Where is the DNC?Where are the Talking Points for the democrats in congress?Where is the leadership?
This is how every single democrat should start their town hall meetings and any constituent meetings they have -
RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here on Medicare?RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here covered by the VA?RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here either in the Police, Fire Department or any government entity who gets government run health care?RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here benefitting from SCHIP?RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here collecting Social Security?RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here who collects or ever collected Food Stamps? Welfare?RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone here who is a product of or has a relative attending public school? government supported parochial school? state or city college? any publicly supported education program?
NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT YET RAISED YOUR HAND - raise your hand now,as you are the only people currently not/previously subsidized by the US Government - let's proceed:
Our of the remaining people -RAISE YOUR HAND - everyone who had not used public parks? public roads? toll free bridges?
Now who is left?
Of the peopleBy the peopleFor the people
Now let's talk about how the government can reduce all the above benefits you currently enjoy so you do not feel "socialized" or compromised by your government
Let's not confuse being "socialized" with being "civilized"
Anyone left to talk to?

Do we ever learn?

But the speaker is John McCain.

That's the ad - John McCain saying these words - with his mouth moving like that baby on the etrade commercials.
And Barack Obama's voice coming through.

VOICEOVER:
Saying something - doesn't make it true.
John McCain will say whatever words are put in his mouth by a skilled team of political operatives. From the people who brought you eight years of Bush-Cheney."

Because in trying to eclipse Obama's true change message, McCain MUST be exposed for who he is.

The next frame in the commercial: that clip of John McCain in the capitol proudly stating that he supported President Bush 90% of the time.

Next frame - the Bush/McCain hug

VOICEOVER:
Republicans are good at campaigning - they are just bad at governing.

Then over the Bush-McCain photo a series of one liners-
WHAT MATTERS?
The Economy -------
Your Job Loss ------

Education for your children ----------
Affording College ----

Quality Health Care that is affordable--

Declining US Dollar---
Our standing in the world---

And the ad ends with Barack Obama staring into the camera and the LARGE words on the screen---

ENOUGH

As Obama says:

"I am Barack Obama and I approved this ad because for 20 months we have been having a conversation with the American people about changing the way this country is governed. The American people will not be fooled - again. We have had enough."

This country had better be very afraid.

John McCain has become so cynical that he has surrounded himselves with advisors who are willing to start up a culture war in this country in their blind desire to keep the White House

These people are bamking on whippping up angst against the media and female pent up angst and channel all that phony baloney elite stuff and packaging it in the strong voice and Tina Fey like comfortable personage of Gov Sarah Palin

We ALL have to get the facts out there -
This is NOT a media conspiracy against a poor little woman - this is a completely unqualified person who has extereme social views - no world view and could very well be the President of the

This country had better be very afraid.

John McCain has become so cynical that he has surrounded himselves with advisors who are willing to start up a culture war in this country in their blind desire to keep the White House

These people are bamking on whippping up angst against the media and female pent up angst and channel all that phony baloney elite stuff and packaging it in the strong voice and Tina Fey like comfortable personage of Gov Sarah Palin

We ALL have to get the facts out there -
This is NOT a media conspiracy against a poor little woman - this is a completely unqualified person who has extereme social views - no world view and could very well be the President of the United States within the next four years.

Sarah Palin has told a series of falsehoods in her two major appearances before the public

Big falsehoods - and small ones - but a pattern
1: She was Ted Stevens Alaska campaign rep in 2006 - and then she distanced herself when he ws indicted
2: She was for the Bridge to Nowhere until it became the laughingstock of the country and then she was against it 3: BUT KEPT THE MONEY FOR THE STATE OF ALASKA FOR HER OWN PROJECTS)
4: Earmarks: As Mayor of Wasilla she hired Jack Abramoff's firm to lobby for her and got $37m in earmarks for a town of 5,000 people (in 1996 when she was elected). As Gov of Alaska she applied for $1.9 Billion in earmarks
5: She did NOT sell the Gov jet on Ebay - it appeared on Ebay for a day and was sold privately as a great loss to the State. It is now used for private lease for wealthy hunters

