Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:06 PM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos

January 6, 2009

Tom Geoghegan for Congress

Go learn about Geoghegan for Congress | Democrat for Illinois’ fifth district

He posted this at DailyKos: I'm running for Congress in IL-5. (Progressive candidacy announcement for Rahm's seat.)

I’m running for Congress in the Fifth District of Illinois.

As a Chicago lawyer for thirty years, I have fought for working people in the Fifth District and throughout the city. I have represented unions as well as people with no unions to protect them. In plant closings I have helped them recover health and pension benefits. I obtained health care for the uninsured. I've been pressing the State of Illinois to crack down on payday lenders.

In my life as a lawyer I have lived out a commitment to one cause above all – to bring economic security to working Americans, in our District, in our country. That’s the same commitment I will bring to Congress.

We’re deep in an economic crisis unlike any other we’ve known. It may last years. We need new and creative ways to protect working Americans, especially our older working people who have no real pensions to live on.

For years we’ve heard the doomsayers: "We can’t afford Social Security." "We can’t afford ‘single-payer’ national health." One thing we all learned from the $700 billion bail out: We’ve got the money to do all of this and more.

Give money here:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:18 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

November 11, 2008

Veterans Day

I can't think about Veterans Day without thinking about Max Cleland. Max lost three limbs in Vietnam, worked in the Carter administration helping other veterans, and became a senator from Georgia. After 9/11 a Republican named Saxby Chambliss, who got out of Vietnam saying he had a bad knee, campaigned against Cleland saying he was unpatriotic. He ran ads linking Cleland to bin Laden.

Well now Republican Chambliss is in a runoff against another democrat, Jim Martin. If Martin wins it could bring the Democrats to the magic 60 seats that lets them pass bills over Republican obstruction.

James Boyce has more: James Boyce: Saxby Chambliss Seeks Deferment From Runoff -- Cites "Bum Knee".

Go help Martin defeat Chambliss. Do it for Max.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:32 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 31, 2008

McCain Robo-Call Script Ideas The Were Rejected

McCain's Rejected Robo-Call Scripts,

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama talks during movies. During a recent screening of The Dark Knight, Barack Obama irritated several pro-America patrons when he echoed the famous 'Why so serious?' line to his wife, Michelle, who hasn't always been proud of being an American, much like the Joker. ...

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama doesn't use his turn signal when he merges onto a freeway.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:45 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

October 29, 2008

One Of The Worst?

This is one -- just one -- of the sleaziest Republican smear/deceit ads this year. Sen. Dole in North Carolina hires a voice impersonator to sound like her opponent, to say "There is no God" in an ad, saying her opponent "took godless money."

Wow. That's really creepy. And Sen. Dole apparently thinks North Carolina voters are really, really stupid. Is she right?

One thing that comes out of this election: I think it has become pretty obvious what the Republican Party is about. They say nasty and things to trick people who don't follow the news into voting for them, and then they hand over public money to a few wealthy corporation owners who fund all of this.

I think people are starting to become well-enough aware of this game to start doing something about it. ONE thing would be to stop allowing a few people to use corporate resources to influence our politics. It isn't corporations that are the problem, it is this abiloity of a few people to access corporate resources and use them to subvert democracy.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:43 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 28, 2008

Was 64 McCain Fatal Car Crash Covered Up?

This is a question not a statement. It might be an emerging story. There is a report out that John McCain was involved in a fatal car crash in 1964, and that it has been covered up.

News Orgs Investigate Possibly Fatal McCain '64 Car Crash,

For the past two months, a major American magazine and an allied news service have been engaged in a legal battle with the United States Navy over records that they believe show that John McCain once was involved in an automobile accident that injured or, perhaps, killed another individual.

Vanity Fair magazine and the National Security News Service claim to have knowledge "developed from first-hand sources" of a car crash that involved then-Lt. McCain at the main gate of a Virginia naval base in 1964, according to legal filings. The incident has been largely, if not entirely, kept from the public. And in documents suing the Navy to release pertinent information, lawyers for the NS News Service allege that a cover-up may be at play.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:32 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

Must Read!!!

Please go read this short, powerful post by Max Cleland.

Max lost three limbs in VietNam. He was head of the Veterans Administration under Carter. Later he was elected to the Senate in Georgia. But in the post-9/11 fear-frenzy Saxby Chambliss, a Republican draft-dodger, ran Karl Rove ads saying Cleland was unpatriotic and a coward. Those ads, with a little help from voting machine problems, put Chambliss in the Senate.

Now Chambliss has a challenger, Democrat Jim Martin. And Max Cleland wants you to know his feelings about the race. So go read Max Cleland: Georgia On My Mind.

If you are in Georgia, or know anyone in Georgia, please ask them to read this, too.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:09 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 22, 2008

Joe The Hedge Fund Manager

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 18, 2008

White Pride

Jesus' General: White Pride, Campaign Wide

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:41 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 17, 2008

Steve Young, Too

While I'm at it, take a look at Steve Young for Congress, too.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Charlie Brown for Congress -- CA

I received this about Charlie Brown running for Congress in California and want to pass it along:

Recent developments show that Charlie Brown is poised to make history by winning the Congressional seat in CD4 but we still need your help. Even TIME magazine is covering the race. You can read the TIME article here.

Charlie is leading in the polls but being outspent by his hyper partisan rival Tom McClintock 2-1. To keep his lead in the polls, Charlie needs the financial resources to continue to fight and win. You can read the press release on the quarterly filing on the website or click here. As you know Charlie is a retired Lt Colonel from the United States Air Force where he served 26 years. Charlie knows how to fight. He is a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee "Red to Blue" candidate, a Democracy for America All-Star and has many national and local endorsements. You can see Charlie's endorsements on his website. (By the way, Charlie's active duty son has served 4 rotations in this war and will do another next year.) And his wife Jan also served as a nurse in the USAF.

Imagine what it would be like to have Charlie in the House and voting on every bill that comes before it. Voting for health care, education, and the environment. And Charlie will be an experienced voice on national security, he will be one of the very few in Congress who has "been there, done that" and knows what real intelligence means and what it does not.

How can you help? Donate now to the campaign, by clicking here to reach Charlie's website or mail a check to:

Brown for Congress

PO Box 368

Roseville, CA 95661

And then tell your friends about this candidate and about this race. Tell them with their help Charlie will WIN!

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

A Call To Community

Christy at Firedoglake blogged about Obama's closing remarks to the Al Smith Dinner last night. Obama: Each Of Us Has The Responsibility Of Service In Our Communities, Especially Now. Please click through.
This video is the entire event, both McCain and Obama. Lots of great jokes. Obama's closing remarks are at 22:14:

Here is Christy's transcript of the closing remarks:

The fact that each October, in the closing weeks of a hard-fought campaign, people of all political persuasions can come to this dinner, and share a meal and honor the work of this foundation, underscores the reality that no matter what differences or divisions or arguments we are having right now -- we ultimately belong to something bigger and more lasting than a political party.

We belong to a community. We share a country. We are all children of God.

And in this country, there are millions of fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters, who need us very much. Especially now. We are being battered by a very serious economic storm, and for many Americans it's only deepened the quiet storms they've been struggling through for years.

Beyond the walls of this hotel, on the streets of one the greatest cities in the wealthiest nation on earth, there are men and women and children who've fallen on hard times and hard luck. Who can't find work or even a job that pays enough to keep a roof over their heads. Some are hanging on just by a thread.

Scripture says God creates us for works of service. We are blessed to have so many organizations like this one, in the Catholic diocese that perform these acts of God every day. But each of us also have that responsibility. Each of us has that obligation. Especially now.

So, no matter who we are or what we do -- and what I believe is each of us in this room asks for, and hopes for and prays for enough strength and wisdom to do good and to seek justice, and play our small part in building a more hopeful and compassionate world for the generations that will follow.

Before Al Smith was a candidate who made history, he was a man who made a difference. A man who fought for many years to give Americans nothing more than a fair shake and a chance to succeed. And he touched the lives of hundreds of thousands, of millions as a result. Simply put, he helped people. And that's a distinction we can all aspire to. And we can all achieve.

Young or old, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican or Independent. And I have no doubt if we come together at this moment of crisis with this goal in mind, America will meet this challenge and weather this storm. And, in the words of Al Smith, "walk once more in eternal sunshine."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:37 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 16, 2008

Angry

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:39 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Respondele a Obama

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:49 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 15, 2008

McAngry

Asshole.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:43 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Hilarious

PalinAsPresident.com

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:27 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 14, 2008

Ronald Reagan Endorses Obama

A must-watch:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:15 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 12, 2008

More Threats To Kill Obama

This is at a popular right-wing blog. Warning you will need a strong stomach to see this. It is a photo of Obama and a noose and the words "The F**king Solution" - and more, with the usual nasty right-wing victim-complex justifications, all followed by some really nasty comments frok readers. Just go see for yourself.

Update It was removed there, but it is still up here. Update - It's gone there too. Good riddance. Also, I have learned that the one posted at Say Anything was a reader blog, and not from the bloggers at that site. I want to point that out, the blog itself was not responsible.

Update - The whole thing is covered here.

The original post continues:

This had better get the Secret Service involved fast.

And just to document where this stuff is heading, this at Fox news Forums, whipping people up that Obama is rigging the election by accusing ACORN of "vote fraud" even though there has never been a single fraudulent vote cast as a result of voter-registration mistakes.

It makes your everyday smear look almost trivial...

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:13 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Palin's Accusation That Obama is A Terrorist

Sarah Palin repeatedly accuses Obama of having various "ties" to terrorists, and pretty buch of being a terrorist himself.

Remember the Seeing the Forest Rule: When Republicans Accuse it is a good idea to see if it is what THEY are really doing. The accusation serves as an inoculation. It works like this: Billy steals a cookie from the cookie jar. Billy runs to mommy and tells her Bobby took a cookie. Bobby responds with "No, mommy, Billy did it." This gets Bobby is serious trouble, and Billy gets away scott-free -- plus a cookie.

So of course an investigation into Sarah Palin reveals ... you guessed it. A DailyKos post explains, and David Neiwert has a summary at his blog:
# That Gov. Palin, when a Wasilla city council member, formed an alliance with some of the more radical far-right citizens in Wasilla and vicinity, particularly members of the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party who were allied with local John Birch Society activists. These activists played an important role in her election as Wasilla mayor in 1996.

# Once mayor, one of Mrs. Palin’s first acts was to attempt to appoint one of these extremists (a man named Steve Stoll) to her own seat on the city council. This was a man with a history of disrupting city council meetings with intimidating behavior. She was blocked by a single city council member.

# Afterward, Mrs. Palin fired the city’s museum director at the behest of this faction.

# She fomented an ultimately successful effort to derail a piece of local gun-control legislation which would simply have prohibited the open carry of firearms into schools, liquor stores, libraries, courthouses and the like. The people recruited to shout this ordinance down included these same figures, notably the local AIP representative (who became the AIP’s chairman that same year).

# She remained associated politically with the local AIP/Birch faction throughout her tenure as mayor on other issues, particularly a successful effort to amend the Alaska Constitution to prohibit local governments from issuing any local gun-control ordinances.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:33 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Hey, Sarah Palin

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 9, 2008

McCain and Casinos

There are several stories circulating about McCain playing lots of craps at casinos. Here's one: Report: McCain Exploded With Rage During Gambling Outing

Here is a video of McCain exploding at a casino:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:25 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Obama, ACORN, Terrorist, Etc

McCain supporters:

This is a window into the next several years if McCain becomes President.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:04 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 8, 2008

Compare

Compare the reaction of Obama and his campaign to last nights "that one" comment by McCain, to McCain and his campaign's reaction to Obama saying that McCain's policies put "lipstick on a pig."

Basically the Obama reaction was to ignore it, while the McCain campaign and supporting Republican noise machine went into a several-day hissy fit.

After eight years of government by fear and hysteria, it is going to be a relief to have some reasonable adults in charge.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:15 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 7, 2008

Palin's Relationship With America-Haters

So McCain and Palin want to accuse Obama "associating with terrorists."

Remember the Seeing the Forest Rule: When Republicans accuse, it usually means they're doing whatever it is they are accusing others of.

Maybe we ought to look at Palin's associations:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 6, 2008

Why Is Media Ignoring Palin Unpaid Taxes Story?

On Friday Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin released her tax forms. It turns out that the money she was taking as a "per diem" was never claimed as income, and she owes thousands in back taxes. Was she caught in old fashioned corruption with a tax fraud scheme?

Several tax experts have weighed in on this, all saying she owes taxes and should have claimed the income. See MyDD :: Tax Profs: Palin Owes Thousands in Back Taxes for more.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:12 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

Palin Gets The Reaction She's Trying For

"Kill him!", Palin supporter says of Obama in her presence. She says nothing.,

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:43 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 4, 2008

Palin Calls Obama A Terrorist, Traitor

Here it comes, the desperate horror show of an imploding Republican Party -- just in time for Halloween. Palin says Obama 'palling around' with terrorists

Palin told a group of donors at a private airport, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She also said, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

Palin, Alaska's governor, said that donors on a greeting line had encouraged her and McCain to get tougher on Obama. She said an aide then advised her, "Sarah, the gloves are off, the heels are on, go get to them."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:49 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

Jobs

Obama ad -- More of the same, job loss:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

October 2, 2008

Script vs Experience

Biden won on words, substance and experience. Palin won on image.

For people who care about substance, Biden won. Does that mean he won?

We'll see what it means...

Is "phony folksy" a good description?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:34 PM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos

Bosniacs?

Bosniacs? Heh.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:05 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

Mccain Pulling Out Of Michigan

If true, this is a very good sign. Jonathan Martin's Blog: McCain pulling out of Michigan - Politico.com,

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.

What this will mean, if it continues, will likely be attempts to prevent an absolute landslide and keep at least enough Republicans in the Senate to block everything.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:56 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 30, 2008

I Read all Of Them

A vast number of sources

Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:55 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 26, 2008

A Tie -- And A Choice

I think both John McCain and Barack Obama did well representing their positions and showing what they would be like as President. So on that I would score this as a tie. (I also want to say that McCain did well yesterday when I saw him in person at the Clinton Global Initiative. In fact it was the best I have seen him in a very long time, not the clown we have been seeing this year.)

But I think that by doing this they have offered the American people a clear choice. They contrasted their philosophies very well. For example, McCain argued his position of tax cuts for corporations while Obama argued his position of bottom-up economic growth.

I think there is on more factor here. They also both offered stories. McCain offers the past. Obama offers the future. That is the clear story that was told here.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:06 PM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos

Huckabee Makes Sense

this is interesting, Huckabee Calls McCain Debate Ploy a ‘Huge Mistake’,

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday that Sen. John McCain made a “huge mistake” by even discussing canceling the presidential debate with Sen. Barack Obama.

. . . Huckabee said Thursday in Mobile that the people need to hear both candidates. He said that’s “far better than heading to Washington” to huddle with senators.

He said the candidates should level with the people about the financial crisis and say the “heart of this is greed.”

. . . Huckabee also was critical of President Bush’s handling of the crisis.

He said to lay the $700 billion obligation on the nation “in 24 hours” amounts to “holding the country hostage.”

“I just think the American people ought to be screaming their lungs out, saying to Congress, not so fast. That’s our money you’re giving away,” Huckabee said.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:56 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 24, 2008

Palin Says America Heading For A Depression

Governor Palin says that America is not heading for a recession, it will be another Great Depression. Go see: Palin: America may be in for another Great Depression

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:30 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

September 14, 2008

McCain Campaign Lie Strategy - Will It Work?

The McCain campaign is being called out on some of the lies they have been telling. The campaign spokesman says that they are in this to win and don't care what the "media filter" says.

I think we will get a test of their theory that the "media filter" doesn't matter anymore. This is to a large degree about who controls the information channels now. The conservative movement has been building to this with their well-funded "liberal media" campaign. They have they're mouthpieces like Rush constantly telling his audience not to ever believe the media. The right has a very large following. The result is that most of the public believes that the major news media is a propaganda machine for liberals and should not be trusted.

And they have the advantage that repetition of messages does work. They are running ads that say Obama will raise your taxes, force sex talk on your kindergartners and all that stuff -- even one that says Obama is the anti-Christ. They have the money to run those ads over and over on shows that lots of people watch. And they have the wealthy and corporate-backed front groups running ads and robo-calls and smear campaigns, etc. against Obama. People don't necessarily watch or believe mainstream news, but they will see these ads again and again.

So do the authoritarian conservatives have the power to override facts and "create their own reality" as they did in the lead-up to the Iraq war? I really don't know the answer and wouldn't bet my house on it either way.

Remember, tobacco company marketing is able to get people to kill themselves, but to hand over much of their money in the process. Modern marketing methods can convince almost anyone to do or believe almost anything.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 12, 2008

Palin Doesn't Know and Doesn't CARE

James Fallows - The Palin interview. Fallows points out that the interview showed not only that Palin didn't know what the Bush Doctrine is, she demonstrated that she doesn't care about these pesky issues that are important to people, and governing and stuff.

He writes,

Each of us has areas we care about, and areas we don't. If we are interested in a topic, we follow its development over the years. And because we have followed its development, we're able to talk and think about it in a "rounded" way. We can say: Most people think X, but I really think Y. Or: most people used to think P, but now they think Q. Or: the point most people miss is Z. Or: the question I'd really like to hear answered is A.

Here's the most obvious example in daily life: Sports Talk radio.

Mention a name or theme -- Brett Favre, the Patriots under Belichick, Lance Armstrong's comeback, Venus and Serena -- and anyone who cares about sports can have a very sophisticated discussion about the ins and outs and myth and realities and arguments and rebuttals.

People who don't like sports can't do that. It's not so much that they can't identify the names -- they've heard of Armstrong -- but they've never bothered to follow the flow of debate. I like sports -- and politics and tech and other topics -- so I like joining these debates. On a wide range of other topics -- fashion, antique furniture, the world of restaurants and fine dining, or (blush) opera -- I have not been interested enough to learn anything I can add to the discussion. So I embarrass myself if I have to express a view.

What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues.

[. . .] How could she not know this? For the same reason I don't know anything about European football/soccer standings, player trades, or intrigue. I am not interested enough. And she evidently has not been interested enough even to follow the news of foreign affairs during the Bush era.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:34 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

An Email I Received

From the emailbag:

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Sarah Palin's Depth of Understanding

Sarah Palin, on the Bush Doctrine (the justification for war with Iraq):

FYI it comes from this:

And here is my response:

Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:48 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 10, 2008

Lies Beyond Even Bush

Reagan picked up where Nixon left off, with no apologies. Bush I picked up from there. And then George W. Bush was literally a corporate coup taking on democracy itself. But McCain? The campaign HE is running? The absolute lies? It's beyond even George W Bush!

Josh Marshall, Unfit for High Office,

It's easy to get twisted up in your head about strategy and message and optics. But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let's stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We've got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They've both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.

In the end, his [McCain's] final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. ...

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:15 AM | Comments (3) | Link Cosmos

September 9, 2008

Dick Cheney Calls John Kerry "A Pig"

"As we say in Wyoming, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," quipped Vice President Dick Cheney in a stump speech yesterday, with reference to John Kerry's claims he would be a credible war president.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:03 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 8, 2008

Palin's Big Gaffe

So Sarah Palin FINALLY speaks. How many days has it been since she was selected as Republican Vice presidential candidate -- and still NO appearances before the press?

So what happens when she DOES speak? It turns out that she knows NOTHING about the biggest economic issue of our time, and gets it completely wrong.

