NJDC's Blog

A Poll is Worth a Thousand Polls

It’s a funny thing how much we really can glean from polls. For instance, a Rasmussen poll released Monday showed Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama in a statistical dead heat. Over the last few days, numerous polls, including the Washington Post, Quinnipiac, and Gallup showed Obama averaging a 3-9 point lead. Polls are by no means perfect, but when added into the mix can provide critical understandings in elections.

Our Press Secretary, Aaron Keyak, shows just how much can be gained from polls in a piece yesterday in the Huffington Post. In it, he looks at just how out of sync McCain is with the Jewish voters his campaign so aggressively courts.

A separate post on MyDD by Jonathan Singer takes a close look at polling among Jewish voters in the last few Presidential elections. He reveals and analyzes the historical trends of Jewish voters in recent Presidential races.

It’s refreshing to see some substance to go with the numbers.

Yes We Can! (Secure America)

Today, Senator Barack Obama is giving a speech laying out his vision for fighting the war on terror, and it seems only right to look at where such a vision may lead, and why his vision should put skeptics at ease. While Senator John McCain may have some bona fides, Obama has the judgment to lead America in an uncertain future.

McCain’s current position on the war on terror in no way reflects on his lifetime of exemplary service to his country. However, judgment matters, and it is clear that he has a decidedly mixed record on that front.
Obama, on the other hand, has character and judgment. In 2002, he courageously gave a speech that denounced the Iraq War for what it was, a serious lapse in judgment. In today’s speech he reiterates this in noting that “ the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was. “ He has been consistent in his belief that the United States must responsibly refocus its attention in the war on terror. Instead of being inflexible, Obama has consistently called for steps to carefully extricate us from the war in Iraq without squandering the gains made with the blood, sweat, and tears of American and Iraqi alike, in noting that we “must be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.”

Ultimately though, the positions on Iraq taken by McCain and Obama, while important, are reflective of differing foreign policy philosophies. McCain puts the idea of strength through primarily force. He shows stubbornness in his approach not only to Iraq, but also Iran. Obama, on the other hand espouses a foreign policy based on collaboration, cooperation, and above all strength.

Obama has shown a determination to lead America in taking real steps to fight the war on terror effectively. He was a leading force working with Rick Lugar on S. 2566, the Lugar-Obama Initiative, and provisions in the eventually passed H.R. 6060, to ensure dangerous weapons, especially nukes, are kept out of the wrong hands. He was the author of a bill, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2007, lauded by pro-Israel forces making it easier for state governments to divest from groups doing business in Iran. He proposes talking directly to Iran, to make clear where America stands and what the consequences of continued suspicious activities will elicit.

In the war on terror, there can be no delusions about what must be done, and what the costs of failure lead to. Obama follows in the traditions of Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, and JFK in defining a bipartisan foreign policy that seeks consensus and uses strength without being overbearing. If you have the chance, read this article by Eli Lake to see how sharp his national security plans really are. So when you hear what Obama says in today’s speech remember this: when sage judgment was needed, Obama showed he had it. McCain didn’t.

RJC Contoversy, "Republican Jewish Official Spends Day Lying To Reporters About Obama"

Yesterday, Sam Stein of the Huffington Post reported that, "Suzanne Kurtz, communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, spent her afternoon knowingly misleading -- if not downright lying -- to reporters." Please click here to read the entire post.

Ami Eden of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency aptly titles his piece on the controversy this morning, "RJC: Facts, shmacts." Please click here to read the entire article.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

A Picture Never Lies...

If you photoshop it! Yesterday, newspapers and websites were abuzz with Iran’s missile tests. The launching of nine missiles, including one that is capable of hitting Israel, has been called “saber rattling” and is related to recent controversy over Iran’s nuclear program. The saber might not have rattled as loud as Iran wanted however…

Mike Nizza, of The New York Times, shows that a widely used photo of the missile tests was photoshopped. According to the Agence France Presse, the Iranian state media added an extra missile in order to cover a failed launch. A side-by-side comparison can be seen here.

Yesterday, the front pages of The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, in addition to numerous other news web sites, featured this photo that we now know appears to have been altered. Today, the Iranian state media released a similar photo, with only three missiles

Perhaps Iran has taken cues from Fox News on how to launch dangerous “photo warfare.” This past week, our blog posted about Media Matter’s report when Fox News altered photos of New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe. The picture of Jacques Steinberg was especially disturbing, portraying Steinberg in a possibly anti-Semitic Jewish manner. The incident has received much publicity across the blogosphere, including today on a NPR broadcast.

Fox News’ response? Bill O’Reilly defends the photos, comparing New York Times’ cartoons of O’Reilly as equivalent to digitally manipulated photos, with what could be anti-Semitic stereotypes without disclosing that Fox News had altered the photos.

