The thought occurred to me that Dean is first.

The Federal Reserve Is Destroying America

Lee Rogershttp://www.infowars.com/?p=866
Funny Money Report
March 18, 2008

It is incredible to see the rampant devaluation of the U.S. Dollar. The Federal Reserve just hours ago made a rare cut of 25 basis points during the weekend which will cause even more inflation. Gold immediately moved up $20 an ounce and the U.S. Dollar Index plunged under 71 in international trading. If this type of market activity continues the U.S. Dollar will have no value in a few months. While it is probably unlikely that we will see a hyper-inflationary collapse of the U.S. Dollar within the next few months, these policies are entirely unsustainable. If the Federal Reserve does not move to defend the value of the U.S. Dollar we will eventually see a hyper-inflationary collapse and worldwide financial turmoil. This view is also shared by other well respected financial analysts. Peter Schiff recently raised concerns about a hyper-inflationary collapse of the U.S. Dollar, Robert Reich a former Clinton cabinet member believes we are facing a depression and Alan Greenspan the man who caused this whole mess wrote in the Financial Times stating that we are facing the worst financial crisis since World War II. What’s amazing is that the Federal Reserve isn’t even trying to protect the U.S. Dollar because all they care about is saving the power of their private banking cartel. They don’t care about the U.S. Dollar nor do they care about the country itself. They are destroying this country through their actions and there needs to be an investigation into the controllers of this bank.

Obama’s lead over Clinton narrows

Steve Holland
Reuters
March 19, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama’s big national lead over Hillary Clinton has all but evaporated in the U.S. presidential race, and both Democrats trail Republican John McCain, according a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.




The poll showed Obama had only a statistically insignificant lead of 47 percent to 44 percent over Clinton, down sharply from a 14 point edge he held over her in February when he was riding the tide of 10 straight victories.

Illinois Sen. Obama, who would be America’s first black president, has been buffeted by attacks in recent weeks from New York Sen. Clinton over his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief and by a tempest over racially charged sermons given by his Chicago preacher.

The poll showed Arizona Sen. McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, is benefiting from the lengthy campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, who are now battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22

12:24 PM EST

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBFrl#comment-gPz22

...

The World Beyond Iraq

Senator Barack Obama
March 19, 2008

Just before America's entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress: "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war," he said. "...But the right is more precious than peace." Wilson's words captured two awesome responsibilities that test any Commander-in-Chief – to never hesitate to defend America, but to never go to war unless you must. War is sometimes necessary, but it has grave consequences, and the judgment to go to war can never be undone.

...

This may not be news to you, but too many Americans don't know the facts about the Republican candidate for president, and Hillary or Barack can't get started just yet. Make a donation today and support our efforts to take him head-on and lay the groundwork for them:

http://www.democrats.org/LookingAhead

Thank you,

Howard Dean

There is Daniel selecting articles he wants to put spin on a  bad subject.

The delegates determine the nominee, but you don't seem to understand.

how strange.

7. Fred
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So tell me, how are the Israelis responsible for Arabs training their own children to blow themselves up?

===================================================

I said they are not (directly)

but since you repeat the question, I see you cannot accept it. 

When people have nothing else to live for they do not see death as condemnation but as redemption.  This dovetails easily with the old negro spirituals and folksongs  that welcome a better life hereafter.

The Palestinians existence is analogous to life on the Indian Reservation and the  Jim Crow South.  There are few, if any, instances of Palestinian families actually putting up their sons and daughters to suicide.  They are extremely rare.  This should not be confused with the "honor" they feel when the discover their child was "martyred."

Such honor is also found in other cultures such as the Japanese. 

Now I ask you

So tell me, how are the Palestinian's bombers families and neighborhoods  responsible for the suicide mission of one individual?

Israeli collective punishment of the bomber's family and neighborhood is a breach of every code of justice of all modern civilizations.  It does nothing but escalates the cycle of violence, which seems to be a growing part of the Zionist strategy.

Michigan can allocate the National Delegates at their District Conventions just like Iowa does and at no cost.  they just need to release all the convention delegates and hold a caucus head count. many states have such a system in their rules. just do it Michigan, don't let Hillary pretend that contest without Obama on the ballot was anything but a bogus straw poll.

