I wish both of these so-called leaders would exhibit the same sort of moral rectitude and Christian charity they call for from those who follow their exhortations rather than talking about fruitcake and nuts. I wish we all practiced respect in dealing with each other. I wish we weren’t at war in Iraq. I wish there was one reliable, objective source of information reporting. I wish there was a quick solution to hunger and poverty in the world, too.
I don’t, however, wish harm, even in some metaphorical sense, on anyone brave enough to run for public office - even those I disagree with on many issues. I work to insure the one I trust and admire has the best chance to exert leadership.
I speak for myself; I make up my own mind; I allow others to disagree, and hope they do so without behaving disagreeably.
I know the difference between a person and a person’s thoughts and actions.
Jesse Jackson doesn’t speak for me.
I would like to get some feedback from fellow Obama supporters on the Plan laid out by T. Boone Pickens. I would also like to know what Sen. Obama thinks about this plan.
here is a link. Please tell me what you think.
Netroots Nation (formerly known as YearlyKos) starts a week from tomorrow in Austin, TX. Brett and I are going and would love to meet up with some other folks from Western Washington state.
We'll take lots of pictures and write about our experiences. Hope to meet a bunch of new friends and share a Shiner!
Shocking news about Darcy Burner's home here: http://www.nwcn.com/topstories/stories/NW_070108WAB_darcy_burner_home_fire_KS.125af691.html
Entire family including pup are safe. Please consider giving to her campaign at: http://www.darcyburner.com/. Please keep your good thoughts for Darcy and her family at this difficult time.
We had about 40 or so people: 2 Obama fellows, State Rep. Bob Hasagawa and our host Keith. 3 Hillary supporters, several independents. Here's a few pics. (couldn't move around office; it was too crowded!)
Obama fellow (Allie?) with voluteer:
Rep. Bob Hasagawa (11th) with Obama fellow (Ryan):
Watching video:
Meet and greet afterwards with host, Keith (far right):
Once Senator John McCain and the RNC began circumventing the McCain/Feingold limits via the creation of the “McCain Victory ‘08 Fund” with its $70,000 per individual donations they really left presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama with no reason to keep extending his offer to limit campaign spending by accepting public financing. They sprang into faux outrage, of course, ready to accuse him of a flip-flop despite the fact they’d not accepted Obama’s conditional offer. Follow the money, not the spin, and you discover that this has gone virtually unreported. The commercial media outlets have a conflict of interest; reporting on the McCain fund undermines their profits.
I've created a Facebook group: "If Barack Obama says NO to telco amnesty, I'll give him $100!"
It's designed to help Barack make the right choice the easy choice by standing up to this capitulation on FISA.
How is it that with all the brilliant minds in the Democratic party that we continue to allow right-wingers to win with their word?
I am getting at the Fight the Smears website. We have to learn to take away their words rather than refute them. The so called brilliant minds running the Kerry campaign let them cast him as a flip-flopper and NEVER took that term away from them.
Now it's Barack HUSSEIN Obama, He's a Muslim, Never been proud of my country, Cling to their bibles....etc etc. We CANNOT continue to explain these. Our candidate MUST take these terms and phrases and TAKE THEM AWAY!! He needs to do it himself, not a website.
How about, "I'm proud of my heritage and the name my parents chose for me. If others want to scare you with a name, just know that it's not me that they are scared of, it's all of you. They are afraid that you will see how scared they really are of the change you desire. They don't want change. They want the status quo........" Yadda Yadda Yadda.
I'm no speech writer as you can obviously tell but we have to own the words, turn them around so they can't be used against us. I am so tired of the namby pamby responses like this website.
I posted an entry on DailyKos regarding a possible 269-269 tie in the Electoral College. The end result: Obama's likely to win it.
Follow the link for the full details!
I need some advice on organizing an event. I love entertaining, politics and meeting interesting new people. To me, that sounds tailor-made to throw an event.
Are there any kind souls out there that can give me tips on planning a successful event?