Palin Makes Her First Gaffe,

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

It was unkind to Sarah Palin and to the public for an old man -- who has had melanoma four times -- to select her as running mate and possibly the next President just a few months from now. It was inevitable that this would happen.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:31 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 7, 2008

Palin Is Not Even On Fox or Rush

Nine days since Palin was announced and she has not given a single interview to the press. Not Training Wheels We Can Believe In,

Sarah Palin could be the President of the United States in four and a half months. We tend to think of this as an abstraction; but it's true. And yet today she's so unprepared and knows so little about the challenges and tasks facing the country that she can't even give a softball interview.

That's really all we need to know.

These people have no respect for democracy.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:09 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 6, 2008

Daily Show on McCain's Speech

You absolutely must watch this Daily Show with John Stewart segment on McCain's speech:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 5, 2008

What Is Obama's Story?

Note to Reddit users: This is a GREAT post, but Reddit screwed up and the post titled "Palin Is Not Even On Fox or Rush" is at http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2008/09/palin_not_even.htm

We now continue with our What Is Obama's Story? post:

Almost every single thing Palin said in her speech the other night turns out to be just a lie -- and it doesn't matter. She now has 58% favorability among the public. And she has a story. Within a day of the Palin announcement a well-informed, liberal, Democratic, pro-choice friend told me that Palin is "a reformer" -- "just like McCain."

Here is what the Republicans understand: facts don't matter, stories do. So knowing this, they just lie and say anything they want as long as it reinforces the story. How do you fight this? Getting bogged down refuting the lies can never work because they'll just make up a ton more lies for you to refute and you can't keep up. Meanwhile, they keep reinforcing the story while you're mired in the refutation. This is why almost every single thing Palin said in her speech turns out to be just a lie. But look how her STORY has taken hold! The story overcomes all the lies, even though the entire story is based on the lies.

The Obama campaign was the beneficiary of just such a story during the primaries. Obama became the great progressive transformation that we all want, while Hillary came to represent the past. She became NAFTA and DLC and lobbyists. Once these stories took hold there was nothing at all Hillary could do about it. Everything started to reinforce it. "Experience" came to mean "Bill" which meant the past.

THAT is how a story works. Facts just get in the way. (NOTE I am not saying that Obama's story was based on lies, I am saying the power of a STORY took over and swamped Hillary.)

This is the power of - and the reason for - the "elite" storyline they are trying so hard to establish. If it can take hold there is nothing that can be done about it. So far it is just a little bit too unbelievable. But we have seen how they have tried to tell one story after another, to see if one sticks.

So what IS Obama's STORY today? The FISA swing and a few things like that got rid of the "great progressive transformation" story that won the primaries. What does he represent and how do we drive the new story? How do we establish a negative story about McCain that sticks?

Remember how at the end of the Kerry campaign people still were saying that they didn't understand what Kerry and the Democrats were about, were for, etc? They were saying that there was no story.

What is the Obama story, in a sentence? McCain is the maverick who will change Washington, and so is Palin-the-reformer. That is a story. It is a story because they said it is.

What is the Obama story?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:22 PM | Comments (6) | Link Cosmos

September 3, 2008

The Beauty Queen Is Nasty, Too

I remember her from high school.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:58 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 2, 2008

Palin - THE Most Qualified Republican

As I wrote below, I have to agree with John McCain that Sarah Palin is absolutely the most qualified Republican to be Vice President.

Of all the Republicans in the entire United States, Sarah Palin is the most qualified Republican.

John McCain has suffered FOUR bouts of melanoma. So it is imperative that the Vice President be the most qualified possible person, ready to step into the leadership role on a moment's notice.

There is NO Republican more qualified than Sara Palin.

There is NO Republican less corrupt.

There is NO Republican that foreign leaders will respect more.

Of ALL the Republicans in the entire United States, including ALL of the candidates for President in this year's primaries, not a single one measures up to Sarah Palin. Not one.

Let them deny it.

Discuss.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:01 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos

Wasilla

Until choosing Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential pick McCain's attack on Obama used the slogan, "Is he ready to lead?"

John McCain has had four bouts of melanoma. If elected the 1-year governor and former mayor of Wasilla Alaska will become Vice President of the United States and takes over if McCain is incapacitated or dies.

P.S. I do agree with John McCain that she probably is the most qualified Republican to be President of the United States.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Fighter Pilots?

Bush was a (sort of) fighter pilot. McCain was a fighter pilot. Both have shown themselves to be foul-mouthed heavy drinkers, impulsive and nasty-tempered. McCain was/is a skirt-chaser.

Is there something about the macho mentality that goes into this kind of thing?

Except both came from prominent families and got into being fighter pilots through their dad's influence and not through the normal channels...

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

September 1, 2008

Taylor Marsh on Palin

Taylor Marsh writes,

This woman isn't vice presidential material. She should be nominated for administrator to the creation museum in Kansas.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 31, 2008

No We Can't

John McCain says, "No, We Can't"

Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:15 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 30, 2008

Stunned By Palin

I admit to being stunned by McCain's VP choice of Sarah Palin. She is a stunning beauty queen who has served a stunning two years as Governor of Alaska after serving a stunning two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska city council and two terms as mayor. (As of the 2000 census, Wasilla's population was 5,470.)

I'm stunned that McCain picked a politician who is currently under investigation for abusing power by firing the state's Public Safety Commissioner for refusing to fire a state trooper involved in a child custody battle with Palin's sister.

I'm stunned (and insulted as a citizen) that McCain feels he can place a heartbeat away from the Presidency a hard-core creationist with NO foreign policy experience or even positions. She is not just a creationist but has so little respect for our Constitution that she advocates teaching "Biblical principles" and creationism in our public schools -- in other words, forcing the teaching of one branch of one particular religion.

So yes, this is a stunning choice for Vice President.

*P.S. This is filed in STF's "Party Over Country" category.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:03 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

A Heartbeat Away

Go see the pic: Jesus' General: A Heartbeat Away

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:49 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 29, 2008

Obama's Acceptance Speech

Here is a video of Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium in Denver Thursday evening:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 28, 2008

Please Go See Media Matters Swiftboating 2.0 Page

Click through to Swiftboating 2.0. There is an incredible chart that outlines the right's attack strategy on Obama.

As the means of communication have evolved, presidential campaigns have grown increasingly multifaceted, with each election featuring layers of complexity that were not present four years before. The most striking feature of the 2008 election may be the sheer volume and variation of the attacks being directed at Sen. Barack Obama. Though they come from many sources, arrive through a variety of media, and cover a wide range of subjects, a close examination reveals a unified thematic structure to these attacks.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:22 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 27, 2008

Kerry Has A Primary Challenger

Kerry is speaking. This seems like a good time to point out that he has a primary challenger: Ed O'Reilly: http://www.edoreilly.com/

Almost four years ago I wrote,

I would like to coin a term for the Washington "centrist," "DLC" Democrats that we have all become so sick of: "Concession Democrats." These are the Democrats who refuse to recognize the right-wing takeover of the country and its consequences. They have conceded at every turn, allowing the Right to advance, step by step, and finally take over.

Kerry conceded. He rolled over. He conceded in my name. HE conceded MY vote. I didn't want him to do that, but he did. And by conceding Kerry paved the way for Bush to claim a "mandate." Had he held out, even for a few more days, Bush and the Right would not have been able to come out and seize the initiative and frame the message, "The people have spoken" and begin the process of getting rid of Social Security, getting rid of progressive taxation, getting rid of separation of church and state, getting rid of public education, getting rid of unions, getting rid of consumer protections, getting rid of what remains of a free America, and continuing to make war on the world. Kerry allowed Bush to say, "I will reach out to those who share my goals." But Kerry either did not understand that was what would happen, or did not care.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:41 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

Huckabee For McCain VP

If McCain doesn't choose Huckabee for VP, he is insulting all the evangelicals in the Republican Party.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:05 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 23, 2008

What I Think About Biden As VP

I think we have to beat McCain. His performance last week concerning Russia and Georgia shows that he is dangerous, trigger happy and is willing to encourage fear and hostility and risk nuclear war for little reason.

I think any continuation of Bush policies would be ruinous for an already-ruined country.

I think ANY choices of our leaders by anyone other than the people is an insult to democracy so I am not big on the way America chooses vice-presidents. In my lifetime we have had LBJ and Ford as Presidents who were in no way chosen by the people. (And then Bush was imposed on us by the Republican majority of the Supreme court.)

I think all the hoo-ha over who will be "picked" for us just shows what we're willing to tolerate and how far we have to go before we really understand what democracy means.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:32 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 19, 2008

Three Questions for McCain

Here are three questions for John McCain. They will not be asked.

1) IF your military commanders tell you that The Surge needs to be continued, and that more troops are needed in Afghanistan, will you implement the draft to keep the country protected?

2) IF your statement that lowering taxes brings more revenue to the government turn out not to work, and the deficit continues to grow, what will you do?

3) AT the Saddleback Forum you were asked, "At what point does a baby receive human rights?" You answered "At conception."

So I have two questions for you. One: There is a fire at a fertility clinic. In one room there is a 3-month-old baby. In another is a thermos with 3,000 fertilized eggs. You have time to save the baby or the thermos. Which do you save?

Two: If a woman has intercourse and an egg is fertilized, but the woman stands up before three days pass, the egg might not implant properly. Is it murder if a woman stands up within three days of intercourse?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 18, 2008

McCain Uses Anti-Soviet Rhetoric To Boost The Fear

Speaking to the VFW today, John McCain reverted to using rhetoric from the 1950's, talking about "the free world". He apparently wants to launch a new "Cold War" which was very, very good for the military contracting industry.

McCain Remarks at the VFW Convention,

. . . We have seen such things before, as in the Balkans and in earlier periods of European history, and now we must ensure that events in Georgia do not unfold into a tragedy of greater scale. When young democracies are threatened or attacked, and innocent civilians are targeted, they should be able to count on the free world for support and solidarity.

If I am elected president, they will have that support. And in cooperation with our friends and allies in Europe, we will make it clear to Russia's rulers that acts of violence and intimidation come at a heavy cost.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:30 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 17, 2008

Christian Broadcast Network Calls Obama "A Spade"

Barack Obama gave an interview to CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network. Asking about the "antichrist" smears and McCain's use of them in his ads the interviewer says to Obama, "Let's face it, let's call a spade a spade."

I figure he didn't mean it that way. But he might have been more careful about it.

Transcript: Let me ask you a little about some of these ads that John McCain has been running not just on television, but on the web. Let's face it, let's call a spade a spade, there has been some Messianic references, there's been some antichrist stuff going on, the celebrity, they're trying to pigeonhole you a certain way. Do you believe this is being done on purpose?

Obama: Well of course it's being done on purpose. They're not spending a whole bunch of money to make me out as a good guy. They're engaging in the kind of politics that I think we've become accustomed to which is you try to tear your opponents down and you engage in sort of slash and burn tactics. And very personal sort of personal character attacks. And one of the challenges for us in this campaign is how do you make sure those attacks are answered quickly and forcefully, but also truthfully and that we don't fall into that same kind of tactic. And look, I think ultimately the American people are going to understand by the time they go into the polling place in November that this is not an election about me. This an election about them - ordinary people, their lives, their hopes their dreams, the fact that their incomes have gone down over the last eight years, the fact that their jobs are less secure, that they have less retirement security, that their kids can't afford college, that jobs are being shipped overseas that the tax code isn't fair and that special interests have come to dominate Washington. And as long as we're communicating an active plan to fix those problems then I think we're going to do well.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:56 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

McCain's "Cross In Dirt" Story Questioned

In a book, at campaign stops and in an ad John McCain tells a story about a North Vietnamese prison guard drawing a cross in the dirt:

In his 1999 memoir, Faith of My Fathers

"We both stood wordlessly looking at the cross until, after a minute or two, he rubbed it out and walked away. I saw my good Samaritan often after the Christmas when we venerated the cross together."

In his campaign ad in December, he adds mention of "the true light of Christmas":

"We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas. I will never forget that no matter where you are, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there will always be someone who will pick you up."

At the Saddleback Civil Forum:

"For a minute there, it was just two Christians worshipping together."

A story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

In the winter of 1974, unbound and mimeographed samizdat copies of The Gulag Archipelago began being surreptitiously passed between Soviet citizens. These initial readers were normally given 24 hours to finish the work before passing it on to the next person, requiring the reader to spend an uninterrupted day and night to get through the work. Years later, this initial generation of Soviet readers could still recall who had given them their copy, to whom they had passed it on, and who they had trusted enough to discuss their thoughts about the book.

Here is McCain in his ad:

Here is McCain, being "reluctant" to tell this "powerful story" about his "faith":

John McCain is more reluctant to talk about his own faith. And he has had rocky relations with religious conservatives. But McCain is a believer, and he has a powerful story about the time his own faith was tested — when he was being tortured as a prisoner of war.

One Christmas morning, he was allowed out of his cell for a few moments. As he stood alone in the prison courtyard, one of the Vietnamese guards — who had shown some small kindness to McCain in the past — walked up to him.

"Then with his sandal, the guard drew a cross in the dirt," McCain said. "We stood wordlessly there for a minute or two, venerating the cross, until the guard rubbed it out and walked away. To me, that was faith: a faith that unites and never divides, a faith that bridges unbridgeable gaps in humanity. It is the faith that we are all equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the faith I would die to defend."

... That story is often about all the Arizona senator will say about his faith, much to the chagrin of his evangelical supporters.

Here is the Dallas Morning News, writing about last night's event:

It is a well-worn story for veterans of the McCain campaign, but it was concrete and direct, without a whiff of Christian apologetics, and it produced one of the evening’s many bursts of sustained applause.

Update - Andew Sullivan points out that McCain's early accounts of captivity do not include this story, and asks when McCain first told it.

Update - No "cross in the sand" for McCain in 1973,

Shortly after John McCain came back from Vietname in 1973, he wrote a detailed 12,000 word report of his experiences that was published in US News and World Report.

Even though McCain goes into a lot of detail in that story and mentions religion a few times, there is no mention of the cross in the sand story, even though it would have fitted in well with the whole narrative. There are numerous mentions of Vietnamese guards in the reports, mostly bad ones but also good ones, but there is no indication at all that any of them would have been Christian, although "[a] lot of them were homosexual".

Looks like McCain really WAS telling a whopper to get votes. And he's been caught red-state-handed.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:26 PM | Comments (6) | Link Cosmos

August 14, 2008

Baracky II

Baracky I:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:55 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 12, 2008

Great Exxon John Ad!

Go see the Exxon McCain site but watch this first:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:49 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos

August 8, 2008

Quoting KKK Leaders Against Obama

Now the right is promoting the quotes of KKK leaders against Obama. And it's only August.

A headline at Drudge Report: Ex-KKK Leader: Obama Shows Whites 'Have Lost Control' Of America...

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:39 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

August 5, 2008

On Democrats Reshaping Themselves As Republicans

I was thinking about how Obama squandered the enthusiasm and good faith of the activist "base" when he decided to "move to the right" to "appeal to the center." I am not quoting the Obama campaign, I am describing what happened to so many Democrats over the years who have helped move the goalposts ever rightward. In the face of an ongoing corporate propaganda campaign the "realists" and "pragmatists" have concluded they need to "go where the votes are" rather than fight back and work to counter that right-wing messaging and explain to the public why progressive values are better for them.

(NOTE - I think this is really more the fault of the funding base than the politicians. They just don't get it about building organizations capable of countering the messaging. And I am including everyone who is not giving all they can, even if that is only $20 a week, to progressive infrastructure organizations like Commonweal Institute and Speak Out California.)

All of this made me think of one of the great blog posts, from just after the 2002 elections. RENDEZVOUS WITH LUNACY

It begins with this picture:

From the post,

Why would voters choose a phony right wing Republican over the real thing? What made McAuliffe and Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt believe that rural conservative whites would choose warmongering Democratic slaves to Corporate America over warmongering Republican slaves to Corporate America? When I want to vote for a warmongering corporate slave, I always vote Republican.

[. . .] I am not an astute observer of the political scene – I am merely an embittered observer. Yet despite being a rank political amateur, I am able to understand that the path to power does not consist of alienating people who are willing to vote for you in order to ingratiate yourself to people who are unwilling to vote for you. The current Democratic leadership just can't seem to comprehend this most important concept.

[. . .] Abandonment of stated principles and unilateral surrender have now officially been discredited as tactics for regaining Democratic control of Congress. It is time for new party leaders to try a different approach, like treating their voters with respect. Bush and the Republican base have a symbiotic relationship – he attends to their concerns, and they respond by faithfully supporting the G.O.P. This intriguing arrangement might well serve as a useful model for the Democratic Party.

When your supporters don’t vote for
you, then you

LOSE.

And we bloggers out here in the non-beltway wilderness keep trying to explain this message over and over.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Obama's FISA Screwup - Costing Us The Election?

Obama's campaign began to falter when he announced he support the new FISA bill that gave away immunity to telecom companies that had assisted the Republican Party in spying on their opposition. (Until I know different I will call it this. And without warrants there is no way to know different.) He previously had said that giving immunity to these companies was wrong.

Now the chickens are home to roost. McCain is tied or a bit ahead in almost every new tracking poll. And it started when Obama popped the bubble of enthusiasm -- people thinking this was a different candidate, one who stuck by principles. Of course it continued with things like attacking General Clark for defending him, and similar strategery. It set the ground for the Republican smear campaign to take hold.

New poll shows Obama losing support among young, women,

-Among voters aged 18-29, Obama lost 16 percent and McCain gained 20. Obama still leads, 49-38;

-Among women, McCain gained 10 percentage points. Obama now leads 43-38;

With a commercial Mike Huckabee could have run in a Republican primary, Obama now emphasizes his commitment to strong families and heartland values, "Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses." In this yet unwritten chapter of his next autobiography, Obama tells us he is the candidate of "welfare to work" who supports our troops and "cut taxes for working families." The shift in his political personae has been startling. Obama has moved right so far and so fast, he could end up McCain's Vice-Presidential pick.

General-election Obama now billboards his doubts about affirmative action. He has embraced the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption saying, "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon...everything." He tells his party "Democrats are not for a bigger government." Oil drilling is a consideration. His FISA vote and abandonment of public campaign finance introduce us to an Obama of recent invention. And as he abandons his old identity for the new, breeding disenchantment among his formerly passionate left-of-center supporters and, equally, doubts among the center he courts, he risks becoming nothing at all, a candidate who is everything and nothing in the same moment.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

August 3, 2008

McCain - The Right People

From Scholars & Rogues:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Does McCain's Ad Imply Obama Is Anti-Christ?

The other day I sent people to read about how people are reacting to McCain's ad "The One." I decided to look around the web and see what is circulating about Obama. Well, these people are serious. I posted several links below so you can just go see for yourself. SOME parts of the religious right are serious about this idea that Obama is the "anti-Christ."

In my opinion, the McCain people simply have to know about the stuff that is circulating. If you read some of the stuff you realize that McCain's ad parallels it very closely. It says some of the very same things that the nuts are circulating. So if you are one of the nuts who believes this, you have received validation from the McCain campaign. There is no way around it that the ad is saying to the people receiving the anti-Christ rumors, "Hey, we're with you, we see it, too." It makes you wonder if McCain is trying to provoke the crazies into doing something to Obama.

So here is some of the stuff that is out there. Hold your nose, and be sure to read some of the comments at some of these sites.

