Is "It's Time for a Woman President" this year's "He's the Kinda Guy You Wanna Have a Beer With?"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-gender-web-feb02,1,2676928.story?ctrack=1&cset=true 

Oh, yeah, Howard is first.

It's so lonely here on the ol' blog.

 Eisenhower's Granddaughter Endorses Obama

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/2/1429/44033/358/448141 

11.

Annilow
Sat, 02/02/08

72.

Sitka
Sat, 02/02/08

66. Annilow -- What is in the Arab psyche to make such horrid violence somehow a good thing to do?

That's the very definition of a bigoted remark.
--------------------------
I agree -- it is bigoted. "A bigot is a prejudiced person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own.".....
....
The Janjaweed (certainly misspelled) "Using the United Nations definition, the Janjaweed comprised nomadic Arabic-speaking African tribes (i.e. Black Arabs, or Afro-Arabs)" (thanks Wiki) did horrific things to Africans to get their land.
......
I think I was asking a cultural question...an honest question.

*********************

There is no dishonest question exists.

Another one might be: What is in the World psyche (Americans’ psyche specifically, sorry for the bigoted remark...) that TURNS the natural desire for justice and freedom from occupation into such an unnatural, “strange” and even prohibited one?
Whose psyche is perverted and turned upside down one?

Never mind the critique on an earlier thread.  It turns out the quote was mis-identified by McJoan as coming from Hillary when it was really from Glen Greenwald.  Glad I tried to track it down.

"Why I'm Backing Obama"  By Susan Eisenhower

I suppose if I'm serious about wanting the air war covered, I'll have to do it myself.  Here's part of a report from AlJazeera magazine-- 

 

One hundred thousand pounds of explosives delivered from the air is now, historically speaking, a relatively modest figure. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a single air wing from the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Persian Gulf, did that sort of damage in less than a day and it was a figure that, as again last week, the military was proud to publicize without fear of international outrage or the possibility that "barbarism" might come to mind:

"From Tuesday afternoon through early Wednesday the air wing flew 69 dedicated strike missions in Basra and in and around Baghdad, involving 27 F/A-18 Hornets and 12 Tomcats. They dropped nearly 100,000 pounds of ordnance, said Lt. Brook DeWalt, Kitty Hawk public affairs officer."

As far as we know, there were no reporters, Iraqi or Western, in Arab Jabour when the bombs fell and, Iraq being Iraq, no American reporters rushed there -- in person or by satellite phone -- to check out the damage. In Iraq and Afghanistan, when it comes to the mainstream media, bombing is generally only significant if it's of the roadside or 'suicide' variety; if, that is, the "bombs" can be produced at approximately "the cost of a pizza," (as IEDs sometimes are), or if the vehicles delivering them are cars or simply fiendishly well-rigged human bodies. From the air, even 100,000 pounds of bombs just doesn't have the ring of something that matters.

[...] 

James Carville and wife are on MTP again this Sunday.   I despise seeing them get so much air time.   They tell tales between parties it is suspected, and Carville has said pretty bad things about Democrats in the past.

Example:

"Truth is relative. Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth. If you're smart enough, truth is what you make the voter think it is. That's why I'm a Democrat. I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.”"

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1800

more from the air war:

Who could forget all the attention that went into the President's surge strategy on the ground in the first half of last year? But which media outlet even noticed, until recently, what Bob Deans of Cox News Service has termed the "air surge" that accompanied those 30,000 surging troops into the Iraqi capital and environs? In that same period, air units were increasingly concentrated in and around Iraq. By mid-2007, for instance, the Associated Press was already reporting:

"[S]quadrons of attack planes have been added to the in-country fleet. The air reconnaissance arm has almost doubled since last year. The powerful B1-B bomber has been recalled to action over Iraq… Early this year, with little fanfare, the Air Force sent a squadron of A-10 ‘Warthog' attack planes -- a dozen or more aircraft -- to be based at Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. At the same time it added a squadron of F-16C Fighting Falcons… at Balad."

Meanwhile, in the last year, aircraft-carrier battle groups have been stationed in greater numbers in the Persian Gulf and facilities at sites near Iraq like the huge al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar continue to be upgraded.

Even these increases do not tell the whole story of the expanding air war. Lolita Baldor of the Associated Press reported recently that "the military's reliance on unmanned aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, largely in Iraq." The use of such unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including Hellfire-missile armed Predators, doubled in the first ten months of 2007 -- with Predator air hours increasing from 2,000 to 4,300 in that period. The Army alone, according to Baldor, now has 361 drones in action in Iraq. The future promises much more of the same.

