Social Workers Organizing for America

Avon Township (Grayslake area) Democrats

MarcFeld — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:21:43 EDT

Hello everyone,

I would like to invite you to attend the Avon Township Democrats Open Meeting on October 17, 2009 at 10am at the Round Lake Beach Village Hall. Candidates, public officials, and other progressives will be meeting to discuss what issues are being considered at the county, state, and/or federal level as well as what SHOULD Be worked on.

We are a grass-roots, progressive organization that is small but growing and committed to giving back to our community. We meet monthly at the Round Lake Beach Village Hall and are ALWAYS looking for new members.

For more information, please contact me:

Marc Feldstein - Avon Township Democrats Chair Marc.Feldstein@tds.net

Health Care Reform Needs to Deny Insurance Claims Deniers!

Pat Hanrahan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:36:53 EDT

How can we make sure that health care reform includes ending insurance companies' abuse of denying claims (millions of claim denials a year)?

My son was just refused reimbursement for $1,300 for physical therapy for a serious knee injury. His physical therapy was recommended by his doctor to prevent the need for surgery. He was told he could be covered for PT only after he had surgery. How stupid and short-sighted is that! But I bet that, if he has to have surgery , insurance will find another reason to deny the claim. Just think about it. Our insurance premiums pay for insurance staff to find excuses to deny our benefits!
Multiply this problem by millions a year.

Access to affordable health insurance is a key starting point, but reform needs to include correction of these bogus claim denials and continued oversight. Universal and continuous access to a public option would also help a lot to keep private insurance honest and give people like my son a chance to vote with his feet and walk out on ripoff private insurers.

Organizing for Health Care Reform

Pat Hanrahan — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:44:10 EDT

I just finished my first post-election conference call with Organizing For America (OFA). During the election I’ve been on several conference calls for volunteers, but this is the first time I’ve heard “This is the operator from Air Force One, please hold for the President.” After graciously thanking us for our efforts, President Obama talked to us about the importance of working together for health care reform now, and answered questions from volunteers. Clearly the great organization built during the campaign is fired up, and ready to go to work for change. OFA staff – Jeremy Bird, Mitch Stewart, Natalie Foster and David Plouffe - did their usual excellent job of running the call and letting us know about events – June 6th house parties for health care reform – and online organizing tools – event tool, call tool. Now it’s up to us.

To host or attend a health care organizing kickoff, link to:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hckickoff

Progressive Pragmatism

Michael A. Dover — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 13:25:08 EST

The issue of pragmatism may become a cottage industry, much as the concept of
globalization was. It is true that it can distract away from clarifying the underlying
political and economic issues. But in this case, I think it is healthy to discuss it. It
is an issue on which I've posted twice to this list. In the Extended Post, there is a longer message.
Michael Dover, mdover@umich.edu I refer in this posting to Christopher Haye's article about pragmatism in the December 29, 2008 The Nation. I refer also to a PDF file which may not be uploaded to this seite but is available upon request.

What Next for Progressives of Obama?

Michael A. Dover — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:30:27 EST

By Michael A. Dover
mdover@umich.edu

This is in response to the proposal by Carl Davidson and Bill Fletcher at:
http://progressivesforobama.net/discussion-on-our-future/ and on the Progressives for
Obama yahoogroups list serve.

Interesting proposal, Carl and Bill. One operative statements seem to be: "Progressives
for Obama is in a position to play a catalytic role in moving forward in a major way." I
did read the final report written by Carl, emphasizing how many hits on the website,
etc., but it seemed to me a bit overestimated. The number of endorsers wasn't huge, and
the final/current number of participants on this group isn't vast either. Yes, when the
media was looking for things to say about the left's approach to the campaign, we got a
little coverage.

And it was nice to think someone somewhere in the campaign was listening. I for one
succumbed to that when David Plouffe came out with a call for folks to go "all in"
between then and election day, a couple of months after my posting to P4O of that title.
But I dismissed the temptation to give more credence to my influence than called for,
something we might try to avoid as we discuss what's next.

Another operative statement is: "Left-progressive defines the political orientation,
essentially broad agreement with the principles of the initial call to 'Progressives for
Obama", in combination with, "First, already mentioned, is a common political orientation
mentioned above."

I for one saw little evidence on this list of anything resembling such a common outlook,
either towards the campaign or in terms of any conceptualization of what P4O was all
about. In general, since the 1991 split in the left, eclecticism has been the order of
the day. This was a positive thing at the time, but there are costs to eclecticism,
including the inability to garner unified action but most importantly the lack of
evolution of coherent theory and strategy. See my theory of the fates of social movement
organizations below.

All along, in P4O, one issue has been, to what extent "left-progressives" should work in
one of the following ways:

1. Within the Obama campaign as individuals,

2. Within the campaign as Progressives for Obama in the group of that name within the
Obama website (which ended up poorly utilized)

3. Independently as part of various established groups such as Move-On or PDA or various
union or professional association PACs or in one of the non-partisan voter groups,

4. Independently within Progressives for Obama (but again, despite the report of our vast
influence, was there a single organized Progressives for Obama actual group on the ground
doing anything? I'm forgetting from Carl's report.)

5. Independently as part of an ad hoc groups established to fill gaps in the
effectiveness of the official campaign (as we did in Michigan and Ohio, mainly in Ohio,
with www.concerneddemocrats.org).

6. Within other local campaigns that were truly supporting/coordinating with the top of
the ticket OR within state/county/local Democratic parties, which may have printed and
distributed as many yard signs as did the campaign (I'd like to see the data on that.)

As we answer the question, What Next for Progressives for Obama, it would be valuable to
try to ascertain to what extent each of us in Progressives for Obama as a whole did one
or more of these 6. And then and only then to answer the question of what next based on
that analysis. Why not throw up a quick survey of members of Progressives for Obama to
see what people did then and what people think now?

I'll start with myself, commenting on each of the above:

(1) Within the campaign: I did as much as I could as an individual donor and volunteer
within the campaign, given I live in and work in two states and do a lot of commuting.
Also, donated 500 buttons and bumper stickers to the Cleveland State students for Obama
group and another 500 to the East Cleveland campaign operation, since they had few/none
of their own!

(2) Within the campaign in the website's P4O group: Made a big deal out of when I joined
P4O of the need to belong to both the within campaign and independent grouping, so I
cross posted my postings including my Open Letter to Democratic Candidates which I also
send out on various list serves calling for more support for the top of the ticket by
Democratic candidates. I also posted my work on the nature of progressive pragmatism
(see the Nation's Christopher Haye's analysis at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081229/hayes, and see the widespread consternation and
confusion on left list services since the election, as a liberal pragmatist
President-elect with progressive leanings takes office). See by campaign blog at
http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/private. Carl was nice enough to become my
friend, thanks Carl! But despite posting a picture of myself and Giselle, I was flop in
the social networking category. Also, I found that no matter how hard I tried, my nearly
$1500 in donations in like 20 different efforts wouldn't seem to aggregate to the P4O
group or even count for myself, which I attribute to confusion over the MI and OH
varieties of me. But P4O did as a group raise $24 and had 110 members.

(3) Within established independent groups: I avoided Move-on as I felt that it could hurt
Obama with it's self-serving promotion of its own name on its bumper stickers and signs;
it might play in Ann Arbor but not in Adrian, and I actually joined PDA formally but
didn't get active; I was also supported DSA endorsed House candidates in Michigan,

(4) Within our P4O: I was active with the Progressives for Obama, becoming a monthly
sustainer to support Carl's work and endorsing the call and I was active on the list
serve, which I noticed attracted quite a few folks who seemed more critical that
supportive of Obama, I guess reflecting the tradition of "critical support" from the left
for Democratic candidates,

(5) Within ad hoc groups: Founded Concerned Democrats of MI and OH, which advocated with
local and statewide candidates and party leaders to do more to ensure that grassroots
Democratic candidates supported the top of the ticket. We did individualized emails to
all Ohio state House candidates, follow-up calls focused on rural and suburban candidates
who weren't incumbents, and did a mailing of a couple of thousand buttons and bumper
stickers directly to the candidates, which was well-received. Tactic: asking the
candidates to wear the Obama buttons 24/7 from then until election day "except when you
are in the shower",

(6) Within local campaigns or DP: Door to door work supporting a DSA endorsed House
candidate in Michigan; supported my own MI House candidate, distributing Obama buttons
along the way, joined the Ohio DP and renewed my dues to the MI party (the least I could
do in that they listened to my/our concerns about lack of support from some candidates
for the top of the ticket.

In the process I neglected much else in my life in order to make good on my pledge to go
"all in between now and election day."

What next? Why not consider the fate of the same 6 approaches?

(1) Within the campaign, it seems to me that if the campaign is truly interested in
keeping volunteers together and having an ongoing operation, there is some value in
responding positively when there are calls to do house meetings, attending meetings,
etc.. Haven't done it yet, didn't on 12/13-14 but probably will. I remember well from
work to re-elect Dutch Morial in New Orleans in the early 1980s how fiercely the power
structure could re-unite to prevent the re-election of the first African-American to hold
real power in national office. I've spoken to some former and current staffers and
volunteers and they are very positive about the need to hold things together. It's a bit
confusing with the proliferation of websites but worth the effort. I still feel as a
matter of principle if we are really P4O we should respond to Obama's early call not to
operate unnecessarily through independent groups. As a matter of fact, if our P4O were
really diverting serious energy outside the campaign, I wouldn't have supported it, but
it was clearly mainly a discussion group that (as one Obama staffer a-n-d one P4O leader
consulted for advice said about our Concerned Democrats operation, it "couldn't do any
harm."

(2) Within the campaign's P4O list: I'm told these lists will remain active; there is
still lots of discussion on Social Workers for Obama, started by my NOLA friend Russ
Henderson, but I don't see much activity on the campaign's P4O list, nor was there much
interplay between the official and unofficial P4O groups, and I think that's a shame. I
doubt anyone's interested in submerging ourselves, but personally if we are really for
Obama and the campaign wants ongoing groupings, I don't see why we shouldn't take
seriously the possibility of moving into and operating out of that list. Less grandiose
perhaps, but one way to stay active and less likely to attract the left fringe who wants
to spent its time attacking Obama.

(3) Within established groups: I do think PDA is an option; I get it's OH postings and I
like the idea that it is a real group related to a real party. In OH, the state party
Chair seems very open to independent groupings. Doing this even en masse wouldn't be the
worst thing and reminds me of a couple of key historical events on the left. In the
1950s thousands of leftists who had decided that support for groups like the Progressive
Party hadn't proved effective joined none other than the Cold War liberal influences
Americans for Democratic Action and by the 1960s and 1970s ADA has very real influence on
the Democratic Party and the nation. I think that such a strategy might be in order now,
and PDA would be an effective vehicle; if there are things we don't like about it, why
not change it? Clearly, some counterweight to the DLC is needed. It goes within saying
that we should still be active in various other large issue oriented groups and groups
within professions and unions.

(4) Within our P4O group: That, of course, is the question. I do see the value of
keeping some kind of network together. I'm not about to cut off my monthly sustainer
just yet, and truly appreciate the role Carl and others have played in this. It's been
wonderful how many of us who haven't seen or communicated with each other in years have
been brought together in part by P4O. I'm the author of a distributed but like many
things unpublished piece on the fate of social movement organizations. I contend that we
have what I call "paired fates." We tend to choose two of the following fates and
ambivalently swing between some two of them. The fates are:

Dispersion - P4O dissolves in one way or another, either from organizational death or
from merger. It's members most likely lose any sense of cohesion or identity based on
the previous P4O affiliation.

Density - P4O stagnates, throwing off folks at its periphery and failing to attract other
members, but retaining enough members committed to survive one way or another. It
focuses on ensuring a common political outlook to the exclusion of eclecticism. The
membership would be dense in the sense that there are rather long-standing and close ties
among the remaining members. But the organization would not play a major role in any
sense due to its small size and increasing isolation.

Drift - This metaphor is perhaps one way of describing a process consistent with the
semi-permanent network option. To understand and consider this option, it's important not
to see the word drift in a pejorative light. Historically, folks on the left have often
committed the voluntarist error: a view in the world as something our organization could
change, and to the extent we still hold to such a view, we may see the very word drift as
distasteful. Using the "drift" metaphor, the organization would still be P4O in a formal
sense, with a website, a discussion list, and perhaps even formal dues, which actually I
would favor where it to continue, and with one list restricted to formal members.
Members of P4O would also be active in other groups throughout the spectrum of the above
table, but our main contribution would be not as an organization but as individual
activists in these other organizations and causes and to each other as members of this
network, through interpersonal relationships, education, and limited recruitment and
socialization into our tradition. We would n-o-t see ourselves as an coordinating group
and certainly not as any vanguard. We would all commit to reading every word of each
other's long postings! (:}

Dynamism - This is a direction in which P4O grows and flourishes and truly becomes
something akin to the maximum version of what Carl and Bill proposed. But essentially it
would mean that we find a way to grow and be more formal and play a serious role.
Ambitious.

Of the four options, I tend to ambivalently swing between drift and dynamism, and to
dislike dispersion and density. But when asked to choose, I tend to favor drift, as I
think that it is the fate which leads to organizational survival. If we could live to
fight again, even if just in 2012, I would be happy to continue to see that happen.

One idea: I presented a workshop on grassroots organizing in 1992 in Berkeley, at which I
presented an idea I've since tried to implement but haven't had a chance to do on
anything other than an experimental small scale. It's called Pairing and Intentional
Leadership Development. The idea is that you build or rebuild the organization, formally,
with a unit of organization that is not the individual, but the diverse pair. 2, 4, 6,
8, you build the organization based upon pairing. It helps if the founding pair is
diverse. In this instance, Carl and Bill are a diverse pair; what if we re-built P4O
from the ground up as a diverse membership organization based upon the pairing principle.
I've written a draft of a paper on this which I could share with anyone interested and
have done some preliminary database work within Filemaker Pro which I think shows how it
is possible to build an organization that could have the pair as the membership unit and
still communicate effectively with each pair. There are lots of issues about this issue
of pairing and in my own organizing I've done some consultation and have some anecdotal
organizing examples I could share. The opportunity to implement the pairing principle in
re-building P4O would motivate me to be involved, for sure.

(5) Within ad hoc groups: A couple of us who have been involved in Concerned Democrats
have talked about whether we should fold it up. We probably will largely due to some
personal/political points I make below. But thinking back to another historical example,
I recall the Reform Democratic clubs of NYC in the 1970s. They played a very positive
role in supporting the election of progressive candidates like Bella Abzug, early gay
candidates, and in supporting important causes. President-elect Obama has spoken
recently of the distinction between people who go into politics for service and the
others. I think it would be valuable to form Concerned Democrats or Reformed Democrats
clubs at the local or state level that would work within the Democratic Party. One good
example has been Progressive Democrats of Washtenaw County, one of whose founders, Tim
Colenback (who is a fellow member of Social Welfare Action Alliance) was later elected
Chair of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party and recently stepped down from that post. I
seriously think that if there were clubs that had serious codes of ethics and worked for
ethics reforms including truly serious ethics requirements for candidates endorsed by the
DP, more serious than any law that is in effect or might be put into effect, that it
would do wonders to advance progressive political action. Let's face it, the corrupt
regulars and opportunists and what's in it for me folks are still major forces in
Democratic Party politics, and it doesn't have to be that way. If in addition to groups
like PDA, there were such semi-independent clubs of dues-paid DP members in major cities
and states, they could have a real impact, as did the Reform clubs of the 1970s.

(6) I plan to keep up my dues in the DP's of MI and OH, continue to selectively support
elected officials in my districts and elsewhere, and to support DSA endorsed candidates
and belong to DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). My analysis of what I saw happen
in MI and OH is that as effective as the Obama campaign was, the DP stepped up to the
plate, buying huge quantities of bumper stickers, buttons and yard signs (especially yard
signs) from www.demstore.com and other outlets. In some areas of OH, rural DPs banded
together to buy them since they couldn't get them from the campaign. In some large
counties in OH, county parties saved the day with these purchases. This is an untold
story of the campaign if you ask me; the role of the Democratic Party leadership in
stepping up to the plate nationally and locally; Dean himself hasn't gotten enough
credit. The leaderships both nationally and in the states were well aware and when
pressed admitted to problems with candidates not supporting the top of the ticket and did
much to try to counter that but put their $$ to work making sure that lack of O/B
materials wasn't the excuse that could be used to distance oneself from the top of the
ticket. This was particularly apparent in the last 2 months of the campaign.

This said, in addition to talking about what's next, I think it would be helpful to talk
about next time (2012).

Next time, we may not be able to count on the Obama re-election effort to be as
grassrootsy and effective as it was this time, and we should make efforts to ensure that
there are contracts and plans in place to make absolutely sure that if David Plouffe or
whoever is still of the view that visuals don't count there are plans in place to make
sure we mass produce magnetic car signs, buttons, 8"by13" window signs of the size that
would fit within the typical vertical rectangular window pane area and which I think are
easier to distribute and harder to steal than typical yard signs), etc.. We shouldn't be
dependent upon the Obama campaign for these materials but they should be authorized
materials; the Obama campaign was notoriously late in delivery, and I wasted several
hundred $$ on materials that arrived literally days before the election that were ordered
6 weeks earlier. The campaign did deliver 1000 buttons on time at $.35 apiece as
advertised; www.demstore.com was quicker but late on one order for bumper stickers. In
general this problem of shortages of materials has to be planned for next time.

Nuff said.

All of this is complicated by the fact that I claim to have retired from organizing after
40 years to focus on my writing and teaching, to which some reply, "fat chance, it's in
your blood.") I guess it depends on the meaning of the word organizing. If it means
trying to get other people to do what you think should be done by making phone calls,
organizing meetings, sending out mailings, participating in committees, initiating
grassroots outreach, etc., I'm still on the wagon since 11/4. It's hard, but I'm trying.
Would this posting be a relapse?

I did say I still want to write. And if someone else organizes something I might show up
and do something. Volunteering and even joining are things I still want to do. But no
hard stuff. Although I had been radicalized and become active as early as the Fall 1966
editorials I wrote as a freshman Michigan Daily writer against the Vietnam war, it wasn't
until the assasinations of early 1968 that I fully dropped out and entered into the cause
with all my efforts. And although there are some on this list who top 50 or more years
of activism, I think that 40 and out wouldn't be the worst thing.

I've recently stepped back from all but being co-treasurer of the Social Welfare Action
Alliance, the radicals in the professions group for social workers and other human
service workers which I helped found in 1985. I suppose I could always come out of
retirement later. I certainly will plan on playing a role in 2012, and would love it if
we can find a way for a sane and committed P40 group to be held together in the meantime.
Knowing this was possible would do wonders to permit me to enjoy my retirement....

Michael A. Dover, MSW, Ph.D.
Ann Arbor and Cleveland
(734)645-6261
mdover@umich.edu

presidential inauguration 2009 volunteer

Bebe — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:59:50 EST

How do we sign up to volunteer for the 2009 inauguration?

We're on the way to turning Manatee County Blue!!!

Millie Bradenton FL — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:21:31 EDT

I don't know how many of you have seen the article about the turn out in Early Voting this week, but it goes to show that all of our efforts registering, calling and canvassing to GOTV is working!!!

Is Florida's Gulf Coast going Democratic?Nicholas AzzaraThe Bradenton Herald

BRADENTON, Fla. _ The times, they are a changin’.

So say local Democrats who point to a favorable surge in early voter turnout as proof that the political landscape here could be starting to shift. Through the first five days of early voting in Manatee, 6,979 voters cast a ballot: 46 percent were registered Democrats, 28 percent were Republican.

Election experts predict that a third of the electorate will already have voted by Nov. 4, up from 15 percent in 2000 and 20 percent in 2004, according to the Associated Press. In Florida, 40 percent of the electorate is expected to vote early.

Those are numbers that bode well for a Democratic Party that has worked hard to get out the early vote. Party leaders urged voters, particularly blacks, to cast ballots early in case there are any problems. Already, 1,100 black voters have cast a ballot in Manatee, another good sign for Democrats.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has made early voting a keystone of his campaign and urged voters to do just that during a campaign stop in Tampa on Monday.

Early turnout has also given local Democratic leaders hope that Obama could pull off a stunning upset and carry Manatee County, despite an overwhelming registration disadvantage.

"It’s as good a chance as anyone has had in years," said Manatee Democratic Chair C.J. Czaia. "We’ve been trying to build the party to create a viable second party in our community, and for the first time we feel like we’re achieving that."

The complete story at bradenton.com

Reverse Discrimination is Discrimination

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:37:48 EDT

The discrimination of Rush Limbam and the rest of the McCain/Palin Campaign entourage reached a new low today.

The hate they are spewing now is anti-American. They don’t understand that reverse discrimination is discrimination.

Their diatribe puts the United States back 50 to 100 years in civil rights, affirmative action and opens the door to increased hate crimes. When we degrade another, this approves and condones any disgraceful language and violence that lurks behind closed doors.

Personally, this brings me back to 1964 when my High School counselor told me that while he didn’t have a scholarship or grant for my college, it was ok because your people only get married and have babies. Today I would have ACLU on the phone after I called a personal lawyer. In those days, I was trained to be polite to my elders, so I said nothing. I most likely even thanked him before leaving his office. Odd that he bothered with my untold hours spent volunteering in his office over three years instead of taking a study hall.

I always dressed neatly. My clothes were always clean, color coordinated and pressed. It was important to be presentable while working in his office.

Inside I wasn’t even upset when the counselor killed my dreams for college. This is what happens when a person is told for years that ‘my people’ of Hispanic descent are ‘lazy, dirty and stupid.’ Years later, when I moved with my husband to his first Air Force assignment, my mom advised me to be sure and keep our home neat and presentable at all times. She reasoned that an untidy home would reflect those old attributes given when one is not white. I know she did me a favor as I would never want to hurt my Polish husband’s career.

Today’s discriminatory messages from the Republican corner tell us that discrimination is just under the skin of some Americans. They may have done us a favor to bring this to our attention. Our journey is a work in progress.

Thank goodness that we have amazing, wonderful Americans like Senator Obama’s grandparents who loved him and raised him. The photo that is being shown today when the Senator was a teenager reflects a great love. The way his grandfather easily has his arm around his grandson is love in action as well as the smile on all their faces.

It is my sincere desire that Americans in 2008 show their humanity and elect a president based on the desire to have the most qualified person in the White House. Oophs, there’s that color again. The best message is that we keep making calls for the Obama/Biden campaign and volunteering to ensure that they are elected November 4th. Hope springs eternal.

