REPUBLICAN COMEBACK IN 2010?

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UNLIKELY BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS
"Voter Turnout In Presidential And Midterm Elections"
A ten to fifteen per cent drop in voter participation from Presidential to "off-year" Congressional midterm elections:



WHY VOTE DEMOCRAT IF THEY'RE JUST LITE REPUBLICANS?


YOUTUBE: OBAMA IN SOCAL FOR DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER
"Obama: I've Done as Much as FDR"
""One of them said, 'Obama keep your promise,’ " the president said. "I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about." Ha-ha! "



Why Vote At All If Obama Doesn't Keep His Promises On Gitmo, The War, Healthcare, Cardcheck, Etc, Etc, Etc?

[In response to a post on Docudharma.com by Something The Dog Said:

' ...There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the Republican Party. The Dog has, himself, been part of this talk. Whenever this topic comes up there are those that point out the various times where the Republican Party or even the Democratic Party were down and looked as though they might be out, then have come back in with surprising swiftness. These arguments are true as far as they go but one of the major failings the Dog always finds with these comparisons is they only look at the results and fail to take into account the circumstances which allowed these changes of fortunes for the Party. One of the major influencers has been the direction of the nation over time. This is often ignored by folks making the come back argument. Over the last 30 years we have been seeing a general trend towards a more conservative point of view. This coincides with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. It is a sociological fact that folks tend to be come more conservative as they age, so the fact that the biggest generation, to that point, in American history were all moving towards middle age at the same time it make sense that the conservative point of view would gain traction. As the Generation Y citizens have grown up and become more politically active in their 30's they are overcoming the conservatism of their parents the Baby Boomers. This combined with the consequences of eight years of Republican rule is how we have gotten to this place where the Democrats control both Houses of Congress and the White House. But a big part of our electoral victory was the ability of our Party and President Obama in particular to articulate a positive vision for the future. In the 2000 election, then Governor Bush had this positive message on two fronts. First he and his campaign talked about returning honor and dignity to the White House. We can see from this vantage of 2009 how completely hollow that message was, but at the time the nation was tiered of the controversies (real and fabricated) of the Clinton Presidency. This made the returning honor and dignity message an appealing one. The other positive vision was the "Compassionate Conservative" meme. It was just what independents who leaned Republican wanted to hear, a Republican Candidate who was not tied to the perceived meanness of the Republican culture warriors. These two factors combined were enough to get President Bush close enough for the Supreme Court to award the Presidency to Mr. Bush... ' (continues)]

I would agree with Somethingthedogsaid (now I know why he chose that name: He doesn't want people to say that, or to agree with him) on some points. But, on others, I think he is way off base. It is far too early to count the Republicans out. Wishful thinking will not win us any votes. We have to look at this realistically, and never underestimate the power of the corporate & redneck Right. Also, keep in mind, Americans like divided government, generally speaking, and most voters no longer give permanent allegiance to any Party. Plus, we like to punish our Presidents in the midterm Congressional elections. The Democrats could gain in the midterms, but they could lose if they fail to get out the people who normally don't vote, but did vote in 2008. That won't happen if Obama keeps heading to the Right.

Having said that, let me address some of the "The Dog"s points. It will take up too much space on his website, so I will include a link to the bulk of it on my own blog.

Trends: If what Dog says is true about the "boomers," then we're headed for a more conservative era as they all retire and keep hanging on well into their 80's & 90's: 30-40 years for the youngest "boomers." Meanwhile, the oldest "boomers" oldest kids are getting near their 50's, so, more conservatism, according to Dog.

"Conservative. "Liberal." "Democrat." "Republican." "Boomers." "Gen-X." We need to take a big old Q-tip and clean all this nasty old label sh*t out of our ears, here. We're people, not robots or trendoids or demographics or electoral units or partisan acolytes. America never has been and never will be an ideologically-driven country. We're not much for partisan politics, either. We're pragmatists and all we expect from government is to be protected from the bad guys, i.e. foreign & domestic enemies both military and economic; to not be impoverished and otherwise to be left alone. It's only the tiny minorities on the fringes that give a sh*t about all these philosophical "issues" that just don't concern the vast majority of us.

What the last 40 years have shown us (based largely on bread & butter and certain hot-button issues) is that the vast majority, though economically & socially center-Left more and more, will still cross Party lines back and forth at will. The Democratic majority of Kennedy & Johnson shifted very slightly to a thin Republican majority for Nixon and Ford, based on the contracting economy and inflation, as well as racial issues and Vietnam. That majority shifted again to the Dems with Carter, and back again to Republicans Reagan & Bush, on money, race & "national security." Then back to Clinton on "the economy, stupid."

The Republican "victories" have in fact been largely Electoral College anomalies: Without Third Party candidates like Wallace and Anderson, the Right could not have won: Nixon won by a squeaker in the popular vote in 1968, and so did Reagan in 1980. Without Perot, Clinton might not have won, but in all these elections, the majority have leaned toward the center-Left, where the Democrats are (or should be), rather than the extreme Right, where the Republicans increasingly live. Only by virtue of these electoral tricks, i.e., covert support of splinter candidates, etc, has the Republican minority been able to win the White House.

It wasn't any "meme" or stylistic affectation that won Bush the White House. Nader cost Al Gore the White House in 2000, along with much help from Bush's brother in the Florida Governor's mansion, and Cheney's friends on the Republican Supreme Court. Bush then had the advantage of incumbency and war in 2004, plus voting-machine manufacturer Diebold's chairman running his Ohio campaign; but he still barely beat Kerry. He never had any kind of a "message." And there were no meaner culture warriors than Bush's brain, Karl Rove, and his boss, Dick Cheney. Nobody outside of his majority among rich people and Red State idiots could even stand Dumbya. He was a ridiculous, inarticulate, crude little moron and everybody who was paying attention knew that very well. He never represented anyone or any "vision" but those of the very rich and the very redneck, both minorities in this country, as Rush constantly laments. That's why Nixon, Reagan and both Bush's had to cheat.

Even after eight years of Clinton-bashing, people were still ready to vote for Gore. Bill Clinton was still wildly popular with the center-Left in 2000, thanks to a great economy and all those years the Repukelickin's wasted in bashing him, which only made him a martyr. If Gore had accepted Clinton's help campaigning, he probably would have won despite all the cheating by Bush. On that, and on the fight over the cheating, Gore screwed up. He actually still won the election, but then he lost the fight over it for lack of trying.