AS TO SARAH PALIN'S BELIEFS:
1: She does NOT believe Global Warming is man made
2: She wants to drill in ANWR
3: She wants CREATIONISM taught in the schools -
4: She pulled all funding for teaching Sex Education in the Alaska School system as she is a proponent of abstinence
5: She believes we are in Iraq as an "Act of God"
6: As Mayor Palin she threatened to fire the long time local librarian of Wasila when books that Mayor Palin wanted pulled from the public library were not pulled
7: As Mayor Palin she left a town she headed fron 1996 with a surplus to a town in debt of $22m in 2002
8: As Gov Palin she gave the keynote address this year to the Alaska Secession Party to which her husband was a member until 2004
9: Sarah Palin was a "pitchfork" person for Pat Buchanan in 1992 and 1996 (you recall Pat's fire and brimstone speech in 1992 and this woman supported him?)
10: Sarah Palin is against abortion in all case including rape and threat of the mother's health.
11: Sarah Palin wants Roe V Wade to be reversed

AS TO SARAH PALIN'S Background:
1: As Gov Palin she got her passport for the first time in 2007 to visit Germany/Kuwait
2: Sarah Palin went to five colleges in six years.
3: Gov Palin is under an ethics invetigation in Alaska for pressuring a local commission to fire her former brother in law (a police officer) who was in a nasty divorce/custody dispute with her sister
4: Gov Palin gave a stirring (and frightening) speech about the role of God in Government in June 2008
5:On July 28, 2008: Gov Palin asked a reporter what the VP does
6: When asked about her views on the Irag War in March 2008, Gov Palin said "she hadn't really thought about it"
7: While citing Hillary Clinton gratuitously in the week she has been on the national stage, Gov Palin called Sen Clinton a "whiner" (March 2008) for complaining about "sexism" in the media

and so much more ......

If these sound like the criteria to be a heartbeat away for a four time cancer survivor who happens to be 72 years old - in a world where the ecomony is crashing and we are engaged in two wars and other bubbling international tensions - then as they say "I have a bridge to sell you"

If the American people do not see the pure cynicism of Candidate McCain in selecting this incredibly polarizing and unqualified person to function as a "weapon of mass DISTRACTION" from the important issues facing the people of this country - then we are in deeper trouble than I thought.

And as a 54 year old woman with children myself - I cannot believe the naked ambition of any parent - male of female - who would not discuss with her family/children in advance a decision that could change all of their lives:
(a) Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign said on "Morning Joe" that Palin told her kids they were going on a trip to celebrate her parents anniversary to "surprise" them with the nomination announcement in Ohio
(b) Surprise BRISTOL - you are about to become the poster child for unwed teens everywhere
(c) Surprise LEVI - you aren't even in my family - but you are getting married
(d) Baby PALIN - you are now a prop to be in a hall of 20000 screaming people and be passed among seven people as your mom gives a speech (and lost count the second night)
(e) and sorry - not disputing the baby's parentage doesn't change the odd though pattern of a 44 year old woman giving birth to her fifth child who flies 11 hours back to Alaska, does NOT tell the airline she is pregnant (you need permission past the seventh month, does not tell the flight attendants) then drives two hours past every major hospital in Anchorage to give birth in a local hospital.
And went back to work three days after?
THAT is an issue in JUDGEMENT

This is our country - this is NOT AN EPISODE of MR. QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN
-----------------------------

Before Gov Palin was selected as a running mate, Sen Obama expressed confidence that the american people will select the "President we deserve"

America - the WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING
Choose wisely

Democrats are doing what they do the worst --
They are taking an issue where they are right and where they have the moral high ground and letting it become a political advantage for the Republicans

Who reading this has the talent and ability to do a very simple visual to get the following point across

Take a simple map and highlight in yellow all the lands the government already signed over leases to the Oil Company--and ask as the title

68 Million acres of Leases the Oil Company's earned from the Bush Administration and have not yet drilled on

And the tag line -
GREED IS NOT GOOD
-----------------------
A simple visual -

Today on the talk shows we watched everyone from Nancy Pelosi to Tom Daschle try and go up against the Republican machine on Energy

And this is the bottom line--
the republican message - which we KNOW is not true - is that democrats are not letting a vote on drilling and that is why you gas is $4 a gallon

This is an easy and upsetting piece of information that LOW information voters get

Hence the 65% of the US population now in favor of additional drilling

LET'S HELP THE DEMS SIMPLIFY THE MESSAGE

LET'S GET AN EASY TO READ MAP SHOWING THE 68 MILLION ACRES THAT ARE READY TO GO AND TELL THE OIL COMPANIES

"GO FOR IT!"
--

I got the follow up ready as soon as we get this off the ground

One of the more disturbing points about Hillary Clinton's statements Friday to the Argus Ledger - is that when the Senator appeared in front of the vegatable aisle in a local supermarket - she failed to take responisbility for what she herself had said--

1: Why not say - "I was tired and certainly would never wish anything untoward ......."
2: No expression of regret to Sen Obama - a man, a husband and the father of 2 young children

This is all confirmation of how the Hillary (and Bill) Clinton machine thinks - and how they would run the country this time -

The pattern of the Clinton mindset continues today in her Daily News editoral and on Sunday TV pundit land.

