Organizing for America | Sooners for Obama

Sooners for Obama

This is for students/alumni/faculty/staff at the University of Oklahoma that support Barack Obama as the next president! After the group gets going, I would really like to organize ways where we can be more involved in the campaign.

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My First Obama House Party

By Breea B - Feb 13th, 2009 at 12:00 pm EST

Also listed in: Oklahoma Women for Obama | Sooners for Obama

The first Obama House Party was a success! While the turnout wasn't the best, those that did not attend came with thoughts about the stimulus plan and their own personal insight into how such a plan will affect their lives. We had a student, who's future is undoubtedly going to be affected by this historically bad economy when he graduates with a mountain of debt and tries to find a job that allows him to not only pay his bills, but enjoy that mythical American Dream that he's heard about and worked towards his whole life. We had a young professional couple, who's plans for the years to come will also be affected as they also try to pay off school debt, buy a home, and have children. We had an established couple, who's future is also becoming clouded with the shadow of a declining economy considering one has a disability and one works for a state university that is currently trying to survive in the face of huge budget cuts. And then there was me. I'm a recent graduate of law school with an enormous amount of debt to pay off. My husband will graduate with his Bachelor's in May, so we will soon feel the pressure of even more debt. We have two, young children, one of which is in our local public system and the other still in diapers. My husband and I would like to add to our young family, but with student loans, mortgage payments, and the rising cost of living in general, that is just not a possibility right now. We as a family are concerned about the education of our nation's children and their ability to compete in the increasingly globalized world that we live in today. We are concerned about preserving our environment and resources for not just our children, but for their children and their children's children. We are concerned that the chance for individual expression and the pursuit of personal freedom won't continue to grow as it has in this nation for the last century. There is so much more that, not just my family, but all of us need to be concerned about.

As one can see from above the spectrum of different ways our lives can be affected by this economic catastrophe that our nation has found itself in, we as a concerned citizenry need to join together, be informed, spread the knowledge, and work as a united force to make a difference not only in our time, but also in the future for our children. We voted for the candidate who represented change, promised change. We won. And now it's time to take that same enthusiasm and energy of our generation that got Pres. Obama elected and transform it into something bigger than an election, bigger than ourselves. Real change for today. True hope for tomorrow. We have the tools. We have the leader. Now we need to make it happen. And I believe that this is our day, our chance to do just that.

Please join me in this journey! Welcome to my blog!

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NPR: Oklahoma Republicans Shift Political Expectations

By Mike W - Dec 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm EST

Also listed in: 9 groups

NPR: Oklahoma Republicans Shift Political Expectations
by Linda Wertheimer
NPR 12-15-08
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98290100

Listen Now [5 min 16 sec]
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=98290100

Map: Election night results from Oklahoma
http://media.npr.org/news/images/2008/dec/15/map.jpg
On this map of the Oklahoma results, the dark red indicates that Obama got less than 30 percent of the vote. The intermediate pink color shows that he got 30 to 35 percent of the vote. The lightest color shows where he got more than 35 percent. -Robert Benincasa/NPR

All Things Considered, December 15, 2008 -- On a recent biting cold night in the small city of Durant, Okla., residents held their annual Christmas Day parade: a small-town tradition with many floats, bands and young children on a flatbed trailer towed by a giant green John Deere tractor.

But despite the festivities, Durant will not get the president it wanted for Christmas.

Oklahoma is a conservative state, where voters focused on issues such as small government and abortion rather than the president-elect's mantra of "change." In fact, Oklahoma was the reddest state in the union in this election, with Republican John McCain carrying every single county. No other state can make that claim.

Now, residents are shifting their political expectations as Obama prepares to take office. While some say they are concerned that Obama is more rhetoric than action, others say they have been impressed by his choices so far.

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Racist t-shirt seen in Oklahoma City

By Mike W - Oct 23rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm EDT

Also listed in: 8 groups

Regret that this racist t-shirt was seen on a public street in Oklahoma City, OK.

The person who sent this asserted that it's not racist. Really? How can anyone even defend this stuff?

Mike W
Tulsa+
Who knows that racists usually shrink from the spotlight of broad daylight

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Barack and I were in St Louis last weekend

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Oct 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pm EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

Last week, we visited LeAnn's brother and family in St Louis, Missouri, unexpected toss-up state in the coming election.

Because Missouri is an unexpected toss-up state, Barack came to St Louis on Saturday.

And I did not even know of his coming before we took the trip. How lucky is that for someone as interested in the election as I am! The candidates do not publicize their campaign trail too much in advance because, especially in the last weeks, they go where they have a chance to overturn the Electoral votes. I suspect, it is also for security reasons. They do not want to give loonies too much time to plan an assassination.
Anyway, pure luck!

Barack spoke under the famous Gateway Arch by the Mississippi River, symbolizing the opening to the westward expansion. Incidentally, for Barack, it could symbolize many other things if you enjoy symbols. The Arch is standing across the highway from a white house. In that case, it is the white courthouse of St Louis. But it is not just any courthouse, it is the courthouse of the infamous Dred Scott case. Dred Scott was a slave who remained a slave after the US Supreme Court declared slavery constitutional in 1856. Barack, about to become the first black US President in the history of the country, was addressing 100,000 people on Saturday facing a white house which is a symbol of the peculiar institution that slavery was.
I am not sure Barack thought of all that when he decided to come speak there, but I enjoy the symbolism.

Anyway, I was in St Louis on that historical day.

