John Edwards is a busy person lately. Speeches, Interviews, Endorsements, Policy Statements, Presidential Forums — where does he find the energy!
Could it be he is driven to win? Could it be he knows America needs a Fighter in Washington who will speak for us the American People?
It is a Fight he’s been waging all his life, in court rooms, against Corporate interests, and Winning for average folks like us. Now John Edwards is primed and ready to take on those same Corporate Interests in Washington DC, and Fight for OUR Interests again — because “America Belongs to Us” the American People!
“America needs a president who will fight for the American people every day, not defend a broken system. America does not belong to corrupt Washington lobbyists or corporations – it belongs to us.
It’s time we took our Country back! It’s time to support John Edwards.
First off, the events of yesterday in New Hampshire, with the Hostage Crisis, makes everyone pause and take inventory. We live in a stressful world, with far too many people living on the edge. It’s truly a shame that our society, too often let’s people just fall through the cracks. But it does.
John Edwards had this thoughtful statement on yesterday’s events in NH (thank goodness, it ended peacefully):
“Elizabeth and I send our thoughts and prayers to everyone involved in the situation in Rochester, New Hampshire today. We are thankful that no one was harmed and deeply admire the brave work of the Rochester Police Department, the New Hampshire State Police and all of the law enforcement agencies whose handling of the situation today kept everyone safe.
“Everyday Americans who stand up and get involved on behalf of the candidates they believe in represent the very best of our democracy. While we may support different candidates, each and every one of us are united by a belief that together, we can make our country the best it can be. We are so grateful that no one working today was harmed, and we send our warmest thoughts to Senator Clinton and her entire staff.”
(2) These Events in NH, kind of put a dampener on a rousing Speech that Edwards delivered at the Democratic National Committee, DNC 2007 Fall Meeting, yesterday, as the Meeting was abruptly canceled, midway through.
If you haven’t seen the Edwards Speech yet I recommend it very much. Here are the clips:
Part 1:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=B6_…
Part 2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vB4…
Part 3:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Npx…
Edwards DNC Speech Transcript, as prepared (pdf)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/p…
(3) John Edwards recent Interview with Charlie Rose was excellent, too!
Edwards sure has a command of the issues and sounds Presidential, and like the Champion of the People, when given the time and opportunity to ACTUALLY SPEAK!
He sounds like the “thinking person’s” President, to me!
I recommend listening to the Charlie Rose interview, sometime too. It is definitely time well spent. America deserves thoughtful Leadership like this:
http://www.vsocial.com/ups/18c…
http://www.vsocial.com/ups/181…
(Many thanks to NCDem Amy, for her tireless work in compiling all these Edwards Events into handy online clips, too! Be sure to send some links to your friends and family.)
(4) The good folks of Iowa (and local Officials too) are noticing John Edwards’ Leadership on so many issues, that matter to them. At the Iowa State Association of Counties event, Edwards earned the Endorsement of 52 County elected officials.
Senator John Edwards today called for a “New Partnership” with local communities. Edwards’ agenda represents a dramatic departure from two decades of failure by the federal government to live up to its obligations to counties and other local governments – as well as property taxpayers.
“From transportation to education funding, from health care to rural development, Washington has consistently failed local communities and taxpayers over the last two decades,” Edwards said. … As President, I’ll make sure the federal government is a good partner and meets its obligations.”
(5) Personal Endorsements from Educators Who Hold Leadership Roles in Iowa’s Largest Teachers’ Association:
John Edwards for President campaign announced the support of 12 Iowa education leaders who support Edwards as the best candidate to change our country and make sure every child gets a quality education.
…
Edwards’ plan to improve America’s schools and allow educators to focus on educating the next generation of leaders includes:* Overhauling the No Child Left Behind Act to judge schools more fairly, keep the curriculum from becoming too narrowed and get serious about helping low-performing schools with a new Marshall Plan to turn them around.
* Leading the way toward universal preschool by providing resources to states to help them offer universal high-quality preschool programs for four-year-olds.
* Investing more in training and paying our teachers by raising pay for teachers willing to serve in schools with high poverty levels, creating a new national teacher university, supporting teachers in the first years of their careers and reducing classroom sizes.
(6) John Edwards announced some major Proposals to help Revitalize Urban America, today. The Plan is called the “Cities Rising” Agenda.
