Thomas Ridley's Blog

What a night for Change.

Nativeeyesarewatching — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:52:30 EDT

I couldn't have said it better myself..

Wimpy McMummy and his merry staff, can't talk straight on the Crooked talk express.

They have resorted and stuck to crying like kids when they don't get any attention.

The tantrums and hissy fits are so immature.

Everytime McShame makes a Gaffe, the GOP goes into spin mode to quickly turn it around and Blame the other guy for something.

McShame is running the worse possible attempt at a campaign since Bush.

McGaffe has resorted to giving who will ever listen with fragile minds, a take on what could be your fears of hate, put a face on it, that is not his.

The Smear campaign he promised he WOULD NOT do by running a self prclaimed CLEAN CAMPAIGN was truly his way of saying, I'll LIE, CHEAT, DISTORT, MISLEAD AND KEEP LYING to get into the WH.

He really thinks that this is what Americans wants to see from a REPUBLICAN after ALL the LIES, CHEATS, DISTORTIONS, MISLEADS AND MORE LIES that comes from BUSH.

I just want to thank McBush for coming back to Gaffe highway and reality..

We Democrats, Inpendents, some Republicans and other organizations formed with US, are ready to pounce, once the REAL DEAL begins..

Thank you McBUSH for all the silly ads you are using. How does that person still have a job is beyond me.

McBush couldn't wait for Obama to leave the Country to go on the dumbfounded Attack.

The ads have been the worse attempts at a Real Candidate I've ever seen. lol!!

I really get a kick out of them.. I can't believe someone really thinks these dumb ads up!!

Obama blamed for the Gas hikes was so funny I had to run it over and over with comical astonishment and amazement.

If I was a normal everyday Republican, would I think this to be true?

That's scary!!

I was like " Boy what moron allowed this to run" Then I thought, is someone out there in the US really going to think this could possibly be true? Then I thought, do they think someone will really believe this? To me they're calling people dumb. The ads are truly insulting to even the most staunch Republicans and conservatives.

I've recently talk to people whom say they are conservatives.

They told me, they don't like the guy(McShame) and wish the GOP picked someone else to run for POTUS.

I had to ask them this one, lol!! How do you really feal about his many recents Gaffes?

They all told me with a smile, "He is Bush in a smaller frame" or "We didn't pick him, "We picked Huccabee or Romney". Then I ask them this, " Are you going to still vote for him?"

All 10 of them laughed out loud and said, are you serious? I smiled and said " Is that a NO?" Almost in sequence "Hell to the NO?" " Hell no" " You must be crazy" "We will be back in 8 years" "That guy gots to retire from Politics" "He is making a fool of himself at our expense?

I said, " Do you think it's his age?

All 10 of them said, "YES" "He needs to retire and relax, He's 72, 65 is retirement age right" "He's Rich, why is he out there doing this to himself?" They told me "Republicans they've all talk to, have said the same thing". I am now tickled laughing inside..

One of the guys said "His time has passed" "We need new blood" "Bush hurt the Republican Brand name for years to come"

I almost coudn't contain my laughter, So I had to let it go.. Baaawaaaaaa!!

I asked them? " What do you think about Obama?" They all told me " I hope he is what he says he is" " I think he is sincere" "He's is a smart guy from what I read" "I think he will be a ok President" "He's speech's are great and I listen to them cause of my wife and kids." "They like him a lot" "Dude what is up with the Crowds for him" " They are going crazy for him"

I asked" What do you think about his Words of Change and what he will do for America? I can't repeat them all, let just say, they where positive.

So you know I had to smile my Native American Butt off, lol!!

Then I got real bold, lol and asked, "Why not vote for Obama this year to give yourself a part of History to tell your kids?" 8 of them mostly stated that, "They are thinking or thought about it, since it would be cool to say that they Voted for the 1st Black President even though they don't see eye to eye" The others all agreed.

The other two said that "People at their employment are pressuring them to be a independent thinkers and to think about what is best for the Country, not just what the Government needs"

So I had to buy 10 Cops two rounds of drinks after my grilling. One ask me if I had any Obama buttons?

I went to my car and took out the 4 I had. I said that will be $2. I sold all 4 to the Cops. 3 of them put them on right there. The other guy said, "I will give this to my wife, maybe I'll get lucky tonight"..

lol!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27rich.html?ref=opinion

MEDIA LIKES BARACK, BUT SILENT FOR MCCAIN

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:53:25 EDT

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” on Monday when he apparently meant “Afghanistan”, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.

Just in the past three weeks, McCain has also mistaken "Somalia" for "Sudan," and even football’s Green Bay Packers for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise: foreign affairs.

McCain will turn 72 the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts his party’s nomination for president at the age of 47, calling new attention to the sensitive issue of McCain’s advanced age three days before the start of his own convention.

The McCain campaign says Obama has had plenty of flubs of his own, including a reference to "57 states" and a string of misstated place names during the primaries that Republicans gleefully sent around as YouTube links.

McCain aides point out that he spends much more time than Obama talking extemporaneously, taking questions from voters and reporters. "Being human and tripping over your tongue occasionally doesn't mean a thing," a top McCain official said.

But McCain's mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office?

Voters, thinking about their own relatives, can be expected to scrutinize McCain’s debate performances for signs of slippage.

Every voter has a parent, grandparent or a friend whose mental acuity declined as they grew older. It happens at different times for different people — and there is ample evidence many people in their 70s are as sharp and fit as ever.

In McCain’s case, his medical records, public appearances and travel schedule have suggested he remains at the top of his game.

But his liberal critics have been pouncing on every misstatement as a sign that he’s an old man.

Already, late-night comics have made McCain’s age an almost nightly topic, with CBS’s David Letterman getting a laugh just about any time he says the words “McCain” and “nap” in the same sentence.

Last week, McCain tried to defuse the issue by pretending to doze off during an appearance with NBC’s Conan O’Brien.

Republicans would like to make the case that McCain is seasoned and Obama is a callow newcomer to the public stage. But that’ll be harder if he keeps up the verbal slips, which make it easier for comedians and critics to pile on.

“First Gaffe of Obama Trip ... Goes To McCain,” blared Monday afternoon’s banner headline on the left-leaning Huffington Post, accompanied by a photo of McCain appearing to slap his forehead.

That referred to an ABCNews.com posting asserting that McCain appeared to confuse Iraq and Afghanistan in a “Good Morning America” interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who asked whether the "the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent.”

McCain responded: “I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," McCain said. The ABC posting added: “Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.”

Unfortunately for McCain, that wasn’t an isolated slip. Among the other lapses:

• “Somalia” for “Sudan”: As recounted in a reporter’s pool report from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus on June 30, the senator said while discussing Darfur, a region of Sudan: "How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?"

Senior adviser Mark Salter corrected him: “Sudan.”

• “Germany” for “Russia”: A YouTube clip from last year memorializes McCain referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia — following a trip to Germany — as “President Putin of Germany.”

• This spring, McCain said troops in Iraq were “down to pre-surge levels” when in fact there were 20,000 more troops than when the surge policy began.

• Also this spring, McCain twice appeared to mistake Sunnis and Shiites, two branches of Islam that split violently.

• In Phoenix earlier this month, McCain referred to Czechoslovakia, which has been divided since Jan. 1, 1993, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also referred to Czechoslovakia during a debate in November and a radio show in April.

• In perhaps the most curious incident, McCain said earlier this month that as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he had tried to confuse his captors by giving the names of Pittsburgh Steelers starting players when asked to identify his squadron mates. McCain has told the story many times over the years — but always correctly referred to the names he gave as members of the Green Bay Packers.

GRANDPARENTS NEED TO KNOW THIS..

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:12:52 EDT

Hello my fellow Democrats, Independents and Republicans for Obama,

We still have time to get more people registered. We all must keep up the diligent work we've started. Please set aside time this week thru the next 2 weekends to get out the word. We must not let Florida be the State that makes the McStake happen, again. Bring your Clip Boards filled with Voter registrations paperwork to the Supermarket, Laundromats, bus stations and any town celebrations you can find. This is OUR year. The Year WE said YES WE CAN and WE DID. We in Florida can no longer be looked at as the State that couldn't get it together. We took that to the chin and we must keep it moving. We all are part of American History. Now we are making History!!! We are the Voters against the Wars of the 60's. We are the Voters of what is Right in America. We are Voters that want a personal stake in our Country's movement for a Better Economy. We are the Voters that saw Civil Liberty Voting Rights become law and Civil Rights movements happen, and wish we could have been there to make our stand. Yes, we are those Voters that want change in our Leadership and Values within our Government.

Some politicians have lost their way to Big Corporations saying trade is good, while our jobs are being shipped overseas and factory's close at an alarming rate. So McCain's been in Congress for 20 something years and has done nothing to stop, help or curb to change this.

McCain's judgment got us into this mess and won't ever say he was wrong about invading Iraq.

Typical of a screw up he is but not to admitting he's wrong about the lives that lost in Iraq. Why won't his Town Hall audience ask that of him? I guess the Kool-aid before the speech is that good.

Bush and McCain would rather start Wars with out clear and precise ways of winning them long before they start them. McCain touts his judgment in trying to win a War we had no business enacting, while touting he "Knows how to Win Wars".

