Mad Tales

Marian Robinson, "Grandma" to Malia and Sasha

2010-01-31T01:16:00.000-08:00

Rep. Grayson Calls For 'Corporate Death Penalty On Contractors' Who Rip Off Government

2009-09-26T16:34:00.001-07:00

This will go into my rep and senators "in box" on Monday morning. It's long, long overdue!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

NO PUBLIC OPTION = BILLION-DOLLAR TAXPAYER GIVEAWAY TO PRIVATE INSURERS

2009-08-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

If we do not get a public option, we will pay billions of dollars in subsidies to private insurers only. 80% of people with no health insurance work, and rightfully, they will get subsidies.

Wrongfully, all that subsidy money paid with your taxes will go to private insurers, and pay for not only health care, but also for:

. Salaries of $20-$25 million for private insurance CEOs

. Perks like private jets, bonuses, and stock shares often worth over $100 million for those CEOs

No government employee gets millions of dollars a year, and perks and stock shares worth over $100 million.

. Your firefighter, police, highway patrol do not make $25 million a year.

. Your congressmen don’t make $25 million a year.

. Your President of the United States does not make $25 million/year.

. Your Medicare, VA and Medicaid bureaucrats do not make $25 million/year.

Your tax dollars pay the salaries of all those people. None of them demand millions of dollars in salary, but they’re there when you need them.

Fighting to kill a public option means you are fighting to give billions of dollars to the same private insurance industry that has:

- Bankrupted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of families throughout the country

- Denied care and let hundreds of thousands of Americans die of preventable or controllable diseases in the past decade alone

If we are going to give up the public option in the name of “compromise” – though we have already compromised and given up single-payer health insurance like Medicare for all – then we are giving our tax dollars away so that private insurance big-wigs can live like fattened hogs.

If you won’t fight for the public option, prepare for the private insurers to make billions from your tax dollars. Getting a piece of those insurance companies is the only chance you have of not ending up broke and retiring in poverty. Because as a taxpayer, you can do absolutely nothing to control the wages of private corporate CEOs.

Democratic representatives and senators think they can bargain away the public option and stay in office. Can they?

- Will you vote for them?

- Will you give them your free labor by making phone calls, registering voters, knocking on doors to get them elected?

- Will you donate a single dime to them?

If you won’t, you have to tell them so. They expect zero consequences for giving away the public option, and giving away billions in tax dollars to private insurers only.

CNBC Host Mark Haines: Attention To Executive Pay Is "Getting Scary" (VIDEO)

2009-03-23T16:01:00.001-07:00

Burn up the phone lines at CNBC World (201) 735-4243, record your message to them.

Every single day, twice a day, more if you can. Do not allow them to go unanswered. No swearing, just voice your disgust. Tell them they are the ones destroying capitalism, they are the ones who get paid millions for destroying the system they need to survive. They should get rewarded by shares based on verifiable, not rumor-fed profits - no profits for the company, none for them. We all have to live by a merit system, no exceptions, least of all for brokers and CEOs who crippled the world economy. It's time we end the invest-to-get-rich scam that's left retirement accounts nearly empty, and go back to saving and earning dividends for intelligent value-added production instead of short-selling on manipulated stocks that profit insiders-only.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

In the Beginning, or How We Got Robbed

2009-03-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

I couldn't sleep well last night thinking of how we got cornered this way by the very banks bilking us more flagrantly than ever before.

I'm old enough to remember when regular working people were not invested in the stock market, 401k's and online trading accounts, for our retirement. We relied on social security and savings. The equity built up in a home if we could sacrifice enough to get one was our largest savings. Hopefully the house was paid off by retirement to either live in or sell when we could no longer earn income, but most hopefully to leave a house to our kids.

I remember in the Reagan-1980s, being a paralegal in a firm that set up private investment retirement accounts for small business owners. Thus it began.

Reagan and his crew decided the way to get people off the social security "dole" was to push everyone into getting their own 401k. Doctors' small practices were the first target - physicians are infamous for being clueless about investing, but they felt they needed investments to shelter their considerable pay from taxes. Reagan was trumpeting the claim that their tax dollars paid for Cadillacs for Welfare Queens, after all!

With the internet, and cable tv, the rush to get the least knowledgable and marginally-surviving people to invest in Wall St was on. Emails and glossy ads in our mailboxes, telling the average Joe and Mary - investing is so easy, you can get so rich, we have great "insider tips" for you - were as common as spam.

Where are those billions, probably trillions, invested in the 401k's that were supposed to insure our old age now? Well, they paid for those exorbitant salaries, those obscene bonuses, the "trust us" tv/radio/web ads, those conferences and corporate-named stadiums and every other "advertising" scheme ever devised by man.

Not a day goes by without ads pushing us to not save in a regular local savings account, but instead dump every dollar to invest. Workers whose wages were daily falling farther and farther behind the managers and big-wigs were scammed, pure and simple, out of the savings that could help them buy and keep a house, or to help a son or daughter make a down payment on their house.

I remember - before Reagan - not being able to get a credit card without having worked at least 3 years at one job, and unless I paid no more than 33% in housing costs from my wages or salary.

Then after Reagan scammed his way in, I remember the credit cards coming into the mailbox almost as fast as spam comes into the inbox.

As unions were busted, everyone was shucked and jived into making up the lost wages with credit cards, all while setting aside - often with employer matches especially in their own companies - their 10% of ever-diminishing-in-real-value wages into 401k investments, investments we didn't understand - often we didn't even know what we were invested in.

As long as we could feed these corporate-tapeworms their obscene wages and bonuses, perks and elite lifestyles, their "creative" means of squandering that money of ours and squirreling it away in overseas tax shelters grew, and grew.

When the wages inevitably became pitifully insufficient to pay living costs, never mind 401k's and credit cards, the housing bubble was the answer for the addicted corporate tapeworms. There weren't just the usual rope-a-dope infomercials, there were entire hour-long programs on network tv and cable about the glories of house-flipping, the utter casualness of "moving up" with a bigger, fancier house, in a more and more expensive area.

I watched the charade, and being only-human yearned to buy and flip. "Luckily" I was decimated w/disability thanks to lousy HMO care before I ever had the means. Even still, I was cajoled by my friend's brother, one of the seemingly millions of mortgage-brokers, who kept telling me I - get this - could become a mortgage broker with a mere $100 for a "license" and could quickly own and maintain a house in California on social security - no more than $15k/year - plus get my $1,000 commission for everyone I could hustle into getting a new mortgage through me.

I only resisted because I had a friend do the application through me after my friend's brother paid the $100 for me to be "licensed" to fill out mortgage apps, a pyramid-scheme that paid them bonuses for their bringing in more brokers, usually poverty-level, clueless "brokers" like me!

My friend had perfect credit, equity in one very very humble home she'd worked decades to pay off. What did the broker come back with? A high interest mortgage with a balloon. She wanted to take it to get me the $1,000 commission, because I was pretty much living in poverty, as I am now. Instead, I sent her to her realtor for the very-slightly-better home she was trying to purchase, who promptly came back with a lower-interest fixed mortgage. To me, the scam was crystal-clear then, and I never again tried to hustle a single client.

In sum, we got hustled to "invest" and rely on something other than or on top of social security decades ago. Without privatizing, the other-people's-money-addicted-tapeworm corporate scum hustled us out of decades of savings. With credit card offers like spam, and advertising paid for with our suckered 401k dollars, with the ads to push us to get another credit card, to get a "reliable broker" and invest every dime we didn't really have thanks to those credit cards, they stole the retirement money of millions of people.

Privatizing social security was the last gasp, to make it mandatory to put whatever we hoped to have when we couldn't work anymore into their gaping tapeworm mouths.

We keep asking for help from the very people who got rich screwing us. Congress, the Senate, bankers and brokers. I listened heartbroken to Washington Journal this morning while an elderly, disabled but not-quite retirement age woman talked of not being able to take what little was left of her 401k out without penalties and interest, while her humble house was getting foreclosed on. People too disabled and depressed and isolated to even find out they could qualify for a waiver to get their 401k's are literally suffering hunger, worrying their way into fatal heart attacks, while our "retirement" dollars feed tapeworms.

I watched all this, with no background whatsoever in finance, and begged and warned people to not think they were able to beat "The House" with a 401k, that it was nothing more than a gamble, that they could not possibly know where that market would be when they needed their retirement funds the most. I felt like Don Quixote against the windmill.

It wasn't until the tapeworms went after our last refuge and tried to privatize social security outright that people began to wake up and realize, "No matter how much I save (when they were really only investing/gambling, not "saving"), I have no safety net. No, don't privatize the only albeit insufficient safety net I have left - social security!"

What if, instead of waiting for rescue from all those invested in this worldwide Ponzi scheme, we all pulled our 401k's out, every dollar in the bank, ripped up every credit card and refused to pay another dime after banks were already paid back the principle - sometimes twice over? This is exactly what the tapeworms are trying to stop us from doing, with their threats to the ones who get voted in or out to back them up or else the elected ones will pay, not the tapeworms.

