1.  Just because racism exists doesn't mean I like to talk about it.  I get the fact that there are people that won't vote Obama because he is black.  I prefer to talk about the people who will vote for Obama because they think he is the best leader for this country.  STOP PICKING AMERICA'S SCAB MEDIA-ITES, HATERS AND HANNI-TITES!!!  YOU COULD BE ENDANGERING THE SAFETY OF OUR NEXT PRESIDENT.  AND EVEN IF YOU WON'T ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AS PRESIDENT AT LEAST HAVE THE RESPECT FOR THE SAFETY OF THE GOOD WHITE PEOPLE THAT WILL BE JUMPING IN FRONT OF BULLETS FOR HIM BY NOT MAKING THEIR JOB ANY MORE DIFFICULT THAN IT ALREADY IS.
2.  Can't we all just be people instead of demographics?
3. Why is being a Muslim evil?
4. A HILLARY, anywhere near an OBAMA ticket IS A BAD THING.  SHE HAS HER OWN AGENDA.  She will undermine his presidency at every turn and not stay on message.  WHY SHOULD I TRUST OBAMA if he chooses a VP that HE CAN'T TRUST?????? 
5. If by some miracle or scandal the nomination is taken from Obama, I will be partyless. 
6. I am going to type this very slowly...if you are an individual who does not want, a black president or a female president...you are not really a democrat.  You need to go and register as a republican or form a third party.  This will eliminate a lot of confusion.  I can't guarantee that you won't get a black or female president as your nominee if you are a republican,  but there will be a lot more people in that party that will be sympathetic to your concerns.

7.  You get what you deserve.  In the end, if Hillary  wins the nomination or becomes Barack's running mate, I will stay home in November.  I will not be any worse off than I already am if MCSame is president.  And I will have my guns and religion to keep me safe and warm.

McCain won only one percent of the vote on Super Tuesday in West Virginia. I hope this doesn't diminish his chances of winning the state in November.

In fact, if Obama comes out of the primary with more than one percent of the West VA vote, I assume he's the frontrunner to winning the state in the Fall.

Right?

The exit poll numbers out of west virginia are quite distressing.

Its been long suspected, but now we have proof in the numbers.

Even though Obama publicly and strongly repudiated Jeremiah Wright and his comments, 5 in 10 West Virginia voters think Obama shares his views. I guess, probably, because they're both black, West Virginian voters think they think the same thoughts. What other explanation could there be? He not only repudiated his comments publicly and forcefully, but he also had to disown the man publicly and forcefully, so you can see how people would think they share the same views.

Seven in ten Hillary Clinton voters were in favor of the much ridiculed "gas tax holiday" showing that, while the voters in Indiana were too smart to fall for that pander, the voters in West Virginia were not.

One in four (thats a whopping 25%!) of Hillary voters said race played an important factor in their vote. And that doesn't include the people who lied about it to the pollsters.

And the clincher:

Barely a third of Clinton supporters say they'd vote for Obama over John McCain in a November matchup. I'm jumping to a conclusion here, but it seems to me the only explanation is that the voters won't vote for a black guy. I mean, really, the only thing John McCain and Hillary Clinton have in common is there color, yet more than 2/3rds of hillary's voters will vote McCain over Obama.

I wish the exit polls would ask the question: Would you vote for a black person? Because that question would take all the ambiguity out of the "analysis" and we would know once and for all that the only people supporting hillary are the uneducated, ignorant hicks who don't like black people.

I'm going to stick my neck out and make a prediction. You heard it first on This Ain't My First Rodeo [and on the Wayne Madsen Report]

The Clintons have stuck it out this long
and common sense itself now demands that Hillary drops from the race on
behalf of party unity. But, if I read them correctly, the Clintons have
always been closer to the neocon "middle" than any other candidate.
Declaring themselves "New Democrats"
and racing everyone else to the middle was the strategy they used to
beat an incumbent Bush-41 in the wake of the conservative "Reagan
Revolution."

