WARNING TO ALL:
I made the mistake of joining the group on this website named "Progressive Christians for Obama" and for the past week I have been deluged with abusive emails dumping on me for my position on abortion.
If this group is not removed from the Obama website there are going to be lawsuits against this campaign for the abuse that this group of men are using this website for!
Will the blockbuster news never quit?! While I was roaming around the 'net this evening I read an Associated Press item reporting that Senator Obama's campaign sent an email (to the AP, I suppose) announcing that he and Senator Clinton will campaign together (beginning) next Friday, June 27th. It also reported that the two senators are planning a joint fundraiser this month. Wow! The AP article is at:
http://www.rnntv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8530156
Senator Obama's ability to work with people is truly AMAZING! We will surely be welcoming a majority of Hillary Clinton's supporters into our campaign in the coming weeks.
I SO ADMIRE his consensus-building skills. He is an INCREDIBLE role model for ALL of us, especially for those young people who are (temporarily) at odds with their parents, as well for those youth who are currently involved in the deplorable cycle of teen-on-teen violence.
Today I also read an email from an Obama 'sister' from Italy who is coming to the U.S. to help rock the vote for Barack in Ohio. She said there is a website of Italians who are very HOPEful that Senator Obama will be President Obama come November. This is just one of several news emails, blogs, and news articles telling of people in a variety of countries around the world who are counting on the positive changes that Barack Obama's presidency will bring about in the global context.
The amazing amount of support for Senator Obama attests to the fact that his ability to build bridges is the HOPE we all have for harmonious relations among the diverse groups in this country, and around the globe. Our candidate is THE ONE WHO THE WORLD NEEDS NOW!
GOT HOPE?
GOBAMA!!!
Second best first: GO CELTICS!!!
Now for THE BEST -
My heart was made glad this a.m. when I read this:
(CNN) – Barack Obama leading John McCain in the crucial swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to a new survey.
Obama lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania by 9 points — but a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows him leading McCain by 12 points, 52-40. In Ohio — a state Obama lost to Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March — he’s leading McCain 48-42. And in Florida, where he did not campaign this primary season and lost an unsanctioned Democratic contest, he leads McCain 47-43.
The Ohio and Florida results are reversals from Quinnipiac polls published a month ago, when Clinton was still in the race, and McCain led Obama in hypothetical match-ups.
In the waning days of her campaign, Hillary Clinton argued to voters and superdelegates that she should be the nominee because she was the stronger candidate to beat McCain in these swing states. Democrats in all three swing states say they’d like to see her on the ballot this fall, but independent voters give the idea a thumbs down by margins of 9-16 percent.
Florida clinched the presidency for George W. Bush in 2000, and Ohio did the same in 2004.
Quinnipiac surveyed between 1,300 and 1,500 voters in each state from June 9-16 with margins of error of plus or minus 2.5 percent for Pennsylvania and 2.6 percent for Ohio and Florida.
Filed under: Barack Obama • John McCain
Ohio, I just might give you another look :-D
GOBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I happened upon an article tonight that is one with which I can relate, having had a white roommate (with a Spanish surname) for a roommate for my first semester at UCLA.
It makes me wonder if black Americans and white Americans will EVER be able to co-exist without division due to race.
The mother of Michelle Obama's roommate at Princeton says in the article, "Now she (the roommate, Catherine Donnelly) wishes she had reached across racial lines at Princeton.
The article's author says, "...Donnelly has worked and socialized with African-Americans. Yet she hasn't grown close to any of them. "I've just never had an opportunity," [Donnelly] says, "to have a good friend who was black."
I wonder if Donnelly has any African-American neighbors. Since working and socializing with African-Americans doesn't allow (most) whites to 'grow close' to us - on an individual basis - what would it take? I would love to see that wall brought down. It is as real as the Berlin wall was, but somehow it seems to be many times more impenetrable.
I believe that United we will stand, but DIVIDED WE (the U.S.) WILL (ultimately) FALL.
I invite white Americans of good will to give their input on what they think can work the miracle of racial reconciliation and harmony.