30 year wait to vote

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:56:00 EDT

During Hawaii’s September Primary, I met the most outstanding woman while I was working at a polling site. I thanked her for taking time to vote. She responded by telling an amazing story. She said that she waited 30 years to do this. This was her first time voting. Her husband told her that even after she became an American she shouldn’t vote. Now, she decided it’s important for her to vote. She was all smiles!! What a story!

How many more women don’t vote because their husbands tell them not to or it’s not important for them to vote? It hasn’t been 100 years since women were given the right to vote, finally. While we’ve come a long way, the journey isn’t over. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony wouldn’t stop and neither should we.

This is just one more example of why we need Obama in the White House. We need someone who understands the US Constitution and the rights of women, people of color, etc., etc.

Hawaii Governor ends Child Health Care Program

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:36:47 EDT

Governor Linda Lingle says she has to end Hawaii’s universal child health care. (AP 10/18/08)

This latest news confirms that Lingle follows in President Bush’s footsteps. He’s already cut funds for child health care even though at the beginning of 2000, Bush came into office with a budget surplus. Two years ago, Lingle said Hawaii had a $700 Million Surplus.

Now, Hawaii's DOE budget was cut three times this year. This month, Lingle cut the entire state budget. She says there’s a state deficit in line with the $700 Million Surplus. Lingle did find funds for a $50 million pier that never had an EIS. What does this say about her priorities??

First, DOE was cut $69 million this October. Now, she has cut the children’s health care program.

We need a bumper sticker that says someday we’ll have a bake sale for bombs instead of books. Guess the time has come. In the meantime, we need bake sales for science books as well as child health care as long as a Republican is in office.

Our state and nation can’t afford anymore Republican budget abuse. Barack Obama's Health Care Policy would never leave the children without health care.

Barack the Vote - Hawaii

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:23:16 EDT

The Alumni of Punahou in Honolulu has done a super job of keeping us in Obama memorabilia. I have this wonderful black shirt with the front “Barack the Vote - Hawaii.” On the back, there’s a marvelous likeness of Obama. This way we get the public coming and going. I wear it with pride even though I don't like t-shirts. This shirt is special!

Tuesday was a bumper day for Obama t-shirt comments. As I was leaving Nordstrom’s, a man ran after me, asking where he could get a shirt like this. Of course, I gave him directions to headquarters.

This next experience will never fade away. A woman stopped me in the Navy Commissary. She commented on how much she liked my shirt and then asked where she could buy one for herself.

Just before this, I felt uncomfortable as I thought people were looking at me. While I like to stand out in a crowd, the thought that some military personnel might take exception to this amazing shirt was giving me an uncomfortable feeling. Thank goodness that this woman loved my shirt.

Right there in the military commissary we had a fantastic Obama rally! The woman told me a story that I will never forget. She said her husband took off her Obama button and threw it in a lake because he doesn’t like Obama. I told her that she deserves to buy herself a shirt. We laughed and then, we parted friends. I felt like crying as I walked away to think that a woman is treated so shabbily in her own family. We have so much work to do.

This story just reminds me why we are working so hard for Obama. Freedom of speech has taken far too many hits in the last eight years. We need to get back to the basics of being Americans. No more fear, no more arrogance and no more intimidation. Go, Obama/Biden, Go!!!

Great Spanish GOTV video

Millie Bradenton FL — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:32:52 EDT

I was sent today a great GOTV music video.

Enjoy!

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=-ycu0sy5RW8

Are we allowed to post pictures?

Bebe — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:09:42 EDT

How do we post pictures?

My Picture on my Profile

Bebe — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:57:07 EDT

Hey Obamians,

I took my personal picture off my profile and replaced it with an image created by my daughter Kourtnei, who will be voting for the first time. The image she's holding is a picture I took at the Democratic convention. The image in her sunglasses was taken at a Town Hall meeting in Plainfield, Indiana. I hope her art speaks to your heart as it did to mind. Enjoy!

Obama/Biden supports Veterans' Health Care

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:29:33 EDT

When my husband accepted his commission to the USAF in 1965, the contract included health care for life when he retired. There was no reason to expect this benefit would be tampered with because his father was a veteran of WWII and had his health care intact in 1965.

Somehow over the years, the health care for veterans has slowly diminished and now it is not the benefit it was in 1995.

As a social worker, I have had to explain to our veterans at a military medical center that they have to pay a portion of their health care. Some, especially those from WWII, Korean Conflict and Vietnam are in a fixed income and can’t afford any more financial stressors.

Recently Sen. McCain has suggested that Veterans’ Health Care might be one cost that needs to be cut back in this economic crisis. This is a betrayal beyond reasoning as we are continuing to send troops into harms’ way and still have the veterans from the previous years to care for.

There’s no alternative with McCain, a veteran from WWII who might understand the plight of his comrades but seems to have forgotten what it means to be a veteran now that he has the plum health care from Congress. The only option is to vote for the Obama/Biden ticket.

Voter Registration

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:21:01 EDT

Down to the wire at Leeward Community College, District 40 for Obama joined Ewa Beach for Obama, Hawaii for Obama!, Obama Ohana, and Pearl City for Obama to register voters and explain Absentee Ballots. I was only able to join them on four out of the five days.

Registering students is addicting. They are enthusiastic about voting, especially those voting for the first time. Most of the time, when I offered the Absentee Ballot, they were more interested in being part of the ritual of voting in person.

My husband Mike, also a certified Registrar, was able to help out by taking the ballots from me and deliver them to Honolulu Hale the day after collecting the registration.

On Monday Pete R. from Aiea drove them down to the Hale. On Friday, I personally hand delivered 61 registrations prior to the closing of the Office of Elections. For the week, LCC turned in a total of 176 voter registrations.

The LCC students and staff are wonderful! Remember that the registrations postmarked on 10-5-08 will be accepted. These are the words from the Office of Elections when I checked in.There seems to be some misunderstanding on mail ins.

On 10/3/08, I was asked to deliver registrations to the nail shop I frequent. I took absentee ballots along as well and promised to pick them up this pm.

Doug and Nettie of District 40 were registering voters at the Kapolei Open Market this am. Then they went on to another destination to finish off the day. I can imagine that you all have similar stories to share.

Go Obama.

Open Letter to Democratic Candidates

Michael A. Dover — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:23:19 EDT

Concerned Democrats
1900 Superior Ave. Suite #221
Cleveland OH 44114
Phone: (734)645-6261
www.concerneddemocrats.org
An Open Letter to Democratic Candidates for Office
October 5, 2008
Dear Democratic Candidate for Office:

We are writing you as Democrats to another Democrat. As a Democratic candidate for office in this historic year, you are in an unique position to help Barack Obama and Joe Biden reverse our nation's priorities.

Unfortunately, the combination of the Obama/Biden campaign’s practice until very recently of de-emphasizing use of traditional visual materials such as yard signs, bumper stickers and buttons and the natural tendency of local candidates to be focused on their own races has resulted in a repeat in 2008 of what has been a longstanding problem in Democratic campaigns during Presidential years: uneven levels of coordination between local campaigns and the top of the ticket in many areas and inadequate support for the top of the ticket.

True, there are many areas in which there is strong support for the top of the ticket and vice versa. That may very well be the case in your area. But this Open Letter stresses the importance of supporting the top of the ticket in very simple ways, such as wearing Obama/Biden buttons, putting Obama/Biden bumper stickers on your car, putting an Obama/Biden sign in your own front yard, trying to get Obama/Biden yard signs up where your own supporters have yard signs, etc..

Concerned Democrats was formed with goal of raising consciousness among candidates for office about the importance of the use of such Obama/Biden materials, in order to send a symbolic but important message to everyone who sees you that you support the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.

Although there are many logistical causes of lack of coordination, lack of support for the top of the ticket also has political roots. It has manifested itself most often when there has been a liberal candidate for President, such as in 1972, 1984, and 2004. This year Barack Obama has articulated a uniquely pragmatic point of view. Barack Obama realizes that the social problems facing rural, suburban and urban American can’t be solved in isolation from each other.

Senator Obama is the real maverick in this race. He has worked successfully across party lines on nuclear proliferation and other issues. He defied the odds and ran a tough primary campaign during which he and Senator Hillary Clinton made history together. But their efforts and those of their supporters will be nullified if we don’t unite to elect Barack Obama as President, Joe Biden as Vice-President, and Congressional and state candidates across this country and state.

This makes it particularly important that all Democratic candidates unite to show the flag for the top of the ticket. That is the best way to build the turnout needed to win up and down the ticket. This year, undecided rates are still at a high rate, according to recent polls, and many voters are looking for guidance to those persons in public life they know and trust. In your area, that would include you!

You are in a good position to help voters in your area realize that our local problems can’t be optimally addressed without a change in administration in Washington. However, if voters don’t see consistent and visible evidence of your support for Barack Obama, they may mistakenly conclude that you are actually distancing yourself from the top of the ticket.

Thank you for hearing our concerns. Please feel free to call contact us at any time at mdover@concerneddemocrats.org. We are especially interested in hearing unique ideas as to how you have improved coordination and generated momentum in your area. We will then collate these ideas and share them with you in a follow-up email just prior to election day. We will also share them with the Democratic Party and the Campaign for Change, although I want to make it clear that Concerned Democrats does not represent either of these entities.

From preliminary conversations, one idea has already arisen, and that is for each candidate to say at every possible opportunity, "If you are supporting me, I would strongly urge you to also vote for the Obama/Biden ticket on election day."

One day, years from now, all of us who are active in this election will be asked by people close to us, "What did you do to help elect Barack Obama as President in 2008?" As a Democratic candidate for office this year, you will be able to proudly point to your candidacy and its important contribution to change in your area. However, I am writing you to ask that you also be able to say that you did whatever was in your power to be help elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden!

Sincerely,

Michael A. Dover

Concerned Democrats

Concerned Democrats
1900 Superior Ave. Suite #221
Cleveland OH 44114
Phone: (734)645-6261
www.concerneddemocrats.org
An Open Letter to Democratic Candidates for Office

October 5, 2008
Dear Democratic Candidate for Office:

Sincerely,

Michael A. Dover

Concerned Democrats

Biden/Palin Debate

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, MSW — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:40:35 EDT

This debate was telling. The Biden/Palin debate proved one thing for sure. Republicans can't stand a surplus. Palin started out her governorship with a surplus, now it's in deficient mode. Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii praised Palin while she herself claimed before her re-election a $700Million surplus and now states a $700Million deficit. Of course, no one takes the award for deficit away from President GW Bush. Lingle has cut education, drug rehab, rehab over all and the list goes on. This doesn't make sense that after all these cuts, we now have a deficit. Odd that Lingle was selected by the Republicans to reflect on Palin. Looking behind what they tell us about themselves needs more research.

I do think that Palin has learned to use a smile regardless of what is going on around her; what question she is asked and what question she wants to answer. It was good that some of the reporters realized that this was her main tactic on this panel.

As for who won the debate? It would be a shame if the only criteria for winning is that you don't bomb. This appears to be the response from the Republican pundits about Palin. In my opinion, the debate shows that she is capable of memorizing material but not on how to use the material with any understanding of it.

This whole appearance by Palin is not what I want when people think of women candidates. Palin continues to be a disgrace for any woman in a campaign. She doesn't have a background in history, international affairs, environment, wild life preservation, economics, reproduction rights, education, etc. She may corner the market in hockey issues but little else. If this was a beauty contest, then she'd have a chance. But a smile and switching questions does not do the job as a VP candidate. She didn't do McCain any favors. Wasn't that the point of this event???

New Website for Concerned Democrats

Michael A. Dover — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:39:00 EDT

See www.concerneddemocrats.org.

While I respect the campaign's wish that folks not operate independently, in addition to working within the campaign, I must do so. We'll be distributing 2000 buttons, 1000 bumper stickers and 2500 lapel labels directly to rural and suburban House candidates in Ohio and Michigan and seeking their pledge to more actively support the top of the ticket in the weeks again. The Obama/Biden campaign's stubborn failiure to listen to the people coming into the office asking for materials to distribute to neighbors and friends (due to David Plouffe's faulty and mistaken belief that visual materials don't matter and his over-reliance upon email, text messaging and TV ads) has combined with the intentional and unintentional failure of local candidates to show the flag for the top of the ticket. This 'perfect wave' is threatening the election outcome in Ohio and Michigan. When rural and suburban voters don't "see" visible support by their local candidates for the talk of the ticket, this lack of 'visuals' makes them think that these candidates aren't supporting Obama/Biden, which is very often not true. I'm hearing one story after another from these candidates about how hard a time even they have getting materials! So we're sending them on our own one candidate at a time.

Mike Dover, mdover@concerneddemocrats.org

Going All In Between Now and Election Day: An Urgent Appeal

Michael A. Dover — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:52:42 EDT

Going All In From Now Until Election Day: An Urgent Appeal (Pass the Word)

It happened in 1972. It happened in 1984. It happened in 2004 and it could happen again. It happened to McGovern, it happened to Mondale-Ferraro, it happened to Kerry and it can happen to Obama-Biden. What happened was that in those years there was widespread failure on the part of candidates for state offices and for Congress to support the top of the ticket. And there was insufficient coordination by the presidential campaign with the candidates for local office. It contributed to the losses in those presidential races and losses in local races. If we want to bring change to the country this time, we’ll need to make some changes in how we go about it.

First, what can be done:

1. Turn your house, glove box, trunk, and office drawer into a repository of campaign materials for the top of the ticket and for your favorite local candidate. Official materials can be obtained from: http://store.barackobama.com/ or from your local Obama-Biden headquarters. To find the nearest headquarters, visit: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/mioffices and substitute your state initials for “pa” before “offices” at the end of the URL. While visiting the Obama-Biden office, sign up to be a Obama-Biden campaign volunteer. I have, and you can to.

2. Request a meeting, a conference call or a phone conversation with your state or local party chair. Do the same with local or statewide Obama-Biden office staff. And do the same with local and Congressional candidates you are supporting. Discuss your observations about coordination and support for the top of the ticket, both positive and negative. Discuss solutions. Ask how you can help, both with any perceived problem and in general. Build unity by pointing out that this is a problem which has developed over the decades and isn’t unique to this year. You can do this and if you don’t want to do it solo, ask some friends to help raise the issue along with you.

3. Pass the word for unity, coordination and support for the top of the ticket. Do everything in your power between now and election day to make sure that this historic opportunity for change is realized. Let’s not get discouraged, let’s get determined. Pass the word. Forward this message.

4. Donate to both the Obama-Biden campaign and the local campaign. You can donate to many local campaigns via this website: http://www.actblue.com/directory. After you donate, send the candidate a message with a plea for better support for the top of the ticket. You don’t have to give much, but every bit helps.

5. Work to ensure that candidates for local office and their supporters are wearing Obama/Biden buttons, mentioning the top of the ticket in phone calls, and helping to distribute Obama/Biden yard signs and bumper stickers. Work to ensure that local Obama/Biden offices are making such materials available for free for use by official representatives of local campaigns as well as providing additional materials on consignment for sale to the public at local campaign offices. The best way is to call the candidate and visit the campaign offices and get involved.

6. Campaign websites need to be updated urgently to include prominent links to www.barackobama.com as well as statements and photographs showing that the local candidate is fully supporting the top of the ticket.

7. State parties, unions and PACs who assign staff and volunteers to help elect a local candidate should instruct them to work actively to ensure coordination of the Obama/Biden campaign with the local campaign and local campaign support for the top of the ticket.

8. Candidates interviewed on radio, TV and in the newspapers should go out of the way to stress the need to elect Biden/Obama in order to ensure a national leadership which can respond to local problems.

Why we need to do this:

The problems of lack of coordination and of insufficient support for the top of the ticket are endemic problems historically and in many states. They are not new this year, and this must be stressed. This concerned Democrat and longtime activist works in one state and lives in another and has made it his business while driving back and forth, talking on the phone, visiting websites, and showing up at campaign offices to observe local, Congressional and presidential campaigns. There were clear signs there is a serious problem of lack of coordination from the top of the ticket and lack of support for the top of the ticket.

Next, I solicited reports from longstanding friends and fellow activists around the country. These included reports from Louisiana (“It’s happening here”), Ohio (a half-hour long radio interview with a Congressional candidate who doesn’t mention the presidential race, despite the fact he’s a progressive candidate whose own website has a link to Obama/Biden) , and Pennsylvania (where Progressive Democrats of America members have complained about a Congressional candidate not openly supporting Obama/Biden). Reports have also been received from members of Progressives for Obama in Oregon, from the relative of a union activist in Washington, from Social Workers for Obama, from candidates for local, statewide and Congressional offices, from Obama-Biden campaign volunteers and staffers including veterans of Hillary’s campaign, and from Democratic Party officials and staffers.

True, these are anecdotal reports. And there as many examples of excellent coordination and support for the top of the ticket as there are reported problems. But it appears that this longstanding problem is developing once again in 2008. And it threatens the outcome of the election. It’s not all problems with the candidates and their campaign organizations or the Democratic Party. In some cases unions, 527s, professional organization PACs and other independent groups are focused on Congressional or gubernatorial races to the exclusion of the top of the ticket.

It might seem like there is little the everyday activist can do between now and election day about the attitudes about race or the opinions about progressive ideas which we may be seen as the central factors that will determine the outcome of the presidential race. But there is something we can do about this problem of lack of coordination or support for the top of the ticket. We can do “whatever’s in our power” to overcome it as in step 2 above. And if we do so along with continuing our everyday activism so that we can have a real impact, as in step 1 Above. We can put our money where our mouth is as in step 4 above. And we can pass the word as in step 3 above and compare notes about this problem in the hopes that there can be an upsurge in unity in the weeks ahead.

More on the problem....:

If you are already convinced, no need to read on. Yes, there are great examples all over the country where coordination is already working. Let us now praise good examples, and collect suggestions and ideas other than those here. But there are also places where this is not happening. In some cases it’s unintentional, in that both the presidential campaign offices and local candidates are naturally focused on electing “their” candidate. In media interviews, local radio, TV and newspapers reporters are often assigned to get the angle on the local race. But that doesn’t prevent a candidate from sneaking in mention of the need to elect Barack Obama as President of the United States of America and articulating the reasons why that is relevant to the local race and local issues.

True, in some cases, the problem of lack of coordination is due to continued logistical problems, such as lack of funds by relatively poorly funded local campaigns to purchase Obama-Biden materials or shortages of those materials on the part of the Obama-Biden campaign. It is urgent these problems be overcome on the part of the Obama-Biden campaign. The Obama-Biden campaign should schedule meetings with state and local parties and candidates devoted to a single issue discussion of improved coordination and support of the top of the ticket.

Unfortunately, in other cases, there is a problem of foot dragging by local candidates as to their support of the national ticket. This is an endemic problem historically and one based upon a faulty logic. Typically, the view is that the top of the ticket is too liberal for the local area, and that being identified with the top of the ticket will hurt the local candidate. But if the local candidate is a shoo-in for re-election, this doesn’t apply. And if the local candidate is hopelessly outvoted, it surely doesn’t apply. But what if it’s a close race? It doesn’t apply then either, for the following reasons. Yes, there may be some local voters who will be turned off by such a candidate’s support for the top of the ticket. But there will be many more local voters who are more likely to be convinced to turn out to vote in the most important presidential race since 1960 than there are who can be convinced to turn out to support a local candidate. Put another way, there are many more local voters who haven’t always made it to the polls in the past but who are more likely to vote this time due to a high profile presidential campaign than there are non-voters who can be turned out for a local race on the ballot.

Supporting the top of the ticket is the best way to maximize overall voter awareness and turnout. And it is that turnout that has the best chance of producing victories in close local races, even in less than liberal areas.

Let’s eliminate the bottlenecks and the excuses and make this work. Where there is a will there is a way. A rising tide lifts all ships. But if ships are crossing in the night they might not reach their destinations.

Signed, A Concerned Democrat and Long-Time Activist

September 15, 2008....IS, IRONICALLY, ALSO THE REASON WHY WE WILL WIN!

The Original NYC Free Advice Man — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:51:03 EDT

Do not worry too much! The Obama-Biden Super Ticket will win on November the 4th, 2008! And not just because America needs real positive change, the kind only Senators Obama and Biden are able to bring and will bring to Washington! The events of today, September 15, 2008, and what happens in the next few days will be VERY MUCH PART OF THE REASON! But these events are seriously tragic for working middle class and working poor like me and many of my friends, because the market crises are the result of absolute incompetence and excessive greed that the GOP get-rich-quick mentality caused! Shame on McCain-Palin for failing to keep their promise to stick to the real issues, the bread and butter issues! With good people like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, real Americans like us, WE WILL RESTORE AMERICA! B'R'CH H'SH'M (Hebrew for Blessed Be G-D's Eternal Name!) Family values?!? WE are for family values! The GOP is for devaluing families!

Why I support Barack Obama: He is truly a man of the people, and for the people. He puts people before profits, and understand that to really, really listen to people, to others, supporters, skeptics and opponents alike, is not at all a sign of weakness but the mark of all great leaders! Like my previous favorite, Senator Joe Biden, he has that special and rare quality of being able to understand and care for others, which, unfortunately, so many other candidates, seriously lack! Obama is for unity-in-diversity, for the most fundamental principle of Our Great Constitution; separation of religion and state, for truly fair wages for honest work, sensible and creative compromise between the public and the private sector, and he is not averse to respecting those who may not have the fortune to have acquired formal accreditation from institutions of higher learning, but who, nonetheless, are highly educated, creative, out-of-the-box autodidactic thinkers and intellectuals (such as myself). There are other reasons, such as his calming voice and sense of style and realistic confidence, why I support Senator Barack Obama and sense that he will make one of the greatest U.S. Presidents of all times! As for those who fear McCain-Palin might win: Are you kidding?!? With today's financial crises, soaring budget deficit, rising unemployment, massive housing crisis, and a 1 Billion Dollar a week waste of money in Iraq??!?? Nah! If McCain-Palin stole the elections then it would be the end of our entire economic might! Neither Wall Street nor Main Street is going to allow that to happen! It will be an Obama-Biden victory for sure! But only if we do not take it for granted and realize that they could steal the elections with blatant LIES and what not! So...if fearing we might lost motivates you to make sure WE WIN then so be it! But remember the wise old adage: PEOPLE DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM PEOPLE WHO LOOK MISERABLE! So...get ready to ROCK & ROLL and CHANGE AMERICA FOR THE BETTER! YES YOU CAN! YES WE CAN! AND YES WE WILL!

