Hillary Rodham Clinton: Secretary of State

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton…sounds good huh? Sources inside and out of the office of the President-elect are confirming that Senator Barack Obama has offered Senator Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State. Now the question seems to be will she become the first and most high profile Democrat to turn down the next Commander In Chief? Some doubt it.

Should Senator Hillary Clinton turn down the President-elect, who has already announced his resignation from the same body effective Sunday, she will do so as a junior member on almost every issue. Some suggest she might want to return and help lead the Senate as it prepares to reform healthcare, an issue she has been passionate about since her days as Arkansas’s First Lady and at the Children’s Defense Fund. However, Senator Ted Kennedy, who will return to the senate in January, and chairs the Education, Labor, and Health Committee along with Max Baucus, who chairs the Finance Committee, both have made it clear that won’t happen. The United States Senate is the most ego driven legislative body in America and all sides are staking their claim. Sen. Baucus even went so far as to give a press conference earlier this month outlining his own plan for reform.

Analysts have done studies of major presidential candidates who return to their daily jobs after suffering major defeats. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) who was the Democratic nominee in 2004 was back on the job a week later. However, there is a major adjustment that must take place coming from almost two years on the stump speaking to tens of thousands of fans who are willing to take whatever you say. Going back to the senate isn’t the same. This is why the Secretary of State position is for Mrs. Clinton.

President-elect Obama will be bombarded in the first one-hundred days of his administration with fixing the huge domestic mess that the Bush Administration has left for him. We need a Secretary of State who can step onto the world stage with instant name and fame worldwide. We need a Secretary of State who not only has foreign relations experience but has deep foreign relations contacts. The election of President-elect Obama to be the 44th President has changed our image worldwide over night. To avoid taking advantage of that image and good feeling early will be a misstep for the administration. So while the President-elect and his administration focus on fixing America at home, the Vice President-elect and Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) should focus on fixing America abroad.

We need Senator Clinton at the State Department, and I hope she accepts.

Tha-Kid JK

tha-kid@revkitchen.com

The American Dream Deferred

The American Dream Deferred

“America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal - to discover and maintain liberty among men. “-Woodrow Wilson

It has been many years since the time of American Dreams realized. It would seem, since the birth of this great nation, that we the people have forgotten to realize the vision. A vision , that sculpted the mountain of the American way and made the U.S. the pinnacle of the World. Founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, and justice for all, we have throughout history contradicted the very principles that made us who we are. We as America have been the wind that has carried democracy, natural rights, and freedom throughout the valleys of the world, yet we deny many who are our fellow the natural right for well being.

Today’s America has matured from the days of slavery, denial of women’s rights, civil rights for all Americans, and public discriminatory racism to childish bickering of democrats versus republicans, conservatives versus liberals, and patriots and terrorism. When will the debauchery in America end. When will our greed and selfishness be replaced with Americanism and selflessness. People elect their representatives for irrational views than for the commonwealth of people and our nation. Our country bled the blood of countrymen for rights of freedom of religion but dictated politicians to the code of “Christianity”. Our spite of our fellow man and self interest blind our founding principles of the American way. The American dream.

Somehow we as a people have tarnished the glorious western light of liberty with pettiness and and foreign bullying. We arrogantly borrow from countries whose governmental ideologies differ from one another and then shove democracy in to nations whose culture and religion that conflicts with our concepts. The American Dream has evolved into the nightmare from the west, who dictates and forces our religion and democratic ideologies on the very difference that we cherish as America. How have we stray so far from home. Why do we roam for fear and force instead of exploration and innovation. We have allowed our fear to distort our vision of the world and manipulated Christianity to justify the cause.

It is that clouded judgment that has somehow made Christianity a qualification to be a real American. In a country founded on the bases of freedom of religion, we have become a nation that persecutes and isolate those whose religious preference differs from our own. In today’s world, we fight the crusade against Muslim nations and label it the war on terror so we can have a clear conscience. when we go to bed at night. Subsequently. we have become the very terrorist we despise and seek out. Not to point fingers but, it seems since Conservative Republicans took office eight years ago, hate, fear, and deception has been the fuel that drove our military into the heart of Muslim nations to wage war with and idea.

From observation of this nation’s past decade, one notion is true the American dream has been lost, abandoned for hate, diminished by fear and discouraged by deception. When will she return, when lady America grace American shores with her glory. It is not certain the time nor the hour, but merely determined by the minds and hearts of the American People who dream the dream of dreams.- William R. Gilbert, Jr.

