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    <title>RUALUMNI Blog</title>
    <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog_rss/RUALUMNI/html</link>
    <description></description>
                        <item>
            <title>McCain Is Fake</title>
            <description>How fake is this McCain stance. He acts like he cares when he just said the other day that he wants to turn the page on the economy because he knows he can&#039;t win if it continues to be a topic.&amp;nbsp; Now he believes that it is a rescue plan!!! He is crazy. He can&#039;t think on his feet and stumbles over his words. Gets all his facts wrong or misconstrued.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGgPDB</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGgPDB/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:17:50 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGgPDB</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>I&#039;m Tired!!!!</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Just want to vent some, Sorry!! I don&#039;t know about any one else but I am tired of the McCain campaign playing childish games. What is worse is that some in the media fall for it. As do some Americans. The time is now to change the nature and the direction of this country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We need to fight and hustle harder than ever to help Barack win this election. No matter how much it is evident that McSloppy does not even know how to run his own campaign, he is some how keeping this election tight. I know that it is helped by the MSM but hopefully this debate that WILL take place tomorrow will change alot of voters&#039; minds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is imperative that Barack makes a good showing. We know that he is a great speaker and motivator but he needs to show that he is a great debater. It is possible that close to a 100 million people tune in for it. If he blows McDummy out of the water it will drastically change the course of the election.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thanks for letting me blow off some steam. It has been awhile as I had to relocate b/c of work obligations and it took some time to get acclimated to my new community. But I am here and as active as ever.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;BARACK AND ROLL 08!!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;MIKE&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGgs9C</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGgs9C/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:26:47 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGgs9C</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
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                    <item>
            <title>INFO: NYTimes Campaign Suggestion</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Interesting view point on a campaign strategy that could be beneficial to our cause. Please read and decide what you think.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09brooks.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Surprise Me Most&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By DAVID BROOKS&lt;br /&gt;If I were advising Barack Obama and John McCain, I&amp;rsquo;d tell them to double down on weirdness.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Jmx</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Jmx/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:30:54 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Jmx</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
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                    <item>
            <title>OPPO: Palin Husband Tied To Big Oil</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Palin&#039;s husband, Todd, is a &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yup&#039;ik&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Yup&#039;ik&quot;&gt;Yup&#039;ik&lt;/a&gt; Alaskan native.&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin#cite_note-Sarah-3&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;[4]&lt;/a&gt; Outside the fishing season, Todd works for &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;BP&quot;&gt;BP&lt;/a&gt; energy corporation at an oil field on Alaska&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_North_Slope&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Alaska North Slope&quot;&gt;North Slope&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin#cite_note-51&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;[52]&lt;/a&gt; and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile &amp;quot;Iron Dog&amp;quot; race four times.&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin#cite_note-Sarah-3&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;[&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Dfj</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Dfj/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:18:20 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Dfj</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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                    <item>
            <title>OPPO: Palin&#039;s Office Under Investigation</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Read this. Minutes into the vp slot and already more of the same.&lt;/p&gt;Palin aide under fire in Monegan flap put on leave&lt;p class=&quot;story_sub_head&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;byline&quot;&gt;By &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/contact/khopkins/index.html&quot;&gt;KYLE HOPKINS&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:khopkins@adn.com&quot;&gt;khopkins@adn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;dateline&quot;&gt;Published: August 19th, 2008 08:18 PM&lt;br /&gt;Last Modified: August 19th, 2008 08:18 PM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;first story_readable&quot;&gt;Gov. Sarah Palin has placed one of her aides on paid leave until an investigator finishes looking into accusations that her team broke ethics or personnel rules. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;head&quot;&gt;Story tools&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#comments&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Comments&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-emailfr/story/498908.html&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;print_story(this.href);return false;&quot;&gt;E-mail a friend&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-printer/story/498908.html&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;print_story(this.href);return false;&quot;&gt;Print&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedlocation.href=&#039;http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&amp;amp;url=&#039;+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href)+&#039; &#039;&quot;&gt;Digg this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedvoid(0)&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;newsvine_story();&quot;&gt;Seed Newsvine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;im_story();return false&quot;&gt;Send link via AIM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;my_yahoo&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://us.rd.yahoo.com/my/atm/adn.com/Alaska%20News/*http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/index.xml&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;my_yahoo_badge&quot; src=&quot;http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/my/addtomyyahoo4.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Add to My Yahoo!&quot; width=&quot;91&quot; height=&quot;17&quot; /&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;yahoo_buzz&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/anchorage_dai626/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adn.com%2Fnews%2Falaska%2Fstory%2F498908.html&quot;&gt;Yahoo! Buzz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;links_horizontal&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Font size : &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;small&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;medium&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;large&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;The investigation stems from Palin&#039;s July firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan later said he felt pressured by the governor&#039;s office to fire Palin&#039;s ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, a trooper who had been locked in a child-custody battle with Palin&#039;s sister.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin last Wednesday revealed a phone call made by her boards and commissions director, Frank Bailey, to a trooper lieutenant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;In the call, Bailey lists various complaints about Wooten and says the governor and her husband couldn&#039;t understand why he still had a job. The governor admitted the call could be perceived as her office pressuring the Public Safety Department, but says that&#039;s not what actually happened. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;On Tuesday, Palin&#039;s office announced Bailey is off the job pending an investigation by the state Legislature. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Obviously the governor is not happy with that phone call, but we don&#039;t know what the investigation is going to show in total,&amp;quot; said Palin spokesman Bill McAllister.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Bailey&#039;s salary is $78,528 a year, according to the Department of Administration, and he will continue to draw a paycheck while on leave. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;A former Alaska Airlines employee who joined Palin&#039;s campaign team at the beginning of her successful run for governor in 2006, Bailey worked under Palin as a special assistant to one of her commissioners. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Later, as director of boards and commissions, Bailey was responsible for recruiting and vetting candidates for the state&#039;s more than 100 mostly volunteer boards -- posts that can range from Board of Fish members to Superior Court judges. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;As criticism of Monegan&#039;s firing mounted, a council of legislators voted to spend up to $100,000 to investigate the case for up to three months. They hired retired prosecutor Steve Branchflower.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin directed the Department of Law to do its own inquiry first, leading to the discovery and release of Bailey&#039;s phone call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;During the Feb. 29 call, Bailey tells Trooper Lt. Rodney Dial that Palin &amp;quot;really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue, she feels like it&#039;s, she doesn&#039;t know why there is absolutely no action for a year on this issue. It&#039;s very, very troubling to her and the family.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Bailey couldn&#039;t be reached for comment Tuesday but has said no one asked him to make the call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin says she was shocked to hear the call but that it doesn&#039;t prove her administration pushed Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;He did not say Monegan needs to fire this guy,&amp;quot; she said, adding it was &amp;quot;absolutely inappropriate that he appeared to be representing me.&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said that with Bailey still a state employee, Palin &amp;quot;can direct him to assist Mr. Branchflower, thereby fulfilling her pledge to Alaskans to cooperate fully with the investigation.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;ad_label&quot;&gt;ADVERTISEMENT&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/372b/0/0/*/e;171514818;0-0;2;17655459;4307-300/250;24192187/24210040/1;;~sscs=?http://www.alaska.com&quot; target=&quot;_new&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://m1.2mdn.net/viewad/1649319/AKCOM_Adventure_300_0611.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Click here to find out more!&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Except for a few phone calls or visits, Bailey hasn&#039;t been at work since shortly after the phone recording was revealed, according to the governor&#039;s office. &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;While there&#039;s an investigation going on, you assume innocence, but you take the person out of the mix just so there are no questions raised,&amp;quot; McAllister said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, is overseeing the investigator&#039;s work. He said the investigation will explore whether the governor&#039;s office broke ethical or personnel rules in its handling of the Wooten case -- including whether Bailey had improper access to Wooten&#039;s private records. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;As for whether Bailey will lose his job if the investigator finds wrongdoing, McAllister said that&#039;s the governor&#039;s decision.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;It&#039;s not up to Mr. Branchflower to take personnel actions. That will be the governor&#039;s call when the time comes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Find Kyle Hopkins&#039; political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5DfC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5DfC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:14:26 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5DfC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>OPPO: Palin&#039;s Office Under Investigation</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Read this. Minutes into the vp slot and already more of the same.&lt;/p&gt;Palin aide under fire in Monegan flap put on leave&lt;p class=&quot;story_sub_head&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;byline&quot;&gt;By &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/contact/khopkins/index.html&quot;&gt;KYLE HOPKINS&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:khopkins@adn.com&quot;&gt;khopkins@adn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;dateline&quot;&gt;Published: August 19th, 2008 08:18 PM&lt;br /&gt;Last Modified: August 19th, 2008 08:18 PM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;first story_readable&quot;&gt;Gov. Sarah Palin has placed one of her aides on paid leave until an investigator finishes looking into accusations that her team broke ethics or personnel rules. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;head&quot;&gt;Story tools&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#comments&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Comments&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-emailfr/story/498908.html&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;print_story(this.href);return false;&quot;&gt;E-mail a friend&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-printer/story/498908.html&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;print_story(this.href);return false;&quot;&gt;Print&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedlocation.href=&#039;http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&amp;amp;url=&#039;+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href)+&#039; &#039;&quot;&gt;Digg this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedvoid(0)&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;newsvine_story();&quot;&gt;Seed Newsvine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;im_story();return false&quot;&gt;Send link via AIM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;my_yahoo&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://us.rd.yahoo.com/my/atm/adn.com/Alaska%20News/*http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/index.xml&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;my_yahoo_badge&quot; src=&quot;http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/my/addtomyyahoo4.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Add to My Yahoo!&quot; width=&quot;91&quot; height=&quot;17&quot; /&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;yahoo_buzz&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/anchorage_dai626/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adn.com%2Fnews%2Falaska%2Fstory%2F498908.html&quot;&gt;Yahoo! Buzz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;links_horizontal&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Font size : &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;small&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;medium&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;large&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;The investigation stems from Palin&#039;s July firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan later said he felt pressured by the governor&#039;s office to fire Palin&#039;s ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, a trooper who had been locked in a child-custody battle with Palin&#039;s sister.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin last Wednesday revealed a phone call made by her boards and commissions director, Frank Bailey, to a trooper lieutenant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;In the call, Bailey lists various complaints about Wooten and says the governor and her husband couldn&#039;t understand why he still had a job. The governor admitted the call could be perceived as her office pressuring the Public Safety Department, but says that&#039;s not what actually happened. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;On Tuesday, Palin&#039;s office announced Bailey is off the job pending an investigation by the state Legislature. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Obviously the governor is not happy with that phone call, but we don&#039;t know what the investigation is going to show in total,&amp;quot; said Palin spokesman Bill McAllister.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Bailey&#039;s salary is $78,528 a year, according to the Department of Administration, and he will continue to draw a paycheck while on leave. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;A former Alaska Airlines employee who joined Palin&#039;s campaign team at the beginning of her successful run for governor in 2006, Bailey worked under Palin as a special assistant to one of her commissioners. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Later, as director of boards and commissions, Bailey was responsible for recruiting and vetting candidates for the state&#039;s more than 100 mostly volunteer boards -- posts that can range from Board of Fish members to Superior Court judges. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;As criticism of Monegan&#039;s firing mounted, a council of legislators voted to spend up to $100,000 to investigate the case for up to three months. They hired retired prosecutor Steve Branchflower.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin directed the Department of Law to do its own inquiry first, leading to the discovery and release of Bailey&#039;s phone call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;During the Feb. 29 call, Bailey tells Trooper Lt. Rodney Dial that Palin &amp;quot;really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue, she feels like it&#039;s, she doesn&#039;t know why there is absolutely no action for a year on this issue. It&#039;s very, very troubling to her and the family.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Bailey couldn&#039;t be reached for comment Tuesday but has said no one asked him to make the call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin says she was shocked to hear the call but that it doesn&#039;t prove her administration pushed Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;He did not say Monegan needs to fire this guy,&amp;quot; she said, adding it was &amp;quot;absolutely inappropriate that he appeared to be representing me.&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said that with Bailey still a state employee, Palin &amp;quot;can direct him to assist Mr. Branchflower, thereby fulfilling her pledge to Alaskans to cooperate fully with the investigation.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;ad_label&quot;&gt;ADVERTISEMENT&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/372b/0/0/*/e;171514818;0-0;2;17655459;4307-300/250;24192187/24210040/1;;~sscs=?http://www.alaska.com&quot; target=&quot;_new&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://m1.2mdn.net/viewad/1649319/AKCOM_Adventure_300_0611.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Click here to find out more!&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Except for a few phone calls or visits, Bailey hasn&#039;t been at work since shortly after the phone recording was revealed, according to the governor&#039;s office. &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;While there&#039;s an investigation going on, you assume innocence, but you take the person out of the mix just so there are no questions raised,&amp;quot; McAllister said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, is overseeing the investigator&#039;s work. He said the investigation will explore whether the governor&#039;s office broke ethical or personnel rules in its handling of the Wooten case -- including whether Bailey had improper access to Wooten&#039;s private records. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;As for whether Bailey will lose his job if the investigator finds wrongdoing, McAllister said that&#039;s the governor&#039;s decision.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;It&#039;s not up to Mr. Branchflower to take personnel actions. That will be the governor&#039;s call when the time comes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Find Kyle Hopkins&#039; political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5DfR</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5DfR/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:14:11 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5DfR</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>OPPO: Palin&#039;s Office Under Investigation</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Read this. Minutes into the vp slot and already more of the same.&lt;/p&gt;Palin aide under fire in Monegan flap put on leave&lt;p class=&quot;story_sub_head&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;byline&quot;&gt;By &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/contact/khopkins/index.html&quot;&gt;KYLE HOPKINS&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:khopkins@adn.com&quot;&gt;khopkins@adn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;dateline&quot;&gt;Published: August 19th, 2008 08:18 PM&lt;br /&gt;Last Modified: August 19th, 2008 08:18 PM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;first story_readable&quot;&gt;Gov. Sarah Palin has placed one of her aides on paid leave until an investigator finishes looking into accusations that her team broke ethics or personnel rules. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;head&quot;&gt;Story tools&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#comments&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Comments&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-emailfr/story/498908.html&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;print_story(this.href);return false;&quot;&gt;E-mail a friend&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/v-printer/story/498908.html&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;print_story(this.href);return false;&quot;&gt;Print&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedlocation.href=&#039;http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&amp;amp;url=&#039;+encodeURIComponent(document.location.href)+&#039; &#039;&quot;&gt;Digg this&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedvoid(0)&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;newsvine_story();&quot;&gt;Seed Newsvine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;link&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;im_story();return false&quot;&gt;Send link via AIM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;my_yahoo&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://us.rd.yahoo.com/my/atm/adn.com/Alaska%20News/*http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/index.xml&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;my_yahoo_badge&quot; src=&quot;http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/my/addtomyyahoo4.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Add to My Yahoo!&quot; width=&quot;91&quot; height=&quot;17&quot; /&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;yahoo_buzz&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/anchorage_dai626/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adn.com%2Fnews%2Falaska%2Fstory%2F498908.html&quot;&gt;Yahoo! Buzz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;links_horizontal&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Font size : &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;small&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;medium&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/498908.html#&quot; onclickXSSCleaned=&quot;changeStyles(&#039;large&#039;);return false;&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;The investigation stems from Palin&#039;s July firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan later said he felt pressured by the governor&#039;s office to fire Palin&#039;s ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, a trooper who had been locked in a child-custody battle with Palin&#039;s sister.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin last Wednesday revealed a phone call made by her boards and commissions director, Frank Bailey, to a trooper lieutenant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;In the call, Bailey lists various complaints about Wooten and says the governor and her husband couldn&#039;t understand why he still had a job. The governor admitted the call could be perceived as her office pressuring the Public Safety Department, but says that&#039;s not what actually happened. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;On Tuesday, Palin&#039;s office announced Bailey is off the job pending an investigation by the state Legislature. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Obviously the governor is not happy with that phone call, but we don&#039;t know what the investigation is going to show in total,&amp;quot; said Palin spokesman Bill McAllister.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Bailey&#039;s salary is $78,528 a year, according to the Department of Administration, and he will continue to draw a paycheck while on leave. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;A former Alaska Airlines employee who joined Palin&#039;s campaign team at the beginning of her successful run for governor in 2006, Bailey worked under Palin as a special assistant to one of her commissioners. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Later, as director of boards and commissions, Bailey was responsible for recruiting and vetting candidates for the state&#039;s more than 100 mostly volunteer boards -- posts that can range from Board of Fish members to Superior Court judges. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;As criticism of Monegan&#039;s firing mounted, a council of legislators voted to spend up to $100,000 to investigate the case for up to three months. They hired retired prosecutor Steve Branchflower.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin directed the Department of Law to do its own inquiry first, leading to the discovery and release of Bailey&#039;s phone call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;During the Feb. 29 call, Bailey tells Trooper Lt. Rodney Dial that Palin &amp;quot;really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue, she feels like it&#039;s, she doesn&#039;t know why there is absolutely no action for a year on this issue. It&#039;s very, very troubling to her and the family.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Bailey couldn&#039;t be reached for comment Tuesday but has said no one asked him to make the call.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin says she was shocked to hear the call but that it doesn&#039;t prove her administration pushed Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;He did not say Monegan needs to fire this guy,&amp;quot; she said, adding it was &amp;quot;absolutely inappropriate that he appeared to be representing me.&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said that with Bailey still a state employee, Palin &amp;quot;can direct him to assist Mr. Branchflower, thereby fulfilling her pledge to Alaskans to cooperate fully with the investigation.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;ad_label&quot;&gt;ADVERTISEMENT&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/372b/0/0/*/e;171514818;0-0;2;17655459;4307-300/250;24192187/24210040/1;;~sscs=?http://www.alaska.com&quot; target=&quot;_new&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://m1.2mdn.net/viewad/1649319/AKCOM_Adventure_300_0611.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Click here to find out more!&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Except for a few phone calls or visits, Bailey hasn&#039;t been at work since shortly after the phone recording was revealed, according to the governor&#039;s office. &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;While there&#039;s an investigation going on, you assume innocence, but you take the person out of the mix just so there are no questions raised,&amp;quot; McAllister said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, is overseeing the investigator&#039;s work. He said the investigation will explore whether the governor&#039;s office broke ethical or personnel rules in its handling of the Wooten case -- including whether Bailey had improper access to Wooten&#039;s private records. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;As for whether Bailey will lose his job if the investigator finds wrongdoing, McAllister said that&#039;s the governor&#039;s decision.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;It&#039;s not up to Mr. Branchflower to take personnel actions. That will be the governor&#039;s call when the time comes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;story_readable&quot;&gt;Find Kyle Hopkins&#039; political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Dfp</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:12:48 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Dfp</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>Interesting and Pointed</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED COLUMNIST&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/opinion/08krugman.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Know-Nothing Politics&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By PAUL KRUGMAN&lt;br /&gt;Know-nothingism &amp;mdash; the insistence that there are simple answers to every problem &amp;mdash; has become the core of Republican policy.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5KRg</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5KRg/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:59:16 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5KRg</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: Spread The Word</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/opinion/08fri1.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Time for Iraq to Pay the Bill&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The oil market has produced a bonanza for Iraq. Now it is time for the country to spend its own money on reconstruction.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5KRB</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5KRB/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:57:02 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5KRB</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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                    <item>
            <title>McLame&#039;s True Support For The Troops</title>
            <description>&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Please forward this to others in the media and ask them why they aren&amp;rsquo;t covering this story.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;==================================================================================&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;I am sending this on because we are seeing the 2008 swiftboating begin. This idea that Obama ignored the vets on his trip is being pounded in all the media. It has got to be addressed by all of our supporters.&lt;br /&gt;This is how the GOP plans to take this election...by destroying Obama&#039;s character and questioning his patriotism.&lt;br /&gt;The irony is that McCain&#039;s lack of support for vets is getting a free pass from much of the media.&lt;br /&gt;PLEASE pass this info on to all of your contacts and be sure to watch this video.&lt;br /&gt;We have to speak up....all of us.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This video got me to look at the McCain Vet Support Record. It is amazing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGvxK660oFo&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGvxK660oFo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PS. There is an effort on the internet to say that Hudson is a fake, a poser. He is not. He is a long time advocate for disabled vets recognized by numerous associations. His service record has been verified. McCain could&amp;nbsp; not find the time in his schedule to meet with Hudson even though he promised he would at the townhall.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I then looked up McCain&#039;s ratings:&lt;/strong&gt;..&lt;br /&gt;The Iraq/Afghan Vets Association gives&amp;nbsp; him a D (and Obama a B+)&lt;br /&gt;Disabled Am Vets gives him a 20% support rating (and Obama a 80%)&lt;br /&gt;53 Senators Sponsored the New GI Bill. McCain was&amp;nbsp; not one of them.&lt;br /&gt;When 75 voted for it in the final version, McCain did not.&lt;br /&gt;McCain claims a perfect rating with the VFW but the VFW does not give ratings.&lt;br /&gt;In 2007 McCain missed 11 of 15 votes on Veteran issues. He has missed 11 so far this year. It looks to me (after studying the pattern laid out below), that McCain generally either votes against measures that raise benefits or he does not vote at all. Once he began his run for the presidency, he&amp;nbsp; stopped&amp;nbsp; voting&amp;nbsp; on veteran measures.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More Specifically- Veterans Issues (from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.projectvotesmart.org/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;www.ProjectVoteSmart.org&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2006 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 20 percent in 2006.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2006 Senator McCain sponsored or co-sponsored 18 percent of the legislation favored by the The Retired Enlisted Association in 2006.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2005 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25 percent in 2005.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 50 percent in 2004.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The Retired Enlisted Association 0 percent in 2004.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From the Congressional Record:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against A $20 Million Increase In Healthcare For Veterans. In 2006, McCain voted against an amendment that would add $20 million for veterans&#039; health care facilities. It would offset the additional spending by striking $20 million in the underlying bill for AmeriCorps. Amendment failed 39-59. [HR 4939, Vote #111, 5/4/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Was One of 13 Senators To Vote Against Increase In Veterans&#039; Healthcare. In 2006, McCain was one of 13 senators to vote against an amendment to add $430 million for outpatient and inpatient health care and treatment for veterans. Amendment passed 84-16. [HR 4939, Vote #98, 4/26/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted To Cut Funding For Veterans&#039; Healthcare. In 2006, McCain voted against an amendment to strike a provision in the 2007 Budget that will hold farm programs, veterans, Social Security, and Medicaid hostage to rising health care costs by creating automatic cuts once an arbitrary level of spending is reached in the Medicare program. The amendment failed 50-50. [SCR 83, Vote #70, 3/16/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Increasing Veterans&#039; Funding By $10 Billion. In 2006, McCain voted against an amendment to eliminate a tripling of fees for veterans in the TRICARE health care program by raising the discretionary spending limit by approximately $10 billion. The provisions would have been fully offset by eliminating certain corporate tax breaks. The amendment failed 46-53. [SCR 83, Vote #67, 3/16/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Veteran&#039;s Healthcare Program. In 2006, McCain voted against an amendment to make veterans&#039; health benefits a mandatory program, spending $104 billion over five years. The funding would have been offset by closing corporate tax loopholes and rolling back the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Amendment rejected 46-54. [SCR 83, Vote #63, 3/16/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against A $1.5 Billion Increase In Healthcare For Veterans. In 2006, McCain voted against an amendment that increased the discretionary spending limit by $1.5 billion to $874.5 billion to provide an increase in funding for veterans&#039; medical services. It would be offset by ending certain corporate tax breaks. Amendment rejected 46-54. [SCR 83, Vote #41, 3/14/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Failed To Vote To Support Healthcare For Veterans In Lieu of Tax Breaks For Millionaires. In 2006, McCain failed to vote on a motion to instruct conferees to insist that the tax reconciliation conference report includes funding to support health needs of veterans and military personnel in lieu of an extension of capital gains or dividends tax breaks for individuals with incomes of more than $1 million. Motion failed 40-53. [HR 4297, Vote #15, 2/13/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against $19 billion For Military And Veterans&#039; Hospitals. In 2006, McCain voted against an amendment that provided $19 billion for military and veterans&#039; hospitals, offset by limiting the dividend and capital-gains tax rates to individuals earning less than $1 million. Amendment failed 44-53. [HR 4297, Vote #7, 2/2/06]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Mental Healthcare For Veterans. In 2005, McCain Voted against an amendment that provided an additional $500 million per year for the next five years for mental health services for veterans. The funding would be offset by deferring tax cuts for those making $1 million per year. Amendment rejected 43-55. [S 2020, Vote #343, 11/17/05]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Considering Inflation In Veterans Funding Formula. In 2005, McCain voted against an amendment that would establish a future funding formula for health care for former members of the Armed Forces takes into account changes in population and inflation. Amendment failed 48-51. [HR 2863, Vote #251, 10/5/05]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against A $10 Million Increase In Readjustment Counseling for Veterans. In 2005, McCain voted against an amendment that would provide an additional $10 million for the Readjustment Counseling Service, offset with a $10 million reduction in the HealthVet account. The amendment failed 48-50. [HR 2528, Vote #242, 9/22/05]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Failed To Vote For A $1.5 Billion Increase In Veterans&#039; Healthcare. In 2005, McCain failed to vote for an amendment that would add $1.5 billion of funding to the Department of Veterans&#039; Affairs for medical services provided by the Veterans Health Administration. Amendment passed 96-0. [HR 2361, Vote # 165, 6/29/05; HR 2361, Vote # 166, 6/29/05; HR 2361, Vote # 168, 6/29/05]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against $1.9 Billion In Emergency Funding For Veterans&#039; Hospitals. In 2005, McCain voted against an amendment that designated $1.9 billion in emergency funding for veterans&#039; hospitals. The $1.9 billion provided for the VA by the underlying amendment will help the VA to cover the costs of caring for these new veterans, and ensure that the VA is able to provide them with the care they deserve. The amendment failed 46-54. [HR 1268, Vote #90, 4/12/05]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against A $2 Billion Increase In Veterans&#039; Funding. In 2005, McCain voted against an amendment that would increase funding for the Veterans Affairs Department by $1.98 billion and designate it as emergency spending. It would stipulate that $840 million be used for veterans&#039; regional health networks; $610 million be used to address the needs of service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan; and $525 million be used to provide mental health care and treatment. Amendment failed 46-54. [HR 1268, Vote #89, 4/12/05]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Creating A Reserve Fund For Veterans&#039; Health Care. In 2004, McCain voted against an amendment that would create a reserve fund to allow for an increase in veterans medical care by $1.8 billion, the amount determined by Veterans&#039; Affairs Committee to meet existing needs; and is fully offset by closing tax loopholes. Amendment rejected 46-51. [SCR95,Vote #40,3/10/04]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against A $1.3 billion Increase In Veterans&#039; Health Benefits. In 2003, McCain voted to table an amendment that included a $1. Billion increase in funding for health benefits. The amendment would reduce the amount provided for Iraqi reconstruction by $5.03 billion, and redirect that funding for domestic programs, including $1.8 billion for veterans&#039; health benefits, $1 billion for school reconstruction, renovation and repair and class size reduction, and $1.5 billion for capital improvements for federal highways. It also would express the sense of the Senate that Congress should consider an additional $5.03 billion in funding for Iraqi reconstruction during the fiscal 2005 budget and appropriations process. The motion to table passed 59-35. [S 1689, Vote #379, 10/14/03]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Increasing Veterans&#039; Health Care Program. In 2003, McCain voted against an amendment that would increase spending on the TRICARE program by $20.3 billion over 10 years to give members of the National Guard and Reserves and their families greater access to the health care program. The increase would be offset by a reduction in tax cuts. Amendment rejected 46-51. [SCR23,Vote #81,3/25/03]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Failed To Vote For A $1.3 Billion Increase In Funding For Veterans&#039; Healthcare. In 1999, McCain failed to vote for an amendment that increased the funding provided to Veterans&#039; Health Administration by $1.3 billion. The amendment failed 36-63. [HR 2684, Vote #285, 9/22/99]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Increasing Veterans&#039; Health Administration By $1 Billion. In 1998, McCain voted against an amendment that would add $1 billion for Veterans&#039; Health Administration Medical Care. The funding would budget neutral and would come from the termination of the space station program. The amendment failed 33-66. [S 2168, Vote #185, 7/7/98]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against $400 Million In Veterans&#039; Funding. In 1997, McCain voted to table an amendment that would permit $400 million in DOD funds to be transferred to Department of Veterans&#039; Affairs to provide health benefits under laws administered by Secretary. Motion to table agreed to 58-41. [S936,Vote #168,7/10/97]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Covering Spina Bifida For The Children of Veterans. In 1996, McCain voted against the germaneness of an amendment that would extend veterans health care and related benefits to the children of Vietnam Veterans suffering from spina bifida, a spinal cord birth defect that causes neurological damage. The amendment was judged germane 62-35. [HR 3666, Vote #276, 9/5/96]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Preventing Cuts In Veterans&#039; Healthcare Funding. In 1996, McCain voted to table an amendment that would prohibit the Department of Veterans&#039; Affairs from reducing funds to any state for health care facilities in fiscal 1997 below the fiscal 1996 funding level. Motion to table passed. [HR 3666, Vote # 275, 9/5/96]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Increasing Veterans&#039; Healthcare Funding By $511 Million. In 1995, McCain voted against an amendment which would increase the funding for veterans&#039; medical care by $511 million; and offsets the cost of this amendment by limiting any tax cut to families with incomes of less than $100,000. Amendment failed 51-49. [HR 2099, Vote #466, 9/27/95]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted To Restrict Funding For Veterans&#039; Care Facilities. In 1994, McCain voted against tabling an amendment that the amendment would prohibit the construction of three inpatient facilities, located in Hawaii, California, and Tennessee. The projects in Hawaii and California will provide access to acute care for large numbers of veterans in the areas to be served, without which they would not have access to VA inpatient services. The project in Tennessee involves the correction of serious seismic deficiencies in the Memphis VA facility, which is located in a dangerous earthquake area. Motion to table passed 62-36. [HR 4624, Vote #256, 8/4/94]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted To Cut $25 Million From Veterans&#039; Health Programs. In 1993, McCain not to table an amendment that transferred $25 million of veterans&#039; health funding to programs for the Veterans Department to occupation conversion and employment training programs for veterans. Motion to table passed 57-43. [HR 1335, Vote #97, 4/1/93]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against Increasing Veterans&#039; Healthcare &amp;amp; Research Funding By $431 Million. In 1991, McCain voted against an amendment to increase veterans&#039; program funding by $378 million for medical care and $53 million for medical and prosthetic research. Amendment failed 35-64. [HR 2519, Vote #132, 7/17/91]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* McCain Voted Against $200 Million For Veterans&#039; Healthcare. In 1990, McCain voted to table an amendment that transferred $200 million to the Department of Veterans&#039; Affairs medical account. The money would be transferred from the Strategic Defense Initiative. Motion to table passed 54-43. [S 2884, Vote #226, 8/4/90]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;McCain Has Voted To Cut, Eliminate, or Gut Veterans Health Care Funding At Least 29 Times. [HR 4939, Vote #111, 5/4/06][HR 4939, Vote #98, 4/26/06][SCR 83, Vote #70, 3/16/06][SCR 83, Vote #67, 3/16/06][SCR 83, Vote #63, 3/16/06][SCR 83, Vote #41, 3/14/06][HR 4297, Vote #15, 2/13/06][HR 4297, Vote #7, 2/2/06][S 2020, Vote #343, 11/17/05][HR 2863, Vote #251, 10/5/05][HR 2528, Vote #242, 9/22/05][HR 2361, Vote # 165, 6/29/05; HR 2361, Vote # 166, 6/29/05; HR 2361, Vote # 168, 6/29/05][HR 1268, Vote #90, 4/12/05][HR 1268, Vote #89, 4/12/05][SCR 95, Vote #40, 3/10/04][S 1689, Vote #379, 10/14/03][SCR 23, Vote #81, 3/25/03][S 2168, Vote #185, 7/7/98][S 936, Vote #168, 7/10/97][HR 3666, Vote #276, 9/5/96][HR 3666, Vote # 275, 9/5/96][HR 2099, Vote #466, 9/27/95[HR 4624, Vote #256, 8/4/94][HR 1335, Vote #97, 4/1/93][S 2884, Vote #226, 8/4/90][HR 2519, Vote #132, 7/17/91] &lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58KB</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58KB/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:07:46 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58KB</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Vets, We Need Your Help Again!!</title>