 

floridagal - Add Carville to my list of why I don't want a Clinton presidency.

The report in AlJazeera Magazine is by Tom Engelhardt

Denise,  thank you for all your hard work.

You've inspired me.  Was not going to canvas today due to a sinus headache, but I've simply got to.  Too much is at stake.

Fired Up - Ready To Go

"* rdorgan
Sat, 02/02/08"

No, Maine has effin' caucuses; although the Rethugs do theirs differently--over this three day weekend (on-binding convention delegate votes this weekend).

They were over $35K in the hole during the Oct. FEC filings (MRP's state party's coffers).

Their nutjob base doesn't care for Paul or McCain (Mitt's religion bothers 'em); and they perceive Suzie-Q as "too librul," so it should be fun to watch.

The ME Dem. caucus is Sun., Feb. 13th. If they can manage to get conveners in all 16 counties (have lost over 10K Dems. since '04--pissed off types, such as Moi). I'm still unenrolled, BTW.

If anyone does attend the MDP caucuses, it will be ABH progressives like Moi.

My guess is that most of esp. the labor folks (those who haven't lost their jobs as yet) supported Edwards; and they are outrageously anti-NAFTA, for sure.

The intellectual activists will go for Obama; and I doubt that the young voters will show--they haven't in the past, that's for sure (our 17 yr. olds can caucus; as well as vote absentee weeks in advance, BTW).

http://mainedems.org/caucus08.aspx

http://tinyurl.com/25tpsz

Candidates (state and federal) need petition sigs signed at caucuses (as well as $5.00 Clean Election donations and signature cards endorsed from attendees); and it makes it difficult as hell if people don't show up.

Tough cookies, I say.

That's why the state party wants caucuses (recruit cheap/freebie labor); however, attendance is always nill--mucho higher when we had primaries (2000 Gore was the most recent).

I'd also bet that both Tom Allen (that's Future SENATOR Tom Allen, BTW) will support Obama. He's been heavily supported by the netroots (and Moveon.org); as will Chellie Pingree.

http://www.actblue.com/page/mf

"More and better Dems," indeedy.

www.pingreeforcongress.com

www.tomallen.org

The state party's portal is devoid of basic voter info; and they've done zilch, re: outreach--it's no wonder the young people don't attend/register Dem.

A few may this year; however, they didn't vote in vast numbers in '06--not according to my Edison-Mitofsky exit poll data (the precinct at which I worked was in close proximity to Bangor H.S.--the largest in this part of ME). Nor did they turn out in vast numbers in '04.

It isn't due to a lack of me hounding the state party to do so, trust me! Fix their effin' disgusting portal, already.

Sorta like this "blog," huh? Get SoapBlox, HQ--up in 24 hrs.

Google it.

{{{shrug}}}

Not my problemo.

14,000 show up for Obama in Boise.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2...

My big concern about Super Tuesday is the early voting which will definitely slant towards Clinton.

[....]

"Nobody knows how many 17-year-olds plan to participate in the caucuses. Under state law, they can register to vote at the events. Portland City Clerk Linda Cohen said none had registered in recent weeks. Susan Mooney, South Portland's city clerk, said two registered last week."

[....]

*Two*??? In "librul" So. Portland???

{{{slams head against Velcro wall}}}

There appears to be a *massive disconnect* in Maine's high school social studies classes. I was required to take civics during 10th grade (statewide). We also have ME's "learning results"--civic engagement & voting are part and parcel of the rubic standard.

That's aside from the state Dem. party doing zilch, re: outreach to that particular demographic voter group (it ain't happenin' in my county, that's for sure). Lots of "talk" about doing it, but no action.


Either their high school social studies teachers aren't relaying the info, or the kids flat out don't care.

Dunno.

The U/Maine college Dem. group hasn't done diddly squat, either.

Our voter laws are some of the most progressive in the nation (yes, the prisoners can vote; and anyone can vote absentee--ofr any reason--upwards to 5 weeks in advance).

{{{shrug}}}

mary vb--Don't waste time worrying about something that's already happened.  LOL

Denise has done a bangup job with the front blog! Thanks gal for taking the time to promote O.

I noted that, when Olbermann was listing Obama's endorsements last night, he failed to mention the huge LA Times which had already been all over the news. What or better yet Who has gotten ahold of him lately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

16

mary

14,000 for Obama in Boise is outstanding!