Inner Cities, like much of Rural America, are regions of the Country which have suffered greatly under Economic Policies that “Reward Wealth — NOT Work”, for well over a decade now, starting with NAFTA. Edwards plans to make our Economic System fair for average workers again.
The Revitalize Urban America plan is quite comprehensive! Here are just the highlights, though many more details are addressed by the actual Plan. (Skim through the Bold Points here, and you get a sense of its depth!)
Creating Good Jobs:– Build the New Energy Economy and Create Green Collar Jobs:
Edwards will create more than 1 million jobs, many in struggling manufacturing communities, by capping carbon dioxide emissions to halt global warming and prompting a shift to renewable energy and energy efficient economy.
He will train 150,000 workers a year in green collar jobs
– Enact Smarter Trade Policies:
Edwards will make sure any new trade agreements include strong labor and environmental standards and
will vigorously enforce American workers’ rights in existing agreements.
reform our international tax code to remove incentives for companies to move overseas rather than creating jobs here at home.
– Strengthen Labor Laws:
Edwards supports the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers a real choice in whether to form a union, and making penalties for breaking labor laws tougher and faster,
so unions can compete on a level playing field and the right to join a union means something.
He also supports banning the permanent replacement of strikers so unions can negotiate fairly.
– Invest in Innovation and Ingenuity:
The most important factor for America’s future prosperity is investment in education, science, technology and innovation.
He will encourage research in the life sciences by lifting the ban on stem cell research
and doubling funding for key priorities at the National Institutes of Health.
Strengthening Urban Schools:
Every child should have a chance to get a great education,
a commitment that is at the core of John Edwards’ plan
to build One America where everyone has a chance to succeed.Many urban schools are hamstrung by a lack of funding and
inability to attract good new teachers.– Prepare Every Child to Succeed:
Quality preschool education should be as common as kindergarten.
He will also create a national Smart Start initiative
to link together health care, child care, education, and family support services for children under five.– Put an Excellent Teacher in Every Classroom:
Edwards will raise pay for teachers in successful high-poverty schools by as much as $15,000 more a year.
He will create a national teachers’ university – a West Point for teachers – to train excellent teachers for our worst schools.
He will also help teachers with extra support in their early years with mentors and extra planning time.
– Make Every School an Outstanding School:
Edwards will radically overhaul No Child Left Behind
He will help 1,000 great schools expand or start new branches.
Edwards will invest more in low-income children,
put us on a path to fully funding special education,
and raise graduation rates with adolescent literacy programs
and Second Chance schools for former dropouts.
Expanding Affordable Housing:
In central cities, homeownership is half the national average.
These neighborhoods isolate willing workers from entry-level jobs and children from good schools.
– Create a Million New Housing Vouchers:
Edwards will create a million vouchers over five years to help low-income families move to better neighborhoods.
At the same time, he will phase out housing projects
… are often lower quality and more expensive than private sector alternatives.– Revitalize Devastated Neighborhoods:
It is better to invest in struggling neighborhoods than abandon them.
Edwards will reform and expand the HOPE VI program to replace dilapidated housing in areas of concentrated poverty, while ensuring that current residents benefit.
– End Predatory Lending:
Millions of families with subprime mortgages have lost their homes or could lose them in the next few years.
Edwards will create a Home Rescue Fund to get these families into mortgages they can afford and pass a strong national law against predatory lending.
– Strengthen Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws:
Edwards will strengthen enforcement of the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act by the Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development.
Ending Poverty in a Generation:
More than 37 million Americans live in poverty.
Poverty rates are increasing in nearly half of large cities,
Edwards has outlined a Working Society initiative to lift 12 million Americans out of poverty in a decade and end poverty within a generation.
– Create 1 Million Stepping Stone Jobs:
Every American should have the chance to work their way out of poverty,
but some willing workers cannot find jobs because of where they live, a lack of experience or skills, or other obstacles, like a criminal record.
Edwards will create a million short-term jobs to help individuals move into permanent work.
– Make Work Pay:
Edwards will increase the reward for working by raising the minimum wage to at least $9.50 an hour by 2012
and setting it to rise over time.He will triple the Earned Income Tax Credit for adults without children and cut its marriage penalty for couples.
– Help Working Families Save:
Edwards proposed a new tax credit to help low-income, working Americans save for the future.
