Endorsing Barack Obama

A Few More things that show McCain is not the man we need as President

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:04:30 EDT

Over the course of the last couple weeks, we’ve been shown some interesting things about McCain that while some are amusing, most truly indicate a lack of understanding that would be essential to holding the highest office in this country – a few points that I found particularly note-worthy – “Americans are in a “mental recession”” and that America has become “a bunch of whiners” – Graham, one of McCains top close advisors on the economy – made the comment that those of us who believe that the country is in a bad straight and that our economy is declining are making more of it than it is – that it’s all in our heads….while McCain did attempt to distance himself from that remark – one really has to wonder what is going to happen if he gets into office and these are the people telling him how to approach and handle the economy – particularly when he has stated himself that “he doesn’t know much about the economy”. McCain is “learning to get online” - and that he “doesn’t expect to be a great communicator” (HUH??) - the internet is a vital part of our lives today and for someone running to hold our highest office, they will be looked to to lead this country forward and into the future – the internet is not a new thing – its been here for years and I’m curious as to why such a “maverick” would not have invested the time to learn such a useful skill as “going online” when our country has been headed toward this future for years now – if not decades. He may have his “people” that “go on for him” – which only begs the question of who was holding his blog Q&A session(s) earlier this year. McCain could not answer a very simple question posed by a reporter regarding his opinion on insurance companies covering the cost of Viagra but refusing to pay for birth control. I’ve never seen another politician look so uncomfortable in my life and this is a clear demonstration of how out of touch he truly is. There was no gut reaction and answer- you’ve got to wonder just how “scripted” his appearances are. McCains error on Czechoslavakia and that he wasn’t making a slip of the tongue and it isn’t the first time – Steve Clemons writes:“before Republicans condemn Dems for being picky on this, let's not forget that in the 2000 campaign, when McCain also screwed up Czechoslovakia, it was none other than George W. Bush who said it deserved to be a campaign issue: "A guy gets up and quizzes me [on world leaders] ... but John McCain says something about the 'ambassador to Czechoslovakia.' Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia [there's a Czech Republic and a Slovakia], but yet it didn't make the nightly national news."Czechoslovakia, of course, split into two separate countries in 1993. It isn't the first time McCain has made this mistake, as TPM's Greg Sargent points out: Around three months ago, McCain told Don Imus that he would "work closely with Czechoslovakia and Poland and other countries" to install the European Missile Defense System in Poland, according to the Democratic National Committee. (The slip-up was referenced elsewhere, too.) And during a GOP debate in October 2007, McCain said: "The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don't care what his objections are to it."There are more: in 1994, McCain suggested NATO be expanded to include Czechoslovakia. At a dinner in 1999, he "twice thanked the ambassador from 'Czechoslovakia' for his efforts," according to the Washington Post. In fact, George Bush himself dinged McCain for this blunder back in the 2000 primary. Steve Clemons writes: Truly, he believes that he can run this country when he isn’t up-to-date on the countries our President will deal with? This should be a huge problem for the man who claims to be the forerunner on foreign policy. Got to wonder if he’d be dealing with the right dang countries! In addition, when one of McCain’s top supporters Sanford can’t come up with ONE POINT in which the McCain economic policy differs from that of Bush, there is a problem. Most of the media commentators I’ve been listening to state that he was put on the spot and that it was reasonable for him to “blank” because they were asking him to state “how mccains economic policy differed from Bush” – but that wasn’t’ what they asked – they asked for ONE POINT THAT MADE MCCAIN DIFFERENT – and he couldn’t name ONE. So much for McCain the maverick.

American Job Loss Leading to Ever Increasing Dependency on Welfare/FS

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:12:42 EDT

Yesterday I was looking at the job loss stats for last month and Obama's statement on the Job loss numbers and I wanted to find out what the numbers are looking like for government programs - such as food stamps to get an idea of what is REALLY going on in this economy.

The numbers are disturbing to say the least when you put them into context and I wanted to share what I've found.

As of the month of April 2008, 28,063,229 - (28 million people) received Food Stamp benefits. That is up 184,241 from March 2008. That is 1,781,696 more than we had receiving food stamps in April 2007 and 2,047,362 more than we had in April 2006. (Taken from FNS website data report)

To truly put this into perspective, reports show that approximately 480,000 jobs have been lost in the first half of this year. The number of people that are receiving food stamps for the first half of this year (from the December figure of 27,561,755) HAS RISEN 501,474.

The entire population of the United States is estimated to be 304,543,397. Given that the USDA estimates that one in 3 people who should or could receive food stamps are missed, they estimate that there are now approximately 37.4 million people who are facing hunger in this country right now.....and that is by very conservative estimates.

Basically 12.3% of America's entire population is unable to afford to buy food - not gas, not clothing, not other essentials - but FOOD.

Although Congress did include additional funding for the food stamp program in the new farm bill, one has to wonder exactly how much more strain the system will be able to endure while the bottom continues to drop on the job market. (which they anticipate will continue through 2009)

As of April 2008, it cost $2,835,324,360 (that is 2.84 BILLION DOLLARS) to cover the approximately 28 million people receiving benefits.

I write this in the hopes that someone in the campaign will take notice - and will see that although Obama plans to offer tax incentives and rebates, etc are a good idea, that they are a benefit that people will not see until tax season next year - and these families need solutions that will get them through the months that fall between now and then. Hopefully this information will spur Obama and the rest of Congress to reevaluate entertaining the views of the oil speculator lobbyists that are currently preventing firm legislation from going through on regulating speculative practices as the fuel prices are directly resulting in the thousands upon thousands of jobs that are being lost - which is putting a severe strain on our government's ability to provide food subsidies - among other things - to sustain people.

We need action - and we need it yesterday - if speculation is not the culprit - as the lobbyists claim, then a little regulation into their practices should not be an issue. The fact that they are actively and adamantly campaigning against having to answer to the CFTC for their actions is not reassuring.