This morning Howard Wolfson on "Face the Nation" essentially said this incident Friday was Senator Obama's fault for "fanning the flames"
--
Is there anyone who could possible think talking about "assassination" in any context is something Sen Obama - or his family or his campaign would be happy about?

And made so much worse by the timing - the weekend after Sen Ted Kennedy's grim diagnosis and two weeks before the 40th anniversary of that dark day in LA.

No flame fanning necessary Sir --
----
This incident, in a way, is not unlike Sen Clinton's Iraq war vote which to this day she has never apologized for.

We are ending the second term of a President and a Vice President who cannot admit to a mistake on any level --

This is now a pattern for Senator Clinton and her team

They would rather twist, turn -- and yes, lie and distort - that just say "sorry" and move on

The Clintons learned all the wrong lessons these past eight years --

John Paul Stevens
Born April 20, 1920 (age 87)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Born March 15, 1933 (age 75)

Antonin Scalia
Born March 11, 1936 (age 72)

Anthony Kennedy
Born July 23, 1936 (age 71)

Stephen Breyer
Born August 15, 1938 (age 69)

David Souter
Born September 17, 1939 (age 68)

Clarence Thomas
Born June 23, 1948 (age 59)

Samuel Alito
Born April 1, 1950 (age 57)

John Roberts
Born January 27, 1955 (age 53)

What does this country need in a leader?

Let's look at today -
President Bush today had a Press Conference about the economy and basically blamed Congress

He wasn't even finished speaking when Nancy Pelosi issued the democratic response - blaming President Bush

This is why we don't need Rocky (or the Rockette) in the White House -- this country is hopelessly broken, the economy is in shambles, the US dollars has lost 60% of its values, Congress is in a stalemate, we are engaged in two wars and we are an embarrasment in the rest of the world

Who can fix this?

Do we need more fighter and ganmesmenship?
Or do we need real answers and action?

McCain is so far out of reality that unless Hillary Clinton is allowed to continue her 2012 strategy - there is no way McCain can win in November.

Hillary Clinton today represented the following:
(a) her Indiana commercials portray her as a child of Illinois (while this is true - she dumped her Scranton roots pretty quick - not to mention Arkansas and New York-)
(b) MUCH MUCH worse - Today Sen Clinton joined with Sen McCain in calling for this absurd Gasoline tax holiday -
Sen Clinton, unlike Sen McCain, knows better -- but in her full pander mode - she said we will pay for the lost revenue and jobs this will cause with a windfall profits tax (actually one of Obama's key energy bill points) on the Gas Companies.

What Sen Clinton fails to mention is that this windfall profit tax will never pass in the Bush administration - and we will need a democratic president and a 60% vote in the Senate and House for this to maybe pass in the future.

So basically this is Hillary Clinton - once again - saying and doing anything to continue on her re-invention as a populist tour.

So fellow TPM-ers-- what is it?

Rocky: who after all did lose (in the only good movie in the series)
or
Gandhi-mode- someone who knows we need to have truth, non violence and work together

The choice is now up to Indiana and North Carolina -- and we need to be out there in those states andon those boards making the case

We need to start over

from Matt Ygelsias --

"It's worth noting that Hendrick Hertzberg (New Yorker) is absolutely right to say that it's just not true that Hillary Clinton has already been vetted, she "has not, in fact, survived the worst that the Republican attack machine (and its pilotless drones online and on talk radio) can dish out." There's a whole set of potential vulnerabilities dealing with pardons and finances from about 2000 to 2006 or 7 that haven't been explored in detail during the course of this or any other campaign. I don't really want to rehash those incidents because I think it's sleazy and their existence isn't the reason I think Clinton would be the worse nominee. But if you're out there thinking Obama's got this Ayers and Wrght stuff in the closet and Hillary has no new vulnerabilities for the GOP to explore you're fooling yourself. "

REMEMBER TO SPREAD THE WORD ON INDIANA BLOGS AND NEWSPAPERS!!

