EFTA00667357.pdf

From: To: Bee: Subject: Date: Attachments: Gregory Brown undisclosed-recipients:; jeevacation@gmail.com Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:00:37 +0000 India's_SAB_planfor_electric„hybrid_vehicl_es_Katie_Fehrenbacher_TWP_August_31„2 012.pdf; John_Cusack_Interviews_Law_Professor_Jonathan_Turley_About_Obama_Administ_=? WINDOWS-1252?Q?ration=92s_War_On_the_Constitution=5FJohn? =_Cusak_Truthout_September_2„2012.pdf; Cruel_Conservatives_Throw_a_Masquerade_Ball_Maureen_Dowd_NYT_September_1„20 12.pdf; Rosie_Ruiz_Republicans_Paul_Krugman_NYT_September_2,2012.pdf; The_melting_Arctic_shouldn't_be_on_the_backbu_mer_TWP_Editorial_Board_September_ 3„2012.pdf; They're_Not_What_They_Used_to_BeJoe_Nocera_NYT_September_3„2012.pdf; Desmond_Tutu_- _Bush„Blair_Should_Face_Trial_Over_Iraq_David_Stringer_Huff_Post_09_02_12.pdf; Student_Loans_-_Debt_for_Life_Peter_Coy_Bloomberg_BW_September_06,2012.pdf; In euro_crisis,U.S. lessons unleamed_Howard_Schneider TWP September_4„2012.pdf; TI_night_Democrals_reclaiined_Obamacare_Ezra_Klein_fWP jeptember_4„2012.pdf; Bill_Moyersic_Company_Bernie_Sanders_on_theindependent_in_Politics_PBS_Septemb er_7,2012.pdf; Cleaning_Up_the_Economy_Paulyrugman_NYT_September_6„2012.pdf; The_Better_Economic_Question_New_York_Times_Editorial_September_5,_2012.pdf Dear Friends.... After the previous week's circus in Tampa at the Republican National Convention and now that we have gone through similar public relations exercise, (although not nearly as egregious) in Charlotte at the Democratic National Convention, much of the same is still true - so i am starting with this Weekend's Reading with the same paragraph, from the previous weekend as the country's problems are still the same while today's political process is more of an exercise in public relations and name calling than seeking real substantive solutions to address the serious problems that this great country of ours is facing. As such, I would like to repeat last week's opening paragraph as it articulates some of the important issues that both parties and all politicians should be addressing, no matter who wins the election in November. "Over the next weeks we will hear many promises from both parties. They both will claim that they are going to lower taxes, reform entitlements, reverse the deficit and grow the economy. They will talk allot about what they will do for the Middle Class and both parties will try to allay the fears of the rich that that their policies won't hurt them. And neither party are seriously pushing policies that favor the poorest of the poor We live in a country where two weeks ago a sports team acquired four players whose combined salaries exceeded a quarter of a billion dollars, and a majority of our politicians chose not to support the notion that every citizen should have access to affordable (or free) comprehensive healthcare. We live in a country where we celebrate the winners as American Exceptionism but refuse to understand that we are only as strong as our weakest citizens. We live in a country where our children are ranked 14th in Reading, 17th in Science and 25th in Math.... and still we are cutting finding for Public Education so that we can extend tax breaks for the rich. Our politicians tell us that we have the best healthcare in the world, while The World Health Organization ranks the US 37th —just before Slovenia and after Costa Rica — with more than 40 million Americans not covered. We live in a country where we call rich people "job creators" and suggest that civil servants are moochers and that union workers EFTA00667357 should take additional pay cuts and pension reductions, while Wall Street bonuses are the largest ever... Something is wrong with this picture and I am not sure that I have the answers either, but I do know that doubling down on the failed Bush/Cheney policies will only make things worse, as they did during the eight years under their Administration." To my pleasant surprise and liking, there was a real difference between the conventions. Whereas, the Republican National Convention in Tampa was full of attacks against the President and his policies amid little more than platitudes as solutions to the current problems facing the country, for the first time Democrats presented the President's policies and accomplishments and future goals with optimism and pride. Instead of running away from the President's signature accomplishment, The , Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, they full-throatily embraced "Obamacare," which my having gone through two serious strokes, I truly and personally appreciate.... that it was enacted and now enables people like me with pre-conditions to get affordable health insurance. And to Republican's question in Tampa, "are you better off than you were four years ago," this was easily answered by President Clinton and others in Charlotte with a resounding YES. Republicans/Conservatives seem to forget that the day President Obama took office, that the country was in two wars with no coherent strategy to end, financial markets in free fall, the dollar was tanking, two of the big three automakers on the verge of bankruptcy, job loss of 750,000 a month, a housing crisis that caused six million homeowners to walk away or were evicted from their homes, the country bordering on a full-blown depression with an obstructionist opposition in Congress whose #1 priority was to make Obama a failed Presidency even if it hurt the country. As Bill Clinton sarcastically summarized the Republican case for denying President Obama re-election: "We left him a total mess. He hasn't cleaned it up fast enough. So fire him and put us back in." So are we better than we were yesterday.