President Bush gave a great speech today (haven't heard that one lately) about our current financial crisis. His main points were along the lines of what we previously mentioned here.
You can read more about his speech here.
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Here is more of Obama's Chump Change, this time about our economy.
Obama Change: Protect U.S. workers and provide more government programs
Chump Change: Increase prices for U.S. consumers, make the U.S. less competitive, and raise taxes
Flanked by unionized Wal-Mart greeters, Obama can be found rollin’ back America with tax hikes and toilet paper rations for all.
There are more slaves today than ever before in human history. This slave trade is worth $32 billion a year - more than what Nike, Google, and Starbucks make combined. Human trafficking (which is a nice way of saying slavery) involves victims who are forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation.
If you're like most Americans, it seems impossible this is still happening. It also makes you wonder why you haven't heard more about it.
Thankfully, the Republican Party has a plan in their 2008 Platform to fight human trafficking: "We advocate the establishment of an Inter-Agency Task Force on Human Trafficking, reporting directly to the President, and call for increased diplomatic efforts with foreign governments that have been negligent toward this evil."
As with most issues, we shouldn't just look to our government to solve the problem. That's where nonprofit organizations and individuals come in. One way to fight slavery is by creating awareness, which is just what the film Call + Response set out to do. Below is their (slightly graphic) trailer. Be sure and check out their website to see if the movie is playing in your city.
Aristotle had a unique outlook on life. He taught his students to live between extremes. In battle, for example, the extremes were cowardice and irrationality. Nothing was worse than cowardice, but a foolhardy rush to war with no consideration of the costs or risks wasn’t much better. Courage lay between the two.
Courage recognizes the fear that drives the coward to inaction but acts anyway; however, such action is marked by caution and sobriety rather than haste and foolish bravado. Thus courage fits neatly between (and is superior to) the two extremes.
I’m no Aristotle, but if I could be so bold, let me give you this piece of advice: live between panic and intellectualism. It’s a little place called common sense, which I urge us to live in because it’s going to see us through the dark economic days ahead.
Lyndon Johnson was probably the best negotiator in U.S. political history. Known as “Master of the Senate” before becoming president, he was often able to get other Senators to do what he wanted. Perhaps his greatest feat in the Senate was getting civil rights legislation passed when Segregationists dominated his party.
As president, he even talked a justice of the Supreme Court into resigning to become ambassador to the United Nations.
There was one battle, however, Johnson couldn’t negotiate his way out of...the Vietnam War. Johnson felt sure that if he could just sit down with Ho Chi Minh, the North Vietnamese leader, he could talk him into ending the war. Regrettably, Ho was of the opinion that as long as Johnson was willing to talk, he wasn’t willing to fight hard enough to win. Even more regrettably, Ho was right.
If you've watched the news at all this week, chances are you've seen Bill Clinton doing an interview. Why is Bill all over the news? Well, it's not necessarily because Hillary's getting ready for a 2012 run for the White House. The reason you're seeing a lot more of Bill is that the annual meetings of the Clinton Global Initiative are being held this week.
Basically, Clinton brings together a lot of rich or influential people and gets them to donate money to worthy causes. In the first 3 years, CGI has raised $30 billion in commitments, helping 200 million people in 150 countries with such issues as health, education, clean energy, micro loans, etc.
Interestingly, in many of these interviews, Bill has basically been promoting a conservative ideology (in not so many words).
We've always heard how most Americans would rather have a beer with President Bush than other politicians. According to the Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Bush has (figuratively speaking) took it up a notch and bought alcoholic Americans a round of drinks. Let us explain.
In Part 1, we shared thoughts from Mayor Bloomberg about America's financial crisis, explaining what the government bailouts mean. Today, we'll give you his thoughts on how we got here in the first place.
Michael Bloomberg, business mogul and New York mayor, spoke at Georgetown last week. He talked about what's happening on Wall Street, the Federal Government's bailouts, and how we got to the place we find ourselves today.
While Bloomberg considers himself an independent, his economic views are mostly conservative. His assessment of what's going on with the financial industry seems to be accurate, and his prescription for improving it sounds convincing.
In this first part, we’ll cover Bloomberg’s assessment of the recent government bailouts and the need for fixing how Washington regulates the financial industry.
Special thanks to our friends at Postsecret for displaying this. Postsecret is a popular website sharing anonymous secrets sent in on postcards.
Hurricane Gustav did not cause the damage we all feared. This was partly due to nature, partly due to the great leadership of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
Bobby was certainly in the news over the past couple days, although he had to miss his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention. He is a rising star within the Republican party, with strong fiscal conservative values.
On Friday, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Bobby released an article showing how fiscal conservatism helped Louisiana beat Katrina. You can read that article here.