Ask yourself, Is this the same politics that your Grandparents are voted for? Is this the Government that your Grandparents are use too? I bet they say NO.. Then ask them, what are you going to do about it?

McCain is thinking about taking away Social Security that your Grandparents too have worked long and hard for.

McCain the Candidate that votes one way and then tells you he was against it, even though his record reflects he was for it.

If you have a Grandmother that is going to the Polls to cast her vote, ask her if you vote Republican, are voting for a Candidate that has voted against Longer Maternity leave, Head Start programs for Children and voted against one of the Most crucial GI Bill benefit Program that will give our Troops hope that they will come home and be re-trained for jobs that they lost before going to war.

McCain is voted against Better College Grants for our Troops in order to give them hope, when they have lost a bit of themselves in the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McCain voted against Better Medical for our Troops whom were injured both Mentally and Physically.

Obama has spoken that he wanted these programs early in the Primary's. McCain knew the day this Bill was on the Senate floor to be passed. Tell your Grandparents exactly what McCain did, and what it did for all the Men and Women in the Military.

Tell them what Obama did when he imposed his executive will in the House of Congress.

Have Democrats and Republicans vote overwhelmingly for the New GI Bill. The Media didn't want you to know that one, :O)

McCain truly has shown that he doesn't care for the mental and emotional wellbeing of our Troops once they return home.

McCain really thinks he can joke about War and killing innocent humans while he and Bush continue their Fear and War mongering manners.

The horrible debacle with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center was a direct oversight by Sen. John McCain.

It was his fault that the deplorable conditions at the Medical Center went unseen and not funded enough to improve health care and building maintenance that wasn't adhered too.

With a mindset like McCain's, we would be worse off than ever before. People say Bush=McCain, no, no,no!! McCain=Bush

McCain is trying to show he's changed from Bush mindset, but his recent voting record shows that he is still the one of the Worse Republicans in Congress with not showing up and voting for what would make OUR LIVES a lot better.

He is the most Absent Senator in Congress. Does your Grandparents know this?? Do they care? He carelessly throws out words to his Town Halls, it doesn't matter, we could be in Iraq for 100 years. We occupy China and Germany, so will build a US base and stay in Iraq. Problem with that, McCain is the only human alive that thinks this way. Bush has said that will not build a US Base in Iraq and Iraq has stated, that will never happen. Yes, he said that he was misquoted and now says that he wants "Us out in 5 years" a time table.

So if he has visited Iraq 9 times and still comes up with a 5 year time table and the President of Iraq wants us out now! Leads me to think ,is McCain, Bush and Cheney is either making more money off this War than what we came to believe?

Or Bush's use of the War as way to get footing for McCain the War Monger Candidacy? Or is it that Bush or McCain hasn't said a word about Pulling our Troops out early because they have no friggin clue what is going on in Iraq?

Or is that they are afraid that Sen. Obama will come out looking more like the President of the USA that gives Iraqis hope also?

The President of Iraq wants a time table!! Obama wants a time table! Our Troops want a time table! Their families and friends want a time table!

The President of Iraq has endorsed Sen. Obama's time table!!! Hello!!!! Sen. Obama has Stated his position on communications with Iran's leaders and now Bush wants to take credit for making this a reality. So much for that appeasement speech from Bush at the Israeli Knesset.

Now the Bush Administration wants the President of Iraq to retract his statements of endorsing Presidential Nominee Barack Obama's time table. To Late Bush and McCain. No matter who is trying to speak for the President of Iraq, the President of Iraq has spoken, so it must be true. But not for good ole McCain the "I CAN WIN WARS" the puppet of destruction and propaganda.

Oh I forgot, McCain is just now finding out more about our Economy going south and people are hurting. I still can't believe he is still pandering and assuming Republicans and Independents are that naive and not smart enough to see through his incompetence. And they still think his Gas Tax Holiday will work when even though the Gas guru's and Big Oil Companies have said that the Commodity's Market will correct itself if there is a Gas Tax Holiday. They also stated that it will make the price of Gas go up towards $6 shortly after the Gas Tax Holiday begins since we will again start to buy more Gas faster than before the Tax Holiday.

Sen. Obama himself have stated that this won't work. Economist have stated this won't work. We all know that this is pandering and not right to tell people something that won't work and will work against them. Obama knows this first hand because in his home State of Illinois, they tried it and it failed miserably. So Obama knows exactly what he's talking about.

So why is McCain still telling people this in his Town Hall Meetings? Those poor souls people are cheering and clapping for it.

This leads me to think, that there is a lot of really naive people that just need to get a lot more educated and updated about who this man is and what this man stands for and not just what they need to hear.

Sen. Obama has spoken very clearly on his Alternative Energy push for an end to our need for fossil fuels.

So now they have McCain, AGAIN using Sen. Obama's Alternative Fuel Initiatives stand to get us off the addiction to Fossil fuels.

Now T. Boone Pickens and McCain are jumping on the Barack Obama Band wagon for Alternative Fuels initiatives.

To bad now the GOP have found out that it's not working as well as his campaign advisors thought.

So now they have McCain, AGAIN using Sen. Obama's Alternative Fuel Initiatives stand to get us off the addiction to Fossil fuels.

Now T. Boone Pickens and McCain are jumping on the Barack Obama Band wagon for Alternative Fuels initiatives.

McCain was all against drilling for Oil anywhere and was with Bush Sr. when he signed to end Drilling in the US and Offshore. That was McCain being a Proactive puppet then and now on his Primary Campaign strategy this year. But only after (other) people(puppet masters) have called for more drilling to be use as a General Election Pandering ploy for McCain. And sense McCain by his own words and true statements, he doesn't have much knowledge on Economic Affairs, WOW, YOU DON'T SAY..

I Guess Computers are his Kryptonite too? No wonder he never knew anything about Dr. Martin Luther King or what he stood for.

This is what you get from a person whom graduated 5th from the Bottom of his Naval Academy Class and barely Graduated at the Navy College. He Flunked flight school but with the help of his Father, he got several chances to make the cut.

With Barack Obama, we get a Columbia Undergrad and Harvard Law Graduate that was voted by his highly educated mostly Republican peers as the Head of the most Prestigious Law Review in the Country. He Graduated Magna Cum Laude and was in the top his Graduation class. His story and History is amazing and will be told to our Sons and Daughters for years to come. Trust me on this. As for a matter of fact, QUOTE ME AS SAYING THIS.

The Bush family makes more money on Wars than they could ever make in Oil, within the US. So Wars have been good to them Bush's, Cheney and other Politicians that have invested in the Carlyle Group, Halliburton and the late Enron.

Your Grandparents will be the one of the factors in this election that we need on board. Tell about what you see and feel with Change. Get in their heads. I do.. But it's easy for me, I like to talk.

Ask them? Do you want more of this, or more that? Or change? Social Security is important to them right? Well Sen. Obama states that if they receive $50k and under, they will not have to pay taxes on their SSI. Even though it's only a very small amount, but we can make that up and them some with getting rid of Bush's tax cut for the Rich. Capital gains tax will only effect the top 5% of money earners in this Country, that make gross purchases of homes, Cars, Yachts and other wealthy material items. We should not worry since we don't have that kind of wealth, Yet. They don't care because the RICH will find away around it. They always do.

That's why you hear the Rich Actors and entertainers complaining. Only a few loud mouths that don't care about normal everyday people's lives are complaining about Obama tax plans. And those people are newly rich themselves and can afford the hit.

Together we must get the vote right this year. We cannot afford it any other way. Ask your Grandparents where do you want our Country to go? What are you willing to do about it? Are you willing to make the right choice? Tell them with a Democratic Majority Congress, Obama can almost get anything passed, so he can get what he says, mostly. Tell them that!!

McCain won't get a third of what he ask in Congress if President because of the Democratic House Majority. Tell them about the very recent Bill that Bush vetoed and got the House of Congress pushed back and overrides his veto. See what is happening already.

CHANGE is what WE want, and CHANGE it what WE shall have..

Then tell them, VOTE for Obama and put an end to this horrible legacy, if not for them, tell them for Us and our Children.

McCain and the Bush Admin is part of the Problem that has made the grave mistakes, now let Obama and his well qualified and intelligent Administration clean it up and get us back on track..

YES WE CAN.

WHY WE WANT HIM, AND THEY DON'T

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:07:16 EDT

Arianna Huffington BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index Tell Me Again, Why Is Obama Being Popular With Our Allies a Bad Thing?stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust

Posted July 21, 2008 | 06:20 PM (EST)

I understand why John McCain's campaign is desperately looking for negatives in Obama's overseas trip. But why have so many in the media internalized the McCain campaign's claptrap?

Here is the McCain line on Europe, delivered via Politico by a nameless campaign aide: "I don't know that people in Missouri are going to like seeing tens of thousands of Europeans screaming for The One."

And here was Gloria Borger on CNN, responding to Wolf Blitzer's assertion that Obama seemed to be on top of his game by pulling out the Straight Talk talking points (and leaving logic and rational thinking in a pile on the studio floor):

...as the McCain campaign points out, he can't appear to be seen as running for the president of Europe. He's going to be really cheered in Europe, he's going to give a huge speech. He's going to have a lot of support there. But he's running for the president of the United States. And so they have to walk a very, very fine line here because they don't want to be seen having too many adoring people after him in Europe because he's running for president of the United States.