Yet think what would happen if we carry out our threat to make a run on the banks. How would paychecks get honored? The first thing they'd do is refuse to cash them. How would our bills get paid? How could we buy food? Every dollar we earn usually goes straight into direct deposit. We haven't had cash in our hands from our work in decades.

The thought of those banks leaving us that bereft is probably what's making BO's hair so white, so fast. He became our president in the worst of times. He has to save those thieving banks to save us. Damn.

Type rest of the post here

The Wingnut Revolution

2009-02-28T04:17:00.001-08:00

Bob Cesca, your best written and funniest posting in a while, and frighteningly informative, as I have enough health problems - watching Glen Beck would do me in. Thank you!
About Michele Bachmann
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Reid And Top Democrats Brush Off Obama On Earmarks

2009-02-26T03:41:00.001-08:00

Actually, Obama has said repeatedly he won't tolerate wasteful lobbyist-serving earmarks, so yes, they did know, and no, they didn't need a crystal ball. And as you can see from comments here, Obama's got the backup here, not Reid. I already wrote Reid at reid.senate.gov and told him so. I went to his state to register voters and GOTV for Obama, and I'll do it again to get rid of Reid, if needed. Feel free to do the same!
About President Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

MCCAIN IS WRONG ON FANNIE PAY

2008-09-20T22:11:00.001-07:00

On the campaign trail in Minnesota today, McCain incorrectly suggested that the executive pay that former Fannie Mae CEOs Frank Raines and Jim Johnson earned came from taxpayers.Why do neither McCain not Palin know that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were public companies with shareholders - before the government just socialized them with a bailout? How can those two help pull our economy out of China's banks (with interest), when they don't even know the structure of ownership of the biggest mortgage lenders in the U.S.? After all the trash-talking from ditto-heads calling Obama, of all things, a "socialist" - y'all eat those words, now! I have never seen such government takeover - socialism - of such loser loans from every loser in financial services until now. We keep hearing we can't "socialize" health care, yet you want to privatize medical care to corporate bottom-line bureaucrats, privatize even K-12 education and preschool, make state universities dependent on corporate grants, privatize retirement, and "socialize" friggin' debt - bad debt! No wonder so many fiscal conservative socially moderate Republicans are voting for Obama, and welcome to Sanity and Pragmatism - finally! Obama is a quick-study, he respects free markets and sensible regulation, and he'll make it a priority to keep people in their homes so the country doesn't tumble into Squatters Wars and Tent Cities in abandoned developments.No more oil men or oil women in the White House. Out with lobbyists and PACs, let the true experts and successful business people in again! Let us work on the cutting edge of science, technology and industry again and damn the speculation bubbles. We want to export quality solutions and products for the 21st century. We need Real Change.

read more | digg story

What Obama Should Say

2008-09-11T02:44:00.001-07:00

I will not apologize for saying the truth, even if it hurts McCain's and Palin's feelings. These past eight years, Americans have suffered a lot more than hurt feelings... This is a democracy -- not a monarchy. You don't get to demand "deference" from the American people as if they were your royal subjects

read more | digg story

Barack Obama's Plan to Support Working Women and Families

2008-09-06T13:42:00.001-07:00

I want Sasha and Malia and your daughters and sons to grow up in an America where both work and family are a part of the American Dream, and where that Dream is available to all. So I hope you look closely at the ideas in this booklet and let us know what you think. Together, we can change America. Sincerely, Barack Obama

read more | digg story

Lieberman 2006: "Barack is a blessing, a gift"

2008-09-02T23:17:00.001-07:00

Lieberman has certainly changed his tune. What a traitorous "friend" he is! No wonder Obama is so utterly done with him.

read more | digg story

Progressives and Obama: A Clash of Narratives

2008-08-18T16:17:00.001-07:00

Good critique by progressive writer and activist Norman Solomon, of how counterproductive it is for progressives to dismiss Obama and oppose his candidacy because he is not obeying their non-party line. I would add that neo-cons who don't trust McCain are not making the same mistake.

read more | digg story

The Truth About McCain's Swift Boat Economics

2008-08-18T15:56:00.001-07:00

There's no truth to Senator McCain's Swift boat ads on economics. In Swift boat country, there is no place for truth. McCain knows he can say anything he wants, regardless of how untrue it is, and his claim will be treated seriously by the media.

read more | digg story

Swift Boat Author Smears Self

2008-08-16T13:36:00.001-07:00

Buy Obama's Dreams from My Father in hardcover for everyone you know, now, and push the liar Corsi's book off No. 1 in hardcover bestsellers. The neocons are buying Corsi's book by the palette - in mass bulk - so let's not let that Corsi book be a reflection of what Americans like to read. Get yourself the iTunes audio book if you haven't yet - it won an Emmy for Obama's great and very personal reading!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Barack Obama - The Tide Is Turning

2008-07-25T03:11:00.001-07:00

This song from Roger Waters' 1987 album 'Radio KAOS' perfectly illustrates the both the dark age of the Bush administration, as well as the hope for a better future which Senator Obama brings to America and to the world. When Senator Obama delivered his historical Philadelphia address, this song instantly came to mind, so ...

read more | digg story

Bush + McCain v. Maliki + Obama

2008-07-23T05:34:00.001-07:00

Digg it, it's animated! You know you need a good laugh.

read more | digg story

Obama's Strategic Vision

2008-07-23T05:23:00.001-07:00

He has no military experience, but he outshines McCain in a more important area.

read more | digg story

Half Of McCain's Campaign Cash Came From 500 Bundlers

2008-07-17T02:53:00.001-07:00

Republican John McCain's elite fundraisers have helped collect more than half of his presidential campaign money, while Democratic rival Barack Obama has relied on his own top fundraisers for nearly one-fifth of his coffers, a USA TODAY analysis shows. Kindly remember that we only know who is bundling for whom because Obama pushed through the legislation to make it public information. Aren't you glad he did?

read more | digg story

The American Left: Dogmatic rhetoric is self-defeating

2008-07-14T04:18:00.001-07:00

Great article on the benefits of Obama's mantra to end the name-calling and accusatory style of politics that the Left has adopted to respond to the Right. Before our beloved Left goes ballistic, note this is from In These Times - a Left blog.

read more | digg story

My Plan for Iraq

2008-07-13T22:08:00.001-07:00

On my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

read more | digg story

Obama's New Radio Ad - MP3

2008-07-11T23:37:00.001-07:00

Text & MP3: Obama's new Radio Ad debunks McCain's lie that Obama wanted to raise taxes on the middle class. GREAT AD! Barack is one Democrat who will not be swift-boated!

read more | digg story

What Iran Wants - ForeignPolicy.com

2008-07-11T23:32:00.001-07:00

Check this out:

FP: What do Iranians think about the U.S. presidential election and John McCain versus Barack Obama?

KS: There’s far more intrigue about Obama than about McCain. Apart from the fact that he advocates dialogue with Iran, he’s African-American and his middle name is Hussein, who is the paramount figure in Shiite history and culture. If Obama were to win, it would be much more difficult for Iran to constantly paint the United States as this grand oppressor. It’s interesting to note that a few days after the hostages were taken at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, the Iranians released all the women and blacks because they said these groups were historically oppressed by Americans.

An Obama victory in November could tremendously change the dynamics in U.S.-Iran relations. If you’re a hard-liner in Tehran and you survive in isolation, like Ayatollah Khamenei, it presents far more of a quandary for you to have a president in Washington who says “Let’s be friends” than one who says “Let’s be enemies” and essentially continue the status quo. I would wager the vast majority of Iran’s political elite, who do want to see some sort of reconciliation, support Obama. But then you have a small, but powerful minority who survive in isolation, much like Fidel Castro in Cuba. They see Iran opening up to the world as a threat to their interests, and I’m sure they would much prefer John McCain to be president.

read more | digg story

Have We Missed the Key to Obama's Leadership Style?

2008-07-11T23:25:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to suspect we've all missed the real story behind Barack Obama's leadership style. His recent actions may not have been driven by calculation or centrism, as most people thought, but by something else. - Writer makes the point that Obama has a Japanese-style of leadership, perhaps from his Hawaiian upbringing. Interesting, and a valid comparison.

read more | digg story

(Liberal) Fear of a Black President

2008-07-11T21:57:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Regarding the FISA progressive-backlash. All the things Obama's done to protect and help people as much as he could, with as much cooperation from either side as he could get, outweigh this single-issue for me, because the FISA bill was not the end-all be-all of the privacy war. It's about more than someone reading our email, as if that were something new. The internet was developed for the Pentagon. They've had a record of everything on the web since Day One. And I haven't considered my phone calls private since I heard of Watergate - as it happened!

What's BO done to impress me? http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gA2VRM3QhIBwdNeApjcfZZ0SKbCQD91H8GT04

And what will he do with all these unconstitutional laws signed by Da Bush?