Howard campaigned there in 2004 and has made some trips there in his 50-state strategy. Perhaps he has awaked the sleeping Dem dogs there. Could Utah actually become blue with their massive new population shift?

Obama Is Racing Against the Clock

By Alec MacGillis and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, February 2, 2008; A01

ALBUQUERQUE, Feb. 1 -- Sen. Barack Obama has two opponents: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the clock, which is rapidly running down.

With three days to go before Super Tuesday, when roughly half the delegates in the Democratic presidential contest will be awarded, Obama is racing around the country, still trying to introduce himself to voters, speed-dating style.

On Tuesday, he touched down in his grandfather's home town, El Dorado, Kan., where many residents did not realize until recently -- if at all -- that Obama has Kansas roots. From there, it was on to big rallies in Kansas City, Mo.; Denver; and Phoenix, followed by Los Angeles, where he tried during an hour in East L.A. to make an impression on Hispanic voters who know little about him. On Friday: Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Boise.

Polling and election results so far suggest that the more time Obama has to present himself to voters, the better he fares. In each of the first four states where voting was sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, Clinton maintained essentially level support in polls in the months leading up to the contests, while Obama saw a steady upward trajectory the more he campaigned. In Florida, by contrast, where the candidates did not campaign after the DNC punished the state for moving its primary to January, Clinton soundly defeated Obama, offering a rough gauge on how much the senator from Illinois relies on voter contact.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020103714_pf.html

Way to go Denise!

I'm fired up so I decided to make phone calls via MoveOn for Barack. Been on the phone for 45 minutes now, probably talked to about 25 people... all voting for Barack except one.   

on to more calling...

sp=for

Pardon flyin' finger farts.

Just blasted a 2.10.08 ME Dem. party caucus outreach email on U/Maine's intranet (over 17K students, classified employees, & faculty have access to it).

Nobody can say "I didn't know...."

Sheesh.

Yes We Can!

TruthNews
Coulter: Hillary is “Our Girl�
Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
February 2, 2008


Case closed. You don’t need any more evidence there is little substantive difference between “conservatives� (neocons) and “liberals� (neolibs) than the pronouncements of the Queen of Hateful Shrill, Ann Coulter, the “author� who registers to vote in multiple jurisdictions and gets away with it.

Hillary is “more conservative� than John McCain, the Manchurian candidate who hates “gooks,� mostly because the Bilderberg Queen and selectee of preference by the Rothschilds and the elite is more on track with the neocon and neoliberal plan to kill recalcitrant Muslims, break their countries into manageable pieces along tribal and ethnic lines, and impose IMF and World Bank schemes on them and thus steal their natural resources and reduce them to slave labor gulag inmates à la “communist� China.

Coulter “absolutely� believes Queen Hillary will be “stronger on the war on terrorism,� that is to say not only killing people who have the misfortune of living in “rogue nations,� but decimating what remains of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Obviously, for Coulter and the neocons, who will soon enough throw their support behind Clinton, McCain’s crude forever war pronouncements are not enough. But then, of course, McCain is but window dressing for the stampede to “elect� Hillary, an expensive circus sideshow designed to make the American people think there is a “democratic� process in the United States and that they actually have a say in who will be the next decider-commander. Not explained is why the elite feel compelled to continue this transparent charade. Nostalgia, maybe?

In order to pretend there is a difference of opinion in regard to Hillary Clinton’s impending anointment as president, Sean Hannity tells us Hillary will “nationalize health care� and “pull the troops out of Iraq,� never mind Clinton is an unabashed warmonger who voted to kill a million plus Iraqis and has repeatedly stated her desire to do likewise to grandmothers and toddlers in Iran. Coulter disagrees and actually tells the truth: the positions of Republicans and Democrats, she avers, are “about that far apart,� and she makes the point by showing us a very small space between her thumb and forefinger.

Hannity’s role as straight man to Coulter’s snake oil dance is obvious enough on its face and his supposed protestation is entirely theatrical as his boss, Rupert Murdoch, has hosted Clinton fundraisers in the not too distant past. This “interfaith ménage,� opines Forbes, redraws “America’s political lines� and is nothing if not Bismarckian realpolitik.

