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...
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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...
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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."
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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.
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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."
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An analysis of the candidates and a sound reasoning for choosing who to endorse.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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?
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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
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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!
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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?
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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
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PORTSMOUTH — It all came full circle Thursday night as Illinois Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama returned to the Frank Jones Center.
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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
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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]
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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
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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?
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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.
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Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are statistically tied in Iowa. Edwards is losing steam.
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In the light of last night's debate and Hillary Clinton's refusal to answer one single question, here are a list of her flip-flops from this campaign season alone.
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Senator Obama comes out strongly in this policy statement against violence against women, here in the U.S. as well as overseas where rape and battery of women is being used as a weapon. I hope more media picks up on this story. I think this issue will receive long overdue attention when he and Michelle move into the West Wing. I, for one, deeply appreciate Obama for bringing this issue to the forefront. There's no doubt in my mind Barack Obama cares about women's and girls' safety and equal rights - it's so obvious he's genuine when you see him with the three females that are the center of his world: Michelle, Malia and Sasha.
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Oprah interviews Barack Obama's wife, Michelle Obama. Michelle is amazing. She's smart and grounded, her family and community are her top priorities. She worshiped her father, who lived with MS until he passed barely two years before she married Barack. She's extraordinary in her focus and ability to take on anyone and anything that challenges her. She's joyful, too! Her mother, who lives 15 minutes from their home, helps care for the girls and keeps her rooted to the neighborhood she grew up in, working-class and, until Michelle intervened, totally separated from the university five minutes away.
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Barack Obama drew another enormous crowd and was endorsed by Mass. Governor Deval Patrick, former member of Bill Clinton's administration and only black governor in the U.S.
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Obama made a concerted effort to stop Gov. Schwarzenegger's veto of The Dream Ac, but Arnold vetoed it anywayt: "That was wrong, ... Instead of driving thousands of children who were on the right path into the shadows, we need to give those who play by the rules the opportunity to succeed." He spoke of the dishonesty in the immigration debate, saying the U.S. would have to stop pursuing violent criminals and thieves to arrest restaurant workers. He didn't back away from voting for voter security, but continued to argue for a legal path for citizenship as the solution for both security and human rights. Obama spoke of affirmative action to reduce dropout rates for black and Latino students, of diversity as our strength.
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The manager of a radio station critical of both the Somali government and the Islamic militants who have been trying to topple it was killed outside his home - eighth journalist slain in the country this year. Note: US backs through its surrogate, the Ethiopian Army, the Somali government which threatens this radio station with full-out military assault. Yet another pathetic US foreign policy play for profits from others' resources. It leaves the people open to wanton human rights abuses by unelected governments given reign by us just to oppose elected governments we don't like - yes, Somalia elected an Islamic government, this is the price we are forcing it to pay. It's so wrong. Imagine if we all had electric cars 20 years ago, what would this world look like?
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"Senator Barack Obama has quickly caught Senator Hillary Clinton in the presidential election fundraising race, adding $2.1 million via an email campaign in just four days." Nice work from the grassroots and the campaign! Take that, PACs, federal lobbyists, investment banks and military contractors allied with Sen. Clinton! She should have gone with public campaign financing for the primaries against other Democrats. She created the money race to win it decisively; instead, it's one of the starkest contrasts in the race: her insider-funded campaign, even by Rupert Murdoch, against Obama's grassroots campaign. And don't start with bankers and contractors donate to him too. The media does no better job than blogs to differentiate between a company low-level worker and a CEO when it comes to donations, it's the bundlers' donations that tell the true story, and Obama's the only candidate to write and push and pass legislation to expose the bundled donations clearly and put all donation information, to candidates and their pet projects, online. It's up to us to push to see the ethics legislation all funded and implemented.