Source for numerical information: http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34fsmonthly.htm

MCCAIN/BUSH RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE (HAGEE)

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Sat, 17 May 2008 10:25:06 EDT

This guy BLOWS WRIGHT right off the map!!!! He is deranged - and it would appear that McCain - and Bush - are both sold on this guys schpiel - if this isn't enough to sway a leaning voter nothing will - he is scary!

At First I thought McCain was just going senile - but that isn't it at all - he's flipping loony and has bought into this guy's "premonitions" hook, line and sinker. We can NOT let this man win!!!!

For the past two years, John Hagee, the televangelist and head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), has been laying out the lesson plan for Bush's speech in the Knesset this week, in which he accused Barack Obama of appeasing terrorists like Neville Chamberlain appeased the Nazis. Since Hagee founded CUFI in early 2006, he has been beating the drums for war with Iran, and rejecting diplomacy as Chamberlain-esque appeasement.

Hagee, who endorsed Bush in 2000 with a book, God's Candidate for America, said in 2003 said that "God raised up George Bush for this time in history to crush Saddam Hussein." After he met with McCain in early 2007, Hagee declared McCain's views on Israel "on target." In other words, McCain's no weak-kneed appeaser of terrorists. If God raised up Bush, and, as Hagee has maintained, the threat from Iraq was nothing compared to the threat from Iran, then his endorsement of McCain suggests that he views the Republican nominee, once again, as God's puppet for his deranged obsession with a bloody, war-ending war.

Since the 2006 publication of his incendiary, conspiracy and fear-mongering book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee has been comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to Hitler and accusing those favoring diplomacy of appeasing him. Ahmadinejad is not just like Hitler, though, he's like Haman, and he's like Pharaoh, too, and all those biblical stories prove, in Hagee's mind, that confronting him is essential for the survival of the Jews -- nothing short of a military strike will do. His reference to "God raising up" Bush for "this time in history" is a direct reference to Queen Esther's confrontation of Haman. And when Joe Lieberman compared Hagee to Moses last year, he no doubt was validating the Pharaoh comparison. But was he imagining Hagee leading the Jews to the promised land of a boiling lake of brimstone?

Hagee claims in Jerusalem Countdown that an Israeli government insider came to him in April 2005 with "warning to the world" that the President of Iran "will prove to be the new Hitler of the Middle East." This information compelled him, he says, to write the book and launch CUFI. His standard talking point since CUFI's launch has been "It's 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler of the Middle East."

In the summer of 2006, when war raged between Israel and Hezbollah, and McCain took to the airwaves to suggest we had entered into World War III, one of Hagee's friends in the Knesset, Benny Elon, said McCain got that idea straight from Hagee.

In his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2007, and again to CUFI in July that year, Hagee said:

As you know, Iran poses a threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust. I have been saying on national television, in churches and auditoriums across America it is 1938; Iran is Germany and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler... In the Bible when Pharaoh threatened the Jewish people of Egypt he became fish food in the Red Sea. When Haman threatened the Jews in Persia in modern-day Iran he and his sons hung from the gallows that he built for the Jews.

But the appeasers, Hagee goes on, don't just want to appease Iran:

Beyond that threat from Iran there's another more subtle threat that concerns me. I am concerned that in the coming months yet another attempt will be made to parcel out parts of Israel in a futile effort to appease Israel's enemies in the Middle East. I believe that misguided souls in Europe, I believe that the misguided souls in the political brothel that is now the United Nations and sadly -- and sadly even our own State Department will try once again to turn Israel into crocodile food. Winston Churchill said and I quote an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile in the futile hope that it will eat him last -- end of quote. In 1938 Czechoslovakia -- Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland land was turned into crocodile food for Nazi Germany. The Nazi beast smelled the weakness in the appeasers, ate the food and marched and devoured most of Europe and systematically slaughtered 6,000,000 Jewish people. We are again hearing calls to appease the enemies of Israel.

McCain compared himself to Churchill -- although without, as Bush did, explicitly comparing his opponents to Chamberlain -- in a creepy March 2008 ad.

MCCAIN'S STANCE ON THE HOUSING/FORECLOSURE CRISIS

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:24:45 EDT

TO ILLUSTRATE MCCAIN'S COMPASSION FOR THOSE AMERICANS WHO ARE LOSING THEIR HOMES DUE TO PREDATORY LENDERS THAT PUT THEM INTO ADJUSTABLE LOANS WITHOUT FULLY DISCLOSING THE TERMS OF THEIR MORTGAGES - WITHOUT STRESSING THE ADJUSTABLE PAYMENT DIFFERENCES - WHEN THEY WERE FULLY AWARE THAT ONCE THEY ADJUSTED, THAT THESE LENDERS LACKED THE FINANCIAL ABILITY AND INCOME TO AFFORD THE INCREASED PAYMENTS - THIS IS THE COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MCCAIN -

Of 80 million U.S. homeowners, 55 million have a mortgage and 51 million of these ``are doing what is necessary -- working a second job, skipping a vacation and managing their budgets,'' McCain said. Homeowners should be required to make a down payment on property purchases to ensure they ``have skin in the game.''

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said a government bailout of banks should be based ``solely on preventing systemic risk'' and not on helping financial and property speculators.

``I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis,'' McCain told a group of Hispanic small-business leaders in Santa Ana, California, today. ``I will evaluate everything in terms of whether it might be harmful or helpful to our effort to deal with the crisis we face now.''

The implosion of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, surging defaults and a glut of unsold houses are depressing property prices, and mortgage-backed securities have spread losses across the global financial system. The world's biggest financial companies have posted at least $195 billion in writedowns and credit losses tied to subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

``When we commit taxpayer dollars as assistance, it should be accompanied by reforms that ensure we never face this problem again,'' McCain said. ``Central to those reforms should be transparency and accountability.''