Wake Up America

Why America? Why?

What are we fighting for in Iraq?

What are we trying to win?

What are we trying to accomplish?

What are we winning?

Where is the honor in fighting in Iraq when we invaded on false pretenses?

What is the mission we are trying to accomplish?

We used the names and the lives who were lost on 9/11 in vain to validate a dishonorable war in

Iraq.

What are We doing America?

Why have we lost sight of our true American Ways?

When will America act like America and have the unity that makes us the “United” States?

We all must be able to compromise on our views,feelings, and opinions in order to do good for the Whole.

“He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. “- Confucius

We as a Nation must grow together as one. Since the days of our founding fathers we have been

the light of the world’s horizon and to ensure that our light shines into the future collectively as

one we must resound the voices of liberty across the world.

Wake Up America.

- William Gilbert, Jr.

Dear America

Dear America,

“For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future. “- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

We have come to a time in American History, where the hour of change is at hand for every American citizen. It is now apparent that we as Americans have allowed the past administration to neglect the very nation we hold so true. Under the administrations past have allowed our troops to fight for honor in a dishonorable war and our economy slip into economic peril. For far too many years we have bled our economy with two wars and as a result we have lost jobs for hard working Americans, neglected our infrastructure , and crippled our credit market. We have fed the bellies of fats cats in Washington and Wall Street to the point that the entire U.S. economy is suffering from economic starvation.

“Don’t forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt

The war in Iraq alone has unmercifully bled our economy dry and set of a chain reaction of economic calamity across the entire globe. The Iraqi war was founded on false and dishonorable pretenses and has adversely strained our alliances across the world. Many believe that if we stay in Iraq that somehow we can win a fruitless war and leave with our dignity and honor. Yet, the reality is that we must admit and apologize for our dishonorable intrusion of Iraq ,for that is the true honorable way. The definition of Honor is as stated: honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions. A nation with honor is a nation who is honest in it’s values to be truthful to its people and the world. A nation with honor has the fairness to allow other nations to live in peace and prosperity. A nation with true honor is a nation with integrity, integrity to admit to their mistakes and take pride in correcting them. This America is Honor.

The past five years of war has severely wounded the American economy and to heal these wounds we must end our campaign in Iraq. The economic hemorrhaging of the Iraq war has crippled this great nation and strained our foreign stance in the world. We as a nation must unify under our founding principles of Liberty and Freedom to restore our glory and democracy.

“I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world. “- Lyndon B. Johnson

Together as a nation we must mature in to one and at this time in America we have lost sight of the unity that made us into a nation. For America to survive the test of time must open our minds and allow the bells of liberty ring into the 21st Century.
Sincerely,

William Gilbert, Jr.

Barack Obama, President

For months I have been mulling a Bob Barr endorsement. But after some consideration, I will reluctantly support Barack Obama.

In the first months of the primaries, I supported libertarian Ron Paul, since I am a libertarian. If Ron Paul would have won the Republican nomination, I am confident he would win in a landslide. But once it was inevitable that Paul had lost the nomination after loses in Iowa and New Hampshire he did fairly well in Nevada and won in Louisiana - people will tell you McCain won it, but Paul did - I endorsed Bill Richardson.

Shortly after that Richardson dropped out, and I endorsed the last good candidate left in the race, Hillary Clinton. I felt Hillary had the executive experience, and that Senator Obama’s only executive experience was on the board of Chicago’s Annenberg challenge, which is not presidential.

Obama was a state Senator, only active in the US Senate for 146 days, whoever supported him in the primaries (nearly 18 million voters) must have been high on something! But Hillary Clinton (a little over 18 million votes) had the experience to be president. But once Joe Biden was picked, I knew Barack Obama was walking away from just saying “change” and “hope” to focusing on the issues like Hillary Clinton.

Bob Barr seems like a good candidate with seven percent of responders in today’s Rasmussen tracking poll choosing someone besides Obama or McCain. But he still seems like a waste of a vote.

And so I reluctantly support Senator Barack Obama for president.