Oh, please. It should be obvious by now to an astute grade school student of current events that the whole thing is rigged and choreographed — albeit rather shoddily — and Coulter is nothing if not a well-paid shill who is tasked with promoting whatever candidate our rulers want. Hillary Clinton and her VP, Barack Obama, will rule the roost in politically correct fashion — as brainwashed liberals are locked in the gender and race vice and dare not complain, lest they be expelled from the herd — and the so-called conservatives, actually GWB bumper sticker neocons, will be brought into the fold by the likes of Coulter, the Queen of Mean.

Of course, Hannity and Limbaugh will play the part of the disgruntled opposition, as Clinton hatred smolders fiercely at the root of the base, and they will be paid handsomely for their petty and operatic disagreement, which is less than meaningless, to say the least, but necessary to assuage the hurt feelings of the aforementioned GWB neocon followers.

John McCain will be selected as the Republican nominee for one reason above all others — to drive an appreciable number of “conservatives� into Camp Hillary. McCain, the Manchurian candidate and Keating Five associate, is ugly and unpalatable enough to accomplish this and the neocon flag-waving base is stupid enough to buy into it and remain none the wiser for the next eight years.

Sphere: Related Content

Get on your knees and pray, not only for yourselves but for the Nation. Hillary will be in the White House, and the baby-killer Obama will be her V.P. The Bilderberg have already decided it and even Fidel Castro said they would make a good team.

When a communist dictator approves, you know we’re in trouble.

Get a clue. The deck is stacked, the race is fixed and the outcome is never left to chance with the Illuminati and their henchmen in the NWO.

This nation is about to fall under the judgement of Almighty God.

Anderson Cooper’s CIA Past
Lew Rockwell
LRC
January 30, 2008

CNN’s Anderson Cooper spent summers interning for a career with the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a report at a gossip website.

“Following his sophomore and junior years at Yale—a well-known recruiting ground for the CIA—Cooper spent his summers interning at the agency’s monolithic headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in a program for students interested in intelligence work,� reports Radar Online.

“His involvement with the agency ended there, and he chose not to pursue a job with the agency after graduation, according to a CNN spokeswoman, who confirmed details of Cooper’s CIA involvement to Radar.� See this article. And thanks to Brad Funkhouser for this post.

Of course, if the evil Cooper were one of many CIA assets in the media, he would hardly admit it.

UPDATE from Chris VanLandingham: “According to Wikipedia, after Anderson ‘left’ the CIA he went to Burma and got involved with dissident students fighting the government there while claiming to be a reporter though having no affiliation with any news outlet. After that he went to Vietnam, Somalia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Nope can’t be CIA. He would have told us.�

I am surprised to see so many Edwards supporters moving to Obama. Edwards had my support because of substance. I hear Hope and Change from Obama, but what substance there is, is moderate conservative. After all, if the nation is going to unite, it all moves to the right.

Corporate media has given the dems the 2 candidates they wanted in the race. We had a great democratic stage when the race started. Now we have Obamb who balances on a pedastal and Clinton who has the Bill baggage.

Thanks to DFA, I can look nation wide to see where I can help to increase the numbers in Congress because, my opinion, that is where we will make the changes Edwards and Dean have talked about.

A somewhat lone voice on the blog and in the northwest.

Zetta Bracher

Ethel Kennedy endorses Barack

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community...

So, here it is.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/2/14259/48964?new=true 

Zetta - You really don't think Clinton embraces Howard's 50 state strategy do you? Be assured that if Clinton is the nominee - the 50 state will revert back to the 19 state strategy.

"27. Zetta Bracher Sat, 02/02/08"

It's called A.B.H. (akin to 2004's A.B.B.).

Defensive voting.

Pragmatism at its finest.

You work w/what you've got.

We don't always get what we want in life, folks.

Si Se Puede.  Yes We Can

Gives New York Police State a Huge Infusion of Cash
Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
February 2, 2008

AP reports:

Teams of police officers armed with submachine guns and bomb-sniffing dogs will soon be patrolling the busiest parts of New York City subways as part of a major increase in regional security funding.

The subway initiative is one use of the $151.2 million in new grant money from the Department of Homeland Security to transit systems in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Last year, they received $98 million.

Explaining the increase, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said law enforcement officials in the three states “have to deal with vulnerabilities and threats in this region that are really second to none.�

New York’s subways have long been considered a potential terror target; police already randomly check riders’ bags, and the tunnels and ventilation systems are searched for explosives. Hidden cameras register any suspicious action.