A Shameful Smear

This week Senator Obama spoke movingly on Memorial Day of his Grandfather’s service during World War II, and specifically of his role in liberating victims of Auschwitz. As was pointed out, Obama was mistaken, and that it was in fact Buchenwald that he helped liberate, as Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviets. Obama’s campaign quickly corrected the mistake. After all, it was an honest mistake, family stories get passed down and facts might be forgotten. However, the Republican National Committee jumped at him with wild abandon, noting that his grandfather would have had to be part of the Soviet Army to be at Auschwitz, and that maybe he was in fact a Soviet Soldier. To suggest that a patriot who served faithfully in World War II in the American Armed Forces was a “red” as it were is an outrage. To impugn the dignity of the service of heroes of our greatest generation is beyond contemptible, it’s frankly offensive. Some, even worse, have pointed out that Buchenwald was merely a “work camp,” somehow less horrific than other Concentration Camps. Trying to equate any forced incarceration by the Nazis is absurd and reprehensible. To downplay the horrific nature of Buchenwald is an affront to the estimated 56,000 prisoners who died there. Most died from exhaustion and starvation, but many died of being unceremoniously executed with a shot to the back of the head. It was the temporary home of legendary Jewish author and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Anyone who has read his numerous works knows of the pain in every word, words brought to fruition by Buchenwald. Many have suggested this outcry is pay back for criticism of Sen. McCain’s failure to distinguish between Sunni and Shia insurgents in Iraq. If so, this charade will have reached a new point of insanity. There is a big difference between fudging facts on honorable family history, and a supposed expert of foreign policy not knowing the fundamental players in the biggest foreign policy issue currently on the books. Sen. McCain and the RNC owe two things: better fact checkers and an apology.

Republican primary candidate gives the Hitler Salute?

This is a story so incredible, even I couldn’t make it up. Tony Zirkle, a candidate in the Republican primary for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District seat gave a speech to a rather unique audience, the Nationalist Socialist Worker’s Party, or the Nazi Party. The speech, which centered on the trafficking and prostitution of young white females, is a staple of Zirkle’s many runs for public office.  I don’t know if suggesting that we should honor Hitler is also part of his platform, but it seems to fit. And when asked about it, Zirkle mentioned that he had spoken to two black journalists about it as well (the Nazi party is white supremacist), and that he would be happy to talk about it to the following as well: "If the Black Panthers or the Jewish Zionists want me to speak about these issues, I'll do it."

This kind of attitude of racism and anti-Semitism is simply un-American. To his credit, it was a fellow Republican opponent for the primary, Luke Puckett, who brought this meeting to the attention of the media, and stated, “I can't believe, in 2008, someone could have such backward opinions." The point of mentioning this isn’t to paint the Republican Party as pro-Nazi, racist, or anti-Semitic; quite the contrary.  owever, when your party promotes discrimination and intolerance (however unintended it may be) in its platform, candidates like Mr. Zirkle are always going to pop up. It’s not a real shocker that he has yet to win a single race.

Check out the full story here.

NJDC Chairman Michael M. Adler's Op-Ed on Public Service

NJDC Chairman Michael M. Adler had an op-ed published today in the Miami Herald.  Click here to read it.

An excerpt:

There is another great side effect to volunteering. Nonprofits are often the model of democracy. There is no better way to learn how to build consensus and find solutions than to sit at a table with other dedicated volunteers committed to the same goals. These skills help in all of life's other challenges. Volunteer once and see the results, and I predict you will volunteer again. The first step is the hardest. Unfortunately, whatever the reason, fewer and fewer people are taking that first step on their own.

The result is that nonprofits find it harder to compete for financial and human resources, key leadership and committee positions go unfilled and the future of the vital services many nonprofits provide becomes more and more uncertain.

To reenergize volunteerism in our communities, we need to institute some tough love. Instead of treating community service as an afterthought -- something we may do in our spare time if we have the time at all -- we need to consider it an absolute necessity like exercise or career success.

NJDC NJ CONDEMNS DIRTY POLITICS IN LOCAL ELECTIONS

NJDC New Jersey issued the following release today:

Today, the New Jersey Chapter of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) condemned State Senator Gerald Cardinale and his wife, Demarest Councilwoman Carole Cardinale for implying that political opponent Joseph Ariyan is soft on terror and anti-Semitism because his law partner is affiliated with a group which defends Arab-Americans from discrimination.

Just How Mean is Conservative Gary Bauer?

He's attacking puppies and kittens!

Is xenophobia on the rise in the United States?

USA Today reports on a Southern Poverty Law Center study which finds that "since 2000, the number of extremist groups has increased by 40% ... in the past two years the growth has been largely driven by the emergence of about 144 'nativist' groups that oppose immigration."

Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an expansion of federal hate crimes laws (after noble lobbying efforts by many in the Jewish community). 

The Southern Poverty Law Center's study is a chilling reminder of the deep importance of hate crimes legislation. President Bush, according the Anti-Defamation League, is likely to veto the bill.