Yesterday there were upwards to 30,000 greeting Obama in Oakland. Last night at a Fundraiser at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, an approxmate of $ 1,000,000 was raised for OUR fearless candidate.
Go Obama '08!
jdshostak
from www.examiner.com:
Here are excerpts from Sen. Thomas Eagleton's farewell address, written in May, and shared at Saturday's memorial service.
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-This is my last audience and, thus, I think I am entitled to the last word.
-I have had a wonderful, understanding wife. She has endured all of my foibles and I love her for it.
-I most fondly remember my mother. I was her favorite. I am reluctant to use Nixon's phraseology, but my mother was a saint. ... From early days, I wanted to be a senator. My father would have made a great one. He was a magnificent trial lawyer. He was in my mind as great a speaker as FDR.
-My dad ... thought a youngster should be exposed to all sorts of views. Once, he took me to the old Coronado Hotel to hear Norman Thomas, the frequent Socialist candidate for president. Another time he took me to see a Gerald L.K. Smith protest at Kiel Auditorium. Smith was a racist "preacher" in the style of Bob Jones of Bob Jones University. ... In 1938, dad drove me by a German Bund (pro Nazi) meeting at Grand and Lafayette and explained the dangers of Hitler and anti-Semitism.
-In the Senate, I tried my best to express and vote my conscience. ... I think Sen. Phil Hart, Sen. Mike Mansfield, my wonderful friend Gaylord Nelson and Jack Danforth were amongst senators who voted their true conscience on every vote.
-You may wonder why I mention Jack Danforth. There is a possibility that God is a Republican, and at this point I feel it best to cover all my bases.
-I am most proud that the "Eagleton Amendment" was the legislative act that finally ended U.S. participation in the dreadful Vietnam War. I am proud of the original version of the War Powers Act which ... would have re-established the shared powers of the President and the Congress when our nation went to war.
-I am proud that ... we passed the first major Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
-After leaving the Senate, I never missed being there - except for the debate on the nomination of Bork and the horrible, disastrous Iraq War. That war will go down in American history as one of our greatest blunders. It will be remembered, in part, as a curse to our Constitution when Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted to put a democratic face on torture. Vice President Richard Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also will go down in history for their total lack of planning for post-war Iraq.
-I set forth my own critique of my Senate service. I could and should have done more. I had the energy. I had the desire. ... I blame it on my quickly moving attention span. Ted Kennedy has spent 30 plus years on National Health Insurance. I could not do that. I was too impatient.
-I do not pretend to be the world's greatest Catholic. Nevertheless, I think the Catholic Church is a vital part of American life, conscience and thought. ... It is Pope John XXIII who made the Catholic Church relevant to the 20th Century and future popes must make it relevant to the 21st Century. It was Archbishop May who made the Catholic Church relevant to the 20th Century in St. Louis. In the era of the Christian right, we seem to have merged God's power into political power.
-I am an optimist about death and believe there is a there there. Somehow, in some manner, I will be meeting my parents, my brother and my friends. Somehow, Bob Koster will be waiting for me to tell me where I can buy everything 10 percent off.
-So go forth in love and peace - be kind to dogs - and vote Democratic.
Dear Friends and Fellow Group Members,
My advance announcement on March 5th was...
Great news! Senator Barack Obama will appear at a public rally in Oakland on Saturday, March 17 in the afternoon (full details will be available soon). Please come to this event and experience first-hand the excitement Barack Obama is generating all across the country!
I have had some questions come up so here's a FAQ section....
-- The Obma site does not post appearances this far in advance on their site. (As of the 6th, they only listed to the 10th)
-- The $1,000/$2,300 per plate fundraiser that night is at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.
-- Details are still coming in, but there's no info yet on specific location.
-- Sorry about any duplicate emails you received - you are in more then one group and I wanted people to pass out the info I had ASAP. To avoid duplication as much as possible, when I get more details on this event I will only send it to my "friends" list and to persons whose emails addresses were part of group discussions threads I have received.
-UPDATE 1- I do not know if this will guarantee a ticket to the public rally, but it is the only RSVP option I'm aware of at this time. Link
-- UPDATE 2- Volunteer announcements went out today (check your email) and I signed up right away! I'm so excited!
