Atheists for Obama

New Obama Group Forming 'AmericaNOchange'

Al Boek — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:42:29 EST

Fellow President Obama Supporters and Former Ones"

AS the founder of the Obama Group named YESWECANSOLVEIT...

I have taken the liberty of forming still another group called

AmericaNOchange. I doubt this one gets approved.

Thought I'd better hurry and write this and send it to all groups that

I am still a member of before I am banned here forever. Why would

that happen? you ask. Because I just formed a new group with a little

kid yelling "Hey You" while flipping off the viewer. Hope the president

and his staff gets the message.

The esculation of the war in Aftganistan is the last straw. Three strikes

your out!

First, he keeps the same people on the payroll that got us into this

financial disaster. He let's Bush and Cheney walk scot-free. He continues

to bail out the banks, "all too big to fail" why they screw us in every way.

And tonight on national tv he will try to convience us all that the way to

end the war in Aftganistan is to exculate it. This did not work in Vietnam,

I know, because I volunteered to go there, and it will not work in Aftganistan.

To add insult to injury. The powers that be, the ones backing McCain in

my city in Northern California, are all meeting to determine what the same

good ole boys get to do with local stimulus funds...So my question is?

WHAT THE HELL HAS CHANGED IN AMERICAN PRESIDENT OBAMA?

I am so damned mad right now, I swear, if I could afford it, I'd trade in

my next presidential ballot for a passport.

Al Boek, Ex-Supporter of a One-Term President

earlallenboek@yahoo.com

530-549-4315

Redding, California

Cobblestones

Walt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:07:03 EST

When sailing ships still used ballast to keep from being blown over by the wind, rock was commonly used as cheap ballast. Then when no longer needed, the rock was used for other purposes. Ships sailing to and from Kabul, Afghanistan, frequently used the local rock for ballast. Upon returning to home ports in Europe, the offloaded stones were dumped in piles in port cities. At some point, someone decided that the stones from Kabul could be put to use paving the muddy streets of those cities. They were Kabul stones that gradually was changed in English to cobblestones.

OnStar

Walt — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:49:21 EDT

Barack bailed out GM so that the government could install OnStar in all new cars to spy on US citizens and their driving habits. More nonsense from the Right. What do they think that the Bush administration was doing when they monitored everyone's cell and land line phone calls?

Keith Olbermann

Walt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:08:57 EDT

Tonight Keith Olbermann will repeat his passionate denunciation of healthcare insurers that was so effective the first time it was run. Money is being donated to set up free clinics in cities in the districts of ranking members of Congress who have a big say in healthcare reform legislation. It is an effective way to influence some votes.

Delay

Walt — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:51:49 EDT

Delay is used to kill legislation that you are opposed to. Under our system of checks and balances, it is very difficult to pass legislation in Washington DC. Delay has been used time and again in our history to kill reforms. Those opposed to healthcare reform are hoping that the moment for its passage will pass and that support for reform will fade. Barack did not strike when the iron was hot, but I am confident that he has a plan of action that will surprise his critics. Barack is one of the smartest Presidents that we have ever had and Team Obama has shown that it can win repeatedly.

It's about jobs

Walt — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:03:43 EDT

Why are the health insurers so set against a public option? They fear for their profits and their jobs. But the health insurers do not contribute anything to the economy; they just create paperwork which they then shuffle. Give the top insurance executives their golden parachutes and retrain the rest of the insurance company employees, retraining in productive jobs such as green energy or providing health care services. Offer scholarships and student loans for the necessary retraining. We cannot afford to spend so much of the nation's resources in unproductive jobs such as health insurance.

Videos You must see: PAULitics Web Picks of the Day

Varun from Berkeley, CA — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:38:57 EDT

Round up: PAULitics

My kind of Democrat--WATCH ENTIRE VIDEO (a real american hero)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTh-Yu9RfF0&feature=player_embedded

Town Hall Tea Baggers support Hitler.....Shame--Taunt Jewish man

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/18/hitler-israel/

Why we elected Obama: we had faith in his abilities...FUNNY VIDEO

http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/hes_barack_obama

Robert Reich: Man of action, CAL guy, Hero to the working class: Has the rocks to standup

Varun from Berkeley, CA — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:27:37 EDT

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26266.html

Robert Reich, a man willing to call out the neo cons on CNBC/MSNBC just spoke up again.....but is OFA listening?

Apparently he's been reading my posts...I mean he taught at CAL while I was there, we usually get the same coffee at Peets in Berkeley...ONLY NATURAL

IDEA: National March....like my posts keep saying...Lets shut down the cities, the streets, the system, show up and say ENOUGH....YES WE CAN

thoughts: varun22@yahoo.com

I'm not a member of any organized party...I'm a democrat

Varun from Berkeley, CA — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:24:40 EDT

Just two months ago, Dems were on the top of the world...what happened..

SIGH......Here's a round up that proves that Dems may be liberal but play soft...We need to shape up people...

De Lay loves Dem Trouble

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26266.html

Howard Dean threatened with death, Nazi Symbol outside Town Hall: Can we please start organizing a national march or sit in...

Varun from Berkeley, CA — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:09:52 EDT

The Right Wingers are resulting to threats/violence and hate...We need to take charge and not stand there shocked....Take action....Yes, they are winning the attention war....We are losing the facts war because the legends that the RNC spins have become fact.....Thus, the myths become facts

Nazi Symbol AP News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090811/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_protests

Lou Dobbs threatens Dean:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/dobbs-apologizes-for-sayi_n_256728.html

I fear where this is going.....we need to stand up....National day of support....contact me people

varun22@yahoo.com

White House losing Health Care debate? Gee whiz....Mobilize....Stop playing Defense 24-7: Offense requested..Where's Rahm?

Varun from Berkeley, CA — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:51:50 EDT

.NYT article LINK

The New York Times reported today that the White House is quietly conceding that they are losing control of the Health Care Reform debate. So......in response......? A march? Rapid Fire TV ads? Formal debates moderated by NPR, PBS, ABC, NBC? Nope....a website.........That's it....a website..

The WH released a myth busters website.......What Obama should do is concede he needs a little help from his friends.....Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffet and other Business Leaders and even the Kennedys to get the word out and deal with the fires.

comment: varun22@yahoo.com

Intelligence Report on Town Hall (Hell) activities: New details leaked re Right Wing Plans

Varun from Berkeley, CA — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:22:28 EDT

Guns at rallies, Attacks, Using the N word, calling Obama a Nazi, chanting Nazi slogans and even attempting to attack elected officials as they try to moderate the Health Care town halls, it seems the press is moving very slowly to understand who the FEW, the Minority, screamers, racists and right wing nut job, home grown terrorists really are.

Just reported: the SEIU obtained a Tea Party startegy via a Right Wing mobilization conf call.

The summary: Just destroy Obama's plan at any cost....No reasons....just be the party of NO

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/seius-notes-on-a-tea-party-strategy-conference-call/

far right Fred Thompson on OBAMA'S BANANA REPUBLIC

darlene matthews — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:06:13 EDT

Fred Thompson: Obama Loosed 'Dogs of War' on CIA

He also warns that Obama and the Democrats are making America look like a "banana republic."

Sunday, April 26, 2009 4:45 PM

By: Jim Meyers

Article Font Size

Former Senator, TV star and presidential candidate Fred Thompson tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama is revealing his “naivete, ineptitude and arrogance” as he deals with matters of national security.

The Tennessee Republican, who now hosts a radio show on Westwood One along with his wife Jeri, also said the “dogs of war have been loosed” over left-wing attempts to single out Bush-era officials for prosecution relating to the treatment of detainees.

Newsmax.TV’s Ashley Martella cited the announcement that the Defense Department is going to release many pictures showing alleged abuse by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and asked Thompson what purpose that might serve.

“None, other than to serve as propaganda tools for our worst enemies,” Thompson said.

See Video: Fred Thompson Slams Obama's National Security Debacle - Click Here Now

“This was set in motion when the president first decided to release” CIA memos on interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects, Thompson told Newsmax.

“There was no purpose in doing that except to make him look good internationally and to the left wing here at home,” he said. “It did a lot of damage.

“In one stroke of a pen he declassified top-secret documents that people would otherwise go to jail for releasing. It gave al-Qaida and the Taliban a blueprint as to the outer limits of our interrogation techniques.

“We have to remember that [the techniques were used] in the aftermath of 9/11. Congress was briefed on these techniques. Some of them asked if they were really going far enough to get what they needed to get, and it was approved at high levels in the administration.

“They carefully crafted them as best they could to not go too far, and to provide safeguards when they were carrying out these admittedly rough techniques on these people who had this vital information.

“So now we’re really talking about a war crimes tribunal, which this country has never done. We’ve never brought to criminal court prior administrations in this country.

“Harry Truman could have been accused of war crimes, I suppose, for dropping the bombs. President Obama authorized the killing of those three [pirates] in the Indian Ocean not too long ago. Prosecuting these people under these circumstances is something you hear about in banana republics and third-world countries, not the United States of America.

“The president’s opened up a terrible Pandora’s Box and there’s going to be a price to pay before this thing is ended.”

Martella asked if the Obama administration was acquiescing to its far-left base when it released the CIA memos on interrogation techniques.

“I think in this case, in all probability, they thought that they could cater to their left wing, appease their demands, by releasing these memos and then it might not go any further,” Thompson said.

“Because surely they were able to see that this was bad for them the way it’s going to be bad for the country.

“This is going to have ramifications that are far-reaching. They thought they could put the genie back in the bottle after they opened it, and of course appeasement never works that way.

“There was a firestorm. The attorney general’s received 250 names in a petition to urge the appointment of a special prosecutor for this. The left-wing blogs went nuts. They started running television ads and so forth.

“And then after promising that there would be no prosecutions, [Obama] acquiesced and now opened the door for that. So I think it’s a case of naivete, ineptitude and unbelievable arrogance and lack of experience.

“We elected someone who didn’t have two minutes’ worth of experience with regard to matters concerning national security. Now he’s cast in this position and he’s making decisions that are going to have far-reaching ramifications not only abroad, and not only with our enemies, but in dividing our country even further here at home in ways I don’t think we’ve ever been divided before.

“We’re going to have members of Congress testifying against each other if they go down this road.”

Martella noted that Rep. Peter King of New York has said that if Democrats do go ahead and attempt to prosecute Bush administration CIA interrogation lawyers, the Republicans should “go to war” with them.

“That just gives you an example of the atmosphere on Capitol Hill today,” Thompson observed.

“People are angry. People are upset. You’ve got people on the left, you’ve got the Democrats talking about truth commissions, talking about investigations and Congressional hearings and urging prosecution. They’re fighting among each other on the Democratic side as to just how they should go and how far they should go.”

Some of these Democrats are “the same people who were briefed on these techniques back in 2002,” Thompson said, “including Nancy Pelosi, who’s not telling the truth now, who’s trying to parse words and trying to get around the fact that she knew what was going on, as others did back when this happened.

“That creates a new level of animosity like I’ve never seen before, and I served in the Senate for eight years. The dogs of war have been loosed in this country and I don’t know what is going to happen before we see the end of it. But none of it’s going to be good.”

Thompson’s radio show is heard on weekdays from noon to 2 p.m.

Increase misery, suicide &homelessness! Vote yes on 1E!! OR NOT!

darlene matthews — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:44:39 EDT

ALREADY many OBAMA FEDERAL STIMULUS funds for adultS disabled are being diverted to other programs - huge cuts including to psychologists are planned !

PLEASE VOTE NO ON 1E BECAUSE THAT BILL IS THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY !

DON'T ALLOW MH SPECIFIC $ TO "DISAPPEAR" IN THE CA GENERAL FUND.!!!!!!!!!!

WARning: CA CUTTING CARE TO DISABLED ADULTS on ssi/ssp THROUGHOUT all PROGRAMS increasing disability and inability among Adults with mh and multiple disability!

Act Now To Defeat Proposition 1E

California's Special Election is less than two months away. We must act quickly and take the necessary steps to defeat Proposition 1E.

From NAMI California by Grace McAndrews, Executive Director, March 26, 2009

It's up to us to act now to defeat this harmful act.

HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

FINANCIALLY SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN

Attached for your convenience is a Fact Sheet & Contribution Form and Endorsement Forms for Individuals and Organizations. Please be as generous as you can. We ask that you share this information with all of your contacts, including members of your affiliate, neighbors, co-workers and friends listed in your address book. Post information on your web site and in your newsletter. Write letters to your local newspaper. Hold parties to support the campaign. Do whatever else is necessary to get the word out.

GET OUT THE VOTE

Voters who are registered to vote must vote at their polling place or vote-by-mail. This is critical. People who are not registered to vote must register by the deadline and vote either at their polling place or use the vote-by-mail ballot. This is critical as well. Historically, voting is light in special elections. We believe there is a good chance that t hose who opt for the vote-by-mail ballot may very well dictate the results of the May 19th election.

Those who wish to vote-by-mail can use the application printed on their Sample Ballot which will be sent prior to the elections, or one can apply in writing to their county elections official. If choosing the latter, you will need to submit a completed application or letter to your county elections official between 29 days and 7 days before the election. You can find the telephone number and address of your county elections official by looking in the front of your telephone directory in the White Pages Government Listing section under County Offices. Look for “Elections”, Registrar of Voters”, “County Clerks”, or “Voting.” For complete “how to” information of Registering to Vote and vote-by-mail, visit the following web site: www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections Go to Voter Reigstration, click on Vote by Mail.

Critical Downloads:

Click Here to download the Fact Sheet and Contribution Form

Click Here to download the Endorsement Forms for Individuals and Organizations

NOTE: 501©3 affiliates can participate in this process as well as donate money to the campaign. Your affiliate's non-profit status will not be affected.

Thanks for helping to defeat Proposition 1E!!

Source: NAMI California

Link: http://namialifornia.org

Increase misery, suicide &homelessness! Vote yes on 1E!! OR NOT!

FAR RIGHT SPREAD FEAR ABOUT SERVE AMERICA

darlene matthews — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:55:35 EDT

digg user macdoodle would like to share this story with you:

http://digg.com/political_opinion/http_www_cbn_com_CBNnews_572147_aspx

---

"http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/572147.aspx"

FAR RIGHT worries Serve America volunteers will breakup their monopoly on govt funding for social services. Misunderstands that they are volunteers and fears health care benefits and unionization. Claims America can't afford to help the kids have access to education.

Latest on Obama visit to Orange County

darlene matthews — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:45:12 EDT

TOWN HALL MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA

Wednesday, March 18th

Doors Open at 1:30 PM OC Fair and Event Center

88 Fair Drive

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

TICKET DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required and will be available at the following ticket distribution location beginning at 10:00 AM Tuesday, March 17. Tickets will be limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis:

OC Fair and Event Center

(Enter at Gate 1 or Gate 10; Park in Lot A.)