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New Latino group for Obama in Nevada is launched by former Clinton-appointee Federico Pena, also the former mayor of Denver, Colorado. Mr. Pena has already vastly improved the Latinos for Obama site, both the English:http://barackobama.com/page/content/latinoshome/and the Spanish/Espanol:http://www.barackobama.com/espanol/
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"Ankara's animosity toward the U.S. has its roots in much more than a genocide bill." Good article that lists all the reasons that Turkey, a vital ally in the US occupation of Iraq and current Middle East strategy, but also an applicant to the European Union, has many conflicts with US Middle East and Eurasia policies, and options to impact the US.
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So-so. Like all the rest, Eskow ignores/hides all Obama's humanitarian proposals, the concrete plans to fix all we've broken these past two decades. The media gives us and clamors for style not substance, says we only want entertainment, not proof that change requires our own hard work. It certainly won't tell us it's joyful work that gets results!
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"He had no trouble challenging power and challenging people on issues," says Gerald Kellman, the man who hired him to work for the Developing Communities Project. "When it came to face-to-face situations, he valued civility a great deal. When it came to negotiating conflict, he was very good." These are the qualities we want in a world leader! Confident in any setting with people in all walks of life, eager to take on a challenge, a great negotiator and a leader who treats others with respect and civility. What a welcome change! Obama's a very unique mixture of down-to-earth and far-seeing, confident and respectful. He's always genuinely humble but unafraid to take on power, unafraid to hold it and wield it, and totally opposed to wielding it egotistically. No one can deny he's courageous, in the best sense of the word. Anyone who claims he's inexperienced is just willfully ignoring his entire record of 300 bills passed in IL and the best record and ratings of any new Senator in Washington.
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Barack Obama is a breath of fresh air in American politics. A lot of the anti-Obama tactics coming from the right are just more neo-con Swift-boat strategies, and they won’t work over the long haul as Obama demonstrates his character and credentials in the political arena. What these tactics will do however, is confirm a lot of Americans in their suspicions of an American right that routinely employs underhanded tactics that undercut the very democratic values the right claims to support.
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The total reflects individual contributions of $200 or greater but not those of political action committees. So that means that, if you add the PAC contributions to the other candidates, Obama's leading even without them! Article quotes lawyer fundraiser, but loads of that $ came from made in the US union label campaign paraphernalia for outreach!
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Yesterday I posted a report of SC Students for Obama in a black college "pressured" to support Clinton, today it's NY's Chinatown. Politics as usual. I volunteer for Obama; we don't do this: Many of Clinton's Chinatown donors said they had contributed because leaders in neighborhood associations told them to. ..., donors said they felt pressured -
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The ever famed ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ has picked their candidate of choice: Hillary Rodham Clinton. When Hillary takes office, do not be prepared to see an anti-war populist of any sort.
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SC Sen. Matthews needed the black students of Claflin U to legitimize his Clinton endorsement. Claflin denied Students for Obama rights to campus outreach, but pressured them to sign Hillary endorsements and wave Clinton signs for the cameras, hardworking enthusiastic Obama supporters! Claflin Students for BO, part of one million voices! Fired Up!! Ready to Go, to Make History! Mark my words: they will not be stopped, for, as Obama says, “Few obstacles can withstand the power of a million voices calling for change.”.
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Blackwater is keeping itself in the headlines with a PR blitz, and it's hurting Hillary with her base. While her top campaign adviser and CEO of the PR firm Mr. Penn helps Blackwater CEO Mr. Prince (a very conservative major Rep. donor) with indefensible media support, Democrats are reminded of Rove tactics, only now from a Dem. candidate. Real Change, anyone?
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Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton raised more money on Wall Street last quarter than Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney combined.Combined! Good grief. It's yet one more point, along with her Iraq and Iran votes and Blackwater connections, that will hurt her facing the Republican if she's chosen - What's the Diff? will be the theme!
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Barack Obama's campaign today launched a new version of its Facebook application that lets users vote on relevant news stories, videos, and blog posts, prompting them to share their favorites with friends (especially those in crucial early states like Iowa and New Hampshire). Check it out, vote up your favorites and get them visibility!
