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Old News worth thinking about!
Have you ever heard of General Smedley D Butler? or The Business Plot? or how about Prescott Bush? If not you may want to check it out. I posted a web link if it works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
(Editor's Note: Here is a little from that Wikipedia article: -- Danny, Communications Director
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye," was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
During his 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal (the highest Marine medal at its time for officers), and subsequently the Medal of Honor twice. Notably, he is one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, and one of only three to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two different actions.
In addition to his military career, Smedley Butler was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book War is a Racket. His book was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex and after retiring from service, he became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.
In 1934, he informed the United States Congress that a group of wealthy industrialists had plotted a military coup known as the Business Plot to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.)
Pat,
You bet they would.
Not that i am exactly an "activist" Dem, but I have said for months that should Clinton somehow steal this election, and it would have to be stolen, that I would vote for her in Nov. but no longer as a Dem, but as a new Greenie.
- Howard is First!! Puddle thanks for that super pic of him last thread :) :)
By Denise in San Mateo County on Apr 30, 2008 6:10 PM EDT
I use a clean and simple Internet Explorer 7, few addons, and about the only problem I have is occasionally having to log on multiple times. I wouldn't change it for anything else as it always works well for me on any website.
I know this is basic stuff, but when you have problems with this new program, it may help to reboot not only the computer but the DSL modem at the same time.
Dean and Obama is first. Rev. Wright is last (poor pathetic soul)
just a drive-by. On my way to Homedepot with my mask* Still trying to get a patio antenna ready for whatever the OTA (over-the-air) TV digital revolution gives me next February, and distributing it between two TVs in my apt. Got a converter box coming next week.
Like that scapegoating thread. It is a worn out excuse, and the jig is up.
*I have a sever case of MCS.
My two super delegates just went for Obama (DNC and Congressman) in the last couple of days and it was interesting that it happened during the Rev.Wright eruption. the lunch table talk at the convention was that how Clinton would be diminished by this next week and here is why. If she wins Indiana (and I now expect her to by a couple of points) it will be because of the rantings of Wright and the media storm and Obama will have lost those points, she didn't "win" them fair and square.
So the super delegates go back to looking at who has the money and national support to take change to McCain and America, and that is Obama, and it doesn't matter whether he wins or loses Indiana. Rev. Wright will be a tired story by November.
FEC reporting period ends at midnight and you can all be super delegates by kicking in.
Most of Barack Obama’s supporters say they would be satisfied if Hillary Clinton wins the party’s nomination for president.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/poll-obama-clinton-divide/
What world are they polling in????
60% is not MOST either.
I would be unsatisfied, not to mention extremely unhappy with the Dem Party and would certainly leave the party.
Perhaps that is what the NYT is hope for, the crash of the Dem Party.
I much prefer Obama to either of the other 2, but ignoring the weaknesses in his campaign won't get him elected.
"Denial is not a river in Egypt'
Well, the news programs all had a thing about the gas tax and no experts supporting it. Obama says someone might save thirty bucks over the summer. Expert says, not so. If more people drive more, the oil companies will just raise the price and the only one left dangling will be the highway department.
ABC did run a story about the company in Indiana that got moved to China and how, while she says it's all George's fault, it was actually sold off in 1995 over national security people's objections, 'cause Bill approved.
Now, if we could just get some coverage of Monsanto, that would be good.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/83890/
I posted this link with an excerpt a coupla days ago, but considering the Obama hagriographers' venom toward anything negative, it bears repeating:
The corporate state is our shadow government. Candidates who aspire to higher office get corporate money if they promote corporate interests. They are shut out of the national debate -- look at Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader -- if they do not. Defy the corporate state and you get handed a ticket to oblivion. You become invisible. Work for it and you are showered with tens of millions of dollars and the possibility of political power.
Barack Obama's campaign message, filled with lofty promises of change and hope, is also filled with repeated reassurances to the corporate elite. Pick up a copy of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." The subtext is clear. It is a steady reminder to corporate America, a reminder bolstered by Obama's voting record, that corporations would have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/83890/
- Obama had the most liberal voting record in the Senate in 2006.
By Sitka on Apr 30, 2008 9:26 PM EDTBut that doesn't keep some from making, and others perhaps believing, an unsupported characterization of him as a corporatist.
It was same with Dean.
WITT: Okay. He said it. A 20-year relationship. Reverend wright married him. He is the one who baptized a god parent. How personally painful is this for him?
KERRY: Can I say something to you? Obviously it is painful and he said it. You folks need to let go of this. Television needs to stop dwelling on something that is in the past. I thought Barack Obama yesterday gave America his second big presidential moment of this campaign. The first when he spoke out about the issue of race. The second yesterday, when he made it clear, every one of the statements of the minister are just unacceptable. They're not the person that he knew before. Now let's move on to how we'll put people to work. How are you going to give people health care? How are you going to create jobs in america? What Barack Obama is offering in this gas price issue is real leadership. I mean, do we want people who sort of put their fingers in the wind and throw out an idea for the short term that is sort of politically pleasing, or do you want a here who stands up and says, no, what we need is to really lower gas prices by having a real energy policy, an intelligent policy that puts in place the incentives for renewable fuels and alternative fuels. That's what Barack Obama is doing. And it is you guys have to focus on the thing that really matter to the American electorate. The other thing is just worn out, old history now. This guy had his narcissistic moment and it is finished.