Proud to be a Community Organizer

Millie Bradenton FL — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:01:22 EDT

Last night Sarah Palin had the audacity to belittle and make fun of my profession and life's work. In her own quest for power, she insulted a whole group of people that everyday for little pay dedicate their lives to helping others. For us, success is not measured by the size of a salary. It is measured by the difference made in the lives of others. It is not a glamorous job, we go into all the neighborhoods everyone else avoids and work with the people everyone wants to forget. Community organizers, do not advertise nor market our profession because it is not about us, it is about the people whose lives we hope to better one person at a time, one child at a time, one community at a time. I am PROUD being a social worker, a community organizer, an advocate for those who need a voice, and of my MSW in Community Organizing Management and Planning from Boston University, the alma mater of another community organizer Martin Luther King Jr. I am proud of my daughter who has decided to continue the tradition by also becoming a social worker focusing on helping those suffering from addictions, and yesterday began her MSW at Boston College. I am proud of the work that I do everyday for the children and families of Manatee County Public Schools, I am proud of the work that I do to register new voters to participate in our democracy and take ownership of their future. Community Organizers do more than just talk, we act to make the world a better place.

It seems that Sarah Palin knows no more what a community organizer does than what a vice-president does, Maybe then it's something not to take personally since before being selected, on CNBC she told Larry Kudlow "what does a VP do anyway?" She is obviously ignorant, but it is sad that hords of Republicans are also ignorant and cheered her put-down.

Here is a video of famous community organizers that have made a difference and impacted history. Pass it on to those who do not know a community organizer, do not know what a community organizer does, nor the contributions they have made to make this world a better place. It seems that WE need to speak up for ourselves and set the record straight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVkhtMY2io4

In solidarity and appreciation for community organizers

jennie — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:44:20 EDT

Tonight I listened to "leaders" and "would be" leaders of the Republican Party mock community organizers.

This was profoundly offensive on so many levels, but none more so than going after the very folks who pitched in and engaged in community organization to offer help and aid to New Orleans following Katrina; while this party did nothing.

Mocking the people who work hardest to address the needs of disaster victims, victims of various forms of suffering (like, for example Down's Syndrome children and their families) is just repugnant and obscene.

For a secessionist candidate to go after this profession, which over our long history as U.S,. citizens has resulted in the betterment our nation and the improvement in people's lives, this was obscene. Many community organizers work hard for others and live very modestly. This used to be thought of as praiseworthy by folks who professed faith.

I felt nauseous listening to this invective and profoundly sad for my nation.

drilling

Maria Ramos — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:49:03 EDT

There is a reason that the U.S. should not engage in more drilling. The environment needs to be protected and the voters should be reminded of how Bush's policies have negatively impacted the environment.

Obama Nation

Maria Ramos — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:45:45 EDT

The campaign should challenge McCain directly on his running a dirty campaign. McCain should be challenged to condemn "Obama Nation". Obama needs to call McCain on every inconsistency.

Richardson for VP and a Remembrance of 2000

Michael A. Dover — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:42:39 EDT

To follow up on Dorinda Moreno's posting, since Iowa I've been convinced that Gov. Richardson is the best VP candidate and am still convinced. It's simply a matter of who has the best judgement and the best experience. It's not what part of the country they are from, what states they can bring, what demographics are needed. And it's not about having a Governor on the ticket. It's who inspires trust. And, yes, name recognition is important, and Richardson has that.

What is really amazing is how none of the media mention him, as if two people of color on the ticket would somehow sink it. I don't agree. It's not just change people want. It's honesty and fairness. To deny the VP slot to the clearly most qualified potential candidate because he would be person of color #2 on the ticket would not be fair.

I recall well the Democratic convention which nominated Sen. Lieberman. It was electrifying that a Jew had been nominated, but what was clear to me from the TV version at least was that the most electrified delegates of all were the African-American delegates! They were clearly inspired and excited by the realization that once the religion barrier had finally been broken (first a Catholic, now a Jew and now doubt one year a Muslim such as the Representative from Minnesota), the race barrier would also soon be broken. I recall well and have an MP3 of the very moving concluding prayer from that convention, by an African-American pastor from Arkansas, who went out of the
way to include ecumenical content with a strong focus on Old Testament conent. I've posted this at:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mdover/website/benediction.htm

The phrase "in the City of our God" refers to Los Angeles...

As we ready ourselves for the 2008 convention and consider our political commitments, regardless of our religious views I think it is helpful to hear this.

Now we are on the verge of breaking that very race barrier to the Democratic nomination. Nominating Gov. Richardson would not be about further breaking that race barrier. It would be about selecting the best candidate. But imagine the degree to which people of any religion or any culture or "race" would be electrified by the realization that the political process in this great democracy is potentially open to all.

Michael

How Obama dazzled Europe - with a little help by Chris Stephen ( Scotsman.com )

Prosy — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:16:55 EDT

Monday, 28th July 2008
Premium Article !

Chris Stephen: How Obama dazzled Europe - with a little help

« Previous Next » Next » View Gallery A good tour and some strong relationships to build on for Barack, says Chris Stephen IT'S official: God is on Barack Obama's side. How else to explain a global voyage through some of the world's worst trouble spots that went glitch-free and provided oceans of media coverage? TV pictures showed the senator looking commander-in-chief. By luck or judgment he arrived in Iraq just as the prime minister, Nouri al-Malaki, agreed that US troops should be out within 16 months, undercutting John McCain's call for a military presence of "100 years".

Then he got to Europe just as a poll showed, for the first time, that a majority of Americans think the Bush presidency has harmed their image abroad and want a future president to repair it. "How did Obama get so lucky with his timing?" asked the online newspaper Politico.com.

Back home, nothing went right for his rival. John McCain's big speech was to have been on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico to argue that increased drilling was important and safe. But the Almighty decreed this was the day Hurricane Dolly tore through the region. Then a supermarket visit on the day Obama spoke in Berlin was undercut when an aide tumbled over a shelf of apple-sauce bottles.

"Why does God love Obama?" cried the TV satirist Jon Stewart, highlighting "the clear juxtaposition between drawing 200,000 people (in Berlin) and an old man nearly buried alive in an apple-sauce avalanche."

Making things worse were McCain's glitches: he twice alluded to Czechoslovakia when he meant the Czech Republic, then argued on TV that Anbar Awakening, a scheme where the US is paying former Sunni terrorists to fight alongside its forces, came after the troop surge. In fact, it came before.

Obama makes gaffes too, famously saying he was campaigning in "57 states", but his gaffes are attributed to tiredness, while McCain's remind viewers that he is 71.

Obama's own handlers will take some credit for the success of a trip that was closely choreographed to provide the right TV pictures back home. Journalists on his campaign plane moaned about a lack of access to the candidate, but the handlers knew what they were doing: this was about image, not policy.

By week's end, it had worked. At the start of the trip, Obama's lead over McCain was between four points and zero. By Friday it had climbed to seven points, the highest since early June. Worse for McCain is that the template for the coming election seems to have been set: Obama makes the running and McCain is on the defensive. "The amazing thing is how Obama sets the agenda," said one political analyst. "McCain looks as if he is constantly complaining about what Obama does."

Impossible Dream? Banning the Bomb, Starting in Britain, France, India and Pakistan

Michael A. Dover — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:01:44 EDT

Remember when banning the bomb was the fervent hope of the peace movement throughout the world? The post-boomers in the US whose inspirational leadership is bringing the hope of change via the Obama campaign may not have lived through those years, but I'm hoping that an Obama administration can take not just nuclear proliferation seriously (an issue that Senators Obama and Lugar have addressed) but nuclear disarmament seriously.

We need bold proposals for change. Here is one. When India announced it had the bomb, Arundati Roy wrote an eloquent article in The Nation about the bomb and its relationship to Hindu nationalism, despite the bomb's contradiction to the precepts of the Hindu religion. But at the risk of stereotyping religions, I'd like to make a point here. There was already a Christian bomb, and it was exploded twice over Buddhist and Shinto Japan. There was already an Atheist bomb, and it had been wielded in Cuba. And there was already a Jewish bomb, which again, speaking as a Jew, is contrary to everything Judaism stands for, first and foremost life. But, you see, everyone was convinced that the bomb was necessary to preserve life and prevent war. Their lives and their God needed the bomb.

It was only a matter of time until there was an Islamic bomb, and predominantly Sunni Pakistan was first. Then there was the North Korean bomb, which I can't even try to typologize. Now, as Benny Morris pointed out in his New York Times column, most intelligence services are convinced Iran plans its own, Shiite Muslim bomb. Wonderful, what's next, a Shinto bomb emerging from a thankfully not yet resurgent nationalism Japan? A Buddhist bomb courtesy of rogue rulers in Burma? And, of course, foremost in the minds of many is the Terrorist Bomb, courtesy of a theft from one of the stockpiles or a do-it-yourself project that is less likely to come from some cave than from the private estate of some wealthy would be totalitarian theocrat seeking to impose his way on the world or protect his people, his religion from the threats he perceives.

What is the way out? I think the way out is to go back to the roots of war and nuclear weapons before WWI. Back to the roots of colonialism. Two colonial powers, Britain and France, have the bomb, while other colonial powers, Japan, Germany, and Italy, were defeated and don't have the bomb. The key to nuclear disarmament is in Britain and France and their relationships with the previous colonies of India and Pakistan. President Obama should work with Russia and China and come to an agreement that they agree to a massive cut in their weapons stockpiles contingent upon the following: Britain, France, Pakistan and India would disarm entirely. This would free up the tremendous sums these nations now spend on nuclear weaponry. The peaceful intentions shown by the three superpowers would help convince India it is safe from China, the source of its primary concern historically. The most important threat of nuclear war, which is in my opinion between India and Pakistan were there political instability, would have been eliminated. Tremendous pressure would have been put on Iran not to arm, but there is a need for continuous pressure independent of such an initiative to prevent Iran from arming to start with. But if there is no Sunni bomb, it is my belief that there would be much less pressure for a Shiite bomb. I think we can leave Israel out of this, but once it was accomplished and an Iranian bomb was prevented, and there was a state of peace between Israel and Syria, it is my belief that for its own economic and humanistic and religious reasons, Israel would disarm as well. None of the existing nuclear powers are threatened by Israel's bomb and it shouldn't be the red herring which would prevent the kind of progress discussed above.

The key is Britain and France. Why do they need the bomb when there is no Soviet threat, no Russian threat, and they are adequately protected by the US nuclear umbrella and NATO's conventional forces? India and Pakistan would never disarm as long as their former colonial power, Britain, had the bomb. But if Britain and France were willing to disarm, I think there would be tremendous pressure on India and Pakistan to disarm. Well, in a nutshell, that's my impossible dream.

Progressives for Obama within the Obama '08 Campaign

Michael A. Dover — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:39:40 EDT

I joined the independent Progressives for Obama group and signed the ipetition available from the link at http://progressivesforobama.blogspot.com/ Along with many veteran activists of the 60s generation, I've never given up the ship for progressive social change. But although I have supported some Democrats in the past, it has been rare for me to actively work for them (Jesse Jackson in 1984 in Louisiana; Dutch Morial's re-election as Mayor of New Orleans). Sometime just prior to the Iowa primary, I began paying attention and am convinced that while not dropping all of our other activism, progressive social activists should support and work hard to elect Barack Obama as President of the United States. However, we also need to utilize this opportunity to re-think some of what we mean by progressive, and what being a progressive pragmatist means. So here is how I joined the independent group and above is how I'm blogging here. Glad to be aboard in this way and not just to donate as I have on numerous occasions.

"While the mantra of independent political action is one I have long supported,
we have seen some of the damage which ill-considered independent
actions on behalf of Obama and in other electoral contexts can do. A
forum for discussion and well-considered action is valuable, but I
have been and plan to continue to be active directly within the
campaign and its many sub-groups such as social workers for Obama. I
might ad that those of us on the left are also part of the very "old
politics" which Obama is trying to move beyond. Somewhere along the
way since glasnost, the promised "new thinking" never happened. We too
need to re-think the nature of the alternatives to neo-liberalism we
put forward, lest they be more or less the same. Also, generationally,
young activists are clearly thinking differently about all sorts of
things we don't "get", such as the relationship of activism to
volunteerism, just to give one example. What is progressive at one
point of time is not necessarily progressive at another point of time,
since the nature of progressive politics is historically contingent.
If radical pragmatism isn't what progressives for Obama want out of
President Obama, we should get in for a rude surprise, as I suspect
that's what we are going to see, rather than the kinds of prototypical
ideologically suggested responses and positions. Pragmatism is never
popular, as it gores all sorts of sacred cows."

FISA and Obama's so-called "Centrist Swing"

Allison Ruby Reid-Cunningham — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:11:23 EDT

Hi, please check out my blog post about FISA, faith-based organizations, and Obama's values tour of the Midwest. Cut and paste this link into a new window: http://rubycrushonobama.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-nation-obamas-centrist-swing.html

-Ruby

Will Obama Inspire a New Generation of Organizers?

Russell Henderson — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:53:39 EDT

Peter Dreier
Will Obama Inspire a New Generation of Organizers?
Posted July 1, 2008 | 06:25 PM (EST)
Read More: Barack Obama, Obama, Obama Alinsky, Obama Chicago Organizer, Obama Community Organizer, Obama Organizer, Obama Progressives, Obama Southside Chicago, Obama Young People, Saul Alinsky, Senator Obama, Off The Bus News

This article originally appeared in Dissent Magazine.

Americans are used to voting for presidential candidates with backgrounds as lawyers, military officers, farmers, businessmen, and career politicians, but this is the first time we've been asked to vote for someone who has been a community organizer. Of course, Barack Obama has also been a lawyer, a law professor, and an elected official, but throughout this campaign he has frequently referred to the three years he spent as a community organizer in Chicago in the mid-1980s as "the best education I ever had."

This experience has influenced his presidential campaign. It may also tell us something about how, if elected, he'll govern. But, perhaps most important, there has not been a candidate since Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy who has inspired so many young people to become involved in public service and grassroots activism.

Through his constant references to his own organizing experience, and his persistent praise for organizers at every campaign stop, Obama is helping recruit a new wave of idealistic young Americans who want to bring about change. According to surveys and exit polls, interest in politics and voter turnout among the millennial generation (18-29) has increased dramatically this year. But Obama isn't just catalyzing young people to vote or volunteer for his campaign. Professors report that a growing number of college students are taking courses in community organizing and social activism. According to community organizing groups, unions and environmental groups, the number of young people seeking jobs as organizers has spiked in the past year in the wake of Obama's candidacy.

Whether or not he wins the race for the White House, Obama, through his own example, has already dramatically increased the visibility of grassroots organizing as a career path, as well as a way to give ordinary people a sense of their own collective power to improve their lives and bring about social change.

Obama's Organizing Experience

In 1985, at age 23, Obama was hired by the Developing Communities Project, a coalition of churches on Chicago's South Side, to help empower residents to win improved playgrounds, after-school programs, job training, housing, and other concerns affecting a neighborhood hurt by large-scale layoffs from the nearby steel mills and neglect by banks, retail stores, and the local government. He knocked on doors and talked to people in their kitchens, living rooms, and churches about the problems they faced and why they needed to get involved to change things.

As an organizer, Obama learned the skills of motivating and mobilizing people who had little faith in their ability to make politicians, corporations, and other powerful institutions accountable. Obama taught low-income people how to analyze power relations, gain confidence in their own leadership abilities, and work together.

For example, he organized tenants in the troubled Altgelt Gardens public housing project to push the city to remove dangerous asbestos in their apartments, a campaign that he acknowledges resulted in only a partial victory. After Obama helped organize a large mass meeting of angry tenants, the city government started to test and seal asbestos in some apartments, but ran out of money to complete the task.

Obama often refers to the valuable lessons he learned working "in the streets" of Chicago. "I've won some good fights and I've also lost some fights," he said in a speech during the primary season, "because good intentions are not enough, when not fortified with political will and political power." (Recently, right wing publications, radio talk shows, and bloggers, such as the National Review and the American Thinker, have sought to discredit Obama as a "radical" by linking him to ACORN and other community organizing groups.)

The American Organizing Tradition

The roots of community organizing go back to the nation's founding, starting with the Sons of Liberty and the Boston Tea Party. Visiting the U.S. in the 1830s, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, was impressed by the outpouring of local voluntary organizations that brought Americans together to solve problems, provide a sense of community and public purpose, and tame the hyper-individualism that Tocqueville considered a threat to democracy. Every fight for social reform since then--from the abolition movement to the labor movement's fight against sweatshops in the early 1900s to the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the environment and feminist movements of the past 40 years--has reflected elements of the self-help spirit that Tocqueville observed.

Historians trace modern community organizing to Jane Addams, who founded Hull House in Chicago in the late 1800s and inspired the settlement house movement. These activists--upper-class philanthropists, middle-class reformers, and working-class radicals--organized immigrants to clean up sweatshops and tenement slums, improve sanitation and public health, and battle against child labor and crime.

In the 1930s, another Chicagoan, Saul Alinsky, took community organizing to the next level. He sought to create community-based "people's organizations" to organize residents the way unions organized workers. He drew on existing groups--particularly churches, block clubs, sports leagues, and unions--to form the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council in an effort to get the city to improve services to a working-class neighborhood adjacent to meatpacking factories. Alinsky's books, Reveille for Radicals (1945) and Rules for Radicals (1971), became the bible for several generations of activists. including the civil rights movement, the environmental movement, and many other reformers.

There are currently at least 20,000 paid organizers in the United States,according to Walter Davis, executive director of the National Organizers Alliance. (Nobody knows for sure, since "organizer" is not an occupation listed by the Census Bureau). They work for unions, community groups, environmental organizations, women's and civil rights groups, tenants organizations, and school reform efforts. Unlike traditional social workers, organizers' orientation is not to "service" people as if they were clients, but to encourage people to develop their own abilities to mobilize others. They identify people with leadership potential, recruit and train them, and help them build grassroots organizations that can win victories that improve their communities and workplaces. According to organizer Ernesto Cortes, they help people turn their "hot" anger into "cold" anger--that is, disciplined and strategic action.

The past several decades has seen an explosion of community organizing in every American city. There are now thousands of local groups that mobilize people around a wide variety of problems. With the help of trained organizers, neighbors have come together to pressure local governments to install stop signs at dangerous intersections, force slumlords to fix up their properties, challenge banks to end mortgage discrimination (redlining) and predatory lending, improve conditions in local parks and playgrounds, increase funding for public schools, clean up toxic sites, stop police harassment, and open community health clinics. A key tenet of community organizing is developing face to face contact so people forge commitments to work together around shared values. (The Internet has become a useful tool to connect people in cyberspace and then bring them together in person).

For years, critics viewed community organizing as too fragmented and isolated, unable to translate local victories into a wider movement for social justice. During the past decade, however, community organizing groups forged links with labor unions, environmental organizations, immigrant rights groups, women's groups, and others to build a stronger multi-issue progressive movement. For example, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) has created a powerful coalition of unions, environmental groups, community organizers, clergy, and immigrant rights groups to change business and development practices in the nation's second-largest city. At the national level, the Apollo Alliance - a coalition of unions, community groups, and environmental groups like the Sierra Club - is pushing for a major federal investment in "green" jobs and energy-efficient technologies.

Although most community organizing groups are rooted in local neighborhoods, often drawing on religious congregations and block clubs, there are now several national organizing networks with local affiliates, enabling groups to address problems at the local, state, and national level, sometimes even simultaneously. These groups include ACORN, the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), People in Communities Organized (PICO), the Center for Community Change, National People's Action, Direct Action Research and Training (DART), and the Gamaliel Foundation (the network affiliated with the Developing Communities Project that hired Obama). These networks as well as a growing number of training centers for community organizers--such as the Midwest Academy in Chicago, the Highlander Center in Tennessee, and a few dozen universities that offer courses in community and labor organizing--have helped recruit and train thousands of people into the organizing world and strengthened the community organizing movement's political power.

The "living wage" movement is an example of both coalition-building and linking local and national organizing campaigns. In 1994, BUILD--a partnership of a community organization and a local union--got Baltimore to enact the first local law, requiring companies that have municipal contracts and subsidies to pay its employees a "living wage" (a few dollars above the federal minimum wage). Since then, more than 200 cities have adopted similar laws, helping lift many working families out of poverty. Most of their victories grew out of coalitions between community organizing groups, labor unions, and faith-based groups. These coalitions have gotten more than 20 states to raise their minimum wages above the federal level. These efforts helped build political momentum for Congress' vote last year to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade.

Organizing and the Obama Campaign

Although he didn't make community organizing a lifetime career--he left Chicago to attend Harvard Law School--Obama often says that his organizing experience has shaped his approach to politics. After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice and teach law. But in the mid-1990s, he also began contemplating running for office. In 1995, he told a Chicago newspaper, "What if a politician were to see his job as that of an organizer--as part teacher and part advocate, one who does not sell voters short but who educates them about the real choices before them?" Since embarking on a political career, Obama hasn't forgotten the lessons that he learned on the streets of Chicago.

This is reflected in his campaign for president. Community organizers distinguish themselves from traditional political campaign operatives who approach voters as customers through direct mail, telemarketing, and canvassing. Most political campaigns immediately put volunteers to work on the "grunt" work of the campaign--making phone calls, handing out leaflets, or walking door to door. According to Temo Figueroa -- Obama's national field director and a long-time union organizer--the Obama campaign has been different. "When I came on board what attracted me was his history as an organizer," says Figueroa, who was working as AFSCME's assistant political director. "At the time I wasn't sure I was joining the winning team. Most of us thought we were jumping on the little engine that could. We were believers. We wanted something bigger than ourselves. A movement."

Obama enlisted Marshall Ganz, a Harvard professor who is one of the country's leading organizing theorists and practitioners, to help train organizers and volunteers as a key component of his presidential campaign. Ganz was instrumental in shaping the volunteer training experience. Many Obama campaign volunteers go through several days of intense training sessions called "Camp Obama." The sessions were led by Ganz and other experienced organizers, including Mike Kruglik, one of Obama's organizing mentors in Chicago. Potential field organizers were given an overview of the history of grassroots organizing techniques and the key lessons of campaigns that have succeeded and failed.