What do Borger and the McCain campaign think would play better in Missouri, Obama getting off the plane in Germany and having the locals throw tomatoes at him? Would that endear him to the people in Middle America -- who, in McCain World, are like an insecure girlfriend, panicked by just the thought of someone else finding their guy attractive?

Sadly, this absurd line of thinking is spreading fast. Here is the L.A. Times' Michael Finnegan:

In Europe, where he is highly popular, Obama plans a speech in Berlin on U.S. relations with allies. He will probably find a warm, even rapturous, reception -- which poses its own challenges. 'There's such a thing as being too popular overseas,' said [William] Galston, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'And that may create some misgivings here at home.'

The Baltimore Sun's Washington bureau chief Paul West ominously warns: "European adulation for Obama will make him the continent's poodle."

And even Maureen Dowd appears to have bought into the McCainites' Euro-phobia, suggesting Obama "can't be seen as too insidery with the Euro-crats" lest Obama-wary Americans "wonder what he's doing there, when they can't pay for gas, when the dollar is the Euro's chew toy, when Bud is going Belgian and when the Chrysler Building has Arab landlords." And don't forget all those German cars on our roads. Which we can't afford to drive because gas is too expensive (for which, according to McCain, we can blame Obama).

Of course, at no point does the McCain campaign or anyone in the media point out what, exactly, is the danger to America if our closest allies actually, you know, don't hate us.

They also fail to mention that along with being our allies, the European countries Obama is visiting are also democracies -- so it's a lot easier for their leaders to make nice with us if their constituents don't view our president as an object of disdain and ridicule.

And, as Jason Linkins points out, George Bush keeps giving them reasons for ongoing disdain and ridicule. As does McCain. Is it really better for America's standing in the world to have a president who doesn't know that Czechoslovakia no longer exists and who thinks there is a border between Iraq and Pakistan?

Iraq has shown us what an essentially go-it-alone war looks like.

And the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan -- resulting in more U.S. troop fatalities there in May and June than in Iraq -- is a tragic reminder of the consequences of a U.S. military spread too thin, and of not having our allies fully backing our efforts.

Given a recent poll showing the German public prefers Obama to McCain 67 percent to 6 percent, it's no surprise that McCain would try to spin his opponent's popularity there as a black mark on his record. It's also no surprise that McCain isn't willing to admit that our allies' antipathy toward Bush and his policies -- exacerbated by the contempt the Bushies always seemed to delight in directing at them (see Rummy on "Old Europe") -- has cost us dearly in blood, treasure, and goodwill. But it is a surprise that the media are so eagerly parroting the "popular is a problem" meme.

Thankfully, most Americans understand that having a president who is lauded around the world is infinitely better than having one who is loathed.

Some Reason's why I support Obama

Nativeeyesarewatching — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:25:14 EDT

Obama did all this in 1 year in the US Senate!

Imagine when he becomes President with a Majority Democratic Congress!! WOW!!

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate. McCain was against it.

Obama endorsed and fought for the
The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, - became law.. McCain was against it. Why did McCain vote against it? What was he hiding when the Law passed didn't cost the tax payers a dime and it would clean up Washington from the ground up!!

Obama not only help introduce this Bill, he fought and got it passed.
*The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill. McCain was totally against it, even after his Keating 5 corruption case entered the minds of the Republicans as he is running for POTUS.

Obama's pledge to start cleaning up Washington along with this Bill that became Law.

Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 - became law.

Both McCain and Bush were totally against this bill. McCain didn't want his taxes exposed along with his wife's even though they file separately.

The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, - became law..

This is stop the US and other Countries from dealing or trading on Nuclear Enriched Material to produce Dirty or conventional bombs.

The UN adopted this resolution shortly after.

That's is why the US Senate and McCain wanted Obama to head and be the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 11-member Subcommittee on European Affairs.

At his CHAIR of the Senate's Subcommittee on European Affairs, which has some oversight in Afghanistan through NATO.

Obama is calling for more Troops there which is what they need badly.

That's Foriegn Policy trust for you!!

Now that's getting it done right!

Does this show Obama cared once he hit the US Senate? HECK YEAH!!

That's why they called him, the most liberal left.

Because he was totally thinking about America and the World, not Politicians, Lobbyist and Special interest.

I got 100's other reasons why I vote for Obama, but it will take more bandwidth to post it all.

Best week ever!!!!!!!!!!

Nativeeyesarewatching — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:46:08 EDT

BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust

Posted July 10, 2008 | 04:39 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Iraq, Iraq War, John McCain, McCain Iran, McCain Iraq, Media Coverage Of 2008 Election, Phil Gramm, Phil Gramm Mccain, Politics, Politics News
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This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.

During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.

But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail.

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace." This is not a quote taken out of context. John McCain called one of the most successful and popular government programs, which uses the tax revenues of current workers to support retirement benefits for the elderly "an absolute disgrace." This is shocking - and if uttered from Obama's mouth would dominate the news coverage and the Sunday shows, as pundits would speculate about the massive damage the statement would cause him among retirees in Florida. 2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy. Words cannot fully explain how devastating this statement should be from Phil Gramm. You would think it would be enough to sink McCain's campaign. Of course McCain only thinks that the economic problems are psychological.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop. The Iraqis now want us to begin planning our withdrawal - McCain however wants to stay foooorrreeevvveerrrr. So what does McCain say - First, he refuses to accept Maliki's statement as being true. Then he concedes that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and WOULD NOT influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. Yet, McCain in 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations said that if the Iraqis asked us to leave, we would have to go. No matter what. But that was apparently a younger and less experienced John McCain.

But let's just look at his comment that Maliki's statement is "just politics." If that is true, then it must also be true that the American military presence in Iraq is so unpopular with Iraqis that the government is forced to push for a timetable in order to survive at the ballot box. That's a reason to stay for 100 years.

4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable. There are so many things here. McCain pledges he would eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term (the campaign latter flip flop flipped about whether it was four years or eight years), but does not provide any details about how he would do it. Economists on both sides of the political aisle said that this was simply not believable, especially given McCain's other proposals to a) cut individual and corporate taxes even further, b) extend the Bush tax cuts and c) massively increase defense spending on manpower (200,000 more troops) and d) maintain a long-term sizable military presence in Iraq.

5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop. Speaking of the long-term military presence - a story that has gotten absolutely no attention is that McCain now believes the war will be over soon. The economic forecasts made by his crack team of economists predict that there will be significant savings during McCain's first term because we will have achieved "victory" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The savings from victory (ie the savings from not having our troops there) will then be used to pay down the deficit. The only way this could have any impact on the deficit in McCain's first time is if troop withdrawals start very soon. So McCain believes victory is in our grasps and we can begin withdraw troops from Iraq pretty much right away -- doesn't sound that different from Obama's plan does it. Someone should at least ask McCain HOW HE DEFINES VICTORY - and why he thinks we will achieve it in the next couple of years.

6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. In the major press release the McCain campaign issued to tout its Jobs for America economic plan that would balance the budget in 4 years, it included the signatures of more than 300 economists who the campaign claimed to support the plan. Only problem is that the economists were actually asked to sign up to SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Um, hello?

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians. Haha... that's just McCain being McCain. I am sure that is exactly how it is being reported in Tehran. This guy is running for President not to become a talk radio pundit. Yet according to the AP this was just a humanizing moment between candidate and spouse - I am not sure when joking about the deaths of civilians became humanizing.

8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is not an expert in economics. Are you kidding?

9). McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.
10.) McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain said "I think if there is some good news, I think that there is a glimmer of improving relationship between Karzai and the Pakistanis." Pat Barry notes how crazy this comment is..."Just what "glimmer" is McCain talking about?? Maybe he's referring to President Karzai's remarks last month, which threatened military action in Pakistan if cross-border attacks persisted? Or maybe McCain is talking about Afghanistan's allegations that Pakistan's ISI was involved in a recent assassination attempt on Karzai? Maybe in McCain's world you could call that a silver-lining, but in reality-land I'd call it something else."

Any one of these incidents and comments would dominate the news cycle if they came from the Obama campaign. Yet McCain barely gets a mention. The press like to see themselves as political referees - neutral observers that call them like they see em'. But they want this to be a horse race and so all the calls right now are going one way. How else can you explain the furor last week over the Obama "refine" comment - which represented zero change in Obama's position on Iraq - and the "swift boat" mania over Wesley Clark's uncontroversial comments (psss... by the way McCain exploits his POW experience in just about every ad - yet he says he doesn't like to talk about it).

MCCAIN IS NO FRIEND TO MINORITIES

Nativeeyesarewatching — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:06:00 EDT

McCain reversal on MLK holiday an issue as he visits Memphisby Mosheh Oinounou

Memphis, TN — Sen. John McCain may face questions about his civil rights record as he visits Memphis Friday to participate in a number of events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination.

Scheduled to address the Southern Christian Leadership Conference–which King headed up for more than a decade–as well as lay a wreath at the National Civil Rights Museum, McCain’s initial opposition to a holiday commemorating the slain civil rights leader could be among the issues that come up during his trip.

In his first year in the U.S. House, McCain voted with the minority and opposed the 1983 law creating the national holiday to honor King, but reversed his decision around 1990 after he says he “learned” more about King’s achievements. As he fought for an Arizona state ballot measure to recognize MLK Day in 1990, McCain successfully pushed former President Reagan to endorse the referendum.