It wasn't ideology or "vision" that drove all this: It was electoral trickery and voter fatigue. Negative campaigning worked for the Republicans for years, right on up until the the point when the economy collapsed in the middle of McSame's campaign. In previous elections, up to 60% of those eligible to vote simply failed to do so, year after year. Negative campaigning was a large part of that failure to turn out, and that was its' goal. What was there to vote for? Wimpy, wonky Democrats trying to look like Republicans-Lite? Rich racist Republicans trying to look like good old boys? What a joke! That left it up to the 20% of actual voters who were hard-core Dems and the 20% hard-core Repub's to battle it out over the last couple of percentage points-worth left of those few who bothered to vote at all. But in this last Presidential election, it was money, not "vision" that won.

What Obama did was not ideological. Obviously, if you did look at his campaign website, or his Cabinet & staff choices, he's not a progressive, or even a liberal on many issues. But he did tap into a sentiment among the 40%-60% of those eligible to vote who frequently do not vote, and it was enough to counter any Republican dirty tricks. It seemed like he might actually be different on money issues that matter to the majority, if you didn't look too close. He wasn't ruling out things like healthcare, like McBush, who also stupidly admitted he was lousy on the economy. Mainly for economic reasons, many in the non-partisan majority voted for Obama, and for the "center-Left" issues we care about.

Certain very real bread & butter issues that the majority actually cares about are finally coming to a head now after more than forty years of suppression. Number one is health care. So far, Obama has effected little or no change that favors unions, gays, the anti-war movement, secularism, and other "leftist" causes. He will lose those people in 2010 & 2012 if that doesn't change very soon. If he continues to pander to the big healthco's and drops the ball on what the majority wants, universal single-payer national healthcare, then that 40%-60% is likely to sit out the next two elections in record numbers.

By energizing their own base, and discouraging the already disappointed Democratic base, the Republicans could not only stem any losses, but make some gains in the next election. This has been the pattern in mid-term Congressional elections for a long time. Democratic over-confidence, Obama's pandering to the corporations & the religious Right, and his Bush-lite stands on civil liberties and militarism may exacerbate this trend next year.

Don't count on Gen X or Y: If the economy is not back on its' feet well before NOV 2010, many of them could be unemployed, bankrupt and even homeless. They may very well register a protest vote with a Green, a Libertarian, a "reasonable-sounding" Republican; or None Of The Above, the real majority Party, by not voting at all. If they choose to stay home in large numbers next election day, Republicans can win, and they know it. That's been their very effective strategy for over forty years now.

All media bullsh*t and wonky "memes" aside, Barack had better watch his back and start producing for us, the center-Left majority, economically, or he could end up like Carter or Clinton. With all that inherited wealth and international corporate money behind them, the Republicans are not going away any time soon. And don't even THINK of another 9/11. The first one is murky enough: The next one could succeed in decapitating the government. Personally, I wouldn't trust the military or their friends the Republicans if Obama were to be sitting in the White House when a plane or a missile hit it, or Capitol Hill. Don't even THINK of it!


WIKIPEDIA
"United States midterm election"
"Midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance. They usually don't turn out well for the party of the president; over the past 17 midterm elections, the president's party has lost an average 28 seats in the House, and an average 4 seats in the Senate: TABLE:"



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THAI ONE ON

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DEMOCRACY TAKES TO THE STREETS IN BANGKOK & NEW YORK



THAI VOTERS UNHAPPY WITH POLITICAL GAMES BRING NATION TO HALT;
AMERICAN FAUX-POPULISTS STAGE CORPORATE-SPONSORED "TEA PARTIES" TO AVOID PAYING TAXES

YOUTUBE
"City Hall Tea Party Protest (NYC) 15"
Laid-off stockbrokers at lunchtime?



International Conference Called Off Due To Street Demonstrations In Pataya; Nothing-Burger In D.C.

In Thailand, they don't sit idly by while corrupt incompetent politicians destroy their country and their way of life. They storm the barricades, push back the army and the police, and shut down business and government. Until the will of the people is obeyed, the people obey no man's will.

It seems like a good system. It might be hard to manage in the United States, for a number of reasons. We're a much bigger country, in area and population. It would be difficult to organize a nationwide protest of this nature on an American scale. We're nowhere near as concentrated or centralized as Thailand. Shutting down just Washington DC or New York City wouldn't do it. Mounting simultaneous actions in all the major cities and every State capitol would be nearly impossible, not only logistically but culturally as well. Our very diversity works against mass action on a national scale.

It might not be possible to organize a nation-wide strike of Southern farmers and Northern businessmen, Midwestern factory workers and West Coast professionals, "flinty" New Englanders and "redneck" Texans, conservative Montanans and liberal New Jerseyans, blacks, whites, Asians, Latino's, Native Americans, immigrants, college grads, high school drop-outs, men, women, gays, straights, old, young, Fundamentalists, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, urban, rural, suburban, and exurban Americans.

Even if it were possible, most of the major cities have large forces of crack riot police, and contingency plans that involve the use of deadly force even on peaceful demonstrators. If the local cops could not be counted on to slaughter their own citizens, there is always the State militia, the National Guard, and the regular Army. They have shown a willingness to kill Americans with whom they disagreed politically in the past. And their political masters have no compunction about ordering them to fire on Americans.

There are other ways of bringing a system to a halt. A more workable alternative might be a passive protest, a refusal to work or shop or attend school or travel or invest or comply with regulations or pay taxes. A jamming of phone lines and Internet hubs. Blocking key traffic points in our already gridlocked transportation networks. Cell phones and the Internet could be used to organize localized action on a hit & run basis. Counter-propaganda could be created and disseminated to encourage support for such actions. But coordination would be required that has never existed in the United States, until recently. Coordination requires access to the media. But the media are now entirely controlled by and subservient to the corporations. The faux-populist "movement" know as the Tea Parties is coming from the Right, the recently ousted "Establishment," not the Left.

In Thailand, disruptive actions are being funded by a former Prime Minister who was removed from power for corruption some years ago, and banned from the political process. He has taken it upon himself to disrupt the new government at every turn: First getting two of his own puppets installed as Prime Minister, and then organizing street protests against his puppets' subsequent removal. Poor Thai farmers from the Southeast Asian backwoods are being paid to jam the cities and bring the nation to a halt, while counter-demonstrations against such anti-democratic and corrupt actions have only resulted in a more perfect gridlock. The army and the police do nothing.

There is the possibility of similar action here. The American corporate propaganda network is being used right now to try to effect some sort of nation-wide protest against the US government. Not for the benefit of the people, but for the corporations, who don't want to pay their taxes, even though they wallow in government money themselves. Naive and under-educated fools are being manipulated by the tame corporate media to help the corps keep our money, as in the Bush years.

