Deans and progressive Democrats are first

Obama is showing himself to be anything but progressive. His speech on Terrorism:

http://www2.edc.org/buildingsafecommunities/buildbridges/bbnews.html

 could have been written by Dick Cheney.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.... There must be no safe-haven for terrorists who threaten America. We cannot fail to act because action is hard."

The guy is so freakin' clueless. you don't stop terrorism by unilateral military action against sovereign countries.

You do it like the Brits, Spaniards, Germans, French, etc. have: Good, diligent police work without the use of torture. Then thwart the attack.

Chris Bowers, a blogger who writes on Open Left, argues that Obama is mistakenly trying to win the approval of the Washington establishment:

"No Democrat running for President tells the country that he will deploy more troops to Afghanistan and conduct military strikes in Pakistan without Pakistan's approval in order to appeal to the primary electorate."

THE SQUANDERING OF OBAMA

http://www.alternet.org/story/58372/

Obama is a frontrunner in the Democratic primary race. Somehow, though, the magic has gone missing. The cut-and-parse, political calibrations employed by Obama's campaign staff have devalued enchantment and put a premium on marketing. His political masterminds have transformed Obama from a political visionary into an electoral product (with demographically designed components) just like every other presidential aspirant. His handlers have excised the very quality that distinguished Obama from the usual suspects.

No one in this well-populated brood of presidential candidates has yet said much about the incarceration crisis in black America, or the large black unemployment rate, or the chronically low quality of education in city schools, or anything else relating to the specific needs of the African-American electorate. That is no surprise for the GOP's gang of 11. It is surprising, however, that Democrats have been similarly reticent, since black voters are the party's largest and most faithful electoral bloc.

This avoidance is deliberate. Party strategists apparently believe American voters are less likely to choose Democratic candidates if they perceive them under the sway of the party's most loyal constituents.

Sophisticated African-American voters are expected to tolerate this perverse electoral tendency and squash their specific gripes for the good of the progressive whole. Obama's progressive supporters often utilize this argument to push back black demands for specific campaign attention.

Many of us familiar with Obama hoped he would help put an end to the Democrats' racial schizophrenia. Knowing him as a strong advocate of racial pride, with a deep knowledge of African-Americans' liberation struggle, we thought Obama was perfectly cast as the candidate who could bring needed perspective to our racial dilemma.

Political calculations must be the reason Obama is playing the "Bill Cosby card" (that is, focusing on individual behavior as the primary cause of racial disparity) in his latest speeches. He knows better than that.

With his knowledge of context and his unique access to the public square, many wonder why Obama is focusing on issues that reinforce white Americans' denial of slavery's legacy. Some commentators point to that very focus as the reason for his popularity. Paul Street, for example, writes:"Obama allows whites to assuage their racial guilt and feel non-racist by liking and perhaps even voting for him while signaling that he won't do anything to tackle and redress the steep racial disparities and systematic racial oppression."

Street has been a consistent critic of the Obama phenomenon, but many of us who know the candidate begged to differ. We argued he was a true progressive who would use his extraordinary time in the limelight to speak unpopular truths about U.S. foreign and domestic policy while unflinchingly reminding the nation of its racial obligations.

That prospect was the magic ingredient in Obama mania. His strategists are busy squandering it.

here in newport news our tax dollars are hard at work building the new city center. a boom if you could afford the $500000 takers, of which there are few. the building is shoddy and those who show up to shop at the trendy stores are few and far between.

The new Marriott which was built with 'public" funds is rarely full. The events catered there are public / private ventures.

So... while our roads are going into the pothole era and upper warwick blvd is clouded with check cashing stores, chinese buffets, used car lots and general eyesores, we are socked with another round of tax increases.

Meanwhile the hierarchy, I mean elected officials, give us the finger.

