The New Republic blog, The Plank, has called into question Gov. Palin's position on the infamous "bridge to nowhere" project. She reportedly told the Anchorage Daily News, during her gubernatorial campaign that "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."
As The Plank points out, Palin was in favor of milking the Republican majority in Congress for federal funds to pay for Alaska's own infrastructure development. This is not an unheard-of or horrible policy in the US, historically; public works projects can be great for economic stimulous and infrastructure upgrades of all kinds tend to pay dividends, but she is not telling the truth about her position regarding the Gravina Island bridge.
Shouldn't we expect for someone with such scant history in actually fighting the good fight to at least have one truthful example of how she did so?
John McCain's homepage today includes a graphic suggesting that "Barack Obama's campaign attacks John McCain's record of service and sacrifice" and calls on supporters to "speak out" against this alleged activity of the Obama campaign. The allegation is false and constitutes an ad-hominem attack and an act of vicious libel.
McCain is using Gen. Clark's not necessarily untrue statement, that military service does not a president make, not by itself, as grounds to go to the most extreme mudslinging and degenerate manipulations his party has to offer. He has recruited the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, has appeared in public with at least one member, who continues to defend the lies he told four years ago, and has taken at least $70,000 from their main backers.
The same man who for months refused to distance himself from a pro-Nazi racist fundamentalist who calls for Israel's destruction because he believes it will bring salvation now claims that Sen. Obama should erase Gen. Clark, whose military service is not only beyond reproach but whose experience and performance in war is above the level of nearly all imaginable thresholds for distinction, from American politics. Sen. McCain's attitude and tactics represent a shameful and unprincipled desperation, and we must see it as such.
McCain is reeling. He sees that his career may end as a result of this quixotic attempt to seizing power through lies and torture and other innuendo that does not come anywhere near to representing genuine thought about complex policies. He sees that his many moments of astounding hypocrisy are coming to light, and he is attacking with rabid, reckless ferocity, the opponent whose principles, whose nobility of character, whose supreme intellect, are likely to see him ousted, generationally and politically, from his quest for power.
We must reveal him for what he is, make the smear-monger, war-monger, lobby-helper, wife's-cash-hiding walking subterfuge of a once noble man, stick. Make it clear to all that this is what McCain is: a man who talks about "straight talk" but can't put together two honest words about the state of the world, his policy goals, what elements of his "base" he actually cares about, or about his opponent. He is a fabulist and a liar, in this new incarnation, and he has lost touch with reality.
His extreme reaction to Gen. Clark's comments shows his most severe weakness: he feels entitled to the presidency, and he is now revealing that his entire campaign is based on the notion that due to his military service, no one should stand in his way, that it is, from his perspective, entirely unamerican to stand in the way of John McCain's lust for the presidency. Let's remind voters, the press, and John McCain that entitlement is not a legitimate path to power in American democracy. If that's all he's got, he should quit now.
The night felt like magic. YES WE ChAmpagNeEvery minute or two, another superdelegate endorsement was announced for Barack Obama. They kept coming faster and faster; it really did feel like an avalanche of superdelegates were announcing support for Obama. On the Obama website, supporters wrote messages about how happy they were, and how much joy they were feeling. Some said they had red, white, and blue balloons waiting to hang outside their doors the moment Obama won the nomination; some said they'd break out special bottles of (beer) (champagne) they saved for this night. On Democrats_Worldwide, the international discussion group for Democrats, the mood was euphoria as people toasted to Obama in messages from Cape Cod to Australia to Afghanistan to Paris.
Read more.
Carole
Obama supporters in Barcelona are invited to attend a group photo as part of the international Bridges for Obama Project.
Sunday May 18th
12 noon to 1230
At the Rambla de Mar Bridge
How to arrive: from the Ramblas walk down to the Columbus Statue and keep walking towards the water, you should see the bridge from there. We will meet at the green metal post at the start of the bridge and have coffee afterwards. (this is the bridge that connects the waterfront near the ramblas to the Maremagnum shopping center) The closest metro stop is Drassanes (green/line3).