88 Fair Drive

Costa Mesa, CA

feed the animals, it's free

Duane Kuehn — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:54:00 EDT

Hi All,

Terri S. sent me this link to give spread around. I hope everyone will visit it and pass the link.

All you have to do is visit the animal rescue site and click on the box. They will donate a small amount of food to rescued animals for each click they get, and they are not getting enough clicks right now.

Please help them help animals. It's simple, quick and free, and does a world of good. Please pass on to others that might be interested in helping.

Thanks,

Terri S.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

Loveya,

Duane

Obama and the New Spirit of Empathy Group

Edwin Videoman — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:33:33 EST

Barack Obama is leading a movement based on values and at the core of this is the value of empathy. Barack talks about empathy and the importance of 'standing in other peoples shoes', in many of his speeches (I've collected 50 so far). Empathy is the most basic value he ran on and he says the country has an 'empathy deficit' that needs to be filled. We are forming an Empathy Values Group to build on Obama's call to address the empathy deficit.

As part of this empathy movement, we are also putting together a video of his talking about this topic to give it some context and promote this foundational progressive value. Let's help fill the empathy deficit by making people more aware of the topic. This is a collaborative project and we invite you to take part. See.

Barack Obama and a New Spirit of Empathy (rough cut 1) (1 hr 15 min)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6504935098489252112
A Chronological Video of Barack on Empathy - Compiled from about 30 of Barack's speeches and interviews, etc on the topic of empathy.

Here's a review of the video: Hi Edwin, It is truly wonderful that you and others have grasped the brass ring of the progressive movement by highlighting the core issue of Empathy. I now see that everything about the rising of Barack Obama and the revolution in America is based on this principle. Thank you, thank you for your effort and the timely reminder to me of what is really important. It's easy to get lost in the dust that is being raised by so many who sincerely want to see change and see it quickly. But it is crucial to remember why we are being called in this time in history to change. You are exactly right, it is Empathy. Warmly, Terri Jan 28, 2009.

Support Conyers Truth Commission

Monitor — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:01:35 EST

[Cross-Posted at Library Grape.]

As to the Bush administration's illegal excesses over the last eight years, there are a few salient options: (1) let bygones be bygones; (2) sic prosecutors after the lawbreakers; or (3) form up a South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I am starting to lean toward option three. It would have the benefit of partially muting the "Witch hunt!" wing of the naysayers and, above all else, have the power to bring to light all of the illegal things that have been done in our name over the last eight years.

Here's where the action comes in. Representative John Conyers has introduced legislation to create a Truth Commission:

There is established the National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "Commission") to investigate the broad range of policies of the Administration of President George W. Bush that were undertaken under claims of unreviewable war powers, including detention by the United States Armed Forces and the intelligence community, the use by the United States Armed Forces or the intelligence community of enhanced interrogation techniques or interrogation techniques not authorized by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, "ghosting" or other policies intended to conceal the fact that an individual has been captured or detained, extraordinary rendition, domestic warrantless electronic surveillance, and other policies that the Commission may determine to be relevant to its investigation (hereinafter in this Act referred to as "the activities").

If you want some background on the potential illegality the bill is referencing, check out the new 500-page report that was issued on Tuesday: "Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the presidency of George W. Bush".

To date, Conyers' bill has only received 12 co-sponsors. We need to get the word out to Congress that Conyers' bill is important and has our support. If you have a few minutes, please write or call your Congressperson today to express your support for the Conyers bill: H.R. 104.

Lame Ducks

Walt — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:04:36 EST

When the lame ducks in the White House and the Congress limp off the stage in Washington, DC, we will see if the new players are going to support the agenda of the Obama administration. If they do, we will recover in the next year or two. If they do not, we will have to clean House, and the Senate too, come November 2010. We should have a good indication of the Congress's willingness to cooperate by late January or early February.

Defender of the Nation

Walt — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:49:15 EST

In a time of endless troubles
When the nation is sunk in despair
Who will lend a steady hand
To the stalled ship of state?
Barack Obama has the confidence to try
Who will stand by his side?
Will it be you or I?
Some will respond, some not
When the troubles are history
When the economy is restored
When we enjoy freedom and democracy unfettered
Will you be able to proclaim?
I stood by Barack's side
I met the challenge
I am proud of the part I played
I was a defender of the nation.

President Barack Obama Inauguration Day 2009 - Washington, DC Group!!! 2

Carol Maric — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:51:18 EST

An open invitation to join : President Barack Obama Inauguration Day 2009 - Washington, DC Group!!!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/InaugurationDay2009

Make plans to be in DC on this historical day!

Make plans to be tuned in with TV and/or the Internet.

Be out in public with friends and fellow citizens.

A Grand and Wonderful Celebration!

Barack Obama and a New Spirit of Empathy: video project

Edwin Videoman — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:36:01 EST

Barack Obama and the New Spirit of Empathy
Video Project

Barack Obama is leading a campaign based on values. At the core of this is the value of empathy. I'd like to put together a video of Barack's speeches on empathy and show how he has been promoting the value of empathy. Send me an email if you'd like to help out on this project. Edwin Rutsch (email)

Join the project to put together a video of Barack Obama talking about the importance of empathy. Obama talks about empathy, the importance of "standing in other peoples shoes" and filling the national empathy deficit in many, many of his speeches. (I've collected over 30 speeches and interviews so far.)

Empathy is one of the basic values he ran on. We are putting together a video of his talking about empathy to promote this value. This is a collaborative project and we would like you to take part.

Join online or attend meetings in the SF Bay Area.

For more info see:
http://progressivespirit.com/Projects/Obama-Empathy-Video

signup for the next meeting at
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gsxyl2

Video from Literacy & Empathy speech

PARTY! YES WE CAN! SI SE PUEDO!

Mriana — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:16:20 EST

WE DID IT! YES! Say hello to Pres. Obama! YES WE CAN! SI SE PUEDO! I can now honestly say to my sons that they CAN be anything they want to be! One small step for humans, one giant leap for the U.S.A.!

My website

Christopher "Woo" Trader — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:37:40 EST

I wasn't doing anything with it, so I made it into a support site for Obama!

http://www.wooism.org/

Count your vote, Make it count

Duane Kuehn — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:00:26 EST

Hi All,

     Election Day is upon us, then we can go back to regular commercials on television.
     Congratulations, it appears that everyone's hard work will surely "pay-off".

    Unfortunately, one major problem remains unaddressed and appears to be worse this year, more widespread, than the 2004 election. Vote Fraud. Not, mind you, voter fraud, but computer dysfunction, hacking, and even built in "flip" voting.

     Do we remember the 2004 election? All the networks declared John Kerry the winner, except Fox News. As the very important Florida votes came in, Fox News declared George Bush the winner. The other networks checked their own figures and "gosh darn" George Bush was the winner. How did that happen, all the other networks somehow had the wrong figures, or more exactly, suddenly those figures "flipped".

     Later, December 2004, a man named Clint Curtis testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on vote fraud.

      http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/465.html

     Mr. Curtis testified that he worked for Yang Enterprises Incorporated (which proudly proclaims on its site, "To provide high quality engineering and computer services for both the government and private industries"). Clint Curtis testified under oath that he was approached to create and did create a program that would “flip” a percentage of the votes to the other candidate. I hope you will click the link and watch the full video (from a movie insert but apparently the true testimony)

     The House Judiciary Committee did find vote "flipping" in the Presidential election of 2004. One "hint" of this happening is the flicker on the screen. The program which Curtis mentions, however, does not "flip" as the individual votes, a person flips a specific percentage of the votes after the voting is finished. Did the 2004 Florida vote “flip” at the last minute? We the People should be very worried.

     Already, some machines are showing flickers, many called “over or under sensitive screen problems etc. This is not some programmer or screen-maker error. This could easily be resolved in programming, why was it not done. We like to believe in honesty, especially in the election process, however, it is just no longer feasible to believe this.

     Like it or not, we need to take back our country, "change from the ground-upward" as we have been told. Our politicians will do nothing to address this problem but "We the People" will, in order to KEEP this more perfect Union more perfect!

     Election Day, Tuesday November 4, 2008, I plan to go to my appointed voting place, vote and stay there, all day if I must.

     I will take with me a large cardboard box having a hole cut in the top. I will take thousands of slips of scratch paper and a gang of pencils. Staying at least 25 feet from the building entrance, I will ask voters to please write "M" or "McCain or "O" or "Obama" on a slip and put it, unseen, into the box.

     Explaining that this is an anonymous gathering of the votes to check with the computer totals at this precinct to make sure there is no large difference between the ballots cast inside and the intended receiver of that individual vote. The ballot is the private business of the individual voter but the total of votes cast and for whom is important to keep the system honest.

     I will wear no campaign materials, this is not for campaigning, supporters are to take the day off, says Obama. You deserve that.

     This situation, however, demands our time. We are doing this for the honesty of this election and the protection of future elections in this country. If the other candidate wins in our individual districts, one need not be happy but we know that we are able to accept what comes.

     We are much stronger than to tamper with the paper trail we are creating in our individual districts. Tampering, with our own totals, will only do us harm and is out of the question. This is for the future voting rights of all Americans.

     I am inviting anyone to volunteer for this with me. Regardless of political affiliation, color, creed, etc. This is for the nation at large, not for our individual egos. Wherever you live, gather and do your individual precincts.

     I hope you will join me in this. Some may scoff at me but I do not care, this very Democracy deserves my time. Be it alone all day, I wholly plan to do this.
     I hope that you will do the same at your precincts. We have come too far to trust this election to others. Nobody will watch out for us, We must take action. If the results are true, then great. If the results are incorrect and we have done nothing, we get what we get, like it or not.

     For input or more information please contact me at   de-wah@usa.com
Loveya,
Duane Kuehn

Voter intimidation in New Mexico

Cat — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:09:32 EDT

Tell the Department of Justice: Investigate voter intimidation in New Mexico.
Here at CREDO, we're paying close attention to potential voter suppression issues that could affect voters around the country. Today, we're writing to let you know about a problem in New Mexico that could lead to voters being disenfranchised.

The problem: Private investigators have been showing up at the doors of poor and Latino voters - asking them intimidating questions, insinuating that they don't have the right to vote.

Who's affected: New Mexican voters in good standing who have every right to go vote on Election Day - but who may not show up at the polls if they've been frightened in their own homes.

The solution:

E-mail Attorney General Mukasey - the Department of Justice is charged with stopping voter suppression and protecting every American's right to vote. A spokesman for the DOJ's civil rights division has said that they are "looking into" this problem, but that's not good enough. We need a serious investigation worthy of these insidious tactics.
Pass this site on to every New Mexico voter you know - with only days left till the election, we need to make sure that as many New Mexico voters as possible are educated about this problem so that if intimidators show up at their homes, they'll know the right thing to do: Shut the doors in their faces.
Thank you for working to protect our democracy.

If you want to learn more about this issue, you can do so by clicking here.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/doj_suppression_nm/?rc=homepage

PLEASE digg HELP GET THE WORD OUT

darlene matthews — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:35:06 EDT

PLEASE DIGG

http://digg.com/political_opinion/MULTI_DISABLED_IN_THE_OC_Homeless_hopeless

Communism anyone?

Steve from Port Saint Joe, FL — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:57:25 EDT

So the grand old party seems to be forgetting who they are. For a bunch of fiscal conservatives they seem to be pulling a page straight from Marx himself. First they buy the banks next the land that we sleep on and next they will be handing out food vouchers for bread at the government controled corner store with the super censored government bought and owned newspaper. Oh Barrack Obama please help us, your our only hope

Obama Nation

Walt — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:39:49 EDT

Obama Nation by Jerome Corsi is a difficult book to read for an Obama supporter. Now that I am finished, I can say thank goodness that is over. What I won't do for my candidate, and what the opposition won't do to win. I have never read a book that asked more leading questions with little or no effort to answer any of them. When not asking leading questions, it implies guilt by association. Last time I checked, we were innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent.

In his preface to the book, the author proudly admits his purpose is to defeat Barack Obama. He does devote a portion of the book to telling how John McCain can win by devoting his campaign to issues. Of course now with the economy in the tank, his advice is outdated. Corsi states that he will vote for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. He does not mention Chuck Baldwin again in the book nor does he say anything about Baldwin's qualifications. Jerome Corsi with John O'Neill authored the 2004 book entitled Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.

ACORN Obama Campaign RESPONSE

Ellis Dean Hovey — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:14:34 EDT

ACORN Obama Campaign RESPONSE

(Please copy this message and post it everywhere. Send to media. Blog it. Post it.)

(This is a reply from watchdog@barackobama.com ~Neil)

Thanks for sending in the email about ACORN.

This smear has been gaining popularity lately as people look for explanations for our economic crisis -- and smear artists looking to destroy Barack see an opening. Every word of it is dishonest and manipulative.

Email smears like this are part of a broader, shadowy strategy to scare people who aren't very familiar with Barack by spreading false information.

Here are the facts:

Barack Obama was never an ACORN community organizer.
Barack was never an ACORN trainer and was never an employee of ACORN.
ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack led in 1992.
As an attorney, Barack worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to represent ACORN and other voter's rights groups in a lawsuit to enforce the widely praised federal Motor Voter Law in Illinois.
The Huffington Post has laid out the evidence showing the truth about Barack, ACORN, and these smears. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/05/smears-contradicted-obama_n_132098.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/03/obama-camp-debunks-voter_n_131686.html

There's no way to stop these dangerous, misleading viral emails one-by-one, but together we can take the political process back from the cynical politics of deception. We can all start by spreading the truth about Barack Obama.

Forward this email to everyone else who received the ACORN smear, then head to Fight The Smears <http://www.fightthesmears.com> to get details about more smears and see what else you can do: Fight The Smears: http://www.fightthesmears.com

Here are a few facts about Barack Obama that people might be interested to learn:

* Barack Obama is working for middle class Americans. The Obama-Biden tax plan includes a tax cut of $1,000 for more than 150 million working Americans. The plan will also eliminate income taxes altogether for more than 7 million senior citizens who make less than $50,000 per year. Finally, Obama's plan will provide an average of $500 to 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year. Learn more about the Obama-Biden tax plan: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#tax-relief
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411693
* Barack Obama knows that the problems we're facing in this election are too serious to let the politics of manufactured controversy and fake outrage dominate. He wants to bring our troops home from Iraq, so we can focus on Afghanistan and track down the terrorists who attacked us. And he's proposed a detailed plan for using alternative energy sources to relieve America's dependence on foreign oil within 10 years and put millions of Americans to work.
See more about Obama's plan for change here: See Barack's detailed plan for America: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/planforchange_ad/
* After being raised by a single mother and by his grandparents in a modest household, Barack studied hard and won scholarships and loans to attend Columbia University and later Harvard Law School, where he became president of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, he returned to Chicago, where he helped disadvantaged citizens work for better jobs and better schools. Barack later went on to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, helping to educate the community leaders of tomorrow. Read more about Barack Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/learn/meet_barack.php

Please forward this to anyone you know who has received this smear email about Barack. Together we can make sure these negative and divisive attacks don't affect this election.