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I'd add to the article below: Don't expect Hillary to apologize for Iran resolution, either - not because she's a woman, because she doesn't care how it impact us! Story below:
Terry McAuliffe, who serves as Chair of Clinton's presidential campaign and was Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, helped shed light on why Clinton will not admit her vote was a mistake during an August 30 appearance at a coffee shop in Grinnell, IA. Abby Rapoport, editor-in-chief of Grinnell College's Scarlet & Black student newspaper, was the only reporter present for McAuliffe's candid conversation, and she quoted him this way in the September 7 issue of the paper: McAuliffe declared that under no circumstances would she take back her vote. “A woman?” he almost yelled. “Can you imagine?”
Iowa Independent has verified from three other attendees of the event that McAuliffe was quoted accurately. Ironically, those attendees also told us that before discussing the connection between Clinton's position on her war vote and her gender, McAuliffe noted that he could only speak so candidly because there were no reporters present -- or so he thought.
http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=3E4BBF99FE7D614CC72BCEDD0DB1F743?diaryId=1257
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"Obama, who received the loudest response and led the audience in a fiery chant at the end of his talk, also lauded the contributions of African-American women..." Want to truly make history, women voters? Put three black women in the West Wing, light a dream in all girls' eyes equally! Michelle Obama will truly help ALL women and girls, equally. Obama was raised at times in his life by a single mother, he knows what women go through to raise their children. Michelle grew up with working class parents, she has not been a privileged daughter. She and Obama just finished paying off their student loans when he was paid for his books - they were not wealthy privileged people. Obama has two daughters, and they will bring a sight never before seen in America: African American children living in the West Wing! Under the Clinton Administration, we got Welfare Reform that drove more single mothers and sons and daughters into poverty for lack of childcare (even Hillary's old employer, the Children's Defense Fund Executive Director Edelstein says so!). We got Sentencing Guidelines and Three Strikes that were aimed at African Americans disproportionately, including the double-standard sentencing that made penalties for crack cocaine used most in African American communities tougher than powder cocaine used most in white communities. Let's wake up and vote for the man - yes, he's a man, but what of it? - who will do more for women and men of all races, and especially for the poor and middle class, while we still have a middle class to aspire to! Let's vote the Civil Rights and Constitution expert to the presidency, and raise our individual rights back to their proper place in our democratic system - at the top! Vote Obama in the Primary Election in your state - Hillary Clinton won't miss your vote, trust me! Obama will count every one of us, for no one else, no PAC, no lobbyist, will have installed him. Obama 08! Fire Up! Ready to Make History!
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In one neighborhood of 600 zip codes of middle class African Americans, Obama got an overwhelming majority of the contributions; Hillary Clinton received just two. Despite having wrestled the most endorsements from black former civil rights leaders and legislators, Hillary Clinton is not drawing the support of the people they supposedly represent. Obama is. Quite frankly, I prefer the endorsements Sen. Obama has gotten, but as we all know, it's the people who choose in the end.
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John F Kennedy's closest living aide has anointed Barack Obama as the heir to the assassinated president's legacy and predicted that Hillary Clinton would lose an election to a Republican. Kennedy broke down the barrier of becoming the first Roman Catholic president while Mr Obama is vying to become the first black occupant of the Oval Office.
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Senator Obama has written an Op Ed against the Lieberman/Kyle Amendment, and it's brilliant. Despite Hillary's claims, her vote in 02 giving Bush authority for Iraq's invasion also applies to this terrible Amendment. He gives Edwards credit for opposing it and taking responsibility for his 02 vote (Edwards co-sponsored the Iraq War Resolution and defended it heartily and publicly for 18 months, really, but Obama's polite). He also quotes Biden's statement against the amendment granting Bush authority to attack Iran. Obama shows why he is truly the leader we need - foresight, not only in 2002, but now in 2007. Thank you for speaking out so eloquently against the Lieberman/Kyle Amendment, Senator and future President Obama!