The corporate leadership of the inchoate racist anti-democratic forces that failed to steal the most recent Presidential & Congressional Elections has been trying to find a way of continuing to destroy the way of life of average Americans ever since "liberal" black Democrat Barack Obama and his allies trounced them at the polls and ran them out of Washington. All the radical Right can do now is attempt sabotage. Much of their support is coming from a foreign businessman, Australian crypto-Nazi Rupert Murdoch, and his cohorts among America's corporate closet Fascists. Fox News has been turned into a kind of rebel radio station broadcasting from the fringes, calling for political assassinations and jamming of the machinery of government.

Why has there been no government action? No investigations, no arrests, no shut-down of these saboteurs? Why have the people not risen up against it? Are Americans so soul-dead that they cannot move a muscle in defense of their own country, their own way of life? Apparently, yes.


REUTERS
"Thailand's "red shirts" revel after summit shutdown"
Now here's a TEA Party! But, as in America, for the wrong side, and guided by the rich.

' Barrelling through a thin line of troops, hundreds of red-shirted anti-government protesters in Thailand hurtled through a plate glass window -- and tumbled into the venue of the East Asia summit. "We've won -- the summit is over," shouted Aey, one of "red shirts" who support ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "We'll return to Bangkok now, to rejoin the protest there," she added. "We'll finally get Abhisit out." The protesters say Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who came to office four months ago through parliamentary defections engineered by the army, is "illegitimate." Abhisit cancelled the summit after it was stormed and imposed a state of emergency to allow leaders to depart safely. Drivers and motorcyclists sounded horns while protestors on foot, wearing red bandannas, waved red flags and held aloft placards and pictures of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and is widely believed to be bankrolling the protests. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Rioting follows state of emergency in Thai capital"
"Change" you can get with larger bills.

' Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, regarded by most of the protesters as their leader, called for a revolution and said he might return from overseas exile to lead it. "Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country," he said in a telephoned message broadcast on loudspeakers to followers who surrounded the prime's minister office. Political tensions have simmered since Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 for alleged corruption and abuse of power. He remains popular for his populist policies in the impoverished countryside, while his opponents — many in urban areas — took to the streets last year to help bring down two pro-Thaksin governments, seizing Bangkok's two airports in November for about a week. '

FOX NEWS
"Tea Party Protests Create Online Sales Boom"
"Explosions" of sales that result in a net loss. A "grass-roots" movement funded by business. Push it, Fox, push it!

' Other independent retailers are reporting similar explosions in sales. "I'm not really positive what we've made this week -- we've been so busy packing things away," said Jay Taylor, COO of Patriot Depot, which sells conservative books and gear online. Taylor, who said tea party stickers and shirts are powering his "recession-proof" business, isn't giving all his proceeds away. "We are making a little money but we're definitely more concerned with getting the message out," he told FOXNews.com. Yet some organizers are seeing costs outweigh their profits -- and are choosing to operate at a loss. Taylor is partnering with the Augusta, Ga.-based Reagan.org to send tens of thousands of tea bags north to Washington for a massive tax day tea dump. Though Reagan.org is asking for about $1 per bag, they estimate they'll end up losing money in the transaction. "What we figure is that we'll probably end up losing a little bit of money on it," said Joshua Bolin, executive director of Reagan.org, who told FOXNews.com that his organization accepted requests to send 30,000 tea bags packing in just the first two days of its promotion. Sink or swim, profit or plunge, online purveyors have been taken aback by the success of their small business ventures. '

HEARST NEWSPAPERS: BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE, BEAUMONT, TEXAS
"Dozens protest taxes at "Tea Party" in Orange"
"Dozens"! WOW! That's WAY more than "TWO'S"! What a "broad-based" "popular" "movement"! Even though the right-wing media is giving out the organizers' schedules & phone numbers! Way to take a side, "journalists"!

' The Tea Party in Orange was part of a national movement. A number of the events will be held Wednesday, the day federal income taxes are due. In Beaumont, a gathering will be held beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the U.S. Post Office on Walden Road near Interstate 10. More information is available through (409) 466-7063. '

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SENATOR MEOW!!!

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CATFIGHT IN THE BIG APPLE

BILLARY SAYS CAROLINE KENNEDY "UNQUALIFIED":
"SHE'S JUST A RESUME WITH FAMILY CONNECTIONS"



And Hillary's Not Talking About Herself, For A Change

It seems like only yesterday that some catty New Yorkers were saying that Hillary Clinton was nothing but a resume, an empty pants-suit, trying to play on the big heart of the Big Apple with her sad connection to her disgraced husband, ex-POTUS & world-class poon-hound Slick Willie Clinton, in grabbing the Bobby Kennedy seat in the U.S. Senate. In fact, it was just yesterday that people all over the world were saying this about Hill's nomination to the post of U.S. Secretary of State. Other than ducking imaginary fire in Bosnia, and serving tea to other First Ladies in the Rose Garden, what the Hell does Hillary Rodham Clinton know about foreign affairs?

As to diplomacy, it's hard to imagine a candidate less qualified by temperament or style. When tasked with straightening out our national health care mess, an issue almost everyone thought needed attention, Hillary's imperious and secretive ways, her abrasive and dismissive personality, and her husband's philandering pretty much set the cause back twenty years. Just THINK what she could do in the cause of whirled peas, or international security! Oh, well, she knows where Israel is, or the AIPAC office, anyway. You can see it from her office. That's all that really matters.

That's pretty much all that really matters in being Senator from New York, also; besides shipping jobs out of State and overseas. From Jacob Javits to Charley Rangel, New York's congressfolk have established a tradition of not serving their constituencies, unless you count foreign countries. So, who needs experience? It hasn't hurt, or helped Hillary, her lack of it. Who even notices who fills that seat in the Millionaires Club?

I guess the Clintons do. They seem to think they own that seat now, though many NYers still contest their right to have ever even occupied it in the first place. Maybe it's Hillary's Illinois origins. You think she'd be more sensitive about that, in the midst of the Blagojevitch scandal. But, no, Billary wants what Billary wants, regardless of whom it hurts, or whom it doesn't help.

They don't care any more about the people of New York than they did about the people of the whole country during the recent election, when both Hill' and Billy stooped to unheard-of lows in attacking Obama violently and racially, even hinting that, as a black man, he could be assassinated. They seemed to be calling for Obama's killing, in many people's eyes. Despite this, Obama has given them an olive branch, a lot of them, a whole freakin' olive tree in Cabinet & staff picks. It just ain't enough. They want it all. They're the ultimate power-junkie couple. They just can't manage power once they get it. They haven't a clue, or an ideology, or principles, or any respect for Democratic traditions and institutions.

