a threat to us, Osama Bin Laden runs free, Iran laughs at us and continues its nuclear program and N. Korea test fires nuclear weapons.
7. Despite billion dollar budgets allocated for national security, the U.S. still does not have any system to check the tens of thousands of cargo containers entering the country on a daily basis, nor do we check planes cargo or more than 2% of airline luggage for explosives. Countries such as Britain and Israel manage to check 100% of their airlines cargo and luggage so it is quite possible to do if your citizens’ security is truly a priority. Do you feel safer?
8. The U.S. is one of the richest countries in the world so why does it rank 72nd in the world in healthcare, according to the World Health Organization’s Dale Index, far below the average of developed nations? Why do 45.8 million Americans (about 15% of the total population) have no health insurance coverage (2004) a number which rose by about 850,000 from the previous year? Most uninsured Americans are working-class persons between the ages of 2 and 65 whose employers do not provide health insurance and who earn to much to qualify for one of the local or state insurance programs for the poor, but don’t earn enough to cover the cost of buying their own insurance. The Democrats have a plan to address the overwhelming healthcare crisis in this country, what have the Republicans done?
9. America can’t afford to keep the Republicans in office, literally can’t afford it! Republicans laud themselves as fiscally conservative, but under their management we have run-up the largest deficit in U.S. and world history. President Bush has signed every single spending package placed in front of him, and these spending packages have been overloaded with pork barrel incentives. The President and Republican Congress have passed spending packages with over 16,000 pork barrel earmarks. The last Democratically controlled Congress passed bills with a couple of hundred pork barrel earmarks. The Republicans promised to clean up pork barrel spending, instead they’ve cleaned their plates and gone back for second and third helpings of the bacon!
10. The Republicans claim to support the troops, but have under funded the Veterans Administration, which provides healthcare for our wounded soldiers, over and over since they took office. They talk a good game on patriotism, but when it comes right down to it, they just don’t GET IT! They refuse to change strategy or leadership in Iraq. They attempt to cut hazard pay for our military personnel serving in combat areas. They under fund our Veterans Administration. They’ve passed billions of dollars of funding for the Iraq War and yet try to demand that our combat forces pay for upgrades in their body armor themselves, out of pocket. Is that supporting our troops?!!!!! The Democrats currently in Congress have stood up over and over again to prevent Pres. Bush from shafting the very soldiers he claims to love and support. Check the records.
2. A Democratic Congress will provide the check and balance to this administrations extreme grab for executive branch power. Our forefathers intended Congress to prevent the President from overreaching for power. The present Republican Congress has not provided any check or balance and has allowed the President to illegally wire-tap American’s phones and suspend Habeas Corpus (thus shredding our bill of rights).
3. Power corrupts. The Republicans have been in sole control of Congress for 12 years and have proven this adage true with the likes of indicted and/or convicted; Tom Delay, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Bob Ney, Scooter Libby, James Tobin, Ralph Reed and their favorite lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
4. They say the economy’s good, but middle-class salaries are stalled, energy prices continue to rise, our national debt is in the trillions and the vast majority of the jobs that have been created pay about $7.50 an hour. Meanwhile manufacturing plants in the U.S. continue to pack up and move over seas taking our decent paying jobs with them.
5. In their famous, “Contract with America”, the Republicans promised to balance the budget, cut pork-barrel spending and lobbyists influence and bring morality back to Washington. Have they kept that promise?
6. Republicans say we’re safer now, but while the vast majority of our military forces are mired in a war with a country which was never a threat to us, Osama Bin Laden runs free, Iran laughs at us and continues its nuclear program and N. Korea test fires nuclear weapons.
7. Despite billion dollar budgets allocated for national security, the U.S. still does not have any system to check the tens of thousands of cargo containers entering the country on a daily basis, nor do we check planes cargo or more than 2% of airline luggage for explosives. Countries such as Britain and Israel manage to check 100% of their airlines cargo and luggage so it is quite possible to do if your citizens’ security is truly a priority. Do you feel safer?
8. The U.S. is one of the richest countries in the world so why does it rank 72nd in the world in healthcare, according to the World Health Organization’s Dale Index, far below the average of developed nations? Why do 45.8 million Americans (about 15% of the total population) have no health insurance coverage (2004) a number which rose by about 850,000 from the previous year? Most uninsured Americans are working-class persons between the ages of 2 and 65 whose employers do not provide health insurance and who earn to much to qualify for one of the local or state insurance programs for the poor, but don’t earn enough to cover the cost of buying their own insurance. The Democrats have a plan to address the overwhelming healthcare crisis in this country, what have the Republicans done?
9. America can’t afford to keep the Republicans in office, literally can’t afford it! Republicans laud themselves as fiscally conservative, but under their management we have run-up the largest deficit in U.S. and world history. President Bush has signed every single spending package placed in front of him, and these spending packages have been overloaded with pork barrel incentives. The President and Republican Congress have passed spending packages with over 16,000 pork barrel earmarks. The last Democratically controlled Congress passed bills with a couple of hundred pork barrel earmarks. The Republicans promised to clean up pork barrel spending, instead they’ve cleaned their plates and gone back for second and third helpings of the bacon!