McCain also called for a review of so-called mark-to-market accounting rules, which require companies to estimate a value on holdings that aren't traded.

Mark-to-market has forced financial companies to write down the values of many less actively traded securities and may be ``exacerbating the credit crunch,'' said McCain.

Democrats said McCain failed to show compassion for homeowners buffeted by the subprime crisis.

`Watch it Happen'

``It's deeply troubling that John McCain is suggesting that the best way to address the housing crisis is to sit back and watch it happen -- which is just further evidence that he would continue President Bush's failed economic policies,'' Bill Burton, a spokesman for Senator Barack Obama's campaign, said in a statement.

``John McCain today showed that he doesn't understand the economy, the mortgage crisis or its impact on America's families and communities,'' said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean in an e-mailed statement.

``Instead of offering a concrete plan to address the crisis at all levels, McCain promised to take the same hands-off approach that President Bush used to lead us into this crisis,'' Dean said.

After his 13-minute speech, McCain participated in a discussion with Hispanic business leaders at the C&H Letterpress Inc. factory, where he gave his formal remarks. The discussion was moderated by Meg Whitman, the departing EBay Inc. chief executive officer who joined McCain's campaign as a national co- chairwoman last week.

``I am hopeful the worst is over,'' McCain said in answering a question about liquidity in the market. ``I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong.''

``Realistically, this will take a few months to sort out,'' Whitman said.

A FEW MONTHS????? You've got to be kidding - if something isn't done and isn't done soon there will be a whole lotta bank-owned vacant homes - hasn't anyone noticed the BIG GAINS IN THE HOUSING CONSTRUCTION MARKET - -WHICH ARE PURELY APARTMENTS????? DOES THIS GIVE ANYONE A HINT AT WHAT'S COMING? PEOPLE LOSE THEIR HOMES - THEY MOVE TO RENTALS - NOT HARD TO PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER - AND PEOPLE DON'T GO OUT AND DO MASSIVE APARTMENT CONSTRUCTION WHEN THEY AREN'T SURE WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE ROAD. THIS MAN IS ABSOLUTELY OUT OF IT!

JOHN MCCAIN’S LOBBYIST CONNECTIONS TO DICTATORS, OIL REGIMES, AND CHILD ENSLAVERS THE WORLD OVER

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:59:32 EDT

For those of you who associate McCain with experience, safety, and American values - here's a little glimpse into the type of people that the Senator maintains close ties to - Do you want a president with ANY KIND of ties to these types of people?

OH - A LITTLE NOTE - THE MONEY REFERENCED BELOW HAS NOT AND MORE THAN LIKELY WILL NOT GET REFUNDED TO THESE PEOPLE. IF YOU CHECK OUT THE FEC ON MCCAIN YOU'LL NOTICE THAT INSTEAD OF HAVING ONE MAIN CAMPAIGN TO TAKE IN HIS FUNDS, HE STRANGELY HAS ABOUT 8 - DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS (OH - AND I INCLUDED REFERENCES TO SHOW WHERE THE INFO CAME FROM FOR THOSE WHO WANNA CHECK =))

JOHN MCCAIN’S LOBBYIST CONNECTIONS TO DICTATORS, OIL REGIMES, AND CHILD ENSLAVERS THE WORLD OVER

Three other lobbyists, Charlie Black, Tom Loeffler, and Peter Madigan, and their firms’ clients, have generated at least $3.5 million in campaign donations to Sen. McCain over his career, according to Campaign Money Watch analysis of campaign finance data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics DCI Group, which employed Davenport and Goodyear, and their clients provided less than a quarter as much campaign money -- $817,685 — to McCain’s elections. Charlie Black, McCain’s senior counsel and spokesman, began his lobbying career by representing numerous dictators and repressive regimes

Black’s firm represented the governor of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos. According to a 1985 report, the firm Black, Manafort & Stone earned $950,000 plus expenses for its work to provide “advice and assistance on matters relating to the media, public relations and public affairs interests.”1

Black’s firm lobbied on behalf of Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire, earning $1 million a year for his efforts.2

Black’s firm lobbied on behalf of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.3

Black’s firm represented Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida, earning at least $1 million for his efforts.4

Black’s firm has represented Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich state “best known for the outlandish brutality of its rulers.”5

Black represented Angolan rebel and “classical terrorist” Jonas Savimbi, a job that earned him $600,000.6 “We have to call him Africa’s classical terrorist,” Makau Mutua, a professor of law and Africa specialist told the New York Times. “In the history of the continent, I think he’s unique because of the degree of suffering he caused without showing any remorse.”7

In recent years his client list has also included the Iraqi National Congress 8, Friends of Blackwater 9, and the China National Off-Shore Oil Corp.10

Since 2005, BKSH has received more than $700,000 in fees from foreign entities.11

Thomas Loeffler, co-chairman of McCain’s campaign, has represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia paid the Loeffler Group “a whopping $7.9 million from December 1, 2005, though November 2006 -- the largest fee collected from a foreign government by any lobbying firm in 2006,” according to National Journal.12 The Washington Times reported that “Mr. Loeffler's firm has received more than $10 million since 2006 from the Saudi Embassy and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”13 Much of this work was centered on gaining admission for the Kingdom to the World Trade Organization.14

Since 2005, according to the Washington Times, “the Loeffler Group reported more than $11 million in fees from foreign lobbying clients.”15

Peter Madigan, a leading McCain fundraiser, lobbies on behalf of the king of Dubai

Madigan has earned upwards of $800,000 to improve the United Arab Emirates’ reputation in the face of a class action lawsuit over the enslavement of boy camel jockeys.16