"Organizing combines the language of the heart as well as the head," Ganz says, reflecting on his experiences as an organizer with SNCC in the civil rights movement and as a key architect of the United Farmworkers' early successes. Not surprisingly, compared with other political operations, Obama's campaign has embodied many of the characteristics of a social movement--a redemptive calling for a better society, coupling individual and social transformation. This is due not only to Obama's rhetorical style but also to his campaign's enlistment of hundreds of seasoned organizers from unions, community groups, churches, peace, and environmental groups. They, in turn, have mobilized thousands of volunteers--many of them neophytes in electoral politics--into tightly knit, highly motivated and efficient teams. This summer, the campaign created an "Obama Organizing Fellows" program to recruit college students to become campaign staffers.

This organizing effort has mobilized many first-time voters, including an unprecedented number of young people and African Americans during the primary season. Now that Obama is the presumed Democratic nominee, he faces pressure to resort to more traditional electoral strategies, but so far Obama and top campaign officials have continued to emphasize grassroots organizing. It is evident in Obama's speeches, his continued use of the UFW slogan, "Yes, we can/Si se puede," his emphasis on "hope" and "change," and the growing number of experienced organizers drawn into the campaign.

Obama's stump speeches typically include references to America's organizing tradition. "Nothing in this country worthwhile has ever happened except when somebody somewhere was willing to hope," Obama explained. "That is how workers won the right to organize against violence and intimidation. That's how women won the right to vote. That's how young people traveled south to march and to sit in and to be beaten, and some went to jail and some died for freedom's cause." Change comes about, Obama said, by "imagining, and then fighting for, and then working for, what did not seem possible before."

In town forums and living-room meetings, Obama says that "real change" only comes about from the "bottom up," but that as president, he can give voice to those organizing in their workplaces, communities, and congregations around a positive vision for change. "That's leadership," he says.

Organizer-in-Chief?

If elected president, will Obama's organizing background shape his approach to governing?

Obama can certainly learn valuable lessons from President Franklin Roosevelt, who recognized that his ability to push New Deal legislation through Congress depended on the pressure generated by protestors and organizers. He once told a group of activists who sought his support for legislation, "You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."

As depression conditions worsened, and as grassroots worker and community protests escalated throughout the country, Roosevelt became more vocal, using his bully pulpit--in speeches and radio addresses--to promote New Deal ideas. Labor and community organizers felt confident in proclaiming, "FDR wants you to join the union." With Roosevelt setting the tone, and with allies in Congress like Senator Robert Wagner, grassroots activists won legislation guaranteeing workers' right to organize, the minimum wage, family assistance for mothers, and the 40-hour week.

After his election in 1960, President John Kennedy encouraged baby boomers to ask what they could do for their country. At the time, JFK meant joining the Peace Corps and the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. He could not have anticipated the wave of protest and activism--around civil rights, Vietnam, and later feminism and the environment--that animated the sixties and seventies.

President Lyndon Johnson was initially no ally of the civil rights movement. However, the willingness of activists to put their bodies on the line against fists and fire hoses, along with their efforts to register voters against overwhelming opposition, pricked Americans' conscience. LBJ recognized that the nation's mood was changing. The civil rights activism transformed Johnson from a reluctant advocate to a powerful ally. LBJ's "Great Society" program--although criticized as too tame by United Auto Workers leader Walter Reuther and other progressives--provided some community organizing positions with anti-poverty agencies, job training groups, and legal services organizations in urban and rural areas. Many of today's veteran activists got their first taste of grassroots organizing in the anti-poverty, civil rights, and farmworker movements.

Now comes Obama, a one-time organizer, who consistently reminds Americans of the importance of grassroots organizing. If he's elected president, he knows that he will have to find a balance between working inside the Beltway and encouraging Americans to organize and mobilize. He understands that his ability to reform health care, tackle global warming, and restore job security and decent wages will depend, in large measure, on whether he can use his bully pulpit to mobilize public opinion and encourage Americans to battle powerful corporate interests and members of Congress who resist change.

For example, talking about the need to forge a new energy policy, Obama explained, "I know how hard it will be to bring about change. Exxon Mobil made $11 billion this past quarter. They don't want to give up their profits easily." Another major test will be whether he can help push the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)--a significant reform of America's outdated and business-oriented labor laws--through Congress against almost unified business opposition. If passed, EFCA will help trigger a new wave of organizing that will require enlisting thousands of young organizers into the labor movement.

If Obama wins the White House, progressives within his inner circle will look for opportunities to encourage his organizing instincts to shape how he governs the nation, whom he appoints to key positions, and which policies to prioritize. Meanwhile, a new generation of volunteer activists and paid organizers will be looking to join President Obama's progressive crusade to change America. But if it appears that he is veering too far to the political center, they will--inspired in part by Obama's own example, and perhaps with his covert support--mobilize to push him (and Congress) to live up to his progressive promise.

Peter Dreier is professor of politics and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy program at Occidental College, where he teaches a course on community organizing. He is coauthor of The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City, Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century, and several other books.

General Election Strategy Power Point

James "Monte" Salter CD4 Valley Team leader — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:10:12 EDT

We are going to kick some ass!!!

From MSNBC:

“We have a lot of ways to get to 270” electoral votes, Plouffe said. Aided by a Power-Point demonstration with slides titled, “Expanding the Map: Turning Red States Blue” and “Enthusiasm Gap,” Plouffe whipped through state after state and predicted they may all be in play come November. “We want to play a lot of offense,” Plouffe said.

Here is a link to the powerpoint:

http://obama.3cdn.net/277bb8792237d562f2_9gm6bnupn.pdf

Si Se Puede!!!

AMAZING!

1 "Bitter" Yvonne "Hussein" Raphael from California, a "Typical" American — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:11:16 EDT

Will the blockbuster news never quit?! While I was roaming around the 'net this evening I read an Associated Press item reporting that Senator Obama's campaign sent an email (to the AP, I suppose) announcing that he and Senator Clinton will campaign together (beginning) next Friday, June 27th. It also reported that the two senators are planning a joint fundraiser this month. Wow! The AP article is at:

http://www.rnntv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8530156

Senator Obama's ability to work with people is truly AMAZING! We will surely be welcoming a majority of Hillary Clinton's supporters into our campaign in the coming weeks.

I SO ADMIRE his consensus-building skills. He is an INCREDIBLE role model for ALL of us, especially for those young people who are (temporarily) at odds with their parents, as well for those youth who are currently involved in the deplorable cycle of teen-on-teen violence.

Today I also read an email from an Obama 'sister' from Italy who is coming to the U.S. to help rock the vote for Barack in Ohio. She said there is a website of Italians who are very HOPEful that Senator Obama will be President Obama come November. This is just one of several news emails, blogs, and news articles telling of people in a variety of countries around the world who are counting on the positive changes that Barack Obama's presidency will bring about in the global context.

The amazing amount of support for Senator Obama attests to the fact that his ability to build bridges is the HOPE we all have for harmonious relations among the diverse groups in this country, and around the globe. Our candidate is THE ONE WHO THE WORLD NEEDS NOW!

GOT HOPE?

GOBAMA!!!

TIME TO GEAR UP FOR ROUND TWO!!!

James "Monte" Salter CD4 Valley Team leader — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:27:12 EDT

The following are a few of the reasons that we cannot allow McCain to be elected and provide a defacto 3rd term for Bush. These statistics can give us a bit of insight, but they only reveal the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the real human suffering that is happening in our country and the world.

While there is much to celebrate with Obama winning the nomination, we cant afford to waste any opportunity….it’s time to gear up for round two and send McCaniac back to Arizona where he can cherish his golden years on the old El Rancho.Let’s put a real leader in the White House….Lets elect Barack Obama!

SI SE PUEDE!!!

36.5 million people were below the official poverty thresholds in 2006, compared to 31.1 million in 2000, and that there was an increase of 5.4 million poor from 2000 to 2006
7 percent of children live in families with incomes of less than half the poverty level. That's a paltry sum—less than $8,000 for a family of three and $9,600 for a family of four.
Forty-seven million Americans, including more than 9 million children, are living without health care coverage.
Over the last decade, between 347,000 and 544,000 10th- through 12th-grade students left school each year without successfully completing a high school program
More American soldiers committed suicide in 2007 than ever. Breaking every conceivable historical record, sources within the US defense establishment see the toll climbing even higher in 2008. With 115 suicides in 2007, up 102 from the previous year, 2008's end of year statistics stand to be exceedingly grisly.

Clinton for VP

Bubbe — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:04:22 EDT

I think it would be in the best interest of Obama to offer Clinton the VP spot. The thing is to win & I believe this would really help him to win. Would like to hear feedback on this.

Cuban Dissidents Support Obama's Cuba Policies

Millie Bradenton FL — Sun, 25 May 2008 13:06:20 EDT

This is great news for increasing support in South Florida and Cuban-Americans who support Obama! Cuban dissidents in Cuba support Obama's policies towards Cuba One of the groups I belong to forwarded this information to me. Please forward this to any and all Cuban-Americans that you know to make this viral on the Internet!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7418941.stm

Obama visit to FL

Millie Bradenton FL — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:20:11 EDT

I heard on the news that Obama will be coming to FL on May 21 to campaign for a few days. He will be coming to several cities, Tampa, Miami, Palm Beach and I think some others. Does anyone know of any details? How do you sign up to attend? If anyone knows when exactly and where he will be when he comes to Tampa, and how to get tickets to go, please post to me, or email me. I'd really want to go.

thanks!

Obama takes lead in superdelegates, AP reports

James "Monte" Salter CD4 Valley Team leader — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:38:53 EDT

Si Se Puede!!!!!!

"Additions erase Clinton's imposing lead among party, elected officials"

Story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24556427/

Hillary's Slender Thread

1 "Bitter" Yvonne "Hussein" Raphael from California, a "Typical" American — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:04:13 EDT

McGovern, former Clinton backer, urges her to drop out

The Associated Press Published: May 7, 2008 in the International Herald Tribune

SIOUX FALLS, SD: Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama.

After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern said Wednesday it's virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination [Emphasis mine]. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee said he had a call in to former President Clinton to tell him of the decision, adding that he remains close friends with the Clintons….….McGovern's announcement comes a day before Clinton was scheduled to travel to South Dakota to campaign. The state holds its primary June 3 with 15 pledged delegates at stake.

McGovern said he had no regrets about endorsing Hillary Clinton months ago, [which he did] even before the Iowa caucuses.

"She has run a valiant campaign….but Obama has won the nomination "by any practical test" and is very close to a majority of the pledged delegates.…It's time to unite the Democratic Party. Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November”, he said.

This new endorsement from Mr. McGovern is, of course, encouraging support for our candidate!

Thank you North Carolina, and thank you Obama supporters in the Great Hoosier State!

Hillary Clinton probably won't drop out of course, but with influential support being added almost weekly from honorable statesmen such as Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson, and now George McGovern, the un-pledged Superdelegates are surely getting the message if they haven't already. I, for one, plan to take the time to contact as many individuals of influence such as John Edwards - as well as uncommitted delegates, and Superdelegates - and ask for their public support for Barack Obama, and I hope you fellow Obama supporters will as well.

Still, the potentially problematic issues that remain unresolved and that concern me are twofold.

First - For some unexplained "reason" there is still the possibility of Hillary Clinton being allowed to change the rules and have Michigan and Florida counted, which change she began clamoring for only when she realized that the groundswell of support for Barack Obama posed a decided threat to her ascension to the throne, excuse me, the Presidency. I know I am not the only person who would be VERY UPSET if that were to occur, and IMHO that would be an extremely DIVISIVE act on the part of those who have the POWER in that arena.

This nomination contest has morphed into an (extended) historic event that, from my perspective, seems not unlike a second Civil War, only one without physical weapons. I deplore the fact that the racial divide in the U.S. remains as wide as this election year is revealing to everyone, not just to people in this country but to people around the world

Secondly - There is the problem of the "association" with one J. Wright, to whom some are determined to keep our collective focus diverted.

Like others, I was stunned and outraged myself when the media circus came to town again and Wright was its star attraction. I don't know beans about public relations, but I am hoping that people who do will get to work disarming the opposition so their continued use of this absurd distortion of the Senator's LOYALTY (which is a virtue, not a vice, the last time I looked) in A PERSONAL, NOT A POLITICAL CONTEXT will be to their disadvantage.

Barack Obama has a heart for people. A person like that is not cutthroat and calculating and is not going to kick someone to the curb just because that person's views DIFFER from his. He is also is intelligent enough to know where boundaries exist in terms of what part of his public service career people are in, and whether they have a part in it at all, especially when it comes to his political office. I have a feeling that he is keenly aware of the separation of church and state.

I saw a page in today’s issue (May 7) of the L.A. Times online this morning, one that featured ONLY politicians and others who are DIRECLY involved in politics. In the most prominent position on that page were the photos of (from left to right): John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and, would you believe, Jeremiah Wright!

Would someone please inform the media that HE IS NOT A POLITICIAN? HE HAS BEEN ENTICED BY THE SENSATIONAL MEDIA (and others whose motives are impure) TO THRUST HIMSELF INTO THE POLITICAL SPOTLIGHT even though he has no place there. Clearly if this man had been as all-inclusively involved in Senator Obama’s life outside of the traditional religious rituals of marriage, baptism, and (basically obligatory) Sunday services, Barack Obama would have observed these attention-seeking aspects in a context outside of his religious activities. But Barack did not have this man as a “bosom buddy”, or an advisor to his political decisions, contrary to what the opposition would like people to believe.

The hysteria about J. Wright is just that: hysteria.

But I insist that Wright be put into context. If the “sins” of the clergy are to be attached to anyone who won’t drop his or her “association” with a person or a church, then every person who, like myself, was baptized and raised as a Catholic “should” be expected to cut their ties with that church when we began to be aware of not only words, but the actions of the now infamous among those clergy. What when JFK and later Bobby Kennedy sought the Presidency? Looking back, if those cases of child molestation by priests had been made public prior to their bids for the highest office of the land, would we have expected JFK, or of Bobby Kennedy to leave the Catholic Church?

If someone who is Catholic wants to become the Presidential nominee in the future, what if, at some point, people learn that his or her priest had molested children, and the candidate-to-be had had that person as a friend? Would we assume that he or she condones pedophilia? How far are some people going to take this “association” thing?

And what of Hillary Clinton’s choice (which, by the way, I agree with) to not end her “association” with ‘that man’ whose actions were definitely immoral when he elected to commit adultery? There were those who criticized Mrs. Clinton for staying in her marital relationship with Bill Clinton even though his actions were illegal - as in sexual harassment - if my understanding of that law is correct. Her association with him goes back quite a number of years, and, if memory serves me, there was at least one other young woman with whom he was, let’s say, inappropriately involved.

When the Lewinsky affair nearly caused the impeachment of Bill Clinton I found the graphic description of their illicit behaviors to be a total embarrassment. I’m sure Hillary Clinton did not agree with what the person with whom she was associated for more than 20 years did, or, for that matter what he said when questioning about the affair began. I found the whole thing distressing and I just wanted it to go away. I find Jeremiah Wright distressing and likewise, I want him to go away and live his life somewhere other than on the political center stage.

Hello America: J. Wright, as well as the lapel pin silliness both need to be relegated to a backwater of our national consciousness, so THE REAL ISSUES THAT ARE PRESSING IN ON US CAN BE DEALT WITH…AND SOON! It's the economy, sweetie. And housing that is affordable at EVERY income level, or homelessness “will be with us always”, and its numbers will swell exponentially. And healthcare, or rather the lack thereof, as I personally know. And education, before America falls even FURTHER BEHIND THE REST OF THE "DEVELOPED" WORLD. And Mr. Bush's war in Iraq which has not made the U.S. safe (or even any safer?) from KNOWN terrorists (not to mention incipient terrorists). Is anybody concerned about the price of food and of gasoline? I don’t care about what someone inconsequential said in the past, I care about what is going to be done in the very near future.

Hillary Clinton IS hanging on in this nomination contest by a slender thread. This FACT has been reported on by credible experts – people who are presumably impartial and who know how to run the numbers. Mr. McGovern's restatement of that numerical reality should be a wake-up call for the wife of the former President. But she wants to win badly; it’s my perception that saving face is more her style than facing facts. But what I and many other Americans want, and will insist upon, is significant change in the way things are done. From where I sit it goes without saying that John McCain won’t take us there…and neither will Hillary Clinton.

My having been inspired – or I should say “fired up” – enough to connect with fellow Americans about this political process and to take the time to WRITE THOUGHTFULLY (a task which had become distasteful to me post-Master's thesis) says a lot about the persuasive nature of Senator Obama's sustained commitment to changing the way things have always been done.

“I don't contribute money to political candidates”, says I, yet I have made modest contributions into Senator Obama’s campaign coffers. “I don't participate in partisan politics”, I add, and I am passionately involved in communicating by phone and in writing about this nomination process to an extent to which I have never before been motivated in any of my MANY years as an adult.

I believe that the participation of ALL Americans is vital at this point in this country's history if the U.S. has any hope of thriving as a nation. I also firmly believe that it is any nation's fatal flaw to fail to include any group that resides among it. In unity there IS strength, and, make no mistake about it: divided we will fall.

We, the people, are the ones who are building the momentum behind the leadership of the ONE CANDIDATE - in the person of BARACK OBAMA - who has the unique combination of abilities that are needed if America is to come up out of the pit into which the past eight years has placed this country.

We stand behind and beside Barack Obama and pledge our support to the HOPE and POSSIBILITY of achieving The Dream that we all have of being a Great Society.

The people, united, are an unstoppable force. Thank you, Barack Obama, for reminding us of that.

Lobby The Superdelegates! : A Website

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:08:50 EDT

https://www.lobbydelegates.com

Folks- PLEASE go to this amazing website and lobby your superdelegates. It's easy as pie and its totally free if you check the option to "not to donate" and "email and post". It will take you less than 5 mintues to lobby all the superdelgates from your state! There is even an option to lobby Clinton's super delegates to switch to obama! LEt's get this moving, folks!

Tracey

We Need Representation in Lawrence Township

Bebe — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:30:14 EDT

I live in the Lawrence Township area. This morning I noticed on 82nd and Hague and 96th and State Road 37 there are Hillary signs posted on almost every utility pole. We need respresentation in this area too! What can I/we do to improve this situation?

Rev. Wright

amama4obama — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:06:14 EDT

I am saddened by the latest remarks by Rev. Wright and believe he is hurting Barack's campaign.

Rev. Wright seems to want his 15 minutes of fame at our expense. Up 'til now, I thought Rev. Wright made some justified remarks, but now he has gone too far.

THANK YOU, PA WAS GREAT!

JP — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:21:28 EDT

HELLO!

Although we lost PA the trip was UNFORGETTABLE! I has a wonderful time and my fellow Obama volunteers were AWESOME! THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO HELPED ME GET THERE!

LOVE AND PEACE,

WE WILL PREVAIL! OBAMA YES WE CAN!

SIgn My Petition- Tell Howard Dean it's time for HRC to get out of the race!

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:56:45 EDT

ENOUGH! Enough already! Why won't she just go away!?Folks- it's time for Hillary to get out of this race. Beyond her wreckless policies (like threats to Nuke Iran), the fact that she seems to be staying in this race just to bring Obama down is killing this party.

She can't win- there is no path to victory for her and at this point each day she stays in the race serves no purpose except to tear Obama down and bring John McCain one step closer to winning in November. This game she is palying is dangerous and it smacks of the worst kind of megalomania I have ever seen.

Let's let Howard Dean know how we feel. Please sign my petition and pass it along to at least 5 friends.

thank you.

Obama 08!

Link

My Obama Signs

Bebe — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:04:58 EDT

I looked into my back yard this morning and felt something was different, but I could not put my finger on it. I gasped! I noticed my Obama sign was missing. I immediate ran to the front of my house. My Obama sign in my front yard was missing too! I looked to the right of my yard and saw that my neighbor's Mc Cain signs were still there. I looked further down the road and noticed my distant neighbor Hillary’s sign was still there as well. I yelled to my husband, "Hey my Obama signs are gone, and I'm calling the police to make a police report. My husband chuckled because he is a policeman for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Dept. He was very sympathetic to my loss while explaining signs are stolen all the time. I took no solace in knowing this information. So to all of you that have Obama Signs in your yards be watchful because there is an Obama sign bandit(s) here in Indianapolis.

the countdown has begun

Melanie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:12:51 EDT

There is a week until the Pennsylvania Primary on April 22 !!! If you read this message, remember to vote in the primary for Sen. Obama he has proven that he can unite people from all walks of life and backgrounds. He will be a candidate to can make change happen. If you are able to volunteer during the final days of campaign, please let me know so i can assist with your participation in making history happen !!!

YES WE CAN!!! SI SE PUEDA!!!

I need a Miracle

James "Monte" Salter CD4 Valley Team leader — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:33:34 EDT

Heavens to Mergatroid! I've been reinstated

It looks like all of the delegate candidates have been reinstated. This sure has been a strange process. Sunday will likely prove to be just as interesting. I'm not sure but maybe the Obama campaign felt like this would alienate alot of genuine supporters/ future supporters if they cut them out? If anyone has some insight into this turn of events, I would love to hear from you.

From the mouth of the CDP website:

"The Obama Campaign submitted a list of approved district delegate candidates to your office on April 7, 2008 pursuant to Section III.A.5 of the California Democratic Party Delegate Selection Plan. By this letter, we would like to withdraw that list such that all district delegate candidates be deemed approved by the Obama Campaign and eligible to run for district delegate in their congressional district."
--Letter from the Obama Campaign to the California Democratic Party, April 10, 2008

James Salter,LCSW, District 4 Delegate Candidate.....Si Se Puede!

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." HST

California Delegate Candidates Reinstated!! Zoinks Redux

James "Monte" Salter CD4 Valley Team leader — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:10:40 EDT

David Plouffe just sent out this email...

There has been an extraordinary outpouring of grassroots support for Senator Obama among Democrats and Independents in all 53 California Congressional districts.

In recognition of this tremendous enthusiasm, our campaign has asked the California Democratic Party to allow all persons who have filed to be a district delegate candidate for Senator Obama at the Democratic National Convention to participate in the caucuses this Sunday, April 13, 2008.

We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator's commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention.

An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone's patience and cooperation.

Most of all, please enjoy this opportunity to meet other Obama supporters and elect delegate candidates to the Convention in Denver.

If you have any questions, please contact Daryl Sprague at dsprague@barackobama.com.

Thanks for your interest and active participation in Barack's campaign to change politics and change America.