Thanks for your help,

Obama for America

McCain's vs. Obama Health Care plan

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:53:04 EDT

Everyone should watch this interview with the New York Times regarding the comparative differences of Obama and McCain's health care plans. If this isn't enough to scare the hell out of everyone, it should.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/38308/msnbc-decision-08-mccain’s-healthcare-plan-–-bad-medicine

I Voted for Obama

Sean G — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:15:07 EDT

I did the Early Voting here in Macon, Georgia last Friday, Sept. 26th, with my wife and we both voted for Obama-Biden!

BOOMERS For Obama Rally in Long Beach

Phil Cook — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:21:05 EDT

MARKYOUR CALENDARS NOW! October 25,10:00 AM, Long Beach Convention Center.

Boomers for Obama RALLY plus FREE admission to the Baby Boomers Expo.How to be Healthier, Wealthier, Wiser...and Live It Up!

BABYBOOMERS come together - Stand up for CHANGE - NOW!

Wedid it in the '60s & '70s, we need CHANGE, NOW more than ever!

Obama-BidenNOW!

Planto attend the Rally. We can get the media to broadcast the rally tothe swing states. We needthe people. Count yourself in.

SIGNUP NOW. Visit www.BarackObama.comsearch Events,put in zip code 90802 and info will be displayed, Sign up for the RALLY.

WENEED HELP. TO ORGANIZE ANDCOORDINATE. CALL 310-271-2118 TOVOLUNTEER. EMAIL turnerbradshaw@yahoo.com

BabyBoomers Rally in Long Beach, CA, 10:00 A.M.

October25, 2008, to Kick-off 9 Day Countdown to

PresidentialElection and Go to the Boomers Show

LongBeach, CA, October 25, 2008 - Baby boomer, men and women – ages 42-62-who remember their significance in the 60’s and 70’s, and “change” as definedby JFK, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon - come together in the 2008election year to how their support for Barak Obama.

TheBoomers for Obama rally takesplace on Saturday, October 25 at 10:00 A.M. in Long Beach, CA in front of theLong Beach Convention Center. Celebrities are invited to participate, and will be introduced to themedia on the Green Carpet. Thedate of the Rally is just 9 days prior to the Presidential election, and providesthe opportunity for baby boomers to have your voices heard – as they wereduring the decades of “change” during your high school and college years.

Babyboomers, you are the nation’s hot topic. You represent the largest, wealthiest demographic. You are concerned about finances,Social Security,taxes,careers, health, aging, parents and children.

TheBoomers Show, How to be Healthier, Wealthier, Wiser…and Live it Up!”, is being independently produced atthe Long Beach Convention Center, featuring exhibits and seminars relevant tothe needs of baby boomers. AllRally participants will receive complimentary admission to the Boomers Show.

Therally and the Boomers Show mark activities that will take place in Long

BeachOctober 25–26, kicking-off” Boomer Days” in Long Beach.

Foradditional information on the Rally visit www.BarackObama.com search

Events,put in zip code 90802 and info will be displayed For information on the BoomersShow visit www.boomersshow.com.

Wall Street Bailout Plan Smells Damned Fishy

JoeyRamone63 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:37:30 EDT

Consider the following (originally posted to Alternet):

The amount of brazen corruption and conflicts of interest swirling around this deal is odious, even by Washington's standards -- and polls suggest the public inherently understands that. Consider these choice nuggets:

Gamers and Politics

Jesse Radin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:47:02 EDT

Gamers have always been either ignored or insulted by politicans. This started in the 80s with Patrica Pulling and her anti-D&D crusades. It continued in the 90s where the Nanny-State Clinton Democrats wanted to ban the video games because they allegedly caused school shootings.

All of this of course is complete bullshit. Yet McCain's bloggers resort to making D&D references. Meaning that they are trying to appeal to the 10% of people that actually believe what Jack Chick says about gamers and Catholics and Halloween.

We can't let them win. If anyone votes for McCain and has even rolled a 20-sided die or played an RPG, they are insane and must hate themselves.

We're targeting the wrong states.

Jesse Radin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:42:17 EDT

Every time I log in to my account, I get notices about calling Colorado and New Mexico. These states are shifting blue fast, so our calls wouldn't really mean much. We should be calling the true swing states. Ohio and Indiana. And even Missouri and North Carolina. Maybe it's because I'm from California that I'm getting all these notices to call the West, but I think we should spread out. We could easily get 350 Electoral votes with our volutneer force!

Urgent FORM2email your HR Today act 4 vets &other PAIN disabled

darlene matthews — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:05:25 EDT

http://www.painfoundation.org/page.asp?file=action/action.htm

Vote is Tomorrow!!!!!

AND DIGG IT !

http://digg.com/politics/URGENT_REQUEST_National_Pain_Care_Policy_Act_TO_HR_VOTE

Action Requests

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED!

URGENT REQUEST: National Pain Care Policy Act is going for vote in the House of Representatives

PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY!

We are near the finish line. The amended National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008 (HR 2994) has been passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It will now go to general vote by the full House of Representatives. It is critical that you contact your Representative to ask for their support for this legislation that will affect so many people living with pain.

For more information please see the following links:

This is the time to TAKE ACTION!

National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008: Tackling Barriers to Pain Management

Just introduced in the Senate on July 31, 2008! Please support passage of the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008 (S. 3387). TAKE ACTION NOW!

National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007, HR 2994, House of Representatives Version

Click here to send a letter to your representative requesting they co-sponsor this important legislation.

Consensus Statement for the the Military Pain Care Act of 2008 and the Veterans Pain Care Act of 2007

Please respond so that your organization can be included as an endorser. View the Consensus Statement and the full list of organizations who endorse the Military and Veterans Pain Care Acts. To read our request for organizational endorsement,click here.

Consensus Statement for the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007

Please respond so that your organization can be included as an endorser. To view the Consensus Statement and the full list of over 100 organizations who endorse the National Pain Care Policy Act, click here. To read our request for organizational endorsement, click here. Please stay tuned for more information and recommended action that can help move this act forward.

‘Obsession,’ the Radical Right’s War on Islam

funkfresh01 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:31:26 EDT

By Ahmed Rehab

Word count: 830

[Ahmed Rehab is strategic communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties group. He may be contacted at arehab@cair.com]

You have to wonder about a film that could muster no better an endorsement to adorn its poster than that of CNN’s resident right-wing extremist Glenn Beck. "Obsession is without exaggeration one of the most important films of our time," says Beck. (Who would accuse Glenn Beck of exaggerating?)

The film Beck is lauding, “Obsession: Islam’s Radical War against the West,” is a 2005 work of anti-Muslim propaganda that has recently been widely distributed via an unprecedented campaign.

Faith-Based Initiative Should Be Abolished, Not Renamed

Dwayne — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:25:50 EDT

Just as seven years ago the Foundation condemned Pres. George W. Bush's creation of his misguided "faith-based initiative," today the Foundation protests the shortsightedness of candidate Barack Obama in endorsing its continuation.

This is the wrong direction for our country. The next president should have the integrity and courage to back off from Bush's fiasco and abolish the so-called faith-based initiative. It has been a waste of taxpayers' money, has injected religion into politics, deprived needy clients of the best help, and has punched a huge hole in America's vaunted "wall of separation between church and state."

It's lovely to say, as Obama does, that "I believe deeply in the separation of church and state." But actions speak louder than words. There is negligible difference between Obama's and Bush's stated provisos on the faith-based initiative. Like Obama, Bush claimed the faith-based initiative would not allow religious groups to use public grants to proselytize or discriminate against clients, and that public money going to places of worship was only to be used for secular programs. But there is no accountability and no monitoring provisions, as the GAO audit of 2006 documented.

It's also fine for Obama to say the government and its recipients are going to follow the law. But every day at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, we field complaints about violations of the separation between church and state even over established law, such as school prayer. Obama offers no plan for monitoring the constitutional pitfall of a "partnership" between religion and government.

The Foundation has taken and won many court challenges against the faith-based initiative. For instance, a federal judge in our Faith Works case in Milwaukee ruled in 2002 that $800,000 in direct federal subsidy to a ministry that existed to "bring homeless addicts directly to Christ" was unconstitutional. The funds were spent (and wasted) by the time we won the case. In 2005, we halted the final federal grant to MentorKids USA, in which volunteer mentors had to sign a statement that they believed literally in the creation story before they could go on to openly proselytize children of prisoners. We stopped a "parish nursing program" in Montana in 2003, and in 2007 a "chaplaincy" in Indiana set up to minister to state employees. Important and pioneering as our legal cases have been, they are a mere drop in the bucket in terms of the public financing of proselytization under the faith-based scheme.

Obama praises Take Youth Education for Tomorrow, a program run by churches and church schools to teach reading after school and during the summer, largely in church settings. Churches and the offices of religious organizations are innately coercive environments. What about parents who don't want their children to have to go to church in order to get reading help? When taxpayers are footing the bill, such programs should be held in a neutral setting--there is, after all, no shortage of public schools, already tax-supported!

It is not only the 16% of the population who is nonreligious who is offended. Many Muslims are forbidden to enter Christian churches. Jewish children may not feel comfortable entering a Christian church. Even many Christian sects are uneasy about adherents entering churches run by competing denominations. The idea is fraught with practical and constitutional peril.

Weirdly, Obama criticizes Bush for failing to reach out to faith-based groups about how to apply for federal dollars. Yet this was a cornerstone of Bush's faith-based initiative. At countless regional and federal faith-based conferences, hands-on technical support at public expense (including "free lunches") is exactly what the Bush Administration has offered churches and religious agencies for seven expensive years!

Obama says "we all have to work together--Christian and Jew, Hindu and Muslim; believer and nonbeliever alike--to meet the challenges of the 21st century." True, even laudable. But that does not mean "we" should all be taxed to support churches or religious agencies. Many Americans proudly are descended from immigrants who came here to escape mandatory tithes and taxation in support of churches against their consent.

Obama's tone is more balanced than Bush's. But he spoils the effect by criticizing those "who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square." Secularists have never said faith can't be displayed in public. We do insist that faith should not be part of government, subsidized by government or promoted by government. The genius of the founders of our secular republic was to recognize that keeping religion and government separate is the way to prevent religious corruption and coercion.

Obama's reference to needing "people of faith on Capitol Hill"--as if Capitol Hill weren't at the moment dominated by "people of faith"--is both a naive platitude and exclusionary. How would religionists feel if Obama had said: "We need people without faith on Capitol Hill"?

Let's abolish the faith-based initiative and go back to the days before John Ashcroft first proposed so-called "charitable choice." Religious social services have always been free to bid for social service grants, but they were expected to create a secular arm, keep separate books and take their crosses down. A return to the status quo is the simple answer to the mess created by Bush's faith-based initiative.

Obama's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is merely a renaming of Bush's Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Ironically, nearly everything Obama criticizes Bush's initiative for ("it was used to promote partisan interests," "it has to be a real partnership--not a photo-op") can be said of Obama's plan and his "photo-op" speech today. Same taxi, different driver. Where's that vaunted "change" that Obama's campaign has been promising?

On a related topic, we are appalled at the arrogant, presumptuous hubris of politicians who claim to know "God's will." Obama joins an unfortunately long line of political candidates and public officials (which includes more than its fair share of despots), who talk about "fulfilling God's will" and "doing the Lord's work." Why are these politicians so special that they possess a direct pipeline to a divinity? The presidential candidates have crossed the line between acknowledging sincere personal faith to wearing faith on their sleeves and unapologetic political pandering. Both John McCain and Obama have been burned by their past close associations with pastors. Why can't they see that religion mixed with politics is always a combustible mixture?

--Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, The Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Obama - Better for Middle-Class America

Chris Casarez — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:48:58 EDT

TheMiddleClass.Org compiles the DMI’s (Drum Major Institute for Public Policy--a non-partisan organization) analyses of bills that affect the girdling middle-class. It then rates members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives based on how they voted on relevant legislation. As you can see, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and John McCain sore 88%, 95%, and 60% respectively.

Visit TheMiddleClass.Org.

Obama vs McCain on Taxes

Chris Casarez — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:44:43 EDT

While both candidates have proposed tax cuts, Barack Obama has proposed larger tax cuts on middle-income earners than what McCain has proposed. The only tax increase Obama has proposed will go to individuals making $200,000/year or more, or families with an annual income over $250,000 or more. Of course, this hasn't stopped John McCain from falsely (and repeatedly) accusing Barack Obama from wanting to raise taxes on the middle-income earners.

Read full article

Obama - Better for the Environment

Chris Casarez — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:49:35 EDT

The Sierra Club, America's oldest outdoor environmentalist organization, officially endorses Barack Obama. In matters of taking on big oil, investing in the clean energy economy, fixing global warming, and increasing fuel economy, the Sierra Club finds Barack Obama's record far more consistent in its aim in preserving the environment.

Read entire PDF here: Presidential Scorecard

Shame

Walt — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:46:33 EDT

Fool me once with Bush/Cheney
Shame on you.
Fool me twice with Bush/Cheney
Shame on me.
Fool me a third time with McCain/Palin
Shame on both of us.

Election 2008 - Useful Online Sources

Chris Casarez — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:03:36 EDT

Voting for Obama (MySpace Profile)

Sources for following the 2008 Election

CNN, Google, and Politico all have excellent archives and portals for finding relevant information on the election.

CNN Politics
Google Election '08
Politico

Like all U.S. Presidential elections, this human horse race is filled with incessant character assassination and other forms of slander. These sites are great for staying on top of this spin.

Fact Check.org
Fact Checker
Politifact

My Application for a Federal Bailout

OswegoAtheist — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:22:45 EDT

To: Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, Congress, or Whomever Holds the Checkbooks

From: Me

Re: Federal Bailout

Cc: Everyone

Greetings,

This memo is written to inform you that I am looking for a Federal bailout. As Sen. McCain recently backpedal..err, reminded us, I, as an American worker, am a fundamental of the economy. Because I find myself trying month after month to feed and shelter my family, and facing the prospects of rising costs and stagnant or lessening income, it is with great difficulty that I hereby request that the Federal government send me a bailout package of $154,000,000. After all, isn't in our best interests to keep our fundamentals fed, sheltered and healthy?

Normally, I would try the Social Services route; however, thanks to the government's disdain for lower income families, I have stringent income requirements that have to be met and verified (and periodically reverified), as well as fingerprint scanning, possible drug testing, numerous meetings with caseworkers that pull me away from my work, and, above all, the ever present sense of distrust from my government and the societal shame of being given a "handout." The only comfort I have is that, rather than simply being handed a check, the CEOs and CFOs of companies like Fannie Mae and AIG will be sitting with me in the county office building, wasting hours of potential working time. I know that when I'm being fingerprinted simply for filling out the application for 500 bucks of foodstamps a month (which, for my family of 5, ends up being 1.11 dollars per person per meal), Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain will be right behind me. I know that when my government helps out those who have manipulated an economy under the less-than-watchful eye of the Republican Regime, they will assist them in a fair, yet frugal manner.