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"The New York Times reports today, The Marine Corp is seeking the authority to remove most of the 25,000 Marines in Iraq and re-deploy to Afghanistan. This move would have the Marine Corp take the lead role in combat efforts in Afghanistan, this according to Senior Military and Pentagon Officials." Just as Senator Obama recommended how many months ago? No wonder he gets so many donations from active enlisted personnel! This just goes to show things are a disaster on both war fronts. The Marines never run from a fight, they run to them. This means things in Afghanistan are very, very bad for the troops there. It also means, as Obama has always said (and Hillary is lately parroting) that there is no military solution in Iraq. The Army will be left to mop up the mess. If only we kept better track of our arms dealers, so many lives would be spared, so much insanity averted.
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Opinion piece by Ruben Navarrette Jr. with the observation that Obama is the same age that Bill Clinton was when he became president. Rightly so, it paints Bill in a bad light for going on the attack against Obama on the very issue he ran on for president - experience that counts, not experience in Washington, DC. It's quite fun to read Ruben Navarette's statements when Bill Clinton ran, and how he voted for him for having the qualities Obama shows. Ruben also points to Bill's malleable morals as an unfavorable comparison to Obama's firm ethical principles.
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"As he continued to sign books, Clinton waxed eloquent about the merits of his pre-1996 policy of promoting democracy via people-to-people contact between Cuban-Americans and ordinary citizens on the island. Then he returned to my initial question about what he thinks of Obama's Cuban initiative. "So I think it's a good idea," he concluded w/smile." The article's from the Village Voice, with a very unflattering satirical illustration of Hillary in a guayabera holding a mic. Seems like there's always a Clinton agreeing with Obama, in the long-run. It reveals Hillary's wicked double-standard: undocumented immigrants should be kept united with their U.S. citizen families, but Cuban immigrants, even if U.S. citizens are restricted on travel to see their families in Cuba only every three years, emergency or not, and limits on the money they send them.
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Obama is not beaten, not even cowed. He bounced "into the ring" so to speak, in S. Carolina, and his Oct. 15th event is sold out. He's thrown out the stump speech and is converting the Undecideds with his authentic self, and a tough push against Hillary and the "naive" "inexperienced" labels. Fired Up! No Surrender! Ready to Win!
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Rolph once again challenged her recent vote, suggesting that it amounted to giving Bush a free hand.. "I'm sorry, sir, it does not," she said, her voice showing her exasperation. "No, no, let me just say one other thing because I respect your research. There was an earlier version that I opposed. It was dramatically changed ..."fyi, the "dramatic change" Hillary says she voted for still gives Bush/Cheney all they wanted. Obama didn't get to cast his "No" vote because after Sen. Reid said there'd be no vote that day, after Obama left to campaign, Reid held a vote, minus the Webb language to remove threat of military action against Iran.
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In case you missed it, check out the latest bit of legislation Mrs. Clinton supported.
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Pollster.com does the most in-depth analysis of political polls available to the general public online. It's detected a fluke in the ABC/Post poll that showed Hillary Clinton gaining 10 points to pass 50% - 52% to be exact. Turns out it's not so exact. When polls that offer Al Gore as an option are re-calibrated, it turns out Hillary is at about 42%, not 52%. Over the next month it will be clearer. Obama polled 30% when he won with 52% in Illinois!
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Obama blocks yet another bad deal almost passed between Non-Leader Harry Reid and Republicans. This time the most anti-Civil Rights and Voting Rights Bush nominee imaginable was almost given a pass to head the FEC, but Obama objected and derailed another gift to Bush/Cheney. The appointment would be an Ode to Alberto Gonzalez. Hillary? No fight. Senator Obama is the best candidate in 08 to defend our Civil and Voting Rights.