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

An Olive Branch

James "Monte" Salter CD4 Valley Team leader — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:57:26 EDT

Cheney, Invoking the Specter of a Nuclear Attack, Questions Kerry's Strength

Published: October 20, 2004

CINCINNATI, Oct. 19 -Vice President Dick Cheney cast doubt Tuesday on whether Senator John Kerry was strong enough to fight terrorism, and asserted that the nation might one day face terrorists "in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever before been used against us,'' including a nuclear bomb."

If anyone remembers this headline, and how upset they were after reading it, you might begin to understand why I was so upset about the suggestion that I might not be completely behind electing Senator Obama as our next president. Please don't get me wrong!….I am not attempting to equate anyone with Darth Cheney here. I am just saying that in our zeal to elect Obama, we have to be careful not to succumb to the same kind of fear that has divided our country for so long now. It has been a long almost eight years that our country has been hijacked by the Bush lunatics, and I have to admit that this tragic occupation has also impacted me in a profound way. I have a son who will soon be of age to register for selective service, and the thought of him marching off to Bush's war terrifies me to my bones. There is so much at stake that it is easy to become overzealous in our passion to take the country in a new direction. So let's please not cannibalize each other, because we are all working toward the same goal here.

So whether you have been in the trenches in this campaign or whether you have been active in promoting issues of social justice in your community, however you have chosen to answer Senator Obama's call to service, I want you to know that I think all of you matter and I thank you all for your hard work.

James Salter, LCSW

Mark Penn has resigned but not really

jennie — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:18:17 EDT

The news of Mark Penn's resignation from Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign should come as no surprise. Neither should the continued presence of Mr. Penn in her campaign which this announcement is attempting to minimize in time to persuade voters in Pennsylvania that she doesn't really endorse union busting and doesn't really endorse the disastrous NAFTA legislation that Mr. Penn feeds on.

Senator Clinton assumed that she would sweep Super Tuesday and emerge with the nomination. In the longer primary season than she anticipated, the nature and character of Mark Penn's contacts, role, tactics and business interests has become increasingly clear to voters. What is surprising is that she hired him in the first place, given his contacts and the amoral nature of his business.

His hiring as a campaign strategist in the first place calls into question the judegment of Senator Clinton, and her values as a Democratic candidate, given Mr. Penn's representation of repressive regimes, union busting activities in Columbia, and involvement with Blackwater. Simply put, Mr. Penn's role in any activity is to manipulate public opinion and, as his website at BKSH states, enact government policy. He does this by the exact tactics we have witnessed in this campaign; race bating, fueling ethnic divisions, smear campaigns, and character assassination, as well as well timed false reporting in the media. These tactics are the ones he also uses abroad to foster vioilations of human rights around the globe. He has been using them on Senator Clinton's behalf.

A particularly insidious aspect of this is Mr. Penn's tentacles which can be cross referenced among his client list. He has contacts with a number of industries, most especially telecommunications, so his ability to reach the media by back door arrangements is concerning.

Mark Penn's presence in a Presidential primary is a huge red flag, and a blot on Senator Clinton's judgement and values. It confirms her support and endorsement of NAFTA , lobby cartels ,as well as efforts to dupe voters, rather than campaign in a thoughtful and honest manner.

I for one lost respect for her as a candidate as soon as I learned that this firm was involved and as soon as I learned that both she and Senator McCain have contact with this one firm owned by Mark Penn.

Well, she has finally made a gesture of letting him go while keeping him thoroughly involved in her campaign: she can't fire him; he represents her constituency, even after outcry a year ago by labor unions, and human rights activists begged her not to involve him in her campaign.

Senator Obama is 100% free of lobby entanglements in his campaign. And that is the real meaning of hope: that we can return our nation to a Democracy and not devovle into a corporate fiefdom.

This is further evidence of the power of this people powered campaign, time and again Senator Clinton is being asked to do the right thing, and time after time she makes a meaningless gesture to placate the voting public while following the lobby handlers who are running her campaign for their agenda; not ours. I wish she had thought of this on her own, on principle, when she first considered who should lead her campaign.

Town Hall Meeting in Ft. Wayne

Bebe — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:49:15 EDT

Short and sweet is how I would describe the Ft. Wayne Town Hall meeting. Barack portrayed the dream of MLK in a clear and concise manner. For example, from a micro level he explained how we can improve our families and communities. And, at the macro level he explained he would work with state and local government to reduce the drug flow in our country, in our communities, and in our homes. The sweet part of the Ft. Wayne Town Hall meeting is I got to sit on the platform directly behind him. I got to chat with him brief about The Wire (an HBO drama based on the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland), and he autographed my book the Audacity of Hope. Like I said, short and sweet(;-)

A response to the news of the day!

jennie — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:16:19 EDT

Senator Obama is campaigning hard for us. He went bowlling and scored a 37 (!) . . . fortunately we are hiring him for the many other skills he demonstrates (like running a great campaign, leading our nation to a new place, and representing us all with dignity and grace, to name a few). But since he is such a good sport, a bunch of folks are ponying up $37.00, or $3.70, (whatever works for you) to send love and wings to our candidate and our campaign. So, if you can, this would be a great time- before midnight tonight, right before the FEC report.

You may also have seen information in the news today that indicates unpaid bills in the hundred thousands to small vendors as well as a reported two month delay in covering employee health insurance by the other candidate. This says something both about a committment to economic management and the importance of health care. On the heels of Tuzla, it just makes me want to be sure that we have REAL change in Washington next year. Senator Obama is financially savvy and has done an excellent job of squaring with vendors in a timely manner. Actions speak louder than words.

So I'm feeling especially motivated to make a donation this week to reinforce that gallup hike; to support Senator Obama, and to take back our Democracy.

Jennie

A team of twenty wealthy Clinton supporters

jennie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:57:48 EDT

sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, basically threatening to withdraw funds of Congressional Democratic candidates if Speaker Pelosi didn't back off her stance that the superdelegates should follow the popular vote and delegate count. You can read all about this most interesting "gang of twenty" on Daily Kos, which I highly recommend to everyone as informative, and full of intelligent background story and details you just won't hear in the mainstream media, (which is owned, not suprisingly, by some of Hillary's bankrollers). It really makes for some very very interesting reading.

Speaker Pelosi and Senator Dodd both stood firm on behalf of voters asserting that the vote would not be decided by "insiders" or an overturn of the popular vote.

I strongly encourage everyone who is supporting Obama to make a donation to the DCCC in support of Speaker Pelosi, Senator Dodd, and congressional Democrats who must finance their campaigns. If you make a donation before MARCH 31st, your contribution will be matched 2 to 1.

This would be an eloquent statement to Congress that Senator Obama has most prodigious coattails!!!! (but we know that ), and it is the most sincere way we can demonstrate our support for our Democratic Leadership fostering a Democratic process.

Please go to the DCCC website and give a donation. Even if its very modest, it will be matched with twice the amount if you donate before March 31st, and as a group we have already proven ourselves to be formidable. Let's show em just how formidable we the people can be. And we can foster the team Senator Obama will work with to promote change for our nation.

there are a lot more of us, and collectively our small donations add up, as Senator Obama is teaching us every day!!!!!

Jennie

Hillary bent on not having the Democratic nominee win if it is not her

Millie Bradenton FL — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:15:37 EDT

Tonight on Greta's show on Fox news Hillary said that either there is a revote in FL or MI or that she will take the fight to seat the FL and MI voters to the convention floor. She then became belligerent saying that there would be a battle and that the Dems would have to yield and seat them because FL and Mi were key to winning in November! She said she will force the Democratic party to go on record on the floor that they won't seat the delegates. Her tone was defiant and ruthless. Then she went on a tirade to blame Obama saying it was all his fault for not agreeing to a revote! She talked about the democratic race being "fluid" and that all delgates pleged primary, causcus and super delegates could all vote for whom they wanted at the convention.

I am convinced she will stop at nothing. She has said as much. I posted last night on the main community blog that she has already figured out she won't win, and with that being the case she now wants McCain to win, so she can run again in 2012.

I really think that the DNC and the party leaders need to wake up here. The super delegates need to begin to step forward en mass behind Obama. Where for heavens sake is Edwards? Obama is campaigning in NC. It would be a perfect chance for him to give his support and then campaign together in PA.

We gotta get this together! Otherwise our party will lose an election in November that we should win handedly. This is so frustating!

My response to emails supporting Buchanan's opinion on Obama's speech

Millie Bradenton FL — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:25:42 EDT

I recently received an email where the person thought that Pat Buchanan had a point about Obama's speech on race. The email agreed with parts of what Buchanan said and the feeling that blacks including Obama don't give whites credit for what they have done in the civil rights movement, nor sufficient credit for how far we have come as a country. Below is my response:

I totally disagree and feel Pat Buchanan TOTALLY missed the point of Obama's A More Perfect Union speech! Not only did he miss the point in this speech, but Buchanan fails to understand who Obama is and what he believes. Obama is all about unity and ending division from where ever it comes and from whoever it comes. He has numerous times said that both he and his wife have benefited from changes in brought about in this country as evidenced by the educational opportunities they had.Buchanan totally missed not only the point of this speech but what Obama has been saying in stump speeches for months! In his speeches he has acknowledged the efforts of the white abolitionists and the whites who came to the south to register voters and some were even killed in the cause of civil rights. He very eloquently has said this in stump speeches and his New Hampshire speech in fact inspired this Yes We Can video where the very point is made of people coming together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yq0tMYPDJQ

Pat Buchanan is a MASTER of half-truths for political expediency. Many points in his Buchanan's article are simply wrong and come from his own bigotry, not from what Obama has said or failed to say. PLUS he has an agenda, of making sure that the Republicans stay in power and makes no bones about it.I sent you Obama's speech. A More Perfect Union last week. Did you listen to it? If you haven't listen to it before concluding that bigot like Buchanan is right, : Don't use a right-wing filter like him to get your information. Go to the source to draw conclusions.

Here is Obama's speech again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU&feature=related#

Ok critics may dismiss this speech as a speech for whites to keep the white vote. However, long before anything happened with Rev. Wright, listen to what Obama said last January in a Black church, Martin Luther King's church Ebenezer Baptist Church.

First some short snippets.

Right here, he gives whites credits for the help in the civil rights movement. Remember he is not doing this in a speech to a white audience, he is speaking to BLACKS in MLK's old church in Atlanta, and calls for unity because we ALL face the same challenges.

This is a very good snippet to hear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjSV0FITIas&feature=related

Here he credits to the work of Ashley a white woman in his campaign for her work in bringing people together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3KQwSejock&feature=related

The above are just snippets, but below is the link for the entire speech, in it he gives white people credit for helping in the civil rights movement and that the civil rights movement was successful because of the unity between whites and blacks.He gives credits to whites for their courage in seeing that the injustices aginst blacks hurts them as well. He talks about a moral defcit and an empathy defict in this country and our failure to understand that we are all tied to one another. It isn't about black and white with him.He also is not shy about being critical of how blacks are not immune and do not have clean hands in their treatments whites, jews, immigrants and gays, and that they too have had streotypes that they need to tear down. He talks about unity coming from opening our hearts and spirts and seeing beyond our differences to see how much more we have in common. He also says that the black community need to be accountable for their own children and family, turn off the TV and video games, fathers and mothers being responsible. It is a very powerful speech and worth listening to the entire thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0x_TpDris&feature=related

I encouage you to listen to what Barack himself says instead of relying on what Pat Buchanan says that Obama is or is not saying. Don't use the right-wing filters, go to the source! NO THERE IS NO TRUTH TO A WORD THAT PAT BUCHNAN HAS SAID! Obama does appreciarte and acknowlege what EVERYONE has done, regardless of race.

Mike Huckabee Comments on Wright Controversy

Pat Hanrahan — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:50:36 EDT

Besides Bill Richardson, the only other presidential candidate that I know of to comment on the reaction to Reverend Wright's inflammatory remarks is Mike Huckabee. Having grown up in the segregated South, he calls for everyone to cut some slack for people "who grew up being called names, being told, 'You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant.' " (NY Times, March 23) Not to mention getting lynched for registering voters or looking twice at a white woman or just because. Yes it is time to move on but let's not forget where we've been.

Meanwhile Bill Clinton is trying to slime Senator Obama by implying he is un-American. How low will the Clintons go? First saying Obama isn't ready to be Commander-in-Chief, now this. They may as well be making McCain's attack ads for him. When will the uncommitted super delegates wake up and stop the Clintons from destroying the Demcratic party from within?

KEEP FALLING INTO YOUR HEARTS

Suzanne, Feeling SAFER with OBAMA on the Planet — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:13:38 EDT

Keep trusting your intuition.

We know Obama would be the best leader for America in this moment in history.

We know he walks the talk.

We know it won't be easy getting others to see past the veil of fear to glimpse into what we see and know can happen: a new way of doing politics in America.

But if we stay connected to our truth, we will be able to STAND FOR CHANGE, together, with Obama as our guiding light.

THE TRUTH IS SUSTAINABLE.

People With Disabilities Have a Stake in this Campaign!

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:06:45 EDT

My Fundraising Goal Barack Obama and I are committed to changing the political process by building a campaign built on a broad base of support from ordinary Americans. A good friend of mine just donated 10.00 from his social security check to help Obama in his campaign for the presidency. This man is severely disabled and has little money to spare, but he so believes in Barack Obama and his values and vision. If he can donate, so can you. Let's match that contribution 10.00 at a time so we can amplify Larry's impact. I've set my own personal fundraising goal for the campaign, which you can see in the thermometer to the right. It's 1K. We are already at $505, so let's go.Will you make a donation to help me reach my goal?

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/dashboard/main/Trace

On This Good Friday Let us Not Crucify Barack Obama

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:00:19 EDT

By Frank Schaeffer

Senator Obama has a problem: the hardening of the American heart, the closing of the American mind, the shriveling of our souls, the shrinking capacity of our imaginations, our jaded senses, the seen-it-all attitude that makes us into sneering voyeurs too mean spirited to save ourselves.

I was a guest on a PRI radio show the day after Obama delivered is historic speech on race. I was a guest along with a person that the host introduced as "most responsible" for making Obama's minister's charged comments into a political football. According to the host's introduction, Republican activist Ronald Kessler used his website to turn Obama's minister's words into the story the media jumped on.

Kessler had just heard Obama's March 18 speech on race too. He said it left him unmoved. He was in a sneering mood bristling with ever-so-reasonable middle class certitude of his conservative righteousness. To Kessler the speech was just politics, nothing more. The idea of it's truth was of no consequence. To him it was all about tactics.

That night I was listening to Laura Ingraham (a show that I was on several times and where Laura repeatedly called me a "great American" because, as the father of a Marine, I'd written Keeping Faith and then Faith of Our Sons, books that praised and explained the military family.) Laura was sneering at Obama's speech. Her candidate had been Mitt Romney. As Romney's self-described "conservative-conservative" Ingraham had also been routinely mocking McCain. And she hates Clinton. Now she hates Obama more...

Bitterness as a way of life marches forward on the left as well as the right. I read the responses from Clinton supporters (on various websites) also damning Obama's speech as "just words." Some of the Clinton people sounded even more cynical than Kessler and Ingraham.

Obama is the chef who opens a new restaurant and serves honest good and beautifully prepared food made of the most wholesome ingredients only to have the food critic pan his offerings as "all too ordinary." "Where," asks the seen-it-all jaded bored critic, "are the calf's brains marinated in truffle-soaked baby duck's testicles?"

Obama offers civility in the midst of a drunken national bar fight. Obama speaks in complete sentences, well-turned paragraphs, offers thoughts with intellectual depth, nuance, humility and compassion. Obama is a reasoned essay cast before sound-bite swine who seem ready to tear anything that falls into their sty to shreds.

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

By providence or blind luck, we are being given a second chance. In Obama our founders appear once again stepping from the mists of time to offer a wayward great, great grandchild an opportunity for redemption. But everything is turned on its head. Good is called bad. The greatest things about Obama are used against him, decency and transparency are mocked.

Obama stands in the tradition of our founders, a citizen running for office, not a "professional" striver. But the cry goes up, "He doesn't have the experience!" Experience? At what? Playing games with our country's soul while the only real game in our nation's capitol is hanging on to power, enriching oneself at the political trough through connections, taking us to war after war, making us hated throughout the world by catering to our insatiable, unreasoning fears.

Obama is the man who reaches out to help a dying passerby and the passerby snarls, "What do you really want?" Obama came to us on March, 18 with one of the most generous and brilliant speeches that has been delivered on American soil. He spoke honestly of things all other American leaders have been too timid and self-serving to even mention. Standing behind him were the sprits of countless murdered, enslaved, tortured, lost black Americans. Their blood cries out for revenge and yet Obama offered forgiveness, perspective and understanding.

Obama is not Jesus. Obama makes mistakes. He is rightly self-deprecating. Nevertheless, imperfect as he is, Obama is offering America a fresh start. There is more decent intelligent authenticity in his little finger than the Clintons will ever know. There is more kind wisdom in Obama than in all our sneering bloodsucking moronic media combined. But we have imbibed detritus for so long that when clean food is offered we can't taste it.

This isn't about politics. I'm a fifty-five year old white man who has been a conservative all my life. I've been a right wing Republican activist. I'm a big fan of the military. If Obama can reach out to me he can reach out to anyone. He can win in November.

What I'm saying here will lose me friends. For instance the Bush family gave one of my recent military-related books a ringing endorsement. After Laura Bush read an excerpt out on Meet The Press sales skyrocketed. I probably won't get too many more of those sorts of endorsements. But the chips are down and the presidential choices this year are too important not to not fight for.

As I see it our choice is between a good and heroic old man whose time has past and who will perpetuate failed policy, a jaded woman of the establishment, who will do anything to perpetuate her family's dynastic "claim" to power, and a brilliant, openhearted new founding father the likes of which America has not seen.

Obama comes to us from outside the system that has produced our present multiple crises of wars of choice and a failing economy. He does what all truly great leaders do: he speaks to the soul in plain self-revealing words of hope.

If we squander this undeserved reprieve and choose business-as-usual, if we don't elevate ourselves out of our self-made mire, we will step into a future of steep and steady decline and war without end. It won't matter if you are right or left. It won't matter if the Republicans or the Democratic Party wins. We will all lose.

I think there is reason to hope. There are decent people out there who have refused to go along with the smear-by-association campaign. Mike Huckabee defended Obama. McCain said we can't blame Obama for his minister's words. Not everyone on the right is stooping as low as the Clintons and the right-wing media scavengers.

Obama is worth fighting for. He is worth losing old friends for. History has thrown America an unlikely lifeline. Do we have the decency, the sense, the last glimmer of sanity needed to open our hearts to change?

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It

Obama gets A+ Grades With Respect to Votes for the Middle Class

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:10:33 EDT

If you follow thepundits, you know that they are saying Barack Obama is going to have trouble bringig in the white middle class voter. I have found a website that debunks the myth that Obama only seeks to support folks earning $50,000 or more a year. Please share this with people when you hear this myth repeated. It shows his voting record for his entire time int he senate and rates his votes as to whether or not they are "Middle Class" Friendly.

http://www.themiddleclass.org/legislator/barack-obama-511?gclid=CM_a9KbFm5ICFQbNIgod0Fi96g

Yes we can!

People With Disabilities Deserve to be Recognized, Too.

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:57:23 EDT

Dear Hopemongers:

Recently Dave Frye, a gentleman from "Americans with DIsabilities for Obama" shared this email with me and has asked me to share this with all of you. I do so happily.

I am the director of a program that assists people with developmental disabilities to live a better quality of life, and as such I and have been actively engaged in helping to get folks with disabilities registered to vote in my district in Indiana because I feel it is critical that people with disabilitites become engaged in the electoral process. For too many years people with disabilities have been ignored and even margialized and I think it is time for all of us, especially Senator Obama, to pledge that their voices will not only be heard, but indeed responded to.

On this website there is a "people" section and conspicuously absent is a category for "disabled". I would like all of you to join me in asking Team Obama to please recobngnize the needs of this group to be heard and for plans to be made by Team Obama to adress the many unique issues that people with disabilities face.

Here is Dave's email- please pass this along:

Sender: Dave Frye
Subject: Adding Persons with Disabilities to the People List
Received: 3/16/08 12:27AM

This letter is to address the issue of adding "Disabled" to the People list on the MyBarackObama website.

To those who don't understand why "Disabled" should be added to the People list,

Why NOT the disabled? Like all of the other groups on the list, we are a large group of Americans who care about issues that are exclusive to us or important to us.

The disabled have issues that no other group can lay claim to. And no one is looking out for us. When our issues happen to coincide with others, we have a voice. When they don't coincide, the country says nothing. I ask you: when was the last time you wrote your congressman on behalf of the institutionalized? When did you call your state Medicaid program on behalf of chronically ill children? What did you do to bring public transport to the disabled? Who among you is even thinking about the disabled in rural America?

The reason I chose Barack Obama is because he is one of the few people in government today who is saying ANYTHING about the disabled and strengthening the ADA. The least the campaign can do is recognize that we are a valid constituency. WE aren't an issue; the ADA is an issue. We are concerned about issues that affect us, and the ADA isn't the only issue that affects us. It certainly isn't the only thing that is going to improve our outlook, our rights, or our inclusion in society.

The disabled are concerned about more than ramps, parking spaces, and bathroom stalls. We are not focused solely on the right to work. We are concerned about our special educational needs; our place in the American economy; our future medical expenses; our rights to self-determination and protection from a court system that sees the mentally and cognitively impaired as threats. We are concerned for our disabled brethren who cannot defend or speak for themselves; our children, who might be taken by those who say we cannot care for them; and ourselves, because we must rely on the kindness of others, the work of underpaid caregivers, and the impersonal institutions that see us as opportunities to bill the government.

And YOU should be concerned too. As more disabled veterans return from Iraq, the ranks of the disabled will grow. As the baby boomers grow older, the ranks of the disabled will grow. YOU will grow old and be afflicted with disabilities. You are one car crash away from being paralyzed; one bullet away from a brain injury; one illness away from being unable to work; one pregnancy away from a disabled child. We are all one step away from being disabled.

We are Democrats with Disabilities. We are the only minority that includes members of every other group. We deserve to be recognized as more than a Congressional Bill. And, we shouldn't have to fight for it.

Put us on the list.

