cemell2000's Blog

Hillary has released a new ad introducing her American Health Choices Plan, which covers all Americans and improves health care by lowering costs and improving quality. Watch it here:

"The world has reached a critical point, and we need a leader in the White House with the courage, intelligence and humility to navigate through many troubling challenges to our security at home and abroad," Clark said. "I believe Senator Clinton is that leader, and I wholeheartedly endorse her for president of the United States."

Hillary is very proactive and progressive.  This is one good reason why she is the right person to get our country out of the mess George W. Bush has gotten us into, and she can set us in a new and corrective direction.

Hillary Announces Rebuild America Plan for a 21st Century Infrastructure

In response to the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota and the concerns it has raised around the country, Hillary  today announced a series of emergency initiatives to ensure that the bridges, tunnels, and roads Americans rely on are safe. These initiatives are part of a broad plan for rebuilding America. Hillary's plan will not only assure our safety, but create good jobs, stimulate the economy, enhance our global competitiveness, help the environment, and improve quality of life by reducing congestion.

"Something is very, very wrong when, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, in the richest country on earth, people are actually nervous about driving over bridges for fear that they'll collapse. Or they're worried that their levees may burst, or their highways may buckle. And let's be clear: the degradation of our infrastructure isn't just a serious threat to our safety - it is also a grave threat to our economy," Hillary said. "We do not need any more warnings. We do not need any more wakeup calls. It is time to stop wringing our hands and start rolling up our sleeves. It is time for us to rebuild America."

Hillary is announcing her Rebuild America Plan to address these challenges:

Emergency Initiatives Addressing Safety:

• Establish a $10 billion "Emergency Repair Fund" to address the backlog of critical infrastructure repairs.
• Provide $250 million in "Emergency Assessment Grants" to the states to conduct immediate safety reviews of their high-priority, high-risk infrastructure assets.
• Form a commission to carry out a comprehensive assessment of our engineering review standards so that we better prioritize needed repairs on bridges and roads.

Modernizing Our Infrastructure:
Public Transit

• Increase federal funding for public transit by $1.5 billion per year.
• Link federal public transit funds to local land use policies that encourage residential developments that maximize public transit usage.

Intercity Passenger Rail

• Invest an additional $1 billion in intercity passenger rail systems

Seaports

• Partner with state and local governments and the private sector to create a national policy to guide the modernization of ports.

Addressing Congestion and Traffic Growth

• Increase the budget for the Department of Transportation's congestion reduction programs by approximately 50% to $600 million annually.
• Make "technology solutions" to congestion a priority for the Department of Transportation.
• Promote telecommuting by encouraging its use at federal agencies, and by committing up to $50 million per year to support state and local initiatives.

Broadband:

• Support initiatives to establish leadership in broadband.

In addition to the policies announced today, as Senator, Hillary has cosponsored the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007. The Act establishes a federally-backed independent entity that will evaluate and finance large infrastructure projects that are of regional or national significance. The bank will finance projects through the issuance of bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, direct subsidies, and loan guarantees.

the latest poll: 7/2207: Clinton 40, Obama 22, Edwards 14

How can this be??  Does Secretary Gates know the meaning

of efficacious?  Read this.......

(WASHINGTON)—The Pentagon has issued a stinging rebuke to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that she is boosting enemy propaganda by asking how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq.

Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman wrote a biting reply to questions Clinton raised in May, urging the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. "Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has privately and publicly pushed Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace two months ago to begin drafting the plans for what she said will be a complicated withdrawal of troops, trucks and equipment. "If we're not planning for it, it will be difficult to execute it in a safe and efficacious way," she said then.

Senator Clinton is a brilliant lady.  If she doesn't soon get in the White House and start running things for our country, God help us!!!

".......redeploying out of Iraq with the same combination of arrogance and incompetence with which the Bush administration deployed our young men and women into Iraq is completely unacceptable, and our troops deserve far better.............."

There is much truth in the above statement.

 BUT, It irritates me when the politicos, on both sides of the aisle, say  "and our troops deserve far better".  What our troops deserve is to not have to be in Iraq, as we speak. At least, not the majority of them. THAT IS WHAT OUR TROOPS DESERVE.  The troops have been political pawns long enough. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. OUT OF IRAQ, BEGINING NOW!!!

In general and most of the time, our lawmakers do a great job. But, occasionally, they loose sight.