Christmas Adds from the Presidential Candidates

http://www.youdecide2008.com/2007/12/19/video-2008-presidential-candidate-christmas-ads/

The Site above contains all the presidential Christmas adds. The fascinating thing about these adds is they sort of tell you how the campaigns are doing and what they are up to.

John Edwards.
In the add John talks about the poor and homeless. One point he makes is that 1 in 4 homeless people are Vets. hmmmm.... I would like to see source material on that. I find that hard to believe. He also says this is the season of Miracles, peace, hope (insert tired platitude). I feel like John made the mistake of wrapping up a political statement in Christmas cheer, and a very depressing political statement at that.
Ok John, you perform one of the following Miracles then I will seriously consider voting for you:

1. Walk on Water
2. Feed 5000 people with two fishes a small loaf of bread.
3. Turn water into wine
4. Carry you home state of North Carolina in the Dem Nomination

Clinton.................... .31%
Edwards................. .26%
Obama................... .24%
Different candidate. .12%
Undecided.............. . 8%

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_120407.pdf

Hillary's is just silly. The Government is now Santa Claus and she is wrapping it up for you. What the hell is universal pre K???? It desperately tries to make her seem warm, human and loving and fails miserably. It feels so forced and fake. This is such a microcosm of her total campaign. Here is her campaign in a nutshell, "I'm going to make them like whether they like it or not". Hillary also made the mistake of wrapping up a set of political statements in christmas cheer, I really don't think people like that. Hi jacking christmas to promote your political career. I also think she added a bullet in the Republican attack weapon with this add. It plays directly into one of the primary arguments against liberals. They want to make the Gov't into Santa Claus.

Rudy's is kind of funny but it sort of feels like he is celebrating being mean. He always comes across as one strong and mean SOB. Even when he is being funny. His add is also a political statement wrapped in Christmas cheer. I think John, Hillary and Rudy made a mistake with that approach. Barack and Huckabee did not. They definitely win the add war this Christmas.

Baracks is very good but it always makes me nervous when people bring out their children for political purposes. however, he makes you feel warm and connected to him. It was very well done. He does have very cute kids.

Huckabee is amazing. I don't like this guy for president but he comes across so personable and warm and competent. I think his add is the best. However, once you use the word Jesus Christ, you will alienate some people. Not a great political move but I can respect someone who speaks his convictions.

The 2nd coming according to Oprah

I watched the McLaughlin group and they pointed out the religious overtone of Oprah's speeches. I was shocked by the religious overtones of Oprah's speeches in Iowa and South Carolina. I don't mind talk like, I follow God or I'm trying to do what pleases God but this seems to make Barrack Obama equal to Christ. It seems to border on blasphemy.

A few Quotes I wrote down while listening to her speeches. This was very scary for me.

The Man who has a new vision for America


When you strip us down, We are American at our core, ... What we really have is an abiding faith, an abiding faith in the possibility that life can be better for every one
of us.

With our many colors, religions and languages but we have one government ... one congress ... one president ... and because we can only choose one that choice should be Barrack Obama


We do not want to reinvent the same reality we are now all experiencing but stand strong and united for the potential ... the potential with in us and the potential that lies before us.

when you do the same thing over and over you get the same results. But it is time to dream America new again by supporting Obama.

We need somebody committed to the welfare of all Americans, we need Barrack Obama, we need a new way of doing business in America,

You can not see through the political vale of other politicians. When you witness Obama, you witness a very rare thing, a politician with an ear for eloquence and a tongue dipped in the unvarnished truth.

We need a president that can proceed with moral authority. (This one surprised me, if we have anything today, we have that)


It is a dangerous imbalance when we do not realize that all human hearts are the same.


In order for humanity to evolve (and that is the reason we are on this earth) we have to learn to treasure our uniqueness and each others diversity.

These are dangerous times, you can feel it, you can sense it in the air. We need a leader who shows us how to hope again... faith again... in America as a force for
peace.

Just as Barrack Obama has seized this moment, we need to seize this opportunity to support a man that as the bible says, loves mercy and does justly... loves mercy and does justly.

none of us is God and none of us knows the future so we should seize this
moment...

Are you the one? are you the one? Well I have the answer. I'm here to tell you that he is the one, he is the one.