Not Change

McCain is not change, and neither is his wing man, Pallin. Obama is the change candidate, he is the candidate that used the change platform. Since the Republican convention it seems the Same Old Party has been trying to adopt change as it’s new name, with little challenge from Obama (swift boats anyone?). However Barack Obama is now visibly hitting back in an email he sent to supporters this afternoon:

[McCain's] new ad uses what news organizations are calling “naked lies” to reinvent two politicians whose records embody the same culture of corruption and far-right policies we’ve seen from the Bush administration.

The biggest whopper in the ad (that’s still being repeated day after day by McCain and Palin on the campaign trail) is that Governor Palin stopped the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” — in fact, she supported it, and even hired a lobbyist in Washington to get more pork-barrel projects like it.

If the McCain-Palin campaign wants to have a debate about who is prepared to bring the change we need, we’re more than ready.

More than this not being change, the McCain story has been floundering on their experience equals judgment claims too. It seems they can’t use judgment to come up with their own campaign motto’s (the best judgment would be actually joining the progressive platform, not just using it’s campaign language).

Stop acting like we won! And vote the right way.

I was not pleased with the Democratic convention last week, when all the big Democrats were acting like we won this election and there is no need to attack John McCain’s negative personal record. I could tell you, during next weeks Republican national convention, the Republicans won’t be talking about how  Barack Obama is a great patriotic American, and how he is only wrong on the issues! We have to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and attack McCain for running a campaign based on his POW record. We need to swift boat him!

I was recently talking to a progressive, and asked him who he is voting for, and he said ‘McCain’.  I asked why, and he said ‘ Well, Obama will win New York anyways, so lets give the underdog some respect’. The Obama camp must talk to these crazy voters!!!!

An Open Letter to My Fellow Clinton Backers on Biden…Get Over It

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Dear Fellow Clinton Supporters;

It is official Senator Barack Obama has picked Senator Joseph Biden to be the Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party of the United States of America. As this choice made news other things came to light about the process for vetting and selecting the number 2 spot of our party and with respect to Hillary and Bill Clinton. Let me be the first to say that Senator Obama and the Obama campaign seriously dropped the ball on this issue and big time.

For weeks after Hillary Clinton left the primary and threw her support behind Obama for President the candidate himself promised that she was well qualified to be on “anyone’s” shortlist. Sadly that anyone didn’t include him. Leaks continue to come out that his campaign never seriously vetted Hillary Clinton and never really considered her as the future Vice President despite his promises she would. To say the least it pisses me off. However on the selection of Joe Biden it was a great choice.

The story of a regular Joe is no one other than Joe Biden. The Senior Senator from Delaware who is the poorest member of the United States Senate, doesn’t own a home in Washington but instead commutes everyday back to his only home in Delaware will reach those in the lunch-bucket towns of PA, IN, and OH. However more importantly this is a pick that has worked hard on a large number of the issues that we supported Hillary Clinton on.

Violence Against Women’s Act- This was and still is one of the most powerful pieces of legislation every passed by Congress to combat domestic violence. Not only did he support it but he wrote it back in 1994 and worked hard with then- President Clinton to pass it. The VAWA has it is called contains a broad list of measures to fight a rapid rise in domestic violence and gives billions of dollars in federal funds to address the gender based crimes. However many will remember in 2000 the Supreme Court threw out that gender based section as unconstitutional but that didn’t stall Biden. He worked with Congress who at the time was swaying back and forth between Democratic and Republican control to reauthorize the VAWA. More to his credit when people started to criticize the problems at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, it was Biden who worked with technology companies to find the problems and donate their own equipment and expert experience in fixing it.

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993-Again working with President Clinton to fulfill a campaign promise, Joe Biden joined a group of Senators as strong advocates for its passage in 1993. This is a strong bill that provides for 12 weeks of leave for parents after the birth of a child, caring for a sick child or parent, or being too ill to perform the job.

These two major acts of congress are just a drop in the bucket on the others that aligned our dream President with the hopefully next Vice President. It is okay to be angry and disappointed at the failure of what a growing number of Americans see as an arrogant Obama campaign. However to seek to sink this ship and turn the keys to the White House over to John McCain borders on treason.

We know that if Obama is elected President he will work to bring our troops home and end the war in Iraq while winning the war in Afghanistan. We know that if Obama is elected President he will fight for real middle class tax cuts, higher taxes and revoked financial assistances to the oil companies. We know that if Obama is elected President he will bring real reform to an urban education community that has been under attack by No Child Left Behind that came with all new standards but forgot all the money.