We even had a picnic under the Arch. As we were having the picnic, with the kids running around, we saw four or five men in dark suits talking and looking like they were assessing the area. When I saw them, I immediately thought they were secret services personnel planning a political rally. It is funny how secret services personnel do not look secretive at all. They are conspicuous, a la James Bond. You know how different spies can be, right? There is the James Bond type, especially Sean Connery or Roger Moore-style, the most famous spy ever, telling everyone, including the villains, "My name is Bond, James Bond." He might as well add, "I work as a spy in the service of Her Majesty, and I have a license to kill that I intend to use against you after I have jumped from a few buildings and chased you with my fancy conspicuous car. Oh, and by the way, I am great in bed, as your girlfriend is about to find out." And there is the Jason Bourne/Matt Damon type -- or Ferris/Leo DiCaprio in the last Ridley Scott movie Body of Lies. Bourne has a hundred different passports, spends his life hiding, never gives his real name.
Well, the "spies" I saw under the Arch in St Louis were clearly the James Bond conspicuous type, although I suspect they do not have the same qualities as James Bond himself (I am not talking about the good-in-bed part, here, I don't know about that, and did not have time to ask).
Okay, I probably recognized them as secret services personnel also because on the way to Missouri, we had heard on the radio that Jill Biden, the democratic VP candidate's wife, was planning to spend a few days campaigning in Missouri, in yet unknown places.

Anyway, Barack, not Jill, came to St Louis to speak on Saturday.

In the morning, I took the family to the Cahokia mounds in nearby Illinois, Obama state. The mounds -- pyramid-like structures -- were built by Cahokia Indians between 900 and 1200 AD. Besides being very interested in American politics, I am also very interested in Native American history, so that was a great place to go to. Great museum, amazing mound sights. The kids had fun and learned a lot. Great.

Then, we went home and had a nap. Well, Alyenor, my three-year old needed a nap, and I took one too because I was knackered after the crazy day we had spent on Friday at the crazy City Museum.

After the nap, we went to town and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, the loudest restaurant I have ever been to, and after I paid a bill that made me feel like I was a communist government bailing out the freaking place, we went home and went to bed.

What about the Obama rally? you might wonder, dear reader.

Well, that's the beauty of it. I went to the Arch on Wednesday. I saw the spies on Wednesday. Barack came to St Louis on Saturday. Under the Arch where I had a picnic on Wednesday, he gave the most important political rally in the history of the universe on Saturday. At the time he was giving a speech under the Arch, I was having a nap and a lousy expensive dinner in the most annoying restaurant in the history of the universe. I learned about the Obama rally on Sunday morning in the paper. Obama gave a speech in front of 100,000 people, and I was three blocks away! I am writing a blog on this election, and I was three blocks away from Barack Obama and I missed him!

I missed Barack Obama, although I was three freaking blocks away from him! I went to the Arch three days before him!

Barack, Michelle, Joe, David Plouffe, the campaign manager, send me emails every single day, several emails every day, and I did not know Barack would be three blocks away from me!

How dumb is that!!

I am so dumb I might vote Republican, and I am not even an American voter.

Dear reader, if you can't believe what you have just read, it is simply because it is too darn stupid to be true. Read it again.

Now, I need to go blow my brains out.

Adieu.

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Hatemongers

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Oct 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

This has been the craziest week I have ever seen in a political campaign.

Crazy and scary, really, sad, pathetic, dangerous.

A month or two ago, a friend of mine, Jack, and I were talking about the campaign. At the time, there was a rhetoric the Republicans had just barely started to use, and they used it very occasionally, consisting in saying that we don't really know who Barack Obama is. Jack thought that this rhetoric was really code language to say "He is black. We can't have a black president."

It made much sense to me when we had this conversation. Since then, though, the economic crisis has been forefront and the question "Who is Barack Obama really?" was dropped.

This week, this rhetoric has come back full swing, and in a very ugly way.

And Jack was right.

Last weekend, as I wrote previously, Sarah Palin started to link Obama to terrorists. The exact quote was: "Obama thinks America is so imperfect that he pals around with domestic terrorists." Since then, she has repeated this kind of attack everytime she had an opportunity, depicting him as someone who is "not one of us," "not a man who sees America like you and I see America."
At one of her rallies, a sheriff talked of Barack Hussein Obama, emphasizing Obama's middle name.

The code is hardly veiled now. Clearly, this whole rhetoric appeals to old subconscious fears and hatred in American people's minds.

Now here is the scary part: it works, it does arouse what the worst in the audience's subconscience (and I am saying it is subconscious only to be polite). When Palin or McCain talked about Obama at their rallies this week, you could hear people screaming "Terrorist!" "Kill him!" or even "Bomb Obama!"

Palin and McCain did not try to shut them up. They can't even tell they did not hear them to justify their inaction, because on one occasion, after we hear "Terrorist!" from the crowd, we can see McCain frown. He frowns in disapproval, he just can't believe he heard that, but he continues as if nothing had happened.
This is wrong, very wrong. Even if the US did not have the history of presidential assassination and of black lynching it has, it would be wrong to let people get away with this kind of outbursts.