-- YES..... Weekend Reading Seeing that we have political leaders who don't believe in the science of climate change, although most of them voted to attack Iraq even though Weapons of Mass Destruction could not be found based on shreds of shoddy/shaddy manufactured leads/evidence that was used to gamer support was shown to be fraudulent, please read the New York Times Editorial, "The melting Arctic shouldn't be on the backburner,' as it focuses on the fact that the Arctic is getting warmer faster than almost anywhere else on Earth. Over the past three decades, the average extent of the Arctic sea ice has declined by 25 to 30 percent, and the rate of decline is accelerating. At this rate, it appears that within this century, and perhaps in the next 30 or 40 years, the Arctic is projected to become nearly ice-free in the summer. I don't know what it means in terms of consequences but global warming is a fact beyond question, and people should take this phenomenon seriously although it was ridiculed in Tampa.... Included this week is an article by Katie Fehrenbacher in The Washington Post, India's $4B plan for electric, hybrid vehicles' on how the Indian government passed a $4.13 billion plan to boost the production of electric and hybrid vehicles, with a goal to have 6 million green vehicles on its roads by 2020. Reuters reports that 4 to 5 million of these vehicles are expected to be electric and hybrid two-wheelers (scooters, commuter cars, electric bikes). With the hope that this infusion will ignite entrepreneurs to create electric and hybrid vehicles. After the failure of Solyndra, this type of government investment is almost impossible in the United States leaving both our auto industry and consumers at a disadvantage and fewer options. For any business or country to become and stay competitive, it has to invest in new technologies and new science and yes failure comes with the territory When countries like India is investing heavily into hybrid vehicles, China is ahead of us in solar technology and Brazil is now considered to have the world's first sustainable biofuels economy, it confounds me that leaders in our government doesn't see the urgency to do the same When JPMorgan Chase & Co. can lose $6 billion in the trading in complex financial derivatives by a single unit and its Chairman & CEO Jamie Dimon still gets $23.1 million in salary, EFTA00667358 bonus, stock and option awards, pension and perks for 2011, up 11% from 2010 and politicians are still castigating the President for the loss of $400 million in Solyndra.... Something is wrong.... We need to aggressively pursue an array of new technologies and government needs and should play a role, even though there will be missteps and failures... Because as I was taught as child, "if you don't swing at the ball you will never hit a home runt.. And we are a country with a tradition of hitting home runs... Included is an article and interview by John Cusack in Truthout, `John Cusack Interviews Law Professor Jonathan Turley About Obama Administration's War On the Constitution.' - I use to think of John Cusack as fringe member of the famed Brat Pack because he appeared in a number of teen-oriented coming of age films in the 1980s such as 'Better Off Dead', `The Sure Thing', `One Crazy Summer', and `Sixteen Candles' - until I met him seven years ago when he and a girl friend hitched a ride to Las Vegas from LA on a friend's private jet. What surprised me was thoughtfulness, intellectual curiosity and candor similar to what you might expect from a college professor and philosophy student and not a fringe Bratt Pack actor In the interview, Cusack quizzes Turley on President Obama, both positive and negative and in stark contrast to how Republicans like to brand him and how most of his supporters see him. Turley believes that President Obama is not driven by ideology or principal but is motivated by programs. As such it was easy for him to drop the single-payer and universal care options (supported by his liberal base), in favor of individual mandate (which was originally a Republican idea), so that he could get this signature healthcare bill passed that had alluded every President since Hoover. The interview goes in the nitty-gritty of some of the Obama Administration's missteps and mistakes, as well as asking Turley questions like: How would you compare Alberto Gonzalez to Eric Holder? On this issue Cusack concludes: Well, yeah, the Bush administration basically said, "We may have committed a crime, but we're the government, so what the fuck are you going to do about it?" Right? —and the Obama administration is saying, "We're going to set this all in cement, expand the power of the executive, and pass the buck to the next guy" Is that it? The two discuss everything from drones, government assignations to the auto bailout. It is a hard-hitting assessment on the President, his administration and policies, from the point of view two