Rahm’s History

Now if we look back at his history, we’ll see get a general look at his views. First, he was born in Israel and after serving for the Israeli Army in his youth, he defended Israel as a civilian volunteer in the Israel Defence Force during the Persian Gulf War. His wife Amy Rule converted to Judaism before their wedding, and Rabbi Asher Lopatin has said, “It’s a very involved Jewish family” about them. So if anyone was worried that Israel was not going to be defended with this new Obama administration, rest assured Rahm has got Israel’s back. I think it might even stir up more problems in the long run. “Rahm-bo” as some called him went from being an enthusiastic politician senior advisor for Clinton from the years 1993-98, to being an investment banker where he made $16.2 million within a two-and-a-half years time. Then he moved on to make a meagrely disclosed sum of $31,060 in 2000 as a member of the Board of Directors for “Freddie Mac”. However, the following year his disclosed revenue grew to $231,655. He obviously went back into politics and was criticized by Edward Moskal as being “a millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing” about “our heritage”.

Rahm’s Policies

What I find sort of interesting are Rahm’s views on how the state should be run. Foremost, we must understand that this man is very anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian. This comes as no surprise. And with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sending a letter to Obama with congratulations on his defeat, I wonder if once the Arab nations see how close Obama is with pro-Israel defense politicians, this might not end up as being too good for U.S. Besides that, I also find it peculiar that Obama, someone so Democratic and against Bush’s decision on the war in Iraq would pick a Rahm as his Chief of Staff—a man who was pro-war in Iraq. Rahm is seen as quite liberal on many social issues, but he advocated numerous times that he feels passionate about the idea of a three-month compulsory universal service program for Americans between the ages 18 and 25. Now is this the right man for the job? Choosing a pro-military, pro-compulsory military service program, and clearly with a bias against Arab-nations man who already holds a lot of power in U.S might not be the best decision on Obama’s behalf.

Mixed Opinion

Some politicians, such as John Boehner stated that, “This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil and govern from the center.” And Alex Conant wasn’t too nice about it either, saying “Barack Obama’s first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to ‘heal the divides’.” However, there have been positive comments such as, “This is a wise choice by President-elect Obama. He’s tough but fair — honest, direct and candid.” by Lindsay Graham. And finally there are some comments like the following made by Rahm’s father for an article entitled “Our Man in the White House”, which bring up a great question that might be viewed as either extremely patriotic or extrmely frightening for Americans: “Obviously, he will influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why shouldn’t he do it? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floor of the White House.”

This post was submitted by Jesse Floreneli.

Isn’t what Bush is doing right now with the entire Bailout, and with basically buying out banks’ and other corporations’ shares a socialist movement as well? Well, to be clear…NO! There’s nothing wrong with the bailout. Do you know how many types of democracies there are? Tons. There are huge differences in Canadian, French, U.S, and British democracies, yet they are still democracies. Well now, if the government is so keen on nationalising banks, why not nationalism health care as well–make it free for us to at least go to the doctor. Canada is pretty democratic and they have free health care, why not bring it to the U.S? Or are we too stuck-up to take a lesson from our neighbours?

The way both candidates have been running their campaigns have been repulsive, in my opinion. Palin gets more media coverage than anyone in the world lately. America has been so lost in this election that it’s got no clue on what’s happening in “REAL” news lately. We haven’t seen Osama Bin Laden on the tele in a really, really long time. I wonder where he is. How come we aren’t still looking for him? Or are we, it’s just we haven’t been able to find him…in how many years? Wasn’t he the main cause behind 9/11? We’ve captured Saddam Hussein, the authoritarian ruler who really was no threat to us except for spreading some hate, which it seems like the entire world has been doing for the past seven or so years. The media has become so powerful that it fully averts our attention from important issues and focuses our discussions and how we think on things it wants us to pay attention to. It’s disgusting how straight-minded people have become. But to conclude, as I was saying, the Republicans need to really rethink their campaign and stop using Joe the Plumber scenario in every little thing they say. Period.

Oh, by the way, I apologize to be helping out with this whole “talk about the elections” thing that I’m trying to put down as having too much media-coverage by writing about it, but it’s the only way to get my point across.

Check out this Boss blog that are the Chronicles of Boss Living.

This post was submitted by Dorin R. Plyer.

Playing the Race Card

“I think we need a president who is a generational change and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press. How can someone who was a major player in backing Bush to go through with the war and other key acts their Administration committed begin talking about a generation of change. We shouldn’t be embracing Powell, we should be condemning him for not doing a good job when he had his chance and not flip-flopping and becoming a Democrat all of a sudden when his plan failed. Even though the majority will see this as a jab at McCain, I see it as him admitting that Bush and his surrounding figures (Powell included) were such a failure that he cannot even endorse his own party.

More Monies for Obama

Since these candidates have been treated like superstars like mentioned in a previous post, they have been able to attract insane amounts of donations. In fact, Obama has raised $605 million from the start of his campaign, an all-time record in US history. It’s nice to see so many patriotic people believing in their candidate, but it’s also sad to see that they have so much hope, because I honestly don’t see the problems dissappearing if Obama wins. I also wonder who’ll end up pocketing the remainder of the cash left over from the campaign.

The Real Question

Writing this article, what I’m wondering is if Powell is actually endorsing Obama because he likes his policy and his view for the future or if it’s just because he’s a fellow African-American? Quotes like, “He is crossing lines – ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines,” from Powell do not really seem professional, but passionate. I find it alright for some celebrity to say something like that, but when a political figure endorses a candidate simply for his ethnicity or race, it does not provide enough of a reason to respect either of them. But in all honesty, Powell’s words are to be forgotten tomorrow and there will be some other stuff to focus on in this election, such as the early vote count in Texas.

This post was submitted by Kieran Schilo.