eCache

Once A Liar . . .

When I was young and idealistic, I fancied myself a news junkie. Some things have not changed, eh?

It was 1987 and there was a presidential campaign underway. I had moved to Boston the year before and a local boy named Michael Dukakis was running. There was much excitement.

Also running that year was a senator near the area I had moved from: Joseph Biden. Many remember the licking Dukakis took in 1988. What many forget, however, is what happened to Biden.

Biden dropped out of the race after it was found a speech he gave plagiarized a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. The speech contained personal parts that did not apply to Biden whatsoever. And, of course, there was no attribution for the words used.

The ensuing scandal revealed much more about the man from Delaware. There were serious plagiarism charges against Biden going back to his law school days as well as examples of where Biden embellished his resumé.

Biden dropped out of the race.

Biden will announce he is once again running for president later today.

Twenty years have passed. I am certain we will hear much about what good Biden has done. I don’t recall much other than he was the chairman of the committee that lynched confirmed Clarence Thomas. Biden not only permitted that pathetic episode broadcast into citizens’ living rooms, he also voted against the Supreme Court justice.

The question is: Does Biden get a pass on his plagiarism? For the life of me, I cannot imagine why. The “indiscretion” was not when Biden was 15. We are not talking about smoking pot or something else that could be held something perhaps acceptable at the time.

No, Biden was a United States senator running for the most powerful office in the world. And on that stage, Mr. Biden demonstrated he was unethical. How can we forget that now that he is trying again to become president?

And let’s face it, when your name becomes synonymous with the unethical behavior you committed, you are not fit to represent a country.

Leading this country is just too important to provide a second chance, as if this were the student council we are discussing. Biden is unfit to be our leader, dear reader.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

A John Edwards Presidency

In case you missed it this past week, John Edwards announced he is running for president.

All one needs to know about Edwards and what he would do as president is found in his interview with George Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos: What you’re calling for is going to cost money.

Edwards: Cost money, absolutely.

Stephanopoulos: Cost a lot of money.

Edwards: Let me speak to that. There is a tension between the desire, which I have myself, of getting us out of this ditch we’re in fiscally and, at the same time, doing the things that I believe we need to do to transform America to be effective in the 21st century.

Energy, I talked about energy already, universal healthcare, which you just mentioned just a moment ago, strengthening the middle class, doing things to lift 37 million people out of poverty, all those things cost money.

Stephanopoulos: And that means you have to put deficit reduction on hold.

Edwards: It means you cannot do about the deficit what you’d like to do, that’s true.

Stephanopoulos: And you’re willing to make that choice.

Edwards: I have said for the last two days, in town hall meetings all across this country, when asked this question, I have said there’s a tension between those two. If I were choosing now between which is more important, I think the investments are more important.

First of all, we can’t let the deficit get worse. We’d like to see it reduced. But I do not believe we can reduce it as substantially as we’d love to see done for the long-term fiscal and economic health of America and do the other things that need to be done, too.

Stephanopoulos: And on trade, no more free trade agreements, unless there are labor protections and environmental protections.

Edwards: Can I be really precise about this? Because this gets muddled over a lot.

I think trade is important, important for America, very important to the developing world, where I’ve spent some time over the last couple of years, and I have a personal investment in seeing those countries and those people be lifted up.

So I think trade matters. What I really believe is we need a trade policy that has labor and environmental protections that are achievable by those countries. If they’re being used as a ruse to create a protectionist barrier, then I am not for that.

Stephanopoulos: But what if those countries say you may think they’re achievable, they don’t and they don’t define it under the agreement.

Edwards: That’s what negotiations are about. The negotiations between us and these countries, that’s what they’re about.

What we’ve done, though, we have caved on those kind of standards in the past. I don’t think we can do that. I don’t think we should do that. I’m not for protectionism.

Stephanopoulos: Mrs. Edwards said you are more progressive than John Kerry.

Are you comfortable with this outlook?

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Primary Day in New Jersey

At the eCache house, we are excited each day we vote. Being part of the democratic process is uplifting! Even though only one of the races is contested, it is still good to be part of the process.

We also are keeping Beetle up to speed with her voting record. She has not missed an election in the nearly two years she has been on this planet. Municipal, school, primaries, whatever . . . Beetle votes.

We had a little run in today, however. We were told that the Cumberland County Election Board has banned cameras from voting places. This is just ridiculous. We vote in a local elementary school in their library. Today, as is usually the case, there was not another sole in the joint (At 5:15 PM, we were the 17th and 18th persons voting at this precinct in the Republican primary. There had been but 15 Democrats.). We never want to take a photograph of the ballot itself, although I cannot fathom why someone should be precluded from doing so. We don’t want to take photographs of the folks sitting around chatting. No, I want a photograph of my daughter in front of the polling booth.

Why on Earth should this be a banned activity?

Beetle will learn another civic lesson from this experience; we will write to the election board. If not satisfied, we will write a letter to the local newspaper.

Posted in New Jersey, Politics | No Comments »

Flat Funded Budgets

The budget crisis had Charlotte Markart wishing she could rewind time back to Election Day when she cast her vote for gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine.

“I wish I could vote all over again — I would vote for the other guy,” she said, disgusted by Corzine’s decisions. “This time it’s worse than ever.”

The fallout of budget cuts are now affecting lives. Vineland Public Schools, an Abbott district, spent the week proposing $34 million worth of cuts from its budget for FY 2006-07. All field trips, extra-curricular activities, and a whole slew of personnel are being cut.

Welcome to fiscal responsibility.

Posted in Education, New Jersey, Politics | No Comments »

Kean Ahead in Poll

Okay, so I have never heard of Strategic Vision. It appears they are a company for hire. Yet, their latest poll puts Tom Kean, Jr. ahead of Robert Menendez in November’s election for US Senator.

Okay, so it’s early.

Okay, so it’s only a slight lead.

Okay, so there is a huge undecided population.

But, it is a lead.
(Hat tip to Taegan Goddard)

Posted in New Jersey, Politics | No Comments »