The credit would match savings up to $500 per year. As many as 28 million Americans don’t have bank accounts.
– Support Responsible Families:
Edwards will help fathers find work, require them to help support their children,
and increase child support collections by more than $8 billion over the next decade
and use those payments to benefit children.
Fighting Crime and Reforming Criminal Justice:
Violent crime in metropolitan counties grew by 3 percent and murder in those counties grew by 6 percent.
Urban households also suffer higher rates of property crimes.
– Put More Cops on the Beat:
Edwards supports the COPS program, which helped hire 117,000 police officers and bring down the crime rate.
He also supports funding for state and city initiatives to prosecute gangs, drugs and illegal guns,
while supporting effective youth intervention and crime prevention programs.
– Help Ex-Offenders Undertake Productive, Law-Abiding Lives:
Edwards will help ex-offenders return to productive lives with literacy education and drug treatment, stepping stone jobs, and voting rights in federal elections.
He also supports strict oversight for probationers and parolees
– Stop Racial Profiling In Law Enforcement:
Law enforcement based on racial stereotypes, such as arrests for “driving while black,” violates our principles as a nation.
Edwards will ban racial profiling in law enforcement.
He also supports efforts to reform mandatory minimum sentences and
alternatives to imprisonment – such as drug courts – for non-violent, first-time offenders.
(7) As that last Plan to “fix Urban America” shows, Edwards believes in using Science and Technology, combined with targeted Opportunities, to solve the many challenges that we face as a “Compassionate” Society!
Indeed, his compassion does not end at our borders. Nor does his belief that science and resources, when “applied smartly” can solve many ills. Here is part of the Edwards Statement, from today, about how the problem of Global Aids can begin to be solved too, with the application some smart, targeted Leadership:
“The cause of World AIDS Day has always been to break the silence – because as with any moral issue, silence is betrayal. The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is ‘leadership,’ and I couldn’t agree more that strong leadership is key to combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I believe the United States must be a leader in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
…As president, Edwards will invest $50 billion over five years to ensure universal global access to HIV/AIDS medicine, and will end policies that protect the profits of big drug corporations at the expense of people dying of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. He will also strengthen America’s scientific research agenda, which has suffered drastic funding cuts under the Bush Administration.
…Edwards supports science-based prevention strategies to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, including comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education and harm-reduction programs that provide high-risk individuals with access to clean syringes.
(8) And last but not least, John Edwards attended two Presidential Forums today in Iowa! Both are intriguing as they were the result of Citizen Action, stepping up to Take their County Back! (and of course John Edwards is ALL about that!)
Here is the earlier event for which we have found the Video. This Event was also broadcast on CSpan.
Heartland Presidential Forum
On December 1st in Des Moines, Iowa, over 5,000 grassroots leaders from community organizing groups across the United States will join five of the leading presidential candidates for a conversation about real issues and real values with real people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
(This was like the “youtube Debate Unplugged” as community leaders get to ask questions of the Candidates, face to face. It really was quite engaging.)
Here’s a sample of Edwards, doing what he does best, “Connecting with the People”.
John Edwards Clip A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
More of Heartland Forum Clips can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile…
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A second Presidential Forum was Scheduled today in Iowa, The Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum – HDNet
It sounds very interesting given the Forum Moderators. If you have HDNet, maybe you did catch the Event (and can give us a report in Comments)
Dec 1 — 7:30 PM ET — HDNet Presents: – LIVE!
The Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum – All 8 Democratic presidential candidates square off in Iowa just one month before voters head to the polls. HDNet carries this historic forum live,
with hosts Dan Rather, Michele Norris of NPR and Ray Suarez of PBS.The Iowa Brown & Black Forum began with U.S. Presidential candidate debates in 1984 and has figured prominently in the Iowa caucuses. It is recognized as the oldest, continuous minority forum for Presidential candidates in America.
Whew! that’s quite the Roundup! Where does John Edwards (and his Campaign Team) find the energy? I’m worn out just reporting on it, LOL! (I guess, they think some fights are worth all the effort. I would agree.)
Thank you everyone for taking the time to check out these recent Edwards Events. I hope you found a few items of interest. And thanks for supporting John Edwards too, (or for considering it) — John Edwards IS Fighting to make America, the Country we all know it could be!
Afterall, America DOES Indeed Belong to US! — or at least it would — with the right Leadership in Washington, speaking up for us!