I have supported Barack since 2007 -- I was on board back when a majority of African Americans were still supporting Sen. Clinton, noting that Barack wasn't "black enough." I campaigned on lonely streets here in CA, made phone calls, donated, blogged and jawboned family and friends, pouring my energy into the presidential campaign while donating some money and putting a "No on 8" sign in my front yard. Imagine my despair on Nov. 5 when I awoke to find that 70% of the African American Community and a majority of Latinos had voted to strip my community of our civil rights at a time when we were celebrating the breaking down of racial barriers. Especially galling was that the "Yes on 8" forces had used Barack's own voice expressing his "personal" opposition to same sex marriage in a robocall that helped pass this civil rights debacle.
So it is adding insult to injury that Barack now selects one of the leading generals in this battle to give the invocation at his inaugural .... to "bless" HIS ascension while the same clown has blocked so many others. Make no mistake, this is not about a little prayer, this is like inviting Josef Mengele to open the Holocaust museum and telling Jews not to be upset because there's a rabbi giving the benediction. I have defended Barack in the LGBT community for some time but I'm done; I will need to be SHOWN, not promised, that Barack has a freakin' clue about achieving true CIVIL rights for all. Loving v. VA showed the impact of marriage on discrimination; if you could separate the civil institution of marriage, and its impact on tax, immigration, personal rights etc. from religious ceremonies, fine. Make our services like those in Europe where the civil ceremony is followed by a church service. But for a politically astute transition team this is a big slap and one that won't be forgotten easily.
Thought you might enjoy my newest video detailing the angry mobs at McCain's campaign events recently contrasted to Barack's hopeful message. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmAZUAMG8I
I'm watching returns and am a bit disapointed on the vote totals but buoyed by the delegate count. Here's my thought, though, as it seems the Latino vote is the big sticking point in getting this nomination. One of my friends is a Latina lawyer who sent me the following email:
"I just saw a youtube video about Obama's Kenyan grandmother. It was very moving and I got teary eyed thinking that a grandson of a poor peasant woman could be President of the United States. If they wanted to connect to Latino voters, I would emphasize Obama's immigrant roots instead of his call for change since Latinos are sometimes wary of change."
Ok, I'm not an important enough person in the campaign to get this idea to anyone in charge, but I think this is a tremendous idea. So if anyone else agrees ... pass this on!
Here's the blog comment I posted on the NY Times' story of Hillary Clinton's outrageous Civil Rights comments on 1/7/08 (see my earlier post on this subject for the text of her comments and the NY Times story):
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness[…] Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Ma’am (sir)? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Seems pretty apropos to these despicable, self-serving and dangerous comments from Sen. Clinton. Unfortunately they were actually uttered by Joe Welch in response to another demagogue, Sen. Joe McCarthy. I never thought HRC would stoop so low but I guess I’ve never seen her threatened as much as by these losses and the destruction of her presidential dreams. I have tried to refrain from angry responses, modeling on my chosen candidate Sen. Obama but this takes the cake. Mrs. Clinton managed to fan the race flames, insult 2 of America’s iconic leaders and show her utter ignorance of the law (it took the civil rights legislation to make people citizens?). Of course, since she failed the DC Bar exam (she did pass Arkansas which had an 85% pass rate) I guess her legal ignorance shouldn’t be surprising. I am disgusted and hope others follow suit in turning our backs on this politics of division, despair and dread.
— Posted by Bette
Barack decisively won the first two reported precincts in the NH primary: in Dixville Notch he won with 7 votes, Edwards got 2 and Richardson 1.
In the other early voting post, Hart's Location, Barack won with 9 votes, Hillary got 3 and Edwards 1.
GO BARACK!!!
By Sarah Wheaton
DOVER, N.H. — Today, in Dover, Francine Torge, a former John Edwards supporter, said this while introducing Mrs. Clinton: “Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who actually” passed the civil rights legislation.
The comment, an apparent reference to Senator Barack Obama, is particularly striking given documented fears among blacks that Mr. Obama will be assassinated if elected.
Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman said: “We were not aware that this person was going to make those comments and disapprove of them completely. They were totally inappropriate.”Mrs. Clinton’s expression did not change noticeably when Ms. Torge made the comment.
Only a few hours later, she brought up the civil rights legislation herself in remarks to a Fox News correspondent.
“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said when asked about Mr. Obama’s rejoinder by Fox’s Major Garrett after her speech in Dover. “It took a president to get it done.”
The Obama campaign declined to comment on either of those remarks.
Later, during an appearance in Salem, Mrs. Clinton refined her remarks on Fox:
“You know, today Senator Obama used President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to criticize me. He basically compared himself to our greatest heroes because they gave great speeches.
“President Kennedy was in Congress for 14 years. He was a war hero. He was a man of great accomplishments and readiness to be president. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement. He was gassed. He was beaten. He was jailed. And he gave a speech that was one of the most beautifully, profoundly important speeches ever written in America, the “I have a dream” speech.
“And then he worked with President Johnson to get the civil rights laws passed, because the dream couldn’t be realized until finally it was legally permissible for people of all colors and backgrounds and races and ethnicities to be accepted as citizens."
OK, I want to follow Barack's lead in staying away from negativity but I couldn't resist sharing this entry from the NY Times Caucus blog -- unbelievable!
"Toward the end of the news conference, she (HRC) got into a bit of a sparring match with Chris Matthews, the host of “Hardball” on MSNBC, who challenged her over her withdrawal plans on Iraq. Mr. Matthews, often a critic of the Clintons, invited her on his show, which prompted eye-rolling from Mrs. Clinton.
“Well, right,” she said, as if the idea were fantastical. “I don’t know what to do with men who are obsessed with me.”"
One of the smart-aleck comments on the blog included this:
Men who are obsessed with HRC do not include Bill- he long ago move to younger obsessions.
— Posted by monica
I know, I know ... bad taste but very funny!!!!
In his Washington Post column for Jan. 6, 2008 titled "Iowa's Histrionic Hucksters" deconstructing the pseudo-populist messages of John Edwards and Mike Huckabee, George Will ended with this remarkable paragraph:
"Barack Obama, who might be mercifully closing the Clinton parenthesis in presidential history, is refreshingly cerebral amid this recrudescence of the paranoid style in American politics. He is the un-Edwards and un-Huckabee -- an adult aiming to reform the real world rather than an adolescent fantasizing mock-heroic "fights" against fictitious villains in a left-wing cartoon version of this country."
Wow! Even if it sends you to the dictionary it is heartening that Barack's "inexperience" is not being seen as a barrier to his judgment and character by one of the leading columnists in the nation, "an adult aiming to reform the real world." I'm phone banking for Barack and encountering so many people, like me, who are so filled with hope and optimism by Barack that one man from Chicago told me that last night he couldn't sleep. The last major campaign he worked on was Ted Kennedy's so even those of us not in the Millenium generation are FIRED UP!!!