These are real issues that affect real people and real lives. No one is above these issues, yes no one, not even Hillary Clinton. It is time to realize she lost and get over it.

Tha-Kid JK

tha-kid@revkitchen.com

Jared Polis for Congress!

I haven’t written on this blog for a little while now. I’ve been busy with school, and I just finished serving as a United States Congressional Page. But for me, this race for Congress in Colorado’s 2nd District is far too important for me not to do everything I possibly can to get the word out about one particular candidate in that race, Jared Polis. Jared is a 33-year old internet entrepreneur who’s made millions of his own money by working hard and coming up with new technology. He’s used his financial success to build schools for homeless children, and served 8 years as the Colorado State Board of Education Chairman. He also happens to be openly gay, and would, if he wins the primary on August 12th, make history by becoming the first openly gay male non-incumbent in Congress. Whoever wins the primary will almost certainly win the general election, seeing as it’s a seat that’s gone Democratic since 1975.

I am a 16-year old openly gay political enthusiast. I support Jared because for me, as cliche as it sounds, he represents hope for the future. He represents a generational change, as well as a historic oppurtunity. Both of his opponents are in their 50’s and 60’s, and have been involved in politics for many years. Jared is the only candidate who truly represents me and my generation, and therefore it is so important that he wins his race on Tuesday. I encourage everyone on this blog to actively support his campaign for the remaining 6 days, by donating as much money as they can at his website, www.PolisforCongress.com, and getting the word out about his campaign to their friends and family. Again, this is a historic and unprecedented oppurtunity; Jared is a rising star who could make history for my generation and the gay community; he could one day end up as Governor of Colorado, or perhaps even President of the United States. So let’s make sure he wins on Tuesday.

Election 2008: Ralph Nader in Athens, Georgia

On July 25th, 2008, my father, my thirteen-year-old brother, and I went to go see Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and 2008 Independent Presidential candidate, speak at “Master’s Hall” on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. I had been incredibly excited to see that Nader was coming to Georgia on his “Southern Tour”, and no more than forty miles away from my town, no less! My father, being the good open-minded fellow that he is, agreeably drove myself and my uninterested brother there and paid the $10 each to get in. We each received a free Nader/Gonzalez ‘08 pin for this payment. There was a long table set up just outside the hall for this practice of collecting money, and for collecting signatures on a petition to get Ralph Nader on the ballot in Georgia. The number of signatures necessary to get Nader, or any Independent candidate, on the ballot in Georgia is inane: 42,489 signatures by July 8th. Such ballot access laws are implemented so that independent candidates cannot make a significant challenge to the two major parties in power (who are the ones that make the laws, of course).

The event was at 5:30 in the afternoon; we three were situated in our seats by 5:00, and we watched as the hall filled up with likely about two hundred people. Since Ralph Nader had held an event in Columbia, South Carolina, at 12 o’clock that afternoon, and since he had run into some bad traffic on the way to Athens, he did not arrive at the hall until about 6 o’clock that evening.

After giving a brief press conference upstairs, Nader arrived, amidst a burst of applause. He walked down the aisle, right next to where I was sitting (close enough that I could have touched him, if I lacked judgement and prudence), towards the podium. Nader sat down and briefly rested from his busy schedule while a young African American campaign volunteer, a “concerned citizen”, gave an earnest introductory speech. In this speech, the young man affirmed how much he cared about the country and the issues at hand, and how important it is for everyone to care and be civically involved. And then he said, “And now I am proud to present a more-than-worthy 2008 presidential candidate, Mr. Ralph Nader.” The crowd erupted into applause. This was the moment that we had all been waiting for. We three were not disappointed.
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69 People I Will Not Have Dinner With

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has passed the Senate. For those who did not read my post yesterday, this bill grants the telecom companies immunity for helping the NSA spy on phone conversations so that we may never know the extent of the NSA’s warrentless wiretapping program, and grants the president even more warrentless wiretapping powers. What follows is a list of all the senators that voted in favor of the FISA bill. Hopefully, I never have to meet any of these people (again), because I do not want to shake their slimy hands. Read more

My Parents Voting for John McCain?

I was talking to my mother yesterday because Senator John McCain had recently made a visit to my hometown of Fresno, California. She said that actually she was unaware that he was even in town until after it happened, but she wished she knew. She will be voting for John McCain. What!? She will be voting for John McCain! My mother has been a Democrat since she knew what the word meant. She has NEVER ever even considered voting for a Republican. So what could get her to vote for one now?