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Stop the victory dance, Clintonistas, we've only just begun to fight! Obama polled at 30% before his IL Senate election; he got 52% of the vote, the first to sweep every region in the state! Illinois is not NY. It's in the heartland, it's a big heavily-populated state with diverse ethnicities, and it has everything from big cities to rural and mining regions. If anyone bothers to read the polls in detail, what they all say is that 55% have not decided, only about 17% are firmly with their candidate. At Camp Obama, this 50-yr-old Hispanic female U.S. citizen Democratic-leaning-Independent, U.S.-born-and-raised of parents from a U.S. Territory, Puerto Rico, worked all weekend alongside folks here for generations of all ages, some who had ancestors in the Civil War - like Obama, whose great-grandad fought for Lincoln! - and alongside a U.S.-born/raised Republican daughter of Samoan parents - another U.S. Territory - who is half my age to help elect Obama. California is one-third Undeclared/Independent voters. It's rural, as well as cosmopolitan. It's got many military bases filled of those who serve and sacrifice, who have donated so much of their hard-earned money to Obama. It's got lots and lots of veterans of too many wars, grateful for Obama's support and foreign policy approach. The polls don't worry us here. We're as down to earth about what we read in the media as anyone in Iowa. We know New Hampshire's very, very Independent. We know we're very, very determined and working very, very hard to put smart, sane, down-to-earth Obama in the White House. We know we've matched the lobbyist and PAC donations of Hillary almost dollar-for-dollar, an amazing feat for an upstart up against a 17-year legacy. We'll keep putting out and bringing in those $10, $25, $50, $100 donations, buying window signs to give to supporters to show the world a real political poll! We can't wait, we won't wait, it's O in 08!
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We can let Hillary back in to commit the same old blunders or vote for Obama to keep us from adding to our regrets. September Obama spoke against escalating threats against Iran; in October Hillary voted for the Lieberman/Kyle Amendment to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard terrorists and up the ante. We need a Commander in Chief worthy of the title, not a mouthpiece for the military contract lobby, foreign and domestic. The Clintons, after all, gave Blackwater their first contract.
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Ending nuclear proliferation instead of adding to it - Go Obama 08! Like JFK, a new road for America!In what was his most distinctive foreign policy speech so far, Mr Obama drew a parallel between his campaign and the presidency of John F. Kennedy, who first negotiated the nuclear weapons control that led to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1969.
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Video snippet includes Obama saying that anyone saying we can just walk out of Iraq with no consequences is not truthful, anyone claiming Social Security will be fine without raising taxes isn't truthful. For those of you wanting him to confront Clinton, this is it and this is how it'll be - it's the policies and the honesty that set him apart.
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Slide show from photographer Andrew Lichtenstein's new book tells the real story of loss when the soldiers, sailors, airmen and women and Marines don't come back. Immensely sad snapshots of the deepest loss, from the military funerals to the homes of bereft mothers, fathers, wives, children, siblings, and no doubt husbands. If you want to thaw a pro-war heart this holiday season, buy him/her this book. Definitely get it for the veterans and their families. It's so respectful - what a welcome change from how our Vietnam veterans were treated! Sure, everyone wearing the uniform isn't a saint, but most are just regular people, and no one deserves to be left behind with such emptiness where someone they loved used to be, and for such a cruel reason - power and oil.
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"Blackwater landed its first big contract during the Clinton administration. Would Hillary Clinton be likely to scale back or possibly eradicate the Blackwater contract if elected?" I'd expect she gets lots of campaign donations from Blackwater, as she gets millions from military lobbyists and bundlers. Donations and contracts go together.
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The added obscenity about Blackwater few ever mention (why, I wonder?) is that it got its first federal contract in 2000 under the Clinton Administration. See Jeremy Scahill's book talk on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP_m4m62IfI&NR=1, 2 min. into the video, blink and you'll miss it! Why did Clinton give them their first federal contract?