And now, a cute pic of my dog:
Apropos of my two previous posts on the Supreme Court Brad DeLong (my favorite academic Blogger) presents the following which I am including in total for your edification and pleasure:
Jack Balkin says that the Bush legal revolution has failed. He is wrong: it has just not yet succeeded. A McCain victory in November and another statist Supreme Court appointee, and that's it for the rights of any whom the president classifies as an outlaw.Balkin acknowledges this at the end. Better he had done so at the beginning:Balkinization: This is what a failed revolution looks like: It is still available to the President and Congress to try to suspend the writ [of habeas corpus], and the Court could then decide whether the suspension was successful. However, there is almost no chance that the current Congress would agree to suspend the writ. It is also likely that the Congress that passed the MCA would not have voted to suspend the writ if the choice were clearly posed on those terms.... And that is precisely the point... the constitutional revolution proposed by the Bush Administration after September 11, 2001 has failed.Following the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush and his supporters proposed a significant change in constitutional norms... preemptive war... new surveillance techniques, including domestic surveillance... preventive detention, including detention of american citizens without access to courts... legal black holes... torture and torture-lite... enhanced secrecy and classification... unitary executive theory that claimed that Congress could not constitutionally limit the President when he claimed to act under his powers as Commander-in-Chief... [the power to] disregard certain features of laws passed by Congress without telling the public any details about... non-enforcement....[W]e can say that this attempt at a constitutional revolution has failed.... Hamdi, Rasul, Hamdan, and now Boumediene... the Supreme Court... does not get behind a proposed constitutional revolution unless it is quite clear that the country is also behind it and demonstrates this support over a sustained period of time....Bush's proposed revolution lost steam for three reasons... there was no successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil after 9/11... the public grew increasingly concerned about reports of torture and mistreatment... [that] greatly damaged America's image as a symbol of liberty around the world and distrubed Americans image of themselves as the good guys... Bush's adventure in Iraq, which he repeatedly claimed was intrinsically connected to the global war on terror, did not succeed.... Bush is now one of the most unpopular presidents in modern American history....And then Balkin takes it back:Even failed constitutional revolutions, however, may have lasting effects. The next president will be stuck... Iraq... Gitmo... preventive detention... surveillance... the Bush Administration's attempt at a constitutional revolution... may revive.... John McCain... may appoint additional movement conservatives to the Supreme Court, who may be more than happy to carry out a constitutional transformation... The country may face a new terror attack... the future is... likely to surprise us.
Jack Balkin says that the Bush legal revolution has failed. He is wrong: it has just not yet succeeded. A McCain victory in November and another statist Supreme Court appointee, and that's it for the rights of any whom the president classifies as an outlaw.
Balkin acknowledges this at the end. Better he had done so at the beginning:
Balkinization: This is what a failed revolution looks like: It is still available to the President and Congress to try to suspend the writ [of habeas corpus], and the Court could then decide whether the suspension was successful. However, there is almost no chance that the current Congress would agree to suspend the writ. It is also likely that the Congress that passed the MCA would not have voted to suspend the writ if the choice were clearly posed on those terms.... And that is precisely the point... the constitutional revolution proposed by the Bush Administration after September 11, 2001 has failed.Following the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush and his supporters proposed a significant change in constitutional norms... preemptive war... new surveillance techniques, including domestic surveillance... preventive detention, including detention of american citizens without access to courts... legal black holes... torture and torture-lite... enhanced secrecy and classification... unitary executive theory that claimed that Congress could not constitutionally limit the President when he claimed to act under his powers as Commander-in-Chief... [the power to] disregard certain features of laws passed by Congress without telling the public any details about... non-enforcement....[W]e can say that this attempt at a constitutional revolution has failed.... Hamdi, Rasul, Hamdan, and now Boumediene... the Supreme Court... does not get behind a proposed constitutional revolution unless it is quite clear that the country is also behind it and demonstrates this support over a sustained period of time....Bush's proposed revolution lost steam for three reasons... there was no successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil after 9/11... the public grew increasingly concerned about reports of torture and mistreatment... [that] greatly damaged America's image as a symbol of liberty around the world and distrubed Americans image of themselves as the good guys... Bush's adventure in Iraq, which he repeatedly claimed was intrinsically connected to the global war on terror, did not succeed.... Bush is now one of the most unpopular presidents in modern American history....
Balkinization: This is what a failed revolution looks like: It is still available to the President and Congress to try to suspend the writ [of habeas corpus], and the Court could then decide whether the suspension was successful. However, there is almost no chance that the current Congress would agree to suspend the writ. It is also likely that the Congress that passed the MCA would not have voted to suspend the writ if the choice were clearly posed on those terms.... And that is precisely the point... the constitutional revolution proposed by the Bush Administration after September 11, 2001 has failed.
Following the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush and his supporters proposed a significant change in constitutional norms... preemptive war... new surveillance techniques, including domestic surveillance... preventive detention, including detention of american citizens without access to courts... legal black holes... torture and torture-lite... enhanced secrecy and classification... unitary executive theory that claimed that Congress could not constitutionally limit the President when he claimed to act under his powers as Commander-in-Chief... [the power to] disregard certain features of laws passed by Congress without telling the public any details about... non-enforcement....
[W]e can say that this attempt at a constitutional revolution has failed.... Hamdi, Rasul, Hamdan, and now Boumediene... the Supreme Court... does not get behind a proposed constitutional revolution unless it is quite clear that the country is also behind it and demonstrates this support over a sustained period of time....