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/05/28/bushs-laws-will-be-scrutinized-if-i-become-president-obama-says/

Review and revoke 'em, in the first 100 days, when unconstitutional.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes

2008-07-11T15:15:00.001-07:00

This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.

read more | digg story

McCain's Deficit Reduction Proposal: Adopt Obama's Iraq Plan

2008-07-11T04:51:00.001-07:00

The CBO projects $443 billion deficit in 2013 if Bush's tax cuts are extended as McCain calls for. On top of this McCain calls for additional cuts for the rich. McCain says he will pay for this by cutting Social Security, Medicaid,Medicare, and bringing troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan... Yes you read that right.

read more | digg story

McCain; Gramm: It's all in your head

2008-07-11T00:37:00.001-07:00

Does John McCain actually agree with Phil Gramm's statement on a "nation of whiners"?

McCain's top economic adviser Phil Gramm: "...this is a mental recession... We have sort of become a nation of whiners."

read more | digg story

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-07-02T03:26:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Go YouTube it, he says the same as he's always said - troops come home, as carefully as Bush was careless sending them in. And you know the whole reason the media, owned by the same people as the telecoms, are trying to make him look bad and the giddy left buys it from the people owned by the military industrial complex, for pity's sake? Because he will destroy their monopolies, read his telecom policies, and he will cost them millions, read his campaign finance reform that gives equal air time to all candidates on the ballot to end raising millions from millionaires to pay a media that lies to us the 23 hrs 59 minutes not paid for in our own ads.

I am definitely smelling cooptation. I refuse to believe the progressive writers have all lost their minds and never read Obama's outrageously detailed 40 page plan. It's obvious to me the MSM and telecom/military/oil/insurance barons (usually the owners of all five industries) did, and they saw his lauded speech to Google in 07.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McCain Backer's Firm Pleaded Guilty To Funding Terrorist Group In Colombia

2008-07-02T02:53:00.001-07:00

See, this is the best in blogging, a little "local color" - wow! Y'know, McCain and his twin GW got chased out of holding a fundraiser in Phoenix, and got a big demonstration at their alternate location anyway. Why not give those Lindner/Indian Hill Fortress guards a good days' hard work next time the new "Bush twins" come by?

And y'know, Begala calling McCain's fundraisers "dirt-bags" seems too mild, now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McCain Backer's Firm Pleaded Guilty To Funding Terrorist Group In Colombia

2008-07-02T02:44:00.001-07:00

Oh no, Chiquita was not "unwilling", not at all. Where on earth do you think the term "Banana Republic" came from? From the United Fruit Co to Chiquita to Dole, the beat goes on - and the peasants are beaten and killed whenever it's expedient. Google and Wiki away, but be forewarned, bananas won't be as enjoyable anymore.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McCain Accepts Money From Terrorist Fundraiser

2008-07-02T02:39:00.001-07:00

The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

read more | digg story

Military See Presidential Race Through Own Lens

2008-07-02T01:05:00.001-07:00

Obama has received more donations from military personnel than McCain! Who knew? Since McCain gets the most backing from big-wig brass, that must mean the enlisted service men and women are shelling out the cash to help Barack! "Obama has collected more than $327,000 from those identifying themselves as military personnel, while McCain has collected $224,000, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The Associated Press." Whoa. I'm so broke it hurts, but if our soldiers can donate so much, I can find a way to give again too.

read more | digg story

Memo to Obama: Moving to the Middle is for Losers

2008-07-01T14:17:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
This Sat 150 regular working people, students and retirees came to sign up, work for Barack for free, in a community that's not been marching against war, or petitioning for impeachment, regular people with full lives who hate what this administration does. Monday after work, a father and his daughter, my Puerto Rican compatriots I'd never met before, came to an Obama meeting, where there was also an 80-year-old white woman rooted in this community, who's worked free for the local Democratic Club for decades. The PR man's daughter brought her boyfriend, sweet white guy, both just graduated. I'm teaching the young couple to register voters at summer school. There was a beautiful white woman, web designer, and a lovely Asian woman former Hawaii-native fundraiser extraordinaire, and a retired professor, white male.

These are the people who will change things. They are the middle-left. It exists, it's large, and it's never found a reason to get involved. They don't want to match and overwhelm the stridency of the right. They want a rational, compassionate administration that, like them, lives with contradictions, as we do.

This ain't American Idol, we're not looking for a four-year crush on an American-Che. People are threatening to withhold money, votes, but not work. They didn't work. And it's the work that truly changes things.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Ex-Agent Says CIA Ignored Iran Facts

2008-07-01T04:29:00.001-07:00

A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb. He got set up and fired for his trouble - because of course we don't need fluent speakers of Farsi or Arabic working undercover - and he can't even get his identity back to testify!

read more | digg story

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T17:13:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Good quote, but misapplied. It can better apply to all the shouting going on over an issue we cannot possibly change or control without control of the White House. The Congress cannot stop illegal spying - it's being done by the most secret agencies in government. The courts with Bush-appointed judges will not stop illegal spying.

Honestly, if people were consistent and sincere, if they hadn't stopped fighting the Patriot Act, I'd work on the FISA issue more, but it's a waste of my time. In 2 weeks, there will be no more words about it, and there will be a new net outrage diatribe, and it's frankly totally predictable and inconclusive each time. Yet for the first time, I've got buddies sticking to and putting sweat equity into one issue for over 18 months now - getting Obama elected.

Don't help get Obama in, let him barely squeak through if at all - without a mandate, even a POTUS can't override the Pentagon. Go see how that turned out for John Kennedy, RIP.

I want to end the decimation of our rights, have wanted to for decades, since the Drug Laws confiscated property, spied, Jim Crow'd millions out of their voting rights, financial aid, even housing and food stamps. That's why I work to get Barack elected. None of the others, none (I volunteered for Kucinich in 04) care as deeply or have done as much to protect the defenseless from abuse of power by authorities as Barack.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T17:00:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
... and unless they're going in circles, and obeying prescribed march routes, and letting themselves get segregated in "free speech areas". And fighting windmills, of course, because, reality: spying is a standard operating procedure, has always been and will always be - until we're too broke to even do that to our own people, we'll be busting them, they'll be denying and paying their way out of any penalties, we'll pass more laws, and they'll keep breaking them.

And again, this has been going on blatantly in the Drug War for decades - where were the progressives all that time? Does it only matter when illegal spying hits the expensive computers, not when it's in the poorest ghettos? A whole HBO series, The Wire, makes it obvious the law never serves the common person. What's news, here, folks, really? If there's no change at the top, how can this really ever change?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T16:55:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Get a grip and look up elitist, because I'd love to bet your monthly income, family fortunes and possessions against mine - living disabled on social security, as a daughter of immigrants who left blood on many war fields for this country, and raising a kid alone when I could work and study. I could use the money! lol

What I do is called activism, not elitism. Elitists are the armchair activists, who can't pull away from their top-of-the-line laptops to even take a can to the foodbank - which I live and survive much thanks to, btw. If you do manage to donate a little something to those working hard to feed the hungry, many many thanks. If you do nothing but type away on these sites, pity.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T16:50:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Do you refuse to acknowledge that thousands of those group members have zero activity in the past 18 months of this campaign? And, on phonebanking, I did it from Iowa to Kentucky, including Guam and PR, and had problems with only two states getting repeat calls. The vast majority of calls made phonebanking are always voicemails, hang-ups, not-home, and it is for the 2 in 10 we can converse with that we make thousands of calls.

I took a lot of abuse, esp in W VA and PA, but a hitch in the system and people's rudeness were no deterrent. I hobbled around canvassing in five cities in my district, on a cane, and each canvas took days of healing to recover from. I did 15 14-16 hr days in TX which show up nowhere on MyBO too. So, are my thoughts on FISA any less valid?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T16:44:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
You're right, I was bleary-eyed and missed all the other 21 pages, but among the more than 5000 members now, it's clear as a bell that over 4500 have done little or nothing before on MyBO. You can tell by how many points they have, how many friends they have, how many groups they belong to, how much money they've donated/raised - easily investigated by clicking on the name of any of the members.

MyBO is not a purely socializing site, it's a serious activism site. Every phonebanking call made through MyBO gets a point, as does every event attended/posted, every donation made, every purchase made through his store.

These lemmings have been MIA in the 18 months of primary battle, and now want to dictate the terms for the only candidate we've got who won't send us into WW III. I am too, too disgusted, but as usual, they'll be on to the next issue and never unglue themselves from the computer screen, and the million-plus-and-growing real workers on this campaign will keep on keepin' on.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T16:33:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
You know, that sounds good, but here's the reality, again. There are anti-drug laws, but there are illegal drug users and drug dealers. There are anti-gun laws but there are illegal guns and gun dealers. There have been and will be anti-domestic spying laws (notice no one among these progressives cares about foreign spying), but there will still be domestic spying.