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Obama speaks again on the contractor fiasco in Iraq, with a reminder of his amendment "Transparency and Accountability in Military and Security Contracting Act (S. 674)" to the defense appropriations bill to make contractors accountable for crimes, make them coordinate with troops, and document all the contractors and their expenses.
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No, we are not kidding. He has drafted language that any impartial observer would interpret as a DECLARATION OF WAR against Iran, and he is pressing for a vote as fast as possible. Take action from this site!
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"Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama want the secretary of Veterans Affairs to explain how a surgeon with a history of malpractice complaints in Massachusetts was hired at a VA medical facility in Southern Illinois." Yet another example of how little this administration cares about our veterans, killing them with malpractice!
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Obama's campaign set up a neighboring states strategy and his devoted volunteers are driving into Nevada from every direction. They're paired up with Nevada natives to avoid the mistakes made by Dean's campaign in Iowa. Hopes are that Nevadan campaigners will help in California when their primary caucus is over.
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WASHINGTON - Of all political marriages of convenience, the union of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a fellow Chicagoan, is among the most freighted. The two men need each other's support, yet also need to keep their distance. Each serves as a standing critique of the other, yet they profess to share similar goals.
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Nice lesson in how campaigns are won in the field, and one taught well in Camp Obama. It's a major reason polling second this early's no sweat; a close second will get 2 out of 5 delegates, and a weak first can't sweep. Add a strong third and the lead for first gets weaker. Also explains why HC now parrots Obama's phrases and laid off attacking.
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Great news for Obama, as he gets the most Independent and moderate Republican votes of any of the frontrunners! Look out, New Hampshire's going to O in 08! Almost half (44%) of their voters are Independent and can vote in the Dem. primary!
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Naval Reservist Lt. Mark Lippert is finishing up his training for his Iraq deployment. Awaiting his safe return will be not only his family and fiance, but Sen. Obama, whose campaign he's been advising. Lt. Lippert's focus: genocide and weapons of mass destruction, threats from transnational groups. A great advisor; he'll be missed. Come back safe!
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Full video of Obama's speech at the California Women for Obama event in San Francisco on Sept. 7, 2007. Marvelous diversity of women on the stage. The balconies were full of volunteers, but there aren't any shots of them by CBS. Great video!
cbs5.com - Video Library
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The organization Black Women for Barack Obama is now official and national. Chapters are starting in several states with large African American populations, as well as in the first four primary states. Black Women for Obama Joins Movement for Change Read more!
Obama leads all other Democratic contenders (except Edwards in one matchup) in the general election matchup against Republicans. Hillary's lead is too small to rely on.
RealClearPolitics - Election 2008 - National Polls
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The National Post of Canada, our neighbors and allies still fighting with us in Afghanistan, agree with Obama on Pakistan.
National Post
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It was Obama's turn to spend part of a work day with a union member. He made a favorable impression on the single woman caregiver who's raising two foster children and a great-grand-nephew and whom he worked with in Oakland, California. She gets no paid sick leave or vacation time. She'll "probably" vote for him.
In caregiver's shoes -- chicagotribune.com
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Obama comes right out and recommends that Democrats stop funding 527s, groups like the "Swift Boat Veterans" who torpedoed Kerry in '04 (and for that matter MoveOn.org though it's not mentioned). He points out they get around campaign contribution limits and asks that everyone who wants to support his campaign do so through official channels with the official campaign where everything is transparent. Obama sees this as the best way to improve campaign financing until better campaign finance laws are passed. Several such groups have formed to support Obama but they've been soundly and publicly rejected as efforts separate from the campaign.
Obama blasts shadow fundraising group
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Point-by-point refutations of attacks on Obama's foreign policy statements as stated by Obama's advisor Greg Craig, a former State Department official under Clinton.