Bush's proposed revolution lost steam for three reasons... there was no successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil after 9/11... the public grew increasingly concerned about reports of torture and mistreatment... [that] greatly damaged America's image as a symbol of liberty around the world and distrubed Americans image of themselves as the good guys... Bush's adventure in Iraq, which he repeatedly claimed was intrinsically connected to the global war on terror, did not succeed.... Bush is now one of the most unpopular presidents in modern American history....
And then Balkin takes it back:
Even failed constitutional revolutions, however, may have lasting effects. The next president will be stuck... Iraq... Gitmo... preventive detention... surveillance... the Bush Administration's attempt at a constitutional revolution... may revive.... John McCain... may appoint additional movement conservatives to the Supreme Court, who may be more than happy to carry out a constitutional transformation... The country may face a new terror attack... the future is... likely to surprise us.
Awhile back during the Republican Primaries Yahoo News asked the candidates whether they used PCs or Macs. McCain offered up that he was:
Neither, I'm an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance I can get.
Are you kidding? Senator McCain, personal computers and the internet are not some fad that's going away anytime soon. Maybe I am making too much of this but how can someone really function in this economy without knowing how to use a computer? I guess we should take some comfort in the fact that in 2008 the Republicans have nominated a Luddite to be the next President of the United States.
By Brian Faler and Edwin Chen
May 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic Party reached a compromise over how to count disputed delegates in Florida and Michigan, in a bid to resolve a months-long quarrel that has helped prolong the presidential-nomination race.
A party committee voted to seat delegations from the two states at the August nominating convention, though with only a half-vote for each delegate. The deal, reached after a sometimes raucous daylong meeting, gives Hillary Clinton a net gain of 24 delegates, a margin that's unlikely to stall Barack Obama's momentum toward getting the nomination.
While Clinton's backers say they were satisfied with the Florida accord, they raised the prospect of a floor fight at the convention over the way the Michigan dispute was resolved, saying Obama had been awarded too many delegates.
Harold Ickes, a Clinton adviser, said he ``strongly'' objects to the Michigan plan, saying it would cost her four delegates. He said Clinton reserved the right to appeal the decision to another committee, a warning that was met with both cheers and catcalls from activists at the meeting.
``Hijacking four delegates, notwithstanding the flawed aspect of this, is not a good way to start down the path of party unity,'' Ickes told the panel in Washington.
Punished for Violation
The Michigan resolution was closer to the Obama campaign's demand that the delegates be evenly split between the two candidates. Clinton won both of the disputed primaries.
The party's rules and bylaws committee voted 27-0 to seat Florida's delegation and give Clinton 52.5 delegates; Obama would get 33.5. The panel voted 19-8 to similarly seat the Michigan delegation, giving Clinton 34.5 delegate votes and Obama 29.5. Superdelegates -- the lawmakers and party officials who get an automatic vote at the convention and who are likely to decide the nomination -- will also get only half votes.
Both states were punished for violating party rules and moving up the dates of their primaries.
Obama, 46, applauded today's solution.
He said Clinton, 60, would gain a ``substantial'' number of delegates and that ``many members of the Florida and Michigan delegations feel satisfied that the decision was fair.'' He won't try to dissuade the Clinton campaign from contesting the party's decision, he told reporters in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he's campaigning. ``I trust they will do the right thing'' and ``will be motivated by an interest in bringing the party together.''
Rally Party
Democrats are counting on the compromise -- which came after several hours of private deliberations among panel members -- to help the party rally around a single candidate and avoid alienating voters in the two crucial states.
Either way, the accord solidifies Obama's lead in the delegate race. With the addition of the Michigan and Florida contingents, 2,118 delegates are needed to secure the nomination. Before today, Obama had 1,984.5 delegates and Clinton 1,784.5, according to a tally of pledged delegates and campaign lists of superdelegate endorsements.
Today's decision gives the Illinois senator an additional 33.5 votes in Florida and 29.5 in Michigan, giving him a total of 2047.5. Clinton, a New York senator, picked up 52.5 delegates in Florida and 34.5 in Michigan, bringing her total to 1,871.5.
Half-votes for each of the states' pledged superdelegates add at least 7.5 votes to Clinton's total and three to Obama's, bringing Obama within 67.5 delegates of securing the nomination. Only 86 pledged delegates remain to be awarded, with 55 at stake in tomorrow's Puerto Rico primary and another 31 total in the June 3 Montana and South Dakota primaries.
John McCain praised President Bush for vetoing the SCHIP program:
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, told CNN Wednesday he agrees with President Bush's veto of legislation expanding a children's health insurance program, saying the bill provided a "phony smoke and mirrors way of paying for it.