With no accountability for crimes against humanity that have cost thousands of lives here and millions of lives abroad, wotj crimes against the environment that have cost thousands of lives, crimes against our civil liberties and rights that have turned the entire Constitution into a joke, not just one Article or Amendment, why do you think there will be accountability for spying on emails and phone calls?

With only 38 million eligible voters actually voting in this record-breaking primary, and almost 100 million more sitting by doing nothing - not even voting yet - why gnash your teeth believing this will be the issue that makes people rise up? After they've gotten away with torture? With eliminating habeas corpus? The net roots hasn't struck down the latter, but the Supreme Court did. Who do you want appointing Justices to the Supreme Court. Our next POTUS appoints at least two.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T16:21:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
they're defending against having to settle out of court, which is the absolute most they will do if brought to courts with Bush-appointed judges. They won't let the investigation show their cards or end in conviction. They invest/settle to save big bucks and keep thei secrets, but they won't change their practices. If the Pentagon says jump, they'll say how high, because the Pentagon controls the media and telecoms.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
So putting a law on paper stops domestic spying? Nope, and I'll be nice and not call you ignorant for believing it does. Only a very strong, smart POTUS with a mandate can, perhaps, stop the rampant abuses of domestic spying, legalized or not. We citizens have busted the spies before, passed laws, the spies keep going, we are inconsistent and very very distracted.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Undercuts His Brand

2008-06-30T03:20:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
The corporate Dems and Republicans are laughing themselves sick reading these comments. The corporate Dems are the DLC and Blue Dog Dems. Obama refused to be a member of either group. Do you honestly believe those oil and arms lobbyist-controlled congressman are and their war chests [literally] and their MSM are going to let Obama "win this one hands down" without your help?

Obama is the only one who can win and has done all this without the oil and arms lobbyists. Let McCain get elected, and my family is out of here and you can stay and get drafted by McBush. Cheney's so excited by the prospect, he's probably having to get his pacemaker adjusted every time he reads these pitiful comments. "Drag Bush into court" ! We can't even get his staffers to testify before congress! What do you think Bush's lawyers will do in Bush's judges' courts? The 2000 election, anyone?

People are so jive and never stick to one goal, before running off screaming "The sky is falling!" over some new MSM-directed "revelation". Get real. Get focused. Get ready to take your country back. It takes work, sometimes tiring, repetitive, even exhausting work. It takes showing up and talking to people. We don't do it because it's so hard, we do it because it's so rewarding. Sharing a meal yesterday with over 100 regular people who are working for Obama every way they can is the only reason any of this is bearable.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Undercuts His Brand

2008-06-30T03:03:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Believing a congressional law stops domestic spying is beyond bull - it's willful self-delusion. Go vote for McCain or some third party candidate and see how much privacy that'll get ya! Until you have a President not beholden to the arms and oil lobbyists, you will not have any privacy. Even powerful Senators can run covert spy operations on Americans if the President is useless enough.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Undercuts His Brand

2008-06-30T02:58:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
At least spell his name right. And wake up and smell the coffee: America has spied on its citizens and non-citizens, non-stop, since the advent of communism. Laws don't stop spies. Presidents do.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Undercuts His Brand

2008-06-30T02:55:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
All good suggestions of relevant security issues, but Obama has made those an issue and has been ignored by the media when he did. Security and "terrorism" are still his weakest areas to most voters and giving the neo-cons fuel to label him as weak is a valid concern.

Also, we are always spied on, have been spied on every day of my 50 years on this earth. When I was young they were easier to spot; they're better-trained now. The only thing that makes a difference is not laws - which spy agencies promptly ignore and are allowed to cover up for decades after - but a POTUS who has a firm hold of all those spy agencies.

I have an FBI file with entries for almost every demonstration I ever attended, every petition I ever signed, every group I ever joined, my college papers, printed articles, every comment I've ever made on blogs too, no doubt. Spies don't stop spying because Congress passes a law.

Remember the MSM loses when Obama wins. He vowed to give free air time on TV and radio equally to all candidates who make the ballot. MSM will lose millions - or more.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T02:29:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
Oh, and guess what, the membership in that group is not over 3,000 - there are a grand total of 25 members, and some just joined from reading this article. The vast majority of them, including the group administrator, have never done anything on MyBO before. Feel free to look it up.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying

2008-06-30T02:16:00.001-07:00

About Barack Obama
The group was started by Aaron from Utah, so inactive in MyBO that he has only one "Friend" and on the point-keeping system that measures involvement, ranks: 93 points, 169813th place! To put it in perspective, I'm an at-large delegate, active organizer, and I have 11,104 points.

The second member had 159 points, the third member I looked up has zero activity before this. The fourth has 87 points, the fifth has zero, the sixth is a member of the Vote Against FISA group only - do you detect a pattern in the membership of this so-called most-activist MyBO group?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year

2008-06-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

About John McCain
Thank you, those are great suggestions to take action. I'll definitely do the ones I haven't done already. And yep, Barack's imperfect, but unless we want to be The Borg, imperfect leaders are all we'll ever have. In terms of lesser weevils, Barack's too far from the weevil category still to fall into those blues. He's already done more good for me and people like me and mine than that horror McCain ever has or will do.

Let the left pine. My black grand-nephews and nieces, my black family, my black communities, are still proud and more enthused than ever before - because Barack is not a lesser weevil, and lord knows we've voted (and tried but failed to vote) enough of those in to know. I read both his books, I expected him to be tactical and compromise to achieve concrete goals. It's because he is not an idealogue, but is radically principled and pragmatic, that I work so hard for him. And on this issue, spying, please, I'm 50, and have an FBI file 34 years thick - every activist and politician does and always has. My massively redacted FBI file is my pride and joy. I'm amazed I can still fly.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year

2008-06-28T21:55:00.001-07:00

About John McCain
Huh, if you want the laws to be for the truly powerless, get thee to a prison and start advocating for the 1.2 million incarcerated more than anything to enforce fascist control. Don't even act like this spying is new or different. It's a spying less threatening to those on the losing side of the Digital Divide. We've got cops breaking into our cars and homes and busting our heads, then ruining our finances and future for the rest of our lives and two generations besides. Our phones have been tapped in the name of the Drug War for decades. Welcome to Reality. So many new people here!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year

2008-06-28T21:50:00.001-07:00

About John McCain
I'll say it over and over again - where was the outrage when this same surveillance was illegally made a standard operating procedure in ghettos? The hypocrisy reeks, and expecting the black male candidate who is facing more than most of these posters and critics can imagine in his effort to be seen as a human being, never mind a man, never mind a leader, is just smug and looks it - and that's not an attractive look!

I do a lot more than read and blog, I've called voters from Iowa to Kentucky, including Guam and Puerto Rico. I can't begin to count how many, when I gain their confidence, almost whisper "But I'm afraid if he gets in all the black people will rise up!" - in English and in Spanish.

Or maybe it's ignorance, as if this spying hasn't been going on for decades. That's also not an attractive look, so read a history book, like The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr.

Again, do you honestly believe taking these people to court will stop their spying? Do you? I have a bridge I want you to see, I swear, you can't live another day without owning it!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year

2008-06-28T21:41:00.001-07:00

About John McCain
The Constitution was shredded long ago. Didn't see all this fussin' from the netroots when racial profiling landed millions of youth of color with felony records and prison time for non-violent crimes, confiscated their property, denied them housing, food stamps, financial aid for college based on their non-prescription drug felony. Today's Jim Crow, felon disenfranchisement, hasn't been a big issue on these blogs. I guess you mean the Constitution has been shredded now for the privileged who were not the targets of all this surveillance for the past four decades, at least. Welcome the real Real World. Now get real, and quit acting like taking telecomms to court will stop spying. Puh-lease.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Republicans Taunt Obama As Spineless Over FISA Reversal

2008-06-27T17:43:00.001-07:00

If I believed for one minute that Bush would follow a law we manage to pass, I'd be more upset about Obama's FISA "compromise" stand, but I don't believe that, since Bush has signed over 1100 statements saying he'd ignore laws we have passed. Our privacy's been long-gone, with scarcely a whimper from our Left, as non-violent pot-growers and sellers got spied on, heat-sensored, property confiscated - you know, the standard operating procedures used in the ghetto. I hang on to one statement Barack made, and that's one I'm holding him to:

"I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution," said Obama (Reuters, May 28, 2008, on his first 100 days).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama leads McCain in regional polls

2008-06-27T01:46:00.001-07:00

In Wisconsin - Obama leads McCain 50% to 37% among independents, 59% to 33% among union households, 53% to 37% among women, and 47% to 43% among blue-collar whites (those without college degrees). Obama also gets 16% of those who voted for Bush in 2004, 32% of born-again and evangelical voters, and 49% of Catholics .. 61%-35% of age 35 and younger.

read more | digg story

Former DNC Chair and Clinton Superdelegate switches to Obama

2008-05-01T01:38:00.001-07:00

He's also writing a letter to other superdelegates urging them to heal the Democratic rift and unite behind Obama. He tells The Associated Press he's become convinced that the continuing political fight has become bad for the Democratic Party.

read more | digg story

Clinton Blames Bush For Bill's Destruction of Indiana Plant

2008-04-30T18:39:00.001-07:00

"What Clinton doesn't tell voters is that Magnequench was originally sold to Chinese interests during her husband's administration, which okayed the move despite concerns about national security and eventual job loss." It's about time the media catches this brilliant bit of double-speak! According to Hillary herself, it's not a good idea to export defense manufacturing to potential adversaries. Duh!

read more | digg story

McCain Used Wife's Jet To Avoid Costs (Illegal!)