For Obama

Count Basie Big Band "The Start Of Something Big"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX1HPIJwK...

The World Beyond Iraq
Senator Barack Obama
March 19, 2008

As prepared for delivery

Just before America's entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress: "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war," he said. "...But the right is more precious than peace." Wilson's words captured two awesome responsibilities that test any Commander-in-Chief – to never hesitate to defend America, but to never go to war unless you must. War is sometimes necessary, but it has grave consequences, and the judgment to go to war can never be undone.

Five years ago today, President George W. Bush addressed the nation. Bombs had started to rain down on Baghdad. War was necessary, the President said, because the United States could not, "live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder." Recalling the pain of 9/11, he said the price of inaction in Iraq was to meet the threat with "armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities."

At the time the President uttered those words, there was no hard evidence that Iraq had those stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. There was not any evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks of September 11, or that Iraq had operational ties to the al Qaeda terrorists who carried them out. By launching a war based on faulty premises and bad intelligence, President Bush failed Wilson's test. So did Congress when it voted to give him the authority to wage war.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/19/114032/682/108/479934

Tom wrote:

What election is it exactly you believe the Democrats have lost?

The one coming up in November. The more they duck for cover, the behinder they get.

7. Phil, someone needs to tell hillary her rant in Mi this a.m and the support of the dems on her side there ain't working.

12:57 PM EST

screw experience, how about some judgement :

http://wcco.com/national/obama.iraq.pullout.2.680541.html

12:58 PM EST

http://wcco.com/national/obama.iraq.pullout.2.680541.html

...

"Ask yourself," Obama told the crowd, "Who do you trust to end a war: someone who opposed the war from the beginning, or someone who started opposing it when they started preparing a run for president?"

Phil, quoting Howard Dean:

"This may not be news to you, but too many Americans don't know the facts about the Republican candidate for president, and Hillary or Barack can't get started just yet."

And why is that? There's nothing to stop either one of them unloading on McCain--it might even reverse the polling trends that put them farther and farther behind McCain.

1pm

in the interest of consistency, let me just restate that I don't think sitting elected officials have any business getting involved in campaigns other than their own.  if that were the rule, little Debbie would not be a problem.

This person needs to be targeted in and voted out of office. We need to get involved and stop the republican infiltration of thedemocratic party. We need to vette the people more effectively and make sure they lose office if they betray us......It's p to us..WE can either get involved and control the government or do nothing and let the government control us...help get rid of these people

1:11 PM EST

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/HillRaisers/

HILLRAISERS

...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

...

15.

* rdorgan
Wed, 03/19/08

http://wcco.com/national/obama.iraq.pull...
...
"Ask yourself," Obama told the crowd, "Who do you trust to end a war: someone who opposed the war from the beginning, or someone who started opposing it when they started preparing a run for president?"
---------
As much as I would now prefer Obama to Hillary (primarily for some unexplained emotional reasons…, lol) I would ask (and many might later on) respected senator:

“Why should I trust you to end this war when every single vote to fund it you voted ‘Yes’, while others, like Kucinich and Paul, were able to vote ‘No’?

1:14 PM EST

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=1962

...

I trust barack obama.

hillary is toast.

Robert Fisk on the lost wars

http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk03192008.html

We have dispatched our armies into the land of Islam. We have done so with the sole encouragement of Israel, whose own false intelligence over Iraq has been discreetly forgotten by our masters, while weeping crocodile tears for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died.

America's massive military prestige has been irreparably diminished. And if there are, as I now calculate, 22 times as many Western troops in the Muslim world as there were at the time of the 11th and 12th century Crusades, we must ask what we are doing. Are we there for oil? For democracy? For Israel? For fear of weapons of mass destruction? Or for fear of Islam?

We blithely connect Afghanistan to Iraq. If only Washington had not become distracted by Iraq, so the narrative now goes, the Taliban could not have re-established themselves. But al-Qa'ida and the nebulous Osama bin Laden were not distracted. Which is why they expanded their operations into Iraq and then used this experience to assault the West in Afghanistan with the hitherto--in Afghanistan--unheard of suicide bomber.