An Obama Foreign Policy Adviser Clarifies Senator's Views | TPMCafe
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The media, right, left and in-between, is distorting Barack Obama’s words and record so much that I cannot take it anymore. Please consider these corrections of unreported/misrepresented facts regarding Senator Barack Obama’s foreign and domestic policies:
Obama on the NSA Surveillance Act that makes US spying on US citizens legal and uncontestable for six months, and that just disgracefully passed with some Democrats’ support of the Republican bill: Obama votes Nay. What about DLC Dems like Lieberman (Independent when convenient) and Sen. Feinstein? Both voted "aye". My Dem Sen. Boxer? No vote. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-836
And what about Hillary? Whatever Obama does, she follows if the netroots is watching; otherwise she'd vote with her DLC Dems. John Edwards if he could vote? Look at his record
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/spectrum.xpd.
Edwards was a DLC member who voted closer to Repubs than almost all other Dems when he was Senator. Obama directly excluded himself from membership in the DLC when they saw he was a viable IL Senate candidate and courted him.
Obama on Foreign Policy: Obama spoke not only against the Iraq War Resolution in his speech at an anti-Iraq war rally in October 2002, but against nuclear proliferation, and against US arms merchants, and calling for true democratic reforms from our allies:
http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php
"You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush?
Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair."
"I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.”
“And Pakistan needs more than F-16s to combat extremism [a reference to Bush announcement of F-16 sales to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan-v3]. As the Pakistani government increases investment in secular education to counter radical madrasas, my Administration will increase America's commitment. We must help Pakistan invest in the provinces along the Afghan border, so that the extremists' program of hate is met with one of hope. And we must not turn a blind eye to elections that are neither free nor fair -- our goal is not simply an ally in Pakistan, it is a democratic ally.”
Would not use nuclear weapons in any circumstance to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan
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Bowers talks about why the online left may be stalling out: lack of ethnic/racial diversity.
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The first major dustup between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- whether the next president should unconditionally meet with leaders hostile to the U.S. -- is still simmering after two weeks.
How the issue will play in the American presidential election remains uncertain. How the rest of the world is reacting is not. Obama wins.
Bloomberg.com:
News
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August 6th is the commemoration of the US (under Truman) nuclear-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan that killed 200,000-350,000 civilians. Ross praises Obama's statement against using nukes against civilians. Ross notes that Hillary's refusal to take off the table the Bush policy of a US first-nuclear-strike against even a non-nuclear country, in defiance, like Truman, of the Geneva Convention, will resound around the world on that day, especially as the US/Bush arms and nuclear weapons and delivery-system deals with Pakistan and India are signed.
Sherwood Ross: Obama Renouces Use of Nuclear Weapons
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Meet the General Who Lends Gravitas to Obama -
Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com
MSNBC.com
Meet the General Who Lends Gravitas to Obama
The candidate’s new Swahili-speaking military adviser, Gen. Scott Gration, sees him as America’s Mandela. The general also has some strong views of his own: ‘I believe if you could get rid of all the nuclear weapons this would be a wonderful world,’ he says.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Hirsh
Newsweek
Updated: 2:34 p.m. PT Aug 2, 2007
Aug. 2, 2007 - Those who fall in with the Barack Obama campaign tend to fall hard for the man himself, and none more than Jonathan Scott Gration. A recently retired Air Force major general who voted for George W. Bush in 2000, Gration accompanied Obama on a 15-day tour of Africa last August and was, he says, simply bowled over. When the two traveled to Kenya, the homeland of Obama’s father, the U.S. presidential candidate directly confronted President Mwai Kibaki over corruption. "It was an incredible thing to watch," Gration later blogged on BarackObama.com. After the two of them went to Robben Island, the South African prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for almost three decades. Gration had something of an epiphany. "To see how Mandela saved his country by bridging racial, ethnic and in some cases cultural diversity, and turn a page from a turbulent time—I think that’s sort of what the senator’s doing," Gration told NEWSWEEK in an interview this week. "He’s using his experience to turn a page for America, not only to bring the country together, but to give us a different image externally."
