Correspondence

In July, I heard you express the view that it was the presidential nominee's right to choose a running mate. The right to nominate candidates for any elective office belongs to the entire party, to be exercised through the delegates. It is not the property of one person. Is it your intention or that of anyone in your family to usurp the prerogative provided delegates of your party in procedural rules # 9 & 10? Undercutting democracy at any level is no way to gain the support and cooperation of the people.

You keep talking about lowering taxes on middle-class Americans. To get this money, do you intend to raise taxes on foreigners and on working-class Americans, millions of people you snobs with graduate degrees are ashamed to talk about?

Your energy policy at mandates: "Provide short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump." IF I ever feel pain at the pump, I'll consider penicillin treatment.

You say, "Barack Obama and Joe Biden will close energy industry market loopholes and increase transparency to prevent traders from unfairly lining their pockets." IF their pockets have no lining, won't the oil leak through?

You want cars that can get "150 miles per gallon . . . built here in America, instead of factories overseas". If they are worthwhile, why not produce them everywhere?

You advocate a "$7,000 Tax Credit for purchasing advanced vehicles". Does that mean that people who build their own advanced vehicles from scratch must pay the full cost of the parts? Does that mean that people who buy and restore old electric cars get no help from the government?

"Obama and Biden will require oil companies to develop the 68 million acres of land (over 40 million of which are offshore) which they have already leased and are not drilling on." That creates a picture in my mind of the two of you licking crude oil off the hooves of Chincoteague ponies. I'd like the demand brought down so there is insufficient incentive to develop offshore oil.

You want to "make the U.S. a leader on climate change". Isn't it? Don't Americans do more to change the climate than anyone else?

If elected, will you hand the White House to a Repuglican, as did Presidents Gore and Kerry? If people want you in the Oval Office, must they vote for John McCain?

The military-industrial complex will stop at nothing to stay in power. It appears that Linda Kreager, Greg McKendry, and Bill Gwatney have been killed to prevent your election. As socially unacceptable as political assassination may be, it usually succeeds in removing the deceased as actors in a political system: as voters, as activists, as office holders, even as jurors. The laws currently in effect remove political rights upon death, whether or not the death was legal. Thus, assassination provides a benefit to political adversaries. War hawks were able to escalate hostilities in Vietnam because John F. Kennedy was out of the way. Racists got a second wind after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. Richard Nixon might not have been elected president if Robert F. Kennedy had lived. Dianne Feinstein stepped into John Donne said, "Every man's death diminishes me." Every life, American, Iraqi, Afghan, child, civilian, soldier, even Kamikaze suicide bomber. The use of violence for political ends must stop.

If you have any understanding of how to create a post-military world, it didn't come across in the recent debate. It was also disappointing that the conflicts in Congo and Darfur were never mentioned. John McCain kept saying you were wrong about the surge, hoping viewers would forget that he was wrong about the entire war.

I have heard a lot about a tax policy that rewards businesses for buying vehicles that weigh at least 5,000, but punishes those that choose to meet their needs with lighter vehicles, pushing them closer to bankruptcy. Over time, this policy can only weed out conservation-minded business, leaving wasteful ones in control of the market. This sounds like an evil policy to me. What do you intend to do about it?

It is outrageous that your privacy was violated at the Whaling Wall. Next time, you might want to write, "Lord, protect us all from the prying eyes of invasive and insatiable curiosity." It will gain you wide support among fellow travelers.

On TV, you mention "restoring America's leadership in the world". Which kind? Is it the leadership of innovation? Is it the leadership of allowing others to learn from mistakes, such as avoiding the pitfalls of three-branch government? Is it the leadership of systematic extermination of indigenous peoples that provided a model for Canada, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Indonesia, and Sudan? Is it the leadership of putting fascists in control of the tropics? Is it the leadership of making places like Iraq, Israel, Nickel Mines, and Knoxville inhospitable for religious minorities? Is it the leadership of finding people marching and getting in front? Is it the leadership of wiping out all rivals to leadership, leaving only oneself?

Did it ever occur to you that maybe it is our turn to follow, or to get out of the way? Perhaps the portion of your brain that can hold that type of thought has been damaged by the impact of a falling flagpole.

You said you want someone to be a "beacon of light". I have seen them in the sky, heralding the opening of shopping centers. Well, I don't want to prevent anyone from seeing the stars. I'm not a lighthouse, or even a firefly. I have no intention of being any part of your beacon. If you attempt to incorporate me in to one, I will fight you every step of the way until I am extinguished.