David Frye

Austin, Texas

[pass this letter on to others on the campaign, especially volunteers and organizers]

Campaign as communion

jennie — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:22:34 EDT

This evening I had the pleasure of sitting at home writing postcards to other citizens whom I will likely never personally meet, in hopes of expressing my sincere belief that Senator Obama is the best candidate for President that we are likely to see in our lifetimes. This is part of a campaign activity organized by Obama supporters.

My companion in this activity is my daughter, who is a junior in college. She grew up during the years of President William Jefferson Clinton, when she was just approaching her teens, and two terms of President Bush. We both cried when that first Bush election occurred. It seemed that it was so careless and violent to democracy. It seemed that any way a vote could be manipulated was an acceptable strategy. The vote is sacred, at least in our beliefs.

Her first official act upon turning eighteen was to register to vote, that day. She has been active in her college Democrat organization since freshman year, and has campaigned for state and local politicians. She is very excited to support Senator Barack Obama for Democratic Presidential candidate, and she's done her homework on candidates' actual legislative records, policies, and supporting arguments. All this amidst a very demanding academic schedule.

Her college Democratic organization has been active in their surrounding community. These young people created a display of hand folded origami cranes- one for each soldier who has given his or her life during these years of war. These are young people who are serious and working very hard. They are people from many different cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. They are companions and friends across these supposed divides. These young people seem eager to learn about each other, and interested in becoming culturally competent, able to relate comfortably to people different from themselves, and to share their cultures, ideas, and dreams. They take the vote very serioiusly, and follow this election closely.

Most are choosing work that involves service to others. Many are choosing careers in health care or education; nearly no one is choosing to be a hedge fund manager. Most have engaged in some form of extended volunteer work with people who have not had the blessings that these kids enjoy. Yet they see the road before them laden with problems that will fall on them and their generaton, as a result of decisions made over the past very few years. They see the main stream media as increasingly deceptive, boring and uninformative. They've heard all the divide and conquer strategies and manipulations.

I see these young people, and this beloved girl, and have to wonder what sort of illness causes our culture to treat the vote as a frivolity. In the past, only 30% of folks who could vote actually did. We have celebrity and broadcast personalities who are encouraging dishonest and manipulative votes; we have efforts to change rules and primaries in the middle of the game, which to her and to myself, seem like a replay of the sorrow and anxiety we have felt for our democracy in the past, but now as part of even the party we choose. This is the behavior of the generation of public figures that has created many of the problems our children will inherit.

Yet there is Barack Obama, who is representing something important: change, and a more mature understanding of our Democracy as something that should be guarded as sacred. He is attracting the support of people from all over our nation, and from every walk of life. Because we want our votes to mean something, and to have value. We want our Constitution to be a living document, not a set of loopholes and overrides. Barack Obama gives us hope. Hope that we can overcome artificial divides as well. These divides have served the interests of those who exploit our nation very, very well, and serve the interests of ourselves not at all- any of us.

So the generatonal divide is being broached by this campaign;

Mom learned to blog and text message thanks to this campaign. YES SHE CAN!

And a young woman has learned to take part in political process, and that there are public servants who have principles and vision, who are more than mere celebrities. YES SHE CAN!

In the midst of the fight for the nomination, she reminds me of all the important meaning of this campaign. The hope hat she will inherit a real Democracy, not a corporate fiefdom. And that the nation of her birth will behave with honor and accountability within and outside of its borders. That we can lead from strength, not cower from fear, as a nation. And that we can win the admiration and friendship of people all over the world who look to the United States to model what is honorable, right and good in the name of freedom.

These are trying days at times, with the assaults of the lobby-funded attacks. Senator Barack Obama is a threat to the status quo of lobby money, and multiconglomerate shackles. Did we think this would be easy?

The work sustains us with hope and we must work hard to make this happen for us all. The journey is part of the gift!

Jennie

Rezko and Rev. Wright

MarcFeld — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:19:42 EDT

Hi,

I have some concerns about the recent revelations about Sen. Obama's affiliation with Mr. Rezko. Specifically, it appears that a comparison is being made between the amount it was initially reported that Obama campaign(s) received from Rezko around $100,000-$150,000 to what Sen. Obama stated Friday: $250,000. While the reason for the discrepancy - one campaign for office versus every campaign, it will definitely be mis-interpreted by the media and the RNC.

While this raises the question of what any of us will do with or for a relative or neighbor, unfortunately there is the court of public opinion which more often than not receives undue advice from the media.

While the comments of Rev. Wright concern me (make me angry?!), I think that many of us who affiliate with faith communities or other organizations have experienced times when the organization takes an action or takes on an initiative that we do not agree with. Yet, although this can vary, most often we do not leave the organization, nor stop supporting it. The American Psychological Association did not advocate against the use of psychological techniques in Guantanamo Bay; some people left the APA though not in droves. At least two faith movements have considered various divestment proposals, which while I believe they were mis-guided, did not cause defections from those movements that I am aware of.

Finally, I understand that prominent or affluent supporters of HRC in Florida are threatening to take their sizable donations back from the DNC. First, how GOP-like can one get? If I don't like what occurs I'll change the rules or deviate from them. Second, how in good conscience can a person make a contribution and months later demand it back, barring fraud or similar conduct? Especially when some of these donations were probably made AFTER the DNC naively decided to penalize Michigan and Florida in an absence of forsight or a long-term perspective. If I don't like what an organization does, I won't make contributions to it. However, unless there is fraud or discrimination, I will not demand my contribution back.

Marc F.

When opportunity knocks!

Bebe — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:17:36 EDT

Today was a day of opportunity for me. I attended the Plainfield Town Hall meeting in Indiana. I did not have a ticket, so I had to stand in the overflow, no ticket line. Once inside, to pass the time, I decided to volunteer for additional duties. While signing up, I overheard a man tell a staff person he needed additional volunteers for today's event. I immediately volunteered. The man responded, “You have to stand in the stairwell.” I responded, ‘I DON’T CARE!” My job required me to check the invitation and identification of people who were sitting in the balcony. When all ticket holders were seated, the overflow, no ticket holders were allowed to sit in the balcony. But, I didn’t have to sit in the balcony. I go to sit five rows from Barack with all the other volunteers; but the icing on the cake came when Barack and I exchanged a brief hello, and he signed my journal. WOW! So to all of you reading this blog, if you don’t take anything from my experience, remember no job is too small in this campaign. You just need to be ready when the opportunity knocksJ

The controversy surrounding Senator Obama's pastor

Danna — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:51:08 EDT

Why is the media spinning only one story here and not considering all the possibilities? In a certain way, I think Barack Obama’s involvement in this church and with Pastor Wright actually goes a long way toward showing that he IS the person he has presented himself to be in his book “Audacity of Hope”, in his speeches and through his plans to lead our country. What I mean by this is that, according to his reply, this church is a mainstay in South Chicago, serving the needs of many people, rather than simply paying lip service to good works. It’s easy to imagine that Senator Obama’s integrity, commitment to the community and his compassion and inclusiveness (rather than petty divisiveness) have encouraged him to remain in this church all these years. After all, a church is more than its pastor. It is also the community that makes up its congregation. Perhaps Barack and his family felt supported here and saw an opportunity to participate in and contribute to their community through this church. Perhaps this made it easy to not over-react to occasional comments by Pastor Wright that expressed views that are completely paradoxical to what Barack Obama is all about. He said himself that he turned to his pastor for spiritual support, not for social or political policy. In the same way that Barrack Obama can, for instance, look to some of the Republican party’s policies, pull the good from them and caution democrats to look more closely and not just knee-jerk into doing the exact opposite of whatever the GOP is doing (I’m generalizing here from “Audacity of Hope”), it’s also easy to imagine how he could see the good in his church and in it’s commitment to the community and also see the humanity in his pastor in spite of his ‘occasional rants’ (the most severe of which Obama denies having heard of before). This seems to be who Barack Obama is—a person who can tolerate and even learn a great deal from those with views quite different from his own, all the while maintaining his own integrity and working toward the goal of the greater good.

Senator Obama has done a great job of answering some tough questions, and I hope that folks out there will see his integrity and begin turning some of their scrutiny toward the media and begin asking the media questions such as “why now?” Didn’t Pastor Wright make most of these statements quite a long while ago and hasn’t the media had access to his sermons for quite a while?

Just my two cents,

Danna (an agnostic Republican for Obama)

What Blue Collar Voters of all races and creeds need to know

jennie — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:36:48 EDT

One giant lobbying firm is running two campaigns in the Primaries. That firm is Burson Marsteller. Charlie Black, Jr. is working "on the bus" with John McCain. Mark Penn is closely directing Hillary Clinton's strategies. Both men work for the same lobbyist firm which represents a great many multiconglomerates AND FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.

It is a lobby firm with many branches, and its track record is pretty insidious. It is a "legitimate" enterprise, aided and abetted by NAFTA legislation to not only manipulate government policies within the United States, but all over the world. It has many subsidieries.

The BKSH & Associates website says:

"BKSH & Associates world wide provides the Burson-Marsteller family with ELITE government consulting, public affairs and strategic lobbying capabilities. The firms professionals design and execute government strategies o the federal and state levels, which affect public policy and enhance business development practices around the world.

The firm uses a BIPARTISAN approach led by Charlie Black . . ." the article goes on to describe how it "quietly works behind the scenes for fortune 500 companies, multinationals, . .. foreign governments.

(mulitnationals include Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and other nations where the firm has been involved in covering up human rights abuses, and breaking up efforts to organize, or unionize on behalf of oppressed workers in other nations)

One lobbying firm involved in the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain? A candidate who is running a scorched earth campaign against her own party member, despite the fact that her chances of winning without substantial maneuvering behind the scenes are increasingly unlikely.

A candidate who is lying and manipulating around the facts of her record, her accomplishments, and has been the wife of a two term President who enacted NAFTA legislation, who has many powerful connections politically?

A candidate who is using openly racist tactics that will destroy the long-term viability of the party.

A candidate who opening violated the party rules even before the primaries begin by agreeing to have her name on ballots.

A candidate who has Republican state leaders manipulating Democratic primaries and then frustrating efforts for any fair do-overs.

A candidate who is manipulating the media before significant votes with false information.

A candidate who is unwilling to release her tax records and whose husband has been involved in lucrative international trade deals, while continuing to receive briefings as a former president.

Someone who compromised party principles even before the campaign began and appears to be deliberately running a race that is designed to destroy the party or cause the party to capitulate to corporate domination of our government.

Please don't buy the "ism" divisions the Clinton/McCain campaign are trying parlay into a vote against our Democracy.

Please take the trouble to share the simple facts of this Lobbying firms mission, and both Senator Clinton and John McCain's involvement with it, and connect the dots to the racism and division this lobbying firm is trying to sow to divide our nation in order to take over our government.

Jennie

ONE LOBBY FIRM "ADVISING" CLINTON AND MCCAIN CAMPAIGNS

jennie — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:46:36 EDT

Burson-Marsteller's CEO Charlie Black is running John McCain's campaign. Burson-Marsteller's employee is running Hillary Clinton's campaign. ONE POWERFUL LOBBYIST FIRM involved with two potential candidates on both sides of a National Primary process.

Hillary Clinton chose to use the same firm as the opposition. WHY?

Senator Clinton is engaging in tactics that may permanently destroy the Democratic Party, including false allegations, blatant racist invective, and efforts to manipulate rules, which, in Florida seem to be helped by the Republican party. Rush Limbaugh is shilling for her. She is endorsing the Republican candidate.

BIG LOBBY MONEY gaming the political process with the help of Senator Clinton?

One firm caucusing behind the scenes to ruin the future of an entire political party with one candidate's willing collusion from the get go?

It was hinky when I first heard it, and it reeks like a dead fish in the subsequent events of this campaign.

Connect the dots; The NYT article about Senator McCain wasn't about the sex; it was about who the lobbyists are who are involved in his campaign.

Mark Penn and Charlie Black are Burson-Marsteller. THIS IS GETTING LITTLE PRESS BUT DAILY KOS has had some articles on it and Wikipedia has some information. Lots of background available.

This should be getting some serious air time in light of the current behavior of the Clinton campaign, which appears to be running against the long term interests of her party, against any hope of an ethical vote, and against the best interests of our nation.

Why we caucus

Maria Ramos — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:11:35 EDT

Let's play, but let's keep it fair. I live in a very liberal,very democratic precinct in Texas. I have never seen so much energy from Dems in this state! We went to caucus in droves because we had never in our memory have we had our voice heard in this state in our vote for prez.

As soon as we lined up to start signing in at the polling place, a high school auditorium, one of the officials started to tell the crowd to aggregate according to our candidate. Clinton supporters were to meet at the front, and Obama supporters to the back. I don't think this official was conciously aware of what she said. However, you have to be a 3 year old in Kazakstan to not know the reference to the "back of the bus". As it turned out, our precint came out evenly split between each candidate. There was a clear age difference when the voters turned up at the caucus.

I wish we caucused more here in Texas. I think we could learn a lot from congregating and actually talking to each other in person about what is happening. I heard the story of a school teacher who had colleagues admitting to voting for Clinton in the primary, even though she didn't come close to identifying herself as a democrat. Some republicans voted for Clinton because they think she would be easier to defeat in November. Others voted for her, as in the case of my neighbor's colleague, because they believe he is Muslim.

She may have voted for Clinton, but I think that she wouldn't have gone out of her way to attend the caucus. That is why the Texas 2 step remains a good idea. I wouldn't know how else to keep the process fair and have the result be more in line with the intent of the electorate.

Clinton wants to go back and change the rules mid-game because things are not going her way. I have not seen the pundits talk about why the rules should remain in place. The Obama campaign must state the obvious and counter the desperate ploy to count the Florida and Michigan primary elections. Please talk about the number of uncommitted voters when the Clinton campaign tries to increase the number of delegates in their camp by counting the delegates that would have voted for her from those states.

Make sure all FL Obama supporters are registered Democrats

Millie Bradenton FL — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:25:07 EDT

With the possibility of the re-vote happening, we need to make sure that any Republican or Independent person that supports Obama here in FL change their party affiliation NOW to Democrat to be able to vote. My Significant Other who is an Obama supporter and a registered Republican did so yesterday. It was simple and painless. All you need to do is go to the Supervisor of Elections office in your County and fill out a registration indicating change of party affiliation. FL requires that you change your party affiliation 29 days before an election. So now is the time to get all of the Independents and Republican supporters registered!

You can also download the registration form indicate change of party and mail it in. I'm providng below the link. You can download the form and mail it in to the supervisor of election in your county.

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/RegToVote/webappform.pdf

Cultural Competency

jennie — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:16:03 EDT

Geraldine Ferraro is asking "If Barack wasn't a black man would he be where he is in this campaign?", and many of Senator Hillary Clinton's remarks during this campaign season, as well as the last eight years of hate speech and racist invective from the Republican Party- endorsed spokespersons and celebrity mouthpieces, serve to highlight a foreign policy problem that has long gone unaddressed which makes us look hypocritical and malignant to the rest of the world. Isn't it somewhat specious for Ms. Ferraro, Senator Clinton, to blame losses in a campaign on gender? or success on race? What about actual performance? What if that is the central issue? And what does your discussion suggest?

Its a smaller planet. Between cable mainstream media, and the internet, words said here in the U.S. go to unforeseen places. Whole nations of persons are listening to our leaders and celebrities. The media have helped to channel this all over the world, and what is highly visible most of the time is hardly the best or most noble traits of our nation. Other countries may look at our freedoms and wonder why we squander and waste them the way we do. What is noble or admirable about hate speech and divisive argument? What is noble about racism? How does that help our foreign policy? How does that square with "one nation"?

This divisive self-serving manner of talk is broadcast all over the world, to some countries that have long had more mature notions of such ridiculous matters, as well as nations where tribal wars, genocide and terrorism are fueled by hate speech and divisive language. We are very good at pointing out other nations' shortcomings, but are we mature enough to take responsibility for our own behavior, and repent of the very evil we deplore in others?

How are we different, if we enact this among ourselves. Will we, in a few years, devolve into the kind of troubles we now witness further along the continuum abroad? The world is watching.

Frankly, if Senator Mr. Barack Obama was a Senator Ms. Barack Obama I would be voting for "her" anyway, because candidate Obama has willingly and forthrightly demonstrated transparency around financial and donor records in advance of the campaign- no parsing, nothing carefully culled; a spontaneous act of respect for voters based on principle. Candidate Obama has demonstrated good faith and respect for voters. THAT is a refreshing change.

Candidate Obama has raised the majority of campaign funds from voters, lots of them, in many small donations. THIS tells me who the real constituency is, in a political and mediascape where "we the people" are increasingly disenfranchised and treated like shills to be duped for votes or marketing scams.

Senator Obama has confined arguments to experience, policy, and matters of record. Candidate Obama's arguments have logic and dignity. Candidate Obama is debating facts, not trading insults and amateurish quips as a campaign strategy. Candidate Obama doesn't waste our time with that stuff.

Candidate Obama has organized a successful campaign, which shows much work, thought, planning and ingenuity. Candidate Obama has attracted a lot of support and talent that add to the excitement of the campaign.

Candidate Obama has not attempted to manipulate rules in the middle of the primary or use special connections to manipulate the outcome of the election. Candidate Obama doesn't whine or invite pity or victimhood when asked to be accountable.

Candidate Obama is consistent in dignified behavior and responses, and appears to act through steady adherence to principle. Candidate Obama is not capricious in mood and tone or in message.

Candidate Obama has troubled to study Constitutional law.

Candidate Obama is forthright on behalf of voters, and is willing to speak up even when it might have negative consequence to personal ambition or gain.

Candidate Obama has not inflated his experience.

Candidate Obama doesn't manipulate voters with fear.

Candidate Obama is inspiring, uplifting, and uniting at a time when we have many difficult tasks as a society, and most need a hopeful leader who is a true public servant, not a celebrity politician.

Candidate Obama is the real deal: whatever gender, race, creed, it is the BEHAVIORS I am voting for.

That is what we should all be voting for, not the smoke and mirrors given us by infotainment polemics, thinly veiled hate speech, and dramatic manipulations.

It has nothing to do with gender or race, Ms. Ferraro. Its about the behaviors. We are looking at the actual behavior of the person who will be sworn in to protect and defend the Constitution that asserts the words: Government of the People, For the People, and by the People. Candidate Obama gets that. Candidate Clinton insults him for it.

Its about treating voters with respect, and demonstrating cultural competence as a criteria for the Presidency of the United States

The New Great Divide

Suzanne, Feeling SAFER with OBAMA on the Planet — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:10:50 EDT

Here is a section from the NY Times, Op_Ed Columnist Cohen, "Tribalism Here, and There", Published: March 10, 2008:

"But the United States is divided, within itself and from the world, in growing ways.

It is divided by war, by income chasms, by foreclosures, by political polarization and by culture wars. Increasingly it is looked upon from outside with dismay or alarm. Healing, within and without, will be a central task of the next president.

For several years now, Obama has made the possibility of unity beyond division the core of his politics. That’s just poetry, the pooh-poohing Clinton people say, but governing is about the prose of experience and grit.

I see plenty of Obama prose, in new proposals for national service, for more equitable taxation, for health care, for international dialogue; and in his unique experience, both personal and professional, of reaching across continental, racial, religious and class lines. His grit is self evident. Look where he came from.

I looked. Those charred buildings and smashed windows in Kisumu are borne somewhere in Obama’s soul, just as the words of his half-sister Auma are when she described their elusive father’s travails: Kenyatta telling him “he would not work again until he had no shoes on his feet.” On the south side of Chicago, Obama has lived the American refractions of such violent division.

If I was to sum up this presidential race, I’d say: “It’s the generations, stupid.”

An American generation under 45 has glimpsed an interconnected world beyond race and tribe. They know its attainment will be elusive but, after a bitter season, they feel summoned by what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” And, speaking of experience, they know Lincoln came to the presidency with all of two years in Congress behind him, and a failed Senate campaign.

Looking out from Kenya, where he mediated an end to the tribal violence, Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, told me: “I think an Obama presidency would be inspirational, an incredible development in the world.”

AN OBAMA PRESIDENCY: "...AN INCREDIBLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE WORLD". (Kofi Annan)

Quote of the day 3/9/08

We can and we will — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:35:20 EDT

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

~John F. Kennedy

Costly Grace

jennie — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:01:59 EDT

Like many folks, I am old enough to recall the early campaigns of the Clintons, and my votes for William Jefferson Clinton those many years ago. I regret those votes.

I am also old enough to appreciate the sense of betrayal I felt as most of the supposedly progressive ideas endorsed by the Clintons turned out to be merely cloaked in language acceptable to progressives, but the actual programs and policies resulted in conservative Republican consequences to countless persons who had placed their faith in the Clintons.

George Bush didn't start the Orwellian double speak, he has merely enlarged upon it. While Kenneth Starr became a household name for Puritan prurience, at the same time, the tolerance of what appeared to be a disturbing lack of genuineness, human feeling, and accountability ruined, for many persons, the feeling of pride or even belief in leadership. What a waste of our time and our faith. What a black hole of hope.

Like many other folks, I began to assume that many folks who go into politics meet the criteria for character disorders. These are mental illnesses that are largely untreatable, mostly characterized by a lack of empathy for others, a lack of accountability and mutuality in relationships, a grandiose sense of personal superiority and expectation of favourable treatment, and a sense that rules somehow just don't apply to them. There is often a lack of ethical comprehension, and a wilingness to exploit others and lie easily, even effortlessly, and parse words. There are no fixed principles; they don't suffer from these conditions; others do. Persona management is a full time job for some of these folks. Other human beings have only utilitarian value for personal goals, or not, as their usefulness and convenience decline.

It's an interesting journey for me. I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's discussion of costly grace, largely because then first Lady Clinton had been quoted as having been moved by it. This was in the interest of a, then, new page in leadership in our nation. I recall that notion of Bonhoeffer's was a powerful notion, one that has stayed with me, but has sadly has lead me away from any feeling that candidate Clinton exhibits that quality.

There was no costly grace on behalf of the thousands upon thousands of African people who died in a genocide with no mercy or even interest from the Clintons. There was no grace for the hundreds of thousands children and women rendered homeless in the U.S. by legislation enacted by the Clinton administration. There was no sincere concern for the consequences of NAFTA to hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. No costly grace in the loss of national health care due to mandates that favor insurance companies. Senator Clinton's unqualified support of the Iraq war sealed it yet again. Where was the costly grace?