10. The Republicans claim to support the troops, but have under funded the Veterans Administration, which provides healthcare for our wounded soldiers, over and over since they took office. They talk a good game on patriotism, but when it comes right down to it, they just don’t GET IT! They refuse to change strategy or leadership in Iraq. They attempt to cut hazard pay for our military personnel serving in combat areas. They under fund our Veterans Administration. They’ve passed billions of dollars of funding for the Iraq War and yet try to demand that our combat forces pay for upgrades in their body armor themselves, out of pocket. Is that supporting our troops?!!!!! The Democrats currently in Congress have stood up over and over again to prevent Pres. Bush from shafting the very soldiers he claims to love and support. Check the records.
posted by Leo at 2:35 PM
6 Comments:
OMG, great post!!! There are so many things here that I agree with, I don't even have time to go into them all. I also love your previous post too. So, all in all I have to say that you have a great blog!
Thanks for your comment on my blog!
Yes, it's me leaving another comment, just had to ask if I can post a link to your site on my blog?
Raven, thanks so much for the compliments and comments. I would love to link with your blog, as I like yours a lot too. I will put a link to your blog up under my, blogs I like, asap. Take care.
Yes, I'm a Wiccan too. Thanks for putting up my link, I'll add yours right now.
I'm a Republican but I do agree that one Party being in control for too long is not good for the country. I've been looking for an answer to a very simple question. The Democrat Party has stated several if not thousands of times that "they" will do a better job with the War On Terror. I was wondering if you would share with us, the Democrat plan for the war on terror. Seemingly, only Democrats know what "they" are planning on doing. In my talks with Democrat lawmakers while serving in Iraq, the only thing I was told was," Vote for me Chief and we'll win this." How Sir, what is your plan? "Vote for me and you'll see." I wish I were making this up. That's not a plan in my book.
I'm also having a tough time seeing how the economy is doing bad with gas prices dropping and unemployment at a record low. Isn't it a person's choice to accept a low paying job? I'll have to take your word on low paying jobs as I have had the same job for 15 years and admittedly out of touch with the job market in the civilian sector.
North Korea and Iran: That argument is really weak and honestly only makes them more defiant. Most of America, at present, are nothing more than defeatist who are only concerned with themselves. The two countries know the American people would never approve of using force, due to our "perceived" displeasure with the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Largely, the American people have given up on their troops, on our leadership, and on the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people actually do have a lot to offer us, and I'm not talking oil. This is the perfect example of how America has become spoiled in our,"we want it now attitude." Sometimes, doing the right thing takes time and patience. Not all of us are defeated and I'd personally appreciate all of those who aren't risking their lives, shutting up and letting the grown up handle the War on Terror.
Lastly, I'll vote Democrat, no problem, just as soon as they show me a better plan that doesn't increase the danger to my family and/or desert the Iraqi people, again. The Dems will probably win big in Nov, doesn't really matter to me. I do pray that once they are in charge they learn to lead instead of point fingers for a change. The Democrats are just as much at fault for the "mess" we are in. If only they would have offered to lend a hand and left their hatred and bitterness over a stupid election out of the picture.
Wayne, First off thanks for the comment. Secondly, while I am not a member of the democratic party leadership I will attempt to answer your simple question: What is the democrats plan for fighting the war on terror, by quoting from the DNC website available to everyone through a simple google search:Democratic Plan to Fight the War on Terror
21st Century Military
To Ensure Unparalleled Military Strength and Honor our Troops, we will:
Rebuild a state-of-the-art military by making the needed investments in equipment and manpower so that we can project power to protect America wherever and whenever necessary.
Guarantee that our troops have the protective gear, equipment, and training they need and are never sent to war without accurate intelligence and a strategy for success.
Enact a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century that guarantees our troops -- active, reserve, and retired -- our veterans, and their families receive the pay, health care, mental health services, and other benefits they have earned and deserve.
Strengthen the National Guard, in partnership with the nation's Governors, to ensure it is fully manned, equipped and available to meet missions at home and abroad.
War on Terror
To Defeat Terrorists and Stop the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, we will:
Eliminate Osama Bin Laden, destroy terrorist networks like al Qaeda, finish the job in Afghanistan and end the threat posed by the Taliban.
Double the size of our Special Forces, increase our human intelligence capabilities, and ensure our intelligence is free from political pressure.
Eliminate terrorist breeding grounds by combating the economic, social, and political conditions that allow extremism to thrive; lead international efforts to uphold and defend human rights; and renew longstanding alliances that have advanced our national security objectives.
Secure by 2010 loose nuclear materials that terrorists could use to build nuclear weapons or "dirty bombs."