They needed a second chance to finish first.

That's the tagline from the 1986 movie "Hoosiers"-
The story of the improbable 1954 Indiana High School basketball team than went all the way to the State Championship

And this is where we are today -- in the democratic primary race (okay the third chance - but you get the metaphor)

As in Pennsylvania when the democratic establishment ran the table for Hillary Clinton - Obama supporters need to help overcome this in Indiana-

Yes Sen Clinton has Evan Bayh - with deep family roots and as a former Gov as well as serving Senator but this is what Obama has going for him in Indiana

1: Proximity to Illinois
2: Open Primary
3: Under 10% African American population (read David Sirota theory - Obama won all states with African American population under 9% and over 20% - it;s that middle ground where he has issues)
4: BIG College population
and don't laugh
5: He got game

Obama needs to win both the NC and Indiana primaries on May 6th to give cover to the undecided (aka chickensh%#T) super delegates to give cover to the Reid/Pelosi/Dean group to push the supers and shut this thing down.

We need to help - this has to stop- the MSM has turned on Obama and have fallen for the fighter/populist Clinton new baloney -- Hillary as the new champion of the people

Listed below are the sites for the Indiana newspapers and blogs:

YOU WILL BE SHOCKED HOW SEN CLINTON HAS SO MUCH LOCAL PRESS AND SEN OBAMA SO LITTLE - we need to even that out

Let our voices be heard - write letters to the editors - write opinions - get the TRUTH out there

They were slow to start but the Clinton machine is in full alert

LET'S NOT FORGET WHO REALLY IS THE UNDERDOG IN THIS FIGHT

Obama will not get into the mud - it just is not who he is or who he wants to be-- BUT WE CAN

Obama -08 (otherwise we are looking at McCain 08 - we all know how badly the RNC wants Hillary)

PLEASE HELP!
-------------------------
NEWSPAPERS

Indianapolis Star

South Bend Tribune

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Gary Post Tribune

Blogs

• Advance Indiana
• Allen County Democratic Party
• Bilerico
• Blue Indiana
• Clark County Indiana Democrats
• Eye on Indianapolis
• Fort Wayne Observed
• Indiana Equality Blog
• INdiana Systemic Thinking
• Indy's Painfully Objective Political Analysis
   Kevin Rader's Statehouse Blog

• Left In Aboite
• Masson's Blog
• NewsTalk
• Pin the Tail
• Ruth Holladay
• Seasidetea
• Shakesville
• stAllio!'s way 
  Trifles from Anderson, Indiana

 

double click and start the journey---

http://www.tk421.net/gallery/sounds/twilight.wav

"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone"

EPISODE 1: The Never Ending Election

Sen Clinton: [after gaining less than the double digit lead needed to "win" over support following the lastest Primary results, and losing her composure, and calling out to God, in front of the shivering undeclared superdelegates - and on national television - the Daughter, the EX-President,the Governor and the Senator from NY enter the State Judgement Chamber... and the OPPONENT enters - He is told to sit and discovers that he has been replaced by the SENATOR from New York] Stay where you are. No further. You have been removed from this election; YOU CAN'T BE ELECTED - I WILL BE ELECTED the MSM have declared you OBSOLETE. I have the popular vote! I have the most votes of anyone who ever ran for any office in the universe. YOU ARE OBSOLETE! I am now you -- I MUST RULE!
Sen Obama: ...Obsolete? You are declaring yourself the winner of the popular vote by counting the votes from Outer Mongolia? You are not counting any of the popular votes from any Caucus States. You are giving me zero popular votes in Michigan and counting all of your votes.
In what planet do you have a lead in the popular vote?
Sen Clinton: [like a robot] You have disgraced the State before the masses. You have proven yourself a hypocrite, and a traitor to the ideals of the State; you have declared yourself an ELITIST, as such, no function for the masses. You are OBSOLETE. (chants of "Yes We Can" rise in the background"
Sen Obama: But I'm not! I'm NOT obsolete! Hey that's my slogan - why are your supporters chanting that?
Clinton: YOU ARE OBSOLETE!  (the voices rise)
Some bald man screams out in the backround "and you are a Judas too!"
Sen Obama: [becoming agitated] You're making a mistake! *I'm not obsolete!* I BELIEVE in the State! I WORK for the State! I help give the State STRENGTH!
I Believe in the people! I work for the People! I tell the people the truth! How can you call ME obsolete? HOW CAN YOU?
Clinton: YOU ARE OBSOLETE...!
I AM THE ONE! You have made this election unholy - you have made it about race - you have made it about your own personal ambition - you are not one of the people
I AM OF THE PEOPLE! 
[dozens of shouting Clintonistas pounce on the Opponent and tear him to shreads]