1. “PR firm is linked to Marcos,” The Globe and Mail, December 20, 1985. 2. Steve Burkholder, “On the Town With Jonas Savimbi,” Common Cause Magazine, Winter 1993; Department of Justice FARA database, accessed February 26, 2008. 3. Burkholder, 1993. 4. William Safire, “The Age of Access, The New York Times, February 17, 1986; Department of Justice FARA Database, accessed February 26, 2008.5. Ken Silverstein, “The Crude Politics of Trading Oil,” The Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2002.6. Evan Thomas, “The Slickest Shop in Town,” Time Magazine, March 3, 1986.7. Nicholas D. Kristof, “Our Own Terrorist,” The New York Times, March 5, 2002.8. Kate Zernike, “'Steady Hand' Helps McCain On a New Path,” The New York Times, April 13, 2008.9. Felicia Roberts, “Food Offerings a Big Part of MultiFest,” Charleston Daily Mail, August 5, 2005 10. Tory Newmyer and Kate Ackley, “K Steet Files,” Roll Call, July 18, 2005.11. Jim McElhatton and Jerry Seper, “McCain Advisers Tied to Foreign Lobbying,” The Washington Times, April 11, 2008.12. James A. Barnes and Peter H. Stone, “Batten Down the Hatches,” The National Journal, April 7, 2007 13. McElhatton and Seper, 2008.14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 16. Peter H. Stone, “Persian Gulf Connection,” The National Journal, December 1, 2007.

CHANGE - PART1

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:15:47 EDT

Change: reshaping government so that it is transparent to Americans - meaning that we get to see what they're doing - where exactly they are spending everyone's money - who is voting for what, who is promoting what changes, giving us the ability to communicate more effectively with our leaders

Change: taking care of our veterans who have been neglected in so many ways for so long. Ensuring that they are honored even after they have provided their service to this country – which hasn’t been happening.

Change: Improving the education of our youth – making a college education obtainable to those who want it – giving us the ability to educate ourselves so we can compete with the rest of the world, rewarding our teachers for what they do and providing incentives for those who teach in the areas that most need it

Change: Investing in the technology to bring those most off the beaten path up to speed by enabling them access to modern communications – high speed internet. Investing in the technology to provide clean energy and reduce the damage we’re doing to our planet while creating new well-paid jobs in the process.

Change: Allowing seniors the ability to retire in peace without having to worry about taxes by eliminating them for seniors that make less than $50/year – who REALLY need it. Making sure they are able to monitor their pension funds and make the investors handling those funds accountable to them by requiring disclosure and access to what they’re doing. Prohibiting companies that file bankruptcy from paying off their executives while liquidating pension funds for the employees.

Change: Providing debt forgiveness for people who are being forced into bankruptcy because of their own or another’s illness – to allow them to get back on their feet without destroying their credit for a decade.

Change: Investing in research and development and providing incentives and grants for alternative fuel manufacturing, requiring more fuel efficient vehicles to decrease our dependency on oil

Change: Easing the burden on millions of families by making the Child Care Tax Credit refundable – meaning GIVING them 50% of their child care costs BACK so they have aren’t working for next to nothing and easing the financial burden so many face and providing the $1000 “making work pay credit” to the middle class.

KEITH OBLERMANN -5/14/08 AMAZING BUSH COMMENTARY!

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:17:03 EDT

President Bush has resorted anew to the sleaziest fear-mongering and mass manipulation of an administration and public life dedicated to realizing the lowest of our expectations. And he has now applied these poisons to the 2008 presidential election, on behalf of the party at whose center he and John McCain lurk.Mr. Bush has predicted that the election of a Democratic president could "eventually lead to another attack on the United States." This ludicrous, infuriating, holier-than-thou and most importantly bone-headedly wrong statement came during a May 13 interview with Politico.com and online users of YahooThe question was phrased as follows: "If we were to pull out of Iraq next year, what's the worst that could happen, what's the doomsday scenario?"The president replied: "Doomsday scenario of course is that extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would eventually lead to another attack on the United States. The biggest issue we face is, it's bigger than Iraq, it's this ideological struggle against cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives."Mr. Bush, at long last, has it not dawned on you that the America you have now created, includes "cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives?" They are those in — or formerly in — your employ, who may yet be charged some day with war crimes.Through your haze of self-congratulation and self-pity, do you still have no earthly clue that this nation has laid waste to Iraq to achieve your political objectives? "This ideological struggle," Mr. Bush, is taking place within this country.It is a struggle between Americans who cherish freedom, ours and everybody else's, and Americans like you, sir, to whom freedom is just a brand name, just like "Patriot Act" is a brand name or "Protect America" is a brand name.But wait, there's more: You also said "Iraq is the place where al-Qaida and other extremists have made their stand and they will be defeated." They made no "stand" in Iraq, sir, you allowed them to assemble there!As certainly as if that were the plan, the borders were left wide open by your government's farcical post-invasion strategy of "they'll greet us as liberators." And as certainly as if that were the plan, the inspiration for another generation of terrorists in another country was provided by your government's farcical post-invasion strategy of letting the societal infra-structure of Iraq dissolve, to be replaced by an American viceroy, enforced by merciless mercenaries who shoot unarmed Iraqis and then evade prosecution in any country by hiding behind your skirts, sir.Terrorism inside Iraq is your creation, Mr. Bush! ***It was a Yahoo user who brought up the second topic upon whose introduction Mr. Bush should have passed, or punted, or gotten up and left the room claiming he heard Dick Cheney calling him."Do you feel," asked an ordinary American, "that you were misled on Iraq?""I feel like — I felt like, there were weapons of mass destruction," the president said. "You know, 'mislead' is a strong word, it almost connotes some kind of intentional — I don't think so, I think there was a — not only our intelligence community, but intelligence communities all across the world shared the same assessment. And so I was disappointed to see how flawed our intelligence was."