            <description>&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;margin-bottom: 12pt&quot; class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Team:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My name&#039;s Phil Carter; I&#039;m an Iraq vet now serving as the Obama campaign&#039;s veterans director.&amp;nbsp; We are recruiting a group of Iraq / Afghanistan veterans to advise the campaign and participate in events around the country.&amp;nbsp; You all have already expressed your support for Barack Obama by joining this listserv, and many of you are already engaged around the country as field staff, volunteers and leaders within your community.&amp;nbsp; If you&#039;d like to join this national group, please send me your resume and a short email about the issues that matter most to you, at pcarter@barackobama.&amp;nbsp; We&#039;re putting this together in the next 7-10 days, so please respond quickly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks -- and stay fired up!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;-Phil&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Phillip Carter&lt;br /&gt;Veterans Director&lt;br /&gt;Obama for America&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/mc/compose?to=pcarter@barackobama.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;pcarter@barackobama.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58Kn</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58Kn/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:58:22 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58Kn</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Please Help Stop War Profiteering</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/Jhgp6M/VEsH/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/-/cc2/email_logo.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Courage Campaign&quot; width=&quot;228&quot; height=&quot;53&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;p&gt;Dear Mike, &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/5Kltxc/VEsE/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/-/KBRbutton.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;195&quot; height=&quot;295&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/yxnQlx/VEsF/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Thousands killed, billions wasted, and countless opportunities lost.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You&#039;ve seen this story play out before. We pay the costs and the war profiteers get rich at our expense. Just look at Blackwater&#039;s attempt to build a massive base on California&#039;s border with Mexico (see the end of this message to read what CEO Erik Prince said about your grassroots activism to block Blackwater).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Now, we&#039;ve got a new battle on our hands.&lt;/strong&gt; KBR -- Halliburton&#039;s former subsidiary -- is the largest contractor in Iraq. And, what have they done? No bid contracts, offshore tax havens, massive fraud, and even claims of rape.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Despite the mounting evidence against KBR, CalPERS -- California&#039;s largest pension and retirement fund -- continues to invest millions in this corporation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&#039;s why, as part of their Iraq Accountability Project, our friends at True Majority are demanding that CalPERS divest all holdings from KBR.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/5Kltxc/VEsC/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Investing public pension funds in a corporation accused of massive fraud and war profiteering isn&#039;t good economics. It&#039;s not good for America. And it&#039;s not good for California. Please click here now to tell CalPERS to divest from KBR:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/5Kltxc/VEsD/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.TrueMajority.org/Divest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here&#039;s the complete petition text:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;em&gt;As a California resident I urge you to divest all holdings from KBR. As the largest contractor in Iraq, KBR has failed to pay hundreds of millions in taxes through off shore tax havens, and past employees have testified of massive fraud which is costing the American people billions of dollars. War profiteering is un-American and it is time you divest all shares of KBR.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;From ending apartheid in South Africa to convincing college campuses to carry non-sweatshop made clothing, divestment campaigns like this have a long history of successfully changing behavior. A public retirement fund can&#039;t claim to have the best interest of workers at heart while investing in a company profiteering off the war in Iraq.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/5Kltxc/VEsA/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please sign True Majority&#039;s petition for divestment today&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/5Kltxc/VEsB/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.TrueMajority.org/Divest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As you may know, the Courage Campaign has worked with grassroots activists in San Diego County to block another war profiteer -- Blackwater -- from attempting to establish a massive base on the California border with Mexico. After grassroots leaders in the small town of Potrero shut down Blackwater&#039;s plans to build a 824-acre mercenary operation in their small town, Blackwater was forced to open a much smaller training facility in San Diego.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As Blackwater CEO Erik Prince acknowledged in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Potrero uprising was a significant blow to Blackwater&#039;s attempt to get a &amp;quot;bigger footprint&amp;quot; in California. Prince has all but given up on California, &amp;quot;because it&#039;s hard to do business here&amp;quot; due to the &amp;quot;politics, the nonsense of it all.&amp;quot; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We&#039;re thrilled to hear it, quite frankly. We don&#039;t need Blackwater&#039;s business in California. And we certainly don&#039;t need KBR&#039;s business either.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for taking action with True Majority and the Courage Campaign today to make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eden James&lt;br /&gt;Managing Director&lt;br /&gt;Courage Campaign&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;..............&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Courage Campaign &lt;/strong&gt;is an online organizing network empowering nearly 100,000 grassroots and netroots activists to make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Please consider making a contribution to the Courage Campaign:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/m/67db389cbdeb8bdd/ghQxKe/VEsO/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/-/contribute.png&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;133&quot; height=&quot;30&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58bz</link>
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            <pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:52:57 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG58bz</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>Our Own Voice for Support</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/politics/27radio.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Black Radio on Obama Is Left&amp;rsquo;s Answer to Limbaugh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By JIM RUTENBERG&lt;br /&gt;Black radio hosts&amp;rsquo; efforts to support Barack Obama could help increase voter turnout in a vital part of his coalition.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZx</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZx/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:46:00 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZx</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Oppo: Big Oil and McSpill</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601891.html?nav=rss_politics&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601891.html?nav=rss_politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:42:12 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Eat Snuff McInsane</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;Republican Hagel Blasts McCain Attacks on Obama&lt;/strong&gt;Comment at:&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/republican-hage.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/republican-hage.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;date&quot;&gt;July 27, 2008 12:20 PM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb, this morning criticized two attacks his friend, fellow Republican, fellow Vietnam veteran and Senate Russell Building next-door neighbor Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., launched against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, this week.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On CBS&#039;s Face the Nation this morning, host Bob Schieffer asked Hagel about McCain&#039;s claim that &amp;quot;Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a campaign.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives and when we start to get into, &#039;You&#039;re less patriotic than me. I&#039;m more patriotic,&#039;&amp;quot; Hagel said. &amp;quot;I admire and respect John McCain very much. I have a good relationship. To this day we do. We talk often. I talked to him right before I went to Iraq, as a matter of fact. John&#039;s better than that.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Schieffer also asked about McCain&#039;s new &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/new-mccain-ad-b.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;TV ad&lt;/a&gt; in which he says Obama in Europe &amp;quot;made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn&#039;t allow him to bring cameras.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hagel, who accompanied Obama on their official trip to Afghanistan and Iraq but broke off in Jordan, said, &amp;quot;the congressional delegation that you referred to ended when we parted in Jordan. At that point, it was a political trip for Senator Obama. I think it would have been inappropriate for him and certainly he would have been criticized by the McCain people and the press and probably should have been if on a political trip in Europe paid for by political funds - not the taxpayers -to go, essentially, then and be accused of using our wounded men and women as props for his campaign...I think it would be totally inappropriate for him on a campaign trip to go to a military hospital and use those soldiers as props. So I think he probably, based on what I know, he did the right thing.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hagel said he wasn&#039;t sure about all the details of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/obama-explains.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;controversy&lt;/a&gt;, but &amp;quot;we saw troops everywhere we went on the congressional delegation. We went out of our way to see those troops.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hagel said of McCain&#039;s ad, &amp;quot;I do not think it was appropriate.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZn</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZn/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:36:20 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxyZn</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxyZn/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Military Interference of Reality</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Please read this NYTimes article depicting the military&#039;s interference in the true reporting of the grisly nature in Iraq.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MICHAEL KAMBER and TIM ARANGO&lt;br /&gt;Some journalists say the American military is making a growing effort to control graphic war images from Iraq.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGx9y8</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGx9y8/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:07:16 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGx9y8</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGx9y8/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>OPPO: McCain Against Own Party With Iraq</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;But now the administration&amp;rsquo;s agreement to consider a &amp;ldquo;time horizon&amp;rdquo; for troop withdrawals from Iraq has moved it, at least in the public perception, in the direction of the policies of Senator &lt;a href=&quot;http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per&quot; title=&quot;More articles about Barack Obama&quot;&gt;Barack Obama&lt;/a&gt;. That has thrown Mr. McCain on the political defensive in his opposition to a timed withdrawal, Republicans in the party&amp;rsquo;s foreign party establishment say. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, On Friday Mr. McCain went so far as to say that the idea of a 16-month withdrawal, which Mr. Obama supports, was &amp;ldquo;a pretty good timetable,&amp;rdquo; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26policy.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bush and McCain Seem to Diverge in Foreign Policy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ELISABETH BUMILLER&lt;br /&gt;President Bush&amp;rsquo;s decisions on Iraq troop withdrawals and talks with Iran and North Korea have put John McCain on the defensive.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGx9yY</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGx9yY/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:00:07 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGx9yY</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGx9yY/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: Iraqi Leader Agrees With Obama Withdrawal</title>
            <description>Forget Bush&#039;s &amp;quot;Time Horizon&amp;quot;, al Maliki wants Obama&#039;s troop withdrawal deadline.&amp;nbsp; Read it here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSL198009020080719&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSL198009020080719&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPjH</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPjH/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:14:22 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPjH</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>3</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxPjH/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Oppo: Trying To Reach The Faithful?</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=dfecbc76b4da0dbd69b28fce746bb841fca58979&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Video: McCain and Romney&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While it seemed unlikely months ago, Mitt Romney is now seen as a top contender to be John McCain&amp;rsquo;s running mate. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/us/politics/19romney.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Related Article&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPMG</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPMG/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:35:36 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPMG</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxPMG/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: McCain&#039;s Big Mouth</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Was this just a Fruedian slip of the tongue or was this a pre-meditated calculation be McSloppy?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/18/mccain-leaks-details-of-o_n_113682.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/18/mccain-leaks-details-of-o_n_113682.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPGC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPGC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:01:28 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxPGC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxPGC/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: Obama Urges Responsible Behavior</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is what&amp;nbsp;Obama&#039;a speech on father&#039;s day was about. Not what the media is trying to turn it into as &amp;quot;he is talking down&amp;quot;. No, Obama is saying take responsibility for your actions and &amp;quot;MAN UP&amp;quot;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED COLUMNIST&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/opinion/12blow.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Talking Down and Stepping Up&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By CHARLES M. BLOW&lt;br /&gt;If Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s message of stepping up is &amp;ldquo;talking down,&amp;rdquo; then so be it.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxkPF</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxkPF/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:41:03 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxkPF</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>2</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxkPF/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: Urging Responsible Behavior</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is what&amp;nbsp;Obama&#039;a speech on father&#039;s day was about. Not what the media is trying to turn it into as &amp;quot;he is talking down&amp;quot;. No, Obama is saying take responsibility for your actions and &amp;quot;MAN UP&amp;quot;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED COLUMNIST&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/opinion/12blow.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Talking Down and Stepping Up&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By CHARLES M. BLOW&lt;br /&gt;If Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s message of stepping up is &amp;ldquo;talking down,&amp;rdquo; then so be it.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxk4z</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxk4z/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:34:46 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxk4z</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxk4z/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Oppo: McCain Promising The World To All</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Please read NYTimes article that explains how McSloppy is offering the world to every side of the argument.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/opinion/12sat1.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There He Goes Again&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;A leader who wants to steer the nation through tough times should not spend the campaign, as Senator John McCain has so far, telling Americans they can have it all.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxk49</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxk49/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:29:32 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxk49</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxk49/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Oppo: McCain Illegally Using Funds</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;And Obama is the one letting the people down, or flip-flopping about public financing. It&#039;s amazing how the media will only cover the Obama camp and never address all the wrong-doings of the McCain camp.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/opinion/07mon2.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lots to Look Into&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The Federal Election Commission should investigate a plan by the Republican Governors Association to raise unregulated soft money in the name of Senator John McCain.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlPX</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlPX/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:16:41 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlPX</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxlPX/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Obama Showing Leadership and Decision Making Ability</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/politics/06convention.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rising Convention Costs and Delays Worry Democrats&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By LESLIE WAYNE&lt;br /&gt;Planners of the convention in Denver may be forced to scale back on their original design or increase their fund-raising goals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only in the last month has the Obama campaign been able to take over management of the convention planning with the candidate claiming the nomination, and his aides are increasingly frustrated, as the event nears, at organizers who they believe spent too freely, planned too slowly and underestimated actual costs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Obama campaign has dispatched 10 people to Denver to help &amp;ldquo;get a handle on the budget and make hard decisions&amp;rdquo; about what has to be done and how to move forward, said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlbk</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlbk/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:16:04 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlbk</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxlbk/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action: Media Trying To Use Us Against Obama</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/politics/06website.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Political Agitator Finds a Double-Edged Weapon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By NOAM COHEN&lt;br /&gt;Senator Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s social networking Web site has become a source of organized criticism of some of the candidate&amp;rsquo;s positions.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlKk</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlKk/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:06:48 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlKk</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>3</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGxlKk/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Oppo: EHH, What Does That Say</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;A good article in the NYTimes today about McShame&#039;s incompetence in reading a telepromter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please read: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;McCain Battles a Nemesis, the Teleprompter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MARK LEIBOVICH&lt;br /&gt;A politician who has thrived in informal settings is now trying to meet the more scripted speaking demands of a general election campaign.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlK8</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlK8/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:03:11 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxlK8</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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                    <item>