"F*ck Ted Kennedy," as fellow Southron Governor and failed President Jimmy Carter once said. Teddy's dying, but so what? The Kennedy legacy, so central to Democratic iconography and popular mythology, is not good for the crackerocracy of the DINO's. After all, Jack and Bobby split with the Dixiecrats over civil rights, and they may have killed the brothers for it. No bad blood there, hunh? The few blue dog Democrats (In Name Only) who remained with or returned to the Party after the Civil Rights Era are really Republicans, based on their opposition to everything Democratic except the voting trends in their own jurisdictions.

Some Southerners never could bring themselves to vote for the Party of Lincoln, their vanquisher in the Civil War. They may have voted Democrat, but they continually dragged the Party into the conservative swamps. Thanks to them even more than the Republicans, who used to be in the minority much of the time, the progressive agenda was never achieved. National health, federal funding for education, housing, transportation, the environment, etc, and the cause of peace on Earth got held off and put back and shot down every year for the last hundred years. In fact, the DINO's helped get conservative Republicans elected, and even pushed their arch-conservative, anti-progressive agenda. Zell Miller, anyone?

Still, we're supposed to work with these people, a minority within a minority. Why? Because they're armed & dangerous, with a history of political violence? Isn't that negotiating with terrorists? Shouldn't we be fighting these *ssholes, tooth & nail? The recent Presidential and Congressional elections show that the sixty per cent who rarely vote are in fact progressives, not conservatives. Even in the South, record turnouts turned out for a perceived progressive for President and many other offices. The fact that Obama is now squandering that historic victory, that sea-change in American politics, is a victory for the minority DINO's, and a major betrayal of his own vast but diminishing base.

Are the DINO's happy with that? Nope. They gotta have that NY Senatorial spot, too; just to show who's boss, once and for all. They're pissing a line in the sand on this one. How it turns out will show which way Obama is ultimately headed: Toward the right-of-center, or toward the left-of-center. (There is nothing further left than left-of-center in this country, outside of the graveyards.) Will Obama be able to govern the Clintonians, much less the country? The only hope is that all his moves so far have been part of a grand design to give the Clintonista's a chance to discredit themselves with their usual squabbling and bungling, and kick them out of the Party altogether. Of course, then they'll just come back as Republicans In Name Only, still furthering their principle-free, power-for its-own sake agenda. Clinton-Palin 2016, anyone?

No. I didn't think so.


CBS NEWS 2 NYC
"Caroline Kennedy Ready To Emerge From The Shadows"
Female, mom, has worked for children's issues, education, health care, smart, tough, dedicated, politically inclined, well-connected. Hum. Sounds just like Hillary, with better baggage. Much better. Oh, wait, she's gracious and well-spoken, genuine, natural, unpretentious and has a sense of humor. No, she's nothing like Hillary.

' It is a Senate seat that has long been held by political celebrities who had not held prior elective office. First Lady Hillary Clinton grabbed the seat in 2000. Robert F. Kennedy got it in 1965. Now, Caroline Kennedy wants Gov. Paterson to give it to her. Caroline Kennedy is a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Law. She has also written seven books, helped Barack Obama select a vice presidential running mate, and in New York City has raised millions for public education. Friends told CBS 2 HD she wants to concentrate on education and health care in the Senate. '

USA TODAY
"Kennedy would follow Clinton as late-bloomer senator "
So, Clintonians hate Caroline, Kennedyites love her. Some news.

' If Caroline Kennedy becomes a senator, she'd be New York's second female celebrity senator to take an unconventional route to Congress. Kennedy is a lawyer who has written about constitutional issues and raised money for the New York City school system. She expressed interest in the job Monday, according to several officials in the state, including the man who will make the choice, Gov. David Paterson. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, named by President-elect Barack Obama to be secretary of State in his administration, was the nation's first lady for eight years before moving to New York in 2000 to run for the Senate seat. Despite her family's political legacy, Kennedy has largely stayed out of politics. New York critics have zeroed in on that lack of public record. "She's not demonstrated the qualifications or the experience for the position," Robert Zimmerman, a Clinton adviser and fundraiser, told the New York Post. Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist and speechwriter who has worked for the Kennedys, said that "like Hillary Clinton, the minute she got there, she would have influence." '

NY POST
"KENNEDY FOR THE SENATE"
Oh, yeah, she is an actual NEW YORKER, born & raised a City girl, a North-Easterner and an East-Coaster, unlike Hill-Billary...

' Her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, held the very same seat from 1965 until his assassination three years later. But the arguments for her selection go far beyond mere symbolism. Consider her unusually high profile: As the only surviving child of President John Kennedy, she'd enter the Senate with considerably more political clout than the average freshman. While she hasn't been especially involved in New York's political wars, she's hardly unaware of the issues. A city resident since shortly after her father's assassination, she played a critical role in advancing the reform agenda spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. '

NY TIMES
"Résumé Long on Politics, but Short on Public Office "
It's clear where the headline-writer stands. But read the article.

' But friends and associates say that Ms. Kennedy, 51, is no dilettante, and that her career is replete with examples of the kind of hands-on policy work and behind-the-scenes maneuvering that could serve her well. “She’s not shy about pushing people in a direction, and very good at doing it in a way that people don’t even realize they’re being pushed,” said Heather Campion, one board member. “She’s good in the room, but she’s also good at getting people to focus and come together quickly,” Mr. Klein said. Ms. Kennedy is now vice chairwoman of the schools’ nonprofit fund-raising arm, but she continues to visit schools across the city, with no entourage or press aide. Yet Ms. Kennedy spent about six weeks barnstorming battleground states for Barack Obama and took to it with gusto: An aide recalled her strolling into a Republican headquarters near Ocala, Fla., and peppering voters with questions at every turn. “Eric was the quiet one, and she was the one that, really, when I said something, asked, ‘Who? Why? How come?’ ” said Representative Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who met with them to analyze the contenders. “She did most of the talking.” Ms. Kennedy also took it upon herself to write a lengthy memo for Mr. Obama, a senior campaign adviser said. “I think she sized up the field in a way that was thoughtful and sophisticated and right,” he said. “And I think it weighed heavily with him.” Ms. Kennedy has said that it was her children who got her to give Mr. Obama a look last year. Elaine Jones, a retired head of the NAACP fund, speculated that Ms. Kennedy’s children — her two daughters are in college and her son is in high school — were also the reasons she had not entered public life sooner. “A fishbowl can adversely affect a child,” Ms. Jones said. “Her mother found a way to keep her children real. Caroline, I think, wanted that for her children. So I think, without knowing it, subconsciously, she was trying to get her kids to this point.” '

NY DAILY NEWS
"Caroline Kennedy's fine, but a senator? Andrew Cuomo not so sure"
Rival, kicked out of Kennedy family by her cousin, Cuomo disses Caroline. Like HE made it on his own! HAH! Real objective journalism, Daily News!