Email circulating:

Yahaim wrote:
Obama is the Anti-Christ. This is the evidence:
1.- He will come as a man of Peace (Obama promises peace in Iraq, defeat for the US)
2.- He will come mounted on a white Female horse(Obama mother is white who had 6 African husbands)
3.- He will come to deceive( Obama says he's a Christian but in fact he was born a Muslim, practices the Islamic religion, prays Friday’s facing Mecca)
4.- He will make himself the most powerful man on earth, if elected
5.- He will try to destroy the Jewish People and Israel( Obama has said he loves the Arabs specially the Palestinians, hates Israel and Jews. Admires Hitler, Osama etc)
6.- He will present himself as good and righteous but in fact he's Satan himself. Violence is in his heart
7.- Obama will help Al Qaida in its evil projects.
8.- Barack Hussein Obama is the “King of the South” predicted in the Bible.(Daniel .11, Kenya is south of Jerusalem)
9.- Obama comes to implant muslim Sharia Law upon America.
Obama is the Anti-Christ, beware of him.
Watch him and don't let you be deceived by Him.
Supporters of Obama: 1.5 billion Muslims, Oprah, Louis Farrakanh, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and all American Muslims.
OBAMA’S GAME IS DECEPTION AND VIOLENCE
A VOTE FOR OBAMA IS A VOTE FOR OSAMA AND KILLER ISLAM!!

I’m not the first one to say it, but after recently reading the beginning of the Left Behind series and the entire Christ Clone trilogy, it’s not totally wacky to compare Obama’s rise and public adulation to that of the predicted Anti-Christ’s (at least as described in those books).

Could Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama be the "Anti-Christ?"

Do you think Obama is the antichrist?

Barack Obama the Antichrist?

Is Barack Hussein Obama the AntiChrist?

Obama The Antichrist? Hmm.

The Liberal's Agenda - Antichrist or just anti-Christ?

Email circulating:

According to The Book of Revelations, the anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal…. the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything ….

Is it OBAMA?? I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet…do it!

Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?

Other progressive bloggers are writing about this:

DailyKos: Obama as Forerunner to the Anti-Christ

DailyKos: McCain's Left Behind Attack

Discourse.net: New Low For McCain Campaign: Obama == The Anti-Christ

BeliefNet: New McCain Ad Implies Obama is the Anti-Christ?

Sadly, No! The Ol’ Dog Whistle Becomes An Air Raid Siren

Blog for Our Future: The Second Coming of Barack Obama

Street Prophets: New McCain Ad Depicts Obama As The Anti-Christ

Here are some of the videos circulating:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:50 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

August 2, 2008

Republicans and Reaching Out

Interesting ... as you look at this small-sample test of reaction to an Obama ad, watch the Republican reaction (red line) plunge as Obama says "What I did was reach out to Senator Dick Lugar, a Republican..." at this site: New Obama Terrorism Ad has Little Effect on Voter Support

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

July 15, 2008

Vets for Freedom Says Thousands Of Donors -- We Count Five

In a recent story about Vets for Freedom's new campaign in support of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, the Virginia-Pilot quoted VFFs Chairman Pete Hegseth on donor disclosure.

Vets for Freedom's efforts are being fueled by donations from thousands of people nationwide, Hegseth said. He said the group will not release donors' names nor the size of their donations. The group is registered under a section of federal tax law that allows it to advertise and organize on behalf of particular policies while maintaining the confidentiality of its donors.

Donations to political campaigns or political action committees, by contrast, generally must be reported and are limited by law.

So what's the takeaway? On one hand, we have a 527 group with a total of $2,050 in donations, not enough to pay for Mark Penn's coffee break, and on the other we have a charity that legally can not be involved in direct political action? What's happening?

Well if you have "thousands" of mystery donors unreported but supporting John McCain's campaign and suddenly, a small fringe front group with just 5 real donors has over $1.5 million dollars to run a television campaign and there are plans for a major push this fall.

We're betting this is nothing more than a conduit for one or two very large donations intended to get around election law to the benefit of candidate McCain.

The Washington Post's blog The Trail tried to pin Hegseth down on why this "non-election" group is advertising with McCain's message in swing states important to McCain, and only just before an election with McCain as a candidate.

From the story,

Hegseth said his group is not operating on behalf of McCain and notes that federal law prohibits the organization from coordinating the ad with the campaign. The states were chosen, he said, not because they are crucial swing states for McCain, but because the heightened interest in the election in those states will give it a larger audience.

What Hegseth didn't mention is that VFF's ads were bought immediately after the McCain Campaign stopped advertising.

What Hegseth didn't mention is that VFF is supporting candidates across the country, but surprise, none of the Iraq War or Vietnam veterans who are running like Jon Powers or Charlie Brown.

What Hegseth didn't mention is that there are real veterans groups with real veterans signing real petitions and supporting a candidate, only those real veterans, are supporting Barack Obama.

The only thing Hegseth could do was concede that the message in the ad is almost identical to McCain's on the stump -- the surge worked; let's continue the war until we win. He said McCain has been the "strongest advocate" for the veterans of the two wars.

Which is about as believable as McCain's claim that real veterans groups support him.

Posted by Dave and James at 7:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

June 30, 2008

Obama On Defensive

Obama's campaign is starting to seem entirely defensive to me. This is a bad sign. He has lost the initiative. The effectiveness of the right's smear campaigns can't be underestimated.

Obama to Deliver Patriotism Speech

Dogged by Internet rumors about the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag on his lapel, Sen. Barack Obama today is flying to Harry Truman's home in Missouri to deliver an address on the meaning of patriotism.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

June 11, 2008

Will McCain Be Republican Nominee?

I think there is a growing chance that McCain will not be the Republican Presidential nominee. Their convention isn't until September and McCain just gets worse and worse. I really think they'll find a way to talk him out of running.

And no, I don't think it will be Larry Craig, even if their convention is in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:22 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Here It Comes

Professional smears - at far-right Media Research Center. This is from April and you're going to be seeing A LOT of this. Eyeblast.tv - A Video Portrait Of Barack Hussein Obama. (Warning, ugly smear video.)

(via Sideshow)

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

June 10, 2008

Don't Ask Me

I stayed neutral between Obama and Hillary during the primaries. Now I'm staying out of discussions of who Obama should pick as VP. OK?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

June 8, 2008

Is John McCain Disabled?

AmericaBlog asks Why is McCain getting $58,000 a year in disability income?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:55 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Let's Go Change The World

This is the video everyone should watch as we go into the campaign:

FIRED UP! READY TO GO!

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

June 4, 2008

Obama To Speak To SEIU Today (via Video)

Barack Obama will be speaking via video to the SEIU convention today at 10:50am Eastern -- 7:50am Pacific. You can watch it by clicking here.

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June 3, 2008

Donna Edwards Says You Should Run For Office

I had the opportunity to talk with Donna Edwards for a while today, at the SEIU 2008 convention. She says that you should run for office, and a lot more than that.

This year Donna Edwards challenged incumbent "corporate Democrat" Al Wynn for Maryland's 4th Congressional District in the primary election and won, with help from the Netroots, multiple progressive organizations and labor, including a great deal of help from the SEIU. Her win is "reverberating - wide and deep" among members of Congress. It shows that accountability has arrived. It also shows that "Democrats can do this without begging and relying on corporate interests." She goes on to say,

"There is a huge lesson in this. A lot of elected officials start out in the grassroots community - and then the money happens. One step after another they are following the corporate agenda."

In 2006 Donna ran against Wynn and lost by 2731 votes. Many progressive organizations and labor groups were reluctant to challenge any Democratic incumbent. After that defeat she went from labor organization to labor organization saying that she was just one union hall away from winning. So in 2008 a coalition of labor and progressives joined up, and she ended up winning the primary by 20 points. Incumbent Wynn resigned from office and immediately joined a lobbying firm for big bucks.

She says the wind of change is out there, a demand for change is building. She says regular people have to run for office to start building a farm team for change. Regular people have a story to tell, and the more we run regular folks, the more opportunity there is to tell the public where we have to go. The power of the moneyed interests that want to keep us where we are is incredible so we have to empower regular people to tell their stories.

She said she talked to a number of people, telling them they should run, and finally decided to run herself. "But why didn't I say that first?" She wants all of us to say that first. (Not that Donna should run, but that YOU should run.) Progressives need to create a farm team to run for office.

From Left: Todd Beeton (MyDD), Donna Edwards, Watertiger (Firedoglake) and me.

Disclaimer: Blogger hotel and airfare paid for by the SEIU

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June 1, 2008

Hillary's Victory Speech in Puerto Rico

Because of various circumstances I ended up about 15-20 feet from Hillary Clinton as she gave her victory speech after winning the Puerto Rico primary. I am here for the SEIU convention, and learned that her event was across a bridge from the hotel I was at for a meeting with SEIU officials. (More on that in another post.) So I took a walk (man, it is humid here) and was able to enter as a member of the press.

As a member of the press I was able to enter the ballroom before the event. This was not a victory party where supporters are celebrating and then the candidate shows up to speak. This was more like a TV set where the candidate gives a speech to cameras. There were bleachers behind the podium, and room for a few people in front of the candidate. But this was entirely about setting up the speech for national TV. I am not saying this is good or bad, it just was what it was.

That said, it was secondarily an event for campaign workers to see the candidate and be part of the speech. First they filled the bleachers behind the podium. I can testify that this was not a carefully selected crowd, with demographics set up to look good -- because someone asked ME if I wanted to be up there! So this was not about photogenic, or looking like a special demographic. It might have been about making babies cry and serious viewers vow never to watch TV again.

I'm out of time now, will write more later. Hillary doesn't appear to be leaving the race by ANY means. Lots of energy and enthusiasm at this event. A very good speech making good points.

Here is the podium with the bleachers:

This shows what I mean this being a TV event, not a ballroom full of people celebrating:

I loved this Clinton As Evita poster that I have been seeing here:

Here is Hillary making a point:

MORE TO COME.

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At Hillary Event In Puerto Rico

I'm in San Juan to cover the SEIU convention, but I learned that Hillary's victory speech will be nearby at the Condado Plaza Hotel, so I walked over. Now I am in the press area, waiting for it to start in a few minutes. Hey, there's free food and a free bar, so don't yell at me.

The trouble is I left my computer power cord in my room and only have about 18% power right now. So I'll take pics and write about it later.

I'll be writing about some great things that the SEIU has planned as well.

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May 27, 2008

Do You Want To Beat McCain Or Just Score Points Against Hillary/Obama?

Hillary made a statement the other day that can be interpreted different ways. Some people are trying to claim that she said she is staying in the race in case Obama is assassinated. Others say she was just saying that the Democratic primaries often extend until June.

I'm not going to get into the argument about this here, except to remind everyone that in 1972 the Nixon campaign pioneered the strategy of disrupting Democratic primary races. I think it should be clear that much of the conflict in this year's primary is being pushed by the right through the Drudge report, Washington Times, Fox News, etc. but for some reason in this election many Democrats seem willing to pick it up and run with it. This is a mistake.

Here's the thing. The Republicans and Bush cronies have a lot of money and the incentive that many will be going to jail (and/or The Hague) if there is an honest accounting of the Bush years. The corrupt crony machine stands to lose billions and billions of dollars. They have the conservative infrastructure's message machine of think tanks, information outlets, etc. They have the corporate media and the power of the entire American corporate structure that is siphoning so much of our money away to a top few. And they have a public conditioned to reflexively support conservatives after decades of unanswered right-wing, and pro-corporate propaganda. This combination is going to be hard to overcome. So it is going to take Obama supporters and Hillary supporters both voting for the Democratic nominee--whoever that is--to beat the Republicans in November.

To that end I want to write about how each "side" in the primaries could better approach the other, whether you believe they are right or wrong. Especially if you believe they are wrong.

Decide whether you want to beat the Republicans, or just score points against the "other side" in this primary battle. From what I can see many of the activists in this campaign are vastly more invested in beating the "other side" than they are in beating the Republicans in the fall. And they clearly have little interest in rallying the supporters of the other primary candidate to their cause.

The Commonweal Institute recently held a "salon" on cognitive dissonance, put on by Fellow Mary Ratcliff, who blogs at The Left Coaster and Pacific Views. Part of the discussion was about the psychological effect of holding contradictory beliefs and how to get people to leave behind beliefs that are harmful. Without going into depth here, when people know they have done something bad (or believed something that is wrong), they can can go through a process to justify to themselves what they have done, and thereby be driven very deeply in a bad direction in their thinking. The justification can be reinforced if the person encounters resistance.

For example, when a kid is being recruited by the Moonies (or bad boyfriend), a parent saying the kid is being "stupid" can drive the kid directly into the Moonie camp (or bad boyfriend's arms) because the kid is reacting to being called stupid instead of thinking through the logic of becoming a Moonie (or pregnant).

Or maybe a Bush-supporter can justify in his or her mind that invading Iraq was an OK thing to do by deciding all Muslims are evil -- and can become very fixed in those beliefs. You see that happening lately with a certain segment of conservatives.

In any part of the process, if this person is criticized it very strongly tends to force the person to cling MORE strongly to the wrong beliefs, and reinforce the justifications that are going on in the thinking. This happens especially strongly if the criticism itself is refutable.

So in this case, whether you believe Hillary's "RFK assassination statement" was saying that primaries have often lasted until June or calling for Obama's assassination, criticizing Hillary and supporters can have the effect of driving them deeply against Obama. Iif Obama is the nominee--as it looks like he will be--he is going to need those Hillary supporters. Not stepping up to her defense in this instance--and thereby reaching out to her supporters and letting them know that we are all on the same side--is a mistake that could cost him the election.

For background, this is from the salon invite, with some good sources:

Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me: Cognitive Dissonance in Politics and Personal Life

A salon conversation led by Commonweal Institute Fellow Mary Ratcliff

As background for this salon, you may want to read this explanation of cognitive dissonance and a few examples of how it can impact everything from your weight to major social conflicts: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/cognitive_dissonance/

Wikipedia on cognitive dissonance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Book: Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

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May 17, 2008

Barack Obama As Author

The New York Times has a great article today on Barack Obama as an author. I haven't yet read his books, but this article will make you want to.

The article is Obama’s Story, Written by Obama. An excerpt (about the first book),

In a telephone interview on Friday, Mr. Obama said he would not be surprised if some people had gotten involved in his campaign “because they feel they know me through my books.” But he said he was not even thinking about political consequences when he wrote the memoir. In fact, he said, one editor warned him back then that his references to drug use could come back to haunt him — if he were ever nominated for the Supreme Court.

“This is an example of what happens when you look at things backwards,” Mr. Obama said when asked whether he had his political future in mind when he first began to write. “Then everything looks like, ‘Ah! Of course this was part of some well-calibrated consideration.’ But frankly, no. It would have been very hard for me to anticipate that I’d be where I am today, where a book that I wrote almost 20 years ago now would even be read.”

[. . .] The book came out in the summer of 1995, shortly before Mr. Obama announced that he was running for the Illinois State Senate. At 57th Street Books, in Mr. Obama’s neighborhood in Chicago, a few dozen people turned out for a reading. There were respectful reviews in newspapers including The New York Times and The Boston Globe. The book was shelved with memoirs and autobiographies in bookstores, Mr. Osnos recalled, and Times Books sold 8,000 to 9,000 copies.

“I joke that 290 million Americans did not buy the book,” he said.

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May 16, 2008

McCain's Preacher: "Jews Are Subhuman"

John McCain's preacher problem comes up again. Will the media play this over and over and over like they did with Rev. Wright?

Go read . Excerpt:

In the following audio sermon, which I have put into a video [and that includes other viciously anti-Jewish statement from John Hagee], Hagee says:

- Jews are not "spiritually alive".I have a copy of John Hagee's "Prophecy Study Bible", which makes quite clear Hagee is talking about all Jews now living - whom Hagee singles out, from among all other non-Christians on Earth, to note that they specifically do not have living souls. Indeed, Hagee says the souls of all Jews now living are dead. Dead souls. McCain endorser John hagee says Jews have dead souls.

- Hitler and the Nazis were sent by God, to chase Jews back to the land of Israel. Because that's where God intends them to be. So, the Holocaust was a gruesomely inefficient system of divine "persuasion", and Hitler and the Nazis were doing "God's work". But Hagee also depicts this divine ethnic cleansing imperative as a future project: it will happen [see bolded section of transcription, below].

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May 11, 2008

On "Race-Baiting"

People are saying that Hillary is "race-baiting" because she mentioned "blue-collar whites." Save the racist accusations for what's coming -- because it surely IS coming.

Hillary is engaging in the standard old-style politics of looking at the electorate as a bunch of groups -- dividing the electorate up into groups and going after key targets. There are "soccer moms" and there are "blue-collar whites" in that view. It is similar to the "big states" view that says don't campaign in small states. It assumes you have a majority, it cannibalizes the voters you have instead of persuading new voters, and Dean's (and Obama's) 50-state strategy is proving to be a much better strategy.

It is the old way, and it worked for a long time, and it stopped working and the 50-state strategy is what we need now. But is isn't racist and isn't intended to divide us. Is going after "soccer moms" or "NASCAR dads" as a demographic voting block a sexist tactic? Yes and no, but it isn't intended to divide. She is just saying that voting patterns show that she is bringing in more of certain groups -- and confirming her unfortunate entrenchment in the old-style "big state" view.

Let's talk about real racism. Look at what has already started from the right. We already have seen them using "boy" and "darkest Africa." As November approaches you will be hearing about "our women." There will be stuff about how Obama wants the While House so he can lure in white wives of important Senators, etc. There will be a lot of "us" vs "them." And much, much worse. Believe me, much, MUCH worse. THAT is when you want to talk about people using racism as a campaign tactic. And when that happens you really don't want the right saying "well that's what you said about Hillary, too."

I was for Edwards. I worked for Richardson for a while. Between today's two candidates I lean Obama a lot and sense that he could be a historical transforming leader. I really want a strongly progressive candidate with an instinct to defend fellow progressives and that isn't Hillary or Obama right now, so I haven't endorsed anyone I'll work for Obama enthusiastically, and will defend him, and then when he is in office I'll work to push the country and Obama in a more progressive direction.

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May 8, 2008

Right Wing magazines attack Cindy McCain

Go read about it: Right Wing magazines attack Cindy McCain

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ANOTHER McCain Preacher Problem

See for yourself:

So when do you think the corporate media will start running these scary preacher tapes over and over?

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May 7, 2008

McCain's Preacher Problem

See for yourself -- John McCain has a preacher problem of his own. They show a scary video clip of Barack Obama's preacher over and over and over and over and over again but you won't see THESE videos on the corporate media.

Talking about Catholics:

I was talking to someone today who says he can't vote for Obama because of "the people he chooses to associate with" like Rev. Wright.
Imagine of these were played over and over...

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May 5, 2008

McCain Didn't Vote For Bush!

Arianna Huffington: What John McCain Told Me, and What it Says About How Far He's Fallen

Yee-Ha, the wingnuts are going to go ... well they already are nuts! Can they go more nuts than they are?

Go read!

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April 25, 2008

Flag Pins And Hypocrisy

I was thinking about the "flag pin" question, and went and looked at the video. Sure enough, the woman accusing Obama of being unpatriotic for not wearing a flag pin ... wait for it ... isn't wearing a flag pin. The smarmy anchorman implying Obama isn't patriotic for not wearing a flag pin ... guess what ... isn't wearing a flag pin.

And, of course, if you go to Google Images and look for pics of John McCain, none of them show him wearing a flag pin. Of course, that means that Google in unpatriotic.

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The Republican Plan On Obama -- "Us" vs "Them"

Townhall.com::Is He One of Us?::By Patrick J. Buchanan. Buchanan lays out the basic story that the Republicans are going to try to tell in this campaign. Read the whole thing. Buchanan is telling it like it is for the Republicans, and lays out what they are going to do:

Journalists disagree on whether immigration, Iraq or the economy will be the major issue in 2008. The real issue may be -- and this is what is causing heart palpitations among Democrats -- is Barack Obama one of us, or is he one of them?

And from the comments:

"Hundreds of white Yankee Soldiers died for freedom for blacks and they never thank anyone."

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April 24, 2008

McCain And The Smear Ads

John McCain says he can't stop the North Carolina Republican Party and other Republican groups from running ads that smear Barack Obama on race, religion and attack in various other ways. The nominee of the Republican Party says he wants to stop these Republican groups, but can't.