McCain has said on a number of occasions that he regrets his original 1983 vote and told reporters this week that he is “very proud” of his record of support for King.

“I voted in my…first year in Congress against it and then I began to learn and I studied and people talked to me. And I not only supported it but I fought very hard in my home state of Arizona for recognition against a governor who was of my own party,” McCain said during a media availability aboard his plane Monday (video above). “I had not been involved in the issue. I had come from being in the military to running for Congress in a state that did not have a very large African American population and it had not been in issue. It just simply had not been.”

In a February 2000 interview with ABC News, McCain said his initial opposition to a holiday was based on his belief that “it was not necessary to have another federal holiday, that it cost too much money, that other presidents were not recognized.”

Asked on Monday why he shifted his position and later supported a state measure creating a holiday, McCain told reporters that he “learned (that King) was a transcendent figure in American history. He deserved to be honored and that I thought it was appropriate to do so.”

“In my home state of Arizona, I was not proud that we were one of the last states to recognize Dr. King’s birthday as a holiday and I was pleased to be part of the fight for that recognition,” McCain said, who also profiled King in his book, “Character is Destiny.”

Arizona voters eventually approved a measure in 1992, making it the second to last state to recognize the holiday. New Hampshire came in last in 1999.

But among other issues critics raise are McCain’s vote against the 1990 Civil Rights Act, which sought to curb discrimination in the workplace (and eventually passed as the 1991 act), as well as his short-lived support for South Carolina’s right to fly the confederate flag over the statehouse during the 2000 primary. He later reversed his position on the flag and called for its removal, referring his initial position an “act of cowardice.”

During his conversation with reporters Monday, McCain cited his time in the U.S. Navy as further evidence for his support for civil rights, calling the U.S. Armed Forces “the greatest equal-opportunity employer in the nation.”

“John McCain has an extraordinary admiration for Martin Luther King Jr. and his enduring impact for equality in America and around the world,” said campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

See the video: http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/04/03/mccain-reversal-on-mlk-holiday-an-issue-as-he-visits-memphis/#more-1846

Sounds like closet racism to me when he now panders to minorites. How vile..

BARACK OBAMA'S PLEDGE TO NATIVE AMERICANS

Nativeeyesarewatching — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:15:16 EDT

BARACK OBAMA'S PRINCIPLES FOR STRONGER TRIBAL COMMUNITIES

"Perhaps more than anyone else, the Native American community faces
huge challenges that have been ignored by Washington for too long. It
is time to empower Native Americans in the development of the national
policy agenda." Barack Obama

The hundreds of Indian tribes in America face a unique set of
challenges. Issues like sovereignty, health care, and education--issues
that are central to tribes' future prosperity and embedded in the
federal government's responsibility--are often neglected. Barack Obama
is committed to tribal nation building and enforcing the federal
government's obligations to Indian people.

SOVEREIGNTY, TRIBAL-FEDERAL RELATIONS AND THE TRUST RESPONSIBILITY:
Native American tribal nations are sovereign, self-governing political
entities and enjoy a government-to-government relationship with the
United States federal government that is recognized expressly in the
U.S. Constitution.
Self-Determination: Barack Obama supports the principle of tribal
self-determination, with recognition that the federal government must
honor its treaty obligations and fully enable tribal self-governance.
Consultation and Inclusion: In furtherance of the
government-to-government relationship, Barack Obama will include
tribal leadership in the important policy determinations that impact
Indian Country. Obama will appoint an American Indian policy advisor
on his senior White House staff so that Indian Country has a direct
interface at the highest level of the Obama Administration. In
addition, Obama will host a White House "Tribal G8" - an annual
meeting with Native American leaders to develop a national Indian
policy agenda.
Honoring the Trust Responsibility: Barack Obama recognizes that
honoring the government-to-government relationship requires
fulfillment of the United States' trust responsibility to tribes and
individual Indians. More specifically, Obama is committed to
meaningful reform of the broken system that manages and administers
the trust lands and other trust assets belonging to tribes and
individual Indians. Further, he is committed to resolving equitably
with both tribes and individual Indians litigation resulting from the
past failures in the administration and accounting of their trust
assets.

HEALTH CARE: The Indian Health Service estimates that it receives only
55 percent of the federal funding it requires. Federal per-capita
funding for Indian health care amounts to about half of the federal
per capita health funding for federal prisoners. Indians are the most
at-risk minority group for health problems like diabetes, which they
suffer from at a rate 249 percent higher than the national average.
Moreover, Indians have the nation's highest death rates for
tuberculosis and suicide. After Haiti, men on the Pine Ridge and
Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota have the lowest life expectancy
in the Western Hemisphere.
Indian Health Services: Barack Obama voted in the Senate to provide an
additional $1 billion for IHS to address these disparities.
Additionally, he was an original cosponsor of the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act of 2007 which mandates modernization of the Indian
health care system and strengthens urban Indian health facilities.
Obama has fought against the Bush Administration's attempt to
eliminate urban health care for Indians not living in reservation
communities. Obama opposed a federal land acquisition program that
would
have diverted funds from the Special Diabetes Program for Indians and
the Alcohol and Substance Abuse program. Obama supports sufficient
funding for IHS and proper staffing and maintenance for IHS
facilities.

EDUCATION: Education is the key to improving the lives of Native
Americans and empowering tribal nations to build a better future.
Educational policies in the 1970s attempted to reverse past federal
policies aimed at eradicating Native American languages and cultures,
but Native Americans still suffer from some of the lowest high school
graduation and college matriculation rates in the nation. We must
continue to honor our obligations to Native Americans by providing
tribes with the educational resources promised by treaty and federal
law.

COMMUNITIES
Indian Language Education: Tribes are struggling to preserve their
languages. It is estimated that by 2050 only 20 of the over 500 Native
languages once spoken will remain. Research shows that instruction in
tribal language increases Native American academic performance in
other areas like math and science. Barack Obama supports funding for
Native language immersion and preservation programs.
No Child Left Behind: The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is the
right one - ensuring that all children meet high education standards -
but the law has significant flaws that need to be addressed, including
in Indian Country. Unfulfilled promises, ineffective implementation,
and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have created
countless obstacles for tribal educators. Barack Obama would fund No
Child Left Behind and reform the law to better incorporate Title VII,
the law's Indian, Hawaiian, and Alaskan education provision. Obama's
plan would provide greater flexibility in integrating Native
languages, cultures, and communities into school programs in a manner
consistent with principles of tribal sovereignty.
Early Childhood Education: Research shows that half of low-income
children start school up to two years behind their peers in preschool
skills and that these early achievement gaps continue throughout
elementary school. Barack Obama supports increasing funding for the
Head Start program, including the American Indian and Alaska Native
Head Start Programs, to provide American Indian preschool children
with critically important learning skills. He also appreciates the
role of parental involvement in the success of Head Start and has
called on states to replicate the Illinois model of Preschool for All.
Tribes should also be given the opportunity to implement culturally
appropriate versions of this program.
Indian School Construction: Many government-funded Indian schools are
dilapidated, and many are simply too small to meet the needs of
growing Indian populations. A safe, comfortable place to learn is
critical to receiving a proper education. Barack Obama is committed to
repairing and building Indian schools.
Tribal Colleges: Tribal colleges have played a critical role in
improving the lives of Native Americans. Obama supports increased
funding for operations and facility construction, as well as the
removal of bureaucratic impediments so tribal colleges can thrive.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND CULTURAL PROTECTION
Cultural Rights and Sacred Places Protection: Native American sacred
places and site-specific ceremonies are under threat from development,
pollution, and vandalism. Barack Obama supports legal protections for
sacred places and cultural traditions, including Native ancestors'
burial grounds and churches.

ECONOMIC & INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT: Native Americans experience
some of the most severe socioeconomic conditions in the United States.
Poverty and its effects are pervasive, with more than quarter of all
Native Americans living in poverty and unemployment rates reaching 80
percent on some reservations. Obama's experience as a community
organizer working in poor neighborhoods plagued by high unemployment
has taught him that there is no single solution to community poverty.
Therefore, he supports using a comprehensive approach that includes
investment in physical, human and institutional infrastructure,
increased access to capital, the removal of barriers to development,
and above all, authentic government-to-government relationships
between the federal government and tribes.
Minimum Wage: Barack Obama believes that people who work full time
should not live in poverty. In 2007, Obama supported legislation that
increased the Federal minimum wage for the first time in 10 years.
Even though the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour by 2009, the
minimum wage's real purchasing power will still be below what it was
in 1968. As president, Obama will further raise the minimum wage to
$9.50 an hour by 2011, index it to inflation and increase the Earned
Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers can earn a
living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic
needs such as food, transportation, and housing - things so many
people take for granted.
Housing: The federal government has a moral and legal responsibility
to assist tribes in providing housing. Yet, Native Americans suffer
from some of the worst housing conditions in the nation. Some 14
percent of all reservation homes have no electricity, and on some
reservations, as many as 20 individuals are forced to live in a
single-family home. Barack Obama supports increased funding for the
Indian Housing Block Grant and other Indian housing programs as well
as improving the effectiveness of these programs.
Gaming: The Supreme Court has upheld the right of tribes, as sovereign
entities, to operate gaming operations on Indian reservations. A total
of 225 of the 558 federally recognized Indian tribes operate gaming
facilities, creating 670,000 jobs nationwide and paying $11 billion to
the federal and state governments through taxes and other revenue. The
vast majority of Indian gaming operations are small enterprises
providing jobs to tribal members. Because most tribes continue to
suffer from high rates of poverty and unemployment, Barack Obama
believes that gaming revenues are important tribal resources for
funding education, healthcare, law enforcement, and other essential
government functions.
Energy: Tribal nations have joined in America's quest for alternative,
renewable energy. Because of their rural land bases and access to
natural resources, many tribes have made great strides in economic
development in the energy sector. Tribes have successful operations
producing gas, solar, and wind energy. In addition to harnessing and
producing energy, tribes have an interest in energy rights-of-way.
Barack Obama encourages energy companies and Indian tribes to
negotiate in good faith to ensure tribes receive just compensation and
in furtherance of carrying sustainable energy to all communities.