cynical Democratic liberals who had hope for bigger changes from an Obama Administration. At the same time they admit that the President has made bold decisions that produced tangible gains.... But truth is often uglier than we would like, and so is this article. Like Cusack and Turley, there are a number of Obama policies that disappoint me too.... But with this said, I still will vote for President Obama over Romney because the country is better off now than it was in January 2009 when President Obama took office and going back to cold-war diplomacy being advanced by Mitt Romney Li as stupid as stupid is.... Four-year college graduates' pay advantage over high school grads has doubled over the past 30 years. If money for tuition is tight, the advice goes, borrow what you need and students have been listening. A such, in 2010 student debt exceeded credit-card debt for the first time. In 2011 it surpassed auto loans. In March, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that student debt had passed $1 trillion. It grew by $300 billion from the third quarter of 2008 even as other forms of debt shrank by $1.6 trillion. In a press briefing at the White House in April, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, "Obviously if you have no debt that's maybe the best situation, but this is not bad debt to have. In fact, it's very good debt to have." To me this is hagwash.... In Peter Coy's article in Bloomberg Business, 'Week, Student Loans: Debt for Life,' if student loans are good debt, how do you account for the reaction of Christina Mills, 30, of Minneapolis, when she found out her payment on college and law school loans would be $1,400 a month? "I just went into the car and started sobbing," says Mills, who works for a nonprofit. "It was more than my paycheck at the time. "Medical student Thomas Smith, 25, of Hamilton, N.J., is $310,000 in debt and is struggling to make ends meet even before beginning to repay his loans. "I don't even know what I eat," he says. "I just go to the supermarket and buy the cheapest thing I can and buy as much of it as I can." Then there's Michael DiPietro, 25, of Brooklyn, who accumulated about $100,000 in debt while getting a bachelor's degree in fashion, sculpture, and performance, EFTA00667359 and spent the next two years waiting tables. He has since landed a fundraising job in the arts but still has no idea how he will pay back all that money. "I've come to the conclusion that it's an obsolete idea that a college education is like your golden ticket," DiPietro says. "It's an idea that an older generation holds on to." Peter Coy continues - that the most straightforward way to deal with the student debt problem is to bring down the unreasonably high cost of higher education, which forces students to go into debt in the first place. He cites cost-saving initiatives such as those at Virginia Tech, where students learn intro math courses in computer labs rather than watching professors at chalkboards, and the University of Minnesota's new Rochester campus, whose classrooms and labs are in the former food court and movie theater of a mall. The Minnesota school collaborates with IBM (IBM) and the Mayo Clinic for advanced courses such as computational biology. And that removing the campus altogether is even cheaper. Online operations such as EdX, Coursera, Khan Academy, and Udacity, among others, offer high-quality instruction at no cost to the student—but don't yet award degrees. With the hope that someday, low-cost online education that requires zero student borrowing may displace a big chunk of today's entrenched establishment. But the reality is that colleges have become expensive screening mechanisms. It's not what you learn in four years at Harvard University that impresses potential employers; it's the fact that you got into Harvard in the first place. So maybe the real problem is that credentialism has trumped learning. That drives people to get degrees simply to displace others who don't have degrees, says Richard Vedder, who directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. He notes that the U.S. has more than 100,000 janitors with college degrees and 16,000 degree-holding parking lot attendants. Coy suggests that education is or at least ought to be a lifelong process for everyone, diploma holders or not. "We are not divided into professionals and service workers or blue-collar workers. We all start out as apprentices. We become journeymen, and we all strive to become master craftsmen." To combat grade inflation, which has made college transcripts virtually useless to potential employers, the article recommends that transcripts include the average grade given in a class next to the student's letter grade. That would be like grading on a curve without having to grade on a curve. Students will presumably study harder, he says, if they know that their grades contain real information for employers and grad schools. My question to you.... What should be do about out of control student loan debt, as it has already indebted Americans by more than a trillion dams and raising? My personal belief on this matter, like healthcare, in the richest count'', in the world we should fine a way to provide a college education or trade training for everyone who has the aptitude and desire. Say what you may, compared the