Or perhaps I'm just sick and bloody tired of the Republican Regime's total abandonment of American principles of equality and impartiality. Why else would they believe that profit-hungry gluttons are capable of regulating and policing the economy, protecting the environment, preserving American jobs and workers' rights, and preventing price gouging and collusion, but ordinary Americans can't manage their personal lives without Republicans to guide them. Maybe it's time that we changed everything; maybe it's time for corporations to be monitored endlessly, regulated, and scrutinized, and regular Americans be given economic freedoms, and generally be left alone in privacy, and free to direct their personal lives.

Maybe that would be the kind of bailout Americans can get behind.

Pictures from Pueblo

islepilot — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:21:53 EDT

I was able to go down to Pueblo yesterday to see our hero Barack Obama. It was well worth the 2 and a half hour ride each way. This is the third time I have seen him in person (once in Laramie, once at Invesco), and I have to say this is the most exciting speech I have seen.The weather was perfect, and traffic to the speech was minimal when I got there (albeit that was 4 hours early). One of the highlights for me (as a complete airplane geek) was seeing his airplane turn base to final and being able to point it out to the crowd around me. The speakers before Barack where all great and inspiring, and I especially appreciated the speeches given by "normal" people...they help to remind us that this is all very real.His speech was incredibly pertinent and touched on the happenings of yesterday and McSame's goofball remark that the economy is fundamentally sound.At the end of the speech Barack made his normal circle shaking hands around the fence at the base of the stage, and since I was close, I got to shake his hand! What a thrill! That is definitely my highlight of the month!Anyway, I built a web page with my pictures. Feel free to take a look. Let me know what you think!http://aerosys-eng.dyndns.org/obama/pueblo/

Phase III

Paul Romero — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:47:00 EDT

I have recently grasped the concepts of exponentiality and its processeses and functions. I consider the following terminologies as it pertains to such changes as phases. In my view we are in phase 3 in this election of changing approaching 4,5,6 upto 10 where that means that exponentially all things are increased and in effect (working) to yield the desired conditions to take control and hold over the powers/factors creating/contributing to that change. Make any sense to anyone?

THERE'S NO INTEREST LIKE SELF-INTEREST!

baron morris — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:56:50 EDT

ANYONE who is CURIOUS about HOW MUCH TAX RELIEF you would recieve under OBAMA vs. MCCAIN, pls see the following site:

alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut/

enter 3 bits of info and voila! a side by side comparison of the effects of the tax plans of the two candidates!

PLS check it out and PASS IT ON!!

PEACE TO ALL!

- BARON

Demographics Favor Obama (my blog cal-lib.blogspot.com)

Jesse Radin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:23:19 EDT

Friday, September 12, 2008 Some Demographics. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html

House of Representatives 2006. 60-38 youth toward Democrat. 12% of the total population. That should go up. The whole "cell phone" polling theory matters now, because Obama and social networking have changed the face of politics.

I've donated $301 to Obama. I donated $201 after McCain's anti-gamer comments and listening to Obama tell parents to raise their kids and not tell the government to do it for them.

My.BarackObama.com is amazing. The right wing loves to complain about Socialists or whatever, but there are also Libertarians and Republicans for Obama.

Four years ago my mom had to give my email to her friend to get me to volunteer for Kerry. Now I can give my address and phone number and RSVP for an Obama event to call voters in Nevada. And it even offers me directions for MaqQuest! Times have changed. It is easier to volunteer. I would have done it a lot more in the past few weeks if I had known I could just find some house in a city nearby and volunteer.

I've donated money instead of volunteering mostly this year, because I figured my money would help more than my time, which for most of the past two years, I've had very little. But for the next couple of weeks, I have plenty. I could even try to get my dad to do it.

Some said this: Howard Dean was the Wright Brothers, and Obama is the moon landing, in terms of internet donors. Obama may have a huge supply of funds, but it's because of millions of small donors like me, not special interests. Picking Biden was a step back, but Biden was picked to fight against the Republican spin machine so Obama could still seem like he was running a clean campaign.

Look at these demographics. Basically, it shows the only Republican group is really the Religious Right.

John McCain picked Sarah Palin to get that group, and to trick gun-rights advocates into picking him over Obama, when neither of them have a good record on gun control.

Obama's state gun control bans can't be viewed from a national level. He's said the second amendment is an indvidual right, but communites can enforce common-sense regulations. So what he did for Chicago would not apply to what he would do as a president.

Obama and McCain are both on the fence on gun control. Obama is honest about being on the fence. He never really flip-flops. McCain is claiming he's against things he's consistently voted for. The NRA sort who claim they need an AK-47 to shoot dangerous animals are insane, but if Obama stopped supporting semi-automatic bans, he'd get some votes.

I didn't know what a semi-automatic is, but apparently it inclueds the Colt-45 and Garand. Those aren't really that dangerous, I think.

This election will go to Obama easily. I predict that Nevada, Florida, and New Mexico will go to him from 2004, and Iowa.

I think that gives him 296 votes. That's all based on messing around with sliders on some site.

Of course the site didn't factor in white men/white women, just men, women, black, white, etc.

Obama should also go hunting with the Democratic governor of Montana.

He was right about "clinging to religion and guns" whether you like it or not.

What was ignored was clining to anti-immigration, anti-trade. That comment also show he believes in trade, and is not a racist protectionist, but may just want to renegotiate NAFTA, which is probably a good idea, since things change pretty often. I hope he uses trade with Cuba as a bargaining chip. Cuba means nothing to us, but trading with us would help them,

We could say: Be a Democracy and we will trade with you.

Sane Libertarians vote Obama. the LP writes in Ron Paul or votes for an AK-47.

America

BBoss — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:23:05 EDT

I am a loyal Barack Obama supporter and a big fan of Hilary Clinton. If Hilary would have gotten the nomination I probably wouldn't be writing this blog and I would be wearing Hilary 08 wristbands instead.

I am saddened when I see Hilary supporters now supporting John McCain just because he picked a woman as his running mate. I often wonder why a supporter of what Hilary was about could support someone with the complete opposite ideals just because they picked a woman as the running mate with more of the complete opposite of what Hilary was about. I mean I can understand why they do it but I don't agree with them. They support McCain because Palin is a woman and that's it. They may not agree with McCain but I believe they overlook his flaws and just see Palin on the ticket.

I consider myself an equalist (equal rights for both men and women) and I am glad that as a woman Palin is able to get on a national ticket and that Hilary was able to compete in a primary. Women have come along way but the fight isn't over yet and I believe we as human beings have a long way to go before we see changes for the better in our society due to the fact that people in general fear change. And it is because of this I can not stand aside and let McCain/Palin try to win over the feminist support that supported Hilary. Some may know of this incident already but for those of you who don't let me shed some light on it. In 1992 during John McCain's Senator Bid he called his wife Cindy the c word(that is as close as I will say to the actual word because that word is very degrading towards women and I will not repeat it).

I know Sarah Palin had a few unkind words about Hilary as well "Palin says, "When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism or, you know, maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, man, that doesn’t do us any good. Women in politics, women in general wanting to progress this country. I don’t think it’s, it bodes well for her -- a statement like that.""

So with that being said to Hilary supporters find a candidate who has similar ideals to what Hilary stands for and not the complete opposite.

THE HIGH ROAD WINS

push pin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:02:47 EDT

Perhaps many of you remember, as I do, some comments on FOX News a while back suggesting Obama's kids could "end up in a bell tower" because their folks "don't buy them Christmas presents," "proof that they're socialists," etc. Do you remember? Pretty nasty stuff.

When Governor Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's VP pick there was immediate gossipy discussion about her family issues from our side. It wasn't as gratuitous as the FOX News garbage, and it didn't make main stream news until Gov. Palin announced that her daughter, Bristol, was pregnant and unwed. At that point, Obama loudly and angrily declared that the family was "off limits", promising to fire any staff who tried to make political hay of the situation. His declaration was the perfect response, because people DO remember that FOX bullshit, and the ugliness of the attack is evident, ESPECIALLY in light of Obama's noble refusal to countenance the same from HIS people...

We should never forget Obama's frequent reference to the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you", and its possible corollary, "...even when others do ill unto you first."

Our candidate is holding the high ground, and winning it, in ways even his supporters can't fathom. His admonishments regarding Palin's family issues are part of a consistent theme of sticking with the issues that really matter, and avoiding the ugly methods of Karl Rove's political philosophy. I have a sense that his perseverance is beginning to pay off. As his team continues to paint a canvas with the bright colors of high principal, the GOP's continued resort to innuendo, character assault and outright lies stand out in sharp contrast as mud brown.

On the spectrum of American political opinion, between the partisan extremes of left and right, there exists a blending continuum of objective, critical thinkers in varying degrees of doubt. They are invariably the ones who have to be sold. Up to now, Rovian methods have been winning because they have been DEFINING "politics as usual" in cynical fashion, alienating non-partisans from the process. But Obama is offering a REDEFINITION. He has pointedly, repeatedly, called for discarding the cynical politics of division. That is only accomplished by the arts of inclusion, effectively encouraging the alienated center to rejoin the American quest, a return to American ideals.

We partisans can be excused for the revulsion we feel for the things that appear in our mail: The bogus lawsuit to disqualify our candidate as a non-citizen; McCain's accusation that Obama has "never" been bipartisan; Palin's claim that he has "never" proposed significant legislation; the inexperienced liberal elitist tax-and-spend baby-killer who hates America... It surely makes you want to slap their faces, grab them by the collar, shake and shout, "What the hell are you trying to pull? You liar! You cheat!", and throw them against a brick wall. Fact is, their response would be to step back, straighten their clothes, grin and say, "Thanks for your cooperation. We win..."

It's tough. It's frustrating. Continue your mailings, your forwards, comments, investigations and debunking. Leave no stone unturned. And don't hide your exasperation. Advertise McCain's graduating class rank, the planes he crashed, his less-than-unique POW status and his temper. Post Palin's weakness as a parent, her credit for facing down Russia and leading her Alaskan troops to war, and her fundamental(ist) ambitions. Point out the Mass Media lies, distortions and partiality, and take them to task for their objective failure.

Just don't call for Obama and his team to join in.

It has struck me from the very start of this race that the issue has never been about an ABILITY to lead -- experience, voting record, blah, blah, blah. It has always been about HOW to lead. Do we attract and appoint the able, or do we select the loyal? Do we address opponents with respect and high expectations, or do we deride their ideals and denigrate their abilities? The HOW of leadership is the only thing to be demonstrated in a campaign. The rest is just vague dross, promises that may become less than practical when office is won and the limitations of reality descend. But the tone, the quality of leadership remains, and our man is ahead, and gaining, on that score.

Barack Obama has often applied the term "defining moment" to this election. This is not fluff, or bluff, or empty rhetoric. It's a fundamental TRUTH. As tempting as it is to join the mud-slingers in the pit, doing so would betray the very principals that brought him into this contest, and in winning it would hobble his ability to fulfill those lofty promises. If he fails while staying true, on the other hand, it only means that America is not ready for a redefinition. That's the point of this election: to test the maturity of the electorate and our readiness to accept the next stage of democratic evolution. I think we're winning.

A remarkable confluence of people and events has conspired to make it possible for the high road to WIN, sending Karl Rove and his minions, the off-cue applause machine of the GOP convention, back to the garbage dump that spawned them, and they know it. They're running scared. That's why you see the attacks multiplying, and they'll continue. For the first time they see a genuine, serious challenge to their continued rule of the dialog, they will make every devious effort to defeat it, and they will continue when this campaign is finished.

Keep fighting. Keep the high road. Be not afraid. Yes we can. GoBama...

More McCain misinformation from factcheck.org

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:25:48 EDT

A McCain-Palin campaign ad claims Obama's "one accomplishment" in the area of education was "legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergarteners." But the claim is simply false, and it dates back to Alan Keyes' failed race against Obama for an open Senate seat in 2004.

Obama, contrary to the ad's insinuation, does not support explicit sex education for kindergarteners. And the bill, which would have allowed only "age appropriate" material and a no-questions-asked opt-out policy for parents, was not his accomplishment to claim in any case, since he was not even a cosponsor – and the bill never left the state Senate.

In addition, the ad quotes unflattering assessments of the Illinois senator's record on education but leaves out sometimes equally harsh criticism directed at McCain in the same forums.

Honest Father/Son dialog

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:06:41 EDT

A friend of mine forwarded me an email between himself and his father. His father is a staunch republican and he a democrat. I've removed any references to either of them but thought the dialog was candid and well laid out. It address many of the issues that we see on a daily basis addressing each in a logical and point counter-point manner. If more families could sit down and debate issues like this we'd all be better off and perhaps even make some progress in our communities. There is simply too much misinformation that goes unchallenged and too many ignorant Americans that vote based he hearsay and rumor. Happy reading.

Leave Palin's Pastor & her faith alone!

RevSkull — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:22:58 EDT

We need to leave it alone. All you have to do is go to the GOP website and you can see what they're (we're I'm one) planning to do. Any attack on Palin's Pastor will bring hell fire and brimstone from the religious right and we don't need to stir them up. If our side manages to get them to turnout in the numbers they did for Bush then we'll have done the same stupid thing for the third election in a row...elected a Republican.

There's a huge difference between the religious right and us...forget that they out number us...they will outspend us by a factor of ten if riled up.

The WORST thing we can do is keep bringing up Palin's faith and anything relating to it. While nobody on the Obama site seems to go to McCain's site or the GOP site, they go to the Obama site and they look at these emails and our blog posts.

Folks I've been in the GOP for 30 years now, I have many friends in the party and know how they think. I've always been a Liberal in the tradition of Nelson Rockefeller. Even so, Barack will be my first Democratic vote for President. I've voted statewide and locally for many Dems in the past. If you had nominated breathing human beings the last two times I would have voted for them but I went with Nader.

Please, let's not lose this one. The country needs Obama.

Facts vs. Fiction

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:21:04 EDT

Following are some facts about Obama's position vs. McCain's as compiled by my friend Tom. Take a look and see who you think is misleading the public. After reading this, I'm sure you'll agree who is doing the lieing!

Look at McCain's congressional voting record

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:43:21 EDT

Year-Q Votes Missed % 2007-Q11264233.3%2007-Q21128172.3%2007-Q31195949.6%2007-Q4856576.5%2008-Q1855058.8%2008-Q2777698.7%2008-Q33434100%

Roe vs. Wade Reversed!