Here's the web address for the article about Michelle Obama's Princeton roommate:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/12/roommate_0413.html
Well darlings,
Today's New York Times had an article about Antoin "Tony" Rezko being convicted and going straight to federal prison for "corruption". MY OH MY, WHAT A COINCIDENCE THAT THIS SHOWS UP TODAY. NYTIMES.COM also had a detailed sub-section on the "Obama-Rezko Connection". Well, my friends, the curtain has gone up for the second act of this election, and the smear-mongers are all ready and waiting in the wings for their turn on stage.
There were also several bits in the news about Hillary and the Vice President spot. Um,
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
And former President Carter didn't tell me to say that.
I tend to agree with Jeffrey Toobin's take on this lady's unwillingness to accept the message that the voters, and now the party leaders who have SURGED forward with their endorsements of Barack, have sent out loud and clear. His term for her was.... how did he put it, oh yes, "deranged narcissism":
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/03/jeffrey-toobin-clintons-r_n_105051.html
I watch and listen to her and it has sometimes annoyed the hell out of me, but ultimately I feel sorry for her. I really do. She so much wanted - I guess needed - to achieve the goal of the U.S. Presidency.
So the way I see it is our campaign has two supportive tasks. On one hand we need to do what we can to bind up the wounds of all but the most irrational of her supporters - the ones who have threatened to vote for McCain in November are probably in the minority - and bring as many of them as possible on board for Barack. We need to 'make nice' with HRC's supporters. I hope I'm not being naive in believing that most of them will calm down and face the facts about McCain and throw their support behind Senator Obama.
One example of what the cold reality of anyone voting for McCain would mean was in an article that I read today that was written by a retired physician who gave a graphic description of what he dealt with in the days before Roe v. Wade, which McCain would be about overturning. I used to hear about those horror stories, and no woman in her right mind would want to return American women to the days when wealthy women went to Europe to have something 'done' about a "problem pregnancy" and had SAFE medical care, but women who weren't wealthy, well, people who are desperate do desperate things. How many of Hillary Clinton's supporters want a return to that kind of DISPARITY OF ACCESS to a medical procedure?
The other supportive task that I see as important is to not allow the smear-mongers to whip up hysteria against Senator Obama about "associations". I don't have the public relations expertise to know how to effectively counter attacks that the opposition will try to use - they are hoping to create a Rezko-gate - but I hope in the next few weeks to learn what to say that will blow that type of thing out of the water.
The next five months will test us big time, Obama supporters. I, for one, hope not to forget to pray for Barack and his family daily. And to practice saying,
"President Obama".
On to Victory.
***Not so "Bitter" now***
I AM SO, SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HERE WE COME, NOVEMBER!!!!!!
To say that the reaction of HRC being channeled through Harold Ickes at the May 31 Rules meeting was mind-boggling to me is an understatement. He looked like a two-year old who had been told that he can't have ice cream for breakfast. The problem is that he's not two. Mrs. C's image in the eyes of the remaining uncommited superdelegates, IMHO, was not helped by that display of pique. Hillary Clinton is pitching a fit about FOUR Michigan delegates being, as Harold put it, "taken" from her and "given" to Senator Obama!!!! OH PLEASE!
That said, I am seriously praying for a massive turnout and voter support today of Barack in South Dakota (which last year tried unsucessfully to pass a law to oppose Roe v. Wade), and I am confident of a fantastic victory in Montana. GO South D.!!! You GO MONTANA!!! MUCH LOVE TO ALL OF YA!!!
May 26 6:44pm
I joined NARAL a day or so after that organization announced their endorsement of our Senator and Presidential nominee-to-be. I joined because I have always been pro-life-and-THEREFORE-pro-life. The catalyst for my taking that formal step to join up with NARAL was my reading that many HRC supporters were slamming NARAL for their choice (they're pro-CHOICE? Uh....) of which Democratic candidate to endorse, as well as the choice of WHEN the announcement was made.