And McCain knows it is wrong (I am not so sure about Palin) and he redeemed himself slightly.
Yesterday, at a town hall meeting, after a man in the audience told him he had to "fight" and a woman said: "I don't trust Obama, he's an Arab," McCain actually, albeit awkwardly, defend Obama.
He literally took the microphone from the woman and said: "No, Ma'am, no, Ma'am, he's not, he is a decent family man." Of course, it is a bit awkward since this response to "Obama is an Arab" kind of implies you can be an Arab and a decent family man at the same time. But, McCain reacted in the spur of the moment, improvised, and I am not going to be too picky. To the man asking him to fight, he answered that he will, but respectfully. He said he respects Obama, that Obama is a decent man, with a decent record; he disagrees with him, and he thinks he would be a better president than Obama, but Obama is a decent man.
As he was saying all that, McCain was booed by his own audience. But he went on.

I have to say, I was flabbergasted. These images were riveting, fascinating to watch. Not really because this was beyond who McCain is, but because it was completely inconsistent with the rest of the week.

Here is my theory, for whatever it's worth. I do think McCain is a decent and honest politician. I think his policies are not good, but he is a good guy. And I think he did not control his campaign. I think he was not free to choose the VP he wanted and he is not free to choose the campaign he wants.
The Republicans do not like McCain, he is not their favorite candidate. I think he was forced by the Republican strategists to pick Palin, a woman that he had met once before and who had never been mentioned as a possible pick, who had not even run for the nomination. I think the strategists use Palin now as a pitbull but I think McCain disapproves. McCain lost to Bush in 2000 after the Bush campaign launched a rumor saying that McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock! So, I don't think McCain really wants to play that ugly.
Yesterday, when he defended Obama, he became himself again, rebelling against the strategists of his party.
Sure, he might have realized also that people had enough of hearing this kind of crap when they are losing money everyday in the stock market.

What a crazy week this was!
To crown it all, we heard yesterday of the results of an investigation taking place in Alaska to find out whether Palin abused her power when she fired the head of the State Troopers because he refused to fire her former brother-in-law who had given a hard time to her sister. It turns out, she did abuse her power.
Of course, she says now that the investigation was biased. The problem is, the judiciary committee which led the investigation was composed of a majority of Republicans.

Don't throw the first stone, Sarah. The glass ceiling you were talking about when we first met you might collapse on your cute little face.

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How did John sleep?

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Sep 26th, 2008 at 11:17 am EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

Wow! It is difficult to keep track with this campaign when blogging about it is not the only thing you have to do. I’m no Meghan McCain. Tonight is the big night. The first debate between Barack and... well... an empty chair. At least, that’s the state of our knowledge this morning of September 26, 2008. Two days ago, as I already wrote, John decided to “suspend” his campaign to go to Washington to save the world economy. Well, he said suspend, but he did not really suspend his campaign, no, we kept seeing his surrogates on TV who explained that he had “suspended” his campaign. Actually, we saw John in person saying quite a lot why he was “suspending” his campaign.Of course, everybody knows now that the very “suspension” of his campaign was one more brilliant campaign stratagem.When I say brilliant, that is of course to the measure of the Palin-pick standard of political brilliance. I am writing this during the commercial breaks of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, who just described John as the only man who overreacts at an event which is ten days old.That is exactly what this “campaign suspension” looks like. So anyway, he suspended his campaign and asked for a delay of the debate due to take place on Friday night. Suspense!!!! (over the suspension...) The truth is probably, of course, than John does not want to debate. Because he does not really know what he is talking about, as is made obvious by the big perspiration drops rolling down his temples during the interviews he dares give.You know, I will have to write a blog about the Republican ticket interviews, because I have never quite seen something like that anymore. Sarah Palin, in particular, is quite something. Yesterday, again, she said to Katie Couric of CBS that she has foreign policy experience because Russia is Alaska’s neighbor, and when the Russians violate American airspace, they will be over Alaska first. I mean, you don’t get better than that. Or maybe you could by saying that from Alaska, you can see Russia. Oh, wait a minute. She did that already. The truth is also that John faces an incredible dilemma. He says the Paulson bailout plan (the government spends $700 billion dollars to save the economy) is a bad plan because the taxpayers should not have to pay this kind of money. That is basically the general opinion. A poll yesterday showed that a bit less than a third of the Americans favor the plan, a bit more than a third do not, and about a third are undecided. If such a huge measure does not get immediate widespread enthusiastic support, it is not a good sign. On Thursday morning in the very Conservative Oklahoman – my new Bible – where the readers’ letters are usually about how you should love America or leave it, or about how the President should be very very Christian, or how abortion is murder etc, etc, well, on Thursday, all the letters were about how the taxpayers should not have to save Wall Street.Just a sign. The interesting thing is that from both sides, they are against this plan for different reasons: on the left, they obviously do not want rich businessmen who benefited from years of Republican deregulations to be saved from their blunders and on the right, they see this plan as Socialism, which to them is synonymous with Soviet policies (cf. Previous posts). So here is John’s conundrum. Either he does not sign the plan as a Senator and a majority does not sign it and the economy collapses; he does not sign the plan but the plan passes and is successful and he was not one of the saviors; he does sign the plan and he alienates the base who does not want the plan and his fellow Republicans who consider that regulating the market is Stalinist socialism. Yesterday, at the beginning of the afternoon, Congressmen were saying that they were about to hit a deal. Two hours later, one of them came out of the room and announced that they were far from a deal yet, that there were some fundamental disagreements.What happened in the meantime?John arrived to Washington.I’m not kidding. In any case, all this is very exciting. Kind of in a pathetic way, but exciting all the same. I have never seen such a campaign, and apparently, a lot of people feel the same.Really, my non-intellectualized gut feeling when I see McCain interviewed is that he knows he is fighting a lost battle. He knows there is no way he can win, so he is attempting the craziest moves: he picks a VP running mate who literally stutters when asked a serious question, whose body language clearly, unmistakebly shows she has no clue about anything except moose-hunting (I mean really, I can’t describe it but please view some of interviews on the net if you don’t have access to US TV channels), and whose lies and manipulations of investigations and pork-barrel politics are unveiled every single day; he approves ads saying that Obama wants to teach kindergartners sex education; then for ten days of a major economic crisis, he keeps saying the US economy is fundamentally strong before he finally declares he suspends his campaign to go solve this major crisis. The cynical interpretation of all that is that while he is doing all those crazy things, the press is talking about him, and on November 4th, a big proportion will vote for the guy whose name is the most familiar.This is working. When you look at this campaign, and when you add it to a very unpopular President who blundered during eight years, and you put on top of that an economic crisis, which historically is never good for the incumbent, then you would think that the margin between the two candidates would be 20 percentage points. Instead, they are in a dead heat. And not because Obama is running a bad campaign, like only our very own French Socialists know how to run.It is quite unbelievable. Well, I am looking forward to tonight. Sleep well, John.