2008-04-26T21:00:00.001-07:00

Given Senator John McCain’s signature stance on campaign finance reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets...But last summer, Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by [Cindy McCain].

read more | digg story

Matthews Vs. McNulty

2008-04-26T06:18:00.001-07:00

Hilarious, "bitter" commentary on elitist media judging if politicians are authentic or "elitist". The pundits make more than one of the candidates (Obama!) but sling their charges like someone appointed them Guardians or Patron Saints of the McNultys. I miss The Wire.

read more | digg story

Richardson endosa Obama - subtítulos en español

2008-04-26T01:51:00.001-07:00

Este es en hombre que nos entiende y que nos va a respetar. Discurso de Bill Richardson que endosa a senador Barack Obama. “Senador Obama nos recordó que el cinismo no es realismo y esa esperanza no es una falacia.” Gov. Richardson's endorsement of Obama, subtitled in Spanish.

read more | digg story

Clinton surrogate targets pledged delegates: Calls Obama a dictator

2008-04-23T00:31:00.001-07:00

"We have seen Mr. Obama's ayatollah-like arrogance before: Peron/Argentina, Mussolini/ Italy, Mugabwe/ Zimbabwe, and elsewhere historically. "Hope and Change" can become seductive temptations for an adorative addiction of emotionalism over rationalism. That we don't need."

This is what Barack is up against! Go to BarackObama.com, click on Action Center, and start Phonebanking from Home!

read more | digg story

Clinton: Let Greenspan Help Decide Rescue Of Home Owners

2008-03-24T15:09:00.001-07:00

I wonder what Paul Krugman, who has pointed to Alan Greenspan's role in fostering the current financial crisis, would think of asking Greenspan to help decide if the US should help rescue home owners, and not just the Wall Street financial giants.

read more | digg story

Obama Is Not Naive About Power

2008-02-15T14:54:00.001-08:00

Do you wonder if Obama may not understand how power works in the world? Wonder no more. Here's strong reason to believe he understands power far more deeply than most.

read more | digg story

How Obama Could Create a Long-Term Democratic Majority

2008-02-10T15:37:00.001-08:00

This shows what the Democratic Party stands to gain with Obama - and lose if Clinton wins the nomination.

read more | digg story

Obama 08: Believe Again, Stand Up!

2008-02-04T01:36:00.001-08:00

This is the video for anyone thinking "I am too tired, too busy, too broke, I can't make a difference". See it, then get out the vote, all day, Monday, until you can't do anymore, then get the voters to the polls Tuesday. "Let us reach for what we know is possible. A nation healed. A world repaired. An America that believes again."

read more | digg story

The Year of the Organizer

2008-02-04T01:16:00.001-08:00

The Obama campaign's commitment to the principles of community organizing has proved decisive to their primary victories so far. It has also brought new voters to the political process who could make the difference for Democrats in the general election. Obama's campaign most clearly embodies many of the characteristics of a Social Movement

read more | digg story

Obama has what it takes

2008-02-01T02:37:00.001-08:00

An examination of bills championed by Barack Obama uncovers impressive evidence of his character and ability. And he didn't just sponsor these bills - he got them passed despite a Republican majority, the fears of his Democratic peers that they would not appear "tough" enough, and two instances (only one mentioned here, but see also his success getting racial profiling laws on the books) where he faced fierce opposition from police unions.

read more | digg story

Racials Politics will be different with Barack Obama

2008-01-30T05:45:00.001-08:00

Because of his lineage and history, Barack Obama transcends the usual racial aspects of America. This article tells why this is a GOOD thing for America.

read more | digg story

Hillary Clinton's word: It's worth nothing

2008-01-30T01:25:00.001-08:00

A New Hampshire newspaper tears into Hillary Clinton for breaking her pledge not to campaign in Florida: "Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to "campaign or participate" in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and is campaigning in Florida. Which proves, again, that Hillary Clinton is a liar."

read more | digg story

Ted Kennedy's Stirring Endorsement of Barack Obama at AU

2008-01-29T22:46:00.001-08:00

"What counts in our leadership is not the length of years in Washington, but the reach of our vision, the strength of our beliefs, and that rare quality of mind and spirit that can call forth the best in our country and our people..." - Teddy Kennedy, 1/28/08

read more | digg story

Hillary Clinton + Tony Rezko = Major Burn

2008-01-25T20:28:00.001-08:00

Hillary Clinton + Tony Rezko = Major BurnEvery picture tells a story, don't it?

read more | digg story

Tracing Hillary Clinton's '35 Years' of Experience

2008-01-25T05:51:00.001-08:00

When Hillary Clinton makes a campaign appearance, she almost certainly will highlight her experience — 35 years, she says — as one of her qualifications for president.

read more | digg story

ABC News: Truth Takes Hard Knocks at Dem Debate

2008-01-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

Nice Fact-Check. Hillary loses. Worse yet, her only ammunition, the Rezko issue, was shot down in about three sentences. Her attack strategy against Obama is doomed. If she's so brilliant, why'd she think someone so unpopular could attack someone so popular and succeed? Oh, right, add Rovian smear tactics via surrogates, sabotage votes, then stir. Can Obama still win? Yes, we can!

read more | digg story

Shut up, Bill

2008-01-24T01:30:00.001-08:00

Dear Bill,We loved Bill Clinton as president.I know you want your wife to win. A lot of us want a Democrat in 2008. But you're getting mean Bill. That twinkle in your eye is starting to look more like crazy eye.You're making accusations that Karl Rove & Co. will eat up and spit back out at us come time for the general election...

read more | digg story

"What's Gotten Into Bill?" Eugene Robinson, Washinton Post

2008-01-23T23:19:00.001-08:00

Forget about the apostle of brotherhood and understanding whose most recent book is titled, simply, "Giving." That Bill Clinton has left the building.There's a battle to be fought against an upstart challenger who has the audacity to suggest that maybe the Clinton presidency, successful as it was in many ways, didn't change the world...

read more | digg story

There You Go Again (Reagan, Obama and the Clintons)

2008-01-23T23:02:00.001-08:00

Editorial points: "The first issue is whether these statements are shameful apostasy or, as we see it, accurate analysis...The second matter is the Clinton campaign's repeated distortion of Mr. Obama's remarks...(This) makes the nomination fight in part about character and judgment. This episode does not speak well for Ms. Clinton's."

read more | digg story

NH Women Apologize for Misrepresenting Obama’s Record

2008-01-23T18:32:00.001-08:00

What a surprise, another series of apologies in the wake of a distorted attack against Obama. A former NH state senator who signed a letter accusing Obama of being soft on abortion rights now realizes that her participation in the letter was wrong and divisive.

read more | digg story

The Clintons are lying about Obama's remarks on Reagan

2008-01-23T04:23:00.001-08:00

Eric Zorn, in the Chicago Trib: "Hmm. I see no reason to stop short. Bill and Hillary Clinton have lied brazenly about Obama's recent statement about Ronald Reagan."

read more | digg story

Major South Carolina Paper Endorses Obama

2008-01-23T04:21:00.001-08:00

An analysis of the candidates and a sound reasoning for choosing who to endorse.

read more | digg story

Chairman Of Homeland Security Committee Endorses Obama

2008-01-23T04:07:00.001-08:00

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. African-American members of Congress have been closely divided between Clinton and Obama. But in recent weeks support for Obama has surged among black voters.

read more | digg story

Barack Obama Meets Chronicle Editorial Board - Brightcove

2008-01-18T01:46:00.001-08:00

This video of a full one-hour interview, with Barack answering hard, direct questions from the editorial board and columnists of San Francisco's Chronicle, is absolutely awesome. If Obama isn't ready to be the next President of the United States, no one is. Get honest answers here, from domestic to foreign policy, energy, open government, name it! California, get ready to make Barack Obama our first Democratic nominee in our first Super Tuesday Primary on Feb. 5th!

read more | digg story

Obama's art of grassroots political war

2008-01-12T05:46:00.001-08:00

Australia: on the grassroots movement that is taking the nation by storm. Shows Obama's activist training and how he's passed that on to legions of volunteers, armed with the finest tools of the demographic targeting game. I can attest to this, as a precinct captain in California. We phoned voters in Nevada and here, prepped a canvas from my home! A NY Times article claimed Hillary's campaign looks more organized judging by the campaign office. Hah! We're not in the office, we're telecommuters, we're wired, we're working until the wee hours of the night.