I ENTREAT ALL WHO READ THIS BLOG POST TO JOIN WITH ME IN SUPPORTING NARAL FOR TAKING THE COURAGEOUS STAND THAT THEY HAVE TAKEN. Here's why:
It wasn't until this evening that I took a look at the website "Blog for Choice"
(http://www.blogforchoice.com/archives/2008/05/naral-prochoice-6.ht)
and the very first negative post I read was stunning. BTW, the misspellings are hers not mine. Get your barf bag ready:
"I am disgusted that you and the organization would endorse Obama. It would have been appropriate to endorse the democratic candidate once the required number of delegates is reached and the nominee is decided. This pre-emptive endorsement is inappropriate and is apparently an opportunity to grab headlines for Naral. Unbelievable!
THIS IS SO OUTRAGEOUS I AM IMMEDIANTELY REMOVING MY NAME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH TAITORS AND TERRIOSTS AS OBAMA IS. REMEMBER 911 REMEMBER WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE AND WHO THIS BLACK SOB IS ASSOCIATED WITH IF HE GET THE NOMINATION I WILL MOST DEFINETELY SWITCH MY PARTY AND VOTE FOR MCCAIN. IF HILIARY GETS PUSHED DOWN I WILL VOTE FOR MCCAIN. OBAMAS MONEY IS COMING FROM WHERE THIS IS THE ???????? YOU SHOULD ASK.WHERE IS HE GETTING ALL THIS MONEY FROM.HE IS A TRAITOR.SHAME ON YOU FOR TURNING YOUR BACK ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ORGANIZATION."
My immediate response was, 'Please vote for McCain because that's where you belong!'
The line in the sand is being drawn in this most important of elections and all so-called Amerikans who are as ignorant as this person obviously is belong on the other side of that line. Americans who are for a UNITED States of America - especially people who are reasonable (former) Clinton supporters - need to be made aware of just what kind of mentality (many? most?) people who support McCain have.
I intend to hold up this kind of vitriol as a reality-check mirror for anyone I encounter who may have some hope of my convincing them that John McCain and his camp are about as good for the U.S. as an arsenic cocktail would be for someone with the flu: slow, but certain destruction.
P.S. I'm still fuming 'bout what that girlie said, so I'ma gonna go cool down now. HUMPF!
--"Bitter"-But-Energized-For-Action Yvonne
McGovern, former Clinton backer, urges her to drop out
SIOUX FALLS, SD: Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama.
McGovern said he had no regrets about endorsing Hillary Clinton months ago, [which he did] even before the Iowa caucuses.
"She has run a valiant campaign….but Obama has won the nomination "by any practical test" and is very close to a majority of the pledged delegates.…It's time to unite the Democratic Party. Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November”, he said.
This new endorsement from Mr. McGovern is, of course, encouraging support for our candidate!
Thank you North Carolina, and thank you Obama supporters in the Great Hoosier State!
Hillary Clinton probably won't drop out of course, but with influential support being added almost weekly from honorable statesmen such as Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson, and now George McGovern, the un-pledged Superdelegates are surely getting the message if they haven't already. I, for one, plan to take the time to contact as many individuals of influence such as John Edwards - as well as uncommitted delegates, and Superdelegates - and ask for their public support for Barack Obama, and I hope you fellow Obama supporters will as well.
Still, the potentially problematic issues that remain unresolved and that concern me are twofold.
First - For some unexplained "reason" there is still the possibility of Hillary Clinton being allowed to change the rules and have Michigan and Florida counted, which change she began clamoring for only when she realized that the groundswell of support for Barack Obama posed a decided threat to her ascension to the throne, excuse me, the Presidency. I know I am not the only person who would be VERY UPSET if that were to occur, and IMHO that would be an extremely DIVISIVE act on the part of those who have the POWER in that arena.
This nomination contest has morphed into an (extended) historic event that, from my perspective, seems not unlike a second Civil War, only one without physical weapons. I deplore the fact that the racial divide in the U.S. remains as wide as this election year is revealing to everyone, not just to people in this country but to people around the world
Secondly - There is the problem of the "association" with one J. Wright, to whom some are determined to keep our collective focus diverted.
Like others, I was stunned and outraged myself when the media circus came to town again and Wright was its star attraction. I don't know beans about public relations, but I am hoping that people who do will get to work disarming the opposition so their continued use of this absurd distortion of the Senator's LOYALTY (which is a virtue, not a vice, the last time I looked) in A PERSONAL, NOT A POLITICAL CONTEXT will be to their disadvantage.