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Attend a Debate Watch Party This Friday, September 26th

By Mike W - Sep 25th, 2008 at 8:06 pm EDT

Also listed in: 10 groups

Attend a Debate Watch Party This Friday, September 26th

http://my.barackobama.com/debate

On September 26th, Barack Obama and John McCain will have their first debate of the election. Whether you host or attend a party, this is an important moment -- and a great opportunity to bring people together, talk about the issues, and build this movement for change. Check out our Host Guide to learn more and set up an event today, or search for one to attend in your area.

---

Michelle on Debate Watch Parties

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfb8fcyTnXg

2:06

From: BarackObamadotcom

Added: September 21, 2008

Michelle Obama asks supporters to attend Debate Watch Parties for the first presidential debate on Friday, Sept. 26th at 9pm EDT. Visit my.barackobama.com/debate and sign up to attend or host a party in your community.

---

Attending or hosting a Debate Watch Party is a great way to connect with folks in your community and share Barack's message of change. If you've never attended a house party before, don't worry. With just six weeks left before Election Day, November 4th, this important first debate is the perfect time to get involved. And if you want to host an event, no experience is required. Our host guide will help you put together a successful event, walking you through each step and providing all the resources you need.

Use our zip code search on the right [of link below] to find a Debate Watch Party in your community or create an event of your own.

http://my.barackobama.com/debate

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John our hero

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Sep 24th, 2008 at 3:39 pm EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

On Friday, the first presidential debate between John and Barack was supposed to take place.

However, John has just announced that he would suspend his campaign on Thursday in order to go to Washington to help solve the economic crisis. He is asking to postpone the debate.

After the brilliant Palin move, here is John's brilliant let-us-solve-the-crisis-before-campaigning move.

Either Barack will refuse, and he will look like the bad guy since Oh my God, the presidential campaign is more important for him than the millions of Americans suffering from the crisis.

Or Barack will accept, and the debate is not going to take place on time, which might be slightly relieving to John.

All this does not matter anyway, because John is here to save us. He's going to Washington and everything is gonna be okay. Be relieved, World, John is going to solve the crisis that his cronies and his party's political philosophy have entailed. A bipartisan Congressional commission is working on it right now, examining the presidential bill of an appropriation of $700 billion to bailout the economy, but they probably do not know what they are doing.

John, on the contrary, these last two weeks, has shown his economic expertise, by saying the economy is fundamentally strong, by calling for a 9/11 Commission of the economy, etc, etc.

Go get'em, Johnny! As you keep saying, you have taken on tougher guys!

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Ronald lives on

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Sep 23rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

"In this present crisis, the government is not the solution to our problem. The government is the problem."

This statement, by Ronald Reagan, lives on today and is one of those sloganish statements used over and over again to avoid addressing the issues that would make the government, and the country, better.

Again, from a French point of view, I cannot help screaming how ignorant people are, and how paradoxical their stances are, when they say on TV or write in the press about the evils of big government.
Every day, I insist, every single day, you hear or read someone equating big government to Communism. Again, this morning, a reader of The Oklahoman writes: "They're slowly but surely taking over in the pretext of liberalism (communism). We have a presidential candidate who's preaching the old communist axiom "We are going to take from the haves and give to the have nots." He goes on by quoting Norman Matoon Thomas, a six-time candidate for president from the Socialist Party of America who said: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." This reader also recommends reading The Communist Manifesto before casting one's ballot.

Beware, Communism is still creeping!

Because these people are afraid of big government, they reject any kind of regulation of the free market.
When this deregulation results is the major crisis happening today, they do not regret. To the following question: "In your time in Congress, you have supported deregulation of the economy. Do you regret that now?" John McCain has answered: "No, I think deregulation has probably helped the economic growth of this country."
This interview took place two days ago, between the bailouts of major Wall Street corporations and the Secretary of the Treasury asking Congress for a $700 billion check for more bailouts.

Now, when I am really pissed off at hearing or reading this kind of stuff, I scream how stupid people are. But that is probably unfair. The common people do not know what they are talking about, just like I do not know what I am talking about when I start talking about the economy.
People just know what they are being told. If you keep telling them the US is the greatest country on earth, with the greatest economy, a country where everything is possible, where anybody can live the American Dream, why wouldn't they believe that? When the lies are flattering, you don't question them.