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:24:48 EDT

As I sit here reading the nightly news feeds and blogs about Sara Palin it occurs to me that we are all being distracted from the real issues....

McCain-Palin -- no economic change

Tim Buchholz — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:12:06 EDT

McCain-Palin's claim to be a change agent in Washington really would bring little change to the economy. This is an economy which has been damaged by the past 8 years of Republican control of the federal government. McCain-Palin will continue the only policies that the Republicans know. They have not been conservative enough. The trickle down scheme has never worked. Bush has virtually eliminated regulation of industry. This lack of regulation has caused the collapse of the housing market and the financial markets. And let’s not forget the huge profits the US oil companies made off the backs of US citizens. McCain-Palin promises more of the same.

So while McCain-Palin talk about change in Washington, they are talking about changing political behavior, not the Republican policies that have damaged this great country. Political reform is good and Sen Obama is an advocate for that, but he understands that it is the economic policies that need reform first. That is the relief people need now, not in another fours. John, it is the economy again.

Slowly But Surely

push pin — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:20:21 EDT

From the climactic end of the Democratic Convention through the shocking selection of Sarah Palin, I have sensed a GOP attack machine in high gear, using all their devious arts to try and damage our candidate. They put some of their ugly message into our convention coverage (thanks to the MSM), and they’re recycling the old character attacks, plus submitting new ones. But their attacks are getting shriller and shriller, even taking on an edge (in my opinion) of desperation. That desperation is born of the realization that Barack Obama is beating their game, slowly but surely.

Obama’s acceptance speech subverted the GOP message, canned in advance, which anticipated fluff and empty rhetoric. Instead, he presented substantive proposals, and millions of the doubtful were watching. Those millions must have wondered at the GOP message, asking themselves if the critics were talking about the same speech they saw. Doubts.

When rumors about Gov. Palin’s 5th child achieved MSM status, Sen. Obama nobly and forcefully denounced the rumor mongers and seriously threatened any staff members who participated. Millions heard it. When the GOP accuses the Democrats of unfairly attacking Palin’s family, those millions must wonder if they’re talking about Obama’s Democrats. Doubts.

When Hurricane Gustav threatened New Orleans, McCain’s “presidential” response was to travel personally to a few hundred miles from the coast. Obama offered his millions of supporters for volunteer relief and no one, to my knowledge, claimed it was an empty gesture. The undecided millions must have wondered who was being truly presidential and who chose the standard photo-op. Doubts.

Stay tuned.

The attack ads and e-mails and VP appointments that worry us so much are aimed at the true believers, the 25% who believe G.W. Bush is doing a “heck of a job,” and the millions just beyond them who still have doubts about this new guy. But the doubts are slowly being turned around. Obama and his team are skillfully turning the tables on the methods that have always worked before. The watchers who have always been ready to accept GOP claims are beginning to wonder if they’re being lied to. Skepticism, slowly but surely, is on the rise.

I’m starting to liken this campaign to a wagon train of settlers moving toward a new frontier, the far horizon. We are debating the choice of wagon master.

Our candidate insists that the high road is the best way to reach the Promised Land. We believe him. In our hearts we’re sure it’s true. But sometimes, when the going gets rough, we can’t believe how difficult it is. It’s stony and steep and full of hazards. The road has been neglected and untraveled, so we have to chop at the narrow places, rebuilding bridges and culverts, removing debris and obstacles caused by erosion. Sometimes we have to put our backs to the wheels to get them over the boulders and fallen trees, many put there by rivals to impede our progress.

The opposing candidate is leading a section of the wagon train to the low road, knowing it’s easier and better traveled, and he claims it leads to the same place. You and I don’t think so. We’re sure it only goes deeper into the valley and ends at a swamp of cutthroat competition, leaving the less able to sink out of site in the mud.

The writing of the American Constitution and the creation of a unique form of government of the people, by the people and for the people was a high point of human progress achieved on this continent more then 200 years ago. America has since surmounted other high points on the road to its destiny of leading mankind toward freedom and self determination. There will be others to climb, followed by gullies and canyons to be crossed on the journey to a high, fertile plateau. Maybe we can’t see it yet, but we know it’s there, on the far horizon, where people from all the tribes can prosper in peaceful commerce.

We should consider ourselves the scouts and engineers of the high road. As we use and improve the neglected track way, making it smoother and easier to travel, more wagons will follow. As more follow, the wider and smoother it becomes. But it will always tend uphill, and require steady effort.

The slope that we're on now rises to what I call a Rennaisance of Reason. After years of political destruction based on division and rancor, Americans are now hungry for leadership based on rational debate, rather than mutual recriminations. Barack Obama can provide it. He and we are the new pioneers, following the dreams of our nation's founders, the extraordinary leaders who have come after them, and the great thinkers who have gone before. The destination is a society in which no one is denied the opportunity to do their best for themselves and for each other, with liberty and justice for all.

Slowly but surely. Wagons Ho.

Sarah Palin as McBush's VP

BBoss — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:50:15 EDT

I saw both of their speeches and was not impressed at all.

I will say though Sarah Palin did rally the crowd that was there but I came up with 2 conclusions about her. Either she is completely naive or she is completely full of it. All that came out of her mouth were lies like about Barack's inexperience compared to her and that we were very close in a victory in Iraq. One other thing when I heard speak came through my head was "I can't wait for the VP debate on October 2nd." Although as a Political Science Major and unbiased opinion I think if McCain/Palin win or lose Palin will be back on the national scene for the Republicans because she relates to the conservative base. And from her speech she can get the crowd behind her whether I disagree or not she is capable of doing that.

Now onto McCain: Yes he was a war-hero whom we should honor for his military deeds BUT that does not warrant an automatic vote into the highest position in the land. Having McCain talk about his POW experience over and over again instead of real issues that affect the American people he says he will stand for and with to fight the same special interests he has received funding for his whole campaign. This has led me to believe that McCain will say whatever he thinks people want to hear. Another incident was an interview a while back where he said he would use military force in Iran and North Korea and anywhere else where there is a credible threat (and didn't even mention the use of diplomacy), yet at the convention he said that he hates war because of his POW experience. I really see Guillani in McCain a lot of times because no matter the issue he would always make a reference to 9/11 and how he was there during the whole ordeal.

Personally I don't trust McCain and the idea of him as president scares the hell out of me. He is a hothead whom should not have the power of the president in his hand.

Letter to Obama from a Non-theist

Musikate — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:51:32 EDT

Dear Mr. Obama,

I am an atheist/freethinker who has been donating and working for your campaign. I appreciate all the work you have done for America's family, and I support the Democratic Party platform.

That being said, I do have a concern. I understand that the political reality is that freethinkers are not represented in our government. However, I would appreciate knowing that we are at least mentioned. I hear you and other politicians repeat often that people of various faiths should have their interests represented. What about those of us with no religious faith? Are we to be permanantly excluded from the dialogue?

I do not want or expect you to sabotage your successful and vibrant campaign by rejecting superstition and religion. Of course I understand your position. But we freethinkers are a much oppressed and ostracized minority, and I would think that the Democratic Party, as the party of diversity and inclusiveness, would at least acknowledge our existance.

Sincerely,
Catherine Wentz

How do I contact the campaign?

Musikate — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:08:47 EDT

I have a question/comment that I'd really like Barack to consider (or at least his people). Does anyone know how to contact them?

Sarah Palin

Musikate — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:48:18 EDT

Sarah Palin is a shell of a woman; there's nothing inside. She is a conservative creation; a pretty face designed to hypnotise those who are constantly seeking new idols to worship. The evangelicals are biting hard on the siren's bait. Fortunately, however, McCain's machine has now alienated most of the swing voters, that demographic that most threatened Obama's success. Now it's in the bag!

What Will This Election Say About Us?

Monitor — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:53:06 EDT

Many people over the last several months have asked me why I am so worked up over this election. Prior to November of last year, I had switched off any interest in politics and hadn't much cared about national elections for, oh, something like 10+ years. My answer to the question always involves two important elements.

The first element of my answer is my enthusiasm for Barack Obama as a person and a candidate. Once I took the time to research and learn more about him, I saw in Obama one of the most fundamentally decent politicians to run for the office of President in recent memory. I found him to be intelligent, engaging, contemplative, honest, forthright and candid -- all qualities that have been so obviously missing over the last eight years. Listening to him speak and reading what he wrote sold me on his story, his commitment to this great country, and his fundamental decency and quality of character. However, my enthusiasm for Barack Obama as a candidate is only one aspect to why I am so passionate about this election.

[Originally Posted to My Blog] [Digg This Post Here]

The second and perhaps more passion-inspiring aspect to my enthusiasm for electing Obama is my deep-seated need for the American electorate to say "Enough!" to all of the terrifying qualities that we have seen infect and and spread throughout our communities and government over these past eight years. Above nearly every other consideration on the table at this point, I desperately need to see America send up a powerful and resounding rebuke to the tone, tenor and ideology underpinning one of the most necrotic, corrupt and incompetent administrations in American history.

You may call me naïve for saying this but I yearn to wake up one day and not be afraid to learn what my government has done in my name. I am profoundly tired of waking up to learn that our country has unconstitutionally exceeded the powers of the executive branch, tortured terrorism suspects, illegally populated the Justice Department with people whose primary qualification was the sufficiency of their partisanship, mishandled domestic national disasters resulting in the deaths of thousands of people, obstinately refused to address climate change, illegally revealed the identity of a covert CIA agent, used hatred and fear of gays and lesbians to scare up votes in an election season, stymied research into embryonic stem cells based on religious faith alone, instituted a Pentagon propaganda campaign to sell an unjustified war, invaded a country that never participated in an attack on American soil and never posed an existential threat to our national security, and pathologically lied to the American people about every matter, large or small -- with all of these acts done in our name without a shred of meaningful accountability brought to bear upon any of the misguided criminals involved in their perpetration.

To put it mildly, I am ashamed, and profoundly so. Nearing as I am the age of 32, you'd think that my shame and cynicism would have led me to give up on any hope for honesty and competence in my elected leaders -- and for a while, I had. However, I see in Obama a golden opportunity (perhaps the last one we'll have in a long, long while) to forcefully cast off the last eight years of unchecked lies, misdirection, corruption, misinformation, illegality and incompetence.

As Obama himself has admitted, he is of course an imperfect messenger -- just as any person seeking the most powerful office in the world would be. However, this election means much more to me than just electing a person to fill a role -- it can also mean that we, as Americans, have borne witness to the evil that has been done in our name and have decided to forcefully and unequivocally declare that we will stand for it no longer!

With the two primary aspects to my passion for electing Obama being laid out above, please permit me go one step further and explain one of the main ways this passion gets channeled on a day-to-day basis.

I have gone through most of my life in a position of relatively comfortable middle-class privilege. My stepfather was a college professor and my mother an accomplished artist and homemaker. My sisters and I generally didn't want for anything. I came out of the closet in high school at the tender age of 13 and was lucky enough to grow up in a loving family that accepted me fully for who I was. Coming out so early, however, left my still-forming psyche fully exposed to the harsh winds of a culture and society that is still too often prone to demonizing gays and lesbians for no reason other than the gender of the person they choose to love.

I became involved in politics and activism during my teen years in the small town of Eugene, Oregon during an unfortunate episode in our state's history when a radical right-wing organization called the Oregon Citizen's Alliance successfully placed an initiative on the statewide ballot in 1992 called Measure 9 that would have revised the Oregon constitution to read:

All governments in Oregon may not use their monies or properties to promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism or masochism. All levels of government, including public education systems, must assist in setting a standard for Oregon's youth which recognizes that these behaviors are abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse and they are to be discouraged and avoided.

To this day, reading the language of Measure 9 still brings tears to my eyes. To my teenage mind, it was one thing to understand that certain people in my country and community with antiquated medieval morality hadn't yet evolved to the point that they could accept me for who I am. It was quite another thing, however, for the people of my state and local community to be voting on a constitutional amendment to permanently and explicitly stigmatize me in the highest law of the state as "abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse".

Thankfully, Measure 9 failed, but only by a margin of 44% in favor to just 56% opposed. As I look back on it, I think this was the first concrete time in my life when I truly sat back and thought, "Dear God, there is an enormous percentage of the population out there for whom ignorance and gullibility is a virtue and who are capable of using their ignorance as a sword to strike out and try to hurt other people, and the country, with their vote!" This general realization about the fundamental nature of a large portion of the electorate eventually drove me into a self-induced fog of anger and cynicism that was only more strongly reinforced by America's reelection of George W. Bush after much of the information that has recently driven his approval ratings into the low 20s was already evident.

The upshot of all this background information is how it reflects on my outlook today. Although I labored in a fog of anger and cynicism for 15-odd years, it wasn't enough to completely kill off my hope for an episodic emergence of the inherent goodness in people that I never stopped believing in. I still fundamentally believe that a large majority of people in this country and around the world have, at their core, a well of goodness that can be easily shrouded by any number of suppressive factors, i.e., abuse, privation, religious fundamentalism, divorce, deaths in the family, etc. Although all-too-often lying dormant, the shroud covering this inherent goodness within us is periodically peeled back to allow for radical, transformative change, e.g., abolishing slavery, giving women the right to vote and ending segregation.

Over the last seven or more years, the shroud covering many of our better instincts was metastasized by, among other things, the tragic events of 9/11. Too many of us retreated into our cocoons and gave our government free reign to run roughshod over many of the rights we hold dear and slaughter tens of thousands of innocent civilians in order exact vengeance upon a shadowy and intangible threat that emerged from a world to which we often pay far too little attention and spend little time trying to understand.

Owing much to our lust for vengeance and a profane President and his administration that, unchecked by any authority, has taken every opportunity to knowingly and vigorously violate the cherished morals, ethics, values, laws and international standards we once held so dear, we are now at a precipitous crossroads in our country's history. This is not just a fight against the poisonous depravity of the Bush administration, this is also a fight against our lesser instincts, our apathy and our complicity in what our government has become. It is not enough to simply write off the last eight years as the result of some compartmentalized bad actor and his cronies occupying and mismanaging the White House. We must systematically, and with great wisdom and purpose, reject and denounce the entire paradigm of accepting the presentation of falsehoods from those who would seek to govern us, justifying the torture of prisoners as an evil means toward a noble end, and cavalierly relinquishing the rights and freedoms for which so many brave souls have fought and spilled their blood over the centuries of our proud country's history.

In this election, the Republican candidate for President has embraced and expanded upon all of the worst instincts and tactics that drove our current President into the White House. With every new day, John McCain and his surrogates have proven in new and creative ways how much contempt they possess for concepts such as honesty, dignity, integrity, candor, humility and compassion. It is not enough to get angry about the fact that they put out jaw-droppingly obvious lies and misdirection on a daily basis. We must dig deeper and fight the very premise that underlies their shameful and dishonorable tactics: the idea that selling lies to the American electorate will work because we are too stupid, comfortable, uninformed and apathetic to realize that they are deceiving us! The next time you hear a McCain surrogate parrot talking points that falsely accuse Obama of wanting to raise taxes on people making $42,000 per year or claim that McCain is not, and has not always been, 100% committed to criminalizing abortion, dig below your righteous anger and react more strongly to the fact that we are responsible for giving them the impression that they can shamelessly peddle their lies with impunity. The stakes are too high in this election, and the challenges we face are too great, to simply leave this despicable premise unchallenged.

