Hillary Clinton: "I'm in"

Hillary Clinton joins race for Democratic nomination

In a move that comes as a surprise to many, Senator Hillary Clinton has announced she will indeed seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. She broke ranks with other members, including Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) who also announced today by announcing she was running on her website. The former First Lady between 1993 and 2001 made history when she became the first and to date only former First Lady to be elected to office and is making history once again as being the only former First Lady to seek the nation's top job. She is also making history by becoming the first woman to be considered a front runner for the nomination, which leads the way in a historic election period where a hispanic, black and a woman are considered top contenders.

Like all good candidates for office, she began her campaign for 2008 years before by insisting that she simply would not seek the office. Any good political candidate knows that if you refuse, the media and the people are even more inclined to seek you elected. Congressman Ted Strickland (D-OH) said he would not run for the chief executive post in Ohio, but he was sworn in as Ohio's governor a short time ago. Although she is not the only smart candidate to do this, as Barack Obama (D-IL) also declined to say whether or not he would run and allowed the media to do most of the work before later confirming he would seek the nomination. Clintons have always had a love affair with the press and it might very well play in her favor come the primaries.

Hillary Clinton for President doesn't sound very appealing to many people on the right. In fact, it might be their worst possible outcome in 2008 aside from Dennis Kucinich. However, polls show Hillary is the only candidate to date who has the ability to poll within decent numbers of candidates like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. Although many (and quite accurately) claim Hillary is a polarizing figure, they simply cannot refute the numbers when it comes down to 2008. Part of the appeal of Obama to many Democrats and moderates alike is his seeming ability to pull moderates towards him. However, the numbers are showing Hillary can do the same.

Ultimately, no matter who decides to make clear they will or will not run makes little difference until 2008. The primaries are more than a year away and if candidates cannot stay in the media's eye and raise upwards of 100 million dollars by the end of the year, they'll likely fall away from the race. American politics is made of money and without it, there is little chance any candidate will succeed. Time and money will make this campaign very interesting.

Iraqi executions are an outrage

Iraqi executions are shameful, US must distance itself

The hanging of Saddam was no doubt a very important event in the history of Iraq. It marked the closure of the life of a very serious dictator and a threat to the people of the Middle East. However, I believe his execution has seriously harmed efforts for Sunnis and Shia to seek a peaceful solutions, has angered much of the world and has divided even strong allies of the United States. The United Kingdom's Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who has been a very strong supporter of the US position in Iraq and one that has likely ushered in his ultimate downfall made clear he opposed the execution. Other international figures, such as the Pope also made clear they did not agree with the executions. After the outrageous filming, taunting and overall poor execution of Saddam, I believe reasonable efforts would have been made to keep things more clean the next time around. This does not seem to have happened.

The Iraqi government hanged Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar together (something they denied to Saddam) as reported by the BBC. Barzan was a half brother of Saddam and Al-Bandar was a former justice. The hanging was a complete debacle for several reasons. Firstly, a taping occured which while limited the exposure as it did not get placed on the internet, still denied the dying dignity. I cannot speak for this execution as far as the uniforms of the guards, but if it was like that of Saddam they were wearing leather jackets and ski masks. This certainly is the uniform of a legitimate government! Lastly, as if to throw the entire event in our faces, Barzan was actually decapitated! Decapitation has been the tool of rebels, radicals and Islamic nuts. I'd personally like to inspect the rope used to make sure it wasn't made of piano wire.

Simply because international leaders don't want to see someone die doesn't mean Iraqi leaders should have called off the executions. I am not condemning the very fact that theses men were put to death, but how it was done. It was done in a shameful way that has angered Iraqis even more and has undermined the legitimacy of the Iraqi government. This could have been a fairly formal event that would have shown the Iraqi government to be willing to step up and make a real effort to seem in control. They dropped the ball once again.

Oppose HHS/Medicaid cuts

Proposed cuts part of war on rural citizens

With the announcement of the proposed 'reform' of the Medicaid funding in order to help shave off 4 billion dollars over the next few years comes the understanding it will mean underfunding vital services. The Health & Human Services Department has proposed slimming down the Medicaid budget and preventing the Federal Government from spending more than the law allows. Currently, the Federal Government will pick up the cost of arranging contracts and deals between states and healthcare providers, but this requires it to spend more than allowed by law. With the ending of the practice, there is hope from the Bush Administration that money will be saved. However, such saving comes at a high price: rural hospitals, clinics and nursing facilities will lose some funding.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a leading researcher of healthcare policies and statistics insists the current status quo helps prop up many facilities in rural areas. It is very possible that without this support, facilities could slow operations and provide less services to the public or in the extreme shut down outright. The Bush Administration admits the plan will have "a significant economic impact on a substantial number" of health care providers (AP, Freking 2007). It is personally beyond me how a government which claims to want more health services for its citizens would actually do everything in its power to deprive them of those services. Only 200 billion dollars is currently spent on Medicade per year. The Bush Administration alone asked for 200 billion dollars in its initial funding package for Iraq. Cutting the fat could mean cutting out needy Americans.

These policies continue to fight rural Americans who have been getting the short end of the stick for many years. States such as West Virginia that are largely rural have been deprived of federal funding and are hoping for pork from Democratic legislation to beef up federal aid. For those that have attacked so passionately pork barrel spending, they are in a way attacking the federal government for falling short. We must oppose the plan that would cut funding for hospitals, clinics and nursing centers in rural America and send a strong message to the government that we support increased funding to help Americans who really need our support.

The Voice of the Left

The Voice of the Left & The Sword of Justice

With the founding of this informational (due in part to the efforts of a fellow political thinker and trouble maker in Great Britain) I have dedicated the website to the personal views of myself and hopefully many other leftist Americans. In the United States today, we are seeing a great deal of watering down of the message of the real left. The Democrats are opening up the flood gates of social conservatism and religion into the party and indeed into the overall ideology. The Green Party is too heavily focused on issues that people do not face every single day and are largely too idealistic to be taken seriously. The other left wing parties are shattered and broken, focused on fighting between themselves and not looking towards the future politically.

I will voice my opinions on various issues of the day and comment on topics I consider to be important to the country. I will point out when political figures are wrong, when something in our society is running afoul and will ask questions when things just don't seem right. Most importantly, I will not be afraid to be critical of my own allies in politics for things they do wrong. All too often in this country and in other places, people are told simply to shut up and listen. Well now it is my turn to talk and their turn to listen.