read more | digg story

Obama to Las Vegas: 'I'm the jackpot' - Los Angeles Times

2008-01-12T04:15:00.001-08:00

Thousands of supporters filled a high school gym, thousands more tried to get in but didn't fit, yet again! The union supporters are also fired up! The article wrongly attributes the phrase Si se puede/Yes we can to the movement for legalizing immigrants but it's Cesar Chavez's, organizer of the UFW, an activists' cry used commonly for decades now.

read more | digg story

The View from Virginia: Republicans Fear Obama

2008-01-10T05:31:00.001-08:00

The VA Democratic primary could play a decisive role a week after Super Tuesday; Obama has many VA allies, and a message that's proven to resonate well there. WAPost blog says: Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) said Republicans should be worried about a possible Obama candidacy in the general election. "I think he is wrong on almost every major issue, but he is a new face, a fresh face with a very appealing message," said Bolling. The primaries are open in Virginia, not limited by party membership, and that too could favor Obama.

read more | digg story

Iowa caucus may increase California's clout The Obama Effect

2008-01-07T05:57:00.001-08:00

Obama's win in Iowa has upset California's top legislators' calculations. Excitement's building, and that raises voter participation, which shakes up the machine-politicians. Now the media has to admit: California's 241 delegates on Feb. 5th are up for grabs! We'll phonebank/canvas for Obama every day until Feb 5th - thousands of us! Shake it up!

read more | digg story

Goodbye Iowa, Hello N.H.

2008-01-04T03:30:00.001-08:00

Obama wins Iowa! Now Bedford, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Manchester now beckon. Obama is to be back on the stump a couple of hours after his charter touches down. But he will be different. We will be different.History has just firmed its grip on the man from Illinois.

read more | digg story

On Liberal Tirades Against Obama to Prop Up Edwards

2008-01-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

Dennis Kucinich gave his Iowa supporters his preference for their second choice if he doesn't reach 15% of the caucus-goers. He chose Barack Obama, the candidate who doesn't have to apologize for supporting the Bush/Cheney assault on Iraq for oil.

"Progressives" like to forget that Edwards didn't just vote for the Iraq War; he co-sponsored it.

Environmentalists like to forget Edwards had a 32% rating from the League of Conservation Voters - Obama has 100%.

Living Wage supporters like to ignore that Obama is committed to raising the minimum wage with the cost of living, not leaving it out as a political football while workers’ literally go hungry if they don’t over-produce for investors in two jobs instead of only one.

Open Government supporters, Net Neutrality supporters and Corporate Media Monopoly opposers like to forget Obama's plan for technology opens the airwaves to communities, ends paid campaign ads thereby eliminating millions in campaign costs, and guarantees equal time to all candidates. It also makes all donations to all government officials and all earmarks traceable, online, for everyone to see. It also ensures net neutrality, but also will wire the most poor and rural areas cheaply or for free, to connect everyone.

Oh, and let's just all pretend we didn't notice when Obama promised to never sign a non-emergency bill without presenting it to viewers first, online and on C-SPAN (which streams live online so it’s not a gift to cable companies) with days to actually comment on the bill - and he's already set up to read and incorporate suggestions on his website, and he's done it.

I supported Dennis as 1st choice in 2004 for his anti-Iraq War stand, so did Alice Walker, I recall. I've supported Obama from the start this time, so has Alice Walker. So should any true Progressive Voter, from any party or Independent/Unaffiliated.

It's time to stop dividing because some of us have such a self-righteous but rather faulty view of America as a pack of racists who can't possibly recognize a great candidate because he's black. We’re better than that. Let's not even pretend we're still in the 80s or even 90s.

Progressives like to forget that Edwards, like Gore, Clinton I and want-to-be Clinton II, as well as Biden, Richardson, and Dodd, and Lieberman of Connecticut, were all DLC members, some very active, some former Chairs; none have renounced the most anti-progressive group among Democrats.

Progressives like to forget Obama's work for the poor, the unemployed, seniors, the working poor, the uninsured, the veterans, the single parents, the innocent on Illinois' Death Row, the thousands who, when not if they are race-profiled, will have it fully documented - by police themselves. They like to forget Obama is a constitutional law lecturer who registered 150,000 new, poor voters and defended their right to vote and be counted.

It's time we stop complaining and use some sense. Obama can and will win. Just use your head and your feet. America's ready to judge the man's record, character, advisers and supporters and say Yes! Are you?

Obama on Experience and Foreign Policy

2007-12-29T04:17:00.001-08:00

Jan Touney, Managing Editor of the Quad-City Times, talks to presidential candidate Barack Obama during an editorial board meeting.Intense, brilliant, serious discussion, not soundbytes, 10 min. video with poor lighting, no glitz - all content! Obama's the leader for our times, endorsed by heavyweights and not for his "pretty speeches"! Watch this video and you'll agree Obama is the leader we need, now.i

read more | digg story

"Hope peddler"; Obama makes wisdom central in presidential campaign

2007-12-25T21:52:00.001-08:00

CONCORD, N.H. - The Boston Globe reports from NH, with interviews from intellectuals from both sides of the aisle, all but one of whom admire Barack's intellect, common sense, honesty, and most are admiring of his activism as well. The one [Epstein] who says Obama is not an intellectual because he is an activist, shows he is still living in an ivy-league dichotomous-either/or world. In the real world, people are more complicated than that. How refreshing that we'll have an intellectual activist in the West Wing - and a sharp, pragmatic one at that, who knows how to get laws passed!

read more | digg story

Obama addresses HillaryCare's forced mandates [VIDEO]

2007-12-23T22:59:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama addresses an Iowa voter's healthcare question at length: "She [HRC] has a mandate. And John Edwards has a mandate. Where the only way to get 100% coverage is if you pass a law where government forces everybody to buy insurance." Barack shows why it's a "phony argument" to claim 15 million won't buy insurance because they are young and don't want to pay premiums. Obama shows his plan mandates insurance companies to cover youth until age 25 under their parents' health insurance, whether the youth are in college or not (right now, health insurance corporations drop youths 18-25 as soon as they graduate or drop/stop out of college!). As Obama says, and I agree, people don't refuse to buy health insurance because they are lazy or irresponsible and need to be forced to (with what penalties, Hillary and John?). People want health insurance, as good as the Senators get, only affordably and to get full coverage, pre-existing condition or not, job or not. Right now inflation is in the high-double digits on insurance premiums, you don't know what or if you'll be covered after you pay a fortune, and you can get dropped for using it - just like an auto insurance corporation manages claims! We are more than vehicles, I would hope we get better insurance prices and policies without the mandates put on vehicles. And, btw, have you bought Uninsured Motorist Liability Coverage for your vehicle lately, even with those mandatory laws and penalties? So, mandates with penalties don't guarantee 100% coverage either, do they?

read more | digg story

Obama shows he's best of Democratic field

2007-12-21T05:38:00.001-08:00

All presidential choices come with risk. "Do you match up with the times?" Obama has said about an intangible ingredient necessary for the next president. We believe that Obama is like another candidate, a lightly experienced man from Illinois who burst upon the national scene in the midst of the country's greatest crisis in 1860. Abraham Lincoln matched up with his times. We believe the same of Barack Obama, and encourage voters to support him in the Democratic primary

read more | digg story

Obama: 'Change the mind-set'

2007-12-21T05:23:00.001-08:00

PORTSMOUTH — It all came full circle Thursday night as Illinois Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama returned to the Frank Jones Center.

read more | digg story

Obama to Bush: New Orleans Public Housing - Replace It First

2007-12-20T18:36:00.001-08:00

Thanks to SF Bay View - unlike most coverage of the protests of the demolition of New Orleans public housing tenements, which took developers' side in this fight, just as the NO City Council and infamous Mayor Nagin did. As Obama points out, there are 12,000 homeless in NO after the flood. There are also Bush appointees/contractors under investigation for kickbacks involved in these very demolitions! Obama could've stayed silent; the media's full of stories embedded in the protest "reports" claiming the poor are living large on public assistance in gentrified New Orleans (where the cost of living has gone up 45% since the flood). Barack 08 for Compassion With Common Sense

read more | digg story

Fact: Barack Obama attended public elementary school in Indonesia, not a fundamentalist school