What is truly fascinating is that any Conservative who would read this blog -- if there are some, please leave a comment -- would call me a dangerous Communist.
There is no middle of the road in what I hear or read about small and big government. What they are truly talking about is no government and dictatorship.

When you tell them that a bigger government could provide for free health care for everybody, they don't say "Oh great! Let's have that." No, their reaction is "Yeah, but in Canada and in France, where you have universal health care, you wait for six months to see your doctor, and you don't find your medicine when you need it."

This is the common belief. And apart from when I write a letter to a newspaper, I never read or hear anywhere that this is simply not true.
Just in case a Conservative reads this, let me repeat it: I live in France, and when I need to see my doctor, I call him and I see him before the day is over. After the consultation, I give him 21 euros (about $15 today) which is reimbursed to me within two weeks. I then go to the pharmacy. They give me my medicine, and I give them a few cents. The first time my American wife went to the pharmacy for her and her daughter's asthma and allergy medicine, she expected to pay $150. Instead, she was asked for 12 cents.
By the way, for all that, I pay less than $100 a month and that covers my wife and my three children.
If that is big government, if that is Stalinism, I say Yeah!!!

I want to see people on Fox News tell that story. I want to go on Fox News and tell that story! Fox News, call me if you dare!

The most fascinating, of course, is that people say and write this nonsense, and then they act in very paradoxical ways.

When Hurricane Ike was about to strike the coast of Texas, people were asked to leave their homes because they were in danger.
40% of the residents of under-sea-level Galveston Island, which was about to be completely devastated, decided to ignore the authorities and stayed. After Ike has struck, billions of dollars of federal money are being spent to rescue and rebuild.

Nobody would criticize the government for doing that. Nobody with a sane mind would say "Let the evil government out of this. People and business are going to take care of themselves!"

Well, the health care in this country is under the destructive action of Hurricane Private Insurance Corporation. Many more people are in danger because of lack of health care than because of hurricanes. So the government needs to act on it as it acts -- or should act -- after hurricanes.

I think the government is the problem when it does not do anything for the governed.
You the people have asked enough what you could do for your country. It might be time again to ask what the country can do for you.

A TV commentator brilliantly summed it up last night: if you believe the government is the problem, don't run for government.

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Moose and fish

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Sep 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pm EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

Well, I have been away from my blog for a week, and the campaign is unrecognizable.

Last week, we were talking lipstick on pigs, sex education to kindergartners, sexist persecution, etc., etc.

Since last week, capitalist deregulations have entailed apocalyptic disasters on the market, and that revealed a lot about the candidates.

With the current major financial crisis, the McCain cannot decently continue launching attacks based on Barack's lipstick on pig comment. Even by Republican standards, that would be shockingly cynical. Besides, Barack talks about the economy this week. In the wake of the bailouts of Lehman Bros. and AIG and of the erratic course of the Dow Jones, he actually tries to address the issues. Oh, he probably won't do miracles, but he is making a lot of sense especially when he claims that the Republican philosophy of economics is at least partly responsible for what is happening.
So John has to address the issues too. And he is trying. He has even admitted in a radio interview that No, Barack Obama did not call Sarah Palin a pig. Good. A bit late, but good. That's a start away from the swiftboating of the previous weeks. For my numerous French readers who would not be familiar with swiftboat campaigning, the expression comes from the 2004 election during which an allegedly independent group of Vietnam veterans broadcast an ad claiming that Kerry -- who claimed he had been part of a heroic swift boat company in Nam -- had not really been there. These were pure lies, and Kerry lost. He had been swiftboated.

Well, that is what the McCain campaign had been doing before the financial crisis and before Karl Rove -- yes, the vicious and cynical Karl Rove, King of Swiftboating who sole-handedly put Bush in the White House twice -- that very same Karl Rove said on Fox News -- yes, Fox News, aka Fixed News, this Conservative nest of hard-hitting journalists who interview Sarah Palin's hairdresser to find out how hard Sarah works when she is waiting her turn at the salon, without complaining, just waiting patiently like all of us -- that McCain ads had not really past the 100%-true test.

Mind-blowing.

Anyway, John is also trying to talk about the economy now. And it is not pretty. The thing is, he does not look very confident when he talks about the economy. He stutters that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" on the very day the Dow Jones plunges. And you can almost see big drops of sweat on his temples. And his body language is so awkward when he is asked to explain and when he says he meant by "fundamentals" the American workers, "the best workers in the world," and so when Barack criticizes him for this comment about the fundementals of the economy, well, he really criticizes the American workers.
And you can't believe he just said that. But then, if you haven't broken your TV, you observe him for one more second and you realize that he does not believe he just said that either. He is at a loss. He does not know what to do. He is leading a smear campaign because that is what Republicans do, that's all, but he knows he should be better.
But he has a huge problem. He cannot defend any economic policy, because the Republican economic policy is the cause of the current mess. So, what can he do? Give up the fight before Election Day.
John is a moose at bay.

Talking about moose, what about Sarah? Well, she has given some interviews finally. With journalists that she picked. And she also looks very much like she does not know what she is talking about, although this comes less as a surprise. She was asked what she though of the Bush doctrine. Well, she thought nothing, because she did not know what the Bush doctrine was.
I am not being elitist here, I think it is okay for anyone of us not to know what the Bush doctrine is -- I knew only because I mentioned it in one of my classes -- but when you run for Vice President of the US, I think it is a clear, red-alert sign that you are not fit for the job when you don't know that the Bush doctrine, the doctrine that is running your country, is about preemptive strikes on countries deemed rogue countries.