So doesn't this tell us what a McCain administration would be like? Everyone he is supposed to be in charge of will be running around doing whatever they want to do, with McCain saying he can't control them?

Isn't this a reason all by itself to vote against the guy?

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April 23, 2008

Breaking - Another Preacher Says God Damns America

Hagee Says Hurricane Katrina Struck New Orleans Because It Was ‘Planning A Sinful’ ‘Homosexual Rally’,

On September 18, 2006, Pastor John Hagee — whose endorsement Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said this past Sunday he was “glad to have” — told NPR’s Terry Gross that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” Hagee said, because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.”

Will this also be on every news channel, repeated over and over, 24/7, for the next several months? Will reporters hound McCain with questions about his preacher? If not, then what is it that is different between this preacher and Obama's?

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April 22, 2008

Republican Ad -- Obama A Gang Member

So Obama is not JUST a terrorist, he's a GANG MEMBER, TOO! (He's black ... get it?)

Here is a new Republican ad accusing Obama of supporting gang violence.

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April 20, 2008

Are You Better Off?

John McCain says we're better off after these years of Bush. Do you feel better off? Does the world?

Here is The Democratic Party | Our First National TV Ad

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April 19, 2008

ABC Interviews McCain

Following the right-wing-framed questions ABC presented the Democratic candidates with in this week's debate, here is a look a tomorrow's interview with Sen. McCain -- at The REAL McCain: Less Jobs, More Wars.

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April 18, 2008

John McCain Is Older Than...

Go see: Younger Than McCain

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April 15, 2008

Has Obama "Cried Wolf" On Racism?

I have said that the charges by the Obama campaign and supporters that the "Clintons used racism" were bogus. Clinton's campaign manager Maggie Williams and plenty of her campaign staff is African-American and this accusation is an insult to them. (Either they are African-Americans using racism or they are allowing themselves to be used as tokens. Which is it?)

My real complaint about this charge is that it is "crying wolf." It uses up the accusation instead of holding it for use when circumstances really do merit. If Obama is the nominee he will be running against modern Republicans. You want your racism? They got your racism for ya.

Running against Republicans is when you will see racism, not some penny-ante nonsense about Bill Clinton being a racist. (Bill Clinton a racist?) Nope, this week we're starting to see the Republicans weigh in. Yesterday it was "that boy". And today the real racism starts - just starts - to show its head:

In Darkest Pennsylvania - HUMAN EVENTS,

It was said behind closed doors to the chablis-and-brie set of San Francisco, in response to a question as to why he was not doing better in that benighted and barbarous land they call Pennsylvania.

Like Dr. Schweitzer, home from Africa to address the Royal Society on the customs of the upper Zambezi, Barack described Pennsylvanians in their native habitats of Atloona, Alquippa, Johnstown and McKeesport.

Update - I just discovered this from eriposte at Left Coaster yesterday:

That, folks, is an example of a real racist. Now, maybe some of you possibly understand my anger these past few months when the candidate I support, a longstanding Democrat who has done enormous good for minorities and civil rights was falsely tarred as a racist or race-baiter.

[. . .] These are the real scum that we are fighting. I know we are all fighting for the Democratic candidate we support in this primary, but let me be clear who the real political enemy is: The Republicans in Congress and in the White House who have trashed this country the last 7+ years, committed untold criminal acts, destroyed the very moral fabric of what makes this country great and made life much more difficult for the majority of the American public. When the Democratic primary is over, they are the ones we will fight together, because we must. This primary may be depressing - and some days it sure is - but it is nothing compared to the ugly s*** we will face in the general election from the Republicans and the ugly consequences for the country if we don't unite behind the eventual nominee (whether it be Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama).

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April 11, 2008

Did They Gotcha Obama?

The corporate media pundit class thinks they 'got' Obama. I think it's just more silliness but it looks like they're going to run with it.

In Guns, God and Government: Obama Courts Bitter and Clingy Pennsylvanians the silly, snarky ABC News' The Note writes,

Did Barack Obama just hand Hillary Clinton and John McCain a nicely gift-wrapped, up for interpretation, potentially damaging quote?

... [Obama:] "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

So far, the Obama campaign is not confirming nor refuting the comments, but Clinton has already weighed in on the stump in Philadelphia.

"I saw in the media it's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter. Well, that's not my experience," Clinton said. "As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working hard everyday for a better future, for themselves and their children. Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them, they need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."

Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who leads an influential weekly meeting of conservatives, went as far as to argue that Obama's line would cost Democrats the White House.

"That sentence will lose him the election," Norquist told ABC News. "He just announced to rural America: 'I don't like you.'"

"Now you can vote against that guy not because you don't like him," Norquist added. "You can vote against him because he doesn't like you."

Update - It is starting. Republicans Quickly Pounce on Obama Remarks,

Within moments, Republicans had pounced. Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign told Politico's Jonathan Martin that Obama's comment revealed "an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking." Schmidt added: "It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."

Within hours, the National Republican Congressional Committee had issued a release pushing Rep. Chris Carney -- a vulnerable freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania -- to condemn Obama's remarks.

Update - Hillary is also jumping on it, using the Right's talking points. Great. This sort of stuff only helps the Republicans if Obama becomes the nominee. And Obama is right.

Late update - Obama takes it and knocks it out of the park:

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Will McCain Condemn Reject or Denounce This?

Will Russert or Matthews or Broder any of America's other "opinion leaders" ask John McCain to condemn, reject and denounce this?

Townhall.com::Congressional Democrats: The Other Insurgents::By Michael Reagan,

The goals of the Democrats and both al Qaeda and al Sadr insurgents are the same: the defeat of the United States in the war in Iraq.

But John McCain gets a free pass, even on statements like this - the kind of statement which he has come pretty close to repeating himself. This is the son of a Republican President who said this, not some marginalized outlier. This is the kind of statement that is repeated frequently by other Republicans. This is the kind of statement that the Republican Party itself has used in previous elections - to the point of using pictures of candidates morphine into Osama bin laden in their candidates' ads. It is time once and for all for McCain to either embrace or condemn this.

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April 10, 2008

Obama Needs To Apologize For ...

The Carpetbagger Report writes about The problem with comparing Obama to Tiger Woods. At a McCain rally a speaker says,

“Rest assured that people like Senator McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate an admire. You can have your Tiger Woods. We have Senator McCain.”

The general consensus, the talking heads said, is that it’s “no harm, no foul,” because Tiger Woods is great at golf.

Consider the quote again: “Rest assured that people like Senator McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate an admire. You can have your Tiger Woods. We have Senator McCain.”

In other words, don’t admire the ethnically diverse golfer who reminds this guy of Barack Obama.

Am I the only one who finds this offensive?

Maybe someone could produce a video with a Saturday Night Live style skit. In the skit Sen. Obama has a regular weekly session where he has to apologize for each thing some black person somewhere may have said or done that week, before he is allowed to move on to his topic... Script:

"Now before I begin I see that a black driver in Connecticut ran a stop sign and narrowly avoided colliding with a delivery truck. I sincerely apologize. And in Tennessee an accountant whose mother's grandfather is from Nigeria made a mistake and cost his client $650. I deeply regret that this incident occurred. Now, moving on today I would like to talk about agricultural policy ..."

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March 26, 2008

McCain Old

How old is John McCain?

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March 20, 2008

Obama Endorses the McCain Brand

I'm still stuck in the Atlanta airport, where they have CNN on. I just heard Senator Obama say that the country needs a little more "straight talk" right now, and that Senator McCain is a true American hero.

I think the second part is a great thing to say, but I have to wonder if Sen. Obama understands that "straight talk" is McCain's brand? He just reinforced McCain's campaign slogan to the country.

This is just as bad as Senator Clinton saying the other day that McCain is ready to be President and Obama isn't.

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March 18, 2008

Obama's Speech

I watched Senator Obama's speech today from the press room at the Take Back America conference. I'll comment on it later. Right now I''ll only say that I believe this was one of the great speeches of American history. But maybe more than a speech. Maybe a change event.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama

"A More Perfect Union"

Constitution Center

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Shame

This diary at MyDD, calling Michelle Obama a "welfare queen" is actually on the site's recommended list: MyDD :: Michelle Obama: "Give Us Something Here". This is beyond outrageous and must be condemned, rejected, repudiated and any other words you can find. It shames all of us.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

March 14, 2008

The Obama Smears

The Nation has a great article out on the Obama smears that are circulating, and looks at where they come from.

Smearing Obama

The purpose of the smear is to paint him as an Arab-loving, Israel-hating, terrorist-coddling, radical black nationalist. That picture couldn't be further from the truth, but you'd be surprised how many people have fallen for it.

[. . .] We may not know who started the smears, but we do know who's amplifying them. The "Obama is a Muslim" rumor began in the fringe conservative blogosphere. "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always a Muslim," blogger Debbie Schlussel wrote on December 18, 2006. Schlussel had a history of inflammatory rhetoric and baseless accusations. She said journalist Jill Carroll, who was kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents in 2006, "hates America" and "hates Israel"; labeled George Soros a "fake Holocaust survivor"; and speculated that Pakistani terrorists were somehow to blame for last year's shootings at Virginia Tech. Yet her post on Obama gained traction; one month later, the Washington Times's Insight magazine alleged that Obama had attended "a so-called Madrassa" and was a secret Muslim.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

March 13, 2008

Which Dem Has More Votes?

Here is a great breakdown of the primaries so far. WIt also breaks down the Clinton / Obama votes between Democrats, Independents and Republicans. Go read this, there are some surprises.

MyDD :: A Look at the Popular Vote

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

March 8, 2008

How Does This Help Democrats Win?

Every time I think I might lean toward endorsing one or the other of the candidates things pop up that push me away again. I used to say I liked all of the candidates running for the nomination. Now I'm wondering about that.

And it isn't just the candidates, it's the stuff the people around them are doing. The people a candidate puts into leadership positions says a lot about how that person would run an administration.

My main concern in the primaries is winning in November. I can't support taking self-interest over the interests of the party in November. When you run a scorched-earth primary campaign you reduce the chances of keeping people motivated. You also give tremendous ammunition to the opposition. In California we had a scorched-earth primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor between Westly and Angeledes. Then, during the general election all Schwarzenegger had to do was run ads with the same scripts that Westly had used and coast to victory. The result is that now we have a huge budget deficit and the school budget is going to be cut 10%. And the health budget. And everything else. Thanks guys.

The same thing is happening now between Obama and Clinton.

Hillary says John McCain is qualified to be President but Obama is not. How does that help Democrats win?

Then a top Obama aide calls Hillary a "monster." How does that help Democrats win?

And then there are the comment trolls who are disrupting the blogs. My criticism on this one goes almost entirely to the Obama trolls, who are threatening and intimidating anyone who dares suggest Obama is not the progressive essiah. Yesterday, for example, Kos had a post about how there are too few women in high-level office. Obama supporters were actually complaining that a post like this gives Hillary an advantage, that women shouldn't be in office, etc. I know better than to determine whether a candidate should be nominated based on comments that supporters leave at blogs, but the Obama trolls have been disrupting so many sites ... You pretty much can't read the comments at DailyKos anymore, for example. How does this help Democrats win?

I'm not even sure that some of these are not Republican operatives being sent in to stir up trouble inside the Democratic party. In fact, I suspect that this is happening.

I think that both candidates have an obligation at this point to ask their supporters to back off, chill, lighten up, whatever. Tensions are running high and a real leader would be working to unite the party, and bring people back together. Neither candidate is doing this today and neither candidate gets my endorsement until they do.

I have said this before: the candidate I want has the instinct to jump in and defend other progressives.

Now with that in mind, I want to address one particular meme that is circulating. Obama supporters accuse the Clinton campaign of "using race." I am so sick of this divisive, false accusation. It is not true and it divides Democrats. It is destructive to all of us. The same COULD be said of the Obama campaign and misogyny, by the way, if you applied the same standards - someone loosely associated with the campaign saying something that COULD be interpreted as such-and-such. At least, if you consider the word "bitch" and associated characterizations as misogynist. I haven't seen the "N" word used anywhere, but I HAVE seen the "B" word used.

People being stupid and saying stupid things is NOT a campaign strategy. People who support a candidate are not "the campaign." And everyone knows that racism and misogyny are not going to win over the base in Democratic primaries.

We are all in this together. There is really no substantive difference between Obama's and Clinton's policies. They are both solid progressives and either would be a great President. OUR goal must be to get the conservative movement out of the White House and Congress and start restoring our traditions of democracy.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

March 7, 2008

New McCain Ad

So McCain has the nomination and the professionals are starting to shape his image. Here is a new McCain ad that is chock full of manipulative psychological gimmicks, code words, and the beginning of the narrative development for the campaign. How many things can you spot? What is the campaign going to be about? What is the overarching story?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

March 5, 2008

Let's Have A Comment War

Note - This is an insider post, for people who spend a lot of time at other blog sites. If you don't spend a lot of time at other blogs, especially reading the comments, you won't get this and should iignore it. I apologize.

Let's have a war in the comments here. The vote count in the Democratic primaries so far is:
Clinton 13,521,832
Obama 13,497,175

OK, go at it.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

March 3, 2008

Been Away

A sudden urgent job came up that I have been working on about 20 hours a day so posting here has been light. Don't worry I'm not dead. More to come...

Meanwhile for tomorrow's primary, take a look at a couple of grassroots video sites, Hillary Speaks For Me and YouBama.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 22, 2008

Bad ROI -- Really Bad

Pam Spaulding asks, Where did all the money people donated to the Clinton campaign go?,

According to the filing, detailed in the New York Times, Clinton paid strategist Mark Penn and his company $3.8 million for "fees and expenses" in January alone. In sum, the firm has billed $10 million in total, which included expenditures on direct mail.

The Times said other Democratic strategists called this sum "stunning."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 21, 2008

Some History on McCain and Lobbyists

Does anyone remember this story, about McCain's Abramoff hearings?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has assured his colleagues that his expanding investigation into the activities of a former GOP lobbyist and a half-dozen of his tribal casino clients is not directed at revealing ethically questionable actions by Members of Congress.

. . .

"It's not our responsibility in any way to involve ourselves in the ethics process [of Senators]," McCain said Wednesday, explaining the comments he made to his fellow GOP Senators. "That was not the responsibility of the Indian Affairs Committee."

. . . Because of those stories - and several other news reports touching on Abramoff's relationship with Members - McCain said he wanted to let Senators know that he was not trying to air any of their dirty laundry.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 20, 2008

Obama's Blueprint For Change Document

I just finished reading Obama's Blueprint For Change Document. (This is a PDF document.)

This is a solid plan, with specifics. I recommend everyone read it.

Naturally I have some disagreements, but this is a great incremental plan for beginning to restore the country to pre-Bush conditions, and hopefully moving towards progress.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 18, 2008

Creating Demand For Progressive Candidates And Policies

Before the California primary I was at a house party put on by supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton. (I have also attended Obama events - no hate mail, please). Clinton advisor Ann Lewis phoned in to talk about some of the issues. (Ambassador Joe Wilson also called.) At one point one of the guests asked Lewis whether progressive challenges in primaries is the best way get more progressives elected to the Congress.

Lewis gave a response that I feel should be repeated. It shows that the Clinton team has an understanding of the need to build a progressive movement outside of the electoral process if we want the country to make the changes that we progressives feel are necessary. (I am not saying that the Obama team does not have a similar understanding - no hate mail, please.)

Here is Ann Lewis’ statement about how Sen. Clinton thinks we can increase our chances of electing progressives into office in Congress.

"Hillary believes that the most effective way to elect progressive Democrats to office – and thus enact progressive policies – is by building and maintaining a progressive infrastructure, including institutions, organizations and blogs."

If we really want long-term, structural changes in the way the public votes, the way to do this is to reach them outside of the electoral process. We need to help them understand what progressive values are - why democracy is important ad community benefits them, and conservative "you're on your own" policies do not. This effort leverages the electoral effort by "preparing the ground" and helping the public understand what progressive candidates are trying to achieve. This way ALL progressive candidates benefit from the SAME contribution. Each $1000 given to a progressive infrastructure organization accompishes more than $1000 given to EACH candidate at every level during the election.

If we can fund organizations like the Commonweal Institute and Speak Out California, which will then work to reach the public and help restore public understanding and appreciation of progressive values and ideas, then we will start to create demand for progressive candidates and policies.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 10, 2008

Driving A Wedge

The Drudge Report is a right-wing site that is used to drive right-wing propaganda into the large, corporate media outlets. When a story is featured at the Drudge Report, you always have to ask why, and ask what is the right's intent behind getting this story into circulation.

Today Drudge points us to a story, Wilder Still Sore Over Clinton Comment. This story is obviously an effort to drive a wedge between supporters of Senators Obama and Clinton. It uses out-of-context, incomplete quotes and mischaracterizes the intent and meaning of the quotes to drive up tensions.

The nation's first elected black governor said Saturday he is not ready to excuse comments former President Bill Clinton made about Barack Obama.

In campaigning for his wife last month on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Clinton suggested Obama had toned down his early anti-war fervor during his 2004 Senate campaign.

. . . Clinton also implied that an Obama victory in South Carolina would amount to a reward based on race, like the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 20 years earlier.

Wilder said the former president's comments stung him and other black voters and diminished their respect for Clinton.

"It's not just me (who) feels that; any number of people feel that," Wilder said. "A time comes and a time goes. The president has had his time."

Readers know that I do not favor one candidate over the other. I think they are both great candidates who would make excellent Presidents, but neither offers the transformational, progressive change I believe would most benefit the country and world. I defend BOTH of them from attacks -- and wish they would defend each other and us from attacks.

This is an attack. It is an obvious attempt to split the Democratic Party and its supporters, going into the elections. Duh!

Are you going to let them play you like a fiddle? Keep in mind who the enemy is here. The stakes are high: If we let the primary contest divide us how many hundred thousand Iraqis or Iranians will be killed before the 2012 elections, how much more will corporations take over our democracy, how much more concentration of wealth at the top will we see? Please do not be fooled by this stuff! If it appears at DRUDGE, you KNOW something is going on.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 3, 2008

Clearing Something Up

As you know I am not a Hillary or an Obama supporter. However, I feel the need to clear this up. At BuzzFlash: Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama: Who is Better at "Framing" Progressive Issues?,

Clinton spent many years as a corporate lawyer for the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. . . . She has said that she has been an agent of change because she has worked with the likes of Bill Frist.

At the Rose Law Firm she worked on patent infringement and intellectual property, not corporate law. While there she worked for free on child advocacy issues. At the time,

Rodham maintained her interest in children's law and family policy, publishing the scholarly articles "Children's Policies: Abandonment and Neglect" in 1977 and "Children's Rights: A Legal Perspective" in 1979. The latter continued her argument that legal competence of children depended upon their age and other circumstances, and that in cases of serious medical rights judicial intervention is sometimes warranted. An American Bar Association chair later said, "Her articles were important, not because they were radically new but because they helped formulate something that had been inchoate."Historian Garry Wills would later term her "one of the more important scholar-activists of the last two decades", while conservatives said her theories would usurp traditional parental authority, allow children to file frivolous lawsuits against their parents, and considered her work part of legal "crit" theory run amok.

Rodham co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a state-level alliance with the Children's Defense Fund, in 1977.[

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

February 2, 2008

Hillary and Obama

I'm not endorsing either Hillary or Obama, for various reasons. Both would be great Presidents. Hillary is ready on day 1. If Barack can pull it off, he could be transformational. But I'd like to see Medicare-For-All, an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions along with massive green infrastructure investment, bringing corporations under citizen control, balancing the budget and paying of the debt ASAP by taxing the rich and corporations (get the money from where the money went), cutting the military budget by about 3/4, and a few other things.