Fighting John McCain's dishonorable underlying premise does not just involve simply going to the ballot box and voting for Barack Obama on November 4th; it requires a much greater commitment than that. In past elections, when faced with an uninformed friend or relative that promulgates a new lie du jour that emanated from a surrogate of the opposing campaign, many of us have all too often held our tongues in order to avoid making waves or having others think less of us. This needs to end, quickly.

We have a civic duty, at this point in our country's history, to become properly informed about the facts underlying all of the main issues circulating in your family and community and, when faced with a lie promulgated by the McCain campaign, not only speak out forcefully, with limitless respect and patience, against the particular lie under discussion but also enter into a discussion of McCain's underlying premise. The impact of refuting a lie will always be less significant than helping someone come to realize that the systemic pattern of lies and misdirection put out by the McCain campaign presupposes that we are all too stupid, comfortable, uninformed and apathetic to realize that they are deceiving us.

I know that, like me, your view of national elections and politicians has all-too-often sprouted from a fertile bed of cynical cop-outs, e.g., picking the lesser of two evils, thinking that your vote doesn't count, believing that all politicians are just craven liars and discounting the election because it doesn't matter who you choose because they'll all screw you over anyway. At this moment in history -- when we are faced with record oil prices coupled with an ever-dwindling, non-expandable supply of fossil fuels, an economy with sectors not far off from permanent systemic failure and a standing and moral authority in the world worse than at any point in the last century -- we cannot allow ourselves to take false comfort in these reassuring, emotionally protective clichés.

The polluted nature of the McCain campaign and its occasional temporary successes, achieved using dishonorable means, must not flag our resolve or beat us back from facing every attack with every last shred of energy we can muster. At the risk of hyperbole, I truly believe that there are fundamental virtues at stake in this election that John McCain and his surrogates have chosen to both ignore and defile: honesty, dignity, integrity, candor, humility and compassion, to name but a few. Dig back to a time in your youth when you yearned with every fiber of your naïve and unspoiled being to be a defender of Truth, a person of integrity and a defender of the helpless and infirm. Find the passion you once felt, channel it back into the present day and let it give you succor on days like today, when it feels like the enemy advances and the headwinds against your struggle are too great. In the end, we must do everything we can muster to ensure that Truth -- absolute, objective and immutable Truth -- and timeless Virtue prevail against the forces of inertia and cynicism that have kept us chained in our self-shackled prisons for far too long.

Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party. Palin addresses AIP convention

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:39:42 EDT

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

Governor Palin - "I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere"

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:51:06 EDT

She can't even tell the truth, apparently she forgets supporting the bridge to nowhere, read more about it here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN3125537020080901

Now she asserts she was never for it, the woman can not be trusted to tell the truth!

Governor Palin is simply a liar

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:45:08 EDT

She repeatedly indicates she's a reformer like John McCain but the record says something completely different. According to an article in The Los Angeles Times, Palin repeatedly requested ear marks from contress. She was even exposed by John McCain himself... Now is this the type of maveric or just another typical politician?

Read the full article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,2482434.story

Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy Caught On Tape Disparaging Palin Choice: "It's Over," "Political Bullshit," "Gimmicky"

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:20:56 EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/03/peggy-noonan-mike-murphy_n_123647.html

McCain Was Against Palin Before He Was For Her

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:46:32 EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/03/mccain-was-against-palin_n_123573.html

What kind of right-wing nut job is Palin?

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:03:13 EDT

Take a look at

Palestinian Attack In Israel Part of God's Judgment, Said Recent Guest At Palin's Church

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palestinian-attack-in-isr_n_123297.html

NAFTA Revisited

Walt — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:01:55 EDT

In 1992 Ross Perot predicted massive job losses here in the US if NAFTA were enacted. He was right but he was ridiculed by the media and political opponents. Why is no one admitting that he was right? Is everyone involved too embarrassed?

NAFTA was to make Mexico more like the US. Instead it has made the US more like Mexico with wealth concentrated in a few hands and millions of the poor working for minimum wages or less. The unemployed gather on street corners waiting for the few jobs available. Elections are stolen as they were in Mexico in 2006 and here in the US in 2000 and 2004. When we will say enough and take back our country from the special interests?

Mexico uses our porous southern border to dump its poor on us rather than deal with them themselves. Where are our poor to go? Canada certainly cannot accommodate them. Mexico criticizes our plans to close our southern border but Mexico closely guards its southern border with Guatemala. Our Congress votes a border fence of 700 miles along a border of 2000 miles and then does not vote a penny to build it.

Watching from the floor (of my bedroom)...

Jeff Pinner — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:08:31 EDT

Thursday night, I watched the Senator accept the nomination while working on the remodeling project my wife started about a month ago. From "let's paint the bedroom to go with the new curtains and bed set", it's grown to "We're redecorating the entire second floor (except the bathroom)." Now this isn't just a simple paint and paper job, folks. We're talking about stripping all wallpaper, replacing all carpeting, replacing all the molding and baseboards, and replacing all six doors. Somehow, I've become responsible for all demolition, preparation and painting, while the pros are doing the carpets and woodwork. Frankly, at 53, I've got pains in places I didn't even know I had places.

Still, I have to admit that there were a couple of points where I had to quit tearing up the carpet, pad and tack strips, because I couldn't continue during the speach. Not because I was tired, but because I was hearing things that I've waited my entire adult life to hear a candidate for president explain. According to this current crop of Neocons, we're all in this alone. According to Barack, we're all in it together. We each bear a responsibility to the other, and government is the way in which we manage that responsibility.

What makes this so important to me? Well, a bit more than six years ago, the company for whom I'd worked for over 17 years decided that technical consulting could be done off-shore, by folks making far less than the 80k that I made. Unfortunately, most non-consulting companies find that former consultants don't make very good employees - we're too used to looking outside the box, and too dumb to keep our mouths shut when we see something stupid. After exhausting my 90 day severance package, and my unemployment benefits, we started living on our savings. After a year and litteraly hundreds of resumes and applications, something had to be done. So, in a gamble that I'm still not sure of the outcome, my wife and I started our own business. Nothing to do with the computers from which we'd both earned our livings for so many years - we started a small retail hobby shop. Frankly, we've bet it all. So far we're making it, and a little bit to spare. But I know that I'm in a business based upon things that people don't have to buy. I know that my sector of retail tends to trail the general economy by six to nine months - the downturn hasn't hit yet. In fact, we're having our best August to date. But I'm writing this at work, and in the hour and a half we've been open, I have yet to see a customer. Draw your own conslusions.

We're all in this together. My success is yours, but then again, so is my failure. Would my little shop closing be a disaster for the world? No. But a few more kids wouldn't put down the video games and learn to build something with their own hands. A few more seniors wouldn't be able to find the tools and supplies to build that ship of which they've always dreamed. The USS Lexington, now a mueseum ship at her dock in Corpus Cristi, might not have the model of her configuration in 1944 that one of my customers built. Four Cub Scouts in the small troop down the street might not get to fly the rockets they built. And the dozens of guys working on their train club layout, preserving their 1887 NCY depot as their club house, would have just that little bit harder time getting it done. No big deal - except...

Will Barack and Joe keep my shop open? Heck no - that's my job. But knowing that someone at the top gets it does make it a bit easier. Knowing that he's working to make it easier for small businesses doesn't hurt either. Knowing that he understands the level of gamble we took, the cost if we lose and the results if we win? Yes - that's what it's all about. We're in this together, despite what Newt, George, Dick et. all have convinced so many is true. You may not hold, or even be able to hold, stock in my small S-corp. But I like to think the world is a little better place because of what I do, and, if you agree, then you have a stake in it, too.

Barack clearly articulated some things I needed to hear. Things I thought America had forgotten. And, with my sore hips and back, sitting on the floor of a bedroom I really didn't want to be remodeling, my eyes teared, and I had to quit working with sharp pieces for a little while. Not a bad trade, thank you.

The Tribunal, a place located in The Hague, Netherlands

George Pridonoff — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:11:35 EDT

http://www.spectrezine.org/war/Mendes3.htm

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29678

Two interesting sources. Lets get together and get to the bottom of this.

Doing this research honestly will help to maintain that the Netherlands exists on this plane, here on Earth, not in the Nether-World

NO MORE MURDERS IN THE HOLDING CELLS!!!

There are no American's without insurance

Scott from Scottsdale, AZ — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:16:08 EDT

According to a McCain advisor, cited by HuffingtonPost, all americans have insurance!

Read the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/28/mccain-adviser-there-are_n_122095.html

Look at the "fair warning" if you still recognize that phrase.

George Pridonoff — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:38:26 EDT

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23545668-details/Military+help+for+Georgia+is+a+'declaration+of+war',+says+Moscow+in+extraordinary+warning+to+the+West/article.do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIlodWt-Nl4&feature=related

One missile might kill everyone from Boston to Atlanta. You have no idea what bombs can do in 2008. Shame on all of you. Only incarcerated people i.e. Ghandi would be considered innocent now. For those who protest, i salute you.

Parting the Fog Surrounding Georgia

JoeyRamone63 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:00:51 EDT

The last few days of the DNC convention in Denver have been exciting. We've heard some stirring speeches from Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden among others. While these speeches contained the expected amounts of enthusiasm, patriotism, and lots of other warm fuzzy feelings, there was also a disturbing amount of spin. Particularly unsettling was Joe Biden's portrayal of the Georgia-Russia conflict over South Ossetia.

Ladies and gentlemen, in recent years and in recent days, we've once again seen the consequences of the neglect -- of this neglect, with Russia challenging the very freedom of a new democratic country of Georgia. Barack and I will end that neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions, and we will help the people of Georgia rebuild.

Senator Biden appears to be following along the same lines as the Bush Administration and Senator McCain; defending the "democratic country of Georgia" and demonizing Russia's actions in defending South Ossetia.

How I Spent My Weekend Defending Obama

Brian Sharma — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:04:34 EDT

How I Spent My Weekend Defending Obama

Dear friends,

I'd like to share a little story with you. I spent the weekend defending Obama. I was at a family birthday party with friends and neighbors (in Pennsylvania). It was a backyard BBQ at my sister's house (also an Obama supporter), and she invited family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. I decided to wear my Obama shirt, and brought a few yard signs and bumper stickers to hand out to other Obama supporters (I made sure to ask my sister first, she said of course!). There were also some non-supporters, and the day was filled with "lively" discussion.

Most people were shying away from political discussion, mostly because they don't want to be involved in any conflict with friends and family. However, it's an important election season, and everyone was interested enough to at least listen to this discussion. There was one person in particular that was anti-Obama, and while he also insisted he didn't care for McCain, his resentment towards Obama was very strong. But I tried to keep the conversation pleasant, while explaining why I support Obama.

I asked several questions about why this person didn't like Obama, and I would respond to each point with facts that basically shot down every misconception they had about Obama. He cited the Rezko deal, and I explained Obama was not involved in any wrong-doing, yet John McCain was definitely guilty during the Keating Five scandal. Then he complained that Obama is an "elitist", and I explained that Obama just finished paying his student loans last year, while McCain is worth over $100 million and can't remember how many houses he owns. Then he said Obama's not "ready to lead", especially in military affairs. So I explained that Obama was RIGHT about Iraq, RIGHT about Afghanistan, and RIGHT about Pakistan, and John McCain was WRONG on all counts. I told him that leadership is about Good Judgement, and John McCain only has "experience" in being WRONG!

At this point, he couldn't really defend his dislike of Obama, but still insisted he didn't want Obama as president. Then, I asked him to name ONE BAD THING Obama had done, without referencing any association to other people (like Rev Wright, Tony Rezko, or Bill Ayers). He couldn't. So I asked him to name ONE GOOD THING McCain had done since becoming senator 26 years ago. He couldn't. I told him McCain's biggest accomplishment in 26 years was the McCain-Feingold Bill on campaign reform, which he now no longer supports. McCain became popular for being a "maverick", but now supports torture, has flip-flopped on every policy position, and has become Bush's biggest supporter. McCain doesn't have any real accomplishments, which is why he constantly talks about being a POW 30 years ago, or attacks Obama with ridiculous ads about Britney, Paris, or claims about people Obama knows.

Then, I named some good things that Obama had accomplished, like his bi-partisan work to limit and control the spread of nuclear weapons, so they don't fall into the hands of terrorists. Obama has also passed an important ethics bill to publish all government contracts on a public website, so people know exactly where our taxes are being spent. You can go online and see how many no-bid contracts are going to campaign donors, and which senators and congressmen support which government contracts, thanks to Barack Obama. It might seem like a small deal, but it's a HUGE step in shining the light in politics, which is a major part of bringing REAL CHANGE to Washington. It also proves that Obama is truly a DIFFERENT KIND OF POLITICIAN! And Obama wants to take major steps to fix the country's problems, like ending the Iraq War, bringing healthcare to millions, ending Bush's tax cuts to rich people and corporations, investing $150 Billion in alternative energy, creating 5 million green collar jobs... I went on and on and on.

After all this, this person still wouldn't budge. However, at this point, there were several other people crowding around and listening to the conversation, and I could see that I was clearly winning them over. Someone else interrupted our discussion, and asked us to stop talking politics and just enjoy the party (and ease any tensions). So we decided to "agree to disagree" and laughed and joked about some other things. Later in the day, the person came over to me and quietly said... "Have you ever had to work with Blacks and Muslims? I have to work with THOSE PEOPLE every day..." It was now painfully obvious that his RACISM was the irrational reason behind his dislike of Obama. I was a little surprised, but now it made sense. That was why none of my LOGICAL arguments were making a dent.

This sparked a conversation about racism, and I told him racism is no reason to make a bad choice and help McCain win, because McCain is far worse for the country. He insisted that although I was "taking the high road", average Americans would not vote for a black man for president. He said this as if it somehow justified his racism. Well, I told him that I don't know who's going to win in November, but I do consider myself an "average American", and I consider everyone at this Pennsylvanian family gathering "average Americans". And I started to name each person at the party that I know supports Obama. One by one, I pointed around the party and told him which people support Obama. To his surprise, I pointed to almost EVERY person there. Although none of those people had spoken up about thier support for Obama, they had each told me privately that they also like Obama, even though they weren't as vocal about it as I was. Many of them even asked for bumper stickers and yard signs. He didn't believe me, and asked one of those people if they liked Obama. At this point, the other person enthusiastically replied, "YES! I really like Obama!"