McCain has been nailed down on the far right, probably with the help of the Clintons in the back rooms. They are currently furiously working to associate him with the Reverend John Hagee, a right wing-nut. The country has had it with these hate-filled apocalyptic Dominionists who have sold their populist souls to the elite corporatists of "the Military-industrial Complex."

We've all figured out by now they are not really even "Christian," at least in the ancient foundations they themselves would have a revivalist America focus upon -- they
are Zealots, the chief rivals of early Christians who struggled to come
to terms with Roman occupation in the midsts of The Jewish Wars of
Zealot insurgency that led to the destruction of the Second Temple in
68 AD, followed by the Great Diaspora and the final stand of Zealot forces at Masada in the second century.
Early Christianity thus took hold among the Hellenized general diaspora
of Jews already scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Once the
decision was made to admit into full communion the Gentiles who had
already taken an interest in Judaism, the course for peace and
reconciliation with the reality of Rome's supremacy "in the world" was
set. The next stage of development, in the face of the persecutions,
occurred when the Christianized diaspora began to distance themselves
from the the Jews of the homeland whose Zealot insurrections they saw
as the cause of their persecutions as Jews. This began with the efforts
of Paul to convince Nero that the Christians were of a different
character and that they intended to remain "subject to the higher
authorities." St. Paul never saw the affects of his writing;
nevertheless, the final and complete severance from Judaism occurred in
the fourth century when Constantine declared of political
necessity,Christianity the religion of the realm without ever having
been baptized himself.



Stay with me; I'm not just bullshitting for the sake of bullshitting.

Any educated "Christian" knows full well that the Messiah was not a messiah of insurrection; he was "The Prince of Peace." So in reaction to the arch-conservative nationalism and triumphalism of right-wing Zealots such as Richard Land, Rev. John Hagee, Pat Robertson and the politicians who
have exploited them, there has emerged within the various populist
movements a pervasive ethical and religious ambiguity. This cultural
ambiguity can be summarized as a confusing mix of metaphors, for
example the leftest Christian view of "Washington-as-Rome" versus its
polar opposite in the left-wing Zealot black community, "Washington-as-Babylon" versus the extreme right-wing view that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon
in Rome. To wit, any less strident, tolerant and ethically directed
notion of the historical and political role of Christianity in a
secular society has to come to terms with the democratic concept of
pluralism with its inclusive respect for both the inalienable
rights of the individual and minorities, as well as the safeguards
against the tyranny of the majority institutionalized in the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Opposing the ever
resurgent Theocracy sought by the Extreme Right from age to age, this
more Enlightened pluralistic view
of our forefathers moves the multifarious and contravening institutions
of religion which from time to time run afoul of Civil Liberties with
the best of intentions, to a more peripheral political role of
influence, while respecting their universal spiritual value, by
avoiding absolutist and authoritarian abuse in the nation's own state of affairs.

Theologically, if only for the sake of respite, we leave the Book of Revelations to the realm of the angles without forsaking the Gospels, we can acknowledge that mainstream Christianity represents The Kingdom of Heaven which is "IN the world but not OF the world."
The recognition of this universal spiritual principle calls us to an
altogether higher level of freedom. Subsequently, as the underlying
scriptural ambiguities brought to light by our contemporary "Culture
Wars" are worked through in the mainstream, the ongoing reconciliation
process is driving folks of all extremes back to a less
confrontational, less muscular Middle Way, to a place more in partnership with "the poor" and in identification with their suffering. Moreover, the traditional Christian
notions of community, compassion, reconciliation, surrender, conversion
at depth, spiritual growth and the longing for Peace -- The Way of Wisdom -- seem ever resilient in the face of such Zealotry as we have tolerated from the authoritarian
Right to the point of impatience. A coalition of human secularists with
mainstream Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Native American and various
"churched" and "unchurched" is beginning to emerge into a new
Progressivism and is drawing populists of every tradition back to that middle place.

And Here Waits the Clintons. Hillary is holding on, working the split within the Democratic Party
so that in September or early October she will have brought the nation
to the great political nexus that has been coming anyway.