A picture of the bridge is at http://seaofchicago.org/
To confirm or for any doubts, please email Adam Lang at admlang@gmail.com
To join the Obama/Barcelona mailing list and receive emails about other Obama events, please send an email with your name to OBAMABCN@gmail.com
I'm sorry to report that Saturday's event has been cancelled.
In performing due dilligence on the event format we contacted Daniel Dozier - Online Finance Assistant & Americans Abroad Coordinator and he recommended not holding this event. It is not supported by the Obama campaign
We will keep you updated on the next events to be held and apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused.
Regards,
Adam Lang
admlang@gmail.com
Hi!
If you are interested in getting on the fundraising committee, there will be a planning meeting tomorrow night (thrusday) in Barcelona.
Adam
Hi, for any of you all going to Brussels, we hope to see you bright and early before all the caucus action starts for a fundraising workshop!
Dear All, If you are an Obama supporter who is planning to attend the Brussels EMEA caucus, we would like to invite you to an informal Obama to discuss fundraising ideas, on Saturday morning, before the Caucus. The purpose of the meeting would be to give us an opportunity to discuss what has worked well for us in our different countries, as well as sharing some thoughts on fundraising direct from the campaign (via Daniel Dozier) and putting together some initial thoughts for raising money as a group in the next 5 months until the convention and discussing how we can best work together. This meeting would be a totally unofficial "side meeting" to the main event, but we felt that the opportunity of sharing our collective knowledge was too good to pass up. Proposed Time: 7:30AM Saturday, 15 March (we'll try to keep it to a tight 1 hour and conduct further discussions online) Proposed Location: Let's meet in the lobby of the Crown Plaza, where the Caucus will be held. Proposed Agenda: 1) Fundraising: the Basics (summary of Obama University presentation) 2) Best Practice: What has worked in your countries so far? 3) Forward Planning: Brainstorm of proposed fundraising activities for the next 5 months (until the Convention) 4) Working Together: Devise protocols for pan-European communications and cooperation If you would be interested in joining us for this knowledge share and brainstorming session, could I ask you to reply to this e-mail? karinjr@hotmail.com If there are others from your countries who you think would be interested in joining us, please by all means forward it along to them. Although the focus in Brussels will obviously, and appropriately, be on our delegate selection and platform processes, I don't think we can afford to pass up the rare opportunity of having our pan European supporter group in one place. Hopefully this will serve as the start of a larger conversation that we can continue when we are back in our countries. I hope that you can join us! All best wishes, Karin Robinson
Now that John McCain is the recognized, if not official and no longer "presumptive", nominee of his party, it's worth beginning to talk about what that means, for the GOP and for Democrats. He has once again seized on the ideas and the manner of others to try to ingratiate himself into the minds of voters. He wants people to think he's the "red phone" guy, the one you'd want answering the nuclear holocaust hotline at 3am. But, he has the very grave problem of Iraq and his incomprehensible support for Bush's "extreme interrogation" methods.
He has the problem of making exceedingly bad judgments in very serious times, and then blaming non-existent ghosts of reasons (raised not even by his own mind but by the propaganda of his party leadership) for his choices. The two cases specifically (the Iraq war and abusive interrogations) demonstrate a willingness to take grave actions not endorsed by American law, in order to achieve personal political gain and in the process sacrifice the principles, the stability and the wellbeing of America's cherished democracy.
We need to be positive about the potential for great, historical change, and move into a future where the Obama vision can help to reshape and recover the American dream, the vision of a land of justice and liberty, equality and the rule of law, but we also need to ensure that unfair characterizations (of self or of opponent) are not permitted to the other candidates. John McCain is no more obvious the red phone guy than any other presidential candidate. His actual performance should be judged, not his military experience or his senatorial longevity.
Hi Everyone! Tomorrow should be an exciting day in the States as Ohio and Texas could both go for Obama, meanwhile, here in Barcelona and Spain we've been busy.
This past Saturday we had a button party in Barcelona, with 12 Obama supporters coming over to make Obama Barcelona buttons. This brings us to a total of 4 events with 50 people attending since we started organizing in January.
Coming up on Friday is a fundraiser for Obama supporters in Madrid with a senior Obama foreign policy advisor. If you would like to attend, give me a buzz at admlang at gmail dot com or call me at 615316999 on Tuesday morning.