Bobby Jindal is a rising star within the Republican Party. The 37-year-old Governor of Louisiana is considered by many to represent the future of the GOP.
Last week, the GOP Youth Convention announced that Bobby is teaming up with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to serve as Honorary Co-chairs of its campaign to bring young people to the GOP National Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In about 8 months in office, Jindal has already brought great reform and conservative principles to a state better known for its street-lined festivities and questionable ethics than a healthy business environment and tax cuts.
In an interesting turn of events, Senator McCain and the Republican Party are now using Obama's popularity against him, comparing him to Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and David Hasselhoff.
They recently released separate videos, painting Obama more as a celebrity than a viable commander-in-chief.
Watch these videos and let us know your thoughts. Is there truth behind the ads, or are they just a clever (and humorous) political ploy?
From the McCain Campaign
"I understand the challenge I have, and I understand that this election is really all about the people of your generation," John McCain said of young voters at a recent town hall meeting in Ohio.
According to an article today on CNN, McCain has his work cut out for him. As of right now, Obama is carrying the young vote (for a few obvious reasons, not the least of which is age).
Conservative outreach groups are saying that McCain must work to connect young voters with the principles of conservatism. Incidentally, that's what The Relevant Elephant is doing, and will continue to do.
We do this because we strongly believe that when a young voter understands the guiding principles of conservatism, they will see that it's best not only for our country, but for themselves as well.
The Relevant Elephant is working hard on some exciting updates that will better inform you on the Presidential election. So be sure and check back often.
It’s 2:30AM, and all is quiet. Without warning, the sound of breaking glass echoes through the night air. Dressed in black from head to toe, a shadowy figure crawls through the broken basement window. He wastes no time, quickly stuffing his bag with valuables, looting the house of its contents.
As he kneels to empty a drawer of silverware into a pillowcase, the intruder is interrupted by a swift kick to the back of the head and is sent sprawling across the floor. As he rolls over and comes to his senses, he finds himself staring down the barrels of two loaded pistols in the hands of the Tomb Raider herself, Angelina Jolie.
“How is this possible?”, he thinks to himself. “I picked this house because celebrities live here... they can’t possibly be gun owners!”
As The Relevant Elephant grows, we’ll be connecting young voters with leading conservatives from across the nation. Today, former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating shares his thoughts about Senator McCain’s character with The Relevant Elephant in light of General Wesley Clark’s recent comments.
Former Democrat presidential candidate,
General Wesley Clark, suggested that being shot down over Viet Nam is not a presidential credential for Senator John McCain. He conveniently ignored the rest of the story.
John McCain went on to complete a distinguished Navy career, including executive stints as a squadron commander. His service as a U.S. Congressman, and long serving United States Senator, are heralded. In those positions he behaved more like a governor and less like a legislator. McCain brought together competing interests of both parties to resolve problems. It was not enough just to talk about resolution. He got resolution. If it were not for his executive leadership in the confirmation battles involving Federal judges, neither John Roberts nor Sam Alito would be on the Supreme Court today.
The Missouri Governor’s race will be one of the most watched elections in the country this year. The Republican primary has definitely heated up in the past couple weeks, with controversy surrounding Steelman’s attack ads and Hulshof’s response.
The Relevant Elephant recently interviewed both candidates, and not surprisingly, they both think they are the most relevant candidate to young voters. In the interviews, Steelman attacks Hulshof’s voting records in Washington and plays up her Missouri experience. Hulshof talks about the influence young conservatives can have and his plan for creating an economy that provides quality careers to young voters in Missouri.
The Relevant Elephant will be endorsing a candidate this week, so we want to hear from you. Be sure and check out both of their interviews and where they stand on the issues.
Coldplay’s highly anticipated and Latin-inspired
album, Viva la Vida, was released today. And whether your Facebook status currently proclaims your unwavering love for the endearing Brits or you’ve spent years trying to convince your friends that Chris Martin’s crooning falsetto is overrated, you’re probably aware of the band’s promotion of fair trade. Maybe you’ve even been influenced by it. Martin’s Bono-esque advocacy for fair trade has materialized in a variety of ways, from the crafty use of Sharpie on his ivory-tickling hands to the distribution of petitions at Coldplay concerts.
Barack Obama has run an historical campaign. The first African American to clinch a major party nomination, Obama's run for the White House has generated unrivaled enthusiasm. Not only did he finally beat the pantsuit off Hillary Clinton, he's also spoken to larger crowds and raised more money than any other candidate in the history of presidential primaries.
Young voters are especially attracted to the inspiring and articulate politician from Chicago's south side. Obama has brought young voters out of the woodwork. "Yes, we can!" has become the battle cry of a generation whose main goal seems simple on the surface: change.