Only when this person realized there was so much support for Obama among his own friends and family, that's when I could see him actually considering being at least open to the idea. I don't think that's a very good reason, but apparently, the only thing that broke through his irrational racism... was irrational peer pressure. Everyone else likes Obama... so maybe he should too. I don't really understand it, but I think after breaking down all his other reasons, showing him his real reasons were racist, and then showing him that so many other people like him also supported Obama, he began to change.

I can't claim that I converted this person right there. But I do think I made him think about it. And I hope that the next time he hears about why Obama would be a good president, he might be willing to actually listen with an open mind. I definitely got through to all the other people there. And maybe they will take some of the points I made back to their friends and family over the next few weeks. And if you read all this, I hope you take a little of this story with you. This is how change happens...

YES WE CAN!!

THE SUITOR

push pin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:49:45 EDT

My son and I were talking politics one night, discussing Barack Obama’s campaign for President, when he revealed that he had broken up with his girlfriend. It was pretty painful for him, his first relationship that seemed to have depth and serious potential, touching on love. They’re only 21, barely at the beginning of their life journeys, and there is so much more to learn. I advised him that this blow was just one of life’s lessons: Youth and the confusing interplay of love and lust, passion and compassion, friendship and companionship. They had been close for only a few months, but at their age time is fleeting and emotions run high. My suggestion was that this experience would help him grow.

Always in the background of a new relationship is the echo of a hope that this is real, serious, and will last forever. Youth is impatient for forever, not realizing that life will be full of brief encounters, with many disappointments and surprising satisfaction.

We talk politics fairly often. He's been pursuing an English major with a minor in political science and he has some pretty strong opinions, especially on international affairs. We’re both big Obama fans, and on this night the subject was Barack’s struggle for acceptance among voters who are ready to believe the worst about him. Our candidate often declares his wholehearted love and admiration for America and his readiness to take on the awesome responsibility of leadership. Yet his critics paint him as shallow and pretentious at best, traitorous at worst, sowing the suspicion that he doesn’t really honor America.

Our greatest frustration with this campaign is the ease in which Barack Obama is cast as alien and suspect. How many times does he have to loudly, bluntly declare, “This is the greatest nation on Earth; nowhere else could a story like mine even be possible”, “This country is not perfect, but it is perfectible”, “It’s not about me; it’s about us; together, we can solve the momentous problems that we face”, before the mass of Americans take him at his word? The mere hint that he has a secret intent or hidden motive injures him. As in any courtship, whispers of doubt can be deadly.

My son needs conversation above the level of gossip and trivia, and his girlfriend was good for that. But more then that, he says the attraction was based on the idea that they could help each other achieve their respective dreams. Yang and Yin. What one lacks, the other provides. Like Obama’s petition to American voters, my son tried to convince her that, together, they could achieve great things. But, as he came to learn, suspicion can destroy a budding relationship.

I tried to encourage him by pointing out that his attitude showed a distinct level of maturity. It’s frustrating, I told him, but love is not the initial goal. It’s the final one. The more immediate task in any relationship is the establishment of trust, each convincing the other that vulnerability will never be taken advantage of. If there’s a wound, bandage it. If there’s an offense, forgive it. If there’s a fear, set it aside….

Obama’s critics insist that he’s a fake and a poser, unworthy of America’s affection. He’s a self-important egoist, they say, who’s only in this for the sake of power and prestige; that it’s really only about him. Entire books are published with the aim of impugning his character from every angle. They don’t want him to win us over because they say his intentions are bad, even suggesting he plans betrayal. His goal is not the nation’s welfare, but her destruction. Some, of course, subtly suggest that a person of his complexion simply shouldn’t be allowed into the family. He’s not “one of us”.

My son discovered that his attempts to understand and appreciate his girl’s strengths and wishes were rejected out of suspicion for their motives. The more he informed himself in the areas that interested her, the more she drew back. As he tried to get close to her feelings, and reveal his own, she became guarded. He says she worries that she’s incapable of intimacy, and feels awkward in social situations. He’s sociable, open with his emotions, and he wanted to help her out of her shell. There was a fear to be overcome, and he thought he could help her beat it.

But he couldn’t gain her trust and his first brush with love came to an end. I told him not to be discouraged. There will be others, perhaps even another opportunity with this young lady who briefly captured his heart.

This may not be true for America, however. Obama’s candidacy might be her best opportunity to break from the fears that hold her back. Reservations are justified, of course. He is, after all, just a man, a human being with the flaws and weaknesses of any human being. But the nobility of his manner and his aspirations for this great nation are worthy of acceptance. Obama’s unique quality is his willingness to address the American electorate as a mature audience. It can’t be overlooked that a candidate of his caliber doesn’t come along often. Like the girl my son was courting, it will be necessary for America to set aside her fears if this relationship is to bloom.

Barack Obama is wooing America. He says he loves and respects her right down to the core of his soul. The guy doesn’t claim to be perfect; he only claims to care. He seeks a partnership where everyone wins in the struggle for social progress. He’s willing and able, he says, to lead her out of the well of doubt and insecurity, to help her be the best she can be.

It’s something of a consensus in world and national opinion that the leadership blunders and misshapen policies of the last eight years, and the divisive, deceitful political methodology of the last 40, has made a mockery of American ideals. From pre-emptive war and the acceptance of torture to the damaging excesses of deregulation, our country is said to be going in the wrong direction. A fine example is the observation from Obama’s opponent that, “In the 21st Century, countries don’t invade other countries”. This doesn’t jibe well with Senator McCain’s support for the invasion of Iraq, but it should be noted that this is one of the unvoiced goals of the liberal democracy evolving from our Constitution: Abolishing the scourge of war. It’s a civilized idea, hardly attainable in the short run, but which abides at the heart of a political system founded on “certain inalienable rights”. It's one of the many inherent ideals of a government “of the People, by the People, and for the People”.

The United States has a special destiny in human affairs, carrying the torch of “Liberty and Justice for All” into the future. Perhaps the responsibility of living up to that destiny is what we fear. Denouncing torture and refusing to take part supposedly makes us vulnerable. Restrictions on corporate enterprise supposedly make us weak. I say the failure of law to protect the powerless from the potential depredations of government and commerce is far worse. It may take centuries to find the right balance in order to attain such idealistic goals, but ABANDONING THEM IS NOT AN OPTION.

Obama partisans have been characterized lately as “love struck teenagers”, enamored of a shallow celebrity. But this is not love for most of us, at least not yet. It is merely hope that America can chose a leader who will bring her through a crisis of confidence, as did Washington, Lincoln and FDR.

Supporters might consider how this campaign is a courtship. Voters need to be convinced that this man is worthy of their trust, that he does indeed hold their best interests in his heart. If it leads to betrothal in November and “I do” in January, America, in my humble opinion, will have made a wise choice. Judging from Obama’s obvious show of intellectual heft and tactical smarts, we can hope that the issue from such a union will, over the years, include a renaissance of reason, spiritual maturity and peace in the household.

It has been famously argued that no one can be fully prepared for the awesome task of the American Presidency. The same might be said of the intimacy of marriage. As with any relationship, issues have to be worked through. Nothing is easy. Often, it just gets harder.

Maybe, like my son, I’m succumbing here to youthful idealism, anticipating more than I should. Of course it’s foolish to bet all on such an outcome in a world full of deceit, but we should not be blind to persons of high ideals. America is a young country in many ways, and Barack Obama has the potential to be a superb leader. Nevertheless, since I’m no youth, I’ll know to expect many disappointments and surprising satisfaction.

Lack of (Failed) Policy Experience

Kelly Cowan — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:16:58 EDT

McCain has supposedly been quick to criticize Obama's choice of Biden as a running mate, using against him some of Biden's previous comments about having more foreign policy experience. However, he certainly has more than McCain as well...especially if you count GOOD foreign policy experience. After all, Biden did not cheerlead a war that has been the biggest fiasco since Vietnam. In that case, the only one who has less GOOD experience than McCain is Bush. So, maybe Obama should just admit that he has less experience than McCain--when it comes to major failures, that is. Obama's decision making skills, on the other hand, seem to be pretty good. Biden, for example, is a much better choice than McCain's top policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, who may have recently hatched the brilliant scheme to invade South Ossetia. Let's just say when he went back over for a visit, it didn't go so good. Let's just say 2 words: Awk-ward! Biden, by contrast, negotiated with the Georgians and Russians with the greatest of ease.

I do have to give some props, though, to McCain for trying to respond so quickly. For a man who doesn't yet know how to use email, he has mastered one skill essential to the Republican blogosphere: Rapidly responding without being slowed down by the need to think about what you are saying.

Austrian Economics 101

George Pridonoff — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:34:28 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI0vZ5jBA9o 56 minute video course.

Barack Alabama

http://mises.org/

Ludwig von Mises Institute | 518 West Magnolia Avenue | Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528

Phone: 334.321.2100 · Fax: 334.321.2119

TRAVELFORCHANGE.ORG

SFObama Battleground Travel Program — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:28:05 EDT

CHECK OUT OUR NEW TRAVEL WEBSITE!!!

http://www.travelforchange.or g

TravelforChange.org connects volunteers for Obama with sponsors who can help to send them to the states that will decide this election. On this website trained volunteers post profiles, explaining when, where and why they are traveling for the general election this year. Sponsors can browse those profiles and connect directly with a volunteer who has been trained and verified by the Obama campaign.

We ask our sponsors to buy an airline ticket in a volunteer's name. Frequent flyer miles are a great way to do this! In most frequent flyer programs 25,000 miles can buy a roundtrip ticket anywhere in the United States--see the FAQ for more information.

TravelForChange is the project of three recent graduates of Stanford University, with a lot of support and coordination from volunteers also working for San Francisco for Obama.

I voted in the primary as a Republican.

George Pridonoff — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:36:07 EDT

Ron Paul gives a speech in this video that seems more candid and informative then any other.

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

I have studied this man so its probably true. I had been an Independent. I have always been an

Atheist. I agree with ocean methane release dangers. I find the gold standard interesting.

I like Barack Obama so far. If he is to get my vote then i need some urging. This is to create talking points.

It takes you to respond to make conversation. Please talk back to me. It's OUR country

Have Hope but Expect No Mention

James from Cincinnati, OH — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:50:16 EDT

Atheists, Secularists, Free-thinkers, and all other reason-based peoples can only place their political hopes on Barack Obama. Supporting evangelical Christian Republicans is not an safe option in this day and age in the U.S. Four to eight more years of Bushie "me too"'s will only embolden (yes, one of Bush's speech writer's favorite words) thinking: American=Christian. We need an administration that has a healthy respect for education and free thinking, as well as full buy-in to the separation of church and state principle upon which this country was founded, not mindless flag waving (and looking for flag pins and decals). Obama gives me hope for a reasonable, respectful future. But do not expect him to mention our fervent and intense little minority. We are not at a place in history where atheists and our ilk are safely spoken of in nationwide audiences. Unfortunately, this is still political suicide. While are still denied our place in American citizenry, we can hope for change.

Blackwater in Georgia (non US)

George Pridonoff — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:29:32 EDT

As long as Blackwater mercenaries remain in Georgia there is a chance of a repeat.

For the same reason it started in the first place.

Shorter memories on folks now-a-days.

Can i get a who ahhlll the way back to the states with these "expletive deleted"

characters.

If Warren isn't complicit, who is it that feared McCain would flub Saddleback?

Tom Hayes, working for change — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:40:24 EDT

With Rick Warren’s revelation that McCain wasn’t even in the building as Warren began interviewing Barack Obama those of us who had dared to believe that it might have been a genuine forum are left to try to puzzle out the reality — and decide who we trust. Just who was so unsure that McCain would prevail that his handlers needed to provide even more advantage than just feeding him some obviously scripted “witty remarks” on top of his normal talking points?

Did they doubt McCain’s message would carry the day, or was it his ability to handle a clearly amicable interviewer that concerned them?

Surely this wasn't McCain's OWN insecurity that led to the cheating, was it? How could anyone confident enough to run for the Oval Office be that unsure of himself? And now, in arguably the stupidest campaign fiasco since Nixon directed the plumbers to break in at the Watergate, have we just witnessed McCains's own "Saddlegate"?

OPINION on the Saddleback Forum

darlene matthews — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:26:44 EDT

washingtonpost.com's Politics Blog About This Blog | Meet Chris Cillizza |

Saddleback Forum: First Thoughts The much-anticipated religion forum hosted by mega-church pastor Rick Warren and featuring Barack Obama and John McCain last night in California passed largely without incident -

- as both candidates successfully navigated the occasionally treacherous waters of a detailed discussion about faith and values. The Fix was taking Mrs. Fix out to dinner during the proceedings -- the last night before field hockey season starts in earnest! -- but thanks to the wonders of Tivo watched the event this morning. Below you'll find our thoughts. Watch the forum and have your own opinions? The comments section awaits. • Obama's goal seemed to be to convey steadiness and seriousness, which he did well.

A forum like this is actually far better suited to Obama's strengths than the string of debates earlier this year. In debates the Illinois senator always appeared to be stuffing a 10-minute response into a two-minute answer. Last night, Obama came across as thoughtful and introspective -- his professorial background seemed to work in his favor. And, he clearly was enjoying himself: "I want people to know me well," Obama told Warren at one point. "If we are both known and people know where we stand on issues, I trust in the American people."

• McCain had the crowd on his side from the get-go, receiving applause for nearly every answer he offered. The friendly crowd made him comfortable -- he repeatedly flashed his trademark wit and humor to keep the audience with him. Unlike Obama, however, McCain often fell back on standard stump speech rhetoric (and jokes -- DNA of bears!). The crowd didn't seem phased fazed.

• A contrast that Republicans had to be happy about came when Warren asked each candidate for their most gut-wrenching decision in their lives. Obama chose his decision to oppose the war in Iraq. McCain said it was his choice to remain as a prisoner of war despite an offer from his captures to, in effect, jump the line. McCain's life story is as powerful, if not more powerful, than that of any other politician in public life. While Obama's answer was sound, it dealt with a challenge in the political arena; McCain's decision served as evidence that he has lived his "country first" campaign slogan.

• McCain's "shoot from the hip" style may have hurt him when asked by Warren what "rich" meant. After noting that some of the richest people he knew were some of the most deeply unhappy and that he wanted everyone in America to be rich, McCain ad-libbed that $5 million a year in income would qualify as rich. That came roughly an hour after Obama had said that people making $150,000 a year were middle class and those making $250,000 were wealthy. Sensing a possible mistake, McCain quickly circled back to note "I am sure that comment will be distorted" and went on to note he was going to be "serious" for a moment -- emphasizing he was kidding before.

• On social issues, which are of special import to the evangelical voters both candidates are hoping to court, McCain went for a black and white approach while Obama emphasized shades of gray. On when human life begins, McCain said simply: "At the moment of conception." Obama, on the other hand, offered a far more philosophical answer; "Whether you are looking at it from a theological or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade." McCain's answer drew wild applause; Obama's respectful silence.

