John Edwards comments on Bush's visit to NC today

From the One America Committee blog:

"While George Bush makes a closed to the public visit to North Carolina to boost his public relations efforts, millions of Americans are in trouble. The Presidents words are nothing more than a politician’s attempt to help himself. Instead, he should be helping the American people. The legacy of this President is a mess in Iraq, millions of Americans falling into poverty, millions without health care, and out of control gas prices.

We can do better. By making smart and moral choices, we can enact comprehensive health care reform, promote clean alternative energy sources, lift millions out of poverty, and have a foreign policy that is both strong and moral.”

I can't wait until he brings morality back FOR REAL to the White House!

He doesn't have the rambling/long-winded sentences problem. Keep it simple but meaningful! While this is a very basic comment.. it hits home with "middle America" because it targets oil prices, healthcare, jobs: the issues that most people care about.

I voted for him in the primary, and I'd vote for him again.

Get folks out of poverty, give them health care...

We are the RICHEST FRIGGING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!
it shames me that we can't help the least among us.

there are so many Americans who are left behind in the 'Land of Plenty' that is the US. This is not only sad, it is a disgrace. We need a President who cares about the Americans that most people forget or try to forget. The unfortunate people who need him the most, the people who are one paycheck away from disaster such as the power company turning off electricity or gas used for heat, or their baby becoming ill and going to the hospital. We need a Person like John Edwards as our President.

We need John Edwards as President!

The word moral is almost off-limits to Republicans. They have no authority.

This should become a rallying cry for the Democratic party.

Let's make smart AND moral choices

John Edwards is, like WOW!

Edwards knows how to frame our message and says it well.

He is our best hope for taking back the WH in 08.

Agreed

Nicely done.

John Edwards is not officially running for the most public office now, but by golly, he defends NC'ers by pointing out W's disingenuous visits. His view represents many of us. Thanks for reading and commenting!

....I especially liked this entry, which certainly resonates the JRE message of "choosing to be inspired" :hi: benny, thanks for posting this :patriot:

Maybe that eloquence would have made a dent in the sheeple had it been given as much air time as the Swift Boat Ministry.

but I don't wish to bite Senator Kerry's hand for inviting Senator Edwards to the ticket.

Real UNIVERSAL health care--everybody in, nobody out. Nothing less will do.

Fucking unconscionable that Kucinich, Moseley-Braun and Sharpton were the only ones to advocate it in 2003-2004

For a bunch of 'moralists' the * Bunch are the most immoral sons of bitches to have come down the pike in my lifetime.

Oh - and Agent Mike - tell 'em to stuff that in their holey babble and smoke it. OK?

On the Democratic Party website - "Do you approve of the way Bush is handling the war in Iraq?"

http://www.ncdp.org/

What are the results so far? They might be having problems with freeps?

Why?

Anyhoo.. it was pretty grim when I first looked at it, almost 50/50 with 121 votes.

I'll betcha it's been freeped big time by the nasty freenoids too!

Now it's at 47 yes / 53 no.. Still not that good :shrug:

But it quickly went from 121 votes to 167 votes.. YAY DU!!!

I tried it again :( Am I the only DUer that can't vote :cry:

You're right about it being freeped. I can't believe 47% of NC's dems support Bush's WAR !

Loved the website anyhow, especially the photo of the "monkey holding the wrench" with the headline "Is Bush out of touch...." Heh.

Maybe it's a cookies thing. :shrug:

You're right, there is no way 47% of NC Dems support Bush's war. At least half of all North Carolinians, Rep and Dem, do not support how Bush is handling the war and even half of the NC MILITARY members don't approve of Bush's handling of the war:

http://www.wcnc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8DH767G0.html

More than half the North Carolina military members surveyed in the latest Elon University poll don't like the way President Bush is handling his job and the war in Iraq.

No waita cotton pickin' minute.. Why would the NC Democratic party smell out Democrats and not let them vote? http://eliteleague.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/lol!.gif

Must be a computer glitch for some people? :shrug:

W looks like his dad..lost to many of us about our values and real world..

...voting machine problems? Would it be possible for him to take this issue on?