Flawed.You, Mr. Bush, and your tragically know-it-all minions, threw out every piece of intelligence that suggested there were no such weapons.You, Mr. Bush, threw out every person who suggested that the sober, contradictory, reality-based intelligence needed to be listened to, and fast. You, Mr. Bush, are responsible for how "intelligence communities all across the world shared the same assessment."You and the sycophants you dredged up and put behind the most important steering wheel in the world propagated palpable nonsense and shoved it down the throat of every intelligence community across the world and punished anybody who didn't agree it was really chicken salad.And you, Mr. Bush, threw under the bus, all of the subsequent critics who bravely stepped forward later to point out just how much of a self-fulfilling prophecy you had embraced, and adopted as this country's policy in lieu of, say, common sense.The fiasco of pre-war intelligence, sir, is your fiasco.You should build a great statue of yourself turning a deaf ear to the warnings of realists, while you are shown embracing the three-card monte dealers like Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.That would be a far more fitting tribute to your legacy, Mr. Bush, than this presidential library you are constructing as a giant fable about your presidency, an edifice you might as well claim was built from "Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" because there will be just as many of those inside your presidential library as there were inside Saddam Hussein's Iraq.Of course if there is one overriding theme to this president's administration it is the utter, always-failing, inability to know when to quit when it is behind. And so Mr. Bush answered yet another question about this layered, nuanced, wheels-within-wheels garbage heap that constituted his excuse for war.

"And so you feel that you didn't have all the information you should have or the right spin on that information?""No, no," replied the President. "I was told by people, that they had weapons of mass destruction …"People? What people? The insane informant "Curveball?" The Iraqi snake-oil salesman Ahmed Chalabi? The American snake-oil salesman Dick Cheney?"I was told by people that they had weapons of mass destruction, as were members of Congress, who voted for the resolution to get rid of Saddam Hussein. "And of course, the political heat gets on and they start to run and try to hide from their votes."Mr. Bush, you destroyed the evidence that contradicted the resolution you jammed down the Congress's throat, the way you jammed it down the nation's throat. When required by law to verify that your evidence was accurate, you simply resubmitted it, with phrases amounting to "See, I done proved it" virtually written in the margins in crayon.You defied patriotic Americans to say "The Emperor Has No Clothes," only with the stakes — as you and the mental dwarves in your employ put it — being a "mushroom cloud over an American city." And as a final crash of self-indulgent nonsense, when the incontrovertible truth of your panoramic and murderous deceit has even begun to cost your political party seemingly perpetual congressional seats in places like North Carolina and Mississippi, you can actually say with a straight face, sir, that for members of Congress "the political heat gets on and they start to run and try to hide from their votes" — while you greet the political heat and try to run and hide from your presidency, and your legacy — 4,000 of the Americans you were supposed to protect — dead in Iraq, with your only feeble, pathetic answer being, "I was told by people that they had weapons of mass destruction."Then came Mr. Bush's final blow to our nation's solar plexus, his last reopening of our common wounds, his last remark that makes the rest of us question not merely his leadership or his judgment but his very suitably to remain in office. "Mr. President," he was asked, "you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq?" "Yes," began perhaps the most startling reply of this nightmarish blight on our lives as Americans on our history. "It really is. I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander in Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as — to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."Golf, sir? Golf sends the wrong signal to the grieving families of our men and women butchered in Iraq? Do you think these families, Mr. Bush, their lives blighted forever, care about you playing golf? Do you think, sir, they care about you?You, Mr. Bush, let their sons and daughters be killed. Sir, to show your solidarity with them you gave up golf? Sir, to show your solidarity with them you didn't give up your pursuit of this insurance-scam, profiteering, morally and financially bankrupting war.Sir, to show your solidarity with them you didn't even give up talking about Iraq, a subject about which you have incessantly proved without pause or backwards glance, that you may literally be the least informed person in the world?Sir, to show your solidarity with them, you didn't give up your presidency? In your own words "solidarity as best as I can" is to stop a game? That is the "best" you can do? Four thousand Americans give up their lives and your sacrifice was to give up golf! Golf. Not "Gulf" — golf. And still it gets worse. Because it proves that the president's unendurable sacrifice, his unbearable pain, the suspension of getting to hit a ball with a stick, was not even his own damned idea."Mr. President, was there a particular moment or incident that brought you to that decision, or how did you come to that?""I remember when [diplomat Sergio Vieira] de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life. And I was playing golf, I think I was in central Texas, and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it any more to do."Your one, tone-deaf, arrogant, pathetic, embarrassing gesture, and you didn't even think of it yourself? The great Bushian sacrifice — an Army private loses a leg, a Marine loses half his skull, 4,000 of their brothers and sisters lose their lives — and you lose golf, and they have to pull you off the golf course to get you to just do that?If it's even true.Apart from your medical files, which dutifully record your torn calf muscle and the knee pain which forced you to give up running at the same time — coincidence, no doubt — the bombing in Baghdad which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello of the U.N. and interrupted your round of golf was on Aug. 19, 2003.Yet CBS News has records of you playing golf as late as Oct. 13 of that year, nearly two months later.Mr. Bush, I hate to break it to you 6 1/2 years after you yoked this nation and your place in history to the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong people, but the war in Iraq is not about you. It is not, Mr. Bush, about your grief when American after American comes home in a box. It is not, Mr. Bush, about what your addled brain has produced in the way of paranoid delusions of risks that do not exist, ready to be activated if some Democrat, and not your twin Mr. McCain, succeeds you.The war in Iraq, your war, Mr. Bush, is about how you accomplished the derangement of two nations, and how you helped funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to lascivious and perennially thirsty corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater, and how you sent 4,000 Americans to their deaths for nothing.It is not, Mr. Bush, about your golf game! And, sir, if you have any hopes that next Jan. 20 will not be celebrated as a day of soul-wrenching, heart-felt thanksgiving, because your faithless stewardship of this presidency will have finally come to a merciful end, this last piece of advice:When somebody asks you, sir, about Democrats who must now pull this country back from the abyss you have placed us at ...When somebody asks you, sir, about the cooked books and faked threats you foisted on a sincere and frightened nation …When somebody asks you, sir, about your gallant, noble, self-abnegating sacrifice of your golf game so as to soothe the families of the war dead. This advice, Mr. Bush: Shut the hell up!