Not surprisingly, the Obama campaign has begun sending Gration out on the stump—he did a 13-town tour of Iowa in July—in an effort to improve the inexperienced senator’s image on national security. Gration also contributed ideas to Obama’s much noted speech on counterterrorism Wednesday, when the candidate generated headlines by suggesting that, as president, he might invade the tribal parts of Pakistan. "The United States has to be willing to pursue these terrorists to where they’re planning their logistics operations," says Gration, who adds he’s "really disappointed with the spin mongers" who focused only on Obama’s aggressive language about Pakistan. "This speech has been a long time coming. It’s not a response to Hillary Clinton or anybody else." Bill Burton, Obama’s press secretary, says Gration supplies extra "credibility" for a candidate who has never served in the military. "He has an ability to educate voters about what kind of commander in chief Obama will be, in a way few can."
Indeed, Gration’s résumé is bristling with real-world military experience that earned him seven rows of ribbons during a 32-year Air Force career. As a fighter pilot, he flew 274 missions over Iraq during and after the first Persian Gulf War, occasionally encountering Iraqi ground fire, and he commanded a task force during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Gration was also in command of the unit at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that lost 18 of the 19 U.S. personnel killed in a terrorist explosion in 1996. And he happened to be at the Pentagon when the plane hit on 9/11. "I’m not a good guy to have around, I guess," he jokes.
Gration had a rare upbringing, raised as the son of missionary parents in the Congo—one reason Obama asked him along on his Africa trip. "When I learned to talk, my first sentence was in Swahili. I’ve been a Swahili speaker all my life. That probably makes me pretty unique among generals and flag officers," he says. "We were evacuated three times from the Congo. We lost everything we owned, and became refugees. My wife’s mom gave us cows and sheep and got us going again." As a result of that experience, says Gration’s father, John, now a retired professor at Wheaton College in Illinois, "he grew up respecting people of a different color and culture in a very natural way." After his family returned to the States during the Vietnam War, Gration says, "my low draft number motivated me to join the Air Force." But even during his stellar Air Force career, he couldn’t quite leave Africa behind. He sometimes took leaves of absence to work on village projects in Uganda and elsewhere.
Gration also has some strong views of his own on national security, which may not always be perfectly in accord with Obama's. Above all, he thinks there are far too many nuclear weapons in America’s arsenal and in the world, and he wants to accelerate the 2002 Moscow Treaty that called on Washington and Moscow to reduce their operationally deployed strategic warheads to about 2,000 by 2012. "Our nuclear forces are not a deterrent as powerful as they once were, and yet those nuclear weapons and fissile material provide a threat. If, in my view, they’re not doing a deterrence mission and they pose a threat if terrorists get ahold of them, we ought to be pulling back the number of ICBMs," he says. "When you have 15,000 to 16,000 weapons floating around, I think you can reduce that number significantly. And make sure nobody else feels a requirement to get new nukes. I believe if you could get rid of all the nuclear weapons this would be a wonderful world." Even so, Gration says, he’s a "pragmatist." "As a fighter pilot I stood nuclear alert. I understood that during the cold war we had this requirement. I was defending America in that process. Things have changed right now. But we have to do it in a way that makes sense. I’m not one who just says get rid of everything unilaterally."
Obama’s views "are very similar to mine," Gration says. "While he hasn’t served in the military he has tremendous respect and admiration for service people. … I’m very involved in veterans’ issues, and I believe there’s not a candidate out there who’s taking care of our veterans like Obama." Denis McDonough, Obama’s new foreign-policy coordinator, says Gration is now considered one of Obama’s three top military advisers, along with Richard Danzig, the former secretary of the Navy during the Clinton administration, and Gen. Merrill McPeak, former Air Force chief of staff. "He and Barack share a lot of personal experience, given the way they grew up," says McDonough. "There’s a lot of kinship." Maybe a little bit of hero worship too.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20096479/site/newsweek/page/0/
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