According to Maria Hinojosa of PBS, you voted to build an 18-foot-high wall as far as two miles north of the Rio Grande, with a number of homes south of it. Do you have some grudge against these people? If there is a fire, do you want the response delayed as the fire truck pounds against the wall to knock it down? In a health crisis, do you want their condition to worsen while they wait for an ambulance? Do you want wildlife to become extinct as foraging range and gene pools are limited? Exactly what is your intention? Will you take the easy way out and deport Maria Hinojosa?

John McCain (but not Sarah Palin) has been running an ad claiming that you intend to raise government spending. (I didn't think there was enough money in circulation to accomplish that.) To counter that, you must graphically portray the degree to which government spending and the national debt have increased as a percentage of GNP in recent decades.

With rapid urbanization after the industrial revolution, the threat of widows and orphans falling into penury led to development of welfare programs. There were numerous low-paid full-time workers who received public assistance to house and feed their children.

Some time before 1990, the City of New York compared its list of employees to its welfare rolls, to detect fraud. It was found that thousands of employees received welfare. After further investigation, it was found that most were legally doing so, as their pay was insufficient to cover the cost of living.

On television, you claim to have "passed laws moving people from welfare to work". How far have you moved the welfare recipients who were already working? Are they living decently? Are their children in Dickensian workhouses or Gingrichian orphanages? How many have found "work" selling drugs or their bodies? Do you have reliable figures?

I am disappointed that you have recommended Senator Joseph Biden to be your running mate.

I cannot tell you how deeply I despise the man who deprived the Justice Department of Lani Guinier, whose 95% success rate in civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court made some people uncomfortable. When I called Washington in 1993 to complain, Biden's staff had the nerve to pretend that their boss wasn't involved in sandbagging an outstanding nominee of his own party.

Subsequently, Biden voted to initiate a war without determining the truth of the arguments behind it. It is a senator's job to find out the truth, especially if in the opposition party. Because Biden and others failed at their jobs, we suffer for it today. The bottom is falling out of the economy because all the money has gone to make war contractors rich instead of being invested in communities and small businesses that create new jobs and products. Along with dozens of members of Congress, I knew that Bush and Cheney were lying. Why didn't Biden?

I hope the convention in Denver rejects Joe Biden in favor of another. (Mike Gravel, Christopher Dodd, Barbara Mikulski, Patricia Schroeder, or Dennis Kucinich would be decent.) If not, I will take pleasure in voting against Biden in November. I do not intend to support a candidate for national office who is stupider than I. Nor can I in good conscience support anyone of such deficient character.

I hope you realize how much difficulty it would cause you in Virginia if the convention chooses Tim Kaine. The last two Repuglican governors of Virginia were disasters, and a lot of us don't want another, especially during a budget crisis. Governor Kaine must get us out of this mess. Because the State Board of Elections has discouraged people from ticket-splitting, Virginians who vote to keep Kaine governor will likewise vote to keep you in the Senate.

It would be even worse to run with Joe Biden, whose role in the character assassination of Lani Guinier was disgraceful. The electorate wisely evicted Biden from his committee chair in 1994, but he refuses to take a hint and retire.

You need a running mate who balances the ticket. Not the same gender, not the same race, not the same age, not the same region, not the same experience. You don't need the carpetbagging senator from Chappaqua, though. She has made no secret of her desire to get you out of the way so she can take her rightful dowager throne.

I'm not sure who to recommend. Barbara Mikulski, LaDonna Harris, Pat Schroeder, and maybe Barbara Boxer would each be an asset.

I fail to see the point to the following elements of your "immigration policy" at :

"We need stronger enforcement on the border." Why do you want to complicate the travel of Americans who want to travel abroad. Are you trying to keep us captive in our own country, prisoners who can be chained to the mill until our forced labor pays off the national debt run up by the military-industrial complex?

"Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders." What integrity can you possibly see to the current borders? Tribes including the Abenaki and Iroquois have straddled the border since it was drawn by people who had never seen it. Communities like Niagara Falls and Nogales have been divided by the border, yet had to maintain their connections. To get between Alaska and most other states involves crossing the border twice. The borders don't hold back storms, global warming, or acid rain. The taxpayers are being robbed to build a wall north of the Rio Grande, to ruin the lives of the people who live just north of the river. You avoid any mention of your support for that hellish spectacle. So, what are you talking about? Although the maps at may represent an improvement, the concept of borders must change.

"Obama and Biden support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens." Why should people from Latin America who now live in Puerto Rico be compelled to learn a language from a country known for its strict class stratification and bland food? How do you intend to treat people who only want to live here a few years, then go elsewhere, without changing their citizenship? How do you intend to treat tourists (whom George WMD Bush confuses with "terrorists")?

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