The Independent Party candidate for 2008
who will win the presidency will be
Hillary Rodham Clinton.



The "October Surprise" of 2008


Independent Joe Lieberman will move quickly to endorse her followed by hundreds from both parties, perhaps even Rush Limbaugh who knows full well where his bread is buttered.


John McCain will go away into retirement exasperated and confused.

John Edwards will have recognized that holding off any endorsement of Obama was wise for him personally but traitorous to the cause of Progressivism. *The
only viable candidate with any chance of facing Clinton in 2012 will
come from a new Progressive Party, formed under resentment by minority
members and ideologically dedicated liberals who felt betrayed by a
Democratic Party turned "independent" who abdicated their economic and
social responsibilities to the people while appropriating the "Southern
Strategy" to maintain its hold on power.



Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Playin' through:

In an interview with Politico / Yahoo News released today, President Bush says he decided by express solidarity with our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan... by giving up golf!

Yes, you read that right. No, this isn't some rend in the time/space continuum. He's bagged up the clubs until the boys come home.

If you really want to read the fool gibberish of the man Pat Buchanan calls a lame duck scared of how history will remember him, it's here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10314.html

Adverse Determination

The title kind of says it all, but there are far more serious consequences to the price of oil reaching $126/barrel, or wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, copper et al reaching exorbitantly inflated prices than Cisco or Juniper Systems or Yahoo stock behaving similarly, as they did in the late 1990's.

Commodities are things the "real" economy needs and uses to function. Commodities have "use" value. Stocks have only "exchange" value.

Nobody needs to buy Cisco at $90 per share. But people do need to buy oil at $126 per barrel.

I'll try writing further articles on the fungibility of various commodities--e.g., coffee vs. tea--but for now I'll only comment thus:  Essential commodities are too important to the literal survival of the world to be treated as if they were common shares of Microsoft, mere vehicles of financial speculation. And these essential raw materials are now being transformed into speculative investment vehicles, probably through the ingenious proliferation of derivatives and the sudden attraction by "investors" to commodities as a better store of value than alternative investments.

Sometimes, most of the time, so-called free markets function quite efficiently. But there are exceptions, as even the most conservative of economists would agree.

We are right at the beginning of what could be a pernicious extension of free market, speculative capitalism into a sphere previously dominated by real-world economic conditions of supply and demand. For example, if suddenly the demand side for corn is radically increased not by more users of corn, but by speculators whose only concern is that the price of corn will rise, the use-market be damned, the risks of creating artificial non supply/demand dislocations to the real economy may have consequences that reach far beyond Forex traders.

This is a topic I'm researching and thinking about. It's very interesting, very complicated and urgently important.

While we were sleeping it seems there's been a coup in the Democratic Party

Boy those in the Clinton machine must be pissed and looking for the exits to the New Regime

This is EXACTLY the plan. That was the overarching message at Camp Obama which trained cadres for the Primaries

Obama Organizing Fellows will carry on this summer for the general election.

ObamaNation - The Stunning Consolidation of the Democratic Party
by: Matt Stoller
 
You know all that old-style Washington politics preventing real change? As hard as it might be to handle, in a lot of ways he means that those of us who believe in partisan hard edged combat are part of an outmoded system. It doesn't actually divide cleanly; old hand Tom Daschle is a key figure and likely to be Obama's chief of staff, and Artur Davis is likely to be his Attorney General. These are old school Democrats, and Obama's machine is full of the Congressional wing of the party that lost out in 1992 to Clinton and his people.

This isn't a criticism; again, Obama made his bet that the country isn't into ideological combat and wants a politics of unity and hope, and he has won at internally. In terms of the 'Iron Law of Institutions', the Obama campaign is masterful. From top to bottom, they have destroyed their opponents within the party, stolen out from under them their base, and persuaded a whole set of individuals from blog readers to people in the pews to ignore intermediaries and believe in Barack as a pure vessel of change. It's actually very similar to Clinton from 1994-2000, where power and money in the Democratic Party is being centralized around a key iconic figure. He's consolidating power within the party.