In other words, the Ministry of Homeland Security, in league with officials and cops in New York, want the people of the tri-state area to get accustomed to the presence of heavily armed goons, sort of like Hitler wanted the German people to get accustomed to Geheimes Staatspolizei-Amt, aka the Gestapo, breaking down doors and checking papers in search of “all tendencies dangerous to the state,� that it to say ferreting out all who disagree with the state, increasingly a specialty of police departments in New York, Colorado Springs, San Francisco and elsewhere.

Of course, since there is no al-Qaeda “presence� in the United States, that is unless you consider Muslims and Arabs at large card-carrying al-Qaeda members, as the neocon do, the only logical purpose of all this exorbitantly expensive “security� activity is to send a message to the American people, sort of like the message Ari Fleischer sent soon after September 11, 2001: the commoners best “watch what they say, watch what they do,� otherwise they may run afoul of a knuckle-dragger in black who likes to pepper spray babies and taser people who ask the wrong questions or do not submit readily enough when pulled over for minor traffic violations.

Chertoff said the new security grants would be divided to address the most significant vulnerabilities, as identified by federal and regional law-enforcement and anti-terrorism authorities.

Their collaboration to pinpoint security risks and take action is “a model for the entire country,� Chertoff said.

Got that? A model for the entire country. In short, expect automatic weapon toting goons in ninja black to be patrolling your neighborhood soon, and please remember that it is not about Osama or al-Qaeda, as the government now considers teenage taggers and run-of-the-mill petty criminals as terrorists. “The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said,� the New York Times reported in 2003.

�What the Justice Department has really done,� Elliot Mincberg, legal director for People for the American Way, said at the time,�is to get things put into the law that have been on prosecutors’ wish lists for years. They’ve used terrorism as a guise to expand law enforcement powers in areas that are totally unrelated to terrorism.�

But of course. However, it should be noted that the state really has no desire to arrest “white collar criminals,� especially those on Wall Street or the bankers that finance illegal drug importation operations. It is more interested fleecing the public over a dizzying array of lesser crimes and categorizing many of these crimes as terrorism simply increases the haul and interns more people in the prison-industrial complex, basically slave gulag run increasingly by private corporations.

It is sad to consider the fact many New Yorkers, sufficiently brainwashed by Fox News and CNN, find all of this necessary and submit to cops searching backpacks and “bomb sniffing� dogs shoving muzzles in their nether regions.

Docile and brainwashed Germans submitted to as much and look where it got them — digging charred spuds out of the saturation bombed rubble of Berlin. It looks like millions of Americans are headed down the same treacherous path, unable to learn from history.

Naturally, in order to learn form history, one has to first pick up a history book.

Not that most Americans can be bothered or even read one book every four or five years.

Statement of Ron Paul on H.R. 5104, the Protect America Act
Ron Paul’s Speeches and Statements
30 January 2008

Madame Speaker, I rise in opposition to the extension of the Protect America Act of 2007 because the underlying legislation violates the US Constitution.

The mis-named Protect America Act allows the US government to monitor telephone calls and other electronic communications of American citizens without a warrant. This clearly violates the Fourth Amendment, which states:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.�

The Protect America Act sidelines the FISA Court system and places authority over foreign surveillance in the director of national intelligence and the attorney general with little if any oversight. While proponents of this legislation have argued that the monitoring of American citizens would still require a court-issued warrant, the bill only requires that subjects be “reasonably believed to be outside the United States .� Further, it does not provide for the Fourth Amendment protection of American citizens if they happen to be on the other end of the electronic communication where the subject of surveillance is a non-citizen overseas.

We must remember that the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was passed in 1978 as a result of the U.S. Senate investigations into the federal government’s illegal spying on American citizens. Its purpose was to prevent the abuse of power from occurring in the future by establishing guidelines and prescribing oversight to the process. It was designed to protect citizens, not the government. The effect seems to have been opposite of what was intended. These recent attempts to “upgrade� FISA do not appear to be designed to enhance protection of our civil liberties, but to make it easier for the government to spy on us!

The only legitimate “upgrade� to the original FISA legislation would be to allow surveillance of conversations that begin and end outside the United States between non-US citizens where the telephone call is routed through the United States . Technology and the global communications market have led to more foreign to foreign calls being routed through the United States . This adjustment would solve the problems outlined by the administration without violating the rights of US citizens.

While I would not oppose technical changes in FISA that the intelligence community has indicated are necessary, Congress should not use this opportunity to chip away at even more of our constitutional protections and civil liberties. I urge my colleagues to oppose this and any legislation that violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

Zetta wrote "I am surprised to see so many Edwards supporters moving to Obama."

