C-SPAN: President Obama’s First Speech to Congress (2009)

Source:CSPAN- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) addressing the 111th Congress in his first speech to Congress.

“Pres. Obama addresses the nation before a joint session of Congress. In his speech focusing on the economy and the promotion of his economic agenda.”

From CSPAN  

I believe President Obama gave a great speech here and here’s why: he was really honest (for starters) telling the American people as well as Congress that America is in a real crisis and that times are really bad. But also laid down a vision for how he believes America can recover and even come out stronger by talking about his economic agenda dealing with infrastructure, energy policy, middle class tax cuts, and saving jobs in the public sector that we have to have, like in education and law enforcement.

There are plenty of issues facing America right now and plenty of work to do. And President Obama can look at his presidency in the early years as either the worst time to be President or an opportunity to shine and win reelection by turning America around and leading us back to prosperity.

Instead of spending the first two years trying to blame President George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans for every problem known to man and acting like these issues are just too much for him to handle. Which I don’t believe he’ll do. 

You can also see this post on WordPress.

Greatest Audio Books: The Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution

Source:Greatest Audio Books- As the photo says.

"THE BILL OF RIGHTS - U.S. CONSTITUTION - FULL AudioBook 🎧📖 | Greatest🌟AudioBooks
The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. They were introduced as a series of amendments in 1789 in the First United States Congress by James Madison. Ten of the amendments were ratified and became the Bill of Rights in 1791. These amendments limit the powers of the federal government, protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors on United States territory. (Summary from Wikipedia.org)"

From Greatest Audio Books

To everybody out in blogland, I want to use this blog as a way to express my views in public on the key issues of the day, anything from foreign policy, to education, to fiscal policy, to crime and punishment. I don't consider myself an expert on any of these issues and I'm not asking anybody who reads my blog to take my word as gold.  I want the people who read this blog to decide for themselves. All I can do with this blog is to look at the issues of the day as closely as possible and write about them as informatively as possible and then let the readers decide for themselves how informative I am.

As I said in my extended profile, I'm a confessed political junky and a dedicated viewer of C-Span. (To all of you non-political junkies, C-Span is a 24-hour news network dedicated to current affairs, and it covers both chambers of Congress gavel to gavel.)

I watch and read a lot of news, which is what a political junky needs to do to keep up with what goes on in the world, including PBS and a lot of current affairs documentaries. So I'm pretty informed about what goes on and I think about these issues a lot. So what better and easier way is there to express yourself on what you think on these issues than a blog.

To all you non-political junkies out there in blogland, I'm never afraid to crack a joke.  I could crack a joke at a funeral. I'm not proud of that and most likely I wouldn't crack the joke out loud and a lot of times I walk around with a smirk on my face and people will ask me what is so funny and I'll tell them that I can't tell them because the joke in my head is not appropriate. You know, George W.  Bush was President of the United States for 8 years and spent 2 years running for president and in those 10 years the only thing we developed in common is that we both have a wear a smirk.

In my blog I'll be writing about a lot of serious issues, and the non-political junky who looks at my blog (perhaps accidentally) might find it very technical, kind of like reading a dishwasher manual word for word. So I'm going to throw some humor in wherever it might be appropriate.

To Conservatives out there (and I mean political Conservatives, not religious Conservatives, or the term I prefer, theocrats) I hope you look at this blog and read it carefully and respond to it.  Hopefully we can get an honest and respectful back and forth going.  Even though I'm coming from the left, you might find that we have a few things in common.

So this blog will be a chance for a severe political junky (guess who) to express his thoughts publicly on the issues and hopefully engage in intelligent dialogue with his readers. Intelligent readers are welcome. 

You can also see this post on WordPress. 

Adam Goss: 'The United States Constitution'

Source:Adam Goss- A big part of the U.S. Constitution, is the Rule of Law.

"This video talks about the articles of the United States Constitution and all of its amendments."

From Adam Goss

 I  love  America  because  it  is  one  of  the  few countries in  the  world, if  not  the  only country,  where  the  people  and not  the  government  control  what  happens  in  their  lives.  I  believe  in  freedom and  responsibility.   America  is  the  original, oldest, and, perhaps, only true  constitutional  liberal  democracy  in  the  world.

The  backbone  of  the  American  form  of  government  is  the  United  States  Constitution.  It establishes the rule  of  law and checks and balances among the branches of government and prescribes strict limits on the role of government in society.  America's form  of  government is the best in  the  world because it derives its power  from  the  people.  This sets  America apart from authoritarian  governments. 

A core tenet of America's liberal government is constitutional limitation of government authority.

The  idea that government  can't  do  everything is a  main  difference  between  Liberal  Democrats  and Social Democrats.  Another is the concept that freedom is coupled with responsibility, that  people  have  the  right  to  live  their  lives  as  they  see  fit as  long  as  they're  not injuring others  but  they're  responsible  for decision's  that they  make.

Another  liberal  value  is  equal  opportunity.  People  in  America have  the  right  to  live  up  to  their  potential and  this cannot  be denied  because  of  their  race, ethnicity,  gender,  religion,  sexuality,  national  origin,  or  any  other personal characteristic.

Another  liberal  value  is that one  of  the  roles  of government  is  to  empower  people  who  are  facing  hard  times  to  help  themselves rather than relying  on  the  private  market or  subsidizing  them  forever.  Liberals  believe  the  role  of  government  is  to  protect,  defend,  represent,  serve,  set  the rules,  empower  people  in  need  and  be  fiscally  responsible. 

When  I  think  about  how  I  came  to  think as I  do, about how my  politics developed,  I  look  back  on  great  American  politicians  of  the  past, people  such  as Thomas Jefferson  the  father  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the Democratic  Party and  liberalism and a person whom both Liberals and  Conservatives  respect, President  Harry Truman.  He  started  the  ball rolling  on civil rights  from  the  presidential  level  by  desegregating  the  American military.  He got  the  ball  rolling  on  universal  health  care, something  the  Democratic Party has  been  pushing  for  60  years.  Medicare  was  originally  a  Truman  idea.

Truman  also  laid  the  ground  work  to  fight  the  cold  war  with  the  creation  of  NATO,  CIA and  the  Defense  Department.  John  Kennedy showed us that America  is  great.  Lyndon  Johnson  made  full citizenship for  African- Americans the  law  with  the Voting  Rights  Act and the  Civil  Rights Bill.  He had a  passion  in  his  gut  to  fight  for  people  who  were  down  because  he knew from  personal experience  what  it  was  like  to  be  poor.

LBJ  also  believed  that  people who were  down  should  be  given  a  hand  up  rather  than  a  hand  to the  face.  Bill  Clinton showed that  there  was  nothing  wrong  with  America  that couldn't  be  fixed with what  is  right  with  America.  He  redefined liberalism  for  America.

When Clinton  and  Gore  were  elected  in  November, 1992,  I changed from being a casual follower of politics to  being  hooked  on  politics.  They  showed  America  that  it  was still  great. Even though it  was  facing  major  problems, they  had  a  vision  of  how  to  fix  them.

This  is  an  overview  of  my  politics,  the  backbone of my  approach to issues  that America  faces.  You  can  look  at  issues  with an  open  mind but  if you  don't  have core beliefs,  your  are  looking  at  issues in  the  dark  and  hoping  for  the  best.  

You can also see this post on WordPress. 

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on WordPress.