Democrats who attack John McCain are first--that includes Howard Dean, but not many others!

9:39 AM EDT

Nice comment, Huron John.

9:50 AM EDT

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/wane/TP9BNTNN69J801OP0

IN GOP's response to Obama's attacks on Sen. McCain in FWIndiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark's statement on Barack Obama's attacks on Sen. McCain ... 

Comments

Showing posts 1 - 7 of 7 hopeful08San Jose, CA Reply » |Report Abuse |#1 14 hrs agoSome people still say they don't know who Obama is, so here goes:
1. Eight year record in IL senate http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/07/29/...

2. His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These included:
**the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 (became law),
**The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act,(became law),
**The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate,
**The 2007 Government Ethics Bill,(became law),
**The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill,(In committee), and many more.

3. Republican endorsements
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/u...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/convictions/... endorsement

4. Obama, only candidate who was successful at passing a healthcare reform (in Illinois). In 2003, he passed a bill that offered health-care coverage to an additional 150,000 people but only after an attempt to push a bigger, universal health-care proposal stalled.

5. On the Iraq war, Obama's 2002 NO-HOLDS-BARRED Iraq speech risked his run-for-the-Senate WHILE the wise Democrats of Congress, fearing to look weak, voted as a group for the war resolution.
http://www.digg.com/politics/Full_text_of_Bar...

6. In Aug 2006, Obama took criticism from both parties, for his vocal case for attacking terrorists in Pakistan. They said he was endangering our only ally Musharraf. Obama: "Let me make this clear: There are terrorists holed up in those mountains, that murdered 3,000 Americans,...If we have actionable intelligence about high-valued terrorist targets and if President Musharraf will not act, we will."
In December Bhutto was assassinated by terrorists and in January the Washington Post reported that in late January, a CIA aircraft fired on several buildings in the Pakistani town of Mir Ali, killing a senior al-Qaida commander and several others. The paper, quoting anonymous U.S. officials, said that the action was done without seeking approval from the Pakistani government. In February, Musharraf was voted out of power; US has spent $11B trying to prop. up Musharraf.

7. Obama took a stand on talking with our enemies with preparation but without pre-conditions, aka Nixon and Reagan who were also criticized in their time for opening up relations with China and the Soviet Union, respectively.

8. In February '08, senior Democrats that have worked closely with both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are endorsing Obama. Russ Feingold expressed high regard for New York Senator Hillary Clinton, with whom he has clashed in the past. But he spoke at great length about having worked with Obama on ethics legislation in the Senate, and hailed the Illinois senator's ability to judge people and hold firm against pressure from interest groups and party insiders. Chris Dodd says "I believe that Barack Obama has the experience, the ability the vision to lead this country, to make a difference both at home and abroad"

9. Obama is building a bi-partisan, deep bench of foreign policy advisers, including several ex-Clinton advisors: former national security adviser Tony Lake, former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig and Susan Rice, who was assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Obama's chief foreign policy adviser on the campaign is Dennis McDonough, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Roberto LoaMiami, FL Reply » |Report Abuse |#2 14 hrs agoI would like to know if Mr. Obama is Muslim, and what is his position of his pastor's commentary about the hate to the United States of America. Also, I think that he hates to our country because he did not want to contradict
to his pastor, and he has his formation. Roberto LoaMiami, FL Reply » |Report Abuse |#3 14 hrs agoI wrote my comment one minute ago AlexUnited States Reply » |Report Abuse |#4 13 hrs agoMurray Clark is illinformed. How Obama mischaracterize John McCain's words? Obama has already declared his position on the war on numerous occasions. Maybe Mr. Clark wasn't paying attention. How about we have the Straight Talk Express explain how the "war on terror" was a better choice for securing America than capturing Bin Laden in Afghanistan. phyllisYuma, AZ Reply » |Report Abuse |#5 12 hrs agoI beleive Obama has every right to go after McSame the way he is doing. He should go after him being the same as Bush. That is what we get with McCain in the White House. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer if he gets in the White House. All the power to Obama to bring all these points out. valerieReply » |Report Abuse |#6 12 hrs ago

Roberto Loa wrote: I would like to know if Mr. Obama is Muslim, and what is his position of his pastor's commentary about the hate to the United States of America. Also, I think that he hates to our country because he did not want to contradict
to his pastor, and he has his formation.

Sure, I'll answer your question. But first, I'd like to know whether you have a brain. No? Well, then there's no point in trying to answer your stupid, illiterate, racist, question. ...

10:03 AM EDT

http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/missoula

...