Barack Obama has a heart for people. A person like that is not cutthroat and calculating and is not going to kick someone to the curb just because that person's views DIFFER from his. He is also is intelligent enough to know where boundaries exist in terms of what part of his public service career people are in, and whether they have a part in it at all, especially when it comes to his political office. I have a feeling that he is keenly aware of the separation of church and state.
I saw a page in today’s issue (May 7) of the L.A. Times online this morning, one that featured ONLY politicians and others who are DIRECLY involved in politics. In the most prominent position on that page were the photos of (from left to right): John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and, would you believe, Jeremiah Wright!
Would someone please inform the media that HE IS NOT A POLITICIAN? HE HAS BEEN ENTICED BY THE SENSATIONAL MEDIA (and others whose motives are impure) TO THRUST HIMSELF INTO THE POLITICAL SPOTLIGHT even though he has no place there. Clearly if this man had been as all-inclusively involved in Senator Obama’s life outside of the traditional religious rituals of marriage, baptism, and (basically obligatory) Sunday services, Barack Obama would have observed these attention-seeking aspects in a context outside of his religious activities. But Barack did not have this man as a “bosom buddy”, or an advisor to his political decisions, contrary to what the opposition would like people to believe.
But I insist that Wright be put into context. If the “sins” of the clergy are to be attached to anyone who won’t drop his or her “association” with a person or a church, then every person who, like myself, was baptized and raised as a Catholic “should” be expected to cut their ties with that church when we began to be aware of not only words, but the actions of the now infamous among those clergy. What when JFK and later Bobby Kennedy sought the Presidency? Looking back, if those cases of child molestation by priests had been made public prior to their bids for the highest office of the land, would we have expected JFK, or of Bobby Kennedy to leave the Catholic Church?
If someone who is Catholic wants to become the Presidential nominee in the future, what if, at some point, people learn that his or her priest had molested children, and the candidate-to-be had had that person as a friend? Would we assume that he or she condones pedophilia? How far are some people going to take this “association” thing?
And what of Hillary Clinton’s choice (which, by the way, I agree with) to not end her “association” with ‘that man’ whose actions were definitely immoral when he elected to commit adultery? There were those who criticized Mrs. Clinton for staying in her marital relationship with Bill Clinton even though his actions were illegal - as in sexual harassment - if my understanding of that law is correct. Her association with him goes back quite a number of years, and, if memory serves me, there was at least one other young woman with whom he was, let’s say, inappropriately involved.
When the Lewinsky affair nearly caused the impeachment of Bill Clinton I found the graphic description of their illicit behaviors to be a total embarrassment. I’m sure Hillary Clinton did not agree with what the person with whom she was associated for more than 20 years did, or, for that matter what he said when questioning about the affair began. I found the whole thing distressing and I just wanted it to go away. I find Jeremiah Wright distressing and likewise, I want him to go away and live his life somewhere other than on the political center stage.
Hello America: J. Wright, as well as the lapel pin silliness both need to be relegated to a backwater of our national consciousness, so THE REAL ISSUES THAT ARE PRESSING IN ON US CAN BE DEALT WITH…AND SOON! It's the economy, sweetie. And housing that is affordable at EVERY income level, or homelessness “will be with us always”, and its numbers will swell exponentially. And healthcare, or rather the lack thereof, as I personally know. And education, before America falls even FURTHER BEHIND THE REST OF THE "DEVELOPED" WORLD. And Mr. Bush's war in Iraq which has not made the U.S. safe (or even any safer?) from KNOWN terrorists (not to mention incipient terrorists). Is anybody concerned about the price of food and of gasoline? I don’t care about what someone inconsequential said in the past, I care about what is going to be done in the very near future.
Hillary Clinton IS hanging on in this nomination contest by a slender thread. This FACT has been reported on by credible experts – people who are presumably impartial and who know how to run the numbers. Mr. McGovern's restatement of that numerical reality should be a wake-up call for the wife of the former President. But she wants to win badly; it’s my perception that saving face is more her style than facing facts. But what I and many other Americans want, and will insist upon, is significant change in the way things are done. From where I sit it goes without saying that John McCain won’t take us there…and neither will Hillary Clinton.