Here's a couple of Obama videos that are great.

Baby Got Barack:

Yes, I Can (through Culture Kitchen)

Go here to see a video of Bobby Kennedy Jr. talking about Hillary.

Here is Bettina Duval of California List, writing about Hillary in a Calitics diary:

Why I Am Supporting Hillary Clinton

Super Tuesday is only a few days away when thousands of Californians will cast their votes in the Democratic primary. It seems this has become a race where campaign issues have become dwarfed by the diversity of the candidates themselves. Amazingly, the two most diverse candidates, Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, are the only contenders for the Democratic nomination. It has made this election one of the most fascinating and inspirational elections in our history.

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to those who are familiar with the work of the CALIFORNIA LIST that I personally support Senator Hillary Clinton for president.

Yes, I support Senator Hillary Clinton because she is a pro-choice, Democratic candidate, but more importantly I believe she can potentially accomplish more than the other contenders in this presidential race. Senator Hillary Clinton has a plan and the experience to bring that plan to fruition.

I support Senator Hillary Clinton because she is tough. Working with women candidates here in California, I have learned that when a woman runs for any office she inevitably faces challenges because of her gender. During the recent presidential contests, some of these challenges made front page news - most topics have little to do with her ability execute the office for which she is running. We have discussed Senator Hillary Clinton’s laugh, her clothes and now her husband. She has been held to a much higher standard than her opponents and to her credit has risen to the occasion. Too bad we are not talking about the issues that really matter, because when you actually listen to her speak it becomes clear that she is knowledgeable, articulate and understands of the issues facing our country.

I know that women aren't the only proponents for what we call “women’s issues”—issues of wage fairness and reproductive health and work/family balance. Thankfully the women’s movement has sensitized many men to these concerns and certainly men have taken up the gauntlet on such issues. However, by and large women still experience problems in these areas more forcefully than their men. In this particular instance, Senator Hillary Clinton’s gender and her focus have coincided. These are the issues of particular concern to me personally and to the CALIFORNIA LIST, so her work and advocacy on them is another strong reason for my support.

If you doubt that a woman can win, just remember Senator Hillary Clinton won her Senate seat twice in a state where she was a first judged to have an unlikely chance of winning at all. She won both the Michigan and Florida primaries - two large, diverse states that are important to win in the general election.

And, maybe most importantly, I like Senator Hillary Clinton. In my role as the founder of the CALIFORNIA LIST, I know that in politics, “likeability” counts. I find her warm, personable and funny.

According to a poll released by Field Research on January 22nd, Senator Hillary Clinton leads California with the largest margins amongst women at 43% compared to 24% in favor of Senator Barack Obama. In a state where so many delegates are up for grabs, this is where the discussion among women gets especially interesting...because it calls into question whether, as a gender, we can accurately be considered a single group—or courted as a single group—demographically. As the CALIFORNIA LIST continues to work to elect women to government in California, we hope to capitalize on what we are learning to help build the pipeline of future women leaders.

Whether on the sidelines of the soccer field or volleyball court, at a Boy Scout dinner, or during my son’s sixth grade field trip, I have been so energized by the debate about the different candidates. For the past six years I have been traveling the state of California talking about the importance of being engaged politically. My personal life has always been divided between my political friends, my carpool mom’s and my social friends, until this primary season. I think that both Democratic candidates have equally inspired political activism.

While I support Senator Hillary Clinton, I also want to make it perfectly clear that I truly respect those who think otherwise. I believe in the Democratic process. I look forward to the day when all people have an equal voice – regardless of race or gender. We have come a long way. We have a long way to go. But, the most important thing is to make your voice heard and vote on Tuesday, February 5th.

Bettina Duval is the founder of the California List, a political fundraising network that helps elect Democratic women to all branches of California state government.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 28, 2008

Is Hillary Corporate?

I just came across this: The Left Coaster: Is Hillary Clinton a "Corporate Democrat"? - Part 1

Leave a comment.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Right-Wing Blog Says Yes, Romney Wears Earpiece

During the recent Republican debate TV listeners heard a whisper that appeared to be prompting Mitt Romney with an answer.

A blogger at Red State says that on another occasion Romney's staff said to him that Romney wears an earpiece that his staff uses to talk to him. Who Is Whispering in Romney's Ear? | Redstate,

During Gov. Romney’s speech, one of his handlers mentioned to one of our staff people that any time Gov. Romney needed to wrap things up, he would be happy to let Gov. Romney know through the ear-piece that he wore.

We need to know if Romney was cheating in the debate.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 24, 2008

Pushed The Wrong Button?

I'm not endorsing Hillary or Obama or Edwards. My own philosophy leans more toward Edwards but I would be happy with any of these three.

That said, if there is ONE thing I do NOT want a President doing, it is pushing the wrong goddam BUTTON!

Obama said oops on 6 state Senate votes:

according to transcripts of the proceedings in Springfield, he hit the wrong button at least six times.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 21, 2008

Repost - OF COURSE I SUPPORT HILLARY!!!

Because of the hysteria in the blogosphere I am reposting this post that I wrote in August:

A recent post I wrote with James, defending Hillary from a racist Republican attack, has evoked e-mail and comment "accusations" that I am a "Hillary supporter."

OF COURSE I AM A HILLARY SUPPORTER -- I'M A DEMOCRAT!!

I also support Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and John Edwards! Duh!

I think I prefer Edwards and Dodd right now, because their polices and thinking and approach lines up more with my own. Obama sure is winning me over, too. I am more progressive-oriented than Hillary.

But let me suggest something to you -- If Hillary Clinton becomes President, she will be the most progressive president America has ever had.

So relax. We have a great group of candidates this time.

Now with that said let me add that our candidates should all be going after Republicans and defending each other. I will strongly support candidates who have an instinct to defend fellow Democrats against Republican attacks, in any race for any office. I will strongly support candidates who make it clear that they understand that the current Republican party has devolved into something unknown in American history, something dangerous and undemocratic and particularly dishonest.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 19, 2008

Trying To Drive A Wedge

Here is a glimpse of the right's operation at work, trying to drive wedges between Democrats. A Drudge Report headline links to Murdoch's Times Online: Women turn on ‘traitor’ Oprah Winfrey for backing Barack Obama

What is the basis for this headline story? Anonymous messages left in blog comments:

It started with a message on her website entitled “Oprah is a traitor” and rapidly expanded to include several discussions that attracted hundreds of comments.

In the original post, a reader called austaz68 said she “cannot believe that women all over this country are not up in arms over Oprah’s backing of Obama. For the first time in history we actually have a shot at putting a woman in the White House and Oprah backs the black MAN. She’s choosing her race over her gender.”

In a subsequent comment, 2nurselady wrote: “I don’t think Oprah is a ‘traitor’, but I do think she may be alienating a lot of her fans.”

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 17, 2008

McCain Ahead Of Clinton, Obama and Edwards

So many are so sure that Democrats have the Presidential election in the bag. But progressives do not have an idea/communications infrastructure to tell the public how their ideas benefit them, which creates demand for progressive candidates and policies. Hundreds of millions of progressive/liberal dollars go into election-cycle spending, but none into creating an overall public attitude environment that is ready to accept those election-cycle messages. If a fraction of that election-cycle money went to organizations like the Commonweal Institute, Speak Out California, Netroots Nation, etc. these organizations could reach out to the public all year, every year and help to create demand for progressive policies and candidates. Sheesh, how many lost elections is it going to take before people get that?

In What I Expect In 2008 I wrote,

The election is a year away and the Republicans are working hard to set the stage and prime the public for their campaign themes.
. . .
1) Iraq will not be in the news, and the Dems will be blamed for any failures. [...]

3) Accusations that we have a Do-Nothing Ineffective Congress [. . .]

5) Dems will face a hostile media that favors Republicans.

Conservatives and Republicans talk to the general public, and use a megaphone. Fox News is still there, just like they have been for a while. Rush Limbaugh is still there, spreading his lies, and his audience is still huge. Same for the rest of their machine - newspapers, other talk radio... And then there is their online effort, including the viral e-mails.

If the general election were held right now, McCain would beat New York Sen. Hillary Clinton 47% to 42% and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 45% to 43%, the survey revealed.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

A National Security Levy on Oil

Update Jay Buckey has posted this as a DailyKos diary. I suggest giving it a recommend to get this idea into discussion.

I just came across this. Jay Buckey is running for the Senate in New Hampshire, and he just came out with a proposal to put a National Security Levy on Oil so WE, THE PEOPLE benefit from high oil prices, instead of just sending all that money to others. Go see his post on this over at the progressive blog Blue Hampshire: Taking Back Our Future and Our Freedom: A Policy Proposal. Excerpts:

Right now, every time we fill up our cars, we're sending money to foreign countries -- where roughly 60 percent of the more than 20 million barrels of oil we use everyday is produced. It's like they're taxing us, for their benefit.

Some of those countries, like Canada, are close allies, but others aren't. And whenever we put a gallon of gas in our cars, we're using our hard-earned dollars to help fund foreign oil producers in the Mideast, in Russia, and elsewhere.

Moreover, OPEC and other oil-producing countries have been able to lower and raise oil prices like puppeteers pulling the strings. Alternative energy companies have often failed when oil prices were low; American consumers - especially lower-income citizens - have been stretched almost to the breaking point when prices spike.

It's time to put a stop to this.

The National Security Levy will move us toward energy independence and secure the future of our country for our children.

Here's how it will work: the National Security Levy will be a fee on all oil consumption in the United States - combined with a price floor that guarantees oil will not sink below a certain price.

. . . If the world price of oil falls, the National Security Levy will be increased, so that the price in the US remains above a certain established floor. This means that alternative energy producers won't be wiped out by temporary declines in world oil prices, as happened in the 1980s; they'll know that the price of oil in the US would not be allowed to fall below the floor price.

If, however, the price of world oil spikes dramatically, then the National Security Levy would be suspended during the spike.

This guy is great. Go read. Here is his campaign site. If you agree that WE THE PEOPLE should be receiving the benefits from the high oil prices, instead of others, give him a few bucks. In fact, give Jay a few Buckeys!

A bit more from Jay's post,

But you might ask, if a National Security Levy on oil is such a great idea, why isn't it already in place? Well, the basic idea isn't new, but according to conventional wisdom a serious proposal like this is politically unacceptable.

I believe that for too long the politicians in Washington have underestimated the will and determination of the American people. I believe that Americans are ready to change, ready to make a commitment to our future, and ready to work to make that future a reality.

And I believe that what is truly unacceptable is to have American servicemen and women risking their lives overseas -- in part to protect our access to oil -- and yet not do everything we can here in New Hampshire and across the country to end our dependence on foreign oil. We need to take positive action to protect our nation's security and our future.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 15, 2008

Hillary's Victory

A guest post by Bettina Duval of the California List

Senator Hillary Clinton's victory in New Hampshire was the first time in our history that a woman won a presidential primary*. Her win was a momentous achievement that the early suffragettes could only dream of. It was a triumph for all women – a giant step forward in the drive for equality.

The nation's political attention has wrongly focused on why Senator Clinton won New Hampshire. The most important fact, that she is the first woman ever to win a primary, has been lost. Does it matter that Hillary Clinton won the primary – YES. Senator Clinton's victory cannot be brushed aside with political positioning or media downplay. Make no mistake, it was an historic moment.

As the founder of the CALIFORNIA LIST, an organization dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to California state government, I have dedicated my life to building the pipe-line of future leaders and helping support Democratic women running for office. When a woman becomes a candidate she brings a different voice to the conversation and valuable diversity to the political process. She will inevitably face challenges because of her gender. After all, it took more than 40 years for California women to gain the right to vote. In 1911 when suffrage finally passed in California, it did so by fewer than 3,600 votes – an average of one vote per precinct!!! Women's rights have been born out of struggle not privilege.

In 1994, the year of the woman, the number of elected female Democratic officials in California was at an all time high. Twenty per cent, or 24 out of 120 elected officials, were women. Today we have only 16 elected Democratic women, over 30% less than ten years ago. In California we lose 2 or three elected women per election. It's the slow drip process. Elected women and candidates are in decline – a frightening trend that must be reversed.

The full impact of Hillary Clinton's win in New Hampshire on her run for President is as yet undefined, but I hope it will at the very least encourage more women to run for office. Seeing a Democratic woman governor in California is a dream. When Hillary Clinton won the primary she moved us closer to that goal.

Women need to run and win on every level of the political pipeline, from the local school board to the presidency. Their voice is critical to the balance of decision-making and the future of our state, our country and our world. Reversing the decline in the number of women candidates and office-holders, not only in California but across the country, is essential to the health of our political process.

I see it as our moral opportunity as well as our moral obligation to continue the fight for individual liberty. It is my belief in Democracy – a Democracy that is made stronger by diversity – that motivates me to encourage you to applaud Hillary Clinton for her achievement.

* - It has been pointed out at DailyKos that Shirley Chisholm win the 1972 New Jersey.

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January 14, 2008

The Political Compass - where I stand vs. the candidates

The graph on the Political Compass web site, which analyzes the positions on the political compass of the various candidates for President in the primary elections, demonstrates why many many Americans like myself feel so disenfranchised by the current political process and the "choice" it has given them. Every single candidate of significance in both parties falls into the upper right hand quadrant: Authoritarian/Right - the Democrats just fall closer to the lower left-hand corner of that quadrant, the Republicans, the upper right hand corner.

Me? I fall into the extreme lower left-hand corner of the lower left quadrant: Left/Libertarian... my views on social and economic issues are almost diametrically opposite that of every single candidate. And exactly in the same quadrant as my political party: the Green Party (globally and in the U.S.)... although that party is much closer to the center than I am, amusingly enough.

Kucinich and Gravel, both in the upper right hand corner of the lower left quadrant, Left/Libertarian, are the closest candidates to my preferences. You can look at the 2004 Election diagram, which shows that the two closest candidates to my position (in the same region as Kucinich) were David Cobb and Ralph Nader (no surprise). John Kerry and GWB both, of course, fall into the lower left hand and upper right hand corner of the Authoritarian/Right quadrant (also no surprise).

... and guess where Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and the Dali Lama all fall? Desmond Tutu. Michael Moore. Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation")? Just to name a few folks. You guessed it: the lower left hand quadrant. The first three are sourced from the Analysis page (the site strongly recommends that you take their test before reading that page), the last three are sourced from the site's Libertarian Left thinkers page. You might also want to take a look at who the guiding intellectual lights of the Authoritarian Right (and thus the American political mainstream) are. Take a look at those two pages, and tell me which one has more books on your reading list. :)

Where do you fall on the Political Compass? Which individuals would you rather be associated with? Do you feel "represented"? Do you feel that the Democratic Party, in the form of Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, folks that in other areas of the world would be described as "moderate conservatives", truly represents YOUR political beliefs?

Look at where the Labour Party in Britain has gone over the past three decades (middle of lower left hand quadrant to middle of upper right hand quadrant)... is there any doubt that a graph of the Democratic Party in this country would show the same pattern?

Dave wants to drag the Democratic Party back to Left/Libertarian quadrant it occupied thirty years ago. Me, I think: "Why spend the effort to do that, when there's already a party that truly represents my views?" We have a difference of opinion on tactics. I'm curious as to which side of the discussion the readers of this blog fall on.

Of course, as the site mentions, if we had a rational political system, with proportional representation, then this entire discussion would be unnecessary. Dave and I would happily both be members of the Green Party of the United States (and so would vast numbers of other people), and we'd be working in coalition with the Democrats occupying the "moderate conservative" lower left hand corner of the Authoritarian/Right to frustrate the efforts of the Republican party to destroy everything we hold dear.

P.S. I'm going to write them and ask that they include Cynthia McKinney, one of the leading candidates for the Green Party nomination, on the primary page. I don't think there's enough information available for him to easily make an analysis of the other candidates' positions, although I'm sure they'll all fall into the same general region (based on what I heard today when I attended the Green Party Presidential Candidates debate - soon to be available on the KPFA web site).

Posted by Thomas Leavitt at 12:33 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 11, 2008

Huckabee - Heh

It's hard to dislike this guy. Watch this:

And read this GREAT column today from David Sirota,

Stay Classy, Mike Huckabee
[. . .]
Recall that the media portrays Bush's alliance with the religious right as proof of his convictions. Huckabee's alliance with the same religious right is subtly cast as a sign of supposed ignorance. Bush's rhetorical gaffes are often painted as endearing — evidence that despite his silver-spoon pedigree, he is the authentic "average American man" thinking "in a common-sense way," as Republican commentator Peggy Noonan wrote. Huckabee? The Weekly Standard calls him "a village idiot" and a "rube," while Noonan derides him for "populist manipulation."

Bush, you see, was always an aristocrat underneath the "windshield cowboy" veneer. He is the son of a president, a Skull-and-Bones man — ruling class all the way.

Huckabee, on the other hand, is a real-life regular guy. He views religion as more than just a convenient political cudgel, truly did pull himself "up from the bootstraps" — and his class grievances are personal. The well-heeled narcissists in the media and political Establishment are appalled. They see Huckabee as a country bumpkin getting uppity.

Democrats, you'd better be ready for what's coming. This is another Ronald Reagan. If we don't start stating progressive VALUES and the BENEFITS of progressive values, we're toast. No more lists of issues, like you're trying to buy groceries, please.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 9, 2008

Mike Huckabee Singing Beyond the Sea

For your musical entertainment:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 8, 2008

What People "Know"

We who read and write blogs are what I call "hyper-informed." We not only know about everything that is going on, but we often know about it within minutes or hours.

This can cause us to forget that most people are not up to speed with the kinds of things that you and I take for granted. For example, most people know nothing about the billions of dollars in cash that disappeared in Iraq. You and I know all about it. It was widely reported in the blogs and everyone who frequents blogs read about it. And it is discussed as a given. It forms a foundation of our understanding of what is happening in America - yet it means nothing to most people. There are so many examples like this.

The information gap is so wide that people think something is wrong with you if you try to explain to them what is going on.

Where am I going with this? Yesterday someone told me that most people where she works think that Barack Obama is a Muslim. It's one of those "everyone knows" things.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Hillary's Tears

Matt Stoller at Open Left:: Clinton's Sincerity Moment,

I thought her appearance was one of the sweetest, toughest, and most forthright expressions of Hillary Clinton's belief system I have ever seen. She genuinely believes this country is lost without someone who knows how to deal with the massive problems we're facing, and she genuinely doesn't think Obama can do it. Moreover, she looks kind of lost in the politics, unable to comprehend how her decades of hard work and compromises could be rejected by voters. Don't they see that Obama isn't ready? Can't they go beyond the rhetoric and look at substance? She has gotten plenty of liberal policies done, why are the liberals voting for someone else? Whatever you may think of Clinton, she has put her whole life into public service.

I was on the trail for three days last week, and it is incredibly tiring. Candidates go from event to event, eating pizza, sleeping little, surrounded by press and fans and opponents in a high pressure atmosphere. That Clinton does it, and expresses herself so sweetly in this appearance, is to her credit, even if the cynical, nasty, and misogynistic press corps doesn't get it. She understands just how mean and unfair they are. What she doesn't understand is that liberal politics are winning politics.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Progressives Worry That Obama Is Bringing A Knife To A Gunfight

Over at AlterNet, Joshua Holland writes, Obama Can Win; If He Does, Let's Hope His Sunny Bipartisan Talk Is Just Rhetoric. A snippet:

The Republican establishment is fully aware of the fact that they can't win on any substantial issue of public policy on the merits of their arguments alone. There is no broad constituency in America for showering the top 1 percent with tax breaks, handing huge subsidies to energy firms and giant agribusinesses and pharmaceutical firms, starting wars of choice, cutting social services or privatizing broad swaths of the public sector.