OBAMA STRONGER AGAINST MCCAIN BY THE NUMBERS

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:59:44 EDT

In my complete obsession with trying to see what's going to happen with this race and trying to see if Hillary is blowing smoke saying shes the stronger nominee (and it IS SMOKE) I ran the numbers and found a whole lot more in favor of Obama - here's some of the information I found

Obama actually is within a few points - and actually ahead to steal the following REPUBLICAN STATES when polled against McCain -

NORTH CAROLINA - Tied McCain for the state (47 - 47)- HRC loses it (40) to MC (51) by 11 points

NEBRASKA - Ob (42) is only 3 down from MC (45) - HRC loses it (30) to MC (57) by 27 points

NORTH DAKOTA - OB WINS it by 4 points (46) over McCain (42) - HRC LOSES IT (33) to MC (53) by 20 points

ALASKA - OB down (43) to MC (48) - HRC down (32) to MC (57)

TEXAS - OB down 5 pts from MC - HRC down 6 pts

FLORIDA (SURPRISE!) BOTH are within 4 pts of taking it

VIRGINIA - OB down 9 pts to MC - HRC down 22 pts to MC

MONTANA - OB down 5 pts - HRC down 18 pts

NEVADA - OB down 5 pts - HRC down 11 pts

TOSSUP STATES -

COLORADO - OB takes it (46) to MC (42) - HRC LOSES IT (36) TO MC (50)

NEVADA - OB only down 5 pts - HRC down 11 pts

DEMOCRATIC STATES - HRC ACTUALLY LOSES SOME OF THEM!

IOWA - OB WINS (46) TO MC (42) - HRC LOSES IT (36) TO MC (51)

NEW MEXICO - OB WINS (45) TO MC (42) - HRC LOSES (43) TO MC (46)

WASHINGTON - OB WINS (48) TO MC (43) - HRC LOSES IT (43) TO MC (46)

OREGON - OB TAKES IT (48) TO MC (42) - HRC LOSES IT (40) TO MC (51)

WISCONSIN - OB takes it (47) to MC (43) - HRC LOSES IT (41) TO MC (47)

THE OTHER DEMOCRATIC STATES SHOW BOTH OF THEM TKAKING THEM BUT I FOUND IT AMAZING HOW SHE CAN CLAIM TO BE THE STRONGER CANDIDATE GIVEN THESE STATS - OBAMA CAN PUT SO MUCH MORE INTO PLAY FOR DEMOCRATS THAN HER AND HE'S GOING TO WIN IF THEY ALLOW HIM TO - HRC WILL LOSE TO MCCAIN IF THEY ARE THE CANDIDATES - THESE NUMBERS SHOW IT EASILY - HE'S GOT A HELL OF A BASE COMPARED TO HER IN THE GENERAL. ANYWAY - PASS THE INFO ALONG IF YOU WANT BUT I FIGURED IT WOULD GIVE EVERYONE EVEN MORE TO BE PROUD OF!~~

OBAMA NARROWING HRC SUPERDELEGATE LEAD

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:37:35 EDT

Reviewing the latest numbers with regard to superdelegates, Obama is now only 17 behind HRC on superdelegates - after tomorrow he will likely end up overtaking her - and removing that final basis for her to try to take the nomination from him - which was her claim that she holds a higher electoral college basis.

I read on several posts on different sites that some Republicans admitted that they "became democrat for a day" - meaning that they registered as democrat only to vote in the primary (nearly everyone that posted this said they voted for Clinton - but that they retain their republican registration for the general -

You tell me - what kind of conspiracy is that!!!! Is there NOTHING this woman won't do to get the nomination??? As a woman I always said that I'd be behind a woman who actually got a chance to run for president, but I absolutely detest the machinations and tactics of this woman and truly believe she has no business holding any office of any kind in any branch of government.

She has outright lied to Americans with the Bosnia deal, misrepresented her "experience" as 35 yrs when she's held office for only 7 - she is taking credit for Bill's entire political history and incredibly no one calls her on it, she does NOT have the popular vote, has a very concentrated base - 17% of her "base" is the votes she won in New York. She has won only 15 contests as opposed to 31 won by Obama, 3 states were dead even. 22 of those won by Obama were won by MORE than 60% while hillary one only 5 of her 15 by more than 60% - clearly Obama has a much broader voter base than she does and on the few occasions he did lose, it wasn't by much.

The media is being seriously irresponsible in not grilling HRC about how she can justify her position that she wants to help Americans by saving them $20-$30/month on gas while taking the jobs and incomes of hundreds of thousands of other americans????? She says she's about jobs jobs jobs - that is such a joke.

GO OBAMA - we have GOT to win - FOR AMERICA'S SAKE!