I do see, however, that notion of costly grace in the life work of Samantha Power. Her scholarship and moral witness, her willingness to be with suffering and not turn a blind eye, nor does she engage in personality politics around her advocacy. She has a passion for what is true and good and important in human kind. She is a public servant extraordinaire, and a woman of substantive work and insight. Her resignation from the campaign is yet another example of costly grace. It is not the first time she has been brave.

Last week you could practically hear the wingbeats of the flying monkeys being sent to entrap the genuine, lurking about awaiting a reaction to a filthy lie, boldly stated before an election to a media that is little more than a shill for the very corporate interests behind the Clinton campaign, repeated endlessly, only to be soundly refuted much later, after voters were just plain duped by their own idol.

And the good person who states honestly what should be appreciated by the world, is penalized for her genuineness. It is a response many of us feel around these tactics. A monstrous hydra head of enmeshed and corrupt connections that permeat our government, media, and business interests all over the world. Reptilian in its lack of fellow feeling or integrity.

The hydra headed monster is making itself felt through the evil of racism, and the slant of thinking that objectifies whole races of persons around the world. Just today some politician displayed his cultural incompetence and sinister lack of logic, for all the world to see, alleging that because a candidate has the name Hussein, he will fuel terrorism. A specious argument. In all likelihood if there is any consequence to a middle name, it will likely inspire the more innocent, kindly and moderate members of the Islamic world to revise their views of our nation as a tribe of selfish, hypocritical, ignorant bigots. What an repulsive way to grab public attention.

Bigotry like this should be unpatriotic when there are young men and women from every religion, including Muslim men and women, being injured and permanently maimed in the service of our country even as I write. This kind of speech also does devastating damage to all our foreign policy and undermines our integrity among nations. It is shameful and to my thinking, a perversion of so-called Christian values. There is a whole load of loud, boastful and very empty praying in the temple by folks who monger this stuff.

But Halleluia! there are women like Samantha Power, whom the knowing know, are folks who pretty much hold up the roof of the world, and keep principle alive.

It is a sign of the excellence of this campaign that her work, her thinking, and her integrity have influenced and been allied with this campaign. Her leaving the campaign is yet another example of her costly grace. We will meet again. And her writing and ongoing work is accessible to us all.

This campaign is very much about costly grace, and a willingness to devote ourselves and our nation to the ideals of the Constitution, to elect a President who is ,foremost of all a public servantj in the best tradition of leadership, and to hope for a higher level of functioning among those who represent us.

The message is moving around our nation, as people watch the events of this campaign ensue. When one person determines to chart a personal path of accountability, transperency, and faithfulness to principles, it affects and enhances an entire system.

Congratulations to the State of Wyoming and thank you! YES WE CAN! We can be a nation worthy of our Constitution.

Mischief in Texas

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:04:27 EST

March 6, 2008, 6:22 pmThe Limbaugh Effect on Clinton’s Texas Win

Susan Davis reports on the presidential race.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh led a campaign to have his Republican followers in Texas cross party lines and vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state’s open primary last Tuesday. Why? Because Limbaugh thinks Republicans can defeat Clinton in a general election. Plus, watching Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama bloody each other in a nomination fight is pure sport for Limbaugh conservatives.

According to exit polls, Clinton won a notably higher number of Republican voters than she has in past open primary contests. Of the 9% of voters who identified themselves as Republicans in the Democratic Primary, Obama still edged Clinton 53%-46%. However, that margin is significantly slimmer than earlier contests. In Wisconsin’s open primary, for instance, Republicans broke 72%-28% for Obama. Similarly, in Virginia’s open primary, Obama was favored 72%-23%.

Clinton unquestionably secured a Texas victory, but some locals are convinced it was a false win bolstered by dirty politics. Laura Jean Kreissl, an accounting professor at West Texas A&M University, served as an election official in Canyon, Texas on Tuesday. She contacted the Wall Street Journal to report the hijinks she observed at the four precincts that voted at her polling location.

Of the 181 voters she personally dealt with, 70 offered that they were “Rush Limbaugh voters” who were there to cast ballots for Clinton. “I’m here to vote for Hillary Clinton, I want to see the Democratic Party implode,” one voter told Kreissl, she recounted in an interview. “I was just stunned,” she said. “As an election official we can’t say anything. We just jot them down and let them vote.”

Kreissl, an Obama supporter, said she kept rough counts, but her fellow poll worker, a Clinton supporter, both estimated that as many as two-thirds of the voters were Limbaugh Republicans turned Clinton voters. About 800 ballots were cast in total there. “I’m an accounting professor, I know numbers pretty well,” she said.

Kreissl worked a 19 hour day to also help organize the caucus event later that night. Similarly, she said she personally checked in 20 Obama supporters and 17 Clinton supporters. Of Clinton’s 17, 10 identified themselves as Rush Limbaugh voters, she said.

She’s convinced the Limbaugh voters turned the tide in favor of Clinton. “I don’t think we were an isolated case by any means,” she said. “I think it was very widespread across the state.”

The grassroots group, Republicans for Obama, agrees. “Hillary Clinton owes her political life to Rush Limbaugh,” they wrote on their web site Wednesday.

Rush Limbaugh is also convinced. “Don’t Doubt the Limbaugh Effect,” he boasts on his web site.

Clinton won Texas 50.9%-47.4%, earning roughly 100,000 more votes than Obama. However, Texas’s two-part system of a same day primary and a caucus is expected to end up netting Obama more delegates when the caucus delegates are allotted.

Clinton's BIG STATE Myth

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:58:24 EST

Clinton's "Big State" Myth: Why Barack Obama Remains the Most Electable Democrat This Fall

Posted March 5, 2008 | 05:48 PM (EST) By Robert Creamer

The Clinton Campaign's post March 4th message is to forget about the delegate count and nominate Hillary because she can win the big states Democrats need in November. That argument simply doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Here's why:

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

1) Most of the "Big States" she has won are not battleground states in the fall. New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and California are solid blue states where Obama would do as well or better than Clinton in a general election against McCain.

2) Of the states she's won so far, the big exception to this rule is Ohio. Ohio is in fact a critical battleground state where Hillary has demonstrated that she has a leg up among lower income whites and older voters. But the polling also shows that in a general election, Barack offsets this advantage in Ohio among young voters and college-educated independents. In a McCain-Clinton match up the later group could gravitate heavily to McCain in Ohio.

In an Ohio general election, Obama's ability to attract independents and mobilize young and minority voters will trump Clinton's advantages among non-college whites -- a group that will break heavily for either Barack or Hillary against the "free trade" McCain.

Just remember, in Ohio right now, "national security" is a job. The economy and trade -- not "national security" -- will almost certainly continue to be the overriding issues for non-college whites in Ohio this November.

3) Obama puts in play a panoply of states where Clinton would have a much tougher time. Obama could potentially win Virginia (13 electoral votes), Missouri (11 electoral votes) and even Mississippi (whose population is 40% African American -- 6 electoral votes). He would be considerably more competitive than Clinton in other battleground states like Colorado (9 electoral votes), Iowa (7 electoral votes), Wisconsin (10 electoral votes), Minnesota (10 electoral votes) and Michigan (17 electoral votes). The same goes for New Hampshire (4 electoral votes) -- a state where McCain will work hard to woo independents among whom Obama did much better than Clinton in this year's primary.

4) Even in states where Clinton could make a case for some advantages relative to Obama, these "advantages" are far from certain. Take Florida where she might assert an advantage among Latinos. Florida also has up to 500,000 newly enfranchised ex-felons -- many of whom are African American. The problem with these new voters is mobilization, not persuasion. Getting them registered and voting will be hard. Obama would obviously turn out many more African American mobilizable voters than Clinton. And when it comes to Latino voters, Obama's clear record on immigration contrasts well with McCain who has thrown Latino immigration reform aspirations under the bus in order to pander to his party's right wing.

5) Obama has the one quality that allows him to simultaneously motivate mobilizable base voters and appeal to persuadable independents -- the ability to inspire. This quality allows him to broaden the appeal of his candidacy to swing voters. At the same time it allows him to expand the electorate with new young and African American voters who otherwise simply wouldn't vote. Clinton is the anti-inspiration candidate. She will have a much harder time both expanding the electorate and appealing to swing voters. Obama's ability to inspire -- by itself -- makes him a much stronger general election candidate.

6) Finally, let's remember that the base of the Republican Party -- cultural conservatives -- is not so wild about McCain. They are accepting McCain with about as much enthusiasm as children take cough medicine. They know they need him, but they really aren't happy about it. The one thing that could energize the Republican base is their inveterate hatred for Hillary Clinton. Clinton would mobilize right-wing base voters the same way that hatred for Bush motivated Democrats in 2006. Why should we help galvanize the Republican base by nominating Hillary Clinton when we have another great choice?

All of these factors are born out in the consistent survey results that show Obama polls six to ten points better than Clinton against John McCain.

Clinton will have a difficult to impossible time winning the pledged delegate battle. Her only path to the nomination is convincing Super Delegates that she is the most electable. That dog won't hunt.

Robert Creamer is a long time political organizer and strategist and author of the new book Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight. How Progressives Can Win. The book is available at Amazon.com.

Wake-Up Call

Micah Roschke — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:10:10 EST

In my opinion, March 4th will go down as a harsh indicator of what's wrong with America. Obama lost 3 of 4 primaries for a number of reasons:

1.) Negative campaigning worked. Hillary's "red phone" commercial was straight out of the Bush/Rove playbook, stirring up anxiety and FEAR in order to intimidate people into voting for the establishment candidate.

2.)Rush Limbaugh influenced quite a few Republicans to cross over and vote for Hillary in order to hurt the Democratic Party. Hey, it's a free county, and I think that primaries should remain "open." With that said, however, I believe it shows that war-mongering, Republicans much rather have Hillary in the White House than Barack.

3.) Race is still an extremely divisive issue. This is a sad reality. The vote was deeply rooted in a racial divide. Many Latinos voted for Hillary because many don't like black people. Almost all African American voters supported Barack with race likely playing a big factor. And in Ohio, 65% of white voters voted for Hillary. According to exit polling, 1 in 10 said that "race was an essential factor in their decision." Out of those individuals, 4 out of 5 were Clinton supporters. In other words....racist white people. How sad is this? I don't support Barack BECAUSE he's black. I support him because he's the best candidate. I don't dislike Hillary BECAUSE she's a woman. I dislike her because she's a wishy-washy, corrupted politician. While it's not surprising, I am still saddened by seeing that SO MANY AMERICANS ARE RACIST and IGNORANT.

Why does the media not talk about these issues (especially #3)? They are as much to blame as anyone.

I'm disappointed with Tuesday's results, but I am still hopeful that goodness will prevail. GO BARACK! GO AMERICA!

It's Time to End This Thing - Sign My Petition

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:11:48 EST

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but I have about had it with Hillary. Running a good clean race is one thing, but the kind of tactics we have been watching her engage in over the last three or four weeks is enough to turn me off the democratic party for good. We cannot allow her to be sent up as a nominee. As republican nominee, McCain is now in the position to use all the fodder that Hillary has been giving him and we cannot afford to wait to send Barack up as our Nominee. We need to end this here and now and to do that, we will need Dr. Dean's help. To this point Dr. Dean has been "neutral" but it's time for him to say "enough with the dirty politics- time to get out of the Race and let the delegate leader take control". The media and Clinton Camp spin today is positively nauseating and I'm not sure how much more I can take fo this. Therefore I am "reinvigorating" my pettion to have Howard Dean tell her to drop out if she cannot stop with the dirty politics.

Please consider signing this petition and circulate to at least 10 people each. time is of the essence.

I cannot sid idly by while our party is being Hijacked by a mudslinger.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/my/dashboard/686201019

Thanks

OBAMA 08

BEcause we must!

Quote of the day 3/1/08

We can and we will — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:14:32 EST

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

~George Bernard Shaw

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE for Obama!

Suzanne, Feeling SAFER with OBAMA on the Planet — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:02:16 EST

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, which frightens us.

We ask ourselves,who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?? You are a child of God. Your playing small does NOT serve the world. There is no-thing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the Glory of God that is within us, ALL of us. And as we let our Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our Presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela 1994

One thing about the "yes we can" philosophy is that it reveals to us that we are powerful beyond measure. We are becoming willing to change, from a top-down control model, to a sustainable green model that benefits the planet and its inhabitants. Yes We Can Change Our World. Obama's rejection of the politics of fear liberates us from fear. THE TRUTH IS SUSTAINABLE.

Walk to Ba Rock Pennsylvania

Lawrence — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:45:57 EST

Hello Folks,
Shelly and I are organising a WALK TO BA ROCK Pennsylvania.
This walk will cover about a 10 mile distance, passing through a populated area of the city. Arrangements have reached advanced stage. This walk we hope will wrap up Pennsylvania and the primary campaign. It will also be an "Outing for Barack" after sitting behind the monitor for too long. It might be the time to meet people in person who have been in your list of friends for too long. It will be an opportunity to give ourselves high 5 for a job well done. It will be an opportunity also to take a deep breath before we go back behind the monitors for the main election against McCain. We will try and include a lunch or dinner that will give us opportunity for interaction.
Honk if this is a good idea.
Shelly is so graceful she has opted to help people coming with accommodation even housing some in her own house. Feel free to call either myself or Shelly with the numbers below.
Lawrence for Obama 209-823-3148
Shelly for Obama 717-694-3323

Note; If nothing changes, we have 12th of April Down.

Quote of the day 2/27/08

We can and we will — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:41:18 EST

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one" ~John Lennon

Show me the Money! McCain Backing out of Federal Funding for Primary .

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:20:38 EST

from the Politico

February 24, 2008
Read More: Campaigns

DNC to file FEC complaint over over McCain funding controversy

The Democratic National Committee will file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission challenging Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) attempt to withdraw from the presidential matching-fund system.

McCain wants to exit from the matching-fund system in order to get out from under the primary spedning limit of $54 million, even though in January he used the promise of federal matching funds to get a $1 million bank loan when his campaign ran into financial difficulties prior to the Super Tuesday primary contests. McCain's victory in South Carolina that day thrust him into the role of GOP front-runner and millions of dollars of donations have flowed in since then, alleviating the financial crisis that the Arizona Republican faced last year when his campaign bottomed out.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean said McCain benefitted from his application for matching funds beyond the bank loan, pointing out that participating in the system helped McCain get automatically on the presidential ballot in key states.

FEC Commissioner David Mason has publicly stated that McCain cannot unilaterally withdraw from the system without commission approval, which is impossible for the Arizona Republican to do at this moment because a partisan dispute between the White House and Senate Democrats has left the FEC without a working quorum of commissioners in place.

If McCain cannot get out from under the spending limit, he could be severely hamstrung in responding to Democratic attacks in the period leading up to the GOP convention. McCain's campaign has already raised $49 million, and Dean and other Democrats are convinced that he may have already broken thought the $54 million limit. If the FEC refuses to let McCain exit the voluntary matching-funds system, he could be held personally liable for violating the cap, which would a criminal charge.

"The whole issue here is frankly John McCain's integrity," Dean told reporters Sunday.

McCain's campaign charged that Dean was hypocritical on the issue, and campaign lawyers argue that they reviewed the issue thoroughly before McCain applied for the unusual bank loan.

"The facts are clear: In 2003, Dr. Dean entered but later withdrew from the matching funds system — the same thing Sen. McCain is doing today. It's absurd that Dr. Dean would attack someone for doing exactly what Dr. Dean did just a few years ago," said Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, in a statement released on Sunday.

"It's disappointing that the Democrats would resort to hypocritical attacks to avoid addressing the real issues in this campaign, like who's best prepared to lead as commander in chief in a dangerous world, and who can revive our economy by cutting taxes and wasteful spending."

Dean, however, countered, that he and former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) both opted out of the funding system only with FEC approval, and in the meantime, he spent millions gaining ballot access in key states, something McCain didn't have to do.

"McCain has already benefitted materially in several ways" from his decision to apply for matching funds, said Dean, arguing that McCain can't just opt out when it suits him.

On Being Green

Suzanne, Feeling SAFER with OBAMA on the Planet — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:23:11 EST

I don't know what "Green" means exactly. I am new to the political scene. But I can share what it means to me. GREEN means ALIVE AND SUSTAINABLE, not dead and toxic. Toxic. Toxic makes me think of suffocating (since breath is life). And there is such a thing as Toxic Politics, or Toxic systems, as we well know. I am for Obama because I do believe we can move out of toxicity to green, aliveness in politics, as well as economics, and have green social structures as well (not top-down, but collaborative, like Native American Sacred Circles, or 12 Step Circles). Obama embodies these values of decency, honesty, hope, diplomacy, etc. We are forming a wide circle around this planet of people who share these values and believe that YES WE CAN shift out of old models into new GREEN Politics.

Anyhow, I was just thinking about this Obama Community Blog, how people can come here to learn, to share, to empower each other, to get active, etc. TO GET INFORMED AND TO OFFER OPINIONS. This blog is alive and therefore GREEN.

I hope that when OBAMA is President, our voices will still have a space like this to go to to continue sharing, offering opinions, getting information, etc. I am very naive, yes, but something is working here that needs to be carried forward. Kept alive and green.

THE TRUTH IS SUSTAINABLE.

Why I like Obama

We can and we will — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:46:45 EST

I pulled a line from my story about why I'm voting for Obama, I hope to have the rest posted soon. I thought this might reassure you of Obama's greatest qualities and where they came from. He is someone we can all look up to, but he is someone who will always look at us eye to eye.

"Times of desperation force the revelation of true character." -Jesse Craig

A campaign that gives us beauty as well as hope!

jennie — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:58:35 EST

There has been an amazing amount of creativity and thought in this campaign, at every level. If you haven't heard it yet, here is another beautiful and moving work of music and film posted on youtube, featuring Andreas Useche, singer/songwirter in a film directed by Eric Byler. It expresses this campaign and our hopes beautifully. Si SE PUEDE! We've been poked fun at for "Kumbayah" by the folks who brought us the sinister film offering that was introduced last week by the Republican party. This is an exquisite contrast.

Jennie Markens

Some help?

We can and we will — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:01:53 EST

Okay, so I've been trying to get some signs together. I have a friend with the machine to cut vinyl letters. He is a big time republican but he has offered to cut the letters for me. I actually got him to admit that he'd be fine with Obama getting elected but will not stand for Hillary. Anyway, I am trying to find corrugated plastic and metal frames. I noticed just driving around my area that there are a lot of frames on the side of the road that have lost their sign. I am going to collect any that I can. I still need the corrugated plastic though. I am willing to cut it to size, or whatever I have to do. Money is an issue so I'd like to find the best deal I can. Is there anyone with friends that have wholesale rates on something like this? I called Obama headquarters for their advice, but no one was there to answer...or too busy expanding our movement. I am looking for plastic signs because we here in PA we have snow, and we have lots of time before our primary so the signs must hold up. Can anyone help with this effort? I have help behind me to make and distribute the signs, just need a little more material. I am also painting some wood signs but wanted something a little more professional too. I would love your advice. I did look for wholesale rates on-line, but I think we can do better with some combined efforts. Thanx. -Jesse

She who runs negative ads...

We can and we will — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:16:40 EST

She who runs negative ads cries most when she is down. C'mon Hillary, you blast Obama when you've been running negative ads this whole campaign. You say you are honored to run against him, meanwhile trying to smear his name with negative ads. There is a debate...I can not afford healthcare now, and will not be able to afford it with Hillary's plan that does not go after the problem of high priced healthcare...BIG BUSINESS. Forcing people to sign up for your plan doesn't help the cost that will raise every year after we've signed up. Saying you'll have universal healthcare doesn't mean congress will just give it to you because you say you want it. We must start with a plan that will actually pass through congress.....OBAMA FOR PRES!

Making Signs

We can and we will — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:01:39 EST

I am making Obama signs today. I was wondering if anyone had made signs before and could offer any advice. I am very handy, so cutting and painting aren't a problem, but making them look as professional as possible is going to be the challenge. Any ideas?

Obama supporters..beating McCain and Clinton on lobbyists

We can and we will — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:37:26 EST

A story broke last night about McCain and his relationship to Vicki Iseman, 40, a lobbyist that McCain has strong ties to. I believe it is a clever way of bringing up an ethics story to hide the real story about McCain and his ties to lobbyists. I have pulled and highlighted some lobbying issues from the article, but I have left the link to this story and a sub story. McCain and Clinton have strong ties to lobbyists and this is our way to win our fight for change. We must not lose focus on these ties...don't be fooled by clever tricks.

NEW YORK TIMES 2/21/08 "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk" This article is by Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton.

Mr. Keating had taken over the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association and used its federally insured deposits to gamble on risky real estate and other investments. He pressed Mr. McCain and other lawmakers to help hold back federal banking regulators.

For years, Mr. McCain complied. At Mr. Keating’s request, he wrote several letters to regulators, introduced legislation and helped secure the nomination of a Keating associate to a banking regulatory board.

When Lincoln went bankrupt in 1989 — one of the biggest collapses of the savings and loan crisis, costing taxpayers $3.4 billion — the Keating Five became infamous. The scandal sent Mr. Keating to prison and ended the careers of three senators, who were censured in 1991 for intervening. Mr. McCain, who had been a less aggressive advocate for Mr. Keating than the others, was reprimanded only for “poor judgment” and was re-elected the next year.

“I would very much like to think that I have never been a man whose favor can be bought,” Mr. McCain wrote about his Keating experience in his 2002 memoir, “Worth the Fighting For.” “From my earliest youth, I would have considered such a reputation to be the most shameful ignominy imaginable. Yet that is exactly how millions of Americans viewed me for a time, a time that I will forever consider one of the worst experiences of my life.”

A drive to expunge the stain on his reputation in time turned into a zeal to cleanse Washington as well. The episode taught him that “questions of honor are raised as much by appearances as by reality in politics,” he wrote, “and because they incite public distrust they need to be addressed no less directly than we would address evidence of expressly illegal corruption.”

During his current campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. McCain has played down his attacks on the corrupting power of money in politics, aware that the stricter regulations he championed are unpopular in his party. When the Senate overhauled lobbying and ethics rules last year, Mr. McCain stayed in the background.

The lobbying and ethics reform rules that McCain hid from...the same rules he says he wants to fight for. READ TWO PARAGRAPHS ABOVE THIS AND THEN HIT THIS LINK:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011802176.html

New York Times Article link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Letters of support to Michelle

We can and we will — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:22:40 EST

Look, what Michelle was saying was that she was proud that we have stood up for what we believe and are continuing to fight. She's proud because we are taking over a system that has shut us out. I wrote a letter to her to thank her for what she was really saying because she was saying that about us and our work in helping this movement. I am hoping you will all write her a letter as well. I posted mine so you caould all see what I had written. There is no need for her to back track if we all shout out thaty we understand. Please send this letter out to everyone you can.

Michelle,
We love you. As one of a million strong working hard to shake up our political system I thank you. We understand your message exactly. For the first time I am REALLY PROUD of my country too. You know, the first time I painted a house I was proud of myself, but the first time I built a house I was REALLY PROUD of myself.
I understand Mrs. McCain's loyalty to her husband but, just like Hillary, a whole lot of kickin' and screamin' comes when they see our movement headed at them. They know that we are coming to shake them right out of their cozy little seat, and the working class will fix all that they have broken.
We support Barack, and we support you.
We can and we will,
Jesse
p.s.- We really need your help in PA. if were going to win with big numbers.

A question of experience

fractured kitty — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:38:23 EST

Its not that that is the wrong question. It is just that it shouldn't be the first question. The first question is asked of ourselvews. "In this time and place what kind of experience should our President have" The answers are many and individual. For me, I want someone who has embraced difference and finds the core likenesses in all of us. I want someone who has been to the lowest and the highes places, some one who has had to learn to fit in, someone who has a childhood that spans many cultures. Someone who has grown and changed yet always remained the same person. This is the type of experience it will take to solve the problems of this county and the world. A man who is not the solution but with me and others a part of the solution. OBAMA

The Value of Insipirational Leadership

Suzanne, Feeling SAFER with OBAMA on the Planet — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:34:32 EST

Here is an article about why leaders like Barack Obama are so crucial to all of us at this historical point in time. (And below is a letter I sent a friend in response to her saying it is all hero worship of someone who doesn't deserve it.

Click:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/to-vilify-obama-for-his-a_b_87366.html

Thanks for your input. I like hearing what others think.

Yes, many of us seem to really resonate with Obama and what he stands for in a very passionate way. I agree.

There are many politicians, judges, union leaders, university professors, however, who have a much more practical approach to him and honor his skills, which millions think are what is needed now. His emphasis on process is what I most like: he believes in collaboration, transparency, accountability, involving the people, diplomacy, and such. These skills are what may keep people inspired to do the hard work that lies ahead in terms of re-structuring the USA.

Most senators, governors, union leaders, congressmen/women, etc. who are supporting and endorsing Obama think he does indeed have "an edge" regarding "getting things done", much more of an edge than Hillary, otherwise they would not be endorsing him. Ten straight wins is not just about "worshiping" Superman.
They are about people really wanting something new and being willing to work toward that. He does have leadership skills, obviously, as proven by the success of his campaign. He is obviously tapping into people's sense that something needs to change, now, and I believe he can get a good cabinet together to work on foreign policy, domestic economic issues, and health care.

Hillary's health care plan may or may not be better. We don't know yet because mandated insurance can cause a lot of problems. There is probably a better solution than both of them are proposing, but I am glad we are at least moving in the right direction regarding health care in the USA. Obama can put us on the right track and perhaps eventually we can move into an even better plan. I have never understood why politicians get so criticized when they change their minds and revise their positions according to further investigation and experience. People have a right to change their minds -- t is a sign of maturity and flexibility rather than a fault, and we need to see how Obama's plan works before we assume it won't. I trust he will seek what is best for the American people.

I don't feel "prey" to his speeches. I believe he is a mover and a shaker which is what is really needed now. He was a community organizer, a law professor, a civil rights attorney, and a Senator who pushed through much legislation. You cannot assume he doesn't have solid plans (which he does if you just go to his website and see how he stands on issues and read his policy proposals) just because he is a gifted orator.

In any case, we should not dismiss and discredit what is happening as simply "Obamamania". Something very significant is obviously happening, and all these millions of people are wanting to be heard. They are, indeed, saying, we do want change and Hillary does not embody that to them, for whatever reason. Obama does. I honor that.

Reality is going to hit for sure. But it would with Hillary as well. Either one will be taking on a huge mess, a disaster. The war, an economic recession, crumbling infrastructure, terrorism, etc. Because he is able to rally people together behind him (in a way that Jimmy Carter never could), including Republicans and Independents, young and old, he may be exactly what is needed in the difficult times ahead. His leadership skills are going to be sorely needed. I think his is brilliant enough to put together an excellent cabinet.

For whatever reason, millions are standing by him, Eileen, and they are saying no to Hillary and Bill Clinton. I don't know why exactly, but I sense it is more than just his Charisma. They are ready for something different, and different he certainly is.

Anyhow, thanks for your two cents!

EVERYONE! THIS IS IMPORTANT! SHARE IT WITH OHIO VOTERS! PLEASE! THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU TOO!

The Original NYC Free Advice Man — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:05:11 EST

"Dear People of The Great State of Ohio,

Ohioans have a lot to be proud about their Great State! Most other Americans do not know that while North Carolina was the testing place for full flight of the first aeroplane, it was in Ohio that the Wright Brothers built the first aeroplane ever. Ohioans are a people who value wisdom, creativity and most importantly integrity and honest government.

Senator Barack Obama seeks to change America by, among many other things, changing the way things are done in Washington, DC. No more of the same old unethical and corrupt 'business as usual' practices. In his serious efforts to change things in Washington Senator Obama, during the 109th Congress, worked to have a Bill he co-sponsored with Senator Tom Coburn (D-OK), such as the "Coburn-Obama Transparency Act". This act provides the legal and fiscla means for the maintenance of a web site USAspending.gov, managed by the Office of Management and Budget (and based off of the more extensive fedspending.org, managed by OMB rival and partner OMB Watch) that lists all organizations receiving Federal funds from 2007 onward and provides breakdowns by the agency allocating the funds, the dollar amount given, and the purpose of the grant or contract. In the first month of the newly Democratic-controlled 110th Congress, Obama worked with Russ Feingold (D–WI) to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of bundled campaign contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act", which was signed into law in September 2007. He joined Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in sponsoring S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as witnessed in the 2006 midterm elections.

Those are just a few of the many things Senator Barack Obama has done to show that he is much more than a great speaker, political campaign organizer and incredibly successfuk uniter. Senator Barack Obama is a man who delivers on his promises and brings with him real change at a time when our country needs both real change and greater unity.

Our world today is a very different world when compared to the one in which President Bill Clinton began his first term in office. In 1992 America had not yet experienced the kind of massive socio-economic disruptions and harm caused in great measure by the 9-11 terror attacks of 2001. In 1992 our country was not as divided along political lines as it became under the years of George W. Bush's illegitimate Presidency. After all, George Herbert Walker Bush was slightly wiser than his son, and knew better than to openly mix religious preferences with his politics, the Unconstitutional way this Bush has. In 1992 we did not have a major war fiasco like we do today in Iraq, where most Iraqis say that it is OK to kill our precious young men and women, our brave and honorable troops.

Senator Hillary Clinton acts like we Americans are so naive to believe that she can repeat the economic successes of her husbad's Presidency in a world so different from the pre-9-11 yeas!

There are many other differences between then and now, but these three; a divided country, a country that has had a major attack on its economic stability and civil liberties, and a country that is no longer respected and loved like it used to be; make it a country that needs a very different kind of President than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain would be!

Our country needs someone who can really unite us in a way no President has been able to in such a long time, our country needs a President who is best able at rallying Americans, to inspire and motivate, most importantly, our younger generations, who can be seen as proof that America is truly the diverse and yet united country it claims to be, a President who, though a Church-going Christian, can reach out to all other faiths and cultures in a way that neither Senator Clinton nor Senator McCain can ever do!

Only Senator Barack Obama has what it takes to meet the daunting challenges of our times and restore America's Constitution and insure that America's Law Enforcement is once more serving the very interests of The American People, their freedoms, liberties and democratic institutions, as required by The Constitution. Only Senator Barack Obama has the humility and wisdom to know that no one person in today's ever-complicated world can govern an entire nation as great, powerful and diverse as America, without the wisdom, which Obama has, to know which other people to seek advice, counsel and feedback from! Senator Barack Obama knows the value of asking for advice from great American patriots like Senators Joe Biden, Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy! Only a man who knows that his experience alone will not carry the day and open the way to achieving the many things that our next President must! Only Senator Barack Obama has the kind of experience in uniting, motivating and inspiring people the way our country most urgently needs! Only Senator Barack Obama will have the public American unity and the image of a truly diverse America that will allow him to go and talk to the leaders of the world, both our friendly allies and our current enemies, and convince everyone that America is restored, knows the limits of its great power and influence and is open for business again!

Senator Hillary Clinton has failed over and over again to bring together the kind of broad support, broad and diverse coalition of Americans that America needs, not only to stop McCain from taking The White House and delivering more of the same old crap, but to bring a bright new day to America, to politics in Washington, to our lives and places of work, to the World!

No. We cannot afford to miss this unique opportunity to have a President in The White House who is most able to deliver what Senator Barack Obama can! Senator Barack Obama is going to be the President who can undo the damage done by Bush, restore our country, its Constitution and challenge our adversaries to work with us and not against us!

Also, Senator Barack Obama will be a powerful voice and presence in an America that suffered greatly from the kind of divisive politics that turned a seasonal Hurricane into what Katrina actually became, our own National Nightmare and Shame! What a beautiful irony it would be if America can have its first African American President in Mr. Barack Obama, whose very reality will inspire and motivate so many young Black men and women to seek opportunities to serve the public good and run for office! What a wonderful thing it will be to have an America that lives up to its promise as a Democracy of The People, By The People and For The People! What a grand new beginning, a bright new day, will it be when Senator Barack Obama stands at the steps of Our Nation's Capitol House and having sworn to defend and uphold Our Constitution becomes the first Black President in United States History!

But if we fail to do our civic duty and truly read up on the actual platform and list of ideas that Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has on his campaign web-site, if we fail to make a truly informed decision, and if we fail to heed the advice of some of the wisest and greatest Democratic politicians; then we might fail to elect the kind of person most able to unite our diverse nation, to restore Our Great Constitution, and to unite our allies around the world as no other candidate can! And if that were to happen, then what would become of all those young Black men and women who would have been inspired, motivated and empowered?? What will become of all those young Americans, educated college students and those still yearning to be educated, who could have been inspired, motivated and empowered to build a great new America! And what will become of all the Independents and Swing Voters who might have become so encouraged and optimistic about Our Democratic Party and its ability to be unifying and yet diverse??? And, last but not least, what will become of YOU? Will you be able to live with the knowledge that you helped STOP HOPE and CHANGE from HAPPENING IN AMERICA?!?

Find out why Michael Moore and MoveOn.org both support Senator Obama's candidacy?? ( http://www.michaelmoore.com http://www.moveon.org ) . Read what Senator Daschle, Kennedy and others have written about why you should seriously consider voting for Senator Barack Obama?

So, do yourself and Our Country a favor and make sure you know all that you really can about Obama and Clinton before you cast your vote!

Shame on Senator McCain for falsely claiming the our candidate is just eloquent and empty rhetoric!

Senator Barack Obama also has the support of many Senior Democrats and truly respects and appreciates the great, heroic and valiant efforts of generations of American servicemen and women, as he has stated many time in his speeches and for which Senator John Kerry and other top military veterans stand in support of Senator Barack Obama. So, do not buy any baloney about how Senator Obama cannot win against a Vietnam War Veteran like Senator McCain. Senator Obama has no problem praising the Senator from Arizona for his heroic and valiant service to our country, but Senator McCain in the past few years has somehow lost his integrity, and has changed and flip-flopped way too often, which sadly indicates that Senator McCain cannot be trusted to keep his word! This is really sad, but McCain's state of mind is probably very much the result of having been cooked in the same old Washington political 'business as usual' cooker! Another reason why it was actually very wise of Senator Barack Obama to run for office, before they would have had a chance to cook him and destroy his sense of hope, his vision for the future of America!

And, last but not least, WATCH MY OWN VIDEO ENDORSEMENT OF OUR NEXT GREAT AMERICAN PRESIDENT! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejts46Ll1Nk

Best, Love, Peace & Prosperity for all honest, working folk in America & the World,

Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo, Philosopher."

MAINTAINING INTEGRITY

Suzanne, Feeling SAFER with OBAMA on the Planet — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:39:29 EST

Barack Obama has integrity.

As I have posted before, he has presence, is diplomatic, stays grounded and centered, is brilliant, has a superb sense of humor which keeps him real and human, and he has a genuine ability to touch our hearts and inspire us into believing WE ARE THE CHANGE WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.

I hope he stays grounded during the upcoming debate with Hillary and does not engage with her by "reacting" to her jabs. May he stay lose and centered, grounded in his inner sense of truth and in his inner sense of connection to all of us who STAND BY OBAMA AND MICHELLE and who STAND FOR CHANGE.

I have met many who say they will vote for Hillary because of her health plan. This seems to be the key reason why they did vote for her and wish to vote for her. We all need to undertand the difference between a "mandated" plan (like mandated car insurance, whose costs go up and up every year) and affordable health insurance that is a CHOICE. I am not clear about this myself, only know that mandated car insurance is very expensive and that the mandated health insurance in Massachussets has gotten very expensive. I believe Obama needs to clarify why his plan is better for Americans. He claims he will cap rates at a much lower rate than her, that there will be government subsidies for those who can't afford it, and that Freedom of Choice is what Americans prefer. The good news is that both want a Health Plan that works for the people.

As Obama supporters who are ready for a CHANGE in the right direction, we ourselves should keep in mind that we represent the OBAMA Principles. He is process oriented, focusing on collaboration, dialog, adapting to reality, transparency, accountability, involving the people in politics, etc. This approach is what will get much done.

I have an Obama 08 sticker on my car. To me this means that I now represent those principles.

I wish to be diplomatic in my discussions about him. I wish to stay centered. I wish to listen to what others have to say. (As they say, it is by listening that we are heard by others.)

People say we have Obama Fever, that we are cultish, suffering from Obamamania. That he has no substance, no plan. They are forgetting all the very practical politicians, unions, judges, and wise people who are endorsing Obama. They obviously have not gone to his site to check out all the plans and substance that he does indeed have.

So. I myself, therefore, wish to stay centered as Obama does. (Yes I have Obama Fever, for sure, but it is grounded in the belief that this is the change we have been waiting for, and he is the one that can unite us with his natural diplomacy and natural listening skills.) I want to integrate Obama principles into my way of being so I represent them in my daily life.

THE TRUTH IS SUSTAINABLE.

It is more than words

We can and we will — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:14:51 EST

Hey Hillary it is more than words...like if you oppose a war, you VOTE AGAINST IT or SPEAK OUT AGAINST IT!

Hillary = PartyPooper

We can and we will — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:56:04 EST

There has now been so much talk about words, and that it's so much more than just words. In one way they critics are right, it is the voice behind the words that has the power to move millions to become involved. A prime example of this is Hillary Clinton's stealing of Obama's key campaign slogan ("Yes We Can") and how, when Hillary says it, it does not deliver the same eagerness or passion for us to unite together and tackle the huge problems that the 21st century must face. Further more, I think it is selfish of Hillary, as she claims to be a devote Democrate, to use these cut-throat tactics to try to deminish Obama's campaign. Knowing that a united Democratic party is the only way to get us out of the dark years of the policies we have been forced to, and will still face with McCain, she should have the decency to stay positive for the sake of the party. With such a close Democratic vote this election, I don't know why she choses to try to devide the party. She keeps proving Obama to be my canidate. I think I will send this to news agancies. If anyone has contact info for them I would love for you to pass that along to me. Thanx.

Demand a Proper Apology from Chris Matthews

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:58:13 EST

letters@msnbc.com

I am absolutely INFURIATED with something I saw today on Harball. While Chris Matthews today introduced his “War of Words” segment at that very moment when mentioned Barack Obama’s name and his fight with Hillary over his alleged "plagiarism" there was a picture of Osama Bin Laden over CHris' left shoulder with the caption “War of Words” beneath it. Given the fact that so much has been said about the smears against Obama in regard to his being a radical Islamist and being called OBAMA BIN LADEN, I think Chris owes the viewers much more of an apology than the lame one he offered up in knee-jerk style after the break. This was more than an innocent mistake, this was someone’s idea of a joke and it was not funny. You guys, please email MSNBC and tell them they need to make this right and the Hardball people need to make an apology to the Obama Camp for this immediately.

Hell, they about fired Schuster for the Pimping comment.

Clinton SIdes with McCain on Obama's Alleged Campaign Finance Plegde

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:25:45 EST

Methinks much ado about nothing is being made of Obama's percieved "waffling" on the issue of whether or not he will stick to his "pledge" to use only federal funds in the general election.

To begin with, Obama never made a "pledge" to anyone- he was filling out a questionnaire. Secondly, even if the filling out of this questionaire could be perceived as having made a public pledge, when one looks into the details of his answer, one can clearly see that there is nothing firm about his supposed "pledge" as his "yes" hinges completely upon whether or not the other party in the general election would agree to such a thing. At this point in time it is unclear as to whether or not McCain intends to stick with his plans to move forward with an "only public financing" arrangement.

Even still-, and I can't speak for the rest of you, but whats important to me is not this obsession with Barack's supopsed waffling or even breaking some absurd "perceived" pledge on whose money is used to win the general, what's important is that win WIN the general so that, among other things, real campaign finance reform can be established some day in a way that is meaningful and lasting. Let's be clear here, Barack's not planning on taking lobbyists money here- he's talking about letting thousands of donors like you and I to continue to help finance his campaign if thats what it takes to win this thing. It's more than just money- When people give to a campaign they are vested, and vested people turn up at the polls on election day.

I guess what really sticks in my craw about this whole issue is the fact that Hillary is aligining herself wth McCain on this deal. She's a fine one to point out who is breaking the rules when she accepts so much money from the special interests and lobbyists. It's maddening to me to think she would try and make a big deal out of this when she herself would not be willing to make such a pledge. I may sound like my grandfather here, but I have to ask myself "What is it her business"?

To be clear on the facts. here is what occured: On November 27, 2007, the Midwest Democracy Network, an alliance of 20 civic and public interest groups based in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, released the results of a questionnaire that they sent to all of the presidential candidates.The following question was on the questionnaire: If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in presidential public financing system?

Obama answered the question as follows:

OBAMA: Yes. I have been a long-time advocate for public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. I introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and am the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) bill to reform the presidential public financing system. In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Comments welcome!

Clinton camp is scared

Donna from San Diego, CA — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:38:05 EST

Desperate people do and say desperate things. Mrs. Clinton is pretty scared right now because Mr. Obama is winning delegates. I hope that Mr. Obama continues to focus on the issues and not the smear campaign antics. I believe that if he will stay on the high road then he will continue to win and prove to the American People that he indeed does stand for integrity. The coming days will be very interesting and I hope and pray that Mr. Obama continues to gain support and look forward to Inaguration Day 2009 :)

Clinton Camp SInks to New Low With "Plagiarism" Accusations

Tracey Malesa-Wheaton; Dyed-in-the-wool-DEM — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:43:54 EST

This was sent to me to day courtesy of my pal; Bobby Woodburn. It's an intersting read. The Blog Comments are "Hillary"ous. :)

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/did_obama_plagiarize_clinton_t.html

Did Obama plagiarize? Clinton team says yes

by Frank James and John McCormick

Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign wants everyone to see a campaign speech made in 2006 by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick just before he won that office and a recent speech by Sen. Barack Obama.

In his speech Patrick responded to the charge by his opponent that he was a fine speaker capable of tossing off inspirational words but not a politician with results. All words, no action.

Patrick responded by uttering some of the most famous words of American history: "We hold these truths to be self-evident" and "We have a dream" and saying, repeatedly, they were "just words" too. A very effective comeback.

So effective, in fact, that last night Obama used a similar formulation in Wisconsin two nights ago as you can see from the YouTube video.

"If you use somebody else's words or somebody else's idea, I believe you should credit them," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.,) a Clinton ally, in a teleconference being held right now "...When Sen. Obama uses them and doesn't credit their origin, those same words seem less inspiring..."

The obvious question is, how damaging will this be for Obama? When Sen. Joe Biden lifted some words and life events from a British politician in 1988, he wound up being so badly wounded, he had to quit the race. It definitely isn't the kind of thing Obama wants people focusing on right now.

In the age of YouTube, it's probably a good idea for presidential candidates to credit the source to avoid these kinds of problems.

Jake Tapper of ABC News had a posting yesterday on this latest eruption in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination. He had this response from the Obama campaign which was actually a response from Patrick, a good friend of Obama's.

Tapper wrote:

The Obama campaign has issued a statement from Gov. Patrick: “Sen. Obama and I are long-time friends and allies. We often share ideas about politics, policy and language. The argument in question, on the value of words in the public square, is one about which he and I have spoken frequently before. Given the recent attacks from Sen. Clinton, I applaud him responding in just the way he did.”

Jeff Zeleny, our friend and former Chicago Tribune reporter who's now at the New York Times, wrote this after an interview with Patrick.

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Patrick said that he and Mr. Obama first talked about the attacks from their respective rivals last summer, when Mrs. Clinton was raising questions about Mr. Obama’s experience, and that they discussed them again last week.

Both men had anticipated that Mr. Obama’s rhetorical strength would provide a point of criticism. Mr. Patrick said he told Mr. Obama that he should respond to the criticism, and he shared language from his campaign with Mr. Obama’s speechwriters.
Mr. Patrick said he did not believe Mr. Obama should give him credit.
“Who knows who I am? The point is more important than whose argument it is,” said Mr. Patrick, who telephoned The New York Times at the request of the Obama campaign. “It’s a transcendent argument.”
David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Mr. Obama who also advised Mr. Patrick, said Sunday that Mr. Obama adapted the words from Mr. Patrick. Mr. Axelrod said that he did not write the words for either candidate.
“They often riff off one another. They share a world view,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Both of them are effective speakers whose words tend to get requoted and arguments tend to be embraced widely.”
The similarities from a passage of Mr. Obama’s speech on Saturday and in remarks that Mr. Patrick delivered on Oct. 15, 2006, were highlighted by a rival campaign that did not want to be identified. Clips of both speeches are archived on the Web site YouTube.com.

Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe, talking with reporters today, downplayed the controversy.

"They often share ideas about politics and language,"

Plouffe said it was a "curious charge" from Clinton campaign considering she has "used language that Sen. Obama has used."

He called it a "side show that is not going to matter to the voters in Wisconsin."

Posted by Frank James on February 18, 2008 11:16 AM | Permalink