            <title>Oppo: GOP in a Quagmire Over Convention</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WHITE HOUSE MEMO&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/politics/05memo.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Tiptoeing on Bush and Convention&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG&lt;br /&gt;The Republican Party is grappling with the issue of how to best pass the torch from an unpopular president to its presumptive nominee.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdKW</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdKW/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:28:26 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdKW</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: Do We Have The Right Men??</title>
            <description>&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;How effective is Bush administrations intelligence gathering ability?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;background: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 12pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Akhtiar was among the more than 770 terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They are the men the Bush administration described as &amp;quot;the worst of the worst.&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;background: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 12pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;But Akhtiar was no terrorist. American troops had dragged him out of his Afghanistan home in 2003 and held him in Guantanamo for three years in the belief that he was an insurgent involved in rocket attacks on U.S. forces.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;background: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 12pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;An eight-month McClatchy (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mcclatchydc.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.mcclatchydc.com/&lt;/a&gt;) investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men -- and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds -- whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;background: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 12pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;McClatchy interviewed 66 released detainees (Video: &lt;a href=&quot;http://videos.mcclatchydc.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1927337&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://videos.mcclatchydc.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1927337&lt;/a&gt;), more than a dozen local officials -- primarily in Afghanistan -- and U.S. officials with intimate knowledge of the detention program. The investigation also reviewed thousands of pages of U.S. military tribunal documents and other records.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;background: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 12pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;This unprecedented compilation shows that most of the 66 were low-level Taliban grunts, innocent Afghan villagers or ordinary criminals. At least seven had been working for the U.S.-backed Afghan government and had no ties to militants, according to Afghan local officials. In effect, many of the detainees posed no danger to the United States or its allies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;background: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 12pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;The investigation also found that despite the uncertainty about whom they were holding, U.S. soldiers beat and abused many prisoners. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;For more details visit &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38773.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38773.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p XSSCleaned=&quot;direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;EC_EC_MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://detainees.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/52&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://detainees.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/52&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdK2</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdK2/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:24:04 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdK2</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>Oppo: McCain=Rove 3rd Term</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Please read the following NYTimes op-ed piece of the comparison and link to Rove if McCain becomes elected.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/opinion/04krugman.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rove&amp;rsquo;s Third Term&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By PAUL KRUGMAN&lt;br /&gt;The Wesley Clark affair revealed something important about John McCain. Now we know what a McCain administration would represent: namely, a third term for Karl Rove.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdRB</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdRB/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:00:41 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdRB</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>Again, Obama Being Taken Out of Context</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/us/politics/04policy.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Obama Fuels Pullout Debate With Remarks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MICHAEL COOPER and JEFF ZELENY&lt;br /&gt;The changing dynamics in Iraq have posed a challenge for Barack Obama, who said Thursday that he might &amp;ldquo;refine&amp;rdquo; his policies but later held a second news conference to clarify his first statement.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxd53</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxd53/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:39:52 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxd53</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>A Must Read About Union Support!!</title>
            <description>Trumka: Labor Must Battle Racism to Elect Obama&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
http://www.truthout.org/article/labor-must-battle-racism-elect-obama&lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
&quot;Trumka knew, as well, that there are steelworkers - and autoworkers and machinists and others - who are committed to the labor movement but cautious about backing a person of color for president. So the Pennsylvania populist went to the heart of the matter - challenging ignorance and fear and calling on the House of Labor to identify and reject the politics of race in order to elect an ally to the presidency. &lt;br /&gt;
 &lt;br /&gt;
 &quot;(There&#039;s) no evil that&#039;s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism - and it&#039;s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge,&quot; declared Trumka is a speech that will rank as one of the most important of the 2008 campaign. &lt;br /&gt;
 Of course, there will be efforts to divide working Americans against themselves, said Trumka. Union activists must be in the forefront of fighting against those efforts, he argued...............................&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
--</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxd5R</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxd5R/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:25:37 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxd5R</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>How A Movement Thrives?</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;The Movement that Drives this Campaign&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A storm of controversy arising over Barack Obama&#039;s support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is testing the unity of our campaign. Many in the campaign are threatening to jump ship. While some accuse him of being a centrist, and others defend him as a pragmatist, the angriest among us are calling him a traitor. I do not wish to deny the importance of this issue, but I remember being told in my Camp Obama training that the issues can distract us from the true narrative of this campaign.&lt;br /&gt;What we have in common is that we are all free spirits born into history. The race, gender, economic circumstances, and family context--the time and place into which we are born--give us different perspectives that divide us. Still, words that signify our values provide a common ground that unites us. That narrative of differences and values that unite us is &amp;quot;the wind&amp;quot; Barack says &amp;quot;is sweeping across this great land&amp;quot; calling for change.&lt;br /&gt;Imagine, then, that the campaign is a ship, moving toward the horizon, with the captain adjusting the sails to manage the ship through rough currents to get us to a new land. We are the wind that fills the sails and the crew that manages the ship. As the wind, we are free to blow whichever way our intention takes us. As the crew, we need to secure the ship and give respect to the person who leads us. In short, argument is healthy for without wind we are dead in the water. But, we need not to confuse this with working for the campaign. Still, it would be a lax crew that lacked concern for the judgment of its commander.&lt;br /&gt;George Lakoff, in his latest book The Political Mind, shows Democrats how to frame issues so they connect with the electorate. I was thinking of the terms &amp;quot;movement&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;campaign&amp;quot; when I attended a Unite for Change party, last weekend, in Santa Monica. I realized from the speeches made by those in attendance who had campaigned for Hillary, Kucinich, Biden, and Dodd that, while I had seen them as parts of separate campaigns, we were all part of the movement for change.&lt;br /&gt;But, Obama has abandoned &amp;quot;movement&amp;quot; in favor of &amp;quot;campaign.&amp;quot; When Barack spoke in favor of public campaign financing, he was supporting the notion that public moneys should be available to help all parties engage effectively in political dialog. Who can&#039;t appreciate the irony of Libertarians accepting public funding for their campaign? Naturally, when Barack said he would not accept public funding, Republicans and their minions, known as pundits, accused him of flip-flopping. How much easier it would have been to say that he was at the head of a &amp;quot;movement&amp;quot;! Most people would see the sense of freeing a movement from the confines of public funding. After all, a movement is a mandate for change. It isn&#039;t like a campaign that seeks money from lobbyists and special interests. It is funded by common folk who are so motivated that their cause becomes infectious, spreading through every state of the union. Obama, as a leader of that movement, would march beside the likes of King and Chavez, who rose above t he petty pandering of pundits. Yet, Obama chose not to take the high ground.&lt;br /&gt;Instead, he chose to accept the role in which most Americans would be comfortable seeing him. He is a candidate. That means he is in a campaign. That means be is subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous political fortune. Though I had hoped to avoid such a fight, Barack has chosen to take it on. By committing himself to the language of a &amp;quot;campaign&amp;quot; rather than the language of a &amp;quot;movement,&amp;quot; Obama made a choice that is emblematic of all the choices he has made since.&lt;br /&gt;We see a similar decision in Barack&#039;s using the term &amp;quot;war&amp;quot; rather than &amp;quot;occupation&amp;quot; when seeking to withdraw our troops from Iraq. If we presume our troops are fighting a war in that country, are we not obliged to try to win it? If, however, we see this as an &amp;quot;occupation,&amp;quot; withdrawing troops would be our natural goal. Yet, even as the army in its official report on the Iraq War defines our current situation as an &amp;quot;occupation,&amp;quot; Barack has chosen to stick with the term &amp;quot;war.&amp;quot; Despite my frustration with this, I see that, again, he has chosen the term that Americans have already accepted. Why?&lt;br /&gt;As a community organizer, Obama has learned that to make change, he must, first, acknowledge the value of the positions people have taken. It is only when people feel accepted that they see they don&#039;t need to defend themselves. That is when they are able to look at a situation from a different perspective.&lt;br /&gt;I think that we who oppose the FISA legislation wish our candidate would give us the same acknowledgment. We want to know that he values our point of view. The more we are not acknowledged, the more we (dare I say?) &amp;quot;cling&amp;quot; to our position. But, I want to point out something that we may have not seen. Our discussion of this issue has been conducted, undisrupted, on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://mybarackobama.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;MyBarackObama.com&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;br /&gt;Just as King envisioned a table where the grandchildren of slaves and the grandchildren of slave owners would sit together as brothers and sisters, Obama has spoken of bringing people together who, before, have not recognized how much they have in common. Consider how many people do not see that the threat of &amp;quot;Big Brother&amp;quot; spying on us outweighs the benefit of preventing a terrorist attack by monitoring communications. Imagine that we are sitting at the same table, crafting legislation. What negotiations wou ld we be willing to make? For all that some believe Barack has given away in his support for this legislation, he has ensured his administration the right to review what happened under the Bush administration so that the truth comes out. He has also reserved the right to hold people accountable for their actions by charging as criminals those who have broken the law.&lt;br /&gt;We need to recognize the leadership Obama is showing as he moves this campaign forward. As free spirits, we may know no bounds other than the values that drive us forward. But, as free spirits born into history, we are must recognize and honor the views of those who see things from a different perspec tive. We must have a foot in both worlds.&lt;br /&gt;I do not find this easy. It certainly isn&#039;t comforting. We must discipline ourselves as did those &amp;quot;veterans of creative suffering&amp;quot; that King honored with his praise. Such discipline demands that we allow &amp;quot;what is&amp;quot; to be in order for it to change. It demands that we are ever mindful of our goal as we submit to the process required to lead others to that higher place. We cannot stand on the mountaintop and beckon others to come forth. We have to hold each other by the hand and, with empathy, negotiate a path that we can travel together.&lt;br /&gt;At that Unite for Change gathering in Santa Monica, a fifteen-year-old campaigner, Jackson Hille, spoke of his experience going to rural Texas to bring people to the polls. He said that he traveled to the outskirts of a community to knock on the doors of houses he never imagined would exist in this country during this time. A black man in his eighties came to the door and smiled. This man said he never imagined that someone would come to him to invite him to be part of a change he believed never would occur in his lifetime. When this man expressed his gratitude, young Jackson broke down in tears. And, when the man said he was too crippled with arthritis to make it to the polls, Jackson organized transportation that took a number of people to the polls , after which they were fed before heading for the caucuses to vote again.&lt;br /&gt;This story would not be chronicled in any traditional campaign we have seen before. It is the result of a movement. We are that movement that is campaigning to change America. In these trying times, when post-primary depression is likely to set in, we must remember our commitment to transform America. As it took a Civil War to bring the states together as one nation, so it will take a mighty struggle to unite us as one people.&lt;strong&gt;It is a struggle we already know. It will involve calling people on our cell phones, traveling to other states and communities to offer our hands to strangers. As we prepare for the task before us, it is good that we announce and acknowledge our own grievances. It is good that we question the campaign just as we are about to meet people who will question us. As we move beyond the horizon of what is comfortable, of what is given, we must recognize our shared vulnerability in going forward. Our comfort, now, must be in going forward together.&lt;br /&gt;We are the wind; we are the sail; we are the ship; we are the destination. We are eternal; we are now. And, we are not alone.&lt;/strong&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdNC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdNC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:15:06 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdNC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                    <item>
            <title>How A Movement Thrives?</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;The Movement that Drives this Campaign&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A storm of controversy arising over Barack Obama&#039;s support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is testing the unity of our campaign. Many in the campaign are threatening to jump ship. While some accuse him of being a centrist, and others defend him as a pragmatist, the angriest among us are calling him a traitor. I do not wish to deny the importance of this issue, but I remember being told in my Camp Obama training that the issues can distract us from the true narrative of this campaign.&lt;br /&gt;What we have in common is that we are all free spirits born into history. The race, gender, economic circumstances, and family context--the time and place into which we are born--give us different perspectives that divide us. Still, words that signify our values provide a common ground that unites us. That narrative of differences and values that unite us is &amp;quot;the wind&amp;quot; Barack says &amp;quot;is sweeping across this great land&amp;quot; calling for change.&lt;br /&gt;Imagine, then, that the campaign is a ship, moving toward the horizon, with the captain adjusting the sails to manage the ship through rough currents to get us to a new land. We are the wind that fills the sails and the crew that manages the ship. As the wind, we are free to blow whichever way our intention takes us. As the crew, we need to secure the ship and give respect to the person who leads us. In short, argument is healthy for without wind we are dead in the water. But, we need not to confuse this with working for the campaign. Still, it would be a lax crew that lacked concern for the judgment of its commander.&lt;br /&gt;George Lakoff, in his latest book The Political Mind, shows Democrats how to frame issues so they connect with the electorate. I was thinking of the terms &amp;quot;movement&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;campaign&amp;quot; when I attended a Unite for Change party, last weekend, in Santa Monica. I realized from the speeches made by those in attendance who had campaigned for Hillary, Kucinich, Biden, and Dodd that, while I had seen them as parts of separate campaigns, we were all part of the movement for change.&lt;br /&gt;But, Obama has abandoned &amp;quot;movement&amp;quot; in favor of &amp;quot;campaign.&amp;quot; When Barack spoke in favor of public campaign financing, he was supporting the notion that public moneys should be available to help all parties engage effectively in political dialog. Who can&#039;t appreciate the irony of Libertarians accepting public funding for their campaign? Naturally, when Barack said he would not accept public funding, Republicans and their minions, known as pundits, accused him of flip-flopping. How much easier it would have been to say that he was at the head of a &amp;quot;movement&amp;quot;! Most people would see the sense of freeing a movement from the confines of public funding. After all, a movement is a mandate for change. It isn&#039;t like a campaign that seeks money from lobbyists and special interests. It is funded by common folk who are so motivated that their cause becomes infectious, spreading through every state of the union. Obama, as a leader of that movement, would march beside the likes of King and Chavez, who rose above t he petty pandering of pundits. Yet, Obama chose not to take the high ground.&lt;br /&gt;Instead, he chose to accept the role in which most Americans would be comfortable seeing him. He is a candidate. That means he is in a campaign. That means be is subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous political fortune. Though I had hoped to avoid such a fight, Barack has chosen to take it on. By committing himself to the language of a &amp;quot;campaign&amp;quot; rather than the language of a &amp;quot;movement,&amp;quot; Obama made a choice that is emblematic of all the choices he has made since.&lt;br /&gt;We see a similar decision in Barack&#039;s using the term &amp;quot;war&amp;quot; rather than &amp;quot;occupation&amp;quot; when seeking to withdraw our troops from Iraq. If we presume our troops are fighting a war in that country, are we not obliged to try to win it? If, however, we see this as an &amp;quot;occupation,&amp;quot; withdrawing troops would be our natural goal. Yet, even as the army in its official report on the Iraq War defines our current situation as an &amp;quot;occupation,&amp;quot; Barack has chosen to stick with the term &amp;quot;war.&amp;quot; Despite my frustration with this, I see that, again, he has chosen the term that Americans have already accepted. Why?&lt;br /&gt;As a community organizer, Obama has learned that to make change, he must, first, acknowledge the value of the positions people have taken. It is only when people feel accepted that they see they don&#039;t need to defend themselves. That is when they are able to look at a situation from a different perspective.&lt;br /&gt;I think that we who oppose the FISA legislation wish our candidate would give us the same acknowledgment. We want to know that he values our point of view. The more we are not acknowledged, the more we (dare I say?) &amp;quot;cling&amp;quot; to our position. But, I want to point out something that we may have not seen. Our discussion of this issue has been conducted, undisrupted, on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://mybarackobama.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;MyBarackObama.com&lt;/a&gt; website.