WITT: Okay. Point well taken. Did I say to begin, can I just say, sir, I knew you weren't going to like that question. On the record.
KERRY: Let's move on to the thing that really matter to people. I think people in America are tired of this stuff.
WITT: Okay.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/#83995
Barack Obama's campaign made a promise before this weekend's appearance. They said he would "take Fox on" – inspiring hope among those who watched Bill Clinton in 2006, Chris Dodd in 2007, and progressive activist Lee Camp in 2008 delegitimize FOX on the air. But Obama didn't do that, and he suffered as a result.
The interview began with a question about Obama's race – implying that white people won’t vote for him. Instead of “taking FOX on” and saying FOX’s questions are premised on Republican talking points, Obama simply answered.
FOX also asked a bunch of questions aimed at getting Obama to distance himself from Democrats and progressives. Because Obama didn't "take on" the Republican framing of these questions, Obama was cornered into saying things like, "I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea [than Democrats]" and parroting the right-wing caricature of "Chablis-drinking limousine liberals" and boasting about being "fiercely attacked" by bloggers at Daily Kos.
Enough. Democratic politicians, for your own benefit: stop legitimizing FOX.
Fve more Democratic superdelegates have made their choices so far today, with Sen. Barack Obama getting three and Sen. Hillary Clinton getting two.
By our count -- and it's not always easy to count -- Obama snagged 41 since the Ohio and Texas primaries, while Clinton won the support of 10.
Even since losing the Pennsylvania primary, Obama leads the superdelegate battle by picking up 10, while Clinton picked up 6.
The latest count from NBC News gives Clinton the overall superdelegate lead over Obama, 268 to 247, with 280 still uncommitted.
Just out of curiosity, Huron John, did you read The Audacity of Hope? Or do you just post those excerpts that agree with your mindset?
"Barack Obama's campaign message, filled with lofty promises of change and hope, is also filled with repeated reassurances to the corporate elite. Pick up a copy of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." The subtext is clear. It is a steady reminder to corporate America, a reminder bolstered by Obama's voting record, that corporations would have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency."
My husband and I did read The Audacity of Hope and we discussed it for days, and no, it wasn't filled with a subtext that corporations would have nothing to fear from Obama. Instead it was about process largely and how to make a workable government. Corporations are a fact of our very survival.
What if supermarkets, who carry stock for about a week, were to run out of food? What if the gas stations had no gas? What if the, you name it, corporate and public entities shut down? You would have chaos. The idea that we can punish corporations, hold them at bay makes no sense. Obama speaks of demonstrates a problem solving methodology where all perspectives are examined and represented.
Clinton, McCain, and probably most of Congress are in the old paradigm of enemies and friends, alliances, and adversaries. Haven't we had about enough of that since WWII? Didn't Vietnam teach us anything. That same mindset has another war ship in the Persian Gulf, is holding us in Iraq.
Well, I'm preaching to myself, I guess, but Huron John, I don't think you have a clue about Barack Obama, and I don't know how you'll get one if you haven't by now.
Grump!
By the way, Joan, your perception of the Edwards is very similar to mine. I saw them both as fatuous.
I keep repeating that I prefer Obama to the other two. That doesn't mean I have any illusions about him.
He's no FDR!
http://www.progressive.org/mag_reed0508
I’ve never been an Obama supporter. I’ve known him since the very beginning of his political career, which was his campaign for the seat in my state senate district in Chicago. He struck me then as a vacuous opportunist, a good performer with an ear for how to make white liberals like him. I argued at the time that his fundamental political center of gravity, beneath an empty rhetoric of hope and change and new directions, is neoliberal.
His political repertoire has always included the repugnant stratagem of using connection with black audiences in exactly the same way Bill Clinton did—i.e., getting props both for emoting with the black crowd and talking through them to affirm a victim-blaming “tough love” message that focuses on alleged behavioral pathologies in poor black communities. Because he’s able to claim racial insider standing, he actually goes beyond Clinton and rehearses the scurrilous and ridiculous sort of narrative Bill Cosby has made infamous.
The Obama campaign has even put out a misleading bio of Michelle Obama, representing her as having grown up in poverty on the South Side, when, in fact, her parents were city workers, and her father was a Daley machine precinct captain.
I’m hardly a Clinton fan. I’m on record in last November’s issue as saying that I’d rather sit out the election entirely than vote for either her or Obama. At this point, though, I’ve decided that she’s the lesser evil in the Democratic race, for the following reasons: 1) Obama’s empty claims to being a candidate of progressive change and to embodying a “movement” that exists only as a brand will dissolve into disillusionment in either a failed campaign against McCain or an Obama Presidency that continues the politics he’s practiced his entire career; 2) his horribly opportunistic approach to the issues bearing on inequality—in which he tosses behaviorist rhetoric to the right and little more than calls to celebrate his success to blacks—stands to pollute debate about racial injustice whether he wins or loses the Presidency; 3) he can’t beat McCain in November.