Europe, the US economy is doing great. One of the reasons is that European leaders took an incremental approach to their financial crisis and after three years of economic travail, turnaround is nowhere in sight in contrary to the US economy that is growing again. The difference is that U.S. officials quickly poured trillions of dollars into an array of programs to counter the country's financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. See Howard Schneider's article in The Washington Post, 'In euro crisis, U.S. lessons unlearned,' as the title speaks for itself.... Incremental solutions to big problem is a roll of the dice And the current Eurozone crisis is evidence of this Although I wouldn't like to see this happen or endorse it, last week Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, once called the "moral conscious" of South Africa, suggested that Bush and Blair should be tried by the International Criminal Court at the Hague for their role in the Iraq war. I chose to include this because I believe that leaders around the world including our own President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder should be cognizant that reckless military adventures, unprovoked wars and human rights abuses should and will be seriously challenged everywhere and with everyone. See David Stringer's article in The Huffington Post, 'Desmond Tutu: Bush, Blair Should Face Trial Over Iraq.' EFTA00667360 For those who really like to read and missed these articles in the New York Times, I have include an op-ed piece by Paul Krugman, 'Cleaning Up the Economy,' as he lays out the case that the country is on much stronger footing than it was in 2008. Echoing this sentiment, is a New York Times Editorial, 'The Better Economic Question'.... Although most of you know this to be true and have heard it before, I thought to include it as a rebuke to Romney, Ryan and their Republican allies who still today claim that President Obama's economic policies hasn't made a substantial improvement... Politics Although I spent much of last weekend's reading castigating the disinformation, exaggerations and lies that was in liberal use by the speakers at the Republican Convention in Tampa to the point that the entire event should have received four Pinocchios — the sheer audacity caused me to start this weekend's Politics section by reminding everyone what we witnessed. In Maureen Dowd's piece in the New York Times, 'Cruel Conservatives Throw a Masquerade Ball' she calls the Republican Convention a colossal hoax of suggesting that they cared — when their real goal is to dismantle the safety net for the poor so that they can continue giving tax breaks to the rich. As Dowd writes, "The convention was an unparalleled triumph of mythmaking, or Mittmaking. Romney was so eager to woo Hispanic votes and join the cascade of speakers sharing immigrant family tales, from Rick Santorum to Ann Romney to Marco Rubio, that he made his father, George Romney, sound Hispanic. "My dad had been born in Mexico," he said, "and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution." It was fitting that David Koch was the beaming financial god presiding over this Onvellian makeover of Republicans as generous communitarians who care about grandmas, cherish immigrants and defend Medicare, so movingly described by the vice presidential nominee who tried to turn Medicare into a voucher system as "an obligation we have to our parents and grandparents." Koch leads the Onvellian movement of oil billionaires playing grass-roots activists. The industrialist ideologue wants to use his money to shrink government the way those vacuum sealers on infomercials suck the air out of plastic bags stuffed with clothes until they're a mere sliver — shriveling all the social services, environmental regulations and taxes on the wealthy." Echoing this sentiment is Paul ICrugman's article in the New York Times, 'Rosie Ruiz Republicans. Krugman compares Paul Ryan to Rosie Ruiz who in 1980 she was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon — except it turned out that she hadn't actually run most of the race, that she sneaked onto the course around a mile from the end. Ever since, she has symbolized a particular kind of fraud, in which people claim credit for achieving things they have not, in fact, achieved. This would have been an apt comparison even before Mr. Ryan boasted on Hugh Hewitt's right-wing radio talk show that he ran a 26 mile marathon under three hours to brag about his fitness when fact checkers discovered that his best marathon time was more than four hours... Why When for an amateur four hours is a fine time. As Krugman writes, "Mr. Ryan tried to laugh the whole thing off as a simple error But serious runners find that implausible: the difference between sub-three and over-four is the difference between extraordinary and perfectly ordinary, and it's not something a runner could get wrong, unless he's a fabulist who imagines his own reality. And does suggesting that Mr Ryan is delusional rather than dishonest actually make the situation any better?" It also is emblematic, of the delusional Ryan Budget Plan which suggests that taxes can be cut and defense spending can be raised by eliminating (un-named) loopholes, and still cut the deficit and preserve the safety net for the poor. If you believe