' Attorney General Andrew Cuomo praised Caroline Kennedy yesterday - but wouldn't say if he thinks she's qualified to be a U.S. senator. "I've known Caroline for years, I have a high opinion of her, but that's going to be up to the governor," Cuomo said. "I wouldn't second-guess his judgment." Kennedy is the cousin of Cuomo's ex-wife, Kerry. After 13 years of marriage, he and Kerry Kennedy went through an acrimonious divorce, with the Kennedys believing that Cuomo fed dirt to the media on his wife's extramarital affair. Cuomo sidestepped questions on whether he wants to replace Sen. Hillary Clinton when she becomes secretary of state. While insisting he's happy as attorney general, he did not deny interest in the Senate seat. He and Kennedy are front-runners. "I think it's a little presumptuous for someone to say 'I'm not interested,'" Cuomo said. '

BOSTON HERALD
"We Hear: Hillary Clinton, Caroline Kennedy and more..."
CATFIGHT!!!

' That Secretary of State-in-waiting Hillary Clinton is lobbying hard to prevent Caroline Kennedy from taking her Senate seat when she steps down. Clinton, who will resign once she is confirmed as Barack Obama’s new top diplomat, is more than a little peeved that Caro - and her uncle Ted - threw their weight behind Obama in the presidential race. '

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
"The Not-Kennedy Campaign"
Billary's Talking Points Memo widely circulated, but secret, and deniable. How Republican!

' Suddenly, weeks after Caroline Kennedy's name first emerged as a candidate to fill the Senate seat that will be opened when Hillary Clinton joins the Obama administration in January, the establishment is very, very concerned—publicly—that she might not have what it takes. But at least one member of the New York House delegation—albeit one outside of the downstate echo chamber—has noticed that the Kennedy critics seem to be reading off the same page. "About two days ago one of my colleagues said that he thought she was too retiring, too private," said upstate Representative Louise Slaughter, who said that similar remarks made publicly by Ackerman suggested that "talking points are out there." For her part, Slaughter said she though Kennedy would be a fine choice to take Clinton's place. "The person who gets that seat has to be someone who has great stature," she said. '

NY DAILY NEWS
"Clintonites Against Kennedy"
And here's where those talking points come from.

' The storyline of pushback by Hillary Clinton supporters against Caroline Kennedy being tapped by Gov. David Paterson to succeed the junior senator whom Kennedy dissed in the Democratic primary is gaining steam. On the heels of questions raised about Kennedy's experience, or lack thereof, by Reps. Anthony Weiner and Gary Ackerman, both loyal Clinton supporters who were also her designated superdelegates at the Democratic National Convention, comes a statement from Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union head Stuart Appelbaum, who says Kennedy is "fascinating and engaging" but "a blank slate on New York issues." RWDSU was an early supporter of Clinton in the Democratic primary and Appelbaum campaigned with her in a number of early primary/caucus states, including Iowa. '

WIKIPEDIA: HILLARY CLINTON
"Hillary Rodham Clinton"
Ah, Memory! Ah, History!

' Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York and President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of State. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.A native of Suburban Chicago, Hillary Rodham first attracted national attention in 1969 for her remarks as the first student to deliver the commencement address at Wellesley College. She embarked on a career in law after graduating from Yale Law School in 1973. Following a stint as a Congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas in 1974 and married Bill Clinton in 1975. She was later named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979, and was twice listed as one of the one hundred most influential lawyers in America. She was the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 and was active in a number of organizations concerned with child welfare, as well as sitting on the boards of Wal-Mart and several other corporations.When she was First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval from the U.S. Congress in 1994. In 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or any of the several other investigations during her husband's administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
Senate election of 2000
The long-serving United States Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, announced his retirement in November 1998. Several prominent Democratic figures, including Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, urged Clinton to run for Moynihan's open seat in the United States Senate election of 2000.[188] When she decided to run, Clinton and her husband purchased a home in Chappaqua, New York, north of New York City in September 1999.[189] She became the first First Lady of the United States to be a candidate for elected office.[190] At first, Clinton was expected to face Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City, as her Republican opponent in the election. However, Giuliani withdrew from the race in May 2000 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and having developments in his personal life become very public, and Clinton instead faced Rick Lazio, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing New York's 2nd congressional district. Throughout the campaign, Clinton was accused of carpetbagging by her opponents, as she had never resided in New York nor participated in the state's politics prior to this race. Clinton began her campaign by visiting every county in the state, in a "listening tour" of small-group settings.[191] During the campaign, she devoted considerable time in traditionally Republican Upstate New York regions.[192] Clinton vowed to improve the economic situation in those areas, promising to deliver 200,000 jobs to the state over her term. Her plan included specific tax credits to reward job creation and encourage business investment, especially in the high-tech sector. She called for personal tax cuts for college tuition and long-term care.[192]
The contest drew national attention. Lazio blundered during a September debate by seeming to invade Clinton's personal space trying to get her to sign a fundraising agreement.[193] The campaigns of Clinton and Lazio, along with Giuliani's initial effort, spent a record combined $90 million.[194] Clinton won the election on November 7, 2000, with 55 percent of the vote to Lazio's 43 percent.[193] She was sworn in as United States Senator on January 3, 2001.
After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New York State in 2000. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton is also the first female senator to represent New York. In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was reelected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but after a long campaign, she narrowly lost to Senator Barack Obama, who became the party's presumptive nominee in June 2008, and Clinton endorsed and campaigned for him. She is the first First Lady to be subsequently appointed to the Cabinet in any Presidential administration. '

WIKIPEDIA: CAROLINE KENNEDY SCHLOSSBERG
"Caroline Kennedy"
Just the facts, Ma'am.

' Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author and attorney. She is the daughter and only surviving child of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Kennedy was born in New York City and is named after her maternal aunt Caroline Lee Radziwill and a maternal great-grandmother. An older sister was stillborn in 1956. Her brother John Jr. was born in November 1960 and died in a plane crash along with his wife and sister-in-law in July 1999. Another brother, Patrick, died two days after his birth of a lung ailment in August of 1963. She lived in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown until a few months after her third birthday, when her family moved into the White House after her father's inauguration as President of the United States in 1961. Following her father's assassination in November 1963, she moved back to Georgetown with her mother and brother. However, their home soon became a popular tourist attraction in Washington, and they moved to New York City in mid-1964 where they lived in a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School, after attending the Brearley School and Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan, and Concord Academy in Massachusetts.
Personal life
Kennedy spoke during the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, on August 25, 2008. during an introduction of her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy.
After interning with her uncle, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, and at The New York Daily News, Caroline Kennedy began work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1980, where she met her future husband, exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg.[2]
Kennedy and Schlossberg were married on July 19, 1986[3] at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts. Kennedy's matron of honor was her cousin Maria Shriver. She was walked down the aisle by her Uncle Ted. Although she is often incorrectly referred to as "Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg", she did not change her name when she married.
Professional life
Kennedy is an attorney, editor, writer and member of the New York and Washington, D.C. bar associations. She is one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually since 1990 to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. In May 2002, she presented an unprecedented Profiles in Courage Award to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.[4]
For 22 months from 2002 through 2004, Kennedy worked as director of strategic partnerships for the the New York City Department of Education. The three-day-a week job paid her a salary of $1 and had the goal of raising private money the New York City public schools.[5] In her capacity, she helped raise more than $65 million for the city’s public schools, according to her biography at the Kennedy Library.[3] She currently serves as the Vice Chair of The Fund for Public Schools, a public-private partnership founded in 2002 to attract private funding for public schools in New York City. [6]
In addition, Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation,[3] a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.
Kennedy has represented her family at the funeral services of former Presidents Ronald Reagan in 2004 and Gerald Ford in 2007, and at the funeral service of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in 2007. She also represented her family at the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas in November 2004.
2008 United States presidential election
Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail.
On Sunday, January 27, 2008, Kennedy announced in a New York Times op-ed piece entitled, "A President Like My Father," that she would endorse Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.[7] Her concluding lines were: "I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans." This was the first time she had endorsed a presidential candidate other than when she endorsed her uncle, Ted Kennedy, in 1980.[8][9]
Federal Election Commission records show that Kennedy contributed $2300 to the Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign committee on June 29, 2007. She had previously contributed a total of $5000 to Clinton's senatorial campaign in 2006. On September 18, 2007, she contributed $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign committee.[10] '

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MEDIA IDIOTS NEVER LEARN

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THEY STILL THINK OBAMA NEEDS THEIR ADVICE

WRONG THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE CAMPAIGN, "EXPERTS" START SECOND-GUESSING THE NEW ADMINISTRATION IMMEDIATELY



It Must Be Great To Have A Job You Can't Get Fired From For Screwing Up Every Single Time

Is the Pundit Academy a part of Clown College? Are they wearing gigantic shoes under those network talking-heads desks? If you squeeze their big red noses, will they go "BEEP-BEEP"? Do they stand at attention with their hands over their hearts whenever they hear a calliope? Can you jam them all in a tiny little car and then watch a hundred of them all pop out of it? Do they do childrens' birthday parties? How much do they charge?

Barack Obama is not even a full day old as President-elect, but the boobs on the tube are at it already. Of course we expected the ravening hoard on squawk radio to jump right in and make assh*les of themselves: They have a genetic disorder. It's called "Assh*les' Syndrome." But somehow, we naively assumed that the "serious journalists" and "respected commentators" with actual, if inflated, resumes would slink off for a week or two, in hopes we might all forget how completely and consistently wrong they have been at every single point in this incredibly long campaign.

Nope. They must all have major cash-flow problems, or major ego problems, our talking heads. They couldn't shut up for even one single day. So it behooves us to cut them no slack whatsoever and remind them that yes, every single one of us, the majority of American voters, really was capable of voting for a black man, a Democrat in wartime, a "liberal," a man of "limited" experience, a Chicagoan, a community organizer, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. And by every single one of us I mean exactly that; including all of us angry white males, suburbanites, blue collar "non-college" types, Southerners, Christians, veterans, military, etc, etc, etc.

Now, I realize that these butt-heads have to earn a living. I understand that all they know how to do is bullsh*t on the teevee. But don't they ever watch themselves? Don't they ever go back and check out their old shows and listen to themselves talking utter and complete bollocks? At long last, have they no freakin' shame?

Nope. Not to judge by the last 24 hours. They're already telling our incredibly successful and politically brilliant new President and his team everything they're doing wrong in their punditty view; and what all they SHOULD be doing according to themselves alone. Do they think the world is just a bathroom mirror, into which they can safely and comfortably spew nonsense for practice, as if no one could hear them? Or do they think we're stupid enough to pay them any mind? They should know by now how Obama treats their output: FLUSH!

I was on a political talk-show once, when I was a kid. The teevee folks turned on the mikes & cameras for half an hour, and then they shut them off. We were yapping for a while before and after they ran the tape. It didn't seem to matter to the teevee folks. They then broadcast that half-hour, in between the other stuff they used to fill the day's broadcast schedule. They really didn't seem to care what we said. It was all just filler. That was public television. On commercial TV, they just have to fill up the empty minutes between advertisements for ass-cream, pimple-cream, youth-cream, etc. Really, a lot of the adverts are better than the most of the shows. Why don't they just show the ads, and eliminate the yapping in between?

Or, hey, pundit-heads why not just SHUT THE F*CK UP!!! Hm?
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HAWAII DEMS SAY RULES TRUMP RIGHTS FOR VOTERS

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"NO WORK-AROUND" ON MISSED REGISTRATION DEADLINE

CONFUSING PROCESS MAY HAVE DISENFRANCHISED THOUSANDS

Caucuses Plus Primaries Does Not Equal A Guaranteed Right To Vote In The General Election?

In other States, local Party organizations will whisk you into Court with one of their own lawyers, to make sure that you can vote, even at the last minute. In Hawaii, they just regurgitate the State's line that "you should have known" how the complex processes involved in actually getting to vote work, exactly, and thereunto summarily prestidigitated as per Section Blah of the Code, Paragraph Blah, official public notices pursuant to which were duly published in the smallest possible type in the most obscure part of certain publications that nobody under eighty ever reads any more, forthwith, Blah. Get it? Blah!

The Dems and the State refused to acknowledge that most people don't know or care about all this official political BS: They just want to go down and vote on November Fourth. And it is their BS, the Dems and the State they control: Despite their pretense that it is The Law, and Nothing Can Be Done, as if it had been handed down by Gawd A'mighty on stone tablets thousands of years ago, the local Democrats wrote these disenfranchising laws themselves in the very recent past. And they should have legislated a work-around for people who didn't get the word.