In the context of Obama's speech, I recall this episode regarding Vice President Gore, recounted by Richard Clarke in Against All Enemies: 

"'[E]xtraordinary renditions', were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgement of the host government...The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: Lloyd says this. Dick says that. Gore laughed and said, 'That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.'"

chilimac wrote "Invading a muslim nation with nukes is not a good thing for a person
to be saying in this day and time, . . ."

I thought Obama said Pakistan would receive hundreds of millions of dollars in conditional military aid to get Pakistan to weed out training camps, and more in aid to help Pakistan invest in its provinces along the Afgan border.  You must have a different concept of what invading a nation is.  I mean, during the vice presidential debates in 2004, Edwards forcefully argued that the Bush admministration was negligent in allowing bin Laden to go unmolested in Pakistan.

HAVE YOU HAD F-IN ENOUGH???????????????//

Most revelations about this administration and how it operates are simply infuriating. It came to office with one goal: to do everything it could to redistribute wealth in this country. And, from day one, it effectively worked to take from the middle and lower income groups and give to the super wealthy. Its entire domestic agenda was dedicated to this goal which, I suppose, was better than if it had come to office dedicated to repealing the Emancipation Proclamation. But it settled for doing everything it could to gut policies put in place by almost every President since Teddy Roosevelt to improve the lives of ordinary people.

Then came 9/11 and it found a new raison d'etre: endless war. There would be a permanent Global War on Terror that would simultaneously boost its standing (creating a permanent GOP majority) and a produce a financial bonanza for its wealthiest supporters.

All this is maddening, terrifying and often heart-breaking.

But the Pat Tillman case (although only about one man) demonstrates something that even I would not have suspected. I always thought that, for all their loathsomeness, the right cares about our men and women in uniform. Yes, I know that they are all too willing to sacrifice them on the battlefield. But that is war and these people believe that all wars are worth dying in.

http://tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/aug/02/pat_tillman_soldier_and_an_administration_that_laughs_off_his_death

Governor in Lawrenceville, just outside of (Dahntahn) Pittsburgh :)

...Just over the Allegheny river from Sharpsburg, where I was born :)

...in today's Pit Tribune.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/rss/s_520254.html 

Mexico Backs Gore Climate Plan

Mexico, Aug 1 (Prensa Latina) Mexican President Felipe Calderon called for the international community to support former US Vice President Albert Gore's proposal of building an Alliance for Climate Protection.


In their Tuesday meeting in Los Pinos government residence, Calderon and Gore exchanged ideas to make all countries of the world sensitive to the climate problem.


"I especially admire Gore's position, work and extraordinary leadership to preserve environment," said the Mexican statesman.


Calderon stated that his government is absolutely involved with preserving the environment, despite being a developing country, and noted that all nations have something to do to protect land and for climate change.


The Mexican president also promised to dedicate about three million hectares more to Protected Natural Areas, to reach 25 million hectares in preserving the country, representing 14 percent of the national territory.


Gore, who is in the country to give environment lectures, praised Mexico's role to solve the global climate crisis.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=...

Lieberman was just saying on the floor, that lobbying was protected by the Constitution. I have not heard it put that way before.

Isn't it constitutional only because the Congress, a couple of decades or so ago, passed a law saying that a Corporation is a PERSON? In other words if we chose to do away with "K" Street, we only need to change that law, in my opinion. That would solve some problems.

8.

Linda*in*SFNM
Thu, 08/02/07
9:40 am

--------------
Linda, thanks for the Gravel's link.

11.

audrey.nc
Thu, 08/02/07
10:15 am

Reply to this


...Corporation is a PERSON? In other words if we chose to do away with "K" Street, we only need to change that law, in my opinion. That would solve some problems.
---------

Yeap, that's what law currently says.
To change it, I guess, would be the same as "easy" as to stop Iraq war.

12.

former
Thu, 08/02/07
10:18 am
---------
Sorry..., it would be MUCH harder, imo.

Obama is showing himself to be anything but progressive. His speech on Terrorism....could have been written by Dick Cheney.