She keeps claiming that she did not blink when she was asked to be on the ticket, that she would not blink in case of a new terrorist attack. She would not blink. What does it mean not to blink? Does it show courage or dumb foolhardiness? I think that the President and the Vice-President of the most powerful country in the world should blink a lot, and I think Bush and Cheney should have blinked a bit more six years ago.
Blink, baby, blink.

Oh boy, there is so much more to say about this past week.

Todd, Sarah's husband has been subpoenaed in the context of allegations that Sarah might have abused her power in having her brother-in-law fired.
John said that more offshore drilling would be environmentally good because the fish love those rigs, there are a lot of fish around the rigs, so drilling would be good not only for our cars but for our meals too.
This is not a joke.
A few weeks ago, a Republican surrogate had claimed that Sarah's pipeline in Alaska was a good thing environmentally speaking because the caribou and the moose come huddling against the warm pipeline.

I thought I had heard the most stupid things ever in the 2007 French electoral campaign. Well, I was wrong.

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September 17 is Constitution Day

By Mike W - Sep 17th, 2008 at 3:41 pm EDT

Also listed in: 6 groups

September 17 is Constitution Day.

On this day in 1787, the Constitution was signed by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

Celebrate by reading your Constitution.
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.txt

Graphic at
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/OWP/2329B~Constitution-Posters.jpg

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

...

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth. In Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names.

George Washington - President and deputy from Virginia

New Hampshire - John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman

Massachusetts - Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King

Connecticut - William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman

New York - Alexander Hamilton

New Jersey - William Livingston, David Brearley, William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton

Pennsylvania - Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gouvernour Morris

Delaware - George Read, Gunning Bedford Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom

Maryland - James McHenry, Daniel of St Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll

Virginia - John Blair, James Madison Jr.

North Carolina - William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson

South Carolina - John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler

Georgia - William Few, Abraham Baldwin

Attest: William Jackson, Secretary

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WaPo: The Ugly New McCain, by Richard Cohen

By Mike W - Sep 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm EDT

Also listed in: 7 groups

The Ugly New McCain
By Richard Cohen
Op-Ed Columnist
Washing Post
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502406.html

Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. "I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.

The precise moment of McCain's abasement came, would you believe, not at some news conference or on one of the Sunday shows but on "The View," the daytime TV show created by Barbara Walters. Last week, one of the co-hosts, Joy Behar, took McCain to task for some of the ads his campaign has been running. One deliberately mischaracterized what Barack Obama had said about putting lipstick on a pig -- an Americanism that McCain himself has used. The other asserted that Obama supported teaching sex education to kindergarteners.
ad_icon

"We know that those two ads are untrue," Behar said. "They are lies."

Freeze. Close in on McCain. This was the moment. He has largely been avoiding the press. The Straight Talk Express is now just a brand, an ad slogan like "Home Cooking" or "We Will Not Be Undersold." Until then, it was possible for McCain to say that he had not really known about the ads, that the formulation "I approve this message" was just boilerplate. But he didn't.

"Actually, they are not lies," he said.

Actually, they are.

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.

---
complete copyrighted story at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502406.html

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DNC Updates "Count the Lies" Counter: #55

By Mike W - Sep 16th, 2008 at 9:34 pm EDT

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ADVISORY: DNC Updates "Count the Lies" Counter: #55
DNC Press
Democratic National Committee
Press Release
For Immediate Release
September 16, 2008
http://www.democrats.org/CountTheLies

Graphic at
http://www.mccainpedia.org/images/2/2b/Countlies55.jpg

Washington, DC - The Democratic National Committee today updated the Count the Lies counter after the Associated Press called John McCain's and Sarah Palin's claims on energy exaggerated-- "some wildly so." This latest article is at least the 56th fact check to debunk a McCain campaign lie since he promised to run a respectful campaign in February. Visit http://www.democrats.org/CountTheLies to see the updated Count the Lies counter.

AP Fact Check: McCain-Palin Energy Claims Exaggerated, "Some Wildly So." "Palin and the McCain campaign repeatedly have claimed her status as governor of an energy-producing state as a national security credential, most recently in the interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson. But Palin has been sloppy in how she states her argument that Alaska is a major player in the energy market. In the interview, she claimed the state 'produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.' McCain, too, has said Palin is 'in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply.' More recently, Palin modified her claim to '20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas.' THE FACTS: The statements are exaggerated, some wildly so, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration." [Associated Press, 9/16/08:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PALIN_ENERGY_FACT_CHECK

NOTE: CNN Debunks McCain Claims on protecting kids from Sexual Predators, Energy Policy, The Bridge To Nowhere, Earmark Spending, And Governor Palin's Foreign Travel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAInJKu1yQU [CNN, 9/16/08]

###

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee http://www.democrats.org This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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Rovian Push Polling In Florida Links Obama To PLO

By Mike W - Sep 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm EDT

Also listed in: 6 groups

Rovian Push Polling In Florida Links Obama To PLO
By: Nicole Belle
Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 9:00 AM - PDT
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/15/rovian-push-polling-in-florida-links-obama-to-plo

It is stories like this that make me weep for my country. When people so low, so completely divested of a moral compass, can impact an election to the detriment of the whole nation. John McCain knows only too well how these kind of sleazy, win-at-all-cost tactics work and should be the FIRST person to stand up and speak against them.