So they emphasize social issues and conjure up fear of foreign bogey-men in order to remain relevant. And they marginalize and demonize their opponents, which has been a central thrust of conservative messaging since the days of Spiro Agnew and Joe McCarthy. In logic, it's known as "poisoning the well" -- making one's interlocutor out to be such a heinous beast that anything he or she says will be perceived, without examination, as an assault on our core values.

At heart, there's a fundamental divide between Obama's post-partisan rhetoric, and the hunger among many progressives for a fighter who will stand up to the Right-wing noise machine and effectively slug it out with the GOP. That goes a long way to explaining why Obama, despite an almost perfect biography and the caché of being a Beltway outsider at a time when the insiders are so widely loathed, never seemed to catch on with the left "blogosphere" the way one would have expected him to.

If Obama can pull it off, it will lead to a great progressive future. But does he really think the corporate right is going to work with him? I think they're going to do everything they can to destroy him.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 5, 2008

Dem Debate - They All Won - We Won

The New Hampshire Democratic Debate just wrapped up. I am so impressed by ALL FOUR of the Democratic candidates! My doubts about Obama have largely been addressed. Edwards is there to fight for the people against the entrenched corporate and special interests. Hillary is ready to hit the ground running. And Bill Richardson finally had a chance to present himself without a big crowd there making it difficult to see who he is.

That ALL did well. It is a very tough choice, and that is a great thing for the people. I support ALL of them.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 4, 2008

Did Richardson Only Get 2%?

I have to point this out, because I am not seeing it in any reporting or blogs. The Iowa caucuses have a 15% threshold. If you are in a precinct and your candidate does not get 15% then you either go to another candidate of go home. Getting 2% in the Iowa caucuses means that you got over 15% in enough precincts. In other precincts it could mean you received anywhere from 0% to 14.9999% support.

Disclaimer, I have been consulting with the Richardson campaign.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 2, 2008

The Appeal of Ron Paul

Insiders talk about Huckabee as the Frankenstein's monster the Republicans created with their strategy of stirring up religious strife. They worked so hard to divide us along religious lines to get votes - but then a candidate shows up who is an actual right-wing Christian, not just a vote-pandering corporatist, and they don’t know what to do about it. It’s fun, in a way, to watch the right's machine -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing blogs. etc. -- in total panic, trying to get their audience to pull back from voting the way they’ve been telling them to vote for so many years.

I think the DC Democratic leadership has made the same mistake with their cautious, pander-to-the-so-called-center strategy (as conservatives move that "center" ever rightward). Like the Republicans, they thought they owned their base. They paid lip service to get progressive votes but then engaged in the kind of strategerizing and "afraid Rush Limbaugh will say something bad about them" approach we have had to endure rather than just doing what is right. (The point being that Rush will say something bad about you anyway, no matter what you do.) They let the war go on, took impeachment "off the table," wouldn't force Republicans to actually filibuster (thereby requiring 60 Senate votes for Democratic interests but only 50 for Republican), let Bush continue to violate the law and Constitution with impunity - even refusing to enforce their own Congressional subpoenas! They think their “base” has to stick with them no matter what.

So then along comes Ron Paul. HE says the war is wrong and illegal and must be stopped. HE says we have to enforce the Constitution above all. And surprise of surprises, he is drawing support. A letter in Tuesday’s San Jose Mercury News illustrates my point:

Ron Paul stands up to examination
For the first time I can remember, we have a presidential candidate who is actually saying elected officials should keep their oaths and follow the Constitution. I was vacillating between choices, but after a closer look at Ron Paul, all doubts are put to bed. As commander in chief, he would end this financially ruinous war for the right reason: because it is illegal. He would also restore sound monetary policy and stop the "inflation tax" that nobody talks about. It is amazing how many of our problems would be mitigated if officials simply lived up to their oaths. For me, voting has always been selecting the best bad apple, but this is the first time I've actually been inspired. Google Ron Paul and be convinced.

Bringing in new voters is always a good thing. And opposing illegal aggressive war. torture, and demanding that the Constitution and laws be followed are to be praised no matter who is doing it. Heck, listening to Paul talk about these things almost makes me want to support him!

But then these recruits are then subjected to the other side of the far-right libertarian agenda. First there is the lunatic "Secret NAFTA Superhighway" conspiracy stuff. It's a catchy phrase that seems to affect people's brains, but it doesn't mean anything. It's just nut stuff. People's understandable concerns about trade deals that practically require the destruction of jobs and the environment are used by Paul as a way to mainstream far-right "black helicopter" thinking.

Then comes a dose of really bad economics. There's the "get rid of the IRS" and gold-standard nonsense. And the talk that the Federal Reserve is some kind of secret internationalist cabal has a hint of the old-time antisemitism of those who say that Jews have a secret conspiracy to control all the money.

And I don't fault a candidate based on who supports him or her, but Ron Paul sure does have a lot of militia, white supremacist, etc. groups endorsing him. So I do have get a bit suspicious about where he is coming from.

Unfortunately he is also a possible Ralph Nader whose independent run could siphon off enough votes that would otherwise have gone to Democrats to throw the election to the right. Anti-war, pro-Constitution support draws votes away from the Democrats, not Republicans. That guarantees the war continues and the shredding of the Constitution is completed.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:20 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

January 1, 2008

Chris Dodd Thanks The Netroots

Senator Chris Dodd thanks the netroots for fighting for the Constitution:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 31, 2007

Who Do These People (The Press) Think They Are?

Brent Budowsky: Media Insiders Shaft Biden, Richardson, Dodd, Kucinich and America - Media on The Huffington Post

[. . .] The insider political media is now embedded with, and morphed into, the insider political classes to the point where they part of the same beast. The insider political reporters have moved beyond the courtiers that Stephen Colbert so brilliantly satired two White House correspondents dinners ago; and have fully joined the home team of the insider Washington establishment.

This class decided a year ago which candidate was inevitable, and which candidates were exiled into the insider media gulag, destined to disappear as though they never existed.

By any standard, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd stand at the top of the list in presidential qualification, stature, substance and a lifetime of depth and achievement. A reasonable person might conclude that each of these three, has equal or greater qualification to be president as any of the three leading Democrats.
[. . .] Who do these people think they are, that during most of the presidential debates, the three candidates with such vast experience had to virtually ask permission, to sandwich a few seconds of their views, into the most boring, shallow, vapid, pointless debates that any serious democracy could possibly conduct at such a momentous time in our history?

Regarding the last Iowa Democratic debate, who do these sainted Iowa debate organizers think they are, that Alan Keyes gets prime participation in the Republican debate while Dennis Kucinich is banned from the Democratic debate?

I cannot even show minimal professional respect; only an idiot would give Keyes prime exposure while treating Kucinich like a Guantanamo detainee; and the idiots that made this decision have far too much power, in Iowa and nationally, for the health of our democracy.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 27, 2007

Power To The People

From Mike Gravel

From techPresident's Favorite Videos of 2007

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

New Hampshire Senate Race - Jay Buckey

If you see stories like this, firedoglake: Bill Shaheen’s Obama Attack Hurts Wife’s Senate Campaign Against Sununu,

It appears Bill Shaheen's attack on Barack Obama is hurting his wife's Jeanne's Senate chances. From the latest ARG poll: . . .
. . . Jeanne Shaheen is Chuck Schumer's hand-picked candidate, and she certainly has name recognition in the state, but she's hardly the most progressive candidate (the advantage on that front would definitely go to Jay Buckey).

It may be as Bennett says a temporary aberration, but if the moral factors of the situation weren't enough, I think the political lesson here is also clear -- some campaign tactics are simply best left to Republicans.

Jay's an astronaut, by the way, and you can get a signed space shuttle hand-squeeze stress reliever if you go to his website and donate. (I just donated.)

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 24, 2007

Romney and Scientology?

I missed this in April ... Romney Favors Hubbard Novel,

When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a Scientologist.

A spokesman said later it was one of Mr. Romney’s favorite novels.

“I’m not in favor of his religion by any means,” Mr. Romney, a Mormon, said. “But he wrote a book called ‘Battlefield Earth’ that was a very fun science-fiction book.” Asked about his favorite book, Mr. Romney cited the Bible.

What is Mitt Romney doing mixed up in Scientology? It's possible that he has had the kind of life that makes a person vulnerable to their recruitment - as well as a target.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 22, 2007

Romney Didn't Make Up MLK Story

Mitt Romney's father George was solid on civil rights, and probably did walk with Martin Luther King - at least would have if he had the opportunity. I saw something that indicated this yesterday, but not enough to post. But this has more: Talking Points Memo | Witnesses Back Up Mitt Romney On MLK,

It's looking like Mitt Romney might have been judged too quickly on the Martin Luther King business. Two witnesses have now come forward to The Politico, insisting that they saw the late Gov. George Romney (R-MI) make a surprise appearance alongside King in 1963.

The campaign has also posted a collection of citations — including a contemporary account from the Detroit Free Press — attesting that it happened.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

"We're gonna take their power away and we're not gonna have this kind of problem again."

Edwards Says He'll Take On Big Insurance Companies - From The Road,

John Edwards tonight cited the case of a 17-year-old California girl who died after her insurance company refused coverage on a liver transplant to save her life as a call to action to change the current system of healthcare in America.

Nataline Sarkysian died last night at UCLA Medical Center after complications arose from a bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia. Her insurance provider, CIGNA Healthcare, first denied the potentially lifesaving transplant, but relented after a loud public protest and outrage. By that time, though, Sarkysian passed away before the procedure could be performed.

"Are you telling me that we're gonna sit at a table and negotiate with those people?" asked a visibly angered Edwards, challenging the health care companies. "We're gonna take their power away and we're not gonna have this kind of problem again."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 21, 2007

Ron Paul's Appeal

I think I understand the appeal of Ron Paul a little better now. This post at an economics blog makes the case:

. . . Bush would rather waste $70 billion and another 10,000 lives than admit his programs are a complete failures.

"With great fanfare" the Pentagon adopted a reduction in overseas force plan in 2004. The only thing that has changed since then is more lives have been lost, more money has been wasted, and the economy has soured. There are no jobs here so Bush will do whatever he can, including the deliberate sacrificing the lives of US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the deliberate waste of $billions elsewhere, just to prevent unemployment numbers from rising headed into an election year.

What's even sadder is that spineless Democrats are going along with his strategy. If you want to stop this madness, there is only one choice: Vote for Ron Paul.

Update - I am in no way endorsing Ron Paul here, I am saying I understand the appeal -- to the "low information voters" who don't understand what many of his other policies mean in the real world Some are good ideas, others are proven to not work. nd then there's this "NAFTA Highway" conspiracy stuff... Wow.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

How To Reform The Democratic Party

Every Democrat should read this: Daily Kos: This is it. This is the way to change our party,

As we've learned this year, Democrats in DC are more afraid of David Broder, Joe Klein, and Mr. 24%, than they are of their constituents. They are more concerned with Beltway opinion than they are with the national consensus. They are happier dealing with lobbyists than they are dealing with real people. They are more concerned with avoiding criticism than they are of delivering campaign promises.

So what can we do about it?

[. . .] Well, we have one tool at our disposal, our only way to influence the behavior of our elected officials:

We can primary them.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 5, 2007

It Really WAS Just A Joke

The other day I asked if the Hillary statement about Obama wanting to be President since Kindergarten was a joke.

I suspect / hope that the Clinton campaign is making fun of the attacks on her from the right. Remember that book that "accused" her of having wanted to be President for a long time?

And I do understand that jokes can fall flat. I was speaking to a group of progressives Monday evening, and used a line about the colonists fighting the British army, saying, "They issued strongly-worded statements." The joke fell absolutely flat - no one understood this common blogger criticism of the Senate's refusal to fight back against Bush...

Later - a bit more on this. I can understand how this can happen. The people in a campaign LIVE the campaign. So they are very aware of things the rest of us probably have never heard about. The book, Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, by two New York Times reporters, was supposed to shake up the campaign.

This NY Times review shows how "the Village" - the collection of NY and DC insiders, pundits, etc. - saw it:

The book is almost uniformly negative and overly focused on what they consider the Clintons’ scandalous past and the darker aspects of Mrs. Clinton’s personality. Her ambition, for example, is seen as an unattractive compulsion that, at times, has led her into untoward behavior. They assert that the Clintons had a longstanding deal to win the presidency, first for Bill and then for Hillary, a secret pact of ambition.

So inside the campaign this is a big deal. And you can see how making a joke about Obama writing a kindergarten essay "Why I want to be President" is funny. EVERY kindergartener writes something like this. And, seeing it now, it IS funny.

My own talk Monday night, where I used the "strongly-worded statement" joke is another example of this. I often say that those of us in the blogging world - writers and readers - are what I call "hyper-informed." But this can cause us to forget that almost everyone else is poorly informed. We should not assume that others understand what WE understand. For example, almost no one knows that there has been massive corruption and profiteering in Iraq. You and I know about that $9 billion in cash that just disappeared - but no one else does, so it doesn't figure into their thinking. We take it for granted and can't understand how others could think the way they do. They think we're crazy and partisan and making things up just for telling them what is going on in the country.

And I always conclude that bloggers need an outreach program so that what we offer extends beyond the universe of blog-readers. That universe has not been expanding lately.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:24 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Huckabee's Role In Serial Rapist's Release

Murray Waas at Huffington Post has an exclusive: Documents Expose Huckabee's Role In Serial Rapist's Release,

Little Rock, Ark -- As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.

After Dumond's release from prison in September 1999, he moved to Smithville, Missouri, where he raped and suffocated to death a 39-year-old woman named Carol Sue Shields. Dumond was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison for that rape and murder.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

December 3, 2007

Kindergarten?

I suspect / hope that the Clinton campaign is making fun of the attacks on her from the right. Remember that book that "accused" her of having wanted to be President for a long time?

If it is not that ... I don't even know what to say.

Clinton Statement on Obama’s Presidential Aspirations

... In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want To Be a President.’ His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga “asked her class to write an essay titled ‘My dream: What I want to be in the future.’ Senator Obama wrote ‘I want to be a President,’ she said.” [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want to Become President.’ “Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama’s kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, ‘I Want To Become President,’ the teacher said.” [AP, 1/25/07 ]

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

November 26, 2007

Still Thinking Dems Will Win In '08?

Are you still thinking Dems are shoo-ins for 2008?

New poll shows Clinton trails top 2008 Republicans,

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday.

Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed.

Update - Why do Democrats think anything is changed? Conservatives and Republicans talk to the general public, and use a megaphone. Fox News is still there, just like they have been for a while. Rush Limbaugh is still there, spreading his lies, and his audience is still huge. Same for the rest of their machine - newspapers, other talk radio... And then there is their online effort, including the viral e-mails.

Sure, the public is dismayed about Iraq and the economy. But the Republicans have the megaphone and will blame Democrats. And they'll go along with it.

The solution is to develop a progressive infrastructure that reaches the general public and explains the benefits of and creates demand for progressive values, policies and candidates.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:21 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Dodd's Question to Republican Candidates

Senator Chris Dodd submits a YouTube question for the upcoming Republican YouTube Presidential Candidate Debate:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

November 20, 2007

Dodd Demands New Atty General Investigate White House Cover Up

Dodd Calls on Mukasey to Investigate McClellan Charges of White House Cover Up | Chris Dodd for President,

Chris Dodd today released the following statement in response to the claims of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan that he "unknowingly passed along false information" to the American public and that "the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in [his] doing so," including the Vice-President and the President:

"Today's revelations by Mr. McClellan are very disturbing and raise several important questions that need to be answered. If in fact the President of the United of States knowingly instructed his chief spokesman to mislead the American people, there can be no more fundamental betrayal of the public trust.

"During his confirmation process, Attorney General Mukasey said he would act independently. Accordingly, today, I call on the Attorney General to live up to his word and launch an immediate investigation to determine the facts of this case, the extent of any cover up and determine what the President knew and when he knew it."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

November 15, 2007

Kucinich

Tonite's debate -- I have to say I am agreeing with everything Kucinich has said so far in this debate.

Dodd is standing up for the Constitution. Richardson is saying great things on foreign policy.

All three "front-runners" are great. Edwards is standing up for working people. Obama is better and better. Hillary is experienced but does appear to be stuck in the old-style please-the-polls cautious front-runner strategy. But then, she's the front-runner so that's really what she should do. Don't mess with success.

I like them all. Even Biden.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Drivers Licenses

I'm watching the debate. The "drivers license" question is a trick. It is a "gotcha" attempts to get the candidates to answer a complex question entirely in a right-wing frame.

Hooray for Obama for his courageous answer. Shame on Hillary.

Richardson answered exactly right.

And how did you like the right-wing anti-union teachers union question? Wow, like, "Unions are bad, what are you going to do about them. One-word answers, please."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Debate Talk Clock

Here is the Dood Debate Talk Clock:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Obama Stands By Support For Spitzer Plan - Hillary Retreats

On this issue Obama stands for principle, Hillary follows polls: Obama Stands By Support For Spitzer Plan,

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Il, is standing by his support for granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, even after Gov. Eliot Spitzer, D-NY, abandoned the proposal amidst rising political opposition.

"Obama said in the debate he supported it and he's standing by it," an aide to the Senator told the Huffington Post. "He supported a similar bill in the state senate as a law enforcement measure."

Obama's backing stands in stark contrast to the position taken by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, whose campaign now cites the issue as a basic policy difference between the two Democratic frontrunners.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

November 12, 2007

Smear: Edwards Boo'ed At Mellencamp Concert

The right is runnig with a smear that John Edwards was boo'ed at a John Mellencamp concert.

Really? See MyDD :: Edwards cheered with Mellencamp in Iowa

And see:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:48 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

November 1, 2007

Latest Clinton Smear

Just so you know what's circulating: Hillary's Lesbian Affair with Muslim Aide

Update - Spreading:
Lots are referencing this and this.
Echoed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

October 29, 2007

Why Is Mitt Romney Taking Mooney Money?

A friend's elderly mother received a scam letter, and I started looking into it. The trail led to a discovery that the Romney campaign is receiving Moonie money.

The scam letter is from the American Federation of Senior Citizens (AFSC). Tracing them down, it turns out it is a scam run by the Moonies.

The head of AFSC is Gary Jarmin. Jarmin is a member of the secretive, right-wing Council for National Policy. He words (or worked) as Government Liason of the Washington Times, a Moonie outfit. He's also the guy who booked the room in the Senate Office Building which Moon was crowned Messiah, if you remember that event.

The address of ASFC, 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, according to Raw Story, is also the address of a number of other Moonie outfits,

Christian Voice 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 548-1421

Jar-Mon Consultants (Global Dominion Communications Inc.) 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 548-4904

US Cuba Foundation 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 548-4904

American Christian Cause 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 715-6523 (703) 548-1840

Pacific Asia Foundation 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 548-4906

AFSC uses a PR firm, Global Dominion Communications, also used by Christian Voice.

So I started looking into these groups a bit, and guess what I found?

More orgs at 208 N. Patrick:
MORAL GOVERNMENT FOUNDATION TRUST ENDOWMENT FUND
Americans for Faith and Freedom
The Seniors Center

A list of contributions to the Romney campaign shows Global Communications giving the max - $2300.

More research discovers that the Romney website proudly announces that Gary Jarmin is a "Romney For President National Faith And Values Steering Committee Vice-Chair". Jarmin is listed there as President of the American Service Council.