Frankly, I suspect that Clinton can’t beat him either, but there’s no way that Obama will carry most of the states in November that he’s won in the primaries and caucuses. And, while it makes some liberals feel good to think that a majority of the American electorate could vote for a black Presidential candidate, we should keep in mind that the Republicans haven’t let one dog out of the kennel against him yet. The Jeremiah Wright contretemps is only the first bark.
- NBC/WSJ poll: Bush — not Wright or Bill Clinton — is voters' main concern
By Karen on Apr 30, 2008 7:40 PM EDTIn the survey, 43 percent of registered voters say they have major concerns that McCain is too closely aligned with the current administration.
the Rockridge Institute in Berkeley has shut down due to a lack of funding apparently.
However there's an excellent piece(my opinion of course) from them on what Obama
will and will not be able to achieve in the white house and most importantly(my opinion
again)... why.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/043008D.shtml
ok, yes, i went to a rally here in winston-salem.
actually, my daughter becky and i volunteered
all day and helped with prepping attendee's with
security ( metal detectors )
we were exhausted but thrilled at the same time.
it is a different story when the secret service is involved
and we were kept outside the building from our arrival
of 8/15 am till about 9/45am so they could 'sweep' the bldg.
we were promised good seats after AND we got em'!
directly after the 'town hall mtg'...this is when barack went backstage and
held this important news conference...........he did seem rather down during
the appearance with us, but as a person that was following his campaign
very closely, I knew he was stressed.
He is one amazing guy !
he is very popular here!
annNC4DEAN
Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. No Michelle Obama didn't grow up poor, and for that matter neither did Barack.
The old motto of the Mountain-Ear newspaper was "You see what you want to see; you hear what you want to hear"
I think your comments illustrate that. He's not vacuous, and you're complaining about eloquence after Bush?!!
Well, time to eat and watch Keith. I'm glad for the dialogue.
and a short piece by Sirota on the latest Clinton trade hypocrisy....
http://action.credomobile.com/sirota/2008/04/abc_digs_into_clinton_trade_hy.html
Michelle on at 10 pm:
<http: />
April 30, 2008
360° Interview with Michelle Obama on Wright controversy
Posted: 10:54 AM ET
Hey Bloggers,
Just wanted to let you guys know about our program tonight:
AC360° will have the first primetime sit-down interview with Michelle Obama, wife of Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.
We’ll talk about how the re-ignited Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy is affecting the family, her husband’s campaign,
...
nothing like being passed over as not being a worth opponent -- the RNCC ignores Hillary:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080430/pl_politico/9964
GOP gives Clinton the silent treatment
Jonathan Martin
Wed Apr 30, 5:35 AM ET
Hillary Clinton's decisive Pennsylvania primary win last week may have reinvigorated her campaign, but you wouldn't know it from listening to the Republican party.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has purchased $500,000 in anti-Barack Obama ads for use in two upcoming special House elections. The Republican National Committee is flooding reporters with anti-Obama emails. Presumptive nominee John McCain and GOP surrogates have seized on new remarks by Obama's controversial former pastor.
From top to bottom, from McCain down to the youthful campaign and party staffers who work nearly around the clock to get him elected, the working assumption seems to be that the Democratic contest is over and Obama has won.
Even when Clinton attacks McCain, President Bush or GOP policies, the response is either outright silence or snarky, dismissive ridicule about a failed campaign barely relevant enough to merit a response.
"With ads like that, it's more likely the call at 3 a.m. is 'Senator, you just lost another superdelegate,'" quipped McCain adviser Steve Schmidt earlier this month when Clinton aired a version of her "3 a.m." ad attacking McCain on the economy.
...
typo - passed over as not being a worth opponent -- the RNCC ignores Hillary:
s/b - passed over as not being a worthy opponent -- the NRCC ignores Hillary:
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By Pat in Colorado on Apr 30, 2008 6:05 PM EDTQuick late afternoon hello,
I was thinking, if Clinton should somehow snatch the nomination, I'd be willing to bet that a good portion of the activist Democrats will leave the party. If that should happen, we will likely only vote and work for local candidates.
It's interesting to see this from a distance, and if I wasn't so fearful and sad for my country and its ideals, I might be more objective. What does it take to dislodge entrenched power?
As far as Barack Obama and the Glen Ford article and Puddle's observations, Puddle you seem right on to me. Prejudcie is not just a white middle class phenomenon. We saw it in China, in American Samoa, and all over this country. It's astonishing really, how easy it is for humans to label one group or another. Maybe it goes back to our good old cave days when we married within the tribe, and anyone outside the tribe was considered dangerous.
It takes a long time to overcome that reptillian brain.
Anyway, good wishes and lots of hope that we'll be wise enough to elect Obama.