Rally with Barack Obama

The Adams Center
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812

Saturday, April 5, 2008
Doors open: 8:00 a.m.
Program begins: 10:00 a.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

...

10:21 AM EDT

http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080405/NEWS06/80405001

Dave Matthews hopes concert will inspire voters to support Obama

 

By EMILY UDELL
Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —

...

The 41-year-old singer, who is scheduled to perform Sunday in Bloomington with guitarist Tim Reynolds, said he is talking to the Illinois senator about participating in further events targeting young voters after this weekend’s debut concert for the campaign.

...

Matthews, who was born in South Africa and spent time living England during his childhood, said he admires Clinton but supports Obama because he inspires Americans to take part in the political process and agrees with many of the presidential hopeful’s policies.

“Having grown up a Quaker, his view of the war is one that I share,” he said. “It will go down as one of the country’s biggest blunders.”

...

Kevin Griffis, a spokesman for Obama’s campaign in Indiana, said 13,500 tickets for the concert at Indiana University’s Assembly Hall were handed out on Thursday by staffers in Bloomington, Indianapolis and Lafayette.

Other Obama efforts to build buzz among younger voters in Indiana include the chance for high school and college students — after registering enough new voters for the May 6 primary — to play basketball with the senator.

let's not forget too quickly 

10:25 AM EDT

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/05/group_wants_clinton_strategist_ousted/1957/

Group wants Clinton strategist ousted
Published: April 5, 2008 at 10:13 AMWASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- A coalition of unions backing Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama is calling on rival Hillary Clinton to fire one of her advisers, the group said.

The group, Change to Win, says Mark Penn should be removed from Clinton's campaign team for meeting with the Colombian ambassador about a trade agreement that is opposed by many Senate Democrats, The Hill reported.

The newspaper said Penn met with the ambassador in his capacity as head of the lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller Worldwide.

"It's time for Senator Hillary Clinton to send her vaunted 'chief strategist' Mark Penn packing - back to his job consulting for union-busting corporations and anti-labor governments for good," Greg Tarpinian, executive director of Change to Win, said in a statement.

...

34.

Monica Smith
Sat, 04/05/08


...one problem we have is that there are two economies: the real one and the fiction.

The fiction is something that's created by economists. For some reason, although they measure real events and real quantities, economists are social scientists, always trying to figure out how people's behavior can be changed to fit their models of the ideal economy--a regular, regulatable system.

The economy is dynamic (always changing) and their models are static (based on a snapshot of a moment in time). It's almost as if they like recessions because they've been successful in putting a brake on the economy.
-------------

Monica, while discussing "regulatable" economy it would be nice to clarify "regulatable" BY WHOM?

...one problem we have is that the economy people ever lived in has never been "regulated" by themselves, by the People, (besides, of course, "regulation" by theirs representatives, e.g. by those who steals..., lol).

Funny, I found the Bush video because I didn't know how to spell Ahmadinejad's name.  Have you seen this one?

i'm sorry, former, i meant to specify that economists aim to regulate what they presume to study.  Unlike, mathematicians or biologists, for example, who try to arrive at objective knowlege.

P M CARPENTER ON MC SAME

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/carpenter/034

And now comes Senator John McCain: "acknowledging that 'many Americans are hurting,' [he] said that lower taxes and less regulation would generate jobs."

That poor man. He's been reading his Hoover again, and quite obviously he hasn't yet made it to the last chapter to see how things turned out.

What an absolutely lethal and stupendously unpragmatic political approach. The good news, however, is that it's also the only one he can take, because he's as boxed in as he can get.

Senator Barack Obama, on the other hand, is free to run the field with, for instance, massive jobs-creating programs that address long-unattended problems such as our crumbling infrastructure, paid for with McCain's Iraq-war money.

In short, not since Roosevelt's reign has a presidential election been this far in the bag for Democrats. Their only problem? -- the only snag that could alter Herbert McCain's final chapter?

They're Democrats, and they're acting like it.

10:36AM

10:40 AM EDT

in Big Sky Montana:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/04/05/bnews//br21.txt

By GWEN FLORIO of the Missoulian

Jeff Lasher and his friends had a great idea as they were winding up their Friday night.

“Somebody said, 'Hey, let’s go camp out for Obama.’ ”

...
By 7 a.m., Lasher had plenty of company, with the line stretching across the parking lot and down Arthur Avenue.

The doors opened to the Adams Center, decorated with a Big Sky Obama sign, at 8 a.m.

People who had obtained their tickets on the Web - tickets identifying the event as being held in Missoula, PA n took the tiered seats, but Lasher and his mom Betty, of Sheridan, had gold tickets they got in Obama’s campaign office and so stood front-and-center on the floor.