And I will hazard a terrible guess: that we have lost Afghanistan as surely as we have lost Iraq and as surely as we are going to "lose" Pakistan. It is our presence, our power, our arrogance, our refusal to learn from history and our terror--yes, our terror--of Islam that is leading us into the abyss. And until we learn to leave these Muslim peoples alone, our catastrophe in the Middle East will only become graver. There is no connection between Islam and "terror". But there is a connection between our occupation of Muslim lands and "terror". It's not too complicated an equation. And we don't need a public inquiry to get it right.

1:26pm

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

What a hillaroid. What a disappointment.

Unfortunately, the top brass of the DLC had to really learn the hard way not to continue their disastrous insider polices of making deals with the Republicans in regards to Democratic primary elections. The era of the DLC's "Culture of Losing" mentality is over.

What makes you think they've changed? I've seen nothing in their political or legislative actions to indicate it. The Senate recently gave the the telecoms their immunity -- that was DLC all the way.

The 50 State Strategy is in full swing.

In fact, the Clinton campaign (as DLC as it gets) is still playing the cherry-picking game with regard to the fall election.

Pass this around, what a wuss.

Sitka
Wed, 03/19/08
___________________________________________________________________________

Sedona for vacation..your thoughts.......

Its 1.33pm est

1:33 PM EST

I see that blogger Charles Harker has posted upthread (in seeming response to this blog thread ( Show Debbie Wasserman-Schultz What Loyalty Truly Means  by Simon Rose  ) : This person needs to be targeted in and voted out of office. We need to get involved and stop the republican infiltration of thedemocratic party. We need to vette the people more effectively and make sure they lose office if they betray us......It's p to us..

===

Well, I remember seeing Charles name before on a previous thread (search All Posts) that never got Front ended:

I'm going to say it as much as people are gonna hate hearing it....If this party nominates Obama, this country elects McCain..We must back a candidate that can win

Recommend 

And what to you base this theory on, oh Amazing Kreskin, because there is not one tiny whiff of fact or analysis in your post.  

John wrote "The one coming up in November [is the election the Democrats have lost]." The more they duck for cover, the behinder they get."

The flaw in this theory is that it hasn't been lost yet.  If you, like Matt, are relying on a poll he saw to establish the November results in advance, I'm just curious as to how this poll differs from each one taken last year, and all those that will be taken from now until November, such that it in particular is determinative regarding the outcome. 

let me see, hillary has wasserman schultz as a co chair and she won't support fellow dems running against her rethug friends in florida. can you say lieberman??

Just passing through with Juan Cole's comment. If you go there, you'll find a link to his article in Salon.

============
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
5 Years, 5 Lies:
Cole in Salon

My fortnightly column for Salon.com is now up, commemorating the 5th anniversary of Bush's invasion of Iraq:

"Five years of Iraq lies:" How President Bush and his advisors have spent each year of the war peddling mendacious tales about a mission accomplished.

I posit that each year of the war has been characterized by a central lie by the Bush propaganda machine.

Year 1: "There is no guerrilla war."
Year 2: "Iraq is a model democracy."
Year 3: "Zarqawi is causing all the trouble."
Year 4: "There is no Civil War."
Year 5: "Everything is calm now."

I also suggest that John McCain is pushing for:

Year 6: "Total victory is around the corner."

[...]
http://www.juancole.com/2008/03/5-years-...

former wrote "I would ask (and many might later on) respected senator: Why should I trust you to end this war when every single vote to fund it you voted 'Yes', while others, like Kucinich and Paul, were able to vote 'No'?"

Because voting to fund a war that other members of Congress voted to wage doesn't mean you wouldn't end the war as the Commander in Chief, meaning there is no correlation between the funding votes and ending the war that should cause you any mistrust. 

If you posed the question to candidate John Edwards, "why should I trust you to end this war when you voted to authorize it in the first place?", I could understand the basis of your skepticism.  Nevertheless, we understood that he would end it, didn't we?

Red rock country. Very beautiful. Lots of good hiking, tours, horseback, etc. Many other places of fun and interest like Prescott, Jerome, and wilderness areas within easy drives. But it's been built up a lot in recent years and doesn't have the same out-of-the way, old west quality, it used to. 