AN AMAZING ENDORSEMENT

tefta "hussein" "sweetie" - counting down to the change we need! — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:17:06 EDT

May 1, 2008
Dear Friends:
I have been inspired.
Today I am announcing my support for Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. I am changing my support from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama, and calling for my fellow Democrats across my home State of Indiana, and my fellow super delegates across the nation, to heal the rift in our Party and unite behind Barack Obama.
The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. That is the decision Democrats face today. We have an embarrassment of riches, but as much as we may love our candidates and revel in the political process that has brought Presidential politics to places that have not seen it in a generation, we cannot let our family affair hurt America by helping John McCain.
Here is my message, explained in this lengthy letter that I hope is perceived as a thoughtful analysis of how to save America from four more years of the misguided polices of the past: you can be for someone without being against someone else. You can unite behind a candidate and a vision for America without rejecting another candidate and their vision, because in real life, opposed to party politics, we Democrats are on the same side. The battle should not be amongst ourselves. Rather, we should focus our efforts on those who are truly on the opposite side: those who want to continue the failed policies of the last eight years, rather than bring real change to Washington. Let us come together right now behind an inspiring leader who not only has the audacity to challenge the old divisive politics, but the audacity to make us all hope for a better America.
Unite the Party Now
I believe that Bill Clinton will be remembered as one of our nation's great Presidents, and Senator Clinton as one of our nation's great public servants. But as much as I respect and admire them both, it is clear that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process, and a vote to continue this process is a vote that assists John McCain.
I ask Hoosiers to come together and vote for Barack Obama to be our next President. In an accident of timing, Indiana has been given the opportunity to truly make a difference. Hoosiers should grab that power and do what in their heart they know is right. They should reject the old negative politics and vote for true change. Don't settle for the tried and true and the simplistic slogans, but listen to your heart and dare to be inspired. Only a cynic would be critical of Barack Obama inspiring millions. Only the uninformed could forget that the candidate that wins in November is always the candidate that inspires millions.
I ask the leaders of our Party to come together after this Tuesday's primary to heal wounds and unite us around a single nominee. While I was hopeful that a long, contested primary season would invigorate our Party, the polls show that the tone and temperature of the race is now hurting us. John McCain, without doing much of anything, is now competitive against both of our remaining candidates. We are doing his work for him and distracting Americans from the issues that really affect all of our lives.
We need to be talking about fixing the economy, not whose acquaintances once said what to whom. We need to be talking about stopping the attacks in Iraq, not stopping the attacks in Indiana. We need to be talking about policy, not politics.
Barack Obama is the Right Candidate for Right Now
While I am a longtime critic of our Party's rules that created so-called super delegates, we have the rules we have and we must live with them. I am humbled and honored to be a super delegate, and I understand the seriousness of the duty it entails. I recognize that this is a difficult decision for super delegates like me, who owe so much to President Bill Clinton. It is right to be loyal, to be grateful and to be consistent. But it is also right to acknowledge the inevitability of change, right to dare to dream for a better world, and right to know what in your heart is the right thing for the future even if your friends and family disagree. Good things, just like good people, can disagree. But as Democrats, we must disagree with dignity, debate with admiration of each other, and in the end, go forward with mutual respect.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore gave me the opportunity to serve as the Chair of the Democratic Party. I pledged my loyalty to them, and I will never forget Al Gore putting ego aside, gently demurring, and simply asking me to put our country ahead of politics. It is a lesson I will remember forever, and it is what guides me now in this decision. What is best for our Party and our country is not blind loyalty, but passionate support for the candidate who can best correct the misguided policies of the last eight years.
We need a candidate who will re-invigorate the economy and keep good jobs here in America. We need a candidate who will end the war in Iraq. We need a candidate who will provide health coverage for our 45 million uninsured neighbors. We need a candidate who will end our addiction to high-priced foreign oil by investing in renewable energy here at home.
That candidate is Barack Obama.
What was best for America sixteen years ago was electing Bill Clinton. What would have been best for America eight years ago was not only electing Al Gore, which we did, but allowing him to serve as President of the United States. Imagine how the world would be different if Al Gore and not George Bush, would have been President of the United States. Let's seize the opportunity and vote for someone who like Al Gore, was against the war from the beginning, and who brings a new energy, a new excitement, and a new politics to our country.
Let’s put things right.
Time to Act
Many will ask, why now? Why, with several primaries still remaining, with Senator Clinton just winning Pennsylvania, with my friend Evan Bayh working hard to make sure Senator Clinton wins Indiana, why switch now? Why call for super delegates to come together now to constructively pick a president?
The simple answer is that while the timing is hard for me personally, it is best for America. We simply cannot wait any longer, nor can we let this race fall any lower and still hope to win in November. June or July may be too late. The time to act is now.
I write this letter from my mom's dining room table in Indianapolis, Indiana. Four generations of my family have argued and laughed around this table. But what I humbly believe today is that we, as Democrats and as Americans, face what Dr. King characterized and what Senator Obama reminds us is the fierce urgency of now. As a nation, we are at a critical moment and we need leaders with the character and vision to see us through the challenges at hand and those to come. I can't guess what will happen tomorrow, so I can't tell you what kind of experience our next President will need to have to deal with those challenges. But I can tell you what kind of character and vision they will need to have -- and that is what inspires me about Barack Obama.
As Democrats, however, we risk letting this moment slip through our fingers. We risk ceding the field to the Republicans and allowing the morally bankrupt Bush Agenda to continue unabated if we do not unite behind a single candidate. Should this race continue after Indiana and North Carolina, it will inevitably become more negative. The polls already show the supporters for both candidates becoming more strident in their positions and more locked into their support. Continuing on this path would be a catastrophe, as we would inadvertently end up doing Republicans work for them. Already, instead of the audacity of hope, we suffer the audacity of one Democrat comparing John McCain favorably to another Democrat. When that happens, you know it is time for all of us to stop, take a deep breath and unite to change America.
We must act and we must act now.
The Problems of the Process: 2000 and 2008