2007-12-19T15:40:00.001-08:00

Clinton's surrogates keep spreading the neo-con smear that Obama went to a radical Islamic school, which is why I will not vote for her, even though I'm a Green Democrat, if she gets the nomination. In a nutshell, I'm sick of bigotry as a tactic - divided we fall, and that's that! If Dixiecrat tactics are all the Democrats have to offer, my party deserves a fall - it can't survive that way, anyway. With Obama and the volunteers from all political parties and walks of life, I've learned my diversity is an asset to unite us. Continually raising a specter of Obama as an Islamic fundamentalist is as ludicrous as casting him as a Christian fundamentalist. He was taught in an Islamic, not Arab, school in Indonesia, not the Middle East or Iran, for 2 elementary-school years - he was also taught in a Catholic elementary school for 2 years. Obama is no more Islamic than he is Catholic! This non-issue has been debunked repeatedly, but here it is again, in case you think Hillary and her puppets (Bob Kerrey, anyone?) wouldn't lie: Describing attacks on Obama's elementary school, Klein wrote [in Jan. 07!], "Now, this is nonsense of course. Obama's stepfather was not a Muslim extremist (among other things, he worked for Shell Oil). Obama attended public school for two years in Indonesia, in addition to the two years he spent in Catholic schools--although, as Obama's staff points out, Indonesia is a Muslim country, so the public schools undoubtedly reflect the dominant religious culture. The notion that the Obama's school was a Wahabi madrasa is laughable, given the moderate form of Islam practiced in Indonesia, especially in those days." [Time Blog, 1/22/07]

read more | digg story

Why Paul Krugman is wrong about Barack Obama

2007-12-19T15:10:00.001-08:00

A great 3-page article: While a respected figure in Democratic circles, Paul Krugman's recent attacks on Barack Obama are wrong on history, wrong on politics, and wrong on what the future holds for Obama's "big table" idea. Krugman, a John Edwards supporter, has been drawing historical parallels which are "facile and ahistorical" when scrutinized. (by ShemDaimwood). My note: I've got to say that yes, Krugman's wrong, Obama's right, and I'm glad a great rebuttal came out. But notice how different attacks from Edwards' supporters are from Clinton-supporters'. Edwards just isn't honest - his voting record in one senate term was more conservative than any other Dem candidates' - but Hillary's team is malicious in the extreme. I lost some respect for Krugman's honesty, but he certainly hasn't raised my ire and disgust like Clinton's surrogates, with their covert ethnic smears that remind me more of neo-con Willie Horton tactics than any Democrat I'd be associated with!

read more | digg story

Durbin, Obama offer bill to improve VA medical care

2007-11-17T01:49:00.001-08:00

The U.S. Senators from Illinois co-sponsored a bill to improve quality control and remove incompetent doctors in VA hospitals throughout the nation, after 15 veterans died in the space of five months in one hospital. The policies proposed should become the standard for all hospitals, public and private! Too many doctors are getting away with maiming, even killing patients. I worked as temp in an insurance company for doctors once, and was amazed at the people they defended, and the way they misjudged the value of people's lives to save costs.

read more | digg story

Obama's Got the Youth Vote, And They Can In Fact Vote

2007-11-16T19:26:00.001-08:00

Clinton dissed youth! I register and recruit young first-time voters for Obama, and they don't just vote, they organize! They're a shot in the arm at all events, the steam that keeps the engines purring with outreach, including canvassing, the all-important face-to-face contact that brings people of all ages to caucuses and primary elections.

read more | digg story

Obama to appoint Chief Technology Officer

2007-11-14T00:55:00.000-08:00

In the writer's own description of the plan: "Here’s what I concluded. First, the plan represent[s] the most comprehensive set of policies for open government I’ve seen." If that's not enough, it includes expanding broadband access, increasing access to the public airwaves, training Americans for tech jobs, and easily enforced network neutrality.

Second, Obama makes new stances on several other areas of technology of interest to Silicon Valley’s tech community. He calls more aggressive government support of broadband access. Specifically, he calls for subsidies for phone carriers to be given to only those carriers offering both regular phone service and Internet broadband to rural areas. To date, carriers offering merely phone service have been able to claim subsidies from the so-called Universal Service Fund, giving them little incentive to roll out out broadband. This is also new, in that he hasn’t proposed this before.

Obama’s plan also calls for reviewing the decision by the Federal Communications Commission to open the wireless spectrum for competition. Specifically, Obama feels the FCC may not have gone far enough with its recent ruling. He wants to conduct a multi-year review, but is strongly considering support to open up valuable spectrum on the 700 MHz band so that third parties can lease it on a wholesale basis. This is to ensure that the winners of a pending auction for the spectrum — expected to be large phone carriers like Verizon — don’t just sit on the spectrum and not use it. They may do that to avoid other entrants from competing with them. He’s also leaning toward support for the for service providers to interconnect a licensee’s wireless network. Google is expected to bid on the wireless spectrum.

Obama also is supporting network neutrality, a policy that would ensure Google wouldn’t be forced to pay an Internet service provider extra to ensure the speedy transfer of its data over the Internet. Stanford legal expert, Larry Lessig, called me up this afternoon (apparently under recommendation from the campaign) saying Obama has the most nicely balanced policy among the democrats. Obama’s plan, he says, imposes minimal regulatory burden. So: Unlike John Edwards who, proposes to “enforce net neutrality ensuring no degradation or blocking of access to websites,” Obama would not ban differential service. He would simply require that the terms offered one website or company are no better or worse than those offered anyone else. This is a kind of “most favored nations” network neutrality, much simpler to enforce than one that looks to technical factors to determine whether the regulation is obeyed. Venture people should be very interested in this, Lessig says, because “if network neutrality regulation is going to be passed (as it will if a Dem is president) this imposes a very minimal (and relatively easy to monitor) burden on network owner.”

Obama’s plan calls for a review of the H1-B visa program. First, the plan calls for ways increased training of Americans so that they can fill the technology jobs requiring a Bachelor’s degree — thus minimizing the demand by companies for immigrants to fill those jobs.

At the same time, Obama’ plan seeks to address another shortcoming of the H1-B program, which is that immigrants with short-term visas find it difficult to stay because of country-specific caps on permanent visas. A large number of short-term visa new arrivals are from China and India, but the country-specific cap on permanent visas means many Chinese and Indians are held in limbo for years. All the while, they’re unable to move freely between jobs — leaving them vulnerable to exploration by employers.

On privacy, Obama will call for the creation of what he calls “Public Media 2.0.” While vague on details, campaign managers said Obama hopes to bring Tivo-like technologies so parents can ensure safe TV viewing. Obama also wants to raise sanctions against companies offering indecent – violent or sexually explicit – content.

Also tomorrow, several well-known local players are expected to announce their support for Obama’s plan, including two former FCC Chairmen under President Clinton, Lessig and John Roos, chief executive of Silicon Valley’s respected law firm, Wilson Sonsini. In fact, Roos also called me earlier today. Roos said Obama’s proposal a few days ago for a clean technology venture capital fund, to be backed by a whopping $50 billion in federal funding for five years, is particularly encouraging.

Finally, Lessig pointed out another issue no one is talking about — though related to the issue of open government I talked about above. All sorts of amazing innovations like Maplight.org and Sunlight.org are building new tools to monitor government — to track influence, identify corruption, etc. They’ve all been hampered by the fact that government data (by design or accident) is impossibly difficult to get access to. Obama wans to make the raw data available: “So think about all the value that gets added to the free weather data given away by the government. This is the same idea in the context of data to make government more transparent, and less corrupt.”

Rage Against the DLC Machine

2007-11-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

I am done with Sen. Feinstein, and, by proxy, with Sen. Hillary Clinton, whom Sen. Feinstein has endorsed.

I will not accept, as her constituent, Sen. Feinstein's approval of torture-boy Mukasey for Attorney General of the United States. I will not accept a legal officer of the U.S. government, a Senator, who provides cover for past and present crimes of a U.S. Justice System that condones torture.

I will work and vote for Sen. Obama, who stands unabashedly against torture. I will also work for Sen. Feinstein's recall, as this is her third strike: She voted against the Dream Act, for the Iran resolution, and now for "Simulated Drowning Isn't Torture (Maybe?)" Mukasey.

All DLC Democrats need to be expunged from the Senate and House of Representatives. They are the wing of the Democratic Party that has been so spineless, so Republican-lite as to provide real Democratic constituents no alternative at all.

I called Sen. Clinton's campaign office at (703) 469-2008 and advised them that I will be voting for Sen. Obama because he does not spew justifications and rationalizations for torture. In Barack's words "This is not who we are"!

I voted for Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Boxer when all three got into office. I am Latina and female and will not vote for any other candidate on the basis of being female. Two of the three I helped vote in have disappointed me beyond redemption, only Sen. Boxer has not given me major cause for regret.

Thus a vote for a woman is not a vote for all women, and any obligation I felt for voting for Clinton because she's a female is gone. Even if she gets the nomination, I will not vote for her. I will write in "Barack Obama", who I know is a staunch defender of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Dianne Feinstein should be recalled, or forced to join Sen. Joe Lieberman's Independent Pro-War Pro-Torture Party.

Type rest of the post here

A Boxer, Bullhorn or Statesman for President?

2007-11-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

As always, categories are generalizations, but the pundits' unending armchair quarterbacking of Obama and his campaign have snapped my last nerve. I literally groan when political reports sound, not even like sports casts – at this point racing analogies would be a relief! – but like boxing match pre-game hype: “He’s gotta move in, really let her have it!”