WOMEN'S HEALTH: Indians are often subject to unusually harsh
conditions when it comes to women's health. A recent study by Amnesty
International details the alarming rates at which Native women are
subject to violence. The report states that one in three American
Indian women will be raped in their lifetime, and they are more than
three times as likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other
women in America.
Reproductive Health: In the past, IHS has been criticized for
performing forced sterilizations of Indian women. More recently, many
Native women have been pushed to receive one type of contraception
instead of more suitable alternatives. Although these women often have
no alternative to IHS, the program often does not provide them with
adequate reproductive health care, and many women are often denied
equal access to birth control, and prenatal care. Barack Obama
supports the reproductive health rights of American Indian women, and
supports ensuring that they receive equal opportunities to make
healthy reproductive choices.
Violence against Women: Violence in Indian country is committed at
alarmingly high rates, and all too often Indian women are the victims.
Medical facilities are few and far between, and are often not
adequately prepared to deal with assault victims. Also, because of the
unique jurisdictional scheme on reservations, law enforcement can be
slow and difficult to come by. If the perpetrator is non-Indian, then
the tribe does not have jurisdiction over the crime. This is alarming
when more than 86 percent of assaults against Indian women are
committed by non-Indians. State and federal law enforcement officials
are often far removed from the situation, and the tribes are left
without the authority to protect their people. Barack Obama will
reexamine the legal framework that allows such injustices, and
supports empowering tribes to combat violence against Native women
irrespective of whether the perpetrators are Indian or non-Indian.
Law Enforcement: Barack Obama also supports fully funding the
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program that many tribal
law enforcement agencies have come to rely upon. He also recognizes
the important role tribal courts play on the reservation. Obama will
continue to support additional resources to strengthen tribal courts
as well as correction by statute of the jurisdictional gaps that
currently inhibit tribes' ability to protect their communities..
Detention Centers: There is a demonstrable need for facility
improvements and expansions of detention centers in Indian Country.
Barack Obama understands that federal funding of such improvements is
essential to enable tribe's to effectively protect their communities.

METHAMPHETAMINES: In a 2006 survey, 74 percent of tribal law
enforcement officials reported methamphetamines to be the leading
threat to their tribes' livelihood. The same survey reported dramatic
increases in cases of domestic violence, child neglect, sex crimes,
and weapons charges.
Combat Meth Act of 2005: Barack Obama supported the Combat Meth Act of
2005, major parts of which became law in 2006. The act puts federal
funds into the fight against methamphetamine, provides assistance to
children affected by meth abuse, and places restrictions on the sale
of the ingredients used to make the drug.
Tribal empowerment: Barack Obama believes that funding tribal police
programs and tribal courts and resolving longstanding jurisdiction
issues will enable tribal authorities to deal more effectively with
the causes and effects of this and other crime problems on Indian
land.

VETERANS AFFAIRS: Native Americans serve in the armed forces at a
higher rate than any other minority group in America. Native Americans
have served in every war, and their special place in American military
history is widely recognized. The first woman to die in combat in the
Iraq war was a young Native American woman. World War II's Codetalkers
are the most celebrated examples of how Indians have been critical to
the success of American efforts overseas. As a member of the Senate
Veterans' Affairs Committee, Obama supports several Veteran measures,
including the sheltering and rehabilitation of homeless veterans,
securing veterans' benefits, and easing service members' transition
back into society.

HUNTING AND FISHING: Hunting and fishing are important to many tribes'
diet, culture, and spirituality. Protecting hunting and fishing rights
ensures that tribes are able to carry on those aspects of their
traditional way of life.
Fishing Rights: The fishing rights of Indian tribes are guaranteed not
only by 150 year-old treaties, but by the Supreme Court's affirmation
of the Boldt decision as well. It is our shared duty to uphold these
obligations and protect fisheries in such a manner that allows tribal
and non-tribal fishing to continue into the future.
The path to equitable fishery management is paved with good science.
Barack Obama supports initiatives to improve the science and our
understanding of our nation's fish stocks. Through improved science,
we can better guide decisions about how to protect the health of fish
stocks, and, in turn, ensure a better, more secure and predictable
future for our nation's fishermen.

"We've got to make sure we are not just having a BIA that is dealing
with the various Native American tribes; we've got to have the
President of the United States meeting on a regular basis with the
Native American leadership and ensuring relationships of dignity and
respect." Barack Obama, Elko, NV, January 18, 2008

YOUTUBE NATIVE AMERICANS FOR OBAMA

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:10:45 EDT

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/obama-adopted-by-native-americans/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080626/pl_afp/usnativecourtenergy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCBWpQFPDik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGbTAhPibio&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWX23gsD8o4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuBMkjsKP2E&feature=related

By DIONNE WALKER, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 1, 6:42 PM ET

RICHMOND, Va. - With hopscotch speed, Shanawa Littlebow leapt to the side of the road, scooped up a plastic bottle cap and fell back into line with his fellow walkers, passing trailer homes and gas stations along Jefferson-Davis Highway.

beaded at his temples and dampened the seat of his cargo shorts. The Tigua Indian man walked and searched for litter -- a feathered staff in the crook of his right arm -- in honor of Mother Earth.
"There may be a lot of people who don't even care," he said. "But at least we're out here, and we're speaking out."
The 100-person caravan passed through Virginia Tuesday in the final stretch of the Longest Walk 2, an 8,300-mile trek from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the effects of environmental devastation on American Indians and all people.
The walk began Feb. 11, and is expected to end July 11, when organizers plan to present a 30-page manifesto of American-Indian environmental concerns to Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat who advocates on a wide range of minority issues, on the U.S. Capitol steps.
The walk marks the 30th anniversary of the first Longest Walk, a 3,600-mile effort that gathered support to successfully halt bills before Congress that Native Americans said threatened their sovereignty.
This year's walk was longer by demand, said national organizer Dennis Banks, 76, who founded the first walk in 1978.
"A great number of tribes in the Southwest insisted that we come through," he said.
Banks said two groups of walkers set out from San Francisco and split up -- the southern delegation passing through states like Texas, Alabama and Tennessee, while the northern group has walked through Pennsylvania and surrounding states.
They'll all meet in Maryland and continue to Washington.
Along the way, Banks said they've picked up 3,800 bags of trash.
They've also gathered a running list of American-Indian worries -- everything from concern about burial grounds under threat in Kentucky to fears about the future of Arizona mountains threatened by ski resort development.
There are 11.9 million American Indians across the nation, according to the Census. Their concerns gained renewed attention in May as Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama visited Montana's Crow Indian reservation and was adopted into the nation during a private ceremony.
American Indians have been mixed on their reaction to Obama's attention, with some questioning his intentions as the election shifts into high gear.
"I just hopes he sticks to his words," Karl Red Horse, a Navajo man said Tuesday, as he marched. "At least we (will) have somebody in there other than Caucasian."
He said he'd done 1,000 miles of the walk, which was expected to spend several days passing through central Virginia.
Some skeptics, even in black America, where marches for social change are historic, have begun to question the impact a group of people on foot can have.
Shanawa Littlebow isn't among the doubters. He marched beneath a rainbow of fluttering flags, to the tum of drums.

To say it doesn't work, "it's to say a wheel doesn't work when it's turning. We're turning. We're walking. It's working," he said.

INDIA FOR OBAMA

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:09:19 EDT

Indians endorse Obama; pledge to raise $10 Million

New York, June 26: A leading organisation of Indian Americans that backed Hillary Clinton's White House bid has now extended support to triumphant Democratic candidate Barack Obama and pledged to raise USD 10 million, giving a major boost to his campaign for the November Presidential election.
'American Indians for Democrats' decided to endorse Obama to ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House in the next presidential elections, Chairman Sant Singh Chatwal said.

Chatwal said that his organisation plans to hold a major fund raiser for Obama in July where the Indian community would raise at least USD 10 million, thus making it the biggest such event for him.

Replying to a question, the leading hotelier said Indian Americans had been supporting Hillary Clinton but now that she had endorsed Obama, "there is no reason for them not to put their full weight behind him".

Earlier, the organisation had raised USD five million for Clinton's campaign.

Both Obama and Clinton were present at the function on Thursday where Chatwal formally endorsed Obama who warmly shook hands with him.

When Chatwal said the Indians Americans would raise at least USD 10 million, Obama said he was sure they would accomplish it.