&lt;br /&gt;Just as King envisioned a table where the grandchildren of slaves and the grandchildren of slave owners would sit together as brothers and sisters, Obama has spoken of bringing people together who, before, have not recognized how much they have in common. Consider how many people do not see that the threat of &amp;quot;Big Brother&amp;quot; spying on us outweighs the benefit of preventing a terrorist attack by monitoring communications. Imagine that we are sitting at the same table, crafting legislation. What negotiations wou ld we be willing to make? For all that some believe Barack has given away in his support for this legislation, he has ensured his administration the right to review what happened under the Bush administration so that the truth comes out. He has also reserved the right to hold people accountable for their actions by charging as criminals those who have broken the law.&lt;br /&gt;We need to recognize the leadership Obama is showing as he moves this campaign forward. As free spirits, we may know no bounds other than the values that drive us forward. But, as free spirits born into history, we are must recognize and honor the views of those who see things from a different perspec tive. We must have a foot in both worlds.&lt;br /&gt;I do not find this easy. It certainly isn&#039;t comforting. We must discipline ourselves as did those &amp;quot;veterans of creative suffering&amp;quot; that King honored with his praise. Such discipline demands that we allow &amp;quot;what is&amp;quot; to be in order for it to change. It demands that we are ever mindful of our goal as we submit to the process required to lead others to that higher place. We cannot stand on the mountaintop and beckon others to come forth. We have to hold each other by the hand and, with empathy, negotiate a path that we can travel together.&lt;br /&gt;At that Unite for Change gathering in Santa Monica, a fifteen-year-old campaigner, Jackson Hille, spoke of his experience going to rural Texas to bring people to the polls. He said that he traveled to the outskirts of a community to knock on the doors of houses he never imagined would exist in this country during this time. A black man in his eighties came to the door and smiled. This man said he never imagined that someone would come to him to invite him to be part of a change he believed never would occur in his lifetime. When this man expressed his gratitude, young Jackson broke down in tears. And, when the man said he was too crippled with arthritis to make it to the polls, Jackson organized transportation that took a number of people to the polls , after which they were fed before heading for the caucuses to vote again.&lt;br /&gt;This story would not be chronicled in any traditional campaign we have seen before. It is the result of a movement. We are that movement that is campaigning to change America. In these trying times, when post-primary depression is likely to set in, we must remember our commitment to transform America. As it took a Civil War to bring the states together as one nation, so it will take a mighty struggle to unite us as one people.&lt;strong&gt;It is a struggle we already know. It will involve calling people on our cell phones, traveling to other states and communities to offer our hands to strangers. As we prepare for the task before us, it is good that we announce and acknowledge our own grievances. It is good that we question the campaign just as we are about to meet people who will question us. As we move beyond the horizon of what is comfortable, of what is given, we must recognize our shared vulnerability in going forward. Our comfort, now, must be in going forward together.&lt;br /&gt;We are the wind; we are the sail; we are the ship; we are the destination. We are eternal; we are now. And, we are not alone.&lt;/strong&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdNn</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdNn/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:08:44 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGxdNn</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <db:comment_count>2</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Do We Want More Of This?!</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Now is the ime to do all that we can to get Obama elected President. If not, we will be subject to more of this.&lt;/p&gt;Report: U.S. &#039;preparing the battlefield&#039; in Iran&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li class=&quot;cnnHiliteHeader&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WASHINGTON (CNN)&lt;/strong&gt; -- The Bush administration has launched a &amp;quot;significant escalation&amp;quot; of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country&#039;s nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic&#039;s government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/art.iran.reactor.gi.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;An Iranian flag flies outside the building containing the reactor of Bushehr nuclear power plant, south of Tehran.&quot; width=&quot;292&quot; height=&quot;219&quot; /&gt; &lt;p&gt;An Iranian flag flies outside the building containing the reactor of Bushehr nuclear power plant, south of Tehran.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/base_skins/baseplate/corner_wire_BL.gif&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;4&quot; height=&quot;4&quot; /&gt; &lt;p&gt;White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh&#039;s report, which appears in this week&#039;s issue of The New Yorker. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hersh told CNN&#039;s &amp;quot;Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer&amp;quot; that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://topics.cnn.com/topics/George_W_Bush&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;President Bush&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and &amp;quot;do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program,&amp;quot; Hersh said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program,&amp;quot; Hersh said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The new article, &amp;quot;Preparing the Battlefield,&amp;quot; is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with &lt;a href=&quot;http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Iran&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;Iran&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/video/#/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/index.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Watch Hersh discuss what he says are the administration&#039;s plans for Iran&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/video/#/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/index.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;cnnVideoIcon&quot; src=&quot;http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/2.0/global/icons/video_icon.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Video&quot; width=&quot;16&quot; height=&quot;10&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As usual with his quarterly pieces, we&#039;ll decline to comment,&amp;quot; White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations,&amp;quot; CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else,&amp;quot; Crocker said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He said the program resulted in &amp;quot;a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos&amp;quot; inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country&#039;s north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said &amp;quot;all options&amp;quot; are open in dealing with the issue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with &lt;a href=&quot;http://topics.cnn.com/topics/United_Nations_Security_Council&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;U.N. Security Council&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; demands that it halt uranium enrichment work. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Israel&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;Israel&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/2.0/content/ads/advertisement.gif&quot; alt=&quot;advertisement&quot; /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iran&#039;s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would &amp;quot;cost them heavily.&amp;quot; In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with &amp;quot;the respect they deserve.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;cnnInline&quot;&gt;&amp;quot;Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations,&amp;quot; said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG55gW</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:44:16 EDT</pubDate>
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            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>McCain&#039;s Economic Ignorance</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;And to think there are some people out there that want this guy to run our country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Times are tough, when even our elite are in default of their taxes for one of their &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;many&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;properties!&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Glia_Vrbc8&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Glia_Vrbc8&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(goole earth tour of our struggling elite leader)&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jedreport.com/2008/06/its-tough-being.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.jedreport.com/2008/06/its-tough-being.html&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; (John McCain&#039;s Tax Default Property!)&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Wake Up, John McCain!&lt;br /&gt;When a Presidential candidate fails to pay his taxes,&amp;nbsp; is he&lt;br /&gt;really deserving of the role to enforce us to pay ours!&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;m Andrew Hipwell, and I definately approve this message!&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;-Andy Hipwell&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freewebs.com/presidentobama&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;www.freewebs.com/presidentobama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freewebs.com/republicansforobama&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;www.freewebs.com/republicansforobama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG55gH</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:27:23 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG55gH</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Action: Important Huff Po Article</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;read this article descriptive about McCain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/john-mccains-flashback-ca_b_107372.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;Permalink&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;John McCain&#039;s Flashback Campaign&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Skb</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Skb/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:22:28 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Skb</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>LIVE FEED</title>
            <description>IT&amp;quot;S TIME!!!!!</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5JGq</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5JGq/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:04:46 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5JGq</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Action: Endorsement Live</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;the Gore endorsement is treaming live on Barackobama.com.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;also on CNN, ABCNews&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Jjc</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Jjc/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:44:19 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5Jjc</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>NYTimes Articles Proves Obama&#039;s Leadership</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/us/politics/16manage.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Obama the Delegator Picks When to Take Reins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG&lt;br /&gt;Senator Barack Obama is more inclined to focus on the big picture over the day-to-day whirl while managing his campaign.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/us/politics/16obama.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Obama Calls for More Responsibility From Black Fathers&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By JULIE BOSMAN&lt;br /&gt;In a speech at one of Chicago&amp;rsquo;s largest black churches, Barack Obama addressed a sensitive topic in the African-American community.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5JGx</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5JGx/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:44:21 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5JGx</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>HAPPY FATHER&#039;S DAY</title>
            <description>To all of you out there who are a father. Happy Father&#039;s Day!!!</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5n8t</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5n8t/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:49:55 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5n8t</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>2</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Excellent Opportunity for Experience</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;To All Students:&lt;/p&gt;Students for Barack Obama, the student wing of Obama for America,&amp;nbsp;is pleased to announce state and chapter leadership opportunities for&amp;nbsp;high school, college, and graduate students.*State Leadership Opportunities:&amp;nbsp; We are currently seeking qualified students to join the state leadership teams in the following states: &lt;br /&gt;AK, AZ, AR, CO, CT, HI, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, ME, MI, MN, MS, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WY&lt;br /&gt;State leaders will work with Obama for America staff members and with other students to develop and execute programs aimed at registering voters, mobilizing students to become involved in the campaign, and ensuring that students vote on election day.In order to be eligible to apply, you must have plans to be a student in the state for which you are applying through November.&amp;nbsp; You must be able to devote at least 10-20 hours per week to the campaign between now and November (note that the time commitment over the summer may be somewhat lower and that the commitment will increase as Election Day nears).To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to &lt;a href=&quot;http://us.f840.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=meredith@studentsforbarackobama.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;meredith@studentsforbarackobama.com&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;by Friday, June 20.&amp;nbsp; **In order to ensure at timely response, please include your name and the state for which you are applying in the subject line if your e-mail.**&lt;br /&gt;*Chapter&amp;nbsp;Leadership Opportunities:Please visit the following website to determine whether there is a chapter at your school: &amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/sfbofind&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/sfbofind&lt;/a&gt;.If you would like to join the leadership team of an existing chapter, please start by contacting the Chapter Coordinator.&amp;nbsp; If you cannot get in touch with the chapter leadership, you may e-mail &lt;a href=&quot;http://us.f840.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=meredith@studentsforbarackobama.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;meredith@studentsforbarackobama.com&lt;/a&gt; for assistance.If there is not yet a chapter at your school,&amp;nbsp;please apply to create one by completing the following form: &lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/studentscollege&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/studentscollege&lt;/a&gt;.Thank you very much.&lt;br /&gt;-- &lt;br /&gt;Meredith Segal&lt;br /&gt;National Director, Students for Barack Obama&lt;br /&gt;Obama for America&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://students.barackobama.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;students.barackobama.com&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5MgV</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:26:20 EDT</pubDate>
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            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Reads: NYTimes Sunday Articles</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Some of these stories are worth reading. They provide insight into what many of us are already saying. However, it will give depth to why people feel this way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED COLUMNIST&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/08rich.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;One Historic Night, Two Americas&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By FRANK RICH&lt;br /&gt;Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s resolutely cheerful embrace of the future is a wildly different vision of America than John McCain&amp;rsquo;s promise of vigilant conservation of the past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/08intro.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;What Went Wrong?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Op-Ed page asked 13 political experts to explain why they thought Hillary Clinton&amp;rsquo;s campaign didn&amp;rsquo;t live up to expectations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CAMPAIGN COLLAPSE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/politics/08recon.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Long Road to a Clinton Exit&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By PETER BAKER and JIM RUTENBERG&lt;br /&gt;Hillary Rodham Clinton&amp;rsquo;s campaign was suffused in overconfidence, riven by acrimony and weighted by emotional baggage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/politics/08dems.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clinton Ends Campaign With Clear Call to Elect Obama&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MARK LEIBOVICH&lt;br /&gt;Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made an emotional and unequivocal appeal for her voters to get behind Senator Barack Obama.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5BNz</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5BNz/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:29:46 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5BNz</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Within Reach</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;I feel the love from Montana!! Our man is within 10 delegates. I know Montana has that in them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please help our man get the nomination tonight. Great Work!!!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5gQy</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5gQy/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:04:38 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gG5gQy</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Within Reach</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Hey South Dakota, I feel the love coming from you. PLease help us get our man the nomination tinight.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only 10 away!!!&amp;nbsp; Make America Proud!!!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBySW</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBySW/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:02:43 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBySW</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Some McCain and Republican Fodder</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;The NYTimes has two articles that look into the McClellan upbreak and its impact on McKnucklehead and the Republican deceptive tactics.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED COLUMNIST&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01richedit.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;McCain&amp;rsquo;s McClellan Nightmare&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By FRANK RICH&lt;br /&gt;The American public views the old story of how the White House ginned up the Iraq war as a crime story, and we won&amp;rsquo;t be satisfied until there&amp;rsquo;s a resolution.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OP-ED COLUMNIST&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01dowd.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Cult of Deception&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By MAUREEN DOWD&lt;br /&gt;The former White House press secretary Scott McClellan reveals in his book that the president&amp;rsquo;s gut instinct is on a diet of ignorance, sycophants, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGByfS</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGByfS/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:10:19 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGByfS</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>The Real McCain Vet</title>