If you're there on April 18 I'll be playing with a pretty good DeadHead band at the Oak Creek Brewing Company.

Pass this around, what a wuss.

Sitka
Wed, 03/19/08
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks for the advice..its time for trip back out West.......Ill take my chances on horseback again

Wont happen till around mid June..........let me know if youll be nearby around then.........will be an interesting meeting of the minds...........

This person needs to be targeted in and voted out of office. We need to get involved and stop the republican infiltration of thedemocratic party. We need to vette the people more effectively and make sure they lose office if they betray us......It's p to us..WE can either get involved and control the government or do nothing and let the government control us...help get rid of these people

Starting with Hillary. 

37, no actually I was trying to post McCain's gaffe yesterday with lieberman. would not post the utube.

but schultz is one too.

screw experience, how about some judgement :

"Experience" is just code for who has taken the most corporate bribes. 

Tom has the bestest firsties of all.

~~~~~~~~~~

Debbie W-Schultz also needs to be replaced. She and her cohort Kendrick Meek are both Clinton supporters from South Florida.

If they had some good Dems running against them next fall on the Obama ticket, they would need some help keeping their seats.

Sergeant Wasserman-Schultz:  "I know nothing."

I am proud of Mike Huckabee today.

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/19/72716/0494/229/479797

Ok, I just signed up to make a recurring donation to barack.

If DFA makes endorsement, I will do a monthly amount to them also.

In response to the Hogan's Heroes reference above...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ivan Dixon, an actor, director and producer best known for his role as Kinchloe on the 1960s television series "Hogan's Heroes," has died. He was 76.

Dixon died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte after a hemorrhage and of complications from kidney failure, said his daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon of Charlotte.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gb_fxxFU0qDmdG8ES1Z-cOZ-XYMQD8VG7S400 

John Lewis from Georgia who supported Clinton then endorsed Obama, said this morning an Obama/Clinton ticket would be a "Dream Ticket."

He's right, in your wildest dreams John!

~~~~~~~~~~

I trust Howard to do the right thing about the delegates

If he doesn't, I will be out of this party sooner than I planned if Clinton somehow steals the nomination.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has shown herself to be just another lying politician.  too bad, she's such a bright young lady... it's definitely time to clean out those swamps in Florida.

from 2004

Barack Obama for U.S. Senate.

2:23 PM EST

ah, Tennessee :

http://www.wsmv.com/politics/15642764/detail.html?rss=nash&psp=news

Ivan Dixon, an actor, director and producer best known for his role as Kinchloe on the 1960s television series "Hogan's Heroes," has died. He was 76.

Back when the networks felt an obligation to provide a small amout of quality programming he was in the 1967 production of “The Final War of Ollie Winter” episode of CBS Playhouse Presents. I was a kid at the time and it made quite an impression on me.

Story about an African American soldier in Vietnam. It focuses on the past and present of a war-weary GI who, after 20 years of professional soldiering, begins a quest for life. Master Sergeant Olly Winter, winding up a long career, is serving as an advisor in Vietnam. When his platoon is ambushed by the Viet Cong, Olly, the only survivor, sets out on the long trek back to safety. Along the way he picks up company, a young Vietnamese girl, her dog, and an orphaned baby. The girl doesn't understand English, but Olly talks to her--and himself about the wars he's seen, his family, and the life he plans to lead 'If I get out of here alive.'

(As in all movies and such in the 60's, he doesn't get out alive.)

Hillary on CNN back into shouting mode.

The one good thing you can say about Hillary is that if you don't like her personna today, just wait until tomorrow for it to change again. 

There's a nice presidential-looking pic of Obama on the front of USA Today. I don't usually buy the paper but today was a exception. It has some broad coverage of his race speech too though I haven't read it yet to determine it's truth value.

2:40 PM EST

Hillary on CNN back into shouting mode.

The one good thing you can say about Hillary is that if you don't like her personna today, just wait until tomorrow for it to change again. 

+++

Sitka -

Her main consultant, pollster-driven, finger-in-the-wind, Mark Penn, helps Hillary greatly with a campaign that has a lot of CHANGE in it.