Now here's the part that's unclear. Obama has successfully remade the Democratic Party already, and shown that old partisan Washington politics is over if you are a Democrat. Can he do that with Republicans? By stripping power, money and responsibility from outside groups and opponents, Obama is increasing his control of the party apparatus. He is also, however, putting everything on his own shoulders. When the Swift Boaters come back, and they will, it's all on Obama and his movement to hit back. He's betting that he can strip power from their base just as he stripped power from the old Washington way of doing politics within the Democratic Party.

The article currently running on TPM's front page about Carbon Dioxide levels being at their highest in 650,000 years is something that certainly grabs my attention and shouts: "EMERGENCY!" to me.  It is one of the more disturbing headlines I have seen lately and I've been seeing an increasing number of such headlines in recent months.  I've also been quite disturbed by just going outside and seeing what is going on with our environment and how obviously screwed up things are.  I don't understand why this subject isn't on the lips of every Democratic candidate for every office, every single day.  Nor do I undertstand why this is not on the front pages of the newspapers every single day or why it isn't the lead on every news broadcast every hour.  How can we, as a society be so nonchalant and apathetic about the destruction of the very thing that keeps us alive and that provided the circumstances for our emergence as a species? 

If we were all on a wooden boat handed down to us by our ancestors on a vast ocean planet with no land we wouldn't light it on fire for a profit would we?  Of course, not.  It is as though we are not human beings who comprehend the consequences of our actions but dumb animals who no more understand what is going on in the environment anymore than they understand quantum physics or sanskrit.

When I look out my window at the ongoing monsoon rains battering the midwest at the wrong time of year, when I see that strong winds and freak cold snaps are beginning the process of deforestation of what was once the most bountiful land on earth, where endless hardwood forests and abundant water created what my ancestors viewed almost as a new Eden, and when I see the increasingly violent storms, tornadoes and such devastating our communities and countryside, the sense of horror I feel about what we have wrought is quite real and growing.  I grew up during the Cold War fearing that nuclear cataclysm would unmake the world.  Now we face a less immediate threat, but one with no less devastating an outcome in the end and perhaps an even more devastating outcome.

Why we need any additional  headlines to motivate us to demand immediate and drastic action form our political leaders to halt and reverse the destruction of our atmosphere is beyond me.  No scientific studies are required.  All one need do is look outside and the evidence that something is clearly amiss in our environment is as plain as day---every day.

I cannot imagine a bigger sin or a more hideous crime against humanity than that which we all are currently participating in which is pushing our planet's atmosphere so out of balance that we may push it past the point of no return.  How could any moral people stand by doing nothing, allowing apathy denial to destroy the planet that is the source and security of all life as we know it?  How could any sentient being with a sense of self preservation stand by and doing nothing to prevent this very preventable disaster?

What alarms and disturbs me most is not the facts we know about global warming and it's effects.  By far the most alarming thing is that as a civilization we are doing so little about it when we already clearly understand that inaction equals disaster and potentially doom for humanity.  The situation is truly insane.

I know they have position papers on this but I simply don't hear our candidates for President discussing global warming/climate change with the sort of urgency it clearly demands.  With each passing day more reports are in the news indicating that the process of global ice melting is much more rapid than previously believed and the accumulation of carbon dioxide is accelerating even more than estimated which means we have less time than we thought before things go too far.  Perhaps things have already gone too far?  It is impossible to know and it is inexcusable to do nothing while any chance remains.  I could be wrong, yet I cannot help but to think that there is no action too drastic at this point that would be more of a risk than our continued inaction which threatens not our lives, but the lives of our children and of posterity which is literally all the children to come.  It is appalling to contemplate it.

I am unconvinced that any of our national leaders, except Al Gore, actually appreciate the enormity of what is taking place and how little time we have to begin the work of saving our home and thus the home of all those to come after us.  Have we completely lost our minds and our sense of obligation to the future? 