            <description>McCain&#039;s Attack On Vets&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;His respectful rhetoric isn&#039;t matched by his votes.&lt;br /&gt;By Edward Humes&lt;br /&gt;May 30, 2008&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; MORE THAN A FEW people have been puzzled by Sen. John McCain&#039;s&lt;br /&gt;dogged opposition to the updated GI Bill of Rights now before Congress.&lt;br /&gt;The dissonance between McCain&#039;s military-man image and his actions on&lt;br /&gt;this issue have introduced a jarring note to his presidential aspirations&lt;br /&gt;-- and have highlighted the shoddy treatment many Iraq war veterans&lt;br /&gt;have received.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Why would a Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war, a man&lt;br /&gt;who is personally acquainted with the difficulties vets can face in&lt;br /&gt;returning to civilian life, join President Bush in opposing a popular&lt;br /&gt;bipartisan bill to support the troops? Isn&#039;t fixing the education benefit&lt;br /&gt;in the bill -- one that has shortchanged far too many veterans for years&lt;br /&gt;-- a political no-brainer in an election year? The 75 senators who&lt;br /&gt;recently voted for it certainly thought so. Over the Memorial Day weekend,&lt;br /&gt;Sen. Barack Obama expressed some well-timed astonishment at McCain&#039;s&lt;br /&gt;opposition, and the two have been feuding about it ever since. The media&lt;br /&gt;and pundits seem perplexed, collectively suggesting: That&#039;s not the&lt;br /&gt;John McCain we know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Which is true: It is the John McCain they don&#039;t know. If the media&lt;br /&gt;weren&#039;t so mesmerized by the McCain image they have long promoted and&lt;br /&gt;instead got to know the McCain record, they would realize that there is&lt;br /&gt;nothing surprising or inconsistent about his position on the GI Bill.&lt;br /&gt;For years he has opposed legislation that veterans and their advocates&lt;br /&gt;deem vital. In doing so, he is simply being true to the contemporary&lt;br /&gt;conservative wing of the GOP and its leader, George W. Bush, in opposing&lt;br /&gt;social programs and benefits for individuals, even if those individuals&lt;br /&gt;happen to be veterans. The only surprise is that anyone finds this&lt;br /&gt;surprising.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; This time, though, McCain is swimming against the tide of history.&lt;br /&gt;The original GI Bill -- signed into law in 1944 -- was one of the most&lt;br /&gt;important laws every adopted by Congress. It transformed the nation&lt;br /&gt;after World War II in epic fashion, with generous college benefits,&lt;br /&gt;stipends, subsidized mortgages, business loans and job training and&lt;br /&gt;placement.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Veterans got free rides to any college that would accept them.&lt;br /&gt;Tuition, books, housing and living expenses were all covered, giving rise&lt;br /&gt;to a new generation of scientists, inventors, teachers, doctors, civic&lt;br /&gt;leaders and artists. Low-interest, no-money-down home loans backed by&lt;br /&gt;the government made it cheaper to buy than to rent. Suburbia, widespread&lt;br /&gt;homeownership, college as a majority aspiration, the middle class --&lt;br /&gt;all were built on the back of the GI Bill.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; It reinvented the American dream. Bob Dole and George McGovern went&lt;br /&gt;to school on the GI Bill. So did Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman. So&lt;br /&gt;did 14 Nobel Prize winners. So did 7 million other World War II veterans.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Today&#039;s GI Bill, however, is a pale shadow of the original,&lt;br /&gt;particularly when it comes to college, as Congress has not kept the benefits&lt;br /&gt;in line with the rising cost of higher education. The World War II-era&lt;br /&gt;living stipend is gone; in its place, members of the military must agree&lt;br /&gt;to a $100 monthly payroll deduction to receive the college aid. An&lt;br /&gt;education benefit that sent WWII vets to Yale now won&#039;t cover four years&lt;br /&gt;at the average public university, though many recruits don&#039;t understand&lt;br /&gt;this when they sign up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), a former Marine who served in Vietnam and&lt;br /&gt;who was President Reagan&#039;s Navy secretary, has made restoring the GI&lt;br /&gt;Bill education benefits one of his signature issues; it was his bill,&lt;br /&gt;co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), that cleared the Senate over&lt;br /&gt;McCain&#039;s and Bush&#039;s opposition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; McCain argues that making the education benefits too generous will&lt;br /&gt;hurt retention, as enlistees will leave for college after three years&lt;br /&gt;rather than reenlist. McCain&#039;s position makes sense only by overlooking&lt;br /&gt;the fact that the main retention (and recruiting) problems facing the&lt;br /&gt;military are the Iraq war and the scandals plaguing military and veterans&lt;br /&gt;healthcare. (The most recent outrage: In a Memorial Day speech,&lt;br /&gt;Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake downplayed the seriousness of brain&lt;br /&gt;trauma suffered by tens of thousands of servicemen in Iraq and&lt;br /&gt;Afghanistan, calling many of their diagnoses &amp;quot;overblown&amp;quot; and likening them to&lt;br /&gt;youth football injuries.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The inadequacy of the military&#039;s prime recruiting tool --&lt;br /&gt;subsidized college educations -- is hurting recruitment too, and Webb argues&lt;br /&gt;this can be fixed only by fixing the GI Bill. He says McCain, a friend,&lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;is missing the boat&amp;quot; by siding with the Bush Pentagon rather than&lt;br /&gt;veterans groups. Webb points to a Congressional Budget Office analysis that&lt;br /&gt;found any possible losses in retention caused by his bill would be&lt;br /&gt;balanced by the increases in recruitment it would generate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; McCain&#039;s rationalizatio n for opposing the bill may not hold water,&lt;br /&gt;but his stance makes perfect sense in light of his record. From 2004&lt;br /&gt;to 2006, the Disabled Veterans of America gave him annual scores ranging&lt;br /&gt;from 50% to the most recent 20% when it comes to supporting the&lt;br /&gt;group&#039;s legislative priorities. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America&lt;br /&gt;gave him a grade of &amp;quot;D&amp;quot; in its most recent analysis of voting records.&lt;br /&gt;The American Legion says he is dead wrong on the GI Bill, as does the&lt;br /&gt;Veterans of Foreign Wars.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When Obama (who has averaged an 86% rating from the Disabled&lt;br /&gt;Veterans of America) criticized McCain on the GI Bill, the Arizona senator&lt;br /&gt;angrily suggested that Obama&#039;s status as a non-veteran rendered his&lt;br /&gt;opinions on military matters worthless (an odd stance, as this standard would&lt;br /&gt;also discount the opinions of 85% of American men, 98.8% of American&lt;br /&gt;women and two-thirds of Congress). Then he invited a look at his own&lt;br /&gt;record by asserting, &amp;quot;I take a back seat to no one in my affection,&lt;br /&gt;respect and devotion to veterans.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; So let&#039;s take McCain up on his invitation. Here is how he has stood&lt;br /&gt;on recent legislation supported by major veterans organizations:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* On Webb&#039;s GI Bill, he expressed opposition, and he was AWOL when it&lt;br /&gt;was time to vote on May 22.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* Last September, he voted against another Webb bill that would have&lt;br /&gt;mandated adequate rest for troops between combat deployments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* On a badly needed $1.5-billion increase for veterans medical&lt;br /&gt;services for fiscal year 2007 -- to be funded through closing corporate tax&lt;br /&gt;loopholes -- he voted no. He also voted against establishing a trust fund&lt;br /&gt;to bolster under-budgeted veterans hospitals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* In May 2006, he voted against a $20-billion allotment for expanding&lt;br /&gt;swamped veterans medical facilities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* In April 2006, he was one of 13 Senate Republicans who voted against&lt;br /&gt;an amendment to provide $430 million for veterans outpatient care.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* In March 2004, he voted again st and helped defeat on a party-line&lt;br /&gt;vote a $1.8-billion reserve for veterans medical care, also funded by&lt;br /&gt;closing tax loopholes. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Before the Senate voted on Webb&#039;s GI legislation, McCain offered&lt;br /&gt;what he called a compromise bill, but it was rejected. Webb pointed out&lt;br /&gt;that there really was no compromise in McCain&#039;s proposal because it&lt;br /&gt;would have excluded most veterans by offering full education benefits only&lt;br /&gt;to those with multiple enlistments, even though 70% to 75% of enlistees&lt;br /&gt;leave after one tour.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Compare McCain&#039;s stingy standards with the original GI Bill: Any&lt;br /&gt;veteran who served 90 days during World War II, in combat or not, earned&lt;br /&gt;full benefits. It is Webb&#039;s bill that represents the reasonable&lt;br /&gt;compromise between the gold standard set for the &amp;quot;greatest generation&#039;s&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;original GI benefits and what is doable in today&#039;s economy: a GI Bill that&lt;br /&gt;will truly pay for a college education after three years of service,&lt;br /&gt;without the onerous payroll deduction.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; So here is where the McCain image and reality part company. It is&lt;br /&gt;certainly true that his affectionate and respectful rhetoric for&lt;br /&gt;America&#039;s servicemen and women takes a back seat to no one. But when it comes&lt;br /&gt;to improving the health and education of our veterans, McCain&#039;s record&lt;br /&gt;leaves them stranded by the side of the road&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;********* SAVE THIS FOR OUR NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION: FACTS ARE GREAT&lt;br /&gt;VS RHETORIC !!! ***********</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBydH</link>
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            <pubDate>Sat, 31 May 2008 20:10:09 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBydH</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>Action: Digging Her Own Grave</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/us/politics/26clinton.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clinton Could Face Uneasy Return to Senate&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By CARL HULSE&lt;br /&gt;Hillary Rodham Clinton ranks as only No. 36 out of 49 Senate Democrats, more of whom favored Barack Obama.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/opinion/26krugman.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Divided They Stand&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By PAUL KRUGMAN&lt;br /&gt;Any lingering bitterness among Hillary Clinton&amp;rsquo;s supporters about her treatment during the primaries could cost Barack Obama the White House.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7tQ</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7tQ/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2008 11:56:11 EDT</pubDate>
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            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>A Hillary Win Means GW Bush walks from Crimes</title>
            <description>Try this video on for size...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMoht4N17Lo&amp;amp;feature=related&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMoht4N17Lo&amp;amp;feature=related&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers;&lt;br /&gt;Ed&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7Lh</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7Lh/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2008 14:53:13 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7Lh</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Bye Bye HRC</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;POLITICAL MEMO&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us/politics/25campaign.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Comments Cast Shadow on Last Laps in Primaries&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By JEFF ZELENY&lt;br /&gt;Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton&amp;rsquo;s comments invoking the death of Senator Robert F. Kennedy have raised fresh questions about her motivations, overshadowing her campaign.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7Qc</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7Qc/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2008 14:42:06 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7Qc</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Re: McCain Lobbying Fodder and More</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us/politics/25davis.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In McCain Campaign, a Lobbying Labyrinth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By BARRY MEIER&lt;br /&gt;The business dealings of the manager of Senator John McCain&amp;rsquo;s presidential campaign illustrate the difficulty in defining what it means to be selling expertise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us/politics/25mccain.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Worries in G.O.P. About Disarray in McCain Camp&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ADAM NAGOURNEY&lt;br /&gt;Some party leaders are worried about whether Senator John McCain has taken full advantage of Democratic turmoil.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7QW</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7QW/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2008 14:39:39 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7QW</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGB7QW/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Please Join Us!!</title>
            <description>Annette Boddie has sent you an invitation to &#039;Obama&lt;br /&gt;supporters want this war to end!&#039; -- click here to view&lt;br /&gt;the invitation and submit your response: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4v89&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4v89&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7QM</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7QM/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2008 14:22:26 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGB7QM</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGB7QM/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Please Vote For Decency</title>
            <description>The Hil you say!&lt;p&gt;Do you think Hillary&#039;s reference to the RFK assassination was appropriate?&lt;/p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;p&gt; Yes &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; No   &lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsH</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsH/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2008 14:32:59 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsH</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBPsH/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action: The Truth About McCain&#039;s Pastors</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;The NYTimes article touches on what most Obama supporters and&amp;nbsp;American citizens&amp;nbsp;who understand politics have known all along. McCain&#039;s refusal to denounce Pastor Hagee and Pastor Parsley was political manuvering&amp;nbsp;to gain votes. This is worse than Obama and Wright because there was no calculated reasoning to having Wright&#039;s support, whereas McCain used those pastors to drum up support from weaks spots in his voting base. Much worse!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/opinion/24sat2.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sen. McCain&amp;rsquo;s Agents of Intolerance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;John McCain&amp;rsquo;s belated decision to distance himself from two of the most extreme ministers was long overdue &amp;mdash; and we suspect driven more by political ambition than by the principles he espoused in the past.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsz</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsz/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2008 14:10:22 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsz</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBPsz/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Read: Clinton Remarks Stir Uproar</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;The HRC saga continues. Time for Pelosi, Gore, Dean&amp;nbsp;and others to step up and kid her out of this race andthe DNC.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/us/politics/24clinton.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clinton Remark on Robert Kennedy&amp;rsquo;s Killing Stirs Uproar&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE&lt;br /&gt;Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed regret about a remark on the length of nomination fights that brought up concern for Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s safety.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsm</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsm/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2008 14:01:56 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPsm</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBPsm/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Action: What do You Think?</title>
            <description>Is it too early for Barack Obama to start a running mate search?</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPSl</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPSl/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2008 13:18:06 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPSl</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>3</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBPSl/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action: Vets Ad Incorrect</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Hey all you veterans. Your time and actions are needed to refute this ad that was just put out. Please help!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;God Bless you, your family&amp;nbsp;and your service!!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vetsforfreedom.org/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.vetsforfreedom.org/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPg7</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPg7/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2008 10:53:13 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBPg7</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBPg7/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Being One With Obama</title>
            <description>&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;u&gt;Its important to win, but, just as important is how you win.&lt;/u&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkZ</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkZ/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 09:19:11 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkZ</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCGkZ/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Read: A Wonderful Man</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;CONGRESSIONAL MEMO&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/washington/22kennedy.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Kennedy: A Little Like Everyone, a Lot Like No One Else&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By CARL HULSE&lt;br /&gt;Senator Edward M. Kennedy is one of the last towering figures on a stage where the players and the performances seem to be shrinking even as the problems expand.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkL</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkL/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 09:16:19 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkL</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCGkL/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>More Endorsements</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;(4)&amp;nbsp; D.C. Council Jack Evans Switches Support to Obama&lt;br /&gt;Nikita Stewart and Marcia Davis-Washington Post&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052100391.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052100391.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(10)&amp;nbsp; Prominent South Dakota Women Rallying Behind Obama&lt;br /&gt;Faith Bremner-Argus Leader-Washington Bureau&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/NEWS/805220321/1003/business&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/NEWS/805220321/1003/business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkj</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkj/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 09:07:37 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkj</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCGkj/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Today&#039;s Posts</title>
            <description>No More Slack for Hillary &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/no-more-slack-for-hillary.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/no-more-slack-for-hillary.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Memo to HQ -- Address CULTURAL Divisions &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/memo-to-hq-address-cultural-divisions.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/memo-to-hq-address-cultural-divisions.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Free Obama Campaign Flyers &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/free-obama-campaign-flyers.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/free-obama-campaign-flyers.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Courtney Picks Obama -- 62 To Go &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/courtney-picks-obama-62-to-go.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/courtney-picks-obama-62-to-go.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;James Baker Defends Talking to Our Enemies &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/james-baker-defends-talking-with-our.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/james-baker-defends-talking-with-our.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Teflon Obama? Another McCain Staffer Quits &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/teflon-obama-another-mccain-staffer.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/teflon-obama-another-mccain-staffer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obama&#039;s Des Moines, Iowa, Victory Speech &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/obamas-des-moines-iowa-victory-speech.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/obamas-des-moines-iowa-victory-speech.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Teddy Kennedy Great Human Being &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/teddy-kennedy-great-human-being.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/teddy-kennedy-great-human-being.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;McCain Staffer Pfotenhauer Lies on MSNBC &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccain-staffer-pfotenhauer-lies-on.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccain-staffer-pfotenhauer-lies-on.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obama&#039;s Inexorable Math &lt;a href=&quot;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/obamas-inexorable-math.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/05/obamas-inexorable-math.html&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 09:04:03 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCGkC/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Some Comic (Yet Reality) Relief</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Please check out the following link. It is about CNN&#039;s Blizter&#039;s obsession with helping HRC.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Timely and true:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20080521.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20080521.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkp</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkp/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 08:57:40 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCGkp</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCGkp/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Looks Like Another Educational Endorsement</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT , OBAMA! OBAMA!&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AZTECS OF NORTH AMERICA, INC., A NATIVE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION, SUPPORTS BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN 2008.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TODAY, WE NEED OBAMA TO BE OUR PRESIDENT FOR ALL RACES AND LANGUAGES IN OUR GREAT NATION OF IMMIGRANTS. OBAMA WILL BE THE PRESIDENT FOR ALL THE PEOPLE.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BARACK OBAMA, WILL BE THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. GO OBAMA!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OBAMA WAS BORN ON AUGUST 4, 1961, IN HONOLULU, HAWAII, AND AT THE PRESENT-DAY, HE IS THE FIFTH AFRICAN AMERICAN U.S. SENATOR. AND TODAY, THE ONLY AFRICAN AMERICAN SENATOR SERVING IN THE U.S. SENATE.