After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
White House Jestor
Jon Stewart. It is about time we have a formal cabinet position with a team of clowns, comedians, and jestors. While journalism is considered the 4th branch of government, it is time for the 5th branch: House of Fools or some such name.
-- posted by heartgarden at 6:42am, July 26, 2008
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Bring in the New
I'm having a hard time reading the list because the names are all from the past. Where are our younger leaders? Why rehash the same names from the past? Does Madeline Albright have a great-niece?
-- posted by heartgarden at 6:37am, July 26, 2008
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Attorney General
Sherrilyn Ifill - is a Maryland civil rights attorney and law school professor who speaks out against injustice. She is known in Maryland as a truth teller.
She recently wrote about the legacy of lynching in a book called On the Court House Lawn. We need someone who can face the truth of our own current system and has the guts to stand firm against our own evildoers.
-- posted by heartgarden at 6:34am, July 26, 2008
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Your suggestions for either Obama's or McCain's cabinet
We want you to tell us your suggestions for either Obama's or McCain's cabinet by clicking on the link above that says: "Take the survey now over at SurveyGizmo"
Phillip Frazer, co-editor
-- posted by Frazer at 3:54pm, July 22, 2008
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My picks
Bill Richardson for VP - qualified to be pres., and Hispanic.
Attorney General - CA. A.G. Gerry Brown, former governor and Mayor of Oakland,CA
CIA Director - Thomas Seligman of the Center for International Policy, would reform the agency!
FBI Director - Richard Clark, who tried to alert the govt. about 9/11 attacks.
U.S. Trade Negot. - Peter Conejo, Green Party, financial counsellor in Oakland, CA, and soooo smart! He was treasurer for Contra Costa county, and made more money for them than average by combining conservative bonds with investments in alternative energy.
EPA Administrator - Amory Lovins, Rocky Mtn. Institute
Scty. of State - Al Gore
Scty. of Labor - Denis Kucinich
Scty of Interior - Carl Pope, Sierra Club president or Robert Kennedy Jr.of Waterwatchers
Scty of Ag. - Jim Hightower!
Scty. of Treasury - Joseph Stieglitz
Scty. of Health - Sheila Kuehl, CA State Senator whose health bill would bring single payer care to California.
FCC Chair - Ralph Nader
Scty of HUD - Howard Dean
--Gertrude Reagan
-- posted by Gertrude Reagan at 6:25pm, August 10, 2008
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Secretary of State- Bill Clinton
Who knows world leaders more and has more positive connections? He is also the world's best talker (negotiator). He has uncommon charisma that influences people.
-- posted by 48162 at 4:56pm, July 21, 2008
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Attorney General, John Edwards
I'm just salivating at the thought of what he might clean up in the greedy, corrupt corporate world!
-- posted by 48162 at 4:52pm, July 21, 2008
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Vice-President, Wesley Clark
A must! This will squash all the military advantage McCain thinks he has.
-- posted by 48162 at 4:48pm, July 21, 2008
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Name that VEEP!
Name that VEEP!
WHY SHOULD STAID OLD PUNDITS have all the fun in political guessing games? Let's bring you into play.
Join us in taking the Lowdown Presidential Survey--a free-wheeling, thoroughly unscientific poll, asking you Lowdowners to designate people who might serve as officials in the next presidency. We want to know your choice for vice president, of course but don't stop there --who should serve in other key positions, from FEMA director to Supreme Court?
Remember, you're as likely to be right as any of the establishment seers, so have fun! This month, we'll start with your selections for the Obama Administration, then, next month you can do it again with names for the McCain Administration. We'll print a report on your choices--and, yes, we most certainly will forward the results to Obama and McCain, so they can get the real lowdown directly from you grassroots folks.
Take the survey now over at SurveyGizmo.
Others in the guessing game:
EbonyJet.com writers launched a frenzy of cabinet-speculating among online pundits in May when they posted their lists of what an Obama cabinet might look like at www.ebonyjet.com/politics/national/index.aspx?id=7821. One suggested Colin Powell for VP because he is a retired four-star general, a Republican, and a famously popular person. Another suggested sending the Obamas' best friend/advisor Valerie Jarrett as ambassador to London, John Kerry to Paris, and Al Gore to the UN.
Washingtonian.com ran theirs, also in May (at www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/7641.html), as did Will Thomas at HuffingtonPost, followed at HuffPo by Thomas de Zengotita who argued this month that Obama should name the team now because we deserve to know who's lining up and because "putting Obama at the center of a team of rivals" (biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin's term for Lincoln's administration) would "dampen the he's-not-one-of-us factor that is...still the greatest danger Obama faces."
For foreign policy advisors, check www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4940.
For all the huffing and puffing, most names being floated are senators and governors who generate limited excitement; but we know Lowdowners will be more creative.