this, I have a bridge in Arizona for sale. Joe Cocera's article in the New York Times, 'They're Not What They Used to Be' is about how conventions have changed over the past century. Today they are essentially public relations parties, whereas they were essentially a huge fight, with cajoling and horse-trading and balloting that could go on into the wee hours. Conventions, not primaries, were the process by which the parties selected their nominees for president and vice president. In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt didn't win the nomination until the fourth ballot in a tense all-night session. His opponent in 1940, Wendell Willkie, winning the Republican nomination in dramatic fashion on the EFTA00667361 sixth ballot. And Adlai Stevenson in 1956 deciding to let the convention choose between two senators, John F. Kennedy and Estes Kefauver, as his vice-presidential candidate. Today, National Conventions are finely scripted events to recast and anoint their Presidential candidates with the biggest surprise is the choice of the Vice Presidential running mate. Disagreements are hushed, truth is scarce and party platforms can be disavowed, as in the case where Romney surrogates said that he would govern differently than some of the more radical and unpopular planks that were included to appease the ultra conservative fringe in the Republican Party. We forget how television has change our national conventions from smoke. fuel back room horse trading to beauty contests funded by the same special interests big money behind the scenes powerbrokers.... One of Ezra Klein's articles in The Washington Post this week is, "The night Democrats reclaimed "Obamacare" pointing out the major development in health-care politics over the last few months. Today, both parties embrace it as Obamacare, with Republicans labeling it as overstepping individual and state rights while Democrats see it as a major step in extending affordable healthcare to an additional 30 million Americans. Ezra Klein; "That was, in itself, a surprise. Obamacare — or, as it's officially called, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — doesn't poll particularly well, and it's believed to have been a key contributor to the Republican victory in 2010. But Democrats appear to think that the politics have changed. Indeed, if the first night of the Democratic Convention is to be remembered for anything aside from Michelle Obama:s speech, it will probably be remembered as the night that Democrats stood up and began fighting for their health-cam law" With the public now appreciating some of the benefits; such as Stacey Lihn, whose daughter was born with a congenital heart defect. "For me, there was the day the Affordable Care Act passed and I no longer had to worry about Zoe getting the care she needed. There was the day the letter arrived from the insurance company, saying that our daughter's lifetime cap had been !Wed." Lihn wasn't shy about the stakes for her family. "Governor Romney repealing health care reform is something we worry about literally eve'', day," she said. "Zoe:s thitd open-heart surgery will happen either next year or the year after. If Mitt Romney becomes president and Obamacare is repealed, there's a good chance she'll hit her lifetime cap." Michelle Obama, in the featured speech of the night, also emphasized the Affordable Care Act. "When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president," she said. "He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically — that's not how he was raised — he cared that it was the right thing to do." The fact that Democrats have now taken ownership of a health-care reform law is, in a way, a surprise. In 2006, it seemed entirely possible that Mitt Romney was going to take health care away from the Democrats as an issue. Building on healthcare legislation that he supported when he was Governor of Massachusetts, in his run for the Presidency in 2007, it looked like he would use universal health-care as his unique calling card. And the moment President Obama endorsed the individual mandate provision which was one of the major components in Massachusetts healthcare legislation, Romney distanced himself from his own innovative Massachusetts health- care reform. Looking for a healthcare to rally around, Republicans began looking at Rep. Paul Ryan's "Roadmap" included an ambitious health-care reform proposal until people realized that it would have wiped out the tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance and replaced it with a refundable tax credit for all Americans..... which didn't pole well. And since then Republicans have almost entirely ceded the field on health care to Democrats, even though they ran in 2010 on "repeal-and-replace." Romney/Ryan and the Republican leadership in Congress having not figured out a replacement, with both sides are calling it "Obamacare" and individual provisions more and more popular, if you follow the trending, Obamacare is increasingly being seen as the signature legislation of President Obama's Administration and good legislation. As many of you know, i am a big fan of Bill Moyers, (Bill Moyers is an (American journalist and public commentator, after serving as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967), whose in this week's television show, Moyers & Company on PBS, he interviewed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who's been an independent in Congress for 21 years — longer than anyone in American history. in the EFTA00667362 interview Sanders talks about jobs, the state of our economy, health care, and the unprecedented impact of big money on the major political parties. As Sanders put it, "What you are looking at is a nation with a grotesquely unequal distribution of wealth and income, tremendous economic power on Wall Street, and now added to all of that is big money interests, the billionaires and corporations now buying elections," Sanders tells Bill. "I fear very much that if we don't turn this around, we're heading toward an oligarchic form of society." in December 2010, Sanders famously gave an eight-and-a-half hour speech on the Senate floor opposing the deal President Obama struck with the Republicans which extended the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, lowered their estate taxes, and jeopardized Social Security funding through the establishment of a "payroll tax holiday" The speech received widespread media attention, and was later published as a book entitled The Speech. As a senator and congressman, Sanders has focused on energy and environmental policy, universal health care, fair trade policies, and America's shrinking middle class and growing income inequality. A self-described "democratic socialist," he favors left-leaning government policies that advocate social welfare and reflect the needs of the working class. Sanders serves on five Senate committees: Budget; Veterans; Energy; Environment; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Please feel free to watch the interview http://billmoyers.com/segment/bemie-sanders-on-the-independent-in- wt/ or read the attached transcript, as it is about vision, equality and the corruption of money in today's politics, and not about political parties. There is no way to summarize this week's politics in Charlotte without pointing out some of the magic in the speeches starting with Michele Obama, who E.J. Dionne called both apolitical and politically masterful as she like Ann Romney put a human face on her husband but was able to go deeper though specific stories — about her father working through the pain of multiple sclerosis, about the debts she and her husband accumulated from college — served a powerful campaign purpose. It was a speech that was thoroughly apolitical on the surface carrying multiple political messages, linking a very traditional message about parenting with a call for social justice. Going for the jugular Michele Obama said, "success isn ' about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives." President Bill Clinton made the most compelling speech in either conventions, as he forcefully defended Obama's record with numbers and facts, while criticizing the agenda and philosophy of Mitt Romney and accusing the Republican Party of ideological rigidity and an unwillingness to compromise. In a speech formally nominating Obama for a second term, Clinton argued that the president has spent the past four years putting in place policies that will lead to a more vibrant and balanced economy and asserted that, despite problems, Americans are "clearly better off' than they were when the president was sworn into office. "No president — not me or any of my predecessors — no one could have fully repaired all the damage in just four years," Clinton said. Obama, he added, "has laid the foundations for a new modern successful economy, a shared prosperity, and if you will renew the president's contract, you will feel it." He attacked Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan for criticizing Obama's $716 billion cut in Medicare, part of the health-care law passed in 2010. Noting that Ryan has made the same cuts in his budget, he said, "You know it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing something you did." He attacked Republicans for accusing Obama of gutting the work requirement in the welfare reform act approved during the Clinton administration. The claim, he said, "is just not true." He ridiculed Romney's deficit reduction plan, saying it doesn't pass the simple test of arithmetic. "The numbers don't add up," he said. Clinton defined November's election as a clear, even stark choice, arguing that Republicans believe in "a parallel universe" about what makes the economy tick. "In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president's reelection was pretty simple: We left him a total mess, he hasn't finished cleaning it up yet, so fire him and put us back in," Clinton said. Clinton said the most important question voters should ask is what kind of country they want in the future. "If you want a winner-take-all, you're-on-your-own, you should support the Republican ticket," he said. "If you want a country of sham' prosperity and shared responsibility — a we're-all-in-this-together society — you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden." EFTA00667363 As for President Obama's speech.... for me the defining moment was when he pointed out that neither Romney and Ryan were ready for the prime time of international diplomacy and foreign policy, with the zinger of the evening — "After all, you don't call Russia our number one enemy -- and not al Qaeda -- unless you're still stuck in a Cold War time warp - You might not be ?wady for diplomacy with Beijing ifyou can't visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally - My opponent said it was "tragic" to end the war in Iraq, and he won't tell us how he'll end the war in Afghanistan. I have, and I will - And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don't even want, I'll use the money we're no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work — rebuilding reads and bridges; schools and runways. After two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it's time to do some nation-building right here at home." President Obama: Now, our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. They want your vote, but they don't want you to know their plan. And that's because all they have to offer is the same prescription they've had for the last thirty years: "Have a surplus? Try a tax cut " "Deficit too high? Try another." "Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!" Other great speeches in Charlotte were given by Vice President Joe Biden, formal presidential candidate and Senator John Kerry (gave an enthusiastic foreign policy defense of the president that turned a GOP argument on its head. "Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off than he was four years ago '9, Massachusetts Senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren, former Ohio governor Ted Strickland (who mused "that if Romney was Santa Claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves"), Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Julian Castro the current Mayor of San Antonio.... As the saying goes in live-music, "they rocked the house." But more importantly, they made much more sense than their Republican opponents in Tampa You can Google all of the speeches given at both Conventions should you so desire or not trust my cliff-notes.... President Obama again: "This is the choice we now face. This is what the election comes down to. Over and over, we have been told by our opponents that bigger tar cuts and fewer regulations are the only way; that since government can't do everything, it should do almost nothing. If you can't afford health insurance, hope that you don't get sick. If a company releases toxic pollution into the air your children breathe, well, that's just the price of progress. If you can't afford to start a business or go to college, take my opponent's advice and "borrow money from your parents." Looking back at both conventions and no matter who you vote for, the choice is easy. THE REPUBLICAN POSITION is to double down on trickle down supply-side economics with more tax cuts, aggressively pursue gun boat diplomacy favored by neocons, cut back social programs, and drill baby drill as their prescription for anything scientific, in contrast to THE PRESIDENT'S POSITION is to pursue revenues from those who have the most as a way to subsidize the rebuilding of the Middle Class and strengthen the social programs for the poor, elderly and working class, as well as expanding relationships international on a shared responsibility basis of mutual cooperation, in addition to exploring new technologies in renewable energy, basic science and manufacturing. THIS IS A CHOICE ELECTION: and the choice is clear.... Something Special Interesting take on numbers and how to get to 100 in Life.... Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watchpopup?v=h60r2HPsiuM&feature=youtube_gdataplaye Joke of the Week Marriage is like a deck of cards... "In the beginning all you need is two hearts and a diamond.... by the end you wish that you had a club and a spade." EFTA00667364 This Week's Music Selection This week I am feeling SEAL, one of the poet laureates in music even when he is singing songs written by others Please enjoy some of my favorite Seal songs.... Seal - Kiss From A Rose (live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7eJPbH5uQ and http://youtu.be/sx7e.IPbH5uQ Seal - Colour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRBKsdzvx2k&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg- 9AZBMOHKgvv mL9W3W741hn Seal - Dreaming In Metaphors - http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FQh616LurtE&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9AZBMOHKgyv mL9W3W741hn Seal - State of grace - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTIhM3G6-4A&feature=BFa&listrAL94UKMTqg- 9AZBMOHKgvv mL9W3W741hn Seal - Latest Craze - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz7nFivremk&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg- 9AZBMOHKpv mL9W3W741hn Seal - Don't cry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXsAtWbEoRU&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg- 9AZBMOHKgvv mL9W3W741hn Seal - Waiting for you - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igbrXNhIGH4&feature=related and http://youtu.be/igbrXNhIGH4 Seal - Still Love Remains - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa- NjUjVFdA&feature=BFa&listrAL94UKMTqg-9AMMOHKgvv mL9W3W741hn Seal - Princess and the Liar - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYRYSIL42bo and http://youtu.be/sYRYSIL42bo I hope that you enyoyed this weekend's offering and wish you a great week.... Sincerely, Greg Brown Gregory Brown Chairman & CEO GlobalCast Partners. LLC EFTA00667365