Let me tell you, it is not because John McCain has used his charm and political leadership to win over her vote. For my father, who has likely been voting Republican for years, it wasn’t anything new. What was new on that front is that he might NOT vote for McCain but a third party. For my mother it was Hillary Clinton. During the days that at times Sen. Obama called the divisive days of the 90’s, my mother stood tall in her support of President Bill Clinton. She loved his leadership, and felt he was being wronged. In 2008, when Hillary launched her campaign, my mother was right on board. She even refused to give my younger brother a ride to the polls because he might have voted for Obama. As the campaign went on, and the attacks got greater, my mother got more mad. When it seemed to come to an end, lets just say she was pissed off. Those wounds haven’t healed, and in my mothers words, “They won’t, unless he picks her.” Picks her? Yes, my mother won’t vote for Sen. Obama unless he selects her to be his running mate as Vice President.

I don’t think that my mother is unique. I think that she represents the voice of millions of women and other voters who gave their time, tears, and painfully helped wage a historic campaign for the White House on behalf of Mrs. Clinton. To many of them, she should be awarded with the Vice Presidential nomination, and I am proud to announce I agree.

Senator Clinton has spent her life fighting for people in poverty, people who look like me. She has spent a career advocating for just what America needs at this time, and that is healthcare for all Americans, that is affordable and works. Her experience on the details of this issue that cripples many family budgets, is bringing down budgets of states and local governments nationwide, and is the largest expense of businesses that drive them to other countries, is what he needs. Her willingness to fight for things that are important regardless of what the storyline might be tomorrow is what he needs. Her ability to seek compromise, but only good compromise, and have friendly relationships with countless numbers of people on the other side of the aisle is what he needs.

So when it comes to who should be selected to the job of inquiring daily as to the health of the President, and preside over the proceedings of the Senate, I nominate Hillary Clinton.

Tha-Kid JK

tha-kid@revkitchen.com

NOOOO To Jim Webb as VP

Senator Barack Obama is knee deep in the search for a candidate for the Vice Presidential slot on his ticket. A backer of Senator Clinton’s bid for the White House, I disagree that she is the only choice he can make to win, however I believe that he must choose someone (hopefully her) from her camp like Evan Bayh or Ed Rendell. That said, there is this large argument out there that is sad, wrong, and even worst, will doom his chances with some. That choice is Senator Jim Webb from Virgina.

Countless numbers of Democrats are pushing the Junior (soon to be Senior) Senator from Virginia in order to win that state, build up his military and international experience, and moderate his positions. WRONG!
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The case for Kokoism!

If you’re like me, you’re downright fed up with the same old stuff from the Democratic and Republican Parties, who run under the banner of change, but who will only let us down once again with the same timid decision making! Now, there’s a party for us! In honor of Think Youth’s good friend, Koko Chassid, a new political party has been formed: The Kokoist Party!

The Kokoist Party of America is truly a party of changed policy. In fact, it changes its position on policy every ten minutes. Which other political party can say that?! Read on for more information about the Kokoist platform, as well as some exciting news about the groundwork being laid for a strong Kokoist run at the White House in 2008!

Kokoist Party Platform

1. The Kokoist Party of America believes that all men are created equal, except Ron Paul is way more awesome than anyone else!
2. The Kokoist Party of America believes in a small government. In fact, the entire federal government should be able to fit inside of a road-side hot dog stand. If it cannot, it is too large!
3. The Kokoist Party of America believes in healthcare for all, and then it doesn’t, and then it does again.
4. The Kokoist Party of America believes strongly in animal rights, such as the rights of animals to be used as subjects in bloodsports.
5. The Kokoist Party of America believes in an end to the war on drugs. We are spending resources in the pursuit of casual drug users that could be better used fighting the real threat to American society: Michael Savage haters.
6. The Kokoist Party of America believes that every child should have access to Sean Hannity’s delightful and informative radio program!
7. The Kokoist Party believes that global warming is man made, and that the men making it should get tax cuts and SUVs.

Kokoist Party in 2008

The Kokoist Party of America is pleased to announce that, despite our relatively recent formation, we have already fielded a presidential ticket to run in the 2008 general election! This is a big step in the right direction. Go below the fold for an exclusive first-look at the 2008 Kokoist ticket!

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