Hillary must be laughing up her sleeve to have tricked Obama into becoming more NeoCon than she. 

will someone just boot lieberman out of any part of the democratic party, the guy is an idiot. or he is drinking the same kool aid that mccain is.

take his chair of a committee away. let him go to the rethugs, they will spit him out on most issues.

let me see, the dems are in charge but letters are sent from the w.h. to spector when leahy is the chair.

so get rid of them all.

Oh...and thanks for the wind generators, Illya!!!!

I won't stop harping until Phil's and every other farm is covered with them!

will someone just boot lieberman out of any part of the democratic party, the guy is an idiot. or he is drinking the same kool aid that mccain is.

DCDems obviously made a deal with that devil in the last election -- don't tell CT Dem voters how rotten he is and he'll caucus with them for two years. 

Why has no one brought up that during Cheney's interview with Larry King, when he ripped off who he works for and what his role is, no one questioned his Freudian slip when he said "I advise the President". Uh, no, that is not what a Vice President's job is, he is not supposed to be the one telling the President what to do, he is supposed to SERVE the President.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...

________________________

linda b....oh, how I wish. As Phil says, thank you Connecticut for getting rid of his D. Now we have a few more to work on.

Mike Gravel Is a Cabbie For A Day [VIDEO]

Posted by Adam Howard at 12:28 PM on August 1, 2007.
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/58581/

Sitka
Thu, 08/02/07
10:36 am
___________________________________________________________________________

Agreed, and sorry for the stupid post comment last nite.

I think many Americans are either paranoid of war, sick of it, frustrated with it or are just tired of it in the "endless phase" many politicians spout off about these days..............I think alot want a betetr solution to it all rather than what we have seen..........

Now, many would love ot though, enjoy it and want more of it 9as lomg as they arent soing the fighting)........Obama has been sucked into giving too much informnation and people are on to him..........I liked what he said in the debate about meeting world leaders(good and bad) but screwed himself with his terorism speech.............

Obama is finished.........nomination, Hillary.

Agreed, and sorry for the stupid post comment last nite.

I don't remember it. 

Obama is finished.........nomination, Hillary.

Give voters a choice between Hillary and a fake Hillary and they'll choose the real one every time.

Mike Gravel Is a Cabbie For A Day

I like the cut of his jib. Barring the entry of that global warming guy, Gravel will get my primary vote. 

http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=6876794

Robinson endorses Obama

Associated Press - August 2, 2007 11:05 AM ET

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop, New Hampshire's Gene Robinson, today endorsed presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

...

well, off for awhile this time (busy with a campaign far from "finished")

It's one thing to hear second- or third-hand about what's happening in Greenland; it's another thing to see it in person.
It's one thing to read about the effects of global warming on people living there; it's another thing to have those people look you in the eye and tell you.
Last weekend, I led a delegation of 10 Senators on a trip to Greenland to take a first-hand look at the devastating effects of global warming. Words like "awesome," "majestic," and "incredible" don't go far enough to describe what we saw as our boat rode alongside icebergs as large as coliseums. These icebergs -- average age 9,000 years -- have broken off an ice stream and are now melting at an astonishing rate. The entire Greenland ice sheet is 1200 miles long by 500 miles wide and, unless we act now, this melting will lead to a catastrophic rise in sea levels.
That's why it's so critical that we act -- now -- to stop global warming.
Email your Senators today and urge them to cosponsor the Sanders/Boxer bill -- the single most effective strategy to fight global warming. We simply cannot afford a moment's delay in reducing global carbon emissions.
Already, you and 82,000 other people have signed on as citizen co-sponsors of the Sanders/Boxer bill. Thanks to your help, we now have gained the endorsement of 20 Senators for my legislation -- one-fifth of the Senate's membership.
But now we must do even more to get this critical legislation passed through my Environment & Public Works committee, passed by the Senate and House, and sent to the President's desk for his signature.
Enacting my legislation to fight global warming will take strong support from across the country and across party lines -- and we don't have a moment to lose.
Email your Senators today and urge them to cosponsor the Sanders/Boxer bill -- the single most effective strategy to fight global warming.