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BARACK OBAMA IS A GRADUATE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, OBAMA WORKED AS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER, UNIVERSITY LECTURER, AND CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER, BEFORE RUNNING FOR PUBLIC OFFICE.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OBAMA IS AMONG THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY&#039;S LEADING CANDIDATES FOR NOMINATION IN THE 2008 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;OBAMA IS MARRIED TO THE FUTURE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN LADY MICHELLE OBAMA, AND THEY HAVE TWO BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;OPRAH &lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;WINFREY, &lt;/u&gt;THE FIRST LADY OF TELEVISION SUPPORTS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;HISTORY IS BEING MADE TODAT!&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;VOTE FOR OBAMA! VOTE FOR OBAMA!, VOTE FOR OBAMA!&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BY: HENRY GUZMAN VILLALOBOS (AZTEC NATIVE AMERICAN) PRESIDENT AND CEO, AZTECS OF NORTH AMERICA, INC., A CALIFORNIA NON-PROFIT CORPORATION, P.O. BOX 325, HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA 94543-0325 U.S.A., (510) 582-3880, ELECTRONIC-MAIL:&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/ym/Compose?To=aztecs1237@aol.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;aztecs1237@aol.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;cc: NATIVE AMERICAN NATIONS, MEDIA, GENERAL PUBLIC, UNITED NATIONS&lt;/strong&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCG8v</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCG8v/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 08:51:39 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCG8v</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCG8v/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>The Ripple Effects of the War</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;It is not just the spoken and media driven effects of the war that are important, it is also those ripple effects that do not get publicized for whatever reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please read on: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/world/middleeast/20psychiatry.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;War Takes Toll on Baghdad Psychiatric Hospital&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ERICA GOODE&lt;br /&gt;Once considered a jewel of the country&amp;rsquo;s medical system, Ibn Rushid hospital has only four psychiatrists left.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8D</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8D/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 10:39:18 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8D</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBT8D/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Response: McCain&#039;s Ethics Struggle</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Let&#039;s get this out to the entire msm so that fair and equal coverage could be had. This is just the tip of the iceberg in uncovering the REAL McCain. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But even senior McCain advisers have acknowledged the difficulty of disentangling the complicated web of relationships between lobbyists and candidates. Last week, after Mr. Davis issued the new conflict rules, two other advisers resigned, including Tom Loeffler, the campaign&amp;rsquo;s general co-chairman, whose lobbying firm had represented Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, as well as a host of corporate clients. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it appeared unlikely the resignations would stop there. The campaign&amp;rsquo;s new policy could affect people at all levels of the McCain operation.&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/us/politics/20mccain.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;McCain Finds a Thorny Path in Ethics Effort&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By BARRY MEIER and KATE ZERNIKE&lt;br /&gt;The messy process of trying to purge John McCain&amp;rsquo;s campaign of conflicts of interest has so far focused only more attention on the backgrounds of his advisers.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8s</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8s/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 10:36:13 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8s</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBT8s/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Response: McCain&#039;s Ethics Struggle</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Let&#039;s get this out to the entire msm so that fair and equal coverage could be had. This is just the tip of the iceberg in uncovering the REAL McCain. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But even senior McCain advisers have acknowledged the difficulty of disentangling the complicated web of relationships between lobbyists and candidates. Last week, after Mr. Davis issued the new conflict rules, two other advisers resigned, including Tom Loeffler, the campaign&amp;rsquo;s general co-chairman, whose lobbying firm had represented Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, as well as a host of corporate clients. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it appeared unlikely the resignations would stop there. The campaign&amp;rsquo;s new policy could affect people at all levels of the McCain operation.&amp;quot; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/us/politics/20mccain.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;McCain Finds a Thorny Path in Ethics Effort&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By BARRY MEIER and KATE ZERNIKE&lt;br /&gt;The messy process of trying to purge John McCain&amp;rsquo;s campaign of conflicts of interest has so far focused only more attention on the backgrounds of his advisers.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8P</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8P/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 10:35:20 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBT8P</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBT8P/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Info: McCain Is Handing Barack The Presidency</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Sen McCain is sayig and doing many of the flip-flopping techniques that he claims all other candidates do. He is providing Obam&#039;a camp with enormous amounts of material to utilize during the general election. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let&#039;s announce Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president, so that we can move on to battling Sen McCain and is all-over-the-place campaign.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/magazine/18mccain-t.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The McCain Doctrines&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MATT BAI&lt;br /&gt;Senator John McCain&amp;rsquo;s support for the war in Iraq, informed by his experience, is lonely but unwavering.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18rich.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;McCain Can Run, but Bush Won&amp;rsquo;t Hide&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By FRANK RICH&lt;br /&gt;For all the Republican self-flagellation, it&amp;rsquo;s still not clear that the party understands the dimensions of its latest defeat and its full implications for John McCain in November.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBDLD</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBDLD/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2008 13:45:34 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBDLD</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBDLD/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Obama Cares For Our Veterans</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Obama&#039;s attention to the needs of our veteran&#039;s gains even more support as he gets another endorsement from a Congressman from Arizona. What a minute--isn&#039;t that where McCain is from? I guess there isn&#039;t much faith in McCain if one of his own is backing Obama especially because of Obama&#039;s position on helping veterans--which McCain happens to be one himself.&amp;nbsp; Makes you wonder!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;156 to go!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;United States Congressman Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) endorsed Barack Obama for president today, citing Obama&#039;s work in the Senate to improve treatment of veterans and his ability to unite the country:&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstG</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstG/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2008 09:40:08 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstG</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBstG/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Take This Poll in Puerto Rico</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;I know that some people don&#039;t like to be bothered with polls, but this is one from PR where Obama is struggling. It asks if HRC should drop out. The poll is in the middle of the page. Click on Si as your response. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/mundiales/noticias/obama_logra_mas_superdelegados/403452&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/mundiales/noticias/obama_logra_mas_superdelegados/403452&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only 500 voted so far and its 50.2 to 49.8 for our &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;side (&amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; = &amp;quot;si&amp;quot;). It has grown since I received this email and took the poll. The new numbers are as follows: &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Total: 860&amp;nbsp;&lt;img XSSCleaned=&quot;width: 20px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.elnuevodia.com/XStatic/endi/images/spacer.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;S&amp;iacute; (494) &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;57.44 %&lt;img XSSCleaned=&quot;width: 20px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.elnuevodia.com/XStatic/endi/images/spacer.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;No (366) &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;42.56 %&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2008 09:29:35 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBstC/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action: McCai&#039;s PR Man Has Ties To Militia</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Let&#039;s not wait on this one. This needs to hit all the media airwaves. McCain&#039;s public relations man resigns because of ties to a military junta. Did I mention, this man works for a lobbyist group. Something McCain has vowed he would never be involved with.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11mccain.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Official Chosen by McCain to Run Convention Resigns&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MICHAEL COOPER&lt;br /&gt;Doug Goodyear, a public relations executive whose firm had been paid to represent the military junta, quit his post as coordinator of the Republican National Convention.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstS</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstS/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2008 09:14:18 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBstS</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBstS/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>NYTIMES Articles for Sunday 5-11-08</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;This is what happens when you become the nominee for the presidency. The media starts to cover you &amp;quot;MORE&amp;quot; than usual. As if Obama hasn&#039;t been covered overextensively already by the scrupulous media.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Any way here are some articles from Sunday&#039;s NYTimes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11strategy.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Already, Obama and McCain Map Fall Strategies&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY&lt;br /&gt;Even before the Democratic nomination fight ends, the candidates are focusing on independent voters, Latinos and about a dozen states.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;THE LONG RUN&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11chicago.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By JO BECKER and CHRISTOPHER DREW&lt;br /&gt;Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s ability to replicate and expand the eclectic coalition he built in Chicago has brought him to the brink of the Democratic presidential nomination.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/opinion/11dowd.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is She a Trojan Rabbit?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MAUREEN DOWD&lt;br /&gt;If Hillary Clinton were to become Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s vice president, would she take the back seat or would she just always be plotting, draining him of his magical powers?&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBsXG</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBsXG/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2008 09:10:41 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBsXG</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBsXG/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action: Time For HRC to Take The High Road</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;NYTimes article examining the Democratic race after last night&#039;s astounding win for Barack in NC and coming ever so close in IN. The article states that the two candidates should now be showing the country the difference between the Dems and the Reps on the issues that are concerning American citizens.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/opinion/07wed1.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s About the White House&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The last Democratic primary is less than a month away. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can spend that time tearing each other up or they can debate the issues that separate Democrats from Republicans.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCNpK</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCNpK/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 09:56:37 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCNpK</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCNpK/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action: NYTimes Articles 5-7-08</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is a list of NYTimes article for wednesday. Most say HRC is down and out!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/us/politics/07elect.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Obama Wins North Carolina Decisively; Clinton Takes Indiana by Slim Margin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By JEFF ZELENY&lt;br /&gt;Senator Barack Obama received new ammunition as he sought to persuade Democratic leaders to coalesce around him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/us/politics/07assess.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Options Dwindling for Clinton&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ADAM NAGOURNEY&lt;br /&gt;Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lost a chance to sow new doubts about Senator Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s appeal in the general election.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/opinion/07dowd.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Butterflies Aren&amp;rsquo;t Free&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MAUREEN DOWD&lt;br /&gt;Hillary Clinton is so at odds with who she used to be, even in the Senate, that if she were to get elected, who would voters be electing?&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCNnz</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCNnz/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 09:52:23 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCNnz</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCNnz/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>HOOSIER&quot;S SUCCESS</title>
            <description>INDY Awesome job today!!!&amp;nbsp; No matter the final outcome of the primary, you made it alot closer than the MSM was reporting.&amp;nbsp; Great Work!!</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCRH4</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCRH4/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2008 21:57:33 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCRH4</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCRH4/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Awesome Tarheels</title>
            <description>WAY TO GO NC. EXCELLENT JOB. LET&amp;quot;S KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK FOR THE REMAINING STATES!!!</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCR2q</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCR2q/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2008 21:23:33 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCR2q</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCR2q/</wfw:commentRss>
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                    <item>
            <title>Important: NYTIMES- Obama Outlasts Furor</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Let&#039;s get this out there. NYTimes article states that Obama has outlasted the Wright controversy and is looking good. However, the article also states that this can come back to bite him in the General Election.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/us/politics/05poll.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In Poll, Obama Survives Furor, but Fall Is the Test&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MARJORIE CONNELLY&lt;br /&gt;A majority of voters say the controversy over Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s ex-pastor has not affected their opinion of the senator, but a substantial number say it could sway voters in November.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChtd</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChtd/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2008 09:41:53 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChtd</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGChtd/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>GUAM Update</title>
            <description>With 79% of the reporting in and Obama is leading 53% to 47% or 1393 votes to 1222 for the other one. Last I read, there were only 3000 people who voted. If this is correct, that means Obama only needs 108 more votes to win a majority.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCSnr</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCSnr/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2008 14:27:58 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCSnr</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCSnr/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Update: Guam Results</title>
            <description>CNN has Obama up 54% to 46% with 63% reporting.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChkh</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChkh/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2008 12:45:37 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChkh</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGChkh/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Breaking News Story On Fox News</title>
            <description>Fox News pundits are destroying HRC&#039;s healthcare plan. They are saying that it will bankrupt America. Turn it on. Get this out there.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChDv</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChDv/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2008 11:39:16 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGChDv</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGChDv/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Important: Mr. Obama and Rev. Wright</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Please read and comment if possible. This article goes back to the speech Obama gave in Philly about the race discussion that is needed in America.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30wed1.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mr. Obama and Rev. Wright&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;This country needs a healthy and open discussion of race. Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s repudiation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. is part of that.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCn3h</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCn3h/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:40:31 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCn3h</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>8</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCn3h/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Action Needed: Clinton Trying To Steal Oregon</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;This needs ORR&#039;s attention. She is as sneaky as they come!! Don&#039;t let this get past our grassroots movement out in Oregon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080427/NATION/419679173/1028/election&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080427/NATION/419679173/1028/election&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Was just doing some online hunting and came across this article about&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;Hillary setting her&lt;br /&gt;eyes on an Oregon upset!&amp;nbsp; HA!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpX5</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpX5/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:39:38 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpX5</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCpX5/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Is She Really Someone We Want To Answer Phone At 3AM?</title>
            <description>Clinton&#039;s leaked nuclear secrets to China..... &lt;a href=&quot;http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Clintons_leaked_us_nuclear_secrets_to_China&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Clintons_leaked_us_nuclear_secrets_to_China&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCptP</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCptP/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:14:41 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCptP</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
                <db:picture>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/profile_picture/1861a25f8e27b994c4_pfm6bno8u.jpg</db:picture>
                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
            </db:profile>
            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCptP/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Of Interest: Talk About Flip-Flopping!!</title>