It is surprising to the extent you assume, as many Edwards supporters have, that their support stemmed from Edwards' status as a southern white male with a moderate Senate record.  He came up with his progressive populist shtick, or "substance" as you describe it, after many months of campaigning as the next Bill Clinton in 2003 with negligible results. 

Once he coined his "Two Americas" campaign theme, he managed successfully to cloak his previous DLC centrist leanings with a liberal facade, all the while maintaining that his vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq as the Senate bill's co-sponsor was the correct one. 

Nevertheless, after failing to convince Kerry to remain firm on his own invasion vote, and his subsequent loss to Bush-Cheney, Edwards again retooled on the fly by shedding his previous muscular militarism for an antiwar sentiment that would help garner votes for his new campaign.

What surprises me is that any Edwards supporters like you ever wanted him to be nominated and elected, since Edwards substantive views of a liberal persuasion were only on display when he was campaigning for office, never when he was actually in office. 

I'm in a caucus state - WA.  we caucus on Feb 9th.  Most of us progressive types will caucus as "undecided" or "uncommitted" and hope for a brokered convention.  other caucus states can do likewise.

Daniel wrote "Get on your knees and pray, not only for yourselves but for the Nation. Hillary will be in the White House, and the baby-killer Obama will be her V.P."

I have to concede that Paul would force all pregnant women to carry their pregnancies to term, thus killing no babies until birth, after which he would be content to see many of them die from neglectm caused by him simply ignoring the social compact and removing the social safety net.

New thread

http://blogforamerica.com/view/23757#more 

Karen wrote "I'm fired up so I decided to make phone calls via MoveOn for Barack."

You and rae are the devoted foot soldiers of Demcracy.  That is fantastic work.

37.  Mary vb--have to disagree.  Once a process has gotten traction, it can't be easily stopped.

I have really watched the debates carefully. I wanted Edwards, and he was not a Howard Dean. But I saw growth and really liked the fact that Edwards knew who the good guys were and who were the bad guys.  And you don't "nice" bad guys who stand to lose billions of dollars into being nice.Won't happen. Pretty unrealistic.

I have tried to evaluate the 2 corporate media candidates left to us. From the 1st debate on, I saw Obama use the JFK physical stance and hand motions and actually thought that Martin was in the room when Obama went to the MLK voice cadence. I don't fault Obama for that. He is studying the best. But that leaves me to wonder who Obama is.

And now I get into trouble because I saw a lot of growth in Hillary. No, I do not like the Iraq vote and the DLC connection.  And certainly the last name, Clinton. But her answers are clear, she is intelligent, and has kept composure under fire.

It is also clear that Obama does not handle opposition well. His disparaging remark that Clinton was "likable enough" was completely insensative and when he relegated Edwards to  "and John" in the last debate that included Edwards, when Obama stated that this was a historic race with a woman, an African American, and then hesitated and said "and John" I took exception.

So, we have the 2 corporate media candidates. Pick one.Both have good and bad points. Sorry we couldn't do better.

Zetta Bracher

Barbara wrote "Most of us progressive types will caucus as 'undecided' or 'uncommitted' and hope for a brokered convention."

You'll be voting "present" in other words.

Tom - sorta,  Uncommitted can become a delagate and go all the way to Denver

Zetta wrote "But that leaves me to wonder who Obama is."

And yet you had a grasp of who Edwards, the Zelig of American politics, was.  I'm astonished.

Barbara wrote "Uncommitted can become a delagate and go all the way to Denver ."

Nothing wrong with that.

NEW THREAD

CALIFORNIA IS VOTING!!!

moveon.org's members comprise 10% of calif registered voters.  what clout!!! 

if you're a moveon member in a super tuesday state, sign on now.  we need whatever help you might offer.  i just did an hour of phone banking for moveon, and it sure felt like the good ol' days.

obama's pre-super bowl event, featuring oprah, michelle, and caroline will take place at ucla's pauley pavilion at 11:30 am.  check the obama website for details. 

*************

re tom's response to zetta before i leave to run errands...........salon.com ran a piece on john edwards' principled stand in this campaign.  in it, sen russ feingold revealed his misgivings about edwards, who essentially ran on a feingold platform in 2008 but voted against the same  while edwards was a u.s. senator--opposing votes on the patriot act, no child left behind, bankruptcy, etc.