Perhaps I am the only one who thinks this way, but when I see the shocking changes in our weather I can think of nothing else but the effect this is going to have on my children and grandchildren and how there isn't any chance at all that it will be anything but bad.  I think to myself, "how can I look my son in the eye and tell him I'm sorry I was too busy to save your world."  We simply must make it our business to stop and reverse the destruction of this incredibly beautiful and valuable planet and we must do whatever it takes to do so.   As reports make clear on a daily basis there is simply no time to lose. 

Some might poo-poo this sort of reaction to the reports that we've done far more damage than previously believed.  But what is the downside of over-reacting compared to the downside of not doing enough?  The only downside to over-reacting to this greatest crisis ever to face humanity is a cleaner and healthier planet for generations to come.   So I think it's time to get moving on this problem and not to be moderate in our approach.   And what if those who counsel a take it slow, moderate approach to address this crisis are wrong?  What is the downside of not acting as quickly and forcefully as necessary?  If we err on the side of moderation, move too slowly, protect the wealthy and their profits too much and end up killing off humanity, it seems like a pretty bad trade off to me. 

All other issues are academic if we screw this one up folks.  We must act now.  We cannot wait.  Individual actions are nice, but an organized, collective, international, government led effort will be required.  If we don't demand that our leaders take such action immediately, I'm convinced it will not happen.  So demand action now, before it is too late.

In world-class chess matches between International Grand Masters, when one of the opponents recognizes that he (not many "she's" in this arena of competition) is in an unwinnable position, he resigns. No dishonor attached to it...it's expected. In fact, it's an implicit complement to his opponent's skill. (If I can see I'm done, he also can.)

Hillary Clinton has established herself as an International--or perhaps more difficult in the USA-- as a National Grandmaster of Politics. She knows she is in an unwinnable position. Yet, unlike the Grandmasters of Chess, she refuses to concede.

She, unlike chess players, clings almost obsessively to a hopeless cause...a terrible trait for a chess player and an even more terrible one for a President of the United States.

Her (failed) campaign has opened the door for qualified women to run as serious candidates for the office in the future. Despite her inexplicable, bold-faced lying during the campaign, she has managed to go where no (US) woman has gone before: A female candidate that was taken seriously by the electorate, regardless of party affiliation---something no other woman in the history of the country has ever done.

She was able to accomplish this on the sparsest of resumes; she displayed both the emotional and physical fortitude that voters expect in a potential president; she certainly outdid her distinguished husband on the "grace under fire" front, never appearing peevish or overly sensitive to criticism, never getting red-faced pissed-off at questioners...just a few tears welling up in New Hampshire. Overall, a fantastic performance.

She had the bad fortune to run against a phenomenon: an African-American, good-looking, younger, JFKesque orator who could only be criticized--ironically enough--as "elitist." Who the hell would ever have thought the first serious African-American prez candidate would have to refute charges of his elitism?

She did the best she could; and in doing so elevated all women.

She failed on the combination of her own flaws and Obama's extraordinary talents.

She should resign with honor, like an International Grandmaster in Chess.

The Clinton campaign, teetering on its last throes, and ensconced in its self-delusion...as expectation would have it... is set on an impending landslide victory in West Virginia. But, taken at face value, it would seem like only a morale booster that fosters an illusion of a "come-back" mantra that has come symbolize the mystique of the Clinton's "insurmountable" political prowess. Hence this victory, if anything, will engrave in their psyches a false illusion of rescuscitated strategic possibilities and inhibit their ability to grasp the inevitabilty of Hillary Clinton's political demise, at least as pertaining to the current presidential electoral cycle. This is not to rule out renewed Hillary attempts in the near future at another run for the White House, if only she could admit that for now it's over, and that she could still be a winner just by repositioning herself for a possible #2 slot as Barack Obama's running mate. That is, if he would be kind enough to accept her. 

As I read about West Virginia, including about racist attacks (I think only verbal) on Obama campaigners, I wonder how, if Hillary were miraculously to become the Democratic nominee, she could run in West Virginia as a candidate who did not pander to the voters there.