There is simply no longer any serious debate about the deadly effects of global warming. It's not just that native hunters in Greenland report an alarming decline in sea ice. Rising sea levels are cited by our own military as a cause of unrest and desperate migration as low-lying areas are inundated. Similarly, other results of global warming, such as droughts, floods and dangerous insect-borne diseases will bring misery. If we fail to act, 40% of the plant and animal species on Earth could disappear.
Now I need your help to give me even more allies in the Senate.
Please contact your Senators today. Urge them to support the Sanders/Boxer bill so that we at last take long awaited steps to reduce global warming.

http://ga6.org/campaign/greenland_trip/i...

Thank you for your support.
In Friendship,



Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator
P.S. Thank you so much for signing on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Sanders/Boxer global warming bill. Now help me convince more of my colleagues to sponsor this critical bill as well. Please forward an email to your Senators today -- and help us build the support we need to pass real legislation to stop global warming. As my trip to Greenland clearly showed, now is the time for us to act!

Michael....

Very sadly, I agree. and worse than that I don't think Gore will come in if she has a significant lead. If there is a clumping of candidates at the top he might, but as much as he might like to oppose her, I don't believe he will.

Still won't give up hope, hey, I have hope that Howard will enter the scene. Those would be the only two reasons to revive any activity on my part.

Isn't it amazing how the Pope endorsed war crazed W.Bush?

The nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop, New Hampshire's Gene Robinson, today endorsed presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

I hear Dick Cheney liked Obama's threat to attack Pakistan so much that he's endorsing him too.

11.

audrey.nc

Lobbying by the PEOPLE, not Business's. Another thing the NeoCons do, omit those key pieces of information.

audrey.nc
Thu, 08/02/07
11:19 am
___________________________________________________________________________

Agreed.......interesting history of yours......Kent State, etc.........personally, being a very young teen at thetime I felt that the hippy movement, for its best intentions was doomed to fail....

I dont foresee any kind of French or Russian revolution taking place here by the people unless there was a major calamity of the catastrophic type, where millions are starving, unemployed, disases rampant, hope , despair.................for as long as the golf courses remain open, the gas stations filled to the pumps, jobs, banks etc things will go on and on................

And the general election?  amazing, how in our lifetimes just how poor the candidates have become ala Guiliani and Hillary..................

Quick Vote

Are you worried the nation's infrastructure is crumbling? Yes 67% 12255
No 33% 6119
Total Votes: 18374

http://www.cnn.com/

LindainSFNM......

Right now they are talking about "earmarks", getting ready to vote on a bill calling for posting all "earmarks" on the internet 48 hrs. before they vote.

I've only been listening for a little bit, but don't think it is enough to make any substantive changes.

Yes, we need a "Peoples Lobby", I believe it could be done within DFA. It had support from a few here, but generally, whether they were thinking of other things or whatever, there wasn't support to go ahead with the idea that Seashell and I talked about.

Maybe I didn't present it in a way that people knew that we needed their support.

Sitka wrote "I hear Dick Cheney liked Obama's threat to attack Pakistan so much that he's endorsing him too. "

You have bad information.  Obama's speech directed a pointed indictment at the foreign and defense policy of Cheney and the Bush administration for its misguided folly.  If your logic is correct, the person who might endorse Obama is John Edwards who said this to Dick Cheney in his presence on national television on October 5, 2004:

"And doing it the right way meant that we were prepared; that we gave the weapons inspectors time to find out what we now know, that in fact there were no weapons of mass destruction; that we didn't take our eye off the ball, which are Al Qaida, Osama bin Laden, the people who attacked us on September the 11th. Now, remember, we went into Afghanistan, which, by the way, was the right thing to do. That was the right decision. And our military performed terrifically there.

"But we had Osama bin Laden cornered at Tora Bora. We had the 10th Mountain Division up in Uzbekistan available. We had the finest military in the world on the ground. And what did we do?