    Key West resident Joelna Marcus received a phone call today. She was asked if she is Jewish, and she replied in the affirmative.

    She was asked if she was religious.

    She was then asked if her opinion of Barack Obama would change if she knew that Obama had given lots and lots of money to the PLO.

There are no perjoratives strong enough to describe the kind of slimeball that would do this.

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Presidential Debate watch party, Friday 26-Sept-08

By Mike W - Sep 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am EDT

Also listed in: 7 groups

Presidential Debate watch party (Debate Watching Party)http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs7r4z
Presidential Debate watch party. If you are not hosting or attending a smaller watch party in your own neighborhood, come join us for what will likely be one of the largest watch parties in Oklahoma. Sponsored by Democracy For America [DFA] in Tulsa and co-sponsored by many more to be listed here later. Friday, September 26, 2008, at the University of Mississippi's Gertrude C. Ford Center in Oxford, Mississippi, moderated by Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of The NewsHour on PBS. This debate will focus on foreign policy and national security. Come back to the same venue for the other debates on October 2, 7, and 15.

Time: Friday, September 26 at 7:00 PM

Duration: 3 hours

Host: Mike Workman

Contact Phone: 918-742-8165

Location: Circle Cimena, quad (Tulsa, OK) 12 South Lewis Avenue
Tulsa, OK 74104

View Map:

Associated Groups: BARTLESVILLE FOR BARACK, Oklahomans for Obama, Sooners for Obama, Tulsans for Obama

Directions: Near the southwest corner of South Lewis Avenue and East 1st Street in MidTown Tulsa; venue website is http://circlecinema.com

Signup for 'Presidential Debate watch party'

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs7r4z

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Reality-making rhetoric

By LeAnn from Noble, OK - Sep 12th, 2008 at 6:03 pm EDT

Also listed in: Sooners for Obama

Native Americans believe in the creative power of language. Words create the world. The world comes into being by being spoken. In the beginning was the word. The Judeo-Christian culture is also based on this principle. Sociologists and philosophers like Pierre Bourdieu or Michel Foucault have demonstrated how language can impose definitions of the world.

This dimension of language is fundamental to politics, whatever side you are on. Both Democrats and Republicans keep repeating the US is the greatest country on earth. It does not matter that this expression is absolutely meaningless. The greatest country in what respect? For landscape beauty? One of the greatest for sure. Individual freedoms? Undoubtedly among the greatest, yes, although the recent years have done nothing to maintain the US to the top of the chart. Health care? One of the worst actually. And getting worse and worse. Knowledge of the world outside its borders? Very bad, very bad indeed. Environmental issues? One of the worst too, unquestionably. For diplomacy? Not too great, no. The US is actually one of the most bellicose nations in the world.
So, what does it mean?

Yesterday, at a forum at Columbia University, John McCain was asked the question. Does it mean the Americans are better than the rest of the world? John answered that “the US is the only country I know that believes that all men are equal.” Well, he was right to qualify that statement with “I know.” It is the only country he knows believes all men are equal. He does not know much about other countries, then. So I guess he is less qualified than his running mate as far as foreign policy is concerned. Because I know a lot of countries that believe all men are equal. Let me think... er... well, France would be one of them. And many others, of course.
I guess he does not even know the US very much either, for that matter. When I read the readers’ letters in a local newspaper like The Oklahoman, for example, I understand that many Americans do not believe that all men are equal.
When John uttered this stupid statement he referred, once again, to the Founding Fathers. John, I know Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men were equal, but John... how shall I put?... er... Jefferson, and most of the other people you call Founding Fathers, had slaves.
You might not have heard of slavery, but that was not the best episode in the history of the greatest country on earth.
Oh, and by the way, until the middle of the 20th century, people were in segregated schools and it took the Supreme Court to change that because apparently the federal government had a hard time believing that all men were equal.
Yes, I know, they were separate but equal. But that was a huge bunch of hypocritical crap, right?

So, anyway, all this does not matter anyway. What is important is how many times they repeat the same lies. After a while, the lies become reality.
Even though all politicians are guilty of this, the Republicans in this campaign seem to elevate this practice to art.

The media are persecuting Sarah and her family.

The mayor of a small Alaska town has huge responsibilities.

Sarah has always opposed pork barrel politics.

Barack is sexist.

The US is winning the war in Iraq.

John and Sarah are mavericks and reformers.

Barack wants to teach kindergarten children about sex education.

Abortion is murder.

Andrew Rice – running in Oklahoma for the US Senate – opposes traditional marriage.

All these simplistic statements are lies. But they are simplistic, easy to understand, they have a great impact, and they are what most Americans will remember from this campaign because they simply don’t have time – or the willpower – to get informed at a deeper level.

So, if they repeat those statements enough, every day, all day long, on all channels, every time they are interviewed whatever the questions they are being asked, those statement will become reality. Not truth, but reality. That is to say they will become the context that will determine how the voters are going to act. People’s actions will not be determined by true conditions and circumstances but by the conditions and circumstances that will be real to them. In their limited world, Andrew Rice does not oppose an amendment – called Traditional Marriage Amendment – to the Oklahoma Constitution that would state that a marriage is a union between two human beings of different gender; in most people’s limited but real world, Andrew Rice opposes traditional marriage.

