Bill Clinton To Appear With Kerry in Philly at Monday Rally

I just heard on the radio that Clinton and Kerry will be here for a rally on Monday at noon. It's only been - what, a month? - since his bypass, so he is doing Kerry and the country a major service.

Everybody wants to see the Big Dog, but frankly, the place he needs to be is in the black neighborhoods. Kerry has not connected with black voters, because the campaign has been about Iraq and because of Kerry's Boston Senatorial demeanor. Black folks are as susceptible as whites to be stupid and racist; i.e., think Bush is a big strong man who will kill all the ragheads. Kerry has talked about equality and justice, met with black leaders, appears with black boxers, but he's not Clinton.

Bill needs to go to a few rallies and do a little compare-and-contrast between the Kerry domestic plan and Bush's record. He should talk shit about the Republicans in Congress and what they have been doing to programs that really benefit cities, and mention that Kerry supports that faith-based shit, too (as does Clinton - ugh, look at me holding my nose), and that Bush already has a back-door draft going, do they want a for-real draft? Remember how minorities fared under the last one? So, there's your choice - Bush, and either incarceration or combat for your children, or Kerry, and opportunity and justice. A little over the top, but essentially true.

Update 10/21/04: The event will be at Love Park, 16th & the Parkway, gates at 10 a.m. Tickets are here. (Whoo boy, a center city rally during the week. That shouldn't cause any traffic problems, huh? They'll have to re-route the buses, but what about the trains? It's only a block to Suburban Station - will the El be running? I love to predict chaos, and man, do I predict chaos.)

Comments

[eRobin]

Glad to hear it. He's our October Surprise. I've been meaning to post about his comeback and that I thought he'd make it back before Election Day, but I kept forgetting to do it.

I think I'll have to try to get into Philly.

[Violent Femme]

faith based initiatives

my feeling is a little different having lived and worked in camden and for the city

the churches did ALL the work in that city

they created affordable housing, they fed people, they made sure basic needs were met

the city and state did virtually nothing

and the churches did it with grace and they did it without the waste and corruption i saw everytime any municipal or state agency was involved with anything

i personally think the churches should get all the social service funding

just make laws that NO ONE can discriminate...period.....

[Violent Femme]

as for the draft....we need one bad

it would make people so uncomfortable the country would swing to the left for decades

it might even lead to a bloody revolution

[Karl]

Hey, feel free to post items like this to Philly Future :)

http://www.phillyfuture.org

Hope you've been well man.

[Lenny]

I agree with Violent Femme. A draft would spread the sacrifice through the society and make going to war a real decision to ponder. As it is we hardly feel the war, except for those with a conscience. Bush tries to minimize the war cost by ignoring the coffins being sent home. I think we should have pictures of the dead soldiers plaster all over the news. There is a cost to war and we should feel it. We are isolated from it.

[nick paul]

the Left needs the draft to gain a political foothold?

christ, you guys must be fanatical lefties if you're prepared to sacrifice (potential, future) draftees for ideological leverage. or something.

the old 'cruel to be kind' approach, ay?

the old 'ends justifies the means' approach, sure.

jeez.

how about we let the dumb-arsed, credit card, consumer-zombies work out for themselves that the Capitalist Snakes and Ladders Game is mostly snakes and very few ladders.

listen for the sound of pin-striped suits hitting the pavement in your local financial district.. that's our cue.

(is my sarcasm detector on the blink?)

[MIthras]

Nick Paul-
No, they're not being sarcastic. What you're reading is the product of frustration. So much of the U.S. public is so self-absorbed, uncritical and uninformed that no matter how bad the other side is, and no matter how well we state our case, it's always a struggle for good to win out. So that results in people saying, I wish we had a draft so people would viscerally react to the prospect of invasion. Or they say (a la Ralph Nader), I hope Bush wins so things will get really bad and the public will react against the Right.

There are at least two problems with those kinds of arguments. First, as you say, it's inhuman to wish ill on others just so it will provoke a reaction. Second, it won't work. Sometimes things have to get worse before they'll get better. But most of the time, when things get worse, they can get worse still. A draft, for example, might provoke a backlash against military action. Or it might provoke a build-up in military spending, so that all of our "sons and daughters" will have the best equipment and training (read: more pork for the contractors and arms manufacturers), siphoning even more money from other programs.

Femme-
I don't like my tax money going to the Moonies and to Pat Robertson. Nor do I like it being used to build churches, which is what they're doing with it. If religious organizations want to set up separate entities in separate facilities in order to provide social services and abide by all the rules - including nondiscrimination - then fine. But proselytize even once, and they lose their contract immediately.

[nick paul]

well, i hope they are registered'n ready to go, too.

if their argument is spot on, the more folk drafted and transformed into red mist the greater the Left's political power, going forward.

tops!

it seems the 'useful' folks are out in force at the moment.

to be fair, i include Krugman's latest column as being on the 'useful' side of things (though i feel shame in suggesting he is an idiot...)

"Mr. Bush's claim that we don't need any expansion in our military is patently unrealistic; it ignores the severe stress our Army is already under."

why do i think Krugman would like to see Bush get the boot and Kerry left in a position (thanks, liberal media!) where he has no choice but to go the draft?

am i cynical or just a useless idiot?

[Mithras]

Oh, I'd never call you useless.

I think what Krugman wants is to bury the idea that the left is militarily timid (if that is the right way to put it.) Also, it is true that the Iraq misadventure has strained the Army, especially the reserves, who never expected to spend *years* in a hostile country. Those people's families are hurting. Since everyone except Bush admits we're stuck in Iraq for the next 5 years, the situation is untenable. Whoever wins the election, one of the first things that will have to be dealt with is increasing the number of combat divisions.

[Lenny]

There could be more debates!!!

Read http://cardsboard.blogspot.com/

[eRobin]

The trains had better be running or I'm in trouble.