Redouble efforts to stop nuclear weapons development in Iran and North Korea.
Homeland Security
To Protect America from Terrorism and Natural Disasters, we will:
Immediately implement the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission including securing national borders, ports, airports and mass transit systems.
Screen 100% of containers and cargo bound for the U.S. in ships or airplanes at the point of origin and safeguard America's nuclear and chemical plants, and food and water supplies.
Prevent outsourcing of critical components of our national security infrastructure -- such as ports, airports and mass transit -- to foreign interests that put America at risk.
Provide firefighters, emergency medical workers, police officers, and other workers on the front lines with the training, staffing, equipment and cutting-edge technology they need.
Protect America from biological terrorism and pandemics, including the Avian flu, by investing in the public health infrastructure and training public health workers.
Iraq
To Honor the Sacrifice of Our Troops, we will:
Ensure 2006 is a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with the Iraqis assuming primary responsibility for securing and governing their country and with the responsible redeployment of U.S. forces.
Insist that Iraqis make the political compromises necessary to unite their country and defeat the insurgency; promote regional diplomacy; and strongly encourage our allies and other nations to play a constructive role.
Hold the Bush Administration accountable for its manipulated pre-war intelligence, poor planning and contracting abuses that have placed our troops at greater risk and wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.
Energy Independence
To Free America from Dependence on Foreign Oil, we will:
Achieve energy independence for America by 2020 by eliminating reliance on oil from the Middle East and other unstable regions of the world.
Increase production of alternate fuels from America's heartland including bio-fuels, geothermal, clean coal, fuel cells, solar and wind; promote hybrid and flex fuel vehicle technology and manufacturing; enhance energy efficiency and conservation incentives.
I hope that answers, at least in part your question. Now I have one for you, equally simple, what have the Republicans done to fight the war on terror? I ask because it seems to me that, they did not provide enough troops to be as successful as we could have been in Afghanistan-The top leaders of Al Qaeda escaped. They then pulled a large portion of the troops we had in Afghanistan out of there in order to invade a country which posed no imminent threat to America and played No Role in attacking America on 9/11. You say that it is a weak argument to discuss the danger posed to America from Iran and Korea, but I would say to you that in deploying the majority of our military forces into Iraq and deposing the Iraqi government we caused the threat from Iran and N. Korea to become greater due to two factors, one Saddam's Iraq was the main enemy and threat to Iran in that area of the world and we've eliminated that threat allowing Iran to become a bigger and more powerful influence in the region, and two with the majority of our forces tied up in Iraq, Iran and N. Korea know that we don't have many if any military options to use against them. We can threaten them, but the threat is rather empty, since we don't have the manpower or equipment to fight in any more major conflicts at the moment. Unless you think it's reasonable to think we can fight 3 seperate wars at once? As for some of the rest of your comment, who exactly is the grown-up veteran whose handling the war on terror presently? Donald Rumsfield? (not a veteran) Pres. Bush? (not a veteran-unless you count going awol from the national guard during Vietnam) Dick Cheney?(not a veteran) When you say anyone not risking their life should shut-up I'm assuming you're including all of these men in that statement. Are you also including all the Americans who have served their country during previous wars? If you're referring to me, I served in the Army during the first Gulf War. I'm seriously not sure who that comment was intended for.
Last but not least you said,the dems are just as much at fault for the mess we're in. Ok I would agree that the dems in Congress should never have voted to go to war in Iraq and share in the responsibility in that, though since they we're not the majority in either house, it didn't matter much as the Republicans had enough votes anyway. I don't see how the Dems who have held no power in Congress for the last 12 years or in the executive branch for the last 6 years are as much to blame for whatever else you're referring to. The Republicans made the false case for war in Iraq, the Republicans planned for how to fight it and had no good plan for how to stabilize the country once we we're there. The Democrats had nothing to do with it. I'm not sure what mess you're referring too anyway, since earlier in your post you expressed support for the Iraq War and disgust at the idea that the Democrats would want to, anytime soon, redeploy our troops. So if you feel as though Iraq is going well and we should remain there indefinitely, what mess are you talking about? One last thing, I resent and I think most Americans should resent the statement you made about most Americans are defeatist who are only concerned with themselves. Perhaps thats true in some measure, but I personally think that most Americans no matter their political party are most concerned with the welfare of our nation and most especially with the welfare of our military troops. Not wanting to see anymore dead soldiers than necessary is not defeatist or selfish it's compassionate and pragmatic. If we can succeed in Iraq, great, but we've been there for almost 4 years and the perspective from here is that things are worse, more chaotic, less safe than they we're a year ago. If that is true than, where is the evidence that we can succeed if we continue with the present plan for the next 5 or ten years? I do believe in our troops, we have a great military, but any team is only as good as its leaders and battle plan, and I have no faith in the present political leadership of this country to formulate any new plan-or make any changes to the current one which is obviously not working. By the way where are you stationed right now? Thanks for your service and for voicing your opinions.
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