The Christian Voice website declares, "Christian Voice is a program of American Service Council, Inc." (208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314) and the ASC website lists:
Special Programs of ASC

* Americans for Faith and Freedom
* The Seniors Center
* Citizen's Voter Drive
* National Council of Survivors
* Christian Voice

Now, I don't have time to trace this further -- I haven't even traced the donations of these other Moonie fronts -- but the way the Moonie organization works I bet with just a little work we'd find many, many more connections between the Romney (and other Republican candidates) organization and the Moonies. If you are reading this and have some time, see what you find and let us know in the comments here. Is Romney taking more Moonie money? Is he working with other Moonie fronts? Are the other Republican candidates?

Here's why: The right wants to imply something sinister out of Hillary Clinton accepting donations from people with Asian names. Maybe they're just following the STF Rule.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Obama's New Ad Could Help Kill Social Security

(Obama supporters please read the last paragraph of this post.)

For decades the right has been trying to kill Social Security. They have spread the lie that it is a "ponzi scheme" that depends on workers paying in today to pay for current benefits. Barack Obama is running a new ad that reinforces that lie.

Here is the fact: For decades Social Security has been collecting MUCH MORE $$ than it has been paying out. This money is saved in a "trust fund." This trust fund is large enough to cover any "shortfall" that occurs when the baby boomers retire.

But starting with Reagan, and especially under Bush, this trust fund was used to pay for the Republican tax cuts for the rich. (This is what Gore was talking about when he said this money should go in a "lockbox.")

Now that the baby boomers are starting to retire Social Security will need to tap into this trust fund to pay their retirement. It's their money but the money is not there -- taken by the Republicans to pay for their tax cuts.

So what is fair? Cutting old people's benefits to cover they money that was taken by the Republicans to give to the rich? Taking more from working people's paychecks to ocver what the Republicans took? Or taxing the rich to cover the money that was given to the rich? Which is fair?

And, most of all, how is this Social Security's problem? How is it Social Security's problem that the conservatives owe Social Security all that money?

With that in mind, watch Obama's commercial, in which he is talking about Social Security's problem entirely in right-wing terms:

Obama is running ads reinforcing the right's bamboozlement that Social Security is running out of money! The language in this ad implies that Social Security's retirement payments are responsible for the shortfall, and does not say that the trust fund was taken to pay for Reagan and Bush's tax cuts.

This language in this ad, if seen and heard by millions of people, could make it so much harder to fight back the next time the right tries to kill off the program by claiming it is insolvent.

I know that Senator Obama's heart is in the right place and he has no intention of harming Social Security. But this ad is a mistake that could backfire. Please stop running this ad and please change the language. Instead of reinforcing the right's lie that Social Security has a problem, let people know that the conservatives took their money from Social Security and gave it out as tax cuts to the rich and THAT is the problem!

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:58 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

October 21, 2007

San Mateo County Democratic Straw Poll Results

San Mateo County Democratic Straw Poll vote count (see the Live Blogging the San Mateo Country Presidential Straw Poll post):
Edwards 221
Kucinich 180
Obama 171
Hillary 128
Gore (write in) 23
Richardson 21
Biden 8
Dodd 4
Gravel 4

There are more details at the San Mateo County Democratic Straw Poll website.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Live Blogging the San Mateo Country Presidential Straw Poll

I am at the San Mateo County Expo Center, where they are conducting a Presidential Straw Poll today.

This is a large room and it is packed. It looks lime at least a thousand people have turned out. (Later - just heard someone say 1600.)

Along one wall are tables set up by the local Democratic clubs and the campaigns. There are Hillary, Obama, Edwards and Kuchinich tables, and there is a strong Kucinich contingent here. I haven't seen a Dodd or Biden table or sign or supporters, but I have seen people with Richardson signs. And, of course Draft Gore signs.

I am here with Mary Ratcliff of The Left Coaster and Pacific Views. If I am lucky Mary will let me use her camera because I loaned mine to someone who has not returned it. (hint)

The first speaker is now talking and the sound system is terrible. I'm way in the back at a press table, and there are a lot of talking people between me and the speakers. "...taking back our country ... San Mateo County ... and I thank you for being here... we WILL have a Democratic president in 2009 ..."

-- Pictures after the flip --

Now Congressman Tom Lantos is speaking. "We are here to begin the glorious process of electing the next President of the United States of America who will be a Democrat. ... Let me say a word about each of the candidates because any one of them will be a tremendous improvement..."

Now Dennis Kucinich is speaking. I can't hear well from where I am... "I stand before you with a political record that is a little bit different from the other candidates... non-for-profit, Medicare-for-all..." crowd all cheering ... "health care system..." I can't hear anymore... the crowd is chanting "bring them home, bring them home" ... "I'm telling you now it's time for all these candidates to say NO to war against Iran ...As President of the United States I'll lead America to a new era where we reject war as an instrument of policy... Constitution of the United States ... a President who will stand for diplomacy ... central mission of a Democratic President is to create jobs ... " ... "we used to make steel ... we used to make cars ... millions of jobs ... "

I took a picture with my cell-phone camera. I hope it can convey how many people are here...

(Also Mary has some good pics over at The Left Coaster.)

Now there are many more people here and I can't hear or see anything. I will head to the front try to report back as I can...

Former State Senator Jackie Speier just spoke for Hillary. Couldn't hear. She received a good receptopn

Now someone - didn't catch the name - is speaking for Obama. Huge cheer. Hurting my ears. Can't hear... "Republican party on the run... all-time record low..."

I think I wouldn't be able to hear the Obama speaker even if I was in front there is so much cheering. People now chanting "O-bam-a, O-bam-a"

Now on behalf of John Edwards is State Senator Leland Yee. Just as much cheering as for Obama. "There are in fact two Americas. John Edwards understands ..." crowd cheering... "and what he sees and what his vision is ONE America... nearly 47 million individuals who have no health care. And John Edwards wants one America that has health care for everyone. ... Everyone paying their fair share. He in fact wants one American, one country, one voice, universal health care for everyone in the United States." ... cheers ... "best of education, best of opportunity..."

I wonder if it means something that I can hear more of the Edwards speaker, or if he's just louder? OK, he finished and the cheering made my ears hurt, but not as much as the Obama speaker...

A speaker for Bill Richardson, David Buchanan, is coming up next.

I think organization says a lot about the campaigns, and even a small event like this one can be a significant momentum-builder in the public mind if it is reported widely. Richardson has a surprising showing here, with people walking around, and a representative who came over to the press area promoting his experience. There was an Edwards representative saying Edwards is electable, progressive and green. There were two Students for Obama representatives here. One Student for Obama representative contacted me before the event as well. ... Now another, more senior, is here.

Richardson spokesman - "The war in Iraq, in this issue there can be no eqivocation. We must have a leader who (something) to the lies. We need a President who will commit to having all our troops out by ...(can't hear and now the Obama rep is talking to the person next to me...)

The RIchardson person has finished and my ears survived...

The voting appears to be wrapping up. The vote counters have been called to a door, to go out and get trained. The master of ceremonies - Andrew Byrne, Chair of San Mateo County Democrats, is saying that the speeches are over, be sure to vote before it closes, come to our Democratic clubs, get involved, visit the tables at the side of the Expo Center room here...

Oh diety-on-a-stick there's a rock band on the stage getting ready to play. My ears... are bad because I used to be in a rock band on the stage...

There is a students-for-Obama group over at the side now all chanting and cheering.

Another cell-phone camera picture, this one of the tables along one of the walls:

counting ... counting ... counting ...

Counting:

Commonweal Institute's Executive Director Barry Kendall just got an award for something to do with organizing this.

While we wait ... I think Obama and Kucinich might have organized the best turnouts. Not sure. Edwards had a strong showing as well. We'll see.

Still waiting...

The vote count:
Edwards 221
Kucinich 180
Obama 171
Hillary 128
Gore (write in) 23
Richardson 21
Biden 8
Dodd 4
Gravel 4

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

October 19, 2007

Richardson to Atty General Nominee: Answer the Question on Torture or Withdraw

Bill Richardson for President Blog: Answer the Question on Torture or Withdraw,

In response to U.S. Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey's refusal to say
whether waterboarding is torture, the Governor this morning issued the following
statement:

"Waterboarding is torture, and anyone who is unwilling to identify it as such is not qualified to be the chief legal officer of the United States of America. If I were in the U.S. Senate, I would vote against Mukasey unless he denounces such specific forms of torture.

"Torture does not work. Mistreatment backfires and destroys our international leadership, as we saw with Abu Ghraib. Torture also endangers our own troops. The standards we adopt may well be what our own troops are subjected to.

"Anytime one makes a person think he or she is being executed, the very nature of waterboarding, it obviously is a violation of the U.S. Constitution, international law, and basic human decency.

"ABC News has described waterboarding as follows: 'The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face, and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in, and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.'

"If another nation engaged in waterboarding against American citizens, we would denounce that country and call the practice barbaric, and rightly so.

"We must stand against torture without equivocation, without compromise, and without exception. Torture is a violation of everything we stand for as Americans and as human beings."

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Taylor Marsh on Obama

Go read the whole thing. The Dodd hold on Telecom immunity prompts Taylor to write Obamamania Hits a Ditch, ending with:

We need a fighter. Someone who won't back down and can not only take a punch but give one as good as he or she gets. Someone with a plan. It looks like some in the Obama crowd are starting to wake up and what they're sensing isn't exactly a heavyweight.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

October 5, 2007

Hillary Letter Of Support For A Moonie Group?

Rick Perlstein in Reporters: man your engines,

Rev. Sun Myung Moon is claiming a "letter of support" from Hillary Clinton. I sure hope he's lying.

Go read Rick's piece.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

October 3, 2007

Hillary Clinton: Mission Accomplished.

On January 22, 2007, as Senator Clinton went viral with her announcement that she was, essentially, running for The White House, we noted that her first challenge was to shatter the prism of the right. We wrote,

[T]his simply is a fact of modern politics in America. For the past three decades, the right wing has employed a powerful strategy of "$ell and $mear." They insist on being the gatekeepers to public opinion and have developed a powerful machine that tells us who to like - and who to hate.

... They $mear Democratic and Progressive heroes, reducing American success stories such as George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis into humiliated historical footnotes. They destroy our leaders. They destroy those that might become our leaders. There is no Democratic or Progressive leader of any note of the last twenty years that has not been attacked.

Imagine if your worse enemies were the ones describing you and creating the world's impression of you. And imagine they did that for close to fifteen years, how would people who hadn't ever met you feel about you? Exactly.

There are far too many people who have never met Hillary who have a fully-formed impression of her, usually quite negative. Not defendably negative mind you, but more of a "I just don't like her" kind of impression.

The prism of the right.

We wrote:

This is Senator Clinton's primary challenge. Because since this strategy has been deployed, no one, not one single politician has been in the eye of the machine longer than Senator Clinton. For almost fifteen years, Americans have been bombarded with smears and negative commentary about her. Virtually every aspect of her life, personal and political, from her hairstyle to private decisions she made within her marriage, has been criticized.

What Hillary did was what she did in New York State.

She and her staff rolled up their sleeves and went to work. One voter at a time, one appearance at a time, one county, one district, one state. And what happened in New York State was a pretty good precursor to what is happening nationally. Today, she is at the top of the list of home state own-party favorability ratings. Her 81% favorability rating among Democrats in New York State is right up there at the very top, tied with Ted Kennedy's rating among Democrats in Massachusetts. And Kennedy in Massachusettes is probably the golden standard for being liked by your party in your own state.

Grudgingly, we hear from senior people in other campaigns that they are impressed at how hard she works, how good her team is, how they keep working all day, every day.

They're right. She's top in the polls and in the fundraising race not because of some unforeseeable chain of events, she's there because she understood the reality of her situation and she has outworked everyone else.

If she is our nominee, it will because of two core factors.

She didn't attempt to smash the negative perception as much as she shattered it softly and slowly - one person at a time.

She, and her team, have worked hard, and smart.

Kudos to all of them.

Posted by Dave and James at 7:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

September 19, 2007

Left Coaster on Hillary on MoveOn

The Left Coaster: Hillary Stands In The Line Of Fire,

It's no secret Hillary Clinton is often the target of the center/left netroots, who have accused her of not being an ally. Yet when Bill O'Reilly attacked Kos as being akin to a Nazi organization, it was Hillary who stood with the blog. And tonight, after Barack Obama threw MoveOn under the bus for their attack of Gen. Petraeus, following close on the heels of the Edwards campaign sending Elizabeth out to do the same, who's left standing, refusing, as Jane Hamsher writes, to help the right wing out by repeating their talking points against one of our own? Hillary.

This speaks to character. She's continually attacked by the left, but by refusing to take the right wing bait and criticizing MoveOn, a mistake Democrats seem to make often, she refuses to splinter the base...

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August 29, 2007

Edwards On Health Care

There is more here.

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August 28, 2007

Of Course I Support Hillary!

A recent post I wrote with James, defending Hillary from a racist Republican attack, has evoked e-mail and comment "accusations" that I am a "Hillary supporter."

OF COURSE I AM A HILLARY SUPPORTER -- I'M A DEMOCRAT!!

I also support Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and John Edwards! Duh!

I think I prefer Edwards and Dodd right now, because their polices and thinking and approach lines up more with my own. Obama sure is winning me over, too. I am more progressive-oriented than Hillary.

But let me suggest something to you -- If Hillary Clinton becomes President, she will be the most progressive president America has ever had.

So relax. We have a great group of candidates this time.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

Revived Asian-Donations Smear On Clinton

By Dave Johnson and James Boyce

The right is reviving the 90s Asian-donations smear on the Clintons.

Headlined at the Drudge Report, the Wall Street Journal has Big Source of Clinton's Cash Is an Unlikely Address,

It isn't obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. ...

But he added: "I have been fortunate in my investments and all of my contributions have been my money."

The Paws' political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign.

William and Alice Paw are of Chinese descent..

In the 1990s the Republicans ran a smear campaign for years, accusing the Clintons of passing nuclear-weapons secrets to China in exchange for campaign donations. There was never anything to back it up, of course, but the racial hatred aspect got them votes. It plays big in the South, I guess.

In case people don't get it, the right's echo chamber cranks up the noise. No subtle implications need apply: Laundering for Hillary?

The little green house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. in Daly City, Calif., (shown right) may spell big trouble for Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York as she pursues the presidency.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:54 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

August 14, 2007

Sirota: Dems Beware

WorkingForChange: Democrats Beware: An Economic Populist Is Rising In the GOP's Presidential Primary,

I'm not saying Huckabee isn't funny, but I am saying that he also has an extraordinarily different message than any of the other Republican presidential contenders - a populist economic message that may be shunned by conservative operatives and K Street lobbyists in the GOP-dominated Money Party in Washington, but likely has an appeal among rank-and-file working-class Republican voters.

... Here is Huckabee quoted on the AFL-CIO's webpage from the recent Republican presidential debate:

"The most important thing a president needs to do is to make it clear that we’re not going to continue to see jobs shipped overseas, jobs that are lost by American workers, many in their 50s who for 20 and 30 years have worked to make a company rich, and then watch as a CEO takes a $100 million bonus to jettison those American jobs somewhere else. And the worker not only loses his job, but he loses his pension. That’s criminal. It’s wrong."

Huckabee followed this up by telling The Politico: “I am not interested in being the candidate of Wall Street but of Main Street. Wealthy CEOs get paid 500 times what the average worker does, but they are not necessarily 500 times smarter or harder working and that is wrong.”

Please read the whole post.

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August 13, 2007

Sen. Dodd Speaking at a House Party

And the Q&A session:

From the Chris Dodd for President blog.

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Hillary's New Ad

This is Hillary's new ad. What do you think? I think it is brilliant.

And here is Elizabeth Edwards - not an ad -- watch, it's short:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

August 6, 2007

Senator Chris Dodd

I am on vacation, so posting will be light. (We have found our way to Saugatuck/Douglas on Lake Michigan so far... heading toward Ann Arbor.) I'll try to catch up on some YearlyKos posts, too.

But I want to break into vacation to talk about Senator Chris Dodd a bit. A few bloggers had a meeting with Senator Dodd on Saturday. This is a serious candidate for President who should be receiving much more attention. We had a great, honest and open conversation. Unlike some of the conversations I have had with candidates he listens and hears and responds. This is a thinking man, with a great deal of experience and a lot to offer this country. (Note this on his website: "Support the Netroots")

One subject we talked extensively about was impeachment. He said something that will shape my views and helped me understand how a politician at his level has to think about serving the public. I'll characterize it here. He said that when he considers how he should be spending his time a key question that he has to ask is how is the average person understanding this. The average person might not be paying very much attention to the news, might not consider him or herself to be "on the" left or right. That person is trying to get by and deal with life's problems, like paying the mortgage, getting health care, etc. So when THAT person looks at what the Congress and Senate are doing, the question is, "How does this help ME?"

And if the Democrats spend time on impeachment they are open to the Republican lie and spin machine telling the public they are not serving THEM.

So Dodd says that unless the average person understands what HE OR SHE GETS out of Congress spending time on impeachment instead of all the other important things, he doesn't think we should aim for that. (Yes, I know that the other important things can't happen with Bush in office but the public does not)

If we want to do something about the crimes of Bush and the Republicans YOU HAVE TO LET THE PUBLIC KNOW HOW IT WILL HELP THEM DIRECTLY. This is directly in line with my own writings about how we need to start to reach out to the general public with our message, to help them understand the benefits of progressive values and a progressive approach to issues.

I'm not endorsing anyone for a while. But now my top four are now Hillary, Edwards, Onama and Dodd.

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August 4, 2007

Ran Out of Power

My computer ran out of power so I couldn't blog from Barack Obama's breakout session. I have to say this guy has an amazing, comfortable style. He is at ease with himself and with a crowd. I am more and more impressed by Obama lately.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

YearlyKos - Liveblogging Presidential Leadership Forum

This is in the large ballroom. There are Draft Gore 2008 brochure cards on every chair.

Gina Cooper just came to the podium to announce the Presidential Leadership Forum. Introducing NY Times Magazine'sMatt Bai.

Matt - Not used to so much appreciation from blogs. This forum today reflects Gina's singular vision. This is an historic event - first time netroots together in a room with the candidates from a political party for President. Also the first time blogosphere joining with traditional media, honored to be here today to represent that.

Introduces candidates as they come on the stage. Big cheering. Huge cheer for Barack Obama.

Now introducing moderators. Joan Carter, McJoan of DailyKos, Dr.Jeffrey Feldman of FrameShop. Also will be questions from audience.

Bai: Acknowledge it is Obama's birthday, crowd is singing "Happy Birthday"

Three segments, Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, Philosophy.

Joan - To Richardson. In previous debate you said your model Supreme COurt would be White - who was anti-abortion. Have you given any more thought to that answers, what would you like the Supreme Court to look like.

Richardson: I screwed up. I believe that the legacy of any Pres, most iprotant is Supreme Court. My court would have diversity, legal scholars, interpret the Constitution, go one step further, I would ask do you believe it is settled law in civil rights, privacy, Roe vs Wade? If they don't, they're out.

I admit that mistake. We have to recover tfrom the things this court is doing, make sure future court reflects values of the people and president.

Joan - to Dodd: Will you tell us what circumstances would be extreme enough circumstances to accept another Bush court nominee.

Dodd: Bush is trampling the Constitution. Would be a mistake to accept any more Supreme Court nominations before the next election. I believed Roberts when he said he would not make big canges. My mistake.

Joan - for Sen. Clinton - Battle scars from previous attempt at health care. What are those scars, what are you going to do differently.

H: I am proud of the effort I led in 93, 94. Disgrace that we have so many uninsured, underinsured. We up here are all in favor of universal health care. We need more than a plan, we need a strategy that health care is an American value worth fighting for, need to put together a coalition of affected groups, willing and able to withstand the incredible blowback that we will get. My highest domestinc priority.

Matt: Sen Obama, budget deficits. Wold it be a top priority for you? Even if you have to trim your proposals.