This is reality-making rhetoric and this is what this campaign is about.
And it works.
It has worked before.

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda is in Iraq.
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Al Qaeda is in Iraq.

Let’s go to war then.

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[Oklahoma] Dems go to Denver

By Mike W - Aug 24th, 2008 at 7:20 pm EDT

Also listed in: 6 groups

Dems go to Denver
By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
Tulsa World
8/24/2008
Last Modified: 8/24/2008 2:37 AM
http://tinyurl.com/5jus8k

Obama set to make history

DENVER — Oklahoma Democrats arrived Saturday for their party's national convention, which is unusually rich in symbolism and ready to make its mark in history.

"It is going to be exciting to be here and see it in person,'' Gov. Brad Henry said of the convention, which officially begins Monday.

One of the convention's so-called superdelegates, Henry stressed the historical significance of Barack Obama becoming the first black candidate to accept a major party's presidential nomination.

---
complete copyrighted story at link above

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Oklahomans Not Happy About Armageddon

By Steven from Norman, OK - Aug 4th, 2008 at 8:54 am EDT

Also listed in: Norman For Obama | Sooners for Obama

Poll: Obama Support Low in State

(Tulsa World)

A new poll found little support among Oklahoma voters for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

The Oklahoma Poll found that Republican John McCain has broad support in the state to lead Obama by 32 percentage points, 56 percent to 24 percent. Seventy-one percent of those questioned said they are firm in their decisions.

...

"I would rather have had somebody different than John McCain on the Republican side, but I can't even believe who the Democrats picked," said poll respondent Billy Garrison, a registered Democrat who often votes Republican.

"I know our country will be in bad shape if Barack Obama is elected president," said Garrison, of Tulsa.

Another erstwhile Democrat, Charles Ogdon of Muldrow, said he believes Obama will be the next president, in part because Ogden believes an Obama presidency would fit biblical prophesies concerning Armageddon and the Second Coming.

But Ogdon isn't happy about it.

...

So, bad times for the Obama for Oklahoma campaign.

(cross-posted at quibblingpotatoes.blogspot.com)

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The War in Iraq

By Trent - Jul 19th, 2008 at 6:00 pm EDT

Also listed in: 6 groups

Does anyone else remember the name first given to the Iraq War?

Think back to a time when our Presidiot told us that he was going to initiate "Operation Iraqi Freedom". What a context that name gave to the idea of bombing the hell out of a country, invading it, overthrowing their government, demolishing their economy, and then killing those who opposed us. This administration has maintained its grip over the Name Game for far too long.

Did you know that there has recently been a troop escalation in Iraq? At this current time, there are MORE troops in Iraq than there were when we first invaded, even though this administration claimed that there would be considerably less after they initiated what they called a "Surge". Sadly, the Bush administration won this Name Game as well.

It is time for us all to finally take a stand against this ignorant and useless war. Our government must be reminded that they answer to the people, and that we can always punish them for not doing so. I ask of you to do at least one of the two following things (maybe even both!):

1. Write your senators and representatives. Tell them that you will no longer sit by and watch your tax dollars be washed down a drain in order to pay for a war that you were fooled into supporting. Tell your friends to write them as well. Tell your parents to write them. Tell your children to write them. Let's make it known that we won't sit idly by and watch our country become a bigger target for terrorists than it was in the immediate aftermath of that fateful day.

2. In November, vote for those individuals who will take a stand for you. Encourage those individuals to look past political gains and losses to the real issue: serving their country. Whether Democrat or Republican, support those individuals who will not allow this awful war to wage on.

Thanks, and good luck!

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Obama campaign reaches out to Tulsa Hispanics

By Mike W - Jul 14th, 2008 at 10:06 pm EDT

Also listed in: 7 groups

Obama campaign reaches out to Tulsa Hispanics
By William R. Wynn
La Semana del Sur.
Sunday, 13 Jul 2008

TULSA, OK – Local supporters of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama have launched an effort to reach out to Tulsa Hispanics, with a special emphasis on registering new voters. A group affiliated with Tulsans for Obama set up a registration table at Plaza Santa Cecilia on July 5, returning again the following Saturday.

David C. Phillips is the Voter Registration Coordinator for the "Obama Vote for a Change Campaign." It was Phillips’ idea to take the registration campaign to the heart of Tulsa’s Hispanic population at 21st and Garnett, and the event was, by Phillips’ measure, at least moderately successful for a first attempt.

Acknowledging concerns about the language barrier and the fact that the Hispanic community in Tulsa has largely gone ignored by political party activists, Phillips expressed a positive outlook in an email sent out to supporters the day after the inaugural effort.

"We had a good time [and] we registered six people," Phillips said, adding, "We registered no Republicans. They all either declared themselves Democrats or Independents."

Phillips’ experience in fact represents in microcosm what has become a growing nationwide trend among Latino voters, particularly new and younger voters, to abandon traditional allegiances with the Republican Party, allegiances that were formed based on a shared social conservatism. With the national debate over how to deal with the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States having become increasingly partisan over the past several years, more and more U.S. born children of immigrant families, especially those of Latino heritage, are seeing the Democratic Party as more friendly – or at least less hostile – to their issues and concerns.

This is particularly true in Oklahoma, where not a single Republican in the State House and only one in the State Senate voted against the draconian anti-immigrant HB 1804 last year. A similar disenchantment with the Republican Party is becoming evident among Hispanics on a national level.
Read More »

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