Chatwal appealed to the Indian Americans to fully support Obama, asserting that he would take care of their concerns as also work closely with them in strengthening growing Indo-American relations.

Chatwal said Obama's office had been trying to contact him to ensure that the Indian American supports him but they were awaiting Clinton's endorsement of the Illinois Senator who has scripted history by being the first African American Presidential nominee of a major US party.

The growing influence of the Indian community with its members occupying important position in media and major corporations has led the Presidential candidates to actively seek their support and Obama too was visibly happy to get the endorsement at the event covered by mainstream media.

Obama, meanwhile, told financial supporters of his former Democratic White House rival Clinton that he would personally donate money to help pay off her debt.

Obama said he would personally contribute 2,300 dollars to Clinton, the most he can offer under federal law, to help towards cancelling campaign debts of 22.5 million dollars she incurred during her failed Presidential nomination bid.

UNIONS FOR SEN. OBAMA

Nativeeyesarewatching — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:48:16 EDT

President

by Seth Michaels, Jun 27, 2008

The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

The union, with more than 100,000 members, announced its endorsement this morning.

BCTGM President Frank Hurt says Obama would be a strong leader, willing and able to address the needs of working families and the economic crisis they face:

With an extraordinary ability to inspire his fellow citizens and a comprehensive plan to rebuild our weakened economy, create good jobs, solve the heath care crisis and ensure retirement security for all Americans, we are confident that, as President, Barack Obama will restore hope, opportunity and prosperity for hard-pressed working families.

Yesterday, the AFL-CIO endorsed Obama and launched a new website, Meet Barack Obama, to educate and mobilize union members. This fall, the AFL-CIO is carrying out an unprecedented grassroots mobilization to elect a working family-friendly Congress and president.

A cool story about Obama and Lugar in Russia

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:29:15 EDT

During the August recess of 2005, Lugar, who was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went with Senator Barack Obama to Russia to inspect nuclear facilities there. They were detained for three hours at an airport in the city of Perm, near the Ural Mountains, where they were scheduled to depart for a meeting with the President and the Speaker of the House of Ukraine. They were released after a brief dialogue between U.S. and Russian officials and the Russians later apologized for this incident.In April 2006, Lugar was selected by Time as one of America's 10 Best Senators.[4]

A Woman to Admire..... Barack's Mother

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:17:24 EDT

By AMANDA RIPLEY/HONOLULU

Each of us lives a life of contradictory truths. We are not one thing or another. Barack Obama's mother was at least a dozen things. S. Ann Soetoro was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology; a white woman from the Midwest who was more comfortable in Indonesia; a natural-born mother obsessed with her work; a romantic pragmatist, if such a thing is possible.

"When I think about my mother," Obama told me recently, "I think that there was a certain combination of being very grounded in who she was, what she believed in. But also a certain recklessness. I think she was always searching for something. She wasn't comfortable seeing her life confined to a certain box."

Obama's mother was a dreamer. She made risky bets that paid off only some of the time, choices that her children had to live with. She fell in love - twice - with fellow students from distant countries she knew nothing about. Both marriages failed, and she leaned on her parents and friends to help raise her two children.

"She cried a lot," says her daughter Maya Soetoro-Ng, "if she saw animals being treated cruelly or children in the news or a sad movie - or if she felt like she wasn't being understood in a conversation." And yet she was fearless, says Soetoro-Ng. "She was very capable. She went out on the back of a motorcycle and did rigorous fieldwork. Her research was responsible and penetrating. She saw the heart of a problem, and she knew whom to hold accountable."

Today Obama is partly a product of what his mother was not. Whereas she swept her children off to unfamiliar lands and even lived apart from her son when he was a teenager, Obama has tried to ground his children in the Midwest. "We've created stability for our kids in a way that my mom didn't do for us," he says. "My choosing to put down roots in Chicago and marry a woman who is very rooted in one place probably indicates a desire for stability that maybe I was missing."

Ironically, the person who mattered most in Obama's life is the one we know the least about - maybe because being partly African in America is still seen as being simply black and color is still a preoccupation above almost all else. There is not enough room in the conversation for the rest of a man's story.

But Obama is his mother's son. In his wide-open rhetoric about what can be instead of what was, you see a hint of his mother's credulity. When Obama gets donations from people who have never believed in politics before, they're responding to his ability - passed down from his mother - to make a powerful argument (that happens to be very liberal) without using a trace of ideology. On a good day, when he figures out how to move a crowd of thousands of people very different from himself, it has something to do with having had a parent who gazed at different cultures the way other people study gems.

It turns out that Obama's nascent career peddling hope is a family business. He inherited it. And while it is true that he has not been profoundly tested, he was raised by someone who was.

In most elections, the deceased mother of a candidate in the primaries is not the subject of a magazine profile. But Ann Soetoro was not like most mothers.

Stanley Ann Dunham
Born in 1942, just five years before Hillary Clinton, Obama's mother came into an America constrained by war, segregation and a distrust of difference. Her parents named her Stanley because her father had wanted a boy. She endured the expected teasing over this indignity, but dutifully lugged the name through high school, apologizing for it each time she introduced herself in a new town.

During her life, she was known by four different names, each representing a distinct chapter. In the course of the Stanley period, her family moved more than five times - from Kansas to California to Texas to Washington - before her 18th birthday. Her father, a furniture salesman, had a restlessness that she inherited.

She spent her high school years on a small island in Washington, taking advanced classes in philosophy and visiting coffee shops in Seattle. "She was a very intelligent, quiet girl, interested in her friendships and current events," remembers Maxine Box, a close high school friend. Both girls assumed they would go to college and pursue careers. "She wasn't particularly interested in children or in getting married," Box says. Although Stanley was accepted early by the University of Chicago, her father wouldn't let her go. She was too young to be off on her own, he said, unaware, as fathers tend to be, of what could happen when she lived in his house.

After she finished high school, her father whisked the family away again - this time to Honolulu, after he heard about a big new furniture store there. Hawaii had just become a state, and it was the new frontier. Stanley grudgingly went along yet again, enrolling in the University of Hawaii as a freshman.

Mrs. Barack H. Obama
Shortly before she moved to Hawaii, Stanley saw her first foreign film. Black Orpheus was an award-winning musical retelling of the myth of Orpheus, a tale of doomed love. The movie was considered exotic because it was filmed in Brazil, but it was written and directed by white Frenchmen. The result was sentimental and, to some modern eyes, patronizing. Years later Obama saw the film with his mother and thought about walking out. But looking at her in the theater, he glimpsed her 16-year-old self. "I suddenly realized," he wrote in his memoir, Dreams from My Father, "that the depiction of childlike blacks I was now seeing on the screen ... was what my mother had carried with her to Hawaii all those years before, a reflection of the simple fantasies that had been forbidden to a white middle-class girl from Kansas, the promise of another life, warm, sensual, exotic, different."

By college, Stanley had started introducing herself as Ann. She met Barack Obama Sr. in a Russian-language class. He was one of the first Africans to attend the University of Hawaii and a focus of great curiosity. He spoke at church groups and was interviewed for several local-newspaper stories. "He had this magnetic personality," remembers Neil Abercrombie, a member of Congress from Hawaii who was friends with Obama Sr. in college. "Everything was oratory from him, even the most commonplace observation."

Obama's father quickly drew a crowd of friends at the university. "We would drink beer, eat pizza and play records," Abercrombie says. They talked about Vietnam and politics. "Everyone had an opinion about everything, and everyone was of the opinion that everyone wanted to hear their opinion - no one more so than Barack."

The exception was Ann, the quiet young woman in the corner who began to hang out with Obama and his friends that fall. "She was scarcely out of high school. She was mostly kind of an observer," says Abercrombie. Obama Sr.'s friends knew he was dating a white woman, but they made a point of treating it as a nonissue. This was Hawaii, after all, a place enamored of its reputation as a melting pot.

But when people called Hawaii a "melting pot" in the early 1960s, they meant a place where white people blended with Asians. At the time, 19% of white women in Hawaii married Chinese men, and that was considered radical by the rest of the nation. Black people made up less than 1% of the state's population. And while interracial marriage was legal there, it was banned in half the other states.

When Ann told her parents about the African student at school, they invited him over for dinner. Her father didn't notice when his daughter reached out to hold the man's hand, according to Obama's book. Her mother thought it best not to cause a scene. As Obama would write, "My mother was that girl with the movie of beautiful black people playing in her head."

On Feb. 2, 1961, several months after they met, Obama's parents got married in Maui, according to divorce records. It was a Thursday. At that point, Ann was three months pregnant with Barack Obama II. Friends did not learn of the wedding until afterward. "Nobody was invited," says Abercrombie. The motivations behind the marriage remain a mystery, even to Obama. "I never probed my mother about the details. Did they decide to get married because she was already pregnant? Or did he propose to her in the traditional, formal way?" Obama wonders. "I suppose, had she not passed away, I would have asked more."

Even by the standards of 1961, she was young to be married. At 18, she dropped out of college after one semester, according to University of Hawaii records. When her friends back in Washington heard the news, "we were very shocked," says Box, her high school friend.

Then, when Obama was almost 1, his father left for Harvard to get a Ph.D. in economics. He had also been accepted to the New School in New York City, with a more generous scholarship that would have allowed his family to join him. But he decided to go to Harvard. "How can I refuse the best education?" he told Ann, according to Obama's book.