"We turned -- this is the man who masterminded the greatest mass murder and terrorist attack in American history. And what did the administration decide to do?

"They gave the responsibility of capturing and/or killing Saddam -- I mean Osama bin Laden to Afghan warlords who, just a few weeks before, had been working with Osama bin Laden.

"Our point in this is not complicated: We were attacked by Al Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

"We went into Afghanistan and very quickly the administration made a decision to divert attention from that and instead began to plan for the invasion of Iraq."

new thread u all.

BS deserves BS. And that's all we're getting from any of these bellicose NeoDems who ape the NeoCons and those who shill for them. 

33. Obama's speech still endorses massive military intervention to combat terrorists. Europeans, who have been dealing with terrorism for 40+ years, unanimously consider it a police matter, and have been very successful at thwarting terrorist plots.

Compare that to our bungled invasions and the keystone kops of homeland security.

An incursion into Pakistan would demonstrate the deadly competence of the Pakistani military, guarantee the overthrow of Musharraf, and put us into a far deadlier quagmire than the one in Iraq.

Good thinking Barack!

March to Re-Energize New Hampshire - 3 Days to Go

Yesterday, over a hundred people crowded before Nashua’s City Hall to kick off the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire, a walk from Nashua to Concord calling for national leadership on real global warming solutions and a clean energy economy.  After today, only 3 days to go until masses of Granite Staters converge on the State House lawn to send this message.

After walking from Nashua to Litchfield yesterday, the marchers will finish today’s (Thursday’s) journey at Bronstein Park in Manchester at 7pm, to music by the Powerkegs and speeches by business and community leaders.

Join us at Bronstein Park tonight (Thursday) at 7pm!  Directions are at:

http://www.climatesummer.org/nhschedule

For info on the the march or the culminating rally on Sunday, Aug. 5 at noon at the State House in Concord, click here:

http://www.climatesummer.org/march

On the steps of City Hall yesterday, addressing the marchers were Bernie Streeter, the Republican Mayor of Nashua; Martha Fuller-Clark, a Democratic State Senator; and both Rev. Fred Small and Rev. Margaret Bullit-Jonas, two co-organizers of the Massachusetts Interfaith Walk for Climate Rescue this past spring. 

Among the marchers, both a wheelchair and a baby stroller were spotted; a toddler, teenagers, college students, and baby boomers, all both alarmed by the danger of global warming and inspired by the opportunity to build a prosperous, clean energy economy, all sang, drummed, and cheered as excitement grew.

Read the Nashua Telegraph’s first two stories on the March to Re-Energize NH here:

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/NEWS01/70802003/-1/XML15

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070730/NEWS01/70730007/-1/XML15

The march traveled by foot to Litchfield’s Nesenkeag Farm, where we prepared ourselves for a talk by Bill McKibben and Nesenkeag owner and farmer, Eero Ruutila.  We sat in a circle one hundred people wide to listen and talk about why we had come together. Bill talked about the hope that we all share - the possibility of a new future, built on clean and just jobs in a green energy economy. Eroo talked about his experiences farming Nesenkeag Organic and about how he has had to struggle with a changing climate that brings floods and new insects to deal with. 

We, as Bill pointed out, can make a world that is more just, more community minded, more humane than any generation past has seen. The truth that Eero presented is real and shows why we must take action, but we are walking motivated not just by the moments of fear of what could be but of many many more moments of hope for what will be.

Yesterday, much of our focus was on what we each can do to address global warming in our own lives.  Tonight in Manchester, we’ll focus on what we can and are doing in the business community.  As the march gathers momentum, we’re gearing up to make the largest call yet for national action on what will be seen in the history books as one of the defining challenge of the 21st century.

For info on the the march or the culminating rally on Sunday, Aug. 5 at noon at the State House in Concord, click here:

http://www.climatesummer.org/march

Onward and upward,
Zo, Kat & the whole March to Re-Energize NH team
~~~~~~
Re-Energize New Hampshire
http://www.climatesummer.org