The State and the local Dems also refuse to acknowledge the obvious fact that most people under fifty rarely if ever read newspapers, where these official notices and mind-numbingly boring procedural stories get published. Nor do many more folks watch the local broadcast TV news, especially younger people, the new wave in voting this year.

Everybody knows, or SHOULD know, that it's the Internets, and cable TV shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" whence most people are getting their news these days. The advantage is, they can avoid the endless corporate propaganda of the "official" media. The disadvantage is, there is little or no local news on cable or the Web, at least in podunk towns like Hawaii. In short, neither the State nor the Dems has a blog, nor do they ever text us. So, LOL, nobody knows WTF the rules are, IMHO. And their stodgy, ginormous, uninformative, convoluted websites are no help at all. Even they can't find stuff on them. So we damn sure can't, HELLO???

The State and the Dems who run it will find out when their peeps show up on 4 NOV 08, and find they can't vote because they forgot to say "May I?" They didn't have to say "May I?" for the privilege of paying taxes, fees, fines, or assessments. They didn't have to say "May I?" for the honor of serving in the military or on voluntary public service projects. They didn't have to say "May I?" to obey the signs posted EVERYWHERE telling you how fast or how slow you can drive, where and when to stop and turn and park and don't park, what to do at the airports, seaports and government buildings. So, maybe you can understand their forgetting to say "May I?" when it came time to vote on all that sh*t. Well, maybe you can understand, but the local government, i.e the Democrats, cannot. Nor do they care. They said so.

Personally, I think this is the pol's way of dealing with the popular tsunami that overwhelmed them in the caucuses back in February. Turnout increased by 700% over the largest previous voter turnout. Of course, these enthusiastic new and rare voters didn't have to register a month or more in advance. As with everything else in our convenience-oriented society, they simply went down there and voted. No worries. It got done. Many of those people may not have subsequently vote in the Primaries, which seemed redundant, probably assuming that it was OK to just show up in November for the general election. Not! Not to mention all those who blew off the pre-lims, figuring they'd just pop in for the big show.

I don't know what ever happened to "motor voter" -The freakin' jury-duty Nazi's all seen to have everybody's name. But somehow, the rest of the G, which knows everything else about us, isn't quite sure if we're all eligible to vote, year by year. So they silently expect us to do some ritual dance to register or re-register or re-re-register, but they don't make a big thing about it until you actually try to vote, unlike what they do when it comes time to pay your taxes, or when the cops decide to set up a vast network of roadblocks and arrest people who forgot about traffic tickets, under the "click-it-or-ticket" excuse. See, when they really want you to know something, they make damn sure you know it. Not so much on voting. How come?

Lack of voter participation favors incumbents, that's why. As far as the guy sitting in the office right now is concerned, they might as well not have elections at all, any more, now that he's won one. So why rock da boat, brah? Especially here in Hawaii. "One nail dat steek up gon' get hammahd down, eh." As far as I'm concerned, this arbitrary, confusing, anti-democratic system of registration is a deliberate attempt to keep people from voting, in order to assure the survival of the status quo.

But wait until this election day. If the caucuses were any indication, there will be thousands and thousands of new and seldom-seen voters showing up at the polls. And if the attitude of the State and the Dems is any indication, there will be many thousands turned away for forgetting to say "May I?" That just sucks.

Hey, Barry, I know this is not a good time for you, with your Tutu sick and all, and good health to her; but, while you're here . . . How 'bout kick your Party in the ass so we can all vote for our homey? Hm?

KPUA HILO
"State senator blames defeat on DUI, low turnout"

' Menor said he was surprised that he lost the race because his polling indicated he had a large lead. But he blames the lowest primary turnout in Hawaii primary election history — less than 35 percent of registered voters — for his downfall. "Many of those people who would have voted for me clearly did not show up to the polls," Menor said. '

HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN
"Voter registration deadline is tomorrow"

' Hawaii had a record low turnout of about 37 percent in its Sept. 20 primary election, but the Nov. 4 general election should generate more interest with Honolulu-born Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on the ballot for president. During Hawaii's Democratic caucuses in February, Obama supporters formed long lines and overwhelmed caucus sites, ballooning the number of registered Democrats in the state from 22,000 to 51,000. "This year more than ever, it's valuable that those who feel strongly about change turn out on Election Day," said Hawaii Democratic Party Chairman Brian Schatz. "Turnout was abysmal in the primary. We are hopeful that we're going to see that trend turn around as a result of the enthusiasm for Senator Obama." Any Hawaii resident who is a U.S. citizen over 18 years old may register to vote. Currently registered voters who have changed their name or address since the last election should reregister. There are about 682,000 registered voters in Hawaii, which reflects a steady increase in each election since 2004. Turnout was about 53 percent in 2006 and 67 percent in 2004, when Republican President Bush won a second term against Democrat John Kerry. '

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DEMS PICK OBAMA; GOP PICKS BIG OIL, AGAIN

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AMERICA TAKES ANOTHER STEP TOWARD JUSTICE FOR ALL

MCSAME LAGS BEHIND: VP PICK AN INEXPERIENCED RADICAL EXTREME RIGHT-WING OIL-STATE GOVERNOR

"Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech"



Historic Selections Close Old Wounds, Open New Ones

As the Democratic Party took one small step into the future, the Republicans took one giant leap into the past. The United States of America is the first world power to nominate a member of a minority group, a subjugated race, a former slave-people, to become its' leader, and the leader of the "Free World." That term may have some meaning again now that Barack Obama is wielding it.

The fact that Barack Obama is a brilliant man, dedicated to his roots, his community, his faith and his family should not be counted against him, whatever the tame corporate media say to please their masters. The fact that his father, his wife, and his two adorable little daughters are black will, of course, be counted against them by the media, the Republican Party, John Sidney McCain III of the Mississippi McCains, and other racists. The fact that, although he is a committed Christian, his name, and his father, are of Muslim origin, will be used to damn him by the same foul elements listed above.

But Americans have grown up. As Martin Luther King said, in speaking for all of us exactly forty-five years ago, a hundred years after Emancipation, we have had a dream for centuries, millenia, we the brotherhood and sisterhood of Humanity: That one day, a man or a woman might be judged by the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin, or any other superficial prejudices.

"Martin Luther King "I have a dream""


Meanwhile, back in the oil patch, the corporate-controlled GOP have chosen to roll back the clock to a point before even George "Dubya" Bush's neolithic advent. Cynically hoping to cash in on her gender, McSame has picked a woman with two years experience in Alaska State politics.