Obama's father had an agenda: to return to his home country and help reinvent Kenya. He wanted to take his new family with him. But he also had a wife from a previous marriage there - a marriage that may or may not have been legal. In the end, Ann decided not to follow him. "She was under no illusions," says Abercrombie. "He was a man of his time, from a very patriarchal society." Ann filed for divorce in Honolulu in January 1964, citing "grievous mental suffering" - the reason given in most divorces at the time. Obama Sr. signed for the papers in Cambridge, Mass., and did not contest the divorce.

Ann had already done things most women of her generation had not: she had married an African, had their baby and gotten divorced. At this juncture, her life could have become narrower - a young, marginalized woman focused on paying the rent and raising a child on her own. She could have filled her son's head with well-founded resentment for his absent father. But that is not what happened.

S. Ann Dunham Soetoro
When her son was almost 2, Ann returned to college. Money was tight. She collected food stamps and relied on her parents to help take care of young Barack. She would get her bachelor's degree four years later. In the meantime, she met another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, at the University of Hawaii. ("It's where I send all my single girlfriends," jokes her daughter Soetoro-Ng, who also married a man she met there.) He was easygoing, happily devoting hours to playing chess with Ann's father and wrestling with her young son. Lolo proposed in 1967.

Mother and son spent months preparing to follow him to Indonesia - getting shots, passports and plane tickets. Until then, neither had left the country. After a long journey, they landed in an unrecognizable place. "Walking off the plane, the tarmac rippling with heat, the sun bright as a furnace," Obama later wrote, "I clutched her hand, determined to protect her."

Lolo's house, on the outskirts of Jakarta, was a long way from the high-rises of Honolulu. There was no electricity, and the streets were not paved. The country was transitioning to the rule of General Suharto. Inflation was running at more than 600%, and everything was scarce. Ann and her son were the first foreigners to live in the neighborhood, according to locals who remember them. Two baby crocodiles, along with chickens and birds of paradise, occupied the backyard. To get to know the kids next door, Obama sat on the wall between their houses and flapped his arms like a great, big bird, making cawing noises, remembers Kay Ikranagara, a friend. "That got the kids laughing, and then they all played together," she says.

Obama attended a Catholic school called Franciscus Assisi Primary School. He attracted attention since he was not only a foreigner but also chubbier than the locals. But he seemed to shrug off the teasing, eating tofu and tempeh like all the other kids, playing soccer and picking guavas from the trees. He didn't seem to mind that the other children called him "Negro," remembers Bambang Sukoco, a former neighbor.

At first, Obama's mother gave money to every beggar who stopped at their door. But the caravan of misery - children without limbs, men with leprosy - churned on forever, and she was forced to be more selective. Her husband mocked her calculations of relative suffering. "Your mother has a soft heart," he told Obama.

As Ann became more intrigued by Indonesia, her husband became more Western. He rose through the ranks of an American oil company and moved the family to a nicer neighborhood. She was bored by the dinner parties he took her to, where men boasted about golf scores and wives complained about their Indonesian servants. The couple fought rarely but had less and less in common. "She wasn't prepared for the loneliness," Obama wrote in Dreams. "It was constant, like a shortness of breath."

Ann took a job teaching English at the U.S. embassy. She woke up well before dawn throughout her life. Now she went into her son's room every day at 4 a.m. to give him English lessons from a U.S. correspondence course. She couldn't afford the ɬite international school and worried he wasn't challenged enough. After two years at the Catholic school, Obama moved to a state-run elementary school closer to the new house. He was the only foreigner, says Ati Kisjanto, a classmate, but he spoke some Indonesian and made new friends.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, but Obama's household was not religious. "My mother, whose parents were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists, was one of the most spiritual souls I ever knew," Obama said in a 2007 speech. "But she had a healthy skepticism of religion as an institution. And as a consequence, so did I."

In her own way, Ann tried to compensate for the absence of black people in her son's life. At night, she came home from work with books on the civil rights movement and recordings of Mahalia Jackson. Her aspirations for racial harmony were simplistic. "She was very much of the early Dr. [Martin Luther] King era," Obama says. "She believed that people were all basically the same under their skin, that bigotry of any sort was wrong and that the goal was then to treat everybody as unique individuals." Ann gave her daughter, who was born in 1970, dolls of every hue: "A pretty black girl with braids, an Inuit, Sacagawea, a little Dutch boy with clogs," says Soetoro-Ng, laughing. "It was like the United Nations."

In 1971, when Obama was 10, Ann sent him back to Hawaii to live with her parents and attend Punahou, an ɬite prep school that he'd gotten into on a scholarship with his grandparents' help. This wrenching decision seemed to reflect how much she valued education. Ann's friends say it was hard on her, and Obama, in his book, describes an adolescence shadowed by a sense of alienation. "I didn't feel [her absence] as a deprivation," Obama told me. "But when I think about the fact that I was separated from her, I suspect it had more of an impact than I know."

A year later, Ann followed Obama back to Hawaii, as promised, taking her daughter but leaving her husband behind. She enrolled in a master's program at the University of Hawaii to study the anthropology of Indonesia.

Indonesia is an anthropologist's fantasyland. It is made up of 17,500 islands, on which 230 million people speak more than 300 languages. The archipelago's culture is colored by Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Dutch traditions. Indonesia "sucks a lot of us in," says fellow anthropologist and friend Alice Dewey. "It's delightful."

Around this time, Ann began to find her voice. People who knew her before describe her as quiet and smart; those who met her afterward use words like forthright and passionate. The timing of her graduate work was perfect. "The whole face of the earth was changing," Dewey says. "Colonial powers were collapsing, countries needed help, and development work was beginning to interest anthropologists."

Ann's husband visited Hawaii frequently, but they never lived together again. Ann filed for divorce in 1980. As with Obama's father, she kept in regular contact with Lolo and did not pursue alimony or child support, according to divorce records.

"She was no Pollyanna. There have certainly been moments when she complained to us," says her daughter Soetoro-Ng. "But she was not someone who would take the detritus of those divorces and make judgments about men in general or love or allow herself to grow pessimistic." With each failed marriage, Ann gained a child and, in one case, a country as well.

Ann Dunham Sutoro
After three years of living with her children in a small apartment in Honolulu, subsisting on student grants, Ann decided to go back to Indonesia to do fieldwork for her Ph.D. Obama, then about 14, told her he would stay behind. He was tired of being new, and he appreciated the autonomy his grandparents gave him. Ann did not argue with him. "She kept a certain part of herself aloof or removed," says Mary Zurbuchen, a friend from Jakarta. "I think maybe in some way this was how she managed to cross so many boundaries."

In Indonesia, Ann joked to friends that her son seemed interested only in basketball. "She despaired of him ever having a social conscience," remembers Richard Patten, a colleague. After her divorce, Ann started using the more modern spelling of her name, Sutoro. She took a big job as the program officer for women and employment at the Ford Foundation, and she spoke up forcefully at staff meetings. Unlike many other expats, she had spent a lot of time with villagers, learning their priorities and problems, with a special focus on women's work. "She was influenced by hanging out in the Javanese marketplace," Zurbuchen says, "where she would see women with heavy baskets on their backs who got up at 3 in the morning to walk to the market and sell their produce." Ann thought the Ford Foundation should get closer to the people and further from the government, just as she had.

Her home became a gathering spot for the powerful and the marginalized: politicians, filmmakers, musicians and labor organizers. "She had, compared with other foundation colleagues, a much more eclectic circle," Zurbuchen says. "She brought unlikely conversation partners together."

Obama's mother cared deeply about helping poor women, and she had two biracial children. But neither of them remembers her talking about sexism or racism. "She spoke mostly in positive terms: what we are trying to do and what we can do," says Soetoro-Ng, who is now a history teacher at a girls' high school in Honolulu. "She wasn't ideological," notes Obama. "I inherited that, I think, from her. She was suspicious of cant." He remembers her joking that she wanted to get paid as much as a man, but it didn't mean she would stop shaving her legs. In his recent Philadelphia speech on race, in which he acknowledged the grievances of blacks and whites, Obama was consciously channeling his mother. "When I was writing that speech," he told nbc News, "her memory loomed over me. Is this something that she would trust?" When it came to race, Obama told me, "I don't think she was entirely comfortable with the more aggressive or militant approaches to African-American politics."

In the expat community of Asia in the 1980s, single mothers were rare, and Ann stood out. She was by then a rather large woman with frizzy black hair. But Indonesia was an uncommonly tolerant place. "For someone like Ann, who had a big personality and was a big presence," says Zurbuchen, "Indonesia was very accepting. It gave her a sense of fitting in." At home, Ann wore the traditional housecoat, the batik daster. She loved simple, traditional restaurants. Friends remember sharing bakso bola tenis, or noodles with tennis-ball-size meatballs, from a roadside stand.

Today Ann would not be so unusual in the U.S. A single mother of biracial children pursuing a career, she foreshadowed, in some ways, what more of America would look like. But she did so without comment, her friends say. "She wasn't stereotypical at all," says Nancy Peluso, a friend and an environmental sociologist. "But she didn't make a big deal out of it."