Obama's speech yesterday must have worked. I haven't heard a word about the preacher on TV yet today. I guess they'd rather move on than deal with the real issues Obama raised.

Even saw Hillary doing an (bad) imitation of the speech.

I liked BO's speech yesterday tho I doubt it will help him much.

Today's war and more war speech...what can I say?  It boggles the mind.  He knows how to make war and more death sound absolutely inspirational and even desirable.  People who are enthralled with words can't help but love this man.

Just for starters:

"The war in Iraq has emboldened Iran, which poses the greatest challenge to American interests in the Middle East in a generation, continuing its nuclear program and threatening our ally, Israel. Instead of the new Middle East we were promised, Hamas runs Gaza, Hizbollah flags fly from the rooftops in Sadr City, and Iran is handing out money left and right in southern Lebanon."

As I recall, Hamas was democratically elected and now Iran poses the threat to US interests.  Just what "interests" are those Mr. Obama?   There's just so much to rebut, I'm going to do other things.  Major disappointment. 

Expect a continuation of the same disastrous foreign policy.

Oh, and let's build up the military cuz we're gonna be NUMBER ONE!  Our arrogance is legion.

from the previous thread...


HELP BEAT McCain!

---

http://www.sierrastar.com/news/story/144...

Radanovich votes no on tax act

Congressman George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) released the following statement recently after voting against H.R. 5341, the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act.

"For the fourth time this Congress, the Democrat majority has insisted on bringing to the floor an energy tax bill that gives billions of dollars of tax breaks, credits and incentives to renewable energy but forces domestic oil and gas energy producers to pay for those incentives with a $16 to $21 billion tax increase.

"Let's be clear: We should be encouraging the production of renewable energy. We should be encouraging the production of all domestic energy. However, let's also be clear that the American public should not suffer an increase in energy costs due to politically motivated legislation that reduces domestic energy production.

"Not only does this bill increase taxes on American energy companies, it creates a tax advantage for anti-American dictator Hugo Chavez's gas and oil company, CITGO.

"Listening to the majority in this Congress, it is strikingly obvious that they are determined to vilify the oil and gas industry for merely being successful -- making profits. Perhaps they are making profits because quite simply there is a very large demand for their product and the renewable energy available in this country is a drop in the bucket compared to what we need.

"Yet, the majority in the House of Representatives would have you believe the renewable energy incentives contained in this legislation are the silver bullets to America's dependence on oil. That is not only false, but disingenuous to the American people who will undoubtedly see a significant increase in gas prices as a result of this bill. Prices have already increased by nearly 40 percent since the Democrats took control of Congress.

"The bottom line is that we should never discourage any domestic energy production, especially for political gain."

---

My ultra-right wing Congressman George Radanovich 19th CD-CA and long time buddy of Richard Pombo has NO Democratic opponent in the next election. He has returned to business as usual. He and his wife are huge NRCC fundraisers and you can count on them both being out there raising money hand over fist to help beat Jerry McNerney in the next election.

With NO Democratic opponent Radanovich and Buddies can now freely continue to uphold the ultra-ringers' corporate status quo in DC.

Please help Jerry's re-election.

Progressives and Democrats for Jerry McNerney re-election.

Batter swing: http://jerrymcnerney.org/

Note: In 2006, Congressman McNerney made congressional history when he became the only candidate in California to beat an incumbent and the only candidate in the United States to defeat a sitting House committee chairman. He is now serving his first term in the House of Representatives.

Ranked as the #2 incumbent race in the nation and the #2 target for removal by the NRCC, shadowy Republican-controlled groups have already begun flooding the airwaves in his district with misleading and false attack ads. His race is expected to be one of the most competitive congressional races for 2008.

Take a swing, please contribute NOW to Jerry's re-election.

Here: http://jerrymcnerney.org/

I have requested over and over again for well over 2 years to get the DNC to place the Sierra Star on it's media list. The media outreach folks at the DNC just don't seem to get the picture about the rural high Sierras in California and our ultra right-wingers in the gerrymandered districts.

Please contact the DNC ask them to place the Sierra Star on their media list and at the DNC partybuilder.