• Both Obama and McCain offered convincing -- and strikingly similar -- explanations of why they wanted to be president, a surprisingly difficult question for some politicians to answer. Obama centered his answer on the "basic idea of empathy" -- that any person born in the United States can be anything he or she wants to be. McCain explained his motivation as a desire to "inspire a generation of Americans to serve a cause greater than their self interests" -- a well worn but effective definition of his life in elected politics. Each man highlighted the need to bring the country together and their own unique ability to do just that

News story of young dentist who never made it to Moscow.

George Pridonoff — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:15:32 EDT

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29116/video

warning: very sad

Wins Wins Wins Barack Obama WINS IN A LANDSLIDE

George Pridonoff — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:02:49 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWr5Wl-mev0

It needs to be known that i speculate that war crimes against the Bush/Cheney imperical battlecruiser do indeed include the recent 2000 plus murders in S Ossetia. Do you now see why the failure to remove them from office by now is catastrophic.

Nancy Pelosi has waited too long. She has compromised too much. I demand she is removed from the Speaker position.

I predict that the US Navy will begin the Iranian invasion from the persian gulf anytime now.

Listen to Ron Pauls' most important question. Do you think that the president can initiate further wars without congressional approval?

S. Ossetia. A story from the front line.

George Pridonoff — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:55:53 EDT

TSKHINVAL, SOUTH OSSETIA (Alan Tsorion for RIA Novosti). - It is evening of August 7. The South Ossetian capital is quiet. After so much shelling and endless gunfire it feels like the silence can be smelled and breathed. A deep breath fills the lungs, and straightens your insides crumpled in the fist of war like the cellophane wrapper from a cigarette pack. I breathe in the calm. The silence is only broken by mice stirring somewhere between the ceiling and the garret. It is hard to believe that anyone can go about one's daily chores at such a time. The rodents up there are busily moving things, rolling from place to place as if they know that several hours ago the Georgian president promised not to shell the Ossetian capital any more. If there is to be no shelling you can go back to your daily chores. However, the rodents and I have only five more minutes to attend to our household chores. At 10.05 p.m. the "mice" play comes to an end: Mikheil Saakashvili breaks his word. Rockets and shells rain on the city, shaking the walls and windows. It is as if every blast chips away parts of the sky and hurls them against the window. Along with several other people we rush to the basement of the house in Stalin Street (now probably destroyed) in the center of Tskhinval. We are dressed in what the raid caught us in - slippers, bathrobes and shorts... Many had already gone to bed when the Georgian shells started raining on the city, and all the agreements and promises flew away with the chunks of house foundations and twisted metal that used to be cars. "Ma tars, ma tars..." (Ossetian: "Don't be afraid"), a mother calms her son Batradz. The boy, aged about 8, has buried has head in his mother's lap and, jolting with every explosion, asks her: "Mum, why are they shooting, don't they know that the Olympics start tomorrow? Why doesn't anyone tell them that there should be no fighting during the Olympics?" At around 11 p.m. the lights go out in the basement where we are hiding, like in the whole of Tskhinval. Your senses become sharper when it is pitch-dark. Like a blind man you distinguish the slightest shades of sounds, which immediately translate themselves into pictures before your mind's eye. Up on the surface, the black night sky is illuminated by the white flare of exploding shells, momentarily making it look like a huge photograph negative. Splinters whiz by like bumblebees flying close to the ground. Bullets emit a strange whistle as if somebody has shaped his lips to whistle but instead just breathes air in. The gun of an armoured vehicle goes "ta-ta-ta... ta-ta-ta". "Iratta razma!" ("Come on"), a focused, almost businesslike voice comes from the street. Quick steps of six pairs of military boots on broken glass and splinters of brick and plaster. "Ma tars, Batradz. Ma tars," the mother's words are drowned out by the deafening echo of a shell which blasts a neighbouring block of flats to smithereens. It is as if somebody banged a heavy door close to your ear. Pieces of concrete fall from the basement ceiling... But even the howitzers in nearby Ergneti and Nikozi do not sound as terrifying as the salvos of the Georgian Grad (Hail) artillery rockets fired from much further away, in Gori. As the rockets zero in on the target they emit a sound like a flame on gigantic arrows with burning tips. The Grads are fired at random so that the clouds of "arrows" fall on the roofs of Tskhinval's peaceful houses. As the shelling goes on, people get ready to spend the night in the basement. ...The morning of August 8, 5 a.m. The bombardment of the city from Georgian positions is in its seventh hour. My cell phone shows that the battery is about to die, leaving me with no communications. I ring the editorial office in Moscow to say that communications are about to be cut because I have nowhere to recharge my cell phone. The battery in my phone is dead by 9 a.m. It is already light in Tskhinval. Remembering the great rule that "in war he who runs survives," I leave the basement to move to another place. I run along hugging a wall, my head drawn into my shoulders. Bullets and fragments hit the road raising little fountains of dust. In the city Georgian commandos and Ossetian fighters are exchanging fire. I hear the Ossetian OMON fighters shouting: "Come on, quick! A 'box' [armoured vehicle - A.Ts.] is stuck on Hetagurova Street." Insensible to fatigue, I'm running very fast and turn the corner. "Bang!" - I fall on my stomach after being hit in my ears and eyes. Clouds of dust rise over the ground, approaching my feet. They are caused by a grenade that exploded five meters away. I get up and run, spitting out dust. Moving in my direction on the other side of the street are four Ossetian fighters. One of them reloads his automatic rifle as he runs. The oldest looks no more than 23. A few more steps and I dive into the entrance of a five-storey block of flats. I see silhouettes of men in the doorway. Women and children are taking shelter in the basement beneath the staircase. I hear muted weeping from below. "How long will the bombing last? Let us raise our hands and surrender before they have killed us all. It looks like Russia has forgotten us," a tired woman's voice is heard from the basement. Surrounded by old people, women and children you cannot help feeling guilty. A young man's place now is in the war, defending his people; he has no place among the elderly and the children. There are about twenty people in the basement and hardly anyone dares to go up. Only an old man, Inal, a former peacekeeper who saw action in 1992, calmly strolls the street opposite the entrance while the shelling is still on. "F--- the war, exercise is the main thing," the veteran mumbles as two Ossetian policemen carry a fighter with arm and leg wounds towards the entrance. ...The wounded man has glazed eyes over which his long lashes flutter like the wings of a butterfly. He is dazed by pain. His fatigues are pierced in two places, and red arterial blood is streaming down his left hip. The fighter is carried into the entrance. A stocky policeman slings the rifle from his shoulder with a practiced movement and unwinds a bandage wound around the stock to twist a touniquet. Someone has brought ammonium chloride. "Shai ho, kuyzh kuylyhai na maly" ("OK, a dog doesn't die from lameness"), the policeman tells the fighter, who clenches his teeth in pain. That is the Ossetian equivalent of the Russian proverb "it will heal by the time you have your wedding." The stocky South Ossetian policeman rubs the wounded man's chest and face after dipping his huge work-beaten hands into a bucket of cold water. "OK, we have to go," the policeman says grabbing the wounded man under his armpit. "Where are you from?" the old man Inal asks me. "I am a journalist from Moscow," I reply. "Let's go and have a bite," the former peacekeeper says in a voice hoarse from smoking. "War or no war, you have to eat." "The Russians will come today, they'll help us," says Inal setting fire to a piece of dry spirit which he puts on a gas stove: "I wish they would strike Gori and Tbilisi - I want nothing more." "Georgian tanks are already in town, it'll be hard without the Russians," the former peacekeeper says, sipping the freshly made coffee. The best I can do is to keep silent. However, our silence is broken by two Georgian SU-25 planes. One of them opens fire on the house where we are - just for kicks. Inal and I hasten to the basement. Once again damp darkness. There is a small hole where the pipes run through the wall. It faces south to where the Georgian commandos are advancing. Putting your head in the hole is dangerous: bullets come through the hole and hit the concrete basement ceiling with a hollow sound. I catch myself thinking that my whole short life, the efforts of my grandparents who brought me up, my universities and the clever books I have read - all this was but preparation for this moment when shells explode over your head, you instinctively draw your head into your shoulders and sweat streaks down your spine. It looks as if death is nearby and it smells of dampness and the dryness of your lips. Now when the planes make another dive to fire on you, and you know that they will fire on you as the roar of the engines approaches, you feel that it may be your last day. This is not fear, but rather grief over what you might have said and done. Suddenly the planes stop bombing and fly south towards Georgia. What's happening? Within seconds a deafening chorus of a thousand voices shouting "Hurray!" comes from the street. A crowd is welcoming a column of Russian armored vehicles that have entered Tskhinval. "A-a-a! You have come, boys," Inal shouts. "Now we will show them!" I run into the street, the roar of Russian armour is heard nearby. The Russian soldiers are driving the Georgian troops out of Tskhinval. A man, his eyes bulging with horror, runs up to me. "Help me. What shall I do? I am Georgian, I worked here in Tskhinval. I am a worker, where shall I go?" he shouts in broken Russian. "Run," I tell him, and again wonder at the wickedness of war in which innocent civilians are the first to suffer. The clock shows 3 p.m. At 7 p.m., when the shooting and shell blasts subside and the bursts of machinegun fire are petering out, I leave Tskhinval, engulfed in flames and sorrow. The Russian troops have driven the Georgians out of the city, but this is not yet the end of the war. There are still civilians in the city. Tskhinval is still in the grip of the dirty hands of war. A war unleashed without warning under the cover of night. A war whose victims were and will always be civilians. A war that seizes your soul and rubs it between its bloody palms like the cellophane wrapper of a cigarette pack.

Gori, birthplace of Stalin. appears quite calm and indeed undamaged despite wailing BBC/CNN nonsence

George Pridonoff — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:49:21 EDT

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29033/video

nope no damage, hmmm why all the complete media bull.

is it that the media is completely inane. yes..yes it is. they have nothing that people need.

A quick analogy in play script

George Pridonoff — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:09:54 EDT

Explosions rock a small town at night. Its in S. Ossetia, the town is destroyed.

Mikheil Saakashvili " This superpower is nothing of the kind, iv'e discovered its weakness...

Condoleezza Rice "yes"

Mikheil Saakashvili. " it cares, it actually cares for these poor people"

Condoleezza Rice with curiousity "like pets?"

Mikheil Saakashvili. "i suppose so."

Condoleezza Rice a great irritation "sentimental idiot"

Mikheil Saakashvili. "i'll draw its fire with some of my own"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81oq-5wtPEA

now watch it unfold again before your very eyes...

The Battle is in Loudoun County

Tim Buchholz — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:33:26 EDT

This year more than ever, the Loudoun County Democratic Committee needs your financial support.

Since winning Democratic victories in 2005 and 2006, we have become one of the leading battleground counties in one most watched battleground states in the country. The eyes of the country and the world are upon us. See that articles about the race in Loudoun below:

Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/id/140471

The Economist http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881516

You can help us win the ground battle in Loudoun by contributing and helping us raise funds.

We need money today to purchase yard signs, bumper stickers and printing for sample ballets on Election Day.

Here is what you can do to help.

1. Go to our new federal fundraising site at http://www.actblue.com/page/loudoundemocrats

2. Contribute $50 (that will pay for a dozen yard signs and 100 bumper stickers) or more if you can.

2. Spread the word… People can help us from anywhere in the US, just let them know about this site.

Thank you for your generous contribution.

Sincerely,

Tim Buchholz

Chairman,

Loudoun County Democratic Committee

PS: We’ve also opened up a site where you can directly help the LCDC, your 100% volunteer organization, remain financially strong. By contributing, we will continue the movement this campaign has started. We’ll be able continue our ongoing operations and build on our winning ways. Please contribute at: http://www.actblue.com/page/loudoundemscommittee

Petition to include nonreligious in Democratic convention opening ceremony

NAProject — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:21:18 EDT

The first event of the Democratic convention is an Interfaith gaithering whose people of faith only agenda makes no acknowledgement that people who reject religious faith also have a role in and participate in the Democratic party. This petition requests that the DNC adopt a more inclusive approach at this "unity" event: http://www.petitiononline.com/FIA/

This petition will be emailed around August 17 to the DNC Faith in Action group, to Brian Bond: Head of Constituencies, Obama for America, to Leah Daughtry: DNC CEO and DNC Faith In Action and to Tom McMahon: DNC Executive Director.

I am asking for volunteers.

George Pridonoff — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:22:53 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB1NiNKwueE

I want to create a city militia force. Too many militias exist in the Hinterland or boonies. I believe it is time for a force that operates to bring Equalization to average people. This may include international situations. We may need "for example" to prevent a nuclear war. NUCLEAR WAR

ok made my point. Now watch this video. It shows the kind operator that knows how to stay alive.

Rid us of Homeland security and the CIA too. Please

George Pridonoff — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:40:08 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/user/DaBizWorks

more perspective on immigration in the usa.

darlene matthews — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:50:41 EDT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

and

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books_9780316831116.htm

Harvard Law

Pre Duke Law Student — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:18:03 EDT

I just got back from Boston and I went to visit Harvard. Haravrd is a very nice school. The urban part is Okay but the yard is incredible! It is such a small, but nice campus.

Anyway I know that Barak went to Harvard law school adn my grandfather went to Harvard undergrad, class of '54. I just was wondering why the voters don't take into perspective that Barak went to Columbia undergrad and Harvard law and John McCain went to the Naval academy and finished 894'th out of 899 students.

The past must have some influence on McCains supporters right? Well, I guess it's all of the die hard veterans that are his main supporters.

Message from Cuba to Barack Obama

Omar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:35:39 EDT

This is a message that talks about the Cuban reality and the unfair economic war that have kept the U.S. governments against my people

A New McCain

Ross — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:05:40 EDT

Am I the only one who is laughing at John McCain right now? Not laughing in the “this is funny” sense but more in the “my daughter decided to become a stripper in Vegas to support her new drug lord husband” way (i.e. laugh or I’ll cry).

I was of the belief a few months ago that we were going to be ok either way. I clearly thought Obama was the best choice by a wide margin but I certainly would have been happy with Hillary (until the end when she got desperate) and I thought while McCain was the status quo he at least was a stand up guy who while I disagreed with him philosophically I agreed with him morally. That has changed.

Now that McCain is the nominee he has become a full fledged Republican. I’ll tell you what that means. That means when the chips are down, you get dirty. That means when you have nothing nice to say about yourself you at least make sure you get in a shot at the other guy. That means that you try to make the election about tricks and games instead of issues and policies. That means you forget you were a guy who was in the middle and was going to have trouble with your base and start towing the party line and doing whatever it takes to win. It’s disgusting, it’s appalling and unfortunately it always seems to work for them. Hopefully together we can make this year different.

-Ross-