Ann's most lasting professional legacy was to help build the microfinance program in Indonesia, which she did from 1988 to '92 - before the practice of granting tiny loans to credit-poor entrepreneurs was an established success story. Her anthropological research into how real people worked helped inform the policies set by the Bank Rakyat Indonesia, says Patten, an economist who worked there. "I would say her work had a lot to do with the success of the program," he says. Today Indonesia's microfinance program is No. 1 in the world in terms of savers, with 31 million members, according to Microfinance Information eXchange Inc., a microfinance-tracking outfit.

While his mother was helping poor people in Indonesia, Obama was trying to do something similar 7,000 miles (about 11,300 km) away in Chicago, as a community organizer. Ann's friends say she was delighted by his career move and started every conversation with an update of her children's lives. "All of us knew where Barack was going to school. All of us knew how brilliant he was," remembers Ann's friend Georgia McCauley.

Every so often, Ann would leave Indonesia to live in Hawaii - or New York or even, in the mid-1980s, Pakistan, for a microfinance job. She and her daughter sometimes lived in garage apartments and spare rooms of friends. She collected treasures from her travels - exquisite things with stories she understood. Antique daggers with an odd number of curves, as required by Javanese tradition; unusual batiks; rice-paddy hats. Before returning to Hawaii in 1984, Ann wrote her friend Dewey that she and her daughter would "probably need a camel caravan and an elephant or two to load all our bags on the plane, and I'm sure you don't want to see all those airline agents weeping and rending their garments." At his house in Chicago, Obama says, he has his mother's arrowhead collection from Kansas - along with "trunks full of batiks that we don't really know what to do with."

In 1992, Obama's mother finally finished her Ph.D. dissertation, which she had worked on, between jobs, for almost two decades. The thesis is 1,000 pages, a meticulous analysis of peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia. The glossary, which she describes as "far from complete," is 24 pages. She dedicated the tome to her mother; to Dewey, her adviser; "and to Barack and Maya, who seldom complained when their mother was in the field."

In the fall of 1994, Ann was having dinner at her friend Patten's house in Jakarta when she felt a pain in her stomach. A local doctor diagnosed indigestion. When Ann returned to Hawaii several months later, she learned it was ovarian and uterine cancer. She died on Nov. 7, 1995, at 52.

Before her death, Ann read a draft of her son's memoir, which is almost entirely about his father. Some of her friends were surprised at the focus, but she didn't seem obviously bothered. "She never complained about it," says Peluso. "She just said it was something he had to work out." Neither Ann nor her son knew how little time they had left.

Obama has said his biggest mistake was not being at his mother's side when she died. He went to Hawaii to help the family scatter the ashes over the Pacific. And he carries on her spirit in his campaign. "When Barack smiles," says Peluso, "there's just a certain Ann look. He lights up in a particular way that she did."

After Ann's death, her daughter dug through her artifacts, searching for Ann's story. "She always did want to write a memoir," Soetoro-Ng says. Finally, she discovered the start of a life story, but it was less than two pages. She never found anything more. Maybe Ann had run out of time, or maybe the chemotherapy had worn her out. "I don't know. Maybe she felt overwhelmed," says Soetoro-Ng, "because there was so much to tell."

Sen. Obama Great Work in Progress

Nativeeyesarewatching — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:11:57 EDT

In the U.S. Senate, at the time Jr. Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored During the first - 8 - eight years of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills.
He introduced
233 regarding healthcare reform,
125 on poverty and public assistance,
112 crime fighting bills,
97 economic bills,
60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills,
21 ethics reform bills,
15 gun control,
6 veterans affairs and many others.
During his first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another
427. These included **the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 - became law, **The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, - became law, **The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate, **The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, - became law, **The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, In committee, and many more.
In all, since entering in 1996.

TRIBAL RELATONS

Nativeeyesarewatching — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:39:05 EDT

THORNTON, Colo. — Sen. Barack Obama has done it in city after city, privately and quietly. Before or after his appearances in front of crowds of thousands, he retreats to a holding room with a dozen or more Native American tribal leaders.

The rarely publicized meetings are one piece of what Indian Country leaders describe as an unprecedented effort this year by the presidential field to pay heed to this small and historically overlooked voting bloc. In the past two weeks alone, Obama, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, campaigned on Indian reservations across South Dakota and Montana as Sen. John McCain met with tribal leaders in New Mexico.

Making up less than 2 percent of the U.S. population and concentrated mostly outside key primary states in past election years, Native Americans are seeing an uptick in prominence because of political and geographic realities.

The prolonged primary season has pushed the contest into states with larger Native communities — states that typically voted too late to attract much attention from presidential candidates. With the emergence of the Mountain West as the newest general election battleground, the Native vote is more highly sought after than ever since it has proven to be mobilized and instrumental in recent statewide races.

“This has never, ever happened before,” said Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, which is neutral in the race. “In 2004, we thought it was a landmark when we got a majority of the candidates to make a statement to Indian Country and come to our conference.”

Native Americans traditionally and overwhelmingly vote Democratic, but leaders said they expect some in their community to at least consider McCain because of his history working on their issues as a past chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Clinton, too, has a track record as first lady and as a New York senator, which both she and her husband emphasized on separate tours through reservations in the run-up to Tuesday’s last-in-the nation primaries in South Dakota and Montana.

“I will be your champion,” Clinton told a crowd on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Kyle, S.D. “I will fight for you. I will stand up for you, and I will work my heart out for you.”

Yet it’s the level of engagement from Obama — a senator from a state with no federally recognized tribes, a city guy with a limited legislative record on Native issues — that has surprised some in the community.

“Obama we weren’t so sure about,” Johnson said.

But from the start, Obama built an inner circle of advisers that included one of the community’s most revered advocates, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. The Illinois senator hired former Daschle operatives with connections to Indian Country and an understanding of its power to swing elections.

Native Americans have built clout in recent years, playing a key role in an Arizona congressional race and assisting in the 2002 victory of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) by 524 votes. Controversial late returns from Shannon County, which includes the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation, put Johnson ahead of Republican challenger John Thune. In 2004, Shannon County delivered 85 percent of the vote to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, making it his top county in the nation. The Native American vote was also considered key in Montana’s 2006 Senate race when Democrat Jon Tester defeated Republican incumbent Conrad Burns.

“I would like to believe these efforts reaching into Indian Country are truly altruistic — and for the large part, they are — but these candidates know that in order to win, Indian Country can be a deciding factor,” said Kalyn Free, an Oklahoma superdelegate and founder of the Indigenous Democratic Network’s List, a political organization that mobilizes the Indian vote and recruits, trains and funds Native American candidates.

They make up about 1 percent of the population in Nevada and Colorado, 4.5 percent in Arizona, 4.8 percent in North Dakota, 6.4 percent in Montana, 7.7 percent in Oklahoma, 8.5 percent in South Dakota and almost 10 percent in New Mexico, according to census figures.

Free came out earlier this month for Obama — one of four Native American superdelegates who have backed the Illinois senator — but she took a while to get there.

She was highly critical of Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards last summer for skipping the first forum dedicated to Native American issues. Only three candidates, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean attended the event at the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ reservation in Southern California.

Clinton declined first, Free said, and Obama and Edwards followed suit.

“If they won't come talk to us now, they certainly won't be responsive to us if they get in the White House,” Free, a Choctaw from Oklahoma, said in August.

But it was around this time that Obama began reaching out on his own terms.

He hosted a conference call with 100 tribal leaders, where he pledged adequate funding in his administration for health care, education and other programs. “Honoring sovereignty means maintaining an open-door relationship. I want all of your tribes to have a voice in developing my policies,” Obama said, according to the Seminole Tribune.

He released a platform that went a step further than Clinton by promising to appoint an American Indian policy adviser to his senior White House staff.

Starting last summer with the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina, he met privately with tribal leaders almost a dozen more times during trips through Idaho, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Montana and South Dakota, campaign aides said.

Before a rally in Sioux Falls, S.D., last week, Obama sat down with 50 Lakota Sioux leaders from across the state. He also met with a group of tribal leaders a few days earlier in Montana.

It was an opportunity for “the tribes to meet with him in person, talk one on one, let them have a feel for who he was but also a chance for them to express themselves,” said Frank King, the publisher of the Native Voice and a tribal consultant who helped arrange the Sioux Falls meeting. “This meeting was about introducing them to someone who is willing to sit down in private and address their concerns. It was an education process for him.”

Interactions such as these can reap big rewards for politicians because tribal leaders have the potential to move thousands of votes, King said.

“Native people are like families,” he said. “That is, they vote in blocs.”

Obama also detoured to the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, where he invoked his own background as the biracial son of a single mother who grew up in modest circumstances to explain that he knows what it feels like to be an outsider.

“I know what it is like to struggle, and that’s how I think many of you understand what’s happened here on the reservation, that a lot of times you have been forgotten just like African-Americans have been forgotten or other groups in this country have been forgotten,” Obama said. “Because I have that experience, I want you to know that I will never forget you.”

By this point, Free had migrated to Obama’s side. She said she decided an Obama administration "will be more inclusive and respectful and will look to Indian Country for solutions."

But she said she also extracted a promise from him to participate in a public forum with tribal leaders at some point during the general election.

“That is going to be a historic event,” Free said.

FIRST NATIONS ARRIVE!!

Nativeeyesarewatching — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:38:29 EDT

Timing of now is Change for First Nations

Nativeeyesarewatching — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:23:53 EDT