For the first time I'm stepping out of my pew, I've been inspired. I've been inspired. Dr King dreamed a dream but we can vote that dream into reality

A man who knows who we are and what we can be.

Each one of us has a calling to do good things on this earth
and he knows that and know us.

If you could vote against a president, Hillary wins

They did an interesting poll. If you could vote against a president then Hillary wins with 40% of the vote. Rudy comes in second with 17% and Barrack with 11%.

I was surprised by the 11%.

Mark

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3856557

Is it better to feel good or be pragmatic

Some organization is out trying to give a laptop to every poor child in the world.

http://www.dailygut.com/index.php?i=3485

It costs about $200 and is designed to be rugged.

Of course 500 million children live in serious poverty and hunger and 15 million of those die from starvation every year. So what they really need are laptops. Really.

Is this really about making a real difference or is it about making people feel good about themselves. Wouldn't that $200 dollars be better spent in building schools, paying for teachers, food, farming equipment, hospitals, medical supplies, sending doctors there, building infrastructure like electrical plants, water processing plants, Roads and bridges, etc....

Is our goal to provide for the poor and impoverished people in this world, (you know the ones that can't read, don't have electricity, a house that pours water through it when it rains and no locks on the door to protect any thing of value in it, works 12 hours a day for pennies) with the all important ability to blog, down load porn, surf their friends on myspace and get all the junk email they could hope for. Don't forget all that ad revenue when they click on those Google add sites.

I think this maybe one of the most uncaring acts I've seen in a long time.

Mitt Romney and Mormonism.

I believe and love the freedom of religion this country has and I hope one day every country in the world will embrace that. I believe everyone should pretty much be free to practice almost any religion as long as it doesn't cause serious harm to anyone associated.

I don't believe freedom of religion means that I should ignore the fundamental beliefs of presidential candidates. What a person chooses to believe and base his life around should be a personal decision but when you decide to run for office, especially the presidency, then it should matter what religion you have followed your whole life. A person's actions are almost always based on his beliefs. If I believe I can meet a nice girl at a bar, I believe meeting a nice girl would make me happy, then I'm hanging out at the bar. Change what a person believes and you will change his/her behavior.

Until 1978 the mormon church would not let a black man be a preist. Mitt Romney was in his 30's and a practicing mormon.

That the current prophet running the church today is speaking for God and is to be obeyed as if he is God.
http://www.lds-mormon.com/fourteen.shtml

"Always keep your eye on the President of the church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, even if it is wrong, and you do it, the lord will bless you for it but you don't need to worry. The lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray."
LDS President Marion G. Romney (of the first presidency), quoting LDS President (and prophet) Heber J. Grant "Conference Report" Oct. 1960 p. 78

The husband gets to heaven by pleasing God, the wife gets into heaven by pleasing her husband.

"Celestial" marriage, as this eternal marriage is often called, is essential for Mormon women. Without being celestially married to a holder of the priesthood, a woman cannot be "saved" (Green 154). Mary Ettie Smith, a Mormon woman who left the church and Utah in 1856, said that "women do not amount to much in themselves," and that women in those times were often celestially married to men they had no intention of ever living with, so that they could have a man who would be able to get them into heaven (Green 154). In the temple marriage ceremony, women are given secret names known only to their husbands, for identification purposes, so their husbands can pull them through to "the other side" after death (Laake 118). During the marriage ceremony, until 1990, men made their temple covenants directly to God, while the women had to make their temple covenants to their husbands (Laake 328).

The Mormon Church currently claims about 11 million baptized members worldwide (5.2 million U.S., ranking it 5th among the largest 25 U.S. denominations), up from about 2.5 million in 1970. 1970. Over the last decade, nearly 300,000 individuals over the age of eight have joined the Mormon Church every year. Membership is expected to grow to over 23 million over the next two decades. It is growing fastest in Latin America and Asia

The Mormon Church collects at least $6 billion a year from its members, and generates at least another $5 billion in sales from its various business enterprises; total church assets exceed $30 billion. (At least 100 companies are controlled by the Mormon Church, and some estimate its total annual revenues in excess of $20 billion! The church also owns 18 radio stations in the U.S.) Part of the Church's income goes to operate an elaborate internal welfare system so its members avoid any governmental assistance. The Mormon Church also has a 58,000-plus missionary force working in more than 160 nations in 102 languages. The Church's Provo, Utah, 26-acre Missionary Training Center receives 500 new missionaries a week into its 3-9 week intensive missionary training program. (All boys, once they turn 19, are expected to dedicate two years of their lives to missionary service.) Fielding missionaries is a $500 million per year effort and currently reaps more than 300,000 new converts each year.

As of year-end 2002, there were 114 operating temples of Mormondom worldwide, with another 14 under construction or approved (albeit less elaborate than the 50 temples in existence at the end of 1997). (Approximately 65,000 members must be in an immediate area to qualify for a temple.)


God was once a man like us.
God has a tangible body of flesh and bone.
God lives on a planet near the star Kolob.
God ("Heavenly Father") has at least one wife, our "Mother in Heaven," but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her.
Jesus was married.
We can become like God and rule over our own universe.
There are many gods, ruling over their own worlds.
Jesus and Satan ("Lucifer") are brothers, and they are our brothers - we are all spirit children of Heavenly Father
Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father by having sex with Mary, who was temporarily his wife.
We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.
The "Lord" ("Jehovah") in the Old Testament is the being named Jesus in the New Testament, but different from "God the Father" ("Elohim").
In the highest degree of the celestial kingdom some men will have more than one wife.
Before coming to this earth we lived as spirits in a "pre-existence", during which we were tested; our position in this life (whether born to Mormons or savages, or in America or Africa) is our reward or punishment for our obedience in that life.
Dark skin is a curse from God, the result of our sin, or the sin of our ancestors. If sufficiently righteous, a dark-skinned person will become light-skinned.
The Garden of Eden was in Missouri. All humanity before the Great Flood lived in the western hemisphere. The Ark transported Noah and the other survivors to the eastern hemisphere.
Not only will human beings be resurrected to eternal life, but also all animals - everything that has ever lived on earth - will be resurrected and dwell in heaven.
Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.
Mormons should avoid traveling on water, since Satan rules the waters.
The sun receives its light from the star Kolob.
If a Gentile becomes Mormon, the Holy Ghost actually purges his Gentile blood and replaces it with Israelite blood.
A righteous Mormon will actually see the face of God in the Mormon temple.
You can identify a false angel by the color of his hair, or by offering to shake his hand.

Healthcare Costs - Supply and Demand

I've been talking recently about Tort reform and how it could impact the cost of health care. Helping to make health care more affordable and thus increasing health care so that we can achieve universal health care with out completely giving control of health care to the Gov't, the good people that brought you public restrooms, Medicare, Medicaid and the post office.

One of the ways to manage costs is to increase Supply and reduce Demand.
Lets talk about Supply first and then Address Demand later. Increasing Supply requires us to increase the number of Doctors, Dentists, Nurses etc.. working. We actually have a lot of Doctors but many of them simply don't work or limit the kind of work they do because of the cost of insurance. I believe a key impediment to Doctor is the extreme cost of becoming a doctor and the huge debt one must go accumulate to become a Doctor and of course how difficult the training is for This. I'm not sure I want to address how difficult this is, I think I want it to continue to be difficult to be a doctor from the work load and how much you have to learn. However, I feel that the one area the Gov't can and should get involve is not to pay for Insurance but instead to pay for our Doctors' education. I think anyone who can get accepted to Med School should be able to get a full ride from our Gov't. I believe this would significantly enable and increase the number of doctors entering the workforce. I also believe that if a person got a free education from the Gov't they are required to pay it back by giving 10% to 20% of their time and earnings to Needy people and Free Clinics. Focused mostly on Preventive care. In fact I think most preventive care could be paid given away by those that received a free education. This would actually increase the cost of health care some what. Because then for the doctor to make his money he would have to charge 10% to 20% more for the other work he is doing. However, This is going to be much cheaper than the taxes required for the Gov't to create another bureaucracy to create a health care system that covers all Americans.

By increasing or even making free most or all of our preventative health care work, we would see a significant decrease in the amount of emergency and truly expensive work we are doing now. Such a large portion of our population is waiting to see the doctor at a point where the work is very expensive and less likely to be effective. We actually find that people with Insurance spends less on health care because they get the maintenance and preventive care that so many do not.

By removing the cost barriers of becoming a doctor and getting them to pay it back in preventive care for the poor, we increase Supply and reduce demand.