Comments by Senator Edwards on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines:

As we all know, the 2004 election was marred by widespread voting problems - long lines, miscast ballots, votes that people weren't sure were cast properly by new machines they'd never used before.

Many of the worst problems happened in Ohio. After the election, 28 percent of voters there reported problems with their voting experience. These problems were ones that shouldn't exist in America, like intimidation and not being able to find your polling site. The racial disparities within these problems are especially alarming: in Ohio, African American voters were twice as likely as white voters to experience problems.

The result of these problems is a dramatic blow to our faith in our democratic system: in Ohio in 2004, only 19 percent of African Americans were confident that their vote was counted correctly. That's not the way it should be in America.

So, while I commend the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for taking another look at problems in our voting system, I'm concerned that these guidelines - just like those issued in 1990 and 2002 - do not go far enough.

The main problem with these guidelines is that they don't require voting machines to produce a voter-verified paper trail. That means that voters still would be unable to verify something as simple as the fact that their vote was properly cast. To improve on the problems of 2004, voting machines simply must be required to produce a paper trail.

The EAC recommendations fall short in other ways too. For instance, experts agree that using commercial off-the-shelf software in voting machines makes them less reliable. Companies such as Diebold that make machines with this software are not required to pass the software through testing and certification procedures. This certification could prevent the kind of malfunctions that take machines off-line and contribute to the kind of back-ups and extremely long lines we saw all too often in 2004. Those lines deterred thousands of people from voting, especially people who couldn't afford to take hours and hours away from their work and families to wait in line.

The EAC guidelines should require companies to test and certify off-the-shelf software that's used in voting machines. They should, but they don't.

Finally, the recommendations of the EAC are suggested guidelines for states to comply with. If we were serious about this we'd make them mandatory. And I certainly don't think people should be required to show photo IDs at the polls.

These are just a few of the problems and shortcomings in the EAC's current set of guidelines. The bottom line is, it's a national embarrassment when people can't vote or don't know if their vote was counted. That's not the way it should be in America. We need to get serious about election reform in this country, and we need to do it now.

----

He submitted this to the EAC.

I'll add the link :hi:

http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/eac-voting.asp

I was hoping that Edwards, being from NC, could help get something done about the latest computer purchases that are illegal by their state laws. No paper...no nuttin'. Has he taken on this issue currently?

it was a response to the EAC report that came out recently. AS for the NC voting problems... I don't have much knowledge about that, but he talks about the absolute necessity for a paper trail in his statement above.

Marines or Army?

Surely the prez didn't hold a speaking event to the civilians?

To tout his "economic" optimism.

Nearby, this is happening (from JREG):

Energy costs hit N.C. plants
Natural gas soars; layoffs, prices rise

Vicki Lee Parker, Staff Writer

This winter, hundreds of manufacturing employees across the state will head to the unemployment office. Among them will be at least 150 workers from the Pine Hall Brick company.
For the month of January, the Winston-Salem company will shut down half its production, chief executive Fletcher Steele said.

The culprit: high energy bills.

Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted the gas supply, Pine Hall Brick's monthly gas bill has doubled.
In August, the company paid $700,000 for the natural gas it uses to power the kilns that heat the raw materials used to make the bricks, Steele said. In October, the bill was $1.4 million. "It shocks a lot of people," he said. In 2001, Steele said, the company was paying just $200,000 a month.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/374287.html

This around Robbins, JRE's hometown.

Protestors were out to "greet" him. ;)

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13334329.htm
Under cold, rainy skies the state's Democratic party staged a protest rally at a Quaker meeting house in downtown Kernersville. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who was on the Democratic ticket that challenged Bush in the 2004 election, did not attend the rally, but issued a statement criticizing his former opponent.

"The presidents words are nothing more than a politicians attempt to help himself," Edwards said. "Instead, he should be helping the American people. The legacy of this President is a mess in Iraq, millions of Americans falling into poverty, millions without health care, and out of control gas prices.

"We can do better."

A Private Visit
Kernersville excited, but few will see Bush

From Winston-Salem:

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768484241&path=&s=#pagetop

"opinions" follow the article and worth
the read !

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