“It pays to have a son like this,” said Betty Lasher, who arrived in Missoula at 7.

Both mother and son are Obama supporters.

“He’s brilliant,” Betty Lasher said. “He’s well-spoken and he’s addressing needs I think have to be addressed, like race. That’s a priority.”

About 7,500 tickets were distributed for the Obama campaign rally, set to begin at 10 a.m. In addition, UM was opening Washington-Grizzly Stadium for anyone arriving without tickets. An audio, and possibly video, feed will bring the rally into the stadium....

rae - I enjoyed your Buzzwinkle story. RIP, Buzzwinkle.

---------
17,000 in North Dakota to see Barack.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4...

One of the few clever remarks I've heard from Katie Couric concerns a memory peg on how to pronounce Ahmadinejad's name:

"I'm a dinner jacket"

10:49 am

rae hart I enjoyed the Buzzwinkle story and picture too -- I don't think it's so awful they used the meat to pull in the wolverines to radio collar them -- that seems like a useful use. RIP Buzzwinkle.

11.

Monica Smith
Sat, 04/05/08


...i meant to specify that economists aim to regulate what they presume to study. Unlike, mathematicians or biologists, for example, who try to arrive at objective knowlege.
------------------

These are “wrong” economists..., there are “right” ones though...who do try to arrive at (and departure from) “objective knowledge”...lol.

Dave Matthews Band - Everyday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMBgSfQI4...

Bill Clinton, Ron Burkle and 15MM.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/04...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may have heard that the Equal Rights Amendment is on the move through the Florida legislature again and was just passed out of a Senate Committee.  Looking for the latest information, I came to realize that the acronymn (ERA) is unfortunate since it applies to both a national real estate association and a significant baseball stat.  Anyway, in the process i found this column by a black Republican.  I think it's worth reading the whole thing.  Republicans are committed to the proposition that some people are valuable and others are not.  Since their main criterion for making the determination is who "fits" and who doesn't is whether or not the person is obedient to social strictures, there's nothing to prevent them from being perceived as democratic--i.e. everybody's welcome as long as they behave themselves.

 

THE POLITICS OF BLACKNESS: Take me as I am or leave me where you found me BY BARBARA HOWARD    “I hate Republicans.”

“Some of my best friends are Republicans. Ha! Ha!”

“How could you?’’ 

These are the kinds of comments I get from “friends” when they discover I’m a Republican. As if black and Democrat were synonymous.

It’s funny how people see what they want to see and ignore the rest. 

Even funnier is how the same black folk who want to vilify white folk for treating us as if we were all alike want to vilify those of us who dare to be different.

Last year, I received a Pioneer Award from the National Black Republican Association at the Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C. I stayed with a friend in Maryland for the weekend.

We had been friends for over 30 years. Yet she couldn’t resist ridiculing me in front of her friends each chance she got. Instead of praising me for the award, they wanted to demonize me.

One was even a soror. Yet being in the same sorority didn’t shield me from her venom about Republicans. 

[...] 

Sorry, forgot to include the link.

No, black does not mean democrat but it should not mean Republican either. Black should mean person!

 Thanks for the comments, though.

Speaking of infra-structure--The spouse attended a lecture on peak oil yesterday in which the speaker made the point that the oil industry has severely neglected the mainenance of their facilities--well casings, pipelines and processing plants have all been left to moulder.  The explanation seems to be that they got tax benefits or subsidies for exploration for new sources of oil, so they've wasted a lot of money doing that while the existing plants deteriorated.

Personally, I think using the tax code to manipulate behavior (control the economy) is a really bad idea. Taxes should be collected to pay for national and state programs, period.  

Ashcroft, the other day, said that homosexual couples shouldn't expect the same tax benefits as people who have a potential to produce the next generation (heterosexual couples).   Well, if you want to support the production and rearing of the next generation, you provide help to people who are doing it, regardless of their gender.  And you don't provide support on the basis of "potential."  You help the actual.

Again and again we end up being stymied by faulty logic.  If you want C, you don't go after D.  I mean, that's really simple.  If you want children to be well cared for, you don't help people who might have some; you help people who have some.

Aneka, if you were here more often, you'd know where I was coming from.  However, referring to a person by skin color is just inappropriate in all cases, even though a court in MA just decided that referring to a large black man as "a large black man" is not a racist statement.  We really should all try harder to identify other people by significant markers.  Skin color is totally superficial and tells us nothing about the person.  Perhaps we would all be better off if we focused on what people are DOING rather than on how they appear to us.  Appearances are deceiving.  lol

BTW, I mentioned Ahmadinejad's name up thread because it was in relation to his supposed claims about Israel that I first became aware of this pattern of taking the "enemy's" word for their intentions.  Of course, we eventually found out that Saddam Hussein's words were the only verifiable basis for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.  He said he wanted a nuclear bomb and so the US chose to act as if he did.  Where did that come from?  Why are we accepting the words of unreliable people for anything?