HERE: http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

The Sierra Star
49165 Crane Valley Rd [426] | PO Box 305 |
Oakhurst, CA 93644-8621
Phone (559) 683-4464 | Fax (559) 683-8102
www.sierrastar.com
Member:
California Newspaper Publishers Association
National Newspaper Association

btw, My Congressman's DC nickname is Yosemite Sam. He would like to see Yosemite and every other National park sold off to the highest corporate bidder. These days that would be China. How else are the Republicans going to pay off the National Debit they created but to sell off these great National treasures and our public lands piece by piece.

http://www.house.gov/radanovich/Biograph...

Radanovich's Congressional Committees:

Energy and Commerce

Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection
Subcommittee on the Environment and Hazardous Materials
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet

Radanovich's Leadership Positions:

Co-Chair of the Water Caucus
Co-Chair of the Congressional Wine Caucus
Co-Chair of the Congressional Croatian Caucus
Former Chairman of Water and Power Subcommittee
Member of NEPA (National Environment Policy Act) Task Force
Member of HEAT (House Energy Action Team)

3:08 PM EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ag3NzXZRznNI

Democratic National Committee Endorses Michigan Plan for Revote

By Christopher Stern and Lorraine Woellert

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic National Committee endorsed a proposal to hold a privately financed Democratic presidential primary in June, saying it is consistent with party bylaws.

Still, the revote faces hurdles. It must be approved by the end of the week by the Michigan legislature, which is slated to go on a two-week recess beginning as early as tomorrow. In addition, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are split over the proposal, with Obama resisting a revote and Clinton endorsing the idea.

...

seashell wrote "Today's war and more war speech...what can I say?  It boggles the mind."

Despite the tedium, I'll ask again if Obama's positions strike you as different in any substantive way from the views expressed by Al Gore or Howard Dean as presidential candidates, please explain how. 

HURON JOHN.......

Please tell me if this is indisputable. The quote has appeared here before.

At a meeting on the Patriot Act, in the WH, in answer to his aide, Bush told him to "stop throwing the Constitution in his face. It was nothing but a G D piece of paper".

Michael Hampton, homelandstupidity.com says that three people present at the meeting have verified that is what Bush said. 12/9-16/05.

If true, Bush makes Pastor Wrights comment sound like a love poem in comparison.

new thread

3:27 AM EST

Obama speech today on Iraq and McCain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf-s6nYWnR8

When is the best time to believe the Clinton campaign, before or now? Here is what John McCormick reported in The Swamp at the Washington Post on October 9, 2007:

"Clinton . .  is not expected to ask to have her name removed from the [Michigan] ballot.

"'We're honoring the pledge and we won't campaign or spend money in states that aren't in compliance with the DNC calendar,' Clinton spokesman Jay Carson told The Associated Press. 'We don't think it's necessary to remove ourselves from the ballot.'"

Here's Marie Horrigan reporting today in CQ Politics:

"Clinton said Wednesday that her participation in the Michigan primary underscores her dedication to voting rights. . . .

“'When others made the decision to remove their names from the ballot, I didn’t, because I believe your voices and your votes should count,' Clinton continued."

new thread

audrey - 'tis true - he did say that, a few years ago - our pResident has no respect for the Constitution.

worst

pResident

ever!

Know our history...

Why doesn't the Democratic Party still celebrate Andrew Jackson? He was a real jackass.

Manifest Destiny

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_De...

...Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean; it has also been used to advocate for or justify other territorial acquisitions. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny"). Originally a political catch phrase of the 19th century, "Manifest Destiny" eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the expansion of the United States across the North American continent.

The term was first used primarily by Jacksonian Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States (the Oregon Territory, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican Cession). It was revived in the 1890s, this time with Republican supporters, as a theoretical justification for U.S. expansion outside of North America. The term fell out of usage by U.S. policy makers early in the 20th century, but some commentators believe that aspects of Manifest Destiny, particularly the belief in an American "mission" to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, continued to have an influence on American political ideology. ...

...Manifest Destiny was always a general notion rather than a specific policy. The term combined a belief in expansionism with other popular ideas of the era, including American exceptionalism, Romantic nationalism, and a belief in the natural superiority of what was then called the "Anglo-Saxon race," i.e., whites of English heritage. While many writers focus primarily upon American expansionism when discussing Manifest Destiny, others see in the term a broader expression of a belief in America's "mission" in the world, which has meant different things to different people over the years. This variety of possible meanings was summed up by Ernest Lee Tuveson, who wrote:

A vast complex of ideas, policies, and actions is comprehended under the phrase 'Manifest Destiny'. They are not, as we should expect, all compatible, nor do they come from any one source.