Even liberal talk show hosts I used to love to hear and join in the "amen" choir have picked up the same blood-lust, gladiator-arena political style that they used to criticize when it was all we saw/heard from FOX, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

Look, entertainment choices are one thing, I love to be entertained, but when it comes to who will lead this nation and represent us here and to the world, I'm not looking for entertainment. I'm looking for a statesman or woman. Unfortunately (since I’m a woman wanting that ceiling broken through, too), the woman the Democrats gave me does not meet my standards in any way, so this term, I found my statesman, thankfully and amen!

Did any pundits mention Barack Obama was the most presidential, statesman-like candidate at the Democratic Debate? No. Was he? Yes, if "statesman" means the most rational, the one least easily flustered, the least incendiary, the most well-informed and prepared with details, facts, and real contrasts in the most important areas of all - character and judgment.

Do debates allow candidates to present detailed facts? What do they tell us about policies, plans, advisers? What do they tell us about who is behind our candidates, funding them, getting earmarks from them, getting donations to their favorite organizations? Why do these moderators act like we don't pass that very information around among ourselves from everywhere we can get it, because they won't?

Do debate moderators want the debates to be contentious and full of arguments and even anger? Yes, it keeps people from changing the channel and justifies their absurd advertisement rates. Does a contentious, in-your-face President help or hurt the U.S.? We've got one right now, it isn't hard to answer that one: It hurts us!

The reason for liberal talk radio was originally (or so I heard) to provide real balance, real coverage of the issues and the background players usually not exposed or analyzed in mainstream media. So how are we doing?

I just watched/heard a Young Turks clip (Air America regular program), just aired Nov. 1st, hosted by Cenk. Cenk reminds me more of Chris Matthews than Amy Goodman, not that Amy walks on water for me; she's better than most and certainly not as confrontational and pugnacious as Matthews. Perhaps that's Cenk, the host's, intention. Cenk phone-interviewed Mr. James Traub of the NY Times and nicely and quickly covered Obama's positive aspects from Traub’s article on Obama:

1. Foreign Policy - distinctly different philosophy, different from Hillary on policies and plans that favor containment and multilateral as well as face-to-face diplomacy and negotiations without preconditions, and Obama serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gives him standing.
2. Foreign and Domestic Policy Advisors - a Who's Who of the most widely read and respected experts on all matters of foreign relations, and national security - not to mention on disarmament of both conventional and nuclear weapons, and on preventing and reversing genocide, which Cenk and Mr. Traub did not mention! That little oversight is chronic in left, right and center media, and it irks me no end, as you can probably tell. If I ever hear Obama's policy experts listed again without including Stephanie Power, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, I might start pulling out my overabundant hair!
3. Judgment: Obama has the experience, not to play insider-politics, but to use good judgment in the most important decisions facing us.

Right after listing all that, Cenk launches into a [planned] longer segment yelling at Mr. Traub that Obama has to fight, fight, fight! Cenk says Obama should be leading the charge to impeach Bush and Cheney! Cenk says Obama should have led the charge to impeach the Attorney General! Cenk says even though he would lose those fights! And, get this - Cenk says Obama has to keep saying Hillary's Republican Lite. Of course, Obama did, but not lately, because is that really smart when so many moderate Republicans and Independents are leaning toward him, even changing their registration where needed to vote for him in the Democratic Primary?!? And when both Republicans and Democrats are sick of their parties?)

At this point, Cenk roars at Mr. Traub that Obama must keep saying he has the best judgment! Oh yes, I know, you're laughing hysterically by now, because how often have we devotees who read/watch and listen to everything Obama says heard him say just that?

Mr. James Traub, you did a magnificent job pointing out exactly what Obama has done right, including what Cenk was roaring he should, and you kept your cool despite some no-doubt irritating moments. Traub led discussion back to audience perception; he could've analyzed his own media peers more to be more informative, imho, but he's the smart one who sees Obama's approach may be the most appealing to voters in the end.

There are two general reactions we - the people who know the difference between the candidates and choose Obama - have to the unending and often baseless criticisms from the left, right and center pundits (not many analysts, unfortunately - more pundits, horse-race announcers, armchair quarterbacks):
1. disgust with the entire process, and/or
2. a rush of energy to pick up the phone, help organize another phonebank, another canvass, another event, and shut them all up with our latest Committed Voters for Obama tally from our precinct, city, district and neighboring early voting states!

I will continue to work to help organize all of the above here in Northern California, and help with phonebanking for rallies around the country for Obama. Before I do that, let me share why the pundits are dead wrong, imho:

* We will register many new voters; already have, and we've only just begun.

Even with all the new voters, if we raise voting by a whopping 10% in the primaries nationally, we would still only have about 28% of the eligible voters actually casting a ballot to choose the Democratic Party candidate. The dismal voter numbers are a major reason we want BO to win – he inspires civic action!

Of those primary voters, how many are party loyalists, how many are candidate-loyalists, how many are there for self-interest (read: to protect their beliefs and/or investments), and how many are there out of real love, respect for, defense of the democratic process?

* Of party loyalists, there are less every day. The percentage of Undeclared/Independent voters has skyrocketed - no surprise, given the frustration on both sides. Of all the Democrats, Obama draws the most Independent voters. Would coming out rabid against Republicans help or hurt him with Independents? Hurt, most likely. Lots of Independents were Republicans once, and they're often fiscal conservatives. Demonizing Republicans loses that growing segment of Democratic primary (not just general election) voters.

* Obama has the most loyal supporters. Sure, some fell off based on one issue, or simply on pollster/pundit negative messages - there are more than enough hot-button issues and negative messages to discourage all but the most determined civic-minded or devoted-to-a-candidate voters. Still, compare Obama's polls to Edwards, and he's holding or gaining ground the better people know him, not losing ground.

What's kept so many original supporters still on the bandwagon, after all that negativity? Obama's character, his refusal to pander, his refusal to straddle the fence, his insistence on giving us complete answers, even when he has to say:

[paraphrasing BO] Conditions might change, we may have to re-think this later, but you will always know what I'm thinking. You will always be informed of the options. You will always come before the lobbyists and political profiteers as a reward for wresting our democracy back, back for the civic participants, back for the people who've been slowly added to the list of "citizens" with full voting rights, back for the people who always had those rights but no longer felt their votes mattered.

See, Obama's made many more of us members of the last category I listed above: those here out of real love, real respect for democracy. With that and BO to work and vote for, it's become a serious not just willingness but burning desire to work for the democratic process. It turns out it's a joyful process, for all the hard work it is. It's a social process, and there's no way to do it without making new friends, learning new things.

We know the alternative to democracy and we reject it absolutely. We know we're at a crossroads and we will not be seduced again to hand over our authority to people who treat this like a game for personal profit.

Obama's not a savior; he's not going to end our (sometimes fatal) self-interest completely. He's only human and so are we. But as much as pundits want to belittle that sentiment, that love for democracy that's made so many of us hard-core cynics so starry-eyed again, it's that very aspect of Obama we see, feel and hear that inspires us to keep on keepin' on. Primaries are marathons. We're here 'til the Finish and we're here to Win!

It's not Obama's debating style that makes him the candidate with the highest "favorable" rating of any candidate, Democrat or Republican (a little publicized but consistent polling fact) - at least not in those moderator and advertiser gladiator-fests they call "debates".

It's Obama communication style when he has the podium or the stage, when he's got a microphone but also provides one for participants to ask him hard questions, in those hundreds of homes, back yards, meeting halls, and school auditoriums. Obama connects to everyone from there, and it is from the podium and the world stage, and always with hundreds of microphones trained on him, that Obama will lead us as President.

In the end, when we're alone with that ballot and these choices before us, we are self-interested, we want to vote for a “probable” winner, but we are also more conscious than ever before that the world waits to see how we choose.

Will we give ourselves and the world the most serious, most genuine, most intelligent, collaborative and open leader, with the seriousness and character and advisors the office merits, and with the most all-embracing and genuine smile presented from our shores in too, too long - or more of the same old plastic politics?

Obama Envisions New Iran Approach

2007-11-02T06:44:00.001-07:00

In an interview, Senator Barack Obama said that forging a new relationship with Iran would be part of his effort to stabilize Iraq. How novel! A comprehensive approach, thank you Obama! He refuses to engage in further threats to Iran and preconditions to negotiations, and actually offers rewards to Iran for complying with U.S. and international requests. Kindly note Obama is the only true leader and statesman who considers the fate of the Iraqis in determining what our future role will be in Iraq, as well as in Iran. His principle goal in having any U.S. troops even in neighboring countries is to prevent genocide in Iraq, stabilize the region and to train Iraqi police and army staff, not support them in daily incursions, and only if they end sectarian divisions and work together on political solutions. Obama is the only one proposing an increase in humanitarian aid and America Centers where people can learn more about our country and democracy than the current propaganda. His entire approach is: what will increase stability in the Middle East, and what best serves our overall interests.

read more | digg story