Why are we acting on the basis of wishful thinking instead of reality?  Why are we acting on the basis of predictions, rather than the present?  The past and present are subject to validation.  Why are we, as a nation, acting on the basis of the future--the only thing that can't be proved?  That's beyond scary; that's insane. 

Morning, folks.  Quick drive-by on my way out the door.  I hope that more people who were of age and involved in the civil rights movement would comment.  I've enjoyed reading the few remarks that have been made.  I was in middle school when he was killed so don't have a lot to offer as memories.

The Clinton tax returns.....no there, there.  Done. 

move on, folks. Stop obsessing over all things Clinton.  It's beginning to feel like a freeper blog.

Aneeka, thanks for speaking up. Come back, please.

ciao for now. 

I posted over at MYDD yesterday that the delegates in Fl an MI don't count cause they broke the rules and was warned by whoever that I WAS WARNED not to post stuff like that.

25.

Monica Smith
Sat, 04/05/08

… Saddam Hussein…said he wanted a nuclear bomb and so the US chose to act as if he did. Where did that come from? Why are we accepting the words of unreliable people for anything?
Why are we acting on the basis of wishful thinking instead of reality? Why are we acting on the basis of predictions, rather than the present? The past and present are subject to validation. Why are we, as a nation, acting on the basis of the future--the only thing that can't be proved? That's beyond scary; that's insane.
------------
Why? Because we can (like Clinton in Lywinsky case), that's simple...lol.

Hillary Healthcare Tall Tale Saga.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/5/1...

Good grief is about all I can manage this morning.

I'll stop posting anything anti-Hillary when she drops out. Until then - she's fair game.

mary vb I think the non-Obama supporters have left - at least for the time being.

April 5, 2008
A Town Under Fire Becomes a Symbol for Israel
By ETHAN BRONNER

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

Money is pouring into Sderot for bomb shelters and social services. Some shelters have been donated by evangelical Christians.

The New York Times

Sderot is heavily populated with Israeli minority groups.

SDEROT, Israel — This long neglected immigrant town a mile from Gaza, pounded by Palestinian rockets for the past seven years, is taking on a new identity, edging into the center of Zionist consciousness as a symbol of the nation’s unofficial motto: “Never Again.”

Like the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Sderot is now a must-see stop for those who support Israel or are being urged to do so....

“We printed T-shirts saying ‘Sderot Needs You.’ In one day, we raised $1 million,” said Helena Glaser, the group’s president, as she toured Sderot.

The other day, David W. Lentz of Livingston, N.J. was pounding the pavement here with fellow Israel advocates, looking for ways their community could help.

That same afternoon, a busload of Jewish fund-raisers were inspecting new care centers they had sponsored, passing some of the dozens of bomb shelters, some of them donated by evangelical Christians; a rabbi was going over plans for a $5 million seminary, financed mostly from abroad.

For people who live and work here, all the attention, especially from wealthy outsiders, can seem overwhelming. Several said they were unable to get anything done.

“It has gotten out of hand,” said Dror Marsha, the director of the local volunteer center. “It has become a trend — a good trend — but I can’t handle it. We have 1,000 volunteers a month now.” Two years ago, he said, the number was 200.

Among the projects donated by evangelical groups are some of the nearly 80 small shelters and bus stops that double as shelters as well as....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/world/middleeast/05sderot.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

rae ~~ I wasn't that unhappy with Buzzwinkle's ending: I was afraid he was going to end up stuffed in some store, with his antlers hung with Christmas lights.  Donating one's remains to science is an honorable end.  Hugz. . . . .

A Town Under Fire Becomes a Symbol for Israel  

...As much as Sderot is a symbol, it is also a kind of Rorschach test — a screen onto which various political factions project their hopes and fears. For the right, it is evidence that only force will stop the rockets; for the left it is evidence that force is not the answer and that the rockets cannot be stopped without a new approach.

One attempt at a new approach involves a group in Sderot that has started holding discussions with Palestinians in Gaza via speakerphone. The group, Another Voice, is urging a cease-fire. There is also a new blog, a discussion between a resident of Sderot and one of Gaza, both anonymous....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/world/middleeast/05sderot.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

new thread - who got you excited this election?