Palin is best known for her support for drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and for the oil industry in general. She is also even more irresponsible and farther to the right than Dubya or his clone McCain: She opposes Bush's designation of the polar bear as an endangered species. Guess we know where she stands on global warming, hunh, this ice-cave-woman? She also happens to be anti-Choice, pro-gun, pro-war, and a former "Beauty Queen," i.e., unreconstructed bimbo. (That's McCain's idea of a real woman. Just look at his druggy wife, an aging bimbo.)

Barack Obama and John Biden, by contrast, have taken many strong and principled stands on energy and the environment over their many years in National politics. They offer a clear choice between the future and the past, responsibility and recklessness, good stewardship and raping the land. Republicans have managed to choose two "conservative mavericks" who can be counted on to continue the failed policies of George W. Bush, and even roll them back farther into ancient, awful history.

Then there's the ethics issues: Obama and Biden have spotless records, and no ties to lobbyists. McCain & Palin are owned by coporate lobbyists, and both have been charged with major ethics violations. So it's either a new era for clean government run by the People, or the recurring nightmare of Republican corruption and corporate control.

The choice for voters is clear. Given the youth of Obama, and the age of McCain, in two or three years it will either be Barack or Palin in the oval office. So that's who you're voting for. A moderate, mainstream, progressive striver from the Heartland, or a radical right-wing crook from the crookedest State of all, far-off Alaska, the Siberia of American politics. Don't get fooled again. Let's keep Big Oil the Hell out of the White House!


The Christian Science Monitor
"Soaring speech from Obama, plus some specifics"
Substance over style, specifics over rhetoric, programs over propaganda, Obama kicks McCain's tired old ass.

' Obama began his speech recalling his parents’ belief in the American promise that, “through hard work and sacrifice,” their son could “do whatever he set his mind to.” That promise, “that has always set this country apart,” is now threatened by eight years of the “failed presidency” of President Bush, he said. “Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit-card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that is beyond your reach,” he said. “America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.” He added that “now is no time for small plans.” And he pledged to “set a clear goal as president: in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.” Obama berated McCain’s repeated calls to “drill more, drill now” as “a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.” That was just part of the sustained attack on the presumed Republican nominee, from his decision to support the invasion of Iraq to his overall support of the Bush administration’s policies. “Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush was right more than 90 percent of the time?” Obama told the crowd, to cheers. He also questioned whether McCain really wanted to follow Mr. Bush’s example of “tough talk and bad strategy,” but said it was “his choice.” Obama then tried to lay to rest the stereotype that Democrats are not as tough as Republicans on national security. “We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy,” he said. “So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans – Democrats and Republicans – have built, and we are to restore that legacy.” '

YAHOO NEWS
"Palin views on oil, polar bears may be liabilities"
McCain goes for inexperience: "Anything with a vagina. We need the Hillbots!"

' If McCain hoped to stop Democrats from getting much mileage out of the oil issue in this presidential election, he picked the wrong vice presidential candidate. His choice, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, comes from a state whose lifeblood is oil. Palin favors opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development, something McCain opposes. Her family even gets one of its paychecks from the oil industry: Palin's husband, Todd Palin, earned $46,790 last year as a facility operator for BP Alaska in Prudhoe Bay. Palin opposes the Bush administration's decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Alaska sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne earlier this month to try to overturn his decision. Palin argues there isn't enough evidence to support a listing, and she fears it will harm oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts. The Legislature is investigating her firing of the state public safety commissioner. A legislative oversight committee wants to know if the commissioner was dismissed because he refused to fire a trooper who went through a messy divorce from Palin's sister. The investigation is expected to wrap up around election time. Campaign contributions Palin collected earlier in her political career could also provide fodder for Democratic campaign ads, tying her to an Alaska Republican political scandal from which she has tried to distance herself. '

CNN
"Commentary: Palin is brilliant, but risky, VP choice"
Watch out, Cindy, here comes Mrs. McCain number three!

' The "who" is a young, articulate, smart, tough, pro-life woman who is the governor of our northernmost state. She is conservative and a mother of five, including a son in the Army who is set to be deployed to Iraq on September 11. Her youngest child has Down syndrome. The "Barracuda" nickname came from her aggressive basketball play on the state championship basketball team. She is a hunter, pilot and lifetime member of the NRA. She is blunt, outspoken and charming. And don't assume she can't stand toe-to-toe with Joe Biden. She is a great debater. And she was runner-up for the Miss Alaska title, won Miss Congeniality in that contest and plays the flute. '

TIME MAGAZINE
"The Palin Pick: Bold or Disastrous?"
"Right-To-Lifer," Gun-Nut, Bambi-Killer, Tree-Hater, Oil Whore, what's not to like? She's your NEXT next President...

' On the face of this, McCain has failed the ultimate test that any presidential candidate must face in picking a running mate: selecting someone who is unambiguously qualified to be President. Palin is a talented politician who has both support among conservatives and a compelling personal story. But her short resume in Alaska politics and her nonexistent national track record will make it impossible for McCain to argue with a straight face that she was the most qualified person he could have selected. In the short term, the pick will create excitement among the kind of grass-roots conservatives who have never been enthusiastic about McCain, and in the media, which will be fascinated by Palin's good looks (matched by those of her dishy husband), intelligence and charm. But Palin is now going to have to perform at a very high level to persuade the media and the public that she is truly ready to be a heartbeat away - and a 72-year-old's heart at that - from the presidency. How she handles questions about federal issues, national security and foreign affairs will be closely scrutinized, and her margin of error is next to zero '

POLITICO
"Palin dissed veep job"
Palin: "Alaska (oil) First!" VP's job is "beneath" her.

' Count Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as one of the most surprised that she was chosen as running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.” In fact, she said she didn’t know what the vice president does. Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain's ticket mate. Palin replied: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.” '

USA TODAY
"Experts: Palin chosen for women's votes"
Republicans, suddenly discovering women, crudely seek to exploit them.

' Republican presidential candidate John McCain's surprise pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is an attempt to court women still angry after the most promising female presidential candidate in history lost a bruising Democratic primary, strategists in both parties agree. The debate is over whether it will work. Ellen Malcolm of Emily's List, a political action committee that promotes Democratic female candidates, said women should oppose the Republican ticket because both McCain and Palin favor overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal nationwide. "They both want to continue the failed economic policies of the Bush administration, and they both offer more of the same that has led this country down the wrong path," Malcolm said. '

[Cross-posted at DemocracyForCalifornia.]
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