We are also planning fundraising events for Barcelona and if you would like to help out, let me know!
Go Obama!
The Democrats Abroad primary vote was held at voting centers in 33 countries, with those living in countries with no voting center to vote by mail, fax or online.
Sen. Barack Obama reportedly won 65% of the votes tallied, while Sen. Clinton reportedly won 32%, with all other Democratic candidates receiving less than 1% of the vote.
The win makes it 11 consecutive victories for Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton is meanwhile struggling against Obama's groundswell of momentum going into the votes in Ohio and Texas.
With the largest number of voting centers in the history of the contest, it was expected turnout would be higher than usual.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/21/obama-wins-democrats-abroad-contest/
A bizarre tussle has erupted between pseudo-commentator and radio host Rush Limbaugh, a self-proclaimed "conservative" and former Republican Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. Limbaugh has been attacking John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, for not being conservative enough, while Eagleburger has criticized Limbaugh for irresponsible attacks against the GOP frontrunner.
Eagleburger is quoted as saying: "I don't know who elected Rush Limbaugh or Hannity as the heads of this conservative movement. They throw that word around as if it was theirs and theirs alone, " adding "I thought I was a conservative, but that doesn't mean that I have to buy off on everything thesepoobahs thinks is what's necessary to be a conservative"...
But the real grist of the story is the profound disenchantment the Republican party seems to be feeling as it struggles to reorganize a damaged and discredited leadership: in his tirade against Sec. Eagleburger, Limbaugh actually said the words "We're trying to avoid a fifty state landslide". He also said the GOP is "trying to win", a claim which would seem obvious except for the division in the party and the fear of losing all 50 states!
There is profound disarray in the base of the Republican organization; there is ideological discord among its leaders, and as such a movement within the party against the man who is getting the majority of the votes. But McCain's enormous advantage in delegates is due in part to the "winner-take-all" format, another fact which puts the question of party divisions back in the spotlight.
Keep this in mind, but let's not count chickens before they hatch...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902700.html?nav=rss_politics
It may be that John McCain is the one Republican who is not reviled by the broader Hispanic population as an anti-immigrant zealot. It may be that for this reason, it will be harder to challenge the GOP in the Rocky Mountain states. But that does not mean that Hispanics and immigrants will flock to the party of militarized, drone-patrolled walls, Fortress America and the "enemy combatant" doctrine of due process.
We need to be very clear on this point: the basic agenda of the Democratic party is more attractive to families of immigrants than a Republican who is less sinister in terms of their interest than his cohorts. We should not stray from faith in that truth. Obama does not need to make big changes to his record or to his policy outlook in order to woo Hispanic voters; he needs to get his message across to them, let them see that his message includes them and does better for their communities and their children's prospects than any other plan out there.
We need to see clearly that a commitment to abiding by the true values of the Constitution and the system it lays out, equality, fairness, opportunity and self-government, is what most immigrants coming to the US admire most about the potential they feel exists here. Higher wages are a part of that wealth of civic heritage and political optimism, and are undermined when we have corrupt officials selling the system off for personal gain.
Obama's message speaks to the core interests of any rational human being, and to anyone passionate about real democracy, because it comprehends implicitly that we cannot be a free people without a system of laws that protects our freedoms, and we cannot enjoy that system of laws if we have officials who disregard it.
We need to be sensitive to the needs and the passions of a nationwide movement that favors humanity in immigration policy, and we need to be sensitive to the fact that language culture is not something American values demand anyone give up or throw away. All the great cultures whose "huddled masses" have come to our shores have maintained some or most of the language and tradition they brought with them, and American society is richer for it, the envy of the world in its diversity and dynamism.
But we should never try to "out-McCain" McCain if he tries to take up the mantle of the pro-immigrant Republican or the pro-Hispanic immigrants' rights champion. What we need is a more humane system and someone smart enough and imaginative enough to ensure that we have the security we need, without targeting people or undermining our liberties.
Obama is the "beacon of freedom" candidate; people around the world look to his candidacy with hope and admiration and his rise has already gone a long way to moderating radical criticisms of the nature of the American electorate and our culture. Stay on message: "we are the change that we seek".