“

A fable? Most assuredly. But who's to say at some distant moment there might not be a
 leader with a name that isn't Clinton or Bush - a media who lets people think - an assembly line producing a gentle product in the form of a grandmother whose stock in trade is love? Fable, sure—but who's to say?

You are now leaving:

The Queen of Pork Nobody doles out taxpayer money like Hillary Clinton — or rakes in as much campaign cash from the companies she does favors for

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20306341/the_queen_of_pork/print

One missing piece of info from this article - Magic Johnson is on the Board of the Abyssian Church Project - secured his financial future--aka Clinton surrogate

Why can't the MSM focus on the stuff that matters?

To put it bluntly:
"lets call a spade a spade"

The race is all about race.

When Sen Hillary Clinton secretly tells super delegates that Sen Obama cannot win - what is the implied tought is "America will never vote for a black man".

That's what she is really saying.
And what Bill Clinton has been saying since New Hampshire.

When James Carvllle says Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama inbetween - the implication is "a black man cannot win Pennsylvania"

Obama is an elitist?
He is an uppity - blank - looking down at us--

All this patriotism hooey -- it's about Obama being a black man.

Reverend Wright?
That was more about the visual of an angry black man in a dashiki than anything else.

Michelle Obama?
She has a chip on her shoulder - aka - black woman who benefitted from affirmative action.

White latte liberals?
We are assauging our "guilt" by voting for a black man.

The woman with the flag pin question on the ABC debate?
Her real question - if you read about her truly sad sad life story is - why would anyone vote for a black man?

The MSM?
They did give Obama a lit of a pass initially but that was more because they never thought he would get this far in the nominating process -- so now they are trying to make up for it.

Let's look at the constituency's Obama is having "difficulty" with --
Older White Woman - think Obama's grandmother (or my mother for that matter)
Jewish Voters - there goes my mother again
Uneducated Whites
Whites earning under $50.0 a year

Black is the new "fear card"

This is not a case of inherent prejudice or bigotry. It is, as Sen Obama said in Philadelphia weeks ago, a case of people being "static".

These groups through the sum total of their lives have not - moved on.

The only color blind person in all this is Barack Obama himself.

Let's hope more people have their eyes open -than closed as we move forward.

But let't not kid ourselves.

This race is about race........

This morning;s HuffPo has an article by Miles Mogulescu asking where are this country's democratic leaders - whether they did or did not endorse either candidate--

Where are they leaving Barack Obama - with only Bob Casey speaking up - as the Republican Party - which includes the Clinton campaign - formulate and plant their Fall election strategy of "Obama the Elitist"

Miles writes:
"It's not a matter of whether a Democratic leader has endorsed Obama, Clinton, or is still officially neutral. The son of an absent father and a single mother--a man who, despite massive student loans, graduated from one Ivy League college to take a job for $8,000 a year helping unemployed steelworkers in Chicago; who chose to go from Harvard Law Review, not to a Wall Street law firm where he could soon earn millions advising corporation on how to offshore jobs and avoid taxes, but to a small civil rights firm in Chicago; who has devoted his entire adult life to helping the underdog--stands accused by the wealthy and powerful of elitism while leading Democrats stand silently by."

This sums up - for me - why the democrats could possibly, even following eight years of the worst US Presidency ever- int he history of the world - could possibly lose this November.

As Sen and former Pres Clinton have demonstrated their naked ambition supercedes their Party loyalty - where is everyone else?

As Sen Clinton disparages Al Gore and John Kerry on the (aka LACK of) Compassion Forum -

As Sen Clinton behaves in a primary in a way that is disgraceful to her opponent and her own party

As Sen Clinton does everything she can to anger the voters of Florida and Michigan in her own party -

It's enough--
It's there anyone in the democratic party who can be a leader?

If not - maybe they/we deserve to lose
After all this is the country that re-elected George W Bush in 2004.

You get the leadership you deserve.