Obama’s statement on how you can help residents in the path of Hurricane Gustav:
As Hurricane Gustav approaches and Gulf Coast residents evacuate their communities, our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are affected by this situation.
Mayor Ray Nagin has announced a mandatory evacuation for the City of New Orleans today, Sunday, August 31st. If you are in the New Orleans area, please contact the state emergency hotline at 1-866-288-2484 if you need more information or go to the State of Louisiana site for an updated list of evacuations by parish.
State and local government officials are working hard to ensure the safety and well-being of the people of the region, and many of you have asked how you can help too.
For some reason, while I was researching various blog posts I got interested the differences between McCain’s and Obama’s websites, and in particular the policy information they make available. I think it started when I decided to check out reports that McCain had no energy policy. It turned out that you could find bits of one, if you were prepared to slog through his various speeches, but at the time, his Issues page did not have an entry for energy. (Now it does.) I then noticed that, as I said earlier, it doesn’t have an entry for foreign policy either. (It still doesn’t, though there is a page on Iraq.) I started poking around, and the contrast between McCain’s and Obama’s Issues pages is really striking.
Here’s a list of issues that Obama has a page on and McCain doesn’t: Civil Rights, Disabilities, Faith, Family, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, Poverty, Service, Seniors and Social Security, Technology, Urban Policy, Women. That’s a pretty striking list. Moreover, he has a page called ‘Additional Issues‘ with links to plans on Arts, Child Advocacy, Katrina, Science, Sportsmen, and Transportation. Of these, only Sportsmen has a counterpart on McCain’s site. Finally, under ‘People’, you can find separate policy pages on issues relevant to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (one-pagers in six languages, a longer version in English), First Americans, Labor, Latinos, and LGBT.
This is just a flat out smack down from Daily Kos related to the differences between how McCain and Obama have responded to the floods that are devastating communities all around me:
Disaster struck the midwest last week as flood waters shattered previous records, drowning crops and putting tens of thousands of people out of their homes. The full effects of the flood will be felt nationwide as gas prices could increase another 15% and food prices could increase another 25-30%. No doubt, this would be a serious issue for an aspiring presidential candidate. Obama answered the call this weekend, touring the hard hit areas, rolling up his sleeves to fill sandbags, and taking action with local leaders.
Obama’s camp also began putting out an urgent, nationwide plea to help flood victims—making it the front page headline on his website:
And how did John McCain react? He was busy rolling up his sleeves—filling up moneybags at a California “finance event.” For all the talk about Republicans disliking California and “west coast values”, they sure do spend a lot of time at California fundraisers. You may recall that while New Orleans drowned, GWB and McCain were miles away, sharing a little cake between friends. In a sad case of deja vu, McCain is once again nowhere to be found. What was featured on John McCain’s website over the weekend? John McCain, of course. So, how about today? Is there a serious focus on the growing tragedy of the floods? Nope, back to the alleged former Clinton supporter on the front page. A small flood donation button does appear, after scrolling a bit, right after the plea for McCain donations and the request that you add five “friends” for McCain. Apparently, adding more names to McCain’s fundraising email list takes priority over a flooded midwest and a country about to be smacked with even higher prices on everything from gas to milk and bread. And despite the fact that McCain’s team has thus far tried to mimic every aspect of Obama’s website and logo, they don’t feel the need to mimic his compassion and leadership in a time of dire need.
And even now, as the midwest continues to flood, McCain is hopping back and forth between Texas fundraisers. Mr. Moneybags doesn’t seem to have time for flood victims in the next few days. According to his campaign schedule, McCain is going to be very busy getting to know GWB’s oil and energy friends in Texas.
Actions and pass performance often are powerful factors in determing future actions. We ought to all keep the above in mind when we vote in November.
But none of the three U.S. senators still running for president showed much of an interest in working with him, he said. Powell recalled talking with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a couple of times about recovery issues, but said he spoke with former President Clinton more often because of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. Powell said he didn’t recall talking to the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, nor to Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, although his staff dealt with Obama when he accompanied Lieberman on a tour of New Orleans in early 2007.
Now Powell has been a complete failure so I don’t put a lot of worth behind anything he has to say. But ask yourself can any of you recall McCain (R_AZ), Clinton (D-NY) or Obama (D-IL) saying anything about their plans to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. I didn’t think so. I should also note that George W. Bush has not appointed anybody to replace Powell.