Obama: We are coming out of the most irresponsible admin. We have to stop digging the hole. #1stop spending billions on Iraq. Not renew Bush tax cuts. Institute Paygo - no new spending/tax cuts without paying for it.

We have to make investments in the American people at the same time as we dig out of this deficit. I am not going to short change children, health care. We have to make siome investments because over long term will generate tax revenue. Medicare and Medcate biggest budget issue - universal health care saves tremendous amount for fed government.

Are we making investments that pay off for our long-term growth...

Bai to Sen Edwards - once you open the floodgates and allow certain deficits how do you stop Congress from spending more and more and more.

Edwards: I think big changes are needed, not small changes. I believe this room is filled with people who are about change. Basic question has to be answered. Who will be about change? Who is candidate for change. I don't think insurance oil other cmpanies are going to voluntarily give away power. I think this is a very fundamental question - if you want change and serious change, who will be best candidate to do that. Someone who has fought these people their entire lives. We have to take their pwer from them with your help.

Big cheers, people standing.

Richards - these are fine speeches, but I have balanced budgets. Iraq money to health care. Const. Amendment to balance budget (crowd booing and hissing), get rid of corporate welfare (crowd cheers). Bai stops him - out of time.

Audience qs - For Dodd - handful of companies own all the news companies, media consolidation threatens democracy.

Dodd - Asked Justice Dept to look into Murdoch buying Dow Jones. Stand up when things get tough - stand up to Bill O'Reilly (crowd cheers) Can't tolerate this kind of behavior. Denying us free access to information. Thank the Lord for DailyKos. Sources of information consolidated and controlled by too few entities. He will do what he can to break this up.

Cointon - need more media competition, make sure architecture of internet stays open (cheers) if we need new laws I hope wel will be able to take a look at those, this admin won't afford laws already on books. Need to do more.

Q from Bai for Kucinich - is there a govt program that you feel has outlived its usefulness.

Kucinich - programs that perpetuate the nuclear power industry. There is a candidate who believes in universal single payer not for profit health care. Am people already paying for universal standard of care but not getting it. Use the money we are spending to give us all heath care by taking profit out of it.

Audience Q for Edwards - current admin has consolidated powers of exec branch. What will you do to restore balance, and faith in our system of government,

Edwards - I will close Guantanamo first day. WIll not engage in or condone torture, no secret prisons, this is not who we are. We need a transparent government., This govt belongs to you. We can start reforming Washington and Dem Party today. I don't, Obama doesn't take money from lobbyists, why don't we all swear to take no more money from Washington lobbyists. End this system.

(Crowd on feet cheering)

Matt Q for Gravel - Your campaign supports fair tax, eliminate IRS and income tax, replace with 23% sales tax. (boos and hisses)

Gravel - you have been cheering all these statements about what they're going to do, but you heard it before and will hear it again. They tell you the problem in a dramatic way so you think they know the answers. They are good people but they exist in a system that doesn't work. Don't worry about fair tax, it won't pass. Elected officials think about how does this affect my election, and the people with money.

The only answer is for you to realize that the answer is with you to acquire lawmaking powers.

Foreign policy - Joan - everyone wants us out of Iraq. Kucinich says we have the power now.

Hillary - voted against last funding. We have to keep the pressure on. 3-point plan, I will get us out. Do it in a careful responsible way. Making current Pentagon come before congress and tell us the plans they are making to move the troops out. We must engage in more intense diplomatic effort.

Kucinich -Chney should be imeached for lying. (Crowd cheers) It is a fact that we gave Bush 97 million seven weeks ago. He can use that to bring the troops home. Dems in Congress have not kept faith with people who voted to end war.

Bai - feasability of immediate withdrawal - to Dodd

Dodd - important that Dems stand up. Policy has been a failure. (Didn't answer question)

Richardson - get out, leave no residual forces. Need an all-Muslim force to keep peace.

Bai - if you take them ot how do you protect against same kind of genocide in Darfur.

Richardson -we need to deauthorize this war.

Gravel - they do have the votes, just keep having cloture votes, all times of day. They don't want to do it. Bring them all home, we are not an imperialist power.

Bai - terrorism, Sen Obama, Do you believe we bear any measure of responsibility for anti-Americanism that led to 9/11.

Obama - no excuse for 9/11. They weren't from Iraq. We absolutely have acted in a way that has inflamed anti-American sentiment. We invaded, unleashed chaos.

End out occupation and focus on the terrorists who killed 3000 Americana. We have not finished the job in Afghanistan. It makes no sense for President to talk tough and wiretap while he doesn't deal with the serious problem.

Bai - did American foreign policy contributed.

Obama - no excuse for 9/11 but we have had a pattern in the past for acting in ways, oil, etc. If we had donated schools, engage our opponents as well as our friends, we will ahve a change in the way America is perceived. If we lead with our values or ideas.

Edwards - George Bush has not made us safer. Used a bumper-sticker phrase to justify every bad thing he has done. We shouldnot accept Bush's way of framing the discussion.

Bai to Clinton - what is right construct, what is your construct more accurate than war on terror -

Hillary - There is a lot of anti-Bush feeling, not as much anti-Bush. We have made some progress in becomming safer, our first responders. But Bush policies have unleashed so much alienation and andger that we are facing more terrorists. It is a global war against terrorists, not terror. We need to use every tool at our disposal, military force last not first resort.

be as analytical about it as possible. Complicated long-term struggle where we protect and promote American values.

Kucinich - country better served if before we got into Iraq more analysis,neocon mindset of peace through strength, unilaterism... I am talking about a new doctrine, strength through peace, diplomacy,international law. Shift your thinking away fromthis neocon doctrine.

Audience - Obama, Americans worried about China. Next superpower. How do we reconcile China as a menace and trade partner.

Obama - China a competitor does not have to be an enemy unless we make it an enemy. Get our own house in order, if they are our banker and we are the borrower... we must put pressure on them human rights, trade - China is manipulating their currency. We believe in fair trade, that goes both ways, not getting it out of China. Most important thing is to engage in the world. Africa - saying Chinese presence is as great as the US absence, building hospitals, railways... We are neglecting opportunities around the world that China is taking advantage of.

Q to Dodd - Aericans travel abroad

Dodd - tragedy of ads in DC after 9/11 looking for people who speak Arabic. I was in peace corps. Nedd that. Others can get to know who we are. Triple peace corps. Missing shared experience as Americans.

Joan asks Edwards about Pakistan - Musharref - what happens if he is overthrown. Are we trading communism for terrorism. If these folks are going to be our partners in the war on terror, are we doing the same thing?

Edwards - Pakistan somewhat unstable. We do need to put pressure on Musharraf - he said to me our children are educated in Maddrassas taught to hate America - it would make all the diffrerence if they could get a public school education. America is spending so much in Iraq, why not lead an effort to make education available to children around the world, that will hep. Soft power matters. Create an undercurrent that drives people toward us instead of away fromus.

Economic leverage over Musharref. Diplomatic, ratchet up, shouldbe done. Be careful, Saudi arms deal, another perfect example of a foreign policy of convenience, they are not helping in Iraq or helping stop terrorism, and could create an arms race in Middle East.

Richardson - Was sent to region to talk to Taliban. Problem is Bush policy to Musharraf is appeasement, we are not going to push you because it will hurt you domestically. We have to push him. He is not a democract, want to stay in power, abuses human rights. American policy should stand for democracy and human rights. You go after those safe havens or we will.

Q from Pontificator - will you hire an official White House blogger?

Hands - All raise hands. Edwards says it will be Elizabeth Edwards. Gravel says it cold be a toolof the president him or her self.

Joan - for Gravel - are all elected officials in Alaska corrupt?

Gravel - no their not and it is a source of great embarrassment for the state. Politicians walk in the mud because of the way the system is structured because you have to raise money. Money is the corrupting agent of politics. Media controlled by 5 corporations telling us the ones who raised the most - the most corrupt - are the ones who should be elected.

Bai - would candidates commit to visit all 50 states?

Obama - the only way change can hapen is if you make it. Must have a 50 percent plus one strategy, eke out a victory even if the Supreme Court overturns it. If we are going to pass health care, etc. we have got to expand the voter base.

Kucinich says not much difference between two parties. Americans ready for new approach in world community.

Hillary - 50-state strategy is exactly right. We will go in to as many places as possible building on the work Howard has done, and try to have a conversation with everyone.

Richardson - Gov Dean's strategy has been increasingly important in Dems winning. Making a diff in Governors. Need verifiable paper ballots. Need same day registration. Stop the abuse of Rep party to suppress minority voters from going to polls. Need nominee who talks about bringing country together.

Edwards- everywhere in Ameiica eople believe system is rigged against them, know who has the power and know it is not them. Need to quit worrying about political strategy and be the party that stands for real change, real reform. Never take a dime from a DC lobbyist. Need grassroots movement for reform.

Hillary asked about not taking lobbyist money - she says that is certainly a position that John as taken. I don't let it influence me. (Crowd boos) I have been on the front lines of the change we need. I wish it were as simple as saying this. It is going to take a grassroots movement. That is why I am here today. Thank the blogosphere, wish you were here in 93 and 94 when we tried to get health care. Look at my record, core principles have not changed.

Dodd - Need public financing (crowd is on feet)

Hilalry - we're all for public financing

Obama - I am happy that Dodd is on board for pub financing

Dodd - I;ve been for it for 15 years

Obama - Insurance and drug companies have spent a billion dollars, they are not spending htat just because it is in the public interest. They are spending that because they have an agenda. (-I- stood up to cheer, stopped typing, missed some of what he said next)

We can take concrete steps right now, long term goal pub financing but there are things we can do right now.

Edwards - how many people in this room have a lobbyist working for you. You are NOT represented by lobbyist money.

Kucinish - Headge funds & Edwards

Edwards - I will have never take a dime from a lobbyist need to raise money from nurses ... (missed)

Audience Q - after 9/11 changed structure of our government, Dept of Homeland Security. DOn't believe we are safer. Steps have been taken,lots left to be done. Bush lost war in Iraq, perception in world that America is abully, selfish, took rights from people, spying on Americans, made a terrible example to world. Don't promote American values, undermine heart and soul of what America is supposed to be about.

Richards - yes, restructure homeland security, appoint people who know what they are doing, put FEMA under president, review 9/11 overreactions. Return habaes corpus, get rid of torutre, respect Geneva Convenstions.

Dodd - I will use executive orders to do away with all the damage that has been done to the Constitution. More dangerous than what was done with Homeland Security.

Obama- what are we going to do with Exec branch, not just Homeland Security. I will appoint an Atty Gen who doesn't just assume the Constitution is a convenience. Aggressive ethics bill, no lobbying after serving in White House. Revolving door has to stop.

Hillary - We (Edwards) have a vigorous agreement - at home we are safer because of first responders... missed part of it. Talking about signing statements, incompetence, got to clean that up. Duty of President is to be prepared to keep America safe.

Says no company that employs a lobbyist - no execs etc. can give us money. Constitutional Amendment.

Kucinish - are we safe is key issue in this election. Missile strikes in OPakistan killing civilians makes us not safer - strength through peace.

Richardson - My Vice President will be a member of the Exec Branch.

Bai - appreciate your coming here.. crowdon feet.

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Liveblogging Hillary Breakout Session

I am at the Hillary breakout session, which is occurring before the general session with all the candidates. The rest of the candidates will have their breakout session s following the general session.

This is a medium-sized room - the same room where I just completed my Smoking Politics panel. There are more people here now.

Peter Daou and Hillary have come out now. Peter says when Senator found out about the scheduling mixup she immediately told her staff to find a way that she could do a session with the attendees.

Senator will make opening remarks. You want to meet her, but she wants to eet you so when you have a question please tell us a little about yourself.

Hillary now: Thank you for understanding about working out the time. Thank Peter for terrific job he does.

Her microphone went out, she says "vast right-wing consipiracy"

Thank you for helping us create a new progressive movement in America. Thank you for helping me stand up against the rw noise machine, and giving support to the progressive agenda of the Dem party. I only wish we had this active a blogosphere 15 years ago. We have suffered from the imbalance in the country. Now we are better prepared and more focused on getting our ideas out. Progressive infrastructure. We are beginning to match what I have said for years was the advantage of the other side. When I made that comment about the vast rw conspiracy I wasn't kidding - except it was right out there in the open.

I really appreciate the individual and collective effor tbeing the front line of the progressive movement.

Second thing - it makes those of us who run for office a little sharper, more on our toes.

Hillary still: I read blogs and it helps me make my arguments.

...What you help to do is make a space where in that 24/7 world we can be heard. Having people who understand our overall goals, share an understanding of where we are trying to take our country... I think about what if we had the blogosphere in 92 or 94 when we were working on health case. We made our own mistakes but constantly hammered when we were trying to bring health care...

Bill O'reilly was trying to intimidate people into not coming to Chicago (YearlyKos). I was very proud of my campaign standing up and calling Bill O'Reilly out. For Bill O'Reilly accusing people of going over the line...

With that let me throw it open. Please introduce yourselves, where you are from, a little about you.

(Missed name) with National Ed. Assn. No Child Left Behind is a top priority for us. What will you do with the growing public backlash about NCLB.

H: Education got one Q in the CNN debate and doesn't get the emphasis it deserves. We have to admit NCLB became n unfunded mandate imposing rules and mandates without the promised resources. Breached the bargain we thought we were entering into. Bush has been incompetent in enforcing NCLB, even parts of the law that made sense have been rendered impotent.

I have been working on education reform since 1983 in Arkansas.

We should be tracking the progress of the individual children - so kids who move, we know where they are, if they are behind we can help, let's figure out how to marry technology to this so we can track, each year how well a child is growing and learning.

Need to track groups, but emphasis should be on individuals.

Lets move toward national accountability standards. Also reading and match are important but so is science, etc. Kids are being deprived of a broad curriculum. Phys ed gone, now obeisity a problem, for example.

We have to get back to a diverse broad curriculum.

Best thing we can do is pre-kindergarten, to close achievement gap for kids with disadvantaged backgrounds.

Pat , scientist from Northwest U - military commissions act - when can we expect that to be rescinded, Guantanamo closed

H: I agree with both those goals. I voted against Military Commissions act. Unconstitutional denial of habeas corpus. We will try to reinstate habeas corpus and reform military tribunals procedures in next few months.

If you can't get 60 votes, you can't get it through the Senate. Big problem right now, need Republican support. We must close Guantanamo. Increase political pressure.When I am President I will close Guantanamo and restore habeas corpus.

Jeralyn from Talkleft: If you are elected President what kinds of wiretapping will you permit, and how will your Atty Gen. be different from Gonzales.

H: It would be a breath of fresh air to have an Atty Gen who actually believed in the rule of law. It has been a mystery why Pres doesn't pick qualified attys as judges, instead goes with cronies and movement conservatives. We have a dangerous extremism in this country, turned away from sep of powers, checks and balances. White House has contempt for rule of law.

Talked bout wiretapping, we need to be able to track people threatening the country, but warrants, law, etc.

Two more Qs
Will you repeal Dont Ask Don't Tell. Defense of Marriage Act, Telecommunications Act, NAFTA and Welfare Reform

H I am on record against Don't Ask since 1999. Not implemented appropriately. Cost to military readiness from purging military of these people, linguists, etc. I will lead effort to repeal it.

Don't have to be straight to shoot straight.

DOMA served a purpose. Strategy, gave us a bright line to be able to hold back the votes that were building up to amend the constitution to enshrine discrimination. I believe marriage should be left to the states, support civil unions. DOMA put responsibility in the states and you are seeing states take action. But part 3 of DOMA should be repealed because it stands in the way of benefits.

Telecommunications act - ask Al Gore, he is the expert, he pushed it through, I like what the FCC is doing by maintaining more competition, need to look at this more closely becaue I am not an expert.

NAFTA is not living up to what we hoped. Problems, we need smarter trade agreements with labor and environmental, and we need an evaluation of the impact of trade agreements. We need an analysis of what has happened as opposed to what was promised.

Welfare reform - positive consequences far outweigh the negative. But the education program was a key part of original legislation and Bush cut it back.

CHIP - health care for kids - we need universal health care so we don't have these battles.

Kim from NJ, researcher, love your hair. Grandaughter of bus driver. I see how good the transit system is in Europe - we're going to be a 3rd world country compared to them, can we update infrastructure of transit system.

H: Timely, bridge collapse was infrastructure failure. I have been advocating long-term funding to begin to repair and maintain and build new infrastructure. We are living off the investments our parents and grandparents made. We're taking advantage of what our parents etc were willing to pay for. Much more on bridges and roads and airports, etc. We have a trillion dollars of unmet needs. We need to focus on physical infrastructure AND we need universal high-speed broadband internet access.

Bush admin doesn't believe in ANY kind of infrastructure investment. Got to do this in a hurry.

Mass transit must become a priority of our country. We cannot continue to have the congestion and lost productivity time. We are losing money, and time. And we are wasting oil, contributing to global warming. Now we have to fight just to keep Amtrack.

Also need incentives to get people to use it.

Let me end with every election is about the future. It is about what kind of change we want for our country. I have been fighting for change my entire life often against pretty tough odds. What is going to matter in this election is how much power and energy we have from citizens across America. We have to join together to election a president. we cannot afford to use. We cannot continue to ignore the constitution, tax cuts for wealthiest, war that we can't pay for. I am optimistic but appropriately realistic about the challenges we face. Univ Health Care, fight global warming, energy agenda, ending the cronyism, appoint people who are qualified for positions they hold, can't do any of that without your help. I love a vigorous debate and exchange of ideas. That is what the primary is for and certainly what the blogosphere is for. It can play a major role in electing me president. I appreciate everything you're doing - well not everything. Let us have your ideas. We have to learn how to break down the barriers in reaching out to people who may not agree with us.

We have to reach out to people who never read a blog, may not agree with us but who know in their core that we need a new direction.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

July 31, 2007

Edwards Saying Great Things

John Edwards is really starting to sound great. Watch this video:

If you thought that was good, watch this one, where he talks about why the media is promoting the "haircut" story:

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

July 25, 2007

Steve Soto Endorses Hillary

Over at The Left Coaster Steve Soto is endorsing Hillary. Steve says Hillary can

·Most capably deal with the biases of the corporate media;
·Most capably fight the right wing smear machine;
·Ruthlessly battle the GOP’s likely 2008 campaign tactics;
·Obtain the nomination and,
·Most importantly, step into the job in January 2009.

The other day I wrote that I am not endorsing anyone for now. I do not dislike any of the major candidates.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

July 23, 2007

Everything You Need To Know About Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney holds up a sign saying "Obama Osama"

Romney on 9/11: "Lighten Up" | Buckeye State Blog

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos

July 21, 2007

Endorsing

Open Left:: Personal Thoughts On Why I Haven't Have Endorsed In 2008

I haven't endorsed any candidate for President yet. I probably will before the primaries. I like Edwards a lot but I want him to explain HOW he made the mistake in his war vote and what he has learned from that. I wish Gore would enter the race - but he might be the answer if no one has enough delegates going into the convention and the convention can't come to a decision. I hadn't thought Obama has enough experience at a time when the country and the world are in a mess. But seeing him speak a couple of weeks ago - I think he is saying the things I want to public to hear in ways they should hear it, and that is important and part of finding a way through the mess we're in. I think Hillary would bring a team in that could handle the mess but I don't like some of the things she has done that seem to dismiss the progressive base, like supporting outlawing flag-burning.

I'm hearing good things about Dodd but don't know enough. The joke about Biden that he can't stop talking unfortunately isn't a joke - I've seen it. He's smart and has a good instinct but he isn't really in the race, even if he doesn't know it. Richardson - I don't know enough.

So I at least don't dislike any of the Democratic candidates.

Four years ago I didn't like any of the candidates until Dean came along. So this is a different time.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos