coffee anyone?

Opponents Call Obama Remarks ‘Out of Touch’ – New York Times April 12, 2008

As Senator Barack Obama sought to broaden his appeal to voters in southern Indiana on Friday, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain separately criticized him as being out of touch with the middle class, seizing on a remark Mr. Obama made at a California fund-raiser about “bitter” Americans.

Meanwhile, back at the 7/11, Hillary has some difficulty using the coffee machine that everyday people use, well… every day.

A cheap shot?! Compared to what?

intolerance

If you get a chance, go over to Citizen Zion. What I attempted to do with a few short videos, he accomplishes with strong words and logic… and he says himself that he is not an Obama supporter.

He prints in full text, verbatim, Rev. Wright’s words, and then does one better and prints some of Hagee’s words.

You’ll wonder, as I have wondered, why John Hagee has not had as much of an effect on John McCain. It seems that since a certain right wing tv station has not released any “snippets” of Hagee, the MSM hasn’t bothered to investigate on its own.

Why Obama is my choice

I was wandering around the blogisphere reading comments by people about the Pennsylvania primary election, when I came across one comment response in which the writer spewed on and on about his hatred of Barack Obama and how if Hillary Clinton didn’t get the nomination, he was definitely voting for McCain.

I know if Hillary is not given the presidential nomination, I will definitely vote for McCain. McCain is a “mild” conservative — a moderate and has very little in common with Bush. I will never vote for Obama

He then goes on to tell us that Barack Obama is a liar and can’t be trusted and so on and so forth (without any citations or references). Obviously this person is angry and for some reason feels that it is Obama’s fault. It seems to me, that many of the Hillary supporters (at least on the web) fall into this manic, screeching, hatred hurling category, and very few of their blogs relate to issues. More of them seem to fall into the name calling category instead. There are a few who seem thoughtful and sane, though.

Anyway, all of that is to let you know that MoveOn.org is asking for peoples’ feedback on their 30 second Barack Obama ads. You’re asked to rate the submissions on degree of positiveness, creativity, and overall message. I like Barack Obama because, yes, of the hope and “things can be different” attitude, but what it all boils down to, is that it’s not about him winning, it’s about them winning. They are what this election is about. This is one of my favorite ads.

looking ahead,… past the primaries

Lots of people are pretty sure that Clinton has no chance of winning the nomination, let alone the presidency. The logic goes, that she won’t be able to get enough delegates or even the popular vote.

But she has proven again, and again, that she cares more about herself (and the idea of it being her turn to be president) than the country or the Democratic party. The warnings are already in her words:

…the American people don’t quit, and they deserve a president who doesn’t quit either.

I don’t want to scare you, but you read it here first. If Clinton doesn’t get the nomination (and it’s likely she won’t), I think there’s a distinct possibility that she’ll strike out on her own as an independent.

Of course, that would destroy the Democratic party, not to mention the country because McCain would have a cakewalk to the oval office, and the rest of us can just get on the bread gas-line.

Say what?

Bill Clinton in 2004:

Thanks to Daring Fireball, for the link to Talking Points Memo.

Speaking of Bill Clinton, guess who he invited to the white house when he and Hilary were going through hard times. When you’re in trouble, call the Marines. 🙂

FOX takes over ABC

Pa. Debate Stresses Politics Over Policy – washingtonpost.com

“So the problem that we have in our politics, which is fairly typical, is that you take one persons statement, if its not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death,” Obama said. “And thats what Senator Clinton’s been doing over the last four days. And I understand that. Thats politics. And I expect to have to go through this process. But I do think its important to recognize that its not helping that person who’s sitting at the kitchen table who is trying to figure out how to pay the bills at the end of the month.”

Thank you Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous. At such a dire time in this country’s history, we need more hard hitting questions like you asked during most of the debate. Now where’s my flag lapel pin? (Then editors wonder why journalists have lost respect).

mccain/hagee and catholicism

I came across this YouTube video just yesterday and considering that I had made a point in an earlier post about the McCain/Hagee alliance, I decided to give Rev. Hagee a chance to speak for himself. How apropos since the Pope will be visiting the United States next week (starting Tuesday 4/15/2008). The video is under six minutes.

Meanwhile, as an aside, I found this interesting article over at The Rawstory:

The White House has scheduled a dinner next week in honor of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the United States, but one guest will be conspicuously absent from the proceedings: the pope himself.

Wired.com photo contests

Wired.com has some really cool photographs on their site. I wasn’t aware of the photo contests until I saw these wonderful images. Some have to do with night photography and others have to do with macro photography.

The night photography, especially, shows what I’ve felt all along. That is, you don’t need flash to get good pictures. Many times, the most beautiful images are shot with the native light. Treat yourself and look at them.

Rev. Wright, history and Rev. Hagee

I was watching The News Hour yesterday, and they had a panel of people discussing the political races and religion. There was one panelist who kept insisting that Obama would never get past the so called “Jeremiah Wright controversy,” because of Wright’s “crazy paranoia” about the government planting AIDS in the black community. I couldn’t believe he was so totally unaware of history and of the infamous Tuskegee experiments.

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male
The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male[1] also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Pelkola Syphilis Study, Public Health Service Syphilis Study or the Tuskegee Experiments was a clinical study, conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, in which 399 plus 201 control group without syphilis poor — and mostly illiterate — African American sharecroppers were denied treatment for syphilis.

This study became notorious because it was conducted without due care to its subjects, and led to major changes in how patients are protected in clinical studies.

My emphasis added. 1972. That wasn’t all that long ago.

PBS has the MP3 on their site of the segment or you can try to listen here.

That same panelist also seemed to indicate (I’m sorry, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing), that if John McCain had a controversial minister supporting him, he would be criticized terribly. uh… Feb. 29th 2008, from CBS evening news:

(CBS) Today, it was Republican frontrunner John McCain‘s turn to answer mounting questions about one of his supporters, Rev. John Hagee, a San Antonio pastor with a worldwide broadcast ministry, reports CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield.

Hagee has offered some highly provocative views on a variety of subjects.

For instance, he linked Hurricane Katrina to the gay rights movement: ” … All of the city was punished because of the sin that happened there in that city.”

He has also denounced the Roman Catholic Church as “the great whore of Babylon” and “a cult.” He blames it for the Holocaust and predicts its imminent demise.

“This is the apostate church,” Hagee said. ” … this false religious system is going to be totally devoured by the anti-Christ.”

It would seem to me that sometime during the great Jeremiah Wright issue, that there would be some reference made about Rev. Hagee, but the last I remember it is from that day. McCain’s response: “I don’t have to agree with everyone who endorses my candidacy,” he said. “They are supporting my candidacy. I am not endorsing some of their positions.”

Hey,… sounds good to me.

what of the issues?

I was wandering through some of the political postings and getting routinely disappointed with what I was seeing posted in the right wing blogs (and occasionally a pro-Clinton blog) when I came across Staycspits Weblog. She not only has the complete sermon by Reverend Jeremiah Wright via YouTube (as opposed to the snippets seen on Full Of eXcrement), she also has a link to Fredrick Douglass’ 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the 4th July?” Very interesting. She then ends the posting with this sentiment that I so strongly identify with:

I am disappointed that our political discourse on patriotism has boiled down to whether or not Obama wears a flag pin. The mere action of running for president aside from service in the Armed Forces is the most patriotic action one could participate in.

Can we speak on education, healthcare, home foreclosures, and the 4,000 dead American men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, please.

You can find the entire posting here.