When Al Gore got a half million more votes than George Bush in 2000, yet the Electoral College elected George Bush President, we saw the absurdity of any system that does not elect the person who gets the most votes. That is why the Democratic Party's nomination process is flawed. I will continue to fight for a 2012 process where there are only primaries, and which ever Democrat gets the most votes becomes our nominee. Delegates should decide the party platform -- voters should decide who our nominee is.
But we are struck with this absurd system for 2008, and, flawed though it may be, we must work within it without betraying the voice of the people. No amount of spin or sleight of hand can deny the fact that where there has been competition, Senator Obama has won more votes, more States and more delegates than any other candidate. Only the super delegates can award the nomination to Senator Clinton, but to do so risks doing to our Party in 2008 what Republicans did to our country in 2000. Let us be intellectually consistent and unite behind Barack Obama.
A New Era of Politics
My endorsement of Senator Obama will not be welcome news to my friends and family at the Clinton campaign. If the campaign's surrogates called Governor Bill Richardson, a respected former member of President Clinton's cabinet, a "Judas" for endorsing Senator Obama, we can all imagine how they will treat somebody like me. They are the best practitioners of the old politics, so they will no doubt call me a traitor, an opportunist and a hypocrite. I will be branded as disloyal, power-hungry, but most importantly, they will use the exact words that Republicans used to attack me when I was defending President Clinton.
When they use the same attacks made on me when I was defending them, they prove the callow hypocrisy of the old politics first perfected by Republicans. I am an expert on this because these were the exact tools that I mastered as a campaign volunteer, a campaign manager, a State Party Chair and the National Chair of our Party. I learned the lessons of the tough, right-wing Republicans all too well. I can speak with authority on how to spar with everyone from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove. I understand that, while wrong and pernicious, shallow victory can be achieved through division by semantics and obfuscation. Like many, I succumbed to the addiction of old politics because they are so easy.
Innuendo is easy. The truth is hard.
Sound bites are easy. Solutions are hard.
Spin is simple and easy. Struggling with facts is complicated and hard.
I have learned the hard way that you can love the candidate and hate the campaign. My stomach churns when I think how my old friends in the Clinton campaign will just pick up the old silly Republican play book and call in the same old artificial attacks and bombardments we have all heard before.
Yet, despite the simple and overwhelming pressure to do anything and everything to win, Barack Obama has risen above it all and demanded a new brand of politics. People flock to Senator Obama because they are rejecting the hyperbole of the old politics. The past eight years of George Bush have witnessed a retreat from substance, science, and reason in favor spin, cronyism and ideology. Barack Obama has dared not only to criticize it, as all Democrats do, but to actually reject playing the same old game. And in doing so, he has shown us a new path to victory.
Uniting for Victory
The simple fact is that Democrats need to be united in November to win, and Clinton supporters, in particular, will be vital to victory. We will not convince Clinton supporters to join the Obama campaign, however, by personally criticizing them. We must welcome everyone and avoid doing Republican work for them. It is therefore incumbent on all of us who once supported Senator Clinton to welcome the thousands who should now switch their support to Senator Obama. Similarly, a necessary part of the healing process for our Party is for those who supported Senator Obama early to have the grace and good sense to broaden the tent and welcome newcomers into the fold.
The old players of the old political game will claim that I am betraying my old friend Senator Evan Bayh by switching my support to Senator Obama. I believe that Evan Bayh would be a great President, and therefore a great Vice President. I will continue to argue that he would be a great choice to be on the ticket with Barack Obama. Evan Bayh is uniquely positioned as a successful governor with executive experience who is now a U.S. Senator with foreign policy experience and who is young enough to not undercut the message of vitality and hard work that Barack Obama represents. Part of healing the Party may be to have a Clinton supporter on the ticket, let alone someone who would help with Indiana, Ohio and the moderate Midwest in the general election.
Being for Evan Bayh, however, does not mean that you have to be for Hillary Clinton. The important message to Hoosiers, and to super delegates, is that being for someone does not mean that you agree 100 percent of the time. Regardless of whether Evan Bayh and I support different candidates, I will support Evan Bayh.
We must reject the notion that we have to beat the Republicans at their own game -- or even that the game has to be played at all. It is so easy for all of us involved -- candidates, campaigns and the media -- to focus on the process and the horse race that we forget why we got into it in the first place. Barack Obama has had the courage to talk about real issues, real problems and real people. Let's pause for a second in the midst of the cacophony of the campaign circus and listen.
In 1992, I was inspired by Bill Clinton because he promised, and delivered, a framework for addressing America's problems. President Clinton ended a long-running left-right debate in our Party, and inspired millions. He drew giant crowds and spoke passionately for a generation of Americans who often disenfranchised and rarely participated in governing. Today, Barack Obama does the same thing. Winners redefine the game. Winners connect with the American people and not only feel their pain, but inspire them to take action to heal the underlying cause. Barack Obama is that kind of candidate and that kind of leader, which is why he will win in November.
Welcoming Everyone into the Party
We face significant challenges as a nation and as a Party, but time and again, Americans have shown the resilience and determination necessary to overcome even the highest obstacle. We have a difficult road ahead, but I have complete confidence that Barack Obama is the candidate who can lead our Party to victory and the President who can guide us to even greater heights.
Many Democrats know me for one short speech I gave over and over again in the 2000 Presidential campaign. That speech was about welcoming people into our Party and welcoming undecided voters to our campaign to elect Al Gore. Today, we need to welcome Clinton supporters, undecided voters, and all Americans to join Barack Obama's cause to fight for a better America. My speech ended with these words, which are even more relevant today:
The difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is that you are always welcome in the Democratic Party.
Because Democrats don’t care if you are black or white or brown or a nice shade of green, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care if you pray in a church or a synagogue or a temple or a mosque, or just before math tests, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care if you are young or old, or just don’t want to tell your age, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care what gender you are, or what gender you want to hold hands with; as long as you want to hold hands, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care about the size of your bank account, just the size of your heart; and we don’t care where you are today, just where you dream you want to be tomorrow.
That is your Democratic Party.
That is Barack Obama's Democratic Party.
That is the Party that will win in November.
joeandrews2008@gmail.com
jandrew@sonnenschein.com
1301 K Street, N.W.
Suite 600, East Tower
Washington, DC 20005-3364
Phone: 202-408-5210
Ph.: 202.408.6400
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