My having been inspired – or I should say “fired up” – enough to connect with fellow Americans about this political process and to take the time to WRITE THOUGHTFULLY (a task which had become distasteful to me post-Master's thesis) says a lot about the persuasive nature of Senator Obama's sustained commitment to changing the way things have always been done.
“I don't contribute money to political candidates”, says I, yet I have made modest contributions into Senator Obama’s campaign coffers. “I don't participate in partisan politics”, I add, and I am passionately involved in communicating by phone and in writing about this nomination process to an extent to which I have never before been motivated in any of my MANY years as an adult.
I believe that the participation of ALL Americans is vital at this point in this country's history if the U.S. has any hope of thriving as a nation. I also firmly believe that it is any nation's fatal flaw to fail to include any group that resides among it. In unity there IS strength, and, make no mistake about it: divided we will fall.
We, the people, are the ones who are building the momentum behind the leadership of the ONE CANDIDATE - in the person of BARACK OBAMA - who has the unique combination of abilities that are needed if America is to come up out of the pit into which the past eight years has placed this country.
We stand behind and beside Barack Obama and pledge our support to the HOPE and POSSIBILITY of achieving The Dream that we all have of being a Great Society.
From a Kansas City website:
You can read the whole blog post at http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/
THE OBAMA MOVEMENT CONTINUES!
It’s been reported that Barack is tied with Hillary in terms of the number of delegates among U.S. Senators, 13 to 13.
There are 21 Senators who have not yet made a commitment to either Democratic candidate.
I am calling for each one of us Obama supporters to sign a letter to be sent to each of those 21 Senators asking for his/her support for our candidate. We don’t need all 21, but a majority would influence the SuperDelegates who have not announced who they are going to vote for.
I have been collecting news articles, blog posts, and various other analyses of the nomination race that I will use to compose the letter, but any data or other information that any of you feel would be helpful will be gratefully considered and some of it will be included.
GET YOUR SECOND BREATH, ‘CAUSE THIS TRAIN WON’T STOP UNTIL IT REACHES ITS DESTINATION!
I am BUMMED that I am not in Pennsylvania using my time to help Barack Obama's campaign.
Someone from Pennsylvania - who is not in Women for Obama - called me after it was too late for me to get to the Women for Obama event and told me that there was housing for volunteers that he knew of in that great state. I have tasks here in California that I would gladly have postponed in order to work for something more important than the blankety-blank 'stuff' of my life that can surely wait. Time is of the essence for Barack Obama and I'm still on the sidelines. It's really tough when you know you have much to offer but the path between where you are and the position where what you have to offer could be optimally used is strewn with impassable obstacles.
O WELL.
Recently I read an article about how HRC was fired for lying and other unethical behavior BACK WHEN she worked for the committee that ran the Watergate investigation; this information came from the person who fired her. I read another article that described other incidents in HER PAST that are indicative of someone with a character that is not what most Americans would expect in their leader.
I don't like watching debates and I didn't watch the most recent one. I'm glad I didn't. When I saw the L.A. Times front page the next day I was glad I hadn't watched the "debate"...ABOUT BARACK OBAMA'S PAST! I realize that Barack is too classy a gentleman to stoop to "debating" at the low level at which his opponent feels comfortable, and his campaign staff are likewise restraining themselves. I, however, would not mind if the voters who have not had the opportunity to read what I have read were made aware of the full scope of HRC's PAST so they could make truly a INFORMED choice between the two Democratic Senators.
As a matter of fact I would not mind bringing about that awareness - if I can get some help in finding the best way to disseminate JUST THE FACTS, MAM...'the truth, and nothing but the truth' - in order to at least achieve a balance, if certain people want to discuss someone's PAST.
Barack is committed to maintaining the dignity of his campaign and I admire that. But be advised Mrs. C: You've got my dander up. So it's the past you want discussed, huh? Because he has pledged to have his campaign staff and himself remain on the high road, the best qualified candidate in this contest won't sling mud as his Democratic opponent is doing. But by golly, I am not on his campaign staff - I'm just a regular American who doesn't like the continuing low-minded tactics of Mrs. C and her hubby in trying to get her nominated, so I can!
YES I CAN!