            <description>this is how the game is played...see James Carville on Larry King?? Dig my spin.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shootingsparks.blogspot.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://shootingsparks.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://shootingsparks.blogspot.com/2008/04/james-carville-has-check-for-obama.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;James Carville Has Check For Obama, Waiting For Clinton Collapse&lt;/a&gt;James Carville, the &#039;ragin cajun&#039; on Larry King Saturday said healready has a check made out to the Barack Obama campaign. As he is aClinton campaign surrogate he is obliged to wait for Hillary Clinton&#039;sinevitable withdrawal, most likely to happen immediately after the nextround of votes in Indiana, North Carolina, and Oregon.&lt;br /&gt;Thanks James!!!</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpvC</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpvC/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:06:44 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpvC</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCpvC/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Reaction: Is This Trying To PLay Race Card!!</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27dowd.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Desperately Seeking Street Cred&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MAUREEN DOWD&lt;br /&gt;With Indiana polls showing the Democratic combatants in a dead heat, and 21 percent of Democrats undecided, this is a perilous time for Barack Obama to lose his fizz.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpv5</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpv5/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:03:57 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCpv5</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCpv5/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Endorsements</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Sorry if this has already been circulated. Just able to read my emails.&lt;/p&gt;29 N. Carolina legislators endorse ObamaBy Barbare Barrett | McClatchy Newspapers &lt;ul class=&quot;inlist&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul class=&quot;inlist&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedstoryTool(&#039;email&#039;,&#039;/homepage/v-emailform/story/34506.html&#039;)&quot;&gt;email&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;| &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/homepage/v-print/story/34506.html&quot;&gt;print&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;tool name&lt;a href=&quot;XSSCleanedcloseTool()&quot;&gt;close&lt;/a&gt; tool goes here &lt;p&gt;RALEIGH, N.C. &amp;mdash; U.S. Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of 29 North Carolina state legislators on Tuesday, a significant boost to his candidacy ahead of the state&#039;s May 6 primary.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Led by Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand and former Speaker of the House Dan Blue of Raleigh, the lawmakers repeated the same lines as others who have endorsed Obama &amp;mdash; that the Illinois senator can bring people together and ignite change across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Blue also challenged the Clinton campaign to remain positive in North Carolina, saying he had seen nothing but negativity so far in Pennsylvania.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I hope this is not what we can should expect to come to North Carolina in the next two weeks,&amp;quot; Blue said. &amp;quot;Tired old political tactics aren&#039;t going to bring about the kind of change we need.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Blue and Rand said their support comes in part because they think Obama will help Democrats win other offices in the state and because he has committed to win in North Carolina in November&#039;s general election.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rand praised Obama for speaking directly. &amp;quot;He won&#039;t just tell everyone what they want to hear,&amp;quot; Rand said. &amp;quot;He&#039;ll tell people what they need to hear.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He said the group will raise money and stump for Obama if they are asked. And he praised Obama&#039;s ability to raise millions of dollars in part on the strength of $100 donations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;We&#039;re prepared to do whatever. I mean, I&#039;ll give him a hundred,&amp;quot; Rand said.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCVTq</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCVTq/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:08:18 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCVTq</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCVTq/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>War Veterans Support Barack</title>
            <description>Please watch video and spread to all your comrades and friends. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dijgO0Pbi8c&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dijgO0Pbi8c&lt;/a&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCVT3</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCVT3/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:04:34 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCVT3</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCVT3/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Are The Democrats Defeating Themselves?</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/opinion/19herbert.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Road Map to Defeat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By BOB HERBERT&lt;br /&gt;Instead of capitalizing on political advantages, the Democrats, with their increasingly small-minded approach to this election, are squandering them.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCx82</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCx82/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:06:00 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCx82</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
                        <db:profile>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCx82/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Even The Too Young Want In</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;A NYTimes articel today goes inside a grade school in PA which had it&#039;s 4th graders playing politics. Please read and forward. REMEMBER these childrens are 4th graders and they get it!!!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sitting nearby, Ethan Steinberg sought to summarize the Democratic candidates&amp;rsquo; Senate votes on an early measure to authorize the war. &amp;ldquo;At first Hillary wanted the war to go on,&amp;rdquo; he said, recounting a newspaper article he had read. &amp;ldquo;Then a little later she changed her mind and wanted the troops to come home. Obama voted that the troops shouldn&amp;rsquo;t go to war. He thought it would cause too many problems.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I remember something I learned about Hillary,&amp;rdquo; Elizabeth told her classmates. &amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s not like a marriage between Hillary and Bill. It&amp;rsquo;s more like an agreement. She helps him. He helps her.&amp;rdquo; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Later, the teachers announced the gradewide results: 52 votes for Mr. Obama and 21 for Mrs. Clinton (with one ballot, marked for both, disqualified). In Miss Boles&amp;rsquo;s class, the vote was more lopsided: Mrs. Clinton garnered just 2 of the 20 votes cast.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/us/politics/19class.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Primary Lures Those Too Young to Vote&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By JACQUES STEINBERG&lt;br /&gt;Fourth graders in Pennsylvania signaled their preferences for the Democratic nomination in a straw poll.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCxzS</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCxzS/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:02:08 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCxzS</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCxzS/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>McCain Still Doesn&#039;t Understand Iraq</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;A NYTimes article that describes how McCain&#039;s oversimplification of Iraq deters from the real hydra-headed nature of the situation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/us/politics/19threat.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;McCain, Iraq War and the Threat of &amp;lsquo;Al Qaeda&amp;rsquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By MICHAEL COOPER and LARRY ROHTER&lt;br /&gt;Critics say Senator John McCain&amp;rsquo;s descriptions of the enemy in Iraq oversimplify its hydra-headed nature.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCx8D</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCx8D/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:50:17 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGCx8D</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>1</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGCx8D/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>NYTimes Op Ed&#039;s for 4/15/08</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/opinion/15brooks.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Speech About Nothing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By DAVID BROOKS&lt;br /&gt;Barack Obama&amp;rsquo;s speech on Monday on the economy put him in the no-man&amp;rsquo;s land between Lou Dobbs-style populism and Bill Clinton-style free trade.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/opinion/15herbert.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Some Perspective on &amp;lsquo;Bitter&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By BOB HERBERT&lt;br /&gt;Barack Obama should be advised to meet as often as possible with skeptical, and even hostile, working people in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Responses and comments need to be made for these articles. Neither reflects positively for Barack.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpM3</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpM3/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:42:47 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpM3</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>New Obama Campaign Ad Showing Lobbyists&#039; Influence</title>
            <description>Please check this out if you&amp;nbsp;haven&#039;t already seen, and forward to all your contacts, especially those in states with upcoming primaries.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBJWy&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBJWy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;-- &lt;br /&gt;Angie Truitt&lt;br /&gt;Delegation Chair, Precinct 0764</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpMR</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpMR/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:24:25 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpMR</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Voters Should Know This About The Billary</title>
            <description>&lt;strong&gt;Subject: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;[ORR-Backup] BILL AND HILLARY SAID THE SAME THING&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sorry if this has been e-mailed already, but I found these two quotes in articles today. Hillary and Bill said, in essence, the same thing that Obama said at the San Francisco fundraiser:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hillary, November, 2007: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;During the 1990s, I cannot remember being asked about immigration. Why? Because the economy was working. And average Americans didn&#039;t have to go around looking for others to blame.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(near the bottom of this article: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nysun.com/news/national/clinton-likens-obama-kerry-gore&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.nysun.com/news/national/clinton-likens-obama-kerry-gore&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bill: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;All these economically insecure white people are... scared to death...&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/13/bill-clinton-flashback-al_n_96433.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/13/bill-clinton-flashback-al_n_96433.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PLEASE PUSH TO MSM. Thanks.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBJ2l</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBJ2l/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:12:42 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBJ2l</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Action:Next President Needs Diversity</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;This is an important piece about what the next president needs to deal with the state of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/opinion/14cohen.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Obama&amp;rsquo;s Indonesian Lessons&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ROGER COHEN&lt;br /&gt;A central challenge of the next president will be reinventing America&amp;rsquo;s relations with the Islamic world.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBJKP</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBJKP/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:26:56 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBJKP</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Media Endorsements in PA</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Two PA newspapers have endorsed Obama. The Allentown and The Towanda Newspapers have endorsed Obama because of his vision and ability to lead. Please get this out to as many people as possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Towanda Newspaper Endorses Obama-&amp;quot;Ability to Lead Makes Obama the Better Choice for Pennsylvania Democrats&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;The Daily &amp;amp; Sunday Review-Towanda, Pennsylvania&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedailyreview.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2276&amp;amp;dept_id=465724&amp;amp;newsid=19479975&amp;amp;PAG=461&amp;amp;rfi=9&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.thedailyreview.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2276&amp;amp;dept_id=465724&amp;amp;newsid=19479975&amp;amp;PAG=461&amp;amp;rfi=9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Allentown Newspaper Endorses Obama-&amp;quot;Vision is Reason to Nominate Him&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;The Morning Call-Allentown, Pennsylvania&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-a.6348993apr13,0,743721.story&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-a.6348993apr13,0,743721.story&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpZM</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpZM/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:42:02 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpZM</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Help: Powerful Video For PA</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;Watch this video and help spread it around. Let&#039;s make it viral. This could be a productive piece to help in PA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Hey guys&amp;hellip; I&amp;rsquo;m a filmmaker and a major Obama supporter.&amp;nbsp; I just released a very cool digital short called &lt;em&gt;Baracky&lt;/em&gt; that I think you&amp;rsquo;ll love.&amp;nbsp; As you may have heard, Hillary Clinton recently likened herself to Rocky Balboa in connection with the upcoming Pennsylvania primary on April 22.&amp;nbsp; Well, many of us beg to differ&amp;hellip; and I believe the following is a far better comparison:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyhIBXNfqMA&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; title=&quot;blocked::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyhIBXNfqMA&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyhIBXNfqMA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBptg</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBptg/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:11:24 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBptg</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>3</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBptg/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Important: Clinton Selling Your Information For Money</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us/politics/12vote.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Clinton Aide&amp;rsquo;s Private Databank Venture Breaks Ground in Politicking&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By LESLIE WAYNE&lt;br /&gt;Catalist, a for-profit databank that sells voter information to progressive candidates, has raised eyebrows among campaign finance watchdogs.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpXS</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpXS/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:54:07 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBpXS</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
                <db:school></db:school>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
            <wfw:commentRss>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/comment_rss/gGBpXS/</wfw:commentRss>
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            <title>Obama Loves Pa</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;This says it all about what Obama could do for the interests of this country and its people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Celebrate The Democralypse! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;EC_third&quot;&gt;When Stephen Colbert ran for president, supporters donated &lt;strong&gt;$66,000&lt;/strong&gt; to South Carolina classrooms in his honor. Do Senators Clinton and Obama have the keystones to do for the Keystone State what the Colbert Nation did for the Palmetto State? Let&#039;s find out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;EC_eighth&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Click one of the challenges below to support a Pennsylvania classroom in honor of your favorite candidate.&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/help/donor_faq.html?q=558&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Questions&lt;/a&gt;?)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;EC_ninth&quot;&gt;The Stephen Colbert Pennsylvania Straw Poll That Makes A Difference&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/images/challenge/proposal_th_top.gif&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/leadershipboard.html?category=25&amp;amp;sortBy=name&amp;amp;zone=0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Challenge&lt;/a&gt; Donated &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/images/challenge/btn_down_green.gif&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/leadershipboard.html?category=25&amp;amp;sortBy=uniqueDonors&amp;amp;zone=0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Donors&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/leadershipboard.html?category=25&amp;amp;sortBy=studentsImpacted&amp;amp;zone=0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Students&lt;br /&gt;Impacted&lt;/a&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/images/challenge/proposal_th_btm.gif&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/images/challenge/proposal_top.gif&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=18369&amp;amp;zone=0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Given in honor of Barack Obama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;$129,527185526072&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/images/challenge/proposal_btm.gif&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=18368&amp;amp;zone=0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Clintonian generosity&lt;br /&gt;$24,8252695714&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.donorschoose.org/images/challenge/proposal_btm.gif&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;EC_ninth&quot;&gt;When I 1st share this about a month ago it was 44,000 for BO to 12,000 HRC. Look at it now! $129,527!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This needs more attention in PA! Pass and share! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks, &lt;br /&gt;StrongNgrowing for Obama!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBcrs</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBcrs/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:40:24 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBcrs</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <db:comment_count>0</db:comment_count>
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            <title>Action: Clinton Link Deeper to Colombia Trade</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/washington/08lobby.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lobby for Colombia Trade Pact Casts a Wide Net&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By ERIC LIPTON and STEVEN R. WEISMAN&lt;br /&gt;A campaign for a trade deal with Colombia has former Clinton administration aides aligned with Republicans.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBcg2</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBcg2/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:11:45 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBcg2</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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            <title>Alert: NYTimes Writes Reps See Obama Winning Presidency</title>
            <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/opinion/07kristol.html?th&amp;amp;emc=th&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Shape of the Race to Come&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;By WILLIAM KRISTOL&lt;br /&gt;In politics, as in life, the grass is always greener on the other side. Many Republicans see the weaknesses of the John McCain campaign, and assume Barack Obama will prevail.</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBrLK</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBrLK/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:47:26 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBrLK</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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            <title>Clinton Again Trying to Move Goalposts</title>
            <description>&lt;p&gt;She is now stating that the comparison between her and Obama&#039;s votes on Iraq should began from when Obama came into the Senate in Jan of 2005 not from his speech disparaging the war in2002. Clinton twists again. She should be called Hillary Checker with all the twisting that her campaign does.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;read on: &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/in-oregon-clint.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/in-oregon-clint.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
            <link>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBvxs</link>
            <comments>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBvxs/commentary#comments</comments>
            <pubDate>Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:21:29 EDT</pubDate>
            <guid>http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/RUALUMNI/gGBvxs</guid>
            <dc:creator>skidog</dc:creator>
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                <db:author_name>skidog</db:author_name>
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