Mole's Progressive Democrat: Progressive Democrat Newsletter Issue 271

I am back from vacation but neither the vacation nor my regular life is much fun at this time. Too much on my plate at work, at home and with my extended family. Such is life.

This newsletter is long because I worked on it over the past three weeks whenever I could to cover lots of ground.

Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It seems so long ago. Bush never accomplished the mission against al-Qaeda, and Obama gets the mission after it has already been botched. But he is doing what he can to correct the horrible mistakes of the Bush administration. I will never forgive Reagan for calling the Taliban the equivalent of the founding fathers. When he armed them, I knew one day those arms would be turned against us. Sadly I was right. I will never forgive the Republicans who opposed Clinton's going after bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Clinton knew getting bin Laden was a priority, but the Republicans had no interest in going after him. I will never forgive Bush for ignoring the warnings that an attack was immanent or for letting bin Laden go when we had him cornered. And I won't forgive Bush for taking troops out of Afghanistan before their mission was done to illegally and immorally invade Iraq for no good strategic reason.

Obama is trying to fix all these messes the Republicans started. Let's hope he can succeed. It is a very, very difficult task and from what I can tell he is doing the right things. He has targeted al-Qaeda in places Bush ignored (e.g. Mali). He has shifted our combat troops out of Iraq where then never should have been back into Afghanistan where they had a mission to do before Bush took them away from that mission. He has pressured Pakistan to more honestly fight al-Qaeda rather than turn the other way, and so since Obama took office more top al-Qaeda members have been captured than were captured during the entire Bush administration. The mission has moved forward. I hope he also is planning on rebuilding Afghanistan and working on building up moderate leaders, small businesses and the like in Pakistan, Somalia, Mali and all other al-Qaeda recruiting grounds. Remember how effective the Marshall Plan was after WW II. We need to apply the same strategy here.

Bush was on the wrong track about al-Qaeda from day one. Obama has brought us back to the right track, but can the mission be saved from the fiasco of Bush's mishandling of it? And why are the Republicans refusing to back his efforts to defeat our enemies? Instead they obstruct his every move, actually aiding al-Qaeda.

And then there is the economy. Many of us are feeling the effects of the economy more and more. That also is a legacy of Bush. Clinton gave us a fabulous economy and a budget surplus. Bush squandered it and gave us the biggest budget deficit ever. Obama has that mess to clean up as well. His putting money into huge alternative energy projects and into infrastructure rebuilding is brilliant...and we need more of it. His putting stimulus money into the auto industry was also brilliant and basically saved the auto industry and saved a ton of jobs. He has done wonders with the limited resources the Republican mismanagement of America left him. And, of course, the Republicans continue to oppose each and every proven strategy to revive the economy that Obama tries. Progress have come, and it has come over the whining of Republicans.

If the Republicans have their way, the rich will get their tax cuts and the rest of us will lose. If the Republicans have their way al-Qaeda and the Taliban will continue to thrive the way they did under Reagan (really the precursors to al-Qaeda and the Taliban) and both Bushes. If the Republicans have their way we will continue to depend on Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela for our energy needs rather than create AMERICAN jobs making AMERICAN energy. If the Republicans have their way we will continue to neglect our infrastructure and have more Katrinas, more BP disasters, more Exxon Valdez disasters, more bridge collapses.

Obama has not done as much as I would like him to do. But I am still so glad he is our President. He has done so much despite the huge mess Bush left him and gotten so little credit for it. And he has had to deal with constant lies, whining and obstruction from Republicans even when it meant saving or creating American jobs.

I leave you with a video of my son singing his favorite song, put up on YouTube by his sister...he'd be very excited if it became popular ; -)

Here is this week's newsletter:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A List of Democratic Accomplishments from the Coweta County, GA Democratic Party

Climate Change: The First Step

Democracy for America: Phonebanking for Victory 2010

Mosques and Korans and the Constitution, Oh My!

NY FOCUS: New York State Progressive Bloggers' Joint Statement Regarding Park51 / Cordoba House.

New York State Focus: (Final?) Roundup of Endorsements for September 14 Primary

Brooklyn Focus: VELMANETTE MONTGOMERY FOR STATE SENATE

Brooklyn Focus: The Reform Slate for State Committee

Brooklyn, NY Focus

Manhattan, NY Focus

Bronx, NY Focus

NEW YORK STATE FOCUS

JERRY BROWN FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR:

Mole's Progressive Democrat

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Saturday, September 11, 2010

Progressive Democrat Newsletter Issue 271

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