The concept of Manifest Destiny has acquired a variety of meanings over the years, and its inherent ambiguity has been part of its power. In the generic political sense, however, it was usually used to refer to the idea that the American government was "destined" to establish uninterrupted political authority across the entire North American continent, from one ocean to the other.

Origin

The phrase was coined in 1845 by journalist John L. O'Sullivan, then an influential advocate for the Democratic Party. In an essay entitled "Annexation" published in the Democratic Review, O'Sullivan urged the United States to annex the Republic of Texas, not only because Texas desired this, but because it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". Amid much controversy, Texas was annexed shortly thereafter, but O'Sullivan's first usage of the phrase "Manifest Destiny" attracted little attention.

O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. On December 27, 1845 in his newspaper the New York Morning News, O'Sullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Great Britain in the Oregon Country. O'Sullivan argued that the United States had the right to claim "the whole of Oregon":

And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.


John L. O'Sullivan, sketched in 1874, was an influential columnist as a young man, but is now generally remembered only for his use of the phrase "Manifest Destiny" to advocate the annexation of Texas and Oregon.That is, O'Sullivan believed that God ("Providence") had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy ("the great experiment of liberty") throughout North America. Because Britain would not use Oregon for the purposes of spreading democracy, thought O'Sullivan, British claims to the territory should be overruled. O'Sullivan believed that Manifest Destiny was a moral ideal (a "higher law") that superseded other considerations.

O'Sullivan's original conception of Manifest Destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force. He believed that the expansion of the United States would happen without the direction of the U.S. government or the involvement of the military. After "Anglo-Saxons" emigrated to new regions, they would set up new democratic governments, and then seek admission to the United States, as Texas had done. In 1845, O'Sullivan predicted that California would follow this pattern next, and that Canada would eventually request annexation as well. He disapproved of the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, although he came to believe that the outcome would be beneficial to both countries.

O'Sullivan did not originate the idea of Manifest Destiny: while his phrase provided a useful label for sentiments which had become particularly popular during the 1840s, the ideas themselves were not new.

Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by Whig opponents of the Polk administration. On January 3, 1846, Representative Robert Winthrop ridiculed the concept in Congress, saying "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation." Winthrop was the first in a long line of critics who suggested that advocates of Manifest Destiny were citing "Divine Providence" for justification of actions that were motivated by chauvinism and self-interest. Despite this criticism, expansionists embraced the phrase, which caught on so quickly that its origin was soon forgotten. O'Sullivan died in obscurity in 1895, just as his phrase was being revived. In 1927, a historian determined that the phrase had originated with him.

Although the phrase "manifest destiny" did not originate until 1845, Benjamin Franklin wrote of the expansion of the United States in 1767:

“ America, an immense territory, favored by nature with all advantages of climate, soil, great navigable rivers and lakes, must become a great country, populous and mighty; and will, in a less time than is generally conceived, be able to shake off shackles that may be imposed on her and perhaps place them on the imposers.�

Themes and influences

Historian Beshoy Shaker has noted that three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of Manifest Destiny:

the virtue of the American people and their institutions;
the mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the U.S.; and
the destiny under God to accomplish this work.[9]
The origin of the first theme, later known as American Exceptionalism, was often traced to America's Puritan heritage, particularly John Winthrop's famous "City upon a Hill" sermon of 1630, in which he called for the establishment of a virtuous community that would be a shining example to the Old World. In his influential 1776 pamphlet Common Sense, Thomas Paine echoed this notion, arguing that the American Revolution provided an opportunity to create a new, better society:

We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand...

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Learn Your Lessons Well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQnkKhHB1...

Jo in VT.....

Sorry, I just saw your post. so, then why wouldn't it be a good idea to write and call the talk shows and ask them if they thought that wasn't a horrible thing for a pres. to say, and why aren't they blasting that on the air all day instead of the tape of pastor?