Non-right-wing evangelicals are rightfully distressed by Hagee's preaching. However, there's more than that.  Aside from the many books he sells on his website reflecting his unenlightening edicts on marriage, women's place, and American history, he also sells the books of one Don Colbert, MD who offers a mix of faith and near-quack cures to the gullible.  In Salon recently, a physician rightly criticized PBS for airing an infomercial by one Dr.  Amen.  A physician could also do a scathing review of the work of Dr. Colbert who, by the way, graduated from Oral Roberts med school as did Dr. Amen.

Will he or won't he take public financing?

The answer is NO

He's  going wire to  wire with the ObamaNation

Obama Tells Major Donors Not to Fund Independent Groups

Donors and Democratic activists have been quietly debating Obama’s motives: Is he simply interested in keeping his Democratic efforts within his campaign, which is so well funded he doesn’t need outside help? Or is he, as some believe, cutting off funds to groups whose leaders – Brock and Podesta – some Obama aides view as too tightly linked to Clinton?

In either case, Pritzker’s words are the latest in Obama’s remarkably swift and complete consolidation of Democratic Party power. It’s an unprecedented seizure of control that has built him, over the course of a year, the most powerful field organization and the largest financial network in American politics, leaving many existing structures – traditional party organizations in many states, the Clintons’ long-nurtured national network – in the dust.

Just last summer, Matt Bai’s widely accepted analysis identified the “billionaires” and the “bloggers” as the key, emergent players in the Democratic Party’s infrastructure. But Obama has marginalized both groups. Pritzker’s words are part of a move to keep Obama’s grip on the sole important funnel of Democratic money this year. And his campaign has largely ignored the existing network of liberal bloggers, and actively opposes their embrace of fierce partisanship.

“Obama has created a number of significant infrastructure pieces through his campaign, displacing traditional groups the way he promised he would by signaling the end of the old politics of division and partisanship,” the blogger Matt Stoller wrote recently of Obama’s “consolidation of the party,” which he called “stunning.”

Hillary and her supporters must be so proud.  Ignorance and racism is your base!  Excellent!

Good Morning America, on the scene in West Virginia, introduced their viewers to Janis. She's not a particularly enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter, but for her, Hillary has got one thing on Barack Obama: she's not a Muslim. Of course, neither is Obama.

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KATE SNOW: Janis said she can't support Obama.

JANIS: He's Muslim and that has a lot to do with it. I just, you know, I just would rather have Hillary.

SNOW: Just for the record he constantly says he's a Christian -

JANIS: I know he does.

SNOW: You don't believe him?

JANIS: No.

Now, it's hardly newsworthy to learn that stupid people exist and they do, in fact, vote. I mean, we have this whole thing called "the Bush Administration" that more or less proves that. But it's a little astounding to hear Kate Snow, who, as a reporter, is ostensibly charged with informing the public, offer up the mealy mouthed, "Just for the record, he constantly says he's a Christian..." As Snow well knows, there's a reason that Obama constantly says he's a Christian: it is because he is a Christian. The correct response would have been, "I'm sorry, but you are mistaken." Or, failing that, at least show us a voter capable of making a passionate and authoritative case for Clinton.

The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them . . . . To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.

- From 1984 by George Orwell

There have been many examples of doublethink in regards to criticisms of Obama, especially in this primary season. 

- Obama is an extremist liberal or even a communist who praised Reagan and voted for Cheney's energy bill
- Obama is an extreme atheist anti-religion, an extreme Muslim terrorist AND a Christian demagogue (TRIPLEthink!)
- Obama doesn't have the experience with the political establishment of Washington politics and he's got too much experience with the political establishment of Chicago politics.
- Obama is a partisan black nationalist who hasn't done anything specifically for the black community and doesn't deserve their support.

There are so many I could go on forever.  Doublethink is the weapon of choice against Obama by Republicans and the more partisan of Clinton supporters and will be in the future.