Monday, March 31, 2008

Senator Gwen Margolis Spearheads Drive For Equal Rights

Legislation Ratifying Equal Rights Amendment Will Be Heard In Committee Tomorrow
 
TALLAHASSEEIn 1776, Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband, John, wrote: "In the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands." Yet more than two hundred years after the colonists declared their independence from King George, women in the United States are still attempting to encode in the Constitution their own guarantee of sovereignty.
 
"It is vital that Florida join the majority of states and send a message to the rest of the world that female citizens should be constitutionally guaranteed equality," said State Senator Gwen Margolis ( D-Sunny Isles Beach ), who is once again at the forefront of legislative attempts to have Florida ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. "How do we explain to the rest of the world that should a woman win the U.S. Presidency – the top job in this country - we could arguably get away with paying her only 77 cents on the dollar compared to her male predecessor?"
 
The Equal Rights Amendment, which affirms that both women and men hold equally all of the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, has remained unchanged since 1943:  "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
 
The amendment, for first time, would guarantee that sex discrimination be subject to the same judicial standards as race discrimination. The ERA has been ratified by thirty-five states thus far; endorsement by thirty-eight states is needed in order to amend the Constitution.
.
SJR 362- Equal Rights for Men & Women would add Florida to the list of states backing the constitutional amendment. The legislation will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow, April 1st, 2008; at 1:00pm in room 110, Senate Office Building .
 
Senator Margolis, who previously served as the first female Senate President and as Miami-Dade County Commission Chairwoman, has worked tirelessly for the ERA's passage since her return to the upper chamber in 2002. 
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Contact: Zack Kobrin 850-487-5121
 


  
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Florida ’s inconsistent patchwork of sex offender and predator residency restrictions

TALLAHASSEEIn an effort to remedy Florida 's inconsistent patchwork of sex offender and predator residency restrictions, State Senator Dave Aronberg (D-Greenacres) on Tuesday will present to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee legislation offering common-sense alternatives. 
 
SB 1430, which is scheduled to be heard Tuesday, April 1, 2008, would better protect public safety by creating a uniform statewide standard to prevent sex offenders and predators from living 1,500 feet from places children frequent.  The legislation would also create 24-hour child safety zones that would prevent offenders and predators from loitering around parks, playgrounds and other places where children congregate during the day
 
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee will meet from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm in the Senate Office Building , Room 401.
 
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CONTACT:   Kristen Pesicek
                        850-487-5356
 


  
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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Bosnia Smaznia

The Washington Post, in an article today called "Obama Overstates Kennedys' Role in Helping His Father," catches Obama in an outright fib:
Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.
Contrary to Obama's claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his father's arrival in the United States.


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50 state party Hillary wins vs 48 state party Obama wins

 
The Obama supporters make a big deal about this election being over due to math but got the wrong  high school subject as its geography that will determine the winner.
Specifically do you think America has 48 states or 50 states?
 
If it has 48 states and Florida and Michigan are not part of the USA and hence not part of the Democratic party then Obama looks very good for a nominee.  He hasn't carried a majority of democrats in the 48 states but otherwise has done very well in terms of pledged delegates, popular vote, total states won etc.
 
However if the USA has 50 states and all those states seat their delegates as cast there is absolutely no way you can argue that Obama has won.  Obama got less than 1% of the vote in Michigan and will get 0 delegates there if the delegates are seated as elected.  With the Florida and Michigan votes and the soon to be counted PA votes Hillary will take the lead in total popular vote even with Obama's big lead in GOP/Indy voters.  
 
So to the Obama supporters who are so sure its over remember it all depends on how many states the democratic party think there are in the USA.  If they admit its 50 Obama basically has NO CHANCE.


  
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Saturday, March 29, 2008

About That Writers’ Strike at DailyKos

Guest author, Alegre, recently posted this excellent blog on www.womensmediacenter.com. Founded in 2004 as a non-partisan, non-profit progressive women's media organization by the writers/activists Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem, the women's media center strives to make women visible and powerful in the media.
 
 
I work full time, but my evenings are spent writing about and promoting Hillary Clinton on the Internet. Sometimes well into the wee hours of the morning.  I may be just a volunteer, but I'm one of millions who is in her corner and working hard to help her make it to the Oval Office.
I've been a fan of hers and the remarkable work she's done over the past 35 years forHillarysheadshot_3 many reasons. I'll mention one that's at the top of my list—her early work with the Children's Defense Fund after she earned her law degree from Yale.  My son was born with developmental delays and has benefited greatly from the programs and laws Hillary helped fight for and put into place that require our public schools to accommodate children like my son. If he had been born 35 years ago he would have been written off as retarded—special education didn't exist in our public schools. Not so today, thanks in part to Hillary's work. He'll start kindergarten with his peers this fall only because of the years of physical therapy and early intervention he's gotten thanks to people like Hillary Clinton.
I've been posting to discussion boards and web logs since the mid-90s, and joined the progressive political site DailyKos nearly four years ago. When I posted my first diary in support of Hillary last June, I thought I'd get my head handed to me by other members of our online community. Surprisingly, my post generated some much-needed discussion about her record and her plans going forward.  Since then I've been posting on a daily basis, at times challenging something her rivals have said or done.  It wasn't all that bad for the most part—we had great discussions, and I gave as good as I got in the back and forth of it all.
Until about two months ago that is.  Things started to go downhill fast. I really can't put my finger on a cause, but the level of sexism and hostility toward Hillary and her supporters got to be too much.
I'd been tolerating abusive language, hate and anger for months because I thought I was helping my candidate get her message out.  And it did for a while.  I guessed that people in the press and the media read the things posted on the site and they were my real audience—not the haters.  But I realized I was having less and less of an impact there—the comments and abuse posted as response, the way the bullies tried to push me around, only made my write ups look pointless to anyone in the press who might have been reading.  And fewer of Hillary's supporters posted diaries or even commented on the site.  I'm sure it looked like a really sad and futile effort on my part.
Something snapped when I saw the way they trashed my diary about International Women's Day, reminding me about abuse the women at DailyKos took during another conflict a few years back—something we called "the pie wars."  Markos, creator of the site, had some ads up with pictures many of us found offensive: busty women in tight shirts ready to throw pies at each other.  Anyone who objected to the ads was automatically tossed into the "women's studies group."  We may not have made up a huge percentage of members of that site but we DO make up half the population of this world.  And as such, we deserve the same respect as the guys there.  But the attitude was, how dare we ask for the right to expect a hostility-free place to post among other progressives?  How dare we expect to be treated as equals?
I felt then as if we were we expected to go get coffee while they planned their next assault on the Bush/Cheney cabal. Now, it felt that way again.  The fact that people quickly decry comments about Obama as racist while completely ignoring the sexist tone that's been injected into the campaign is one of the biggest double standards I've ever seen.  I've had it up to my eyeballs with guys telling us to wait for our turn.
So I decided I'd had enough.  I didn't intend to make a statement; I simply wanted to explain why I wouldn't be around for a while and maybe let other supporters of Hillary's know where I was going to be posting.  Then I began to think about how students would call a strike to protest their schools' investments in companies doing business with governments committing genocide, as in Darfur, or with South Africa during apartheid.  I know my protest wasn't on as grand a scale, but I could take a stand against the sexism and hate that had been allowed to flourish in the DailyKos community.  I needed to tell someone that I wasn't willing to contribute to a site that so disrespected women and the people who supported Hillary.  And I needed to ask others to join me.  If enough of us walked out then maybe our message would be heard.
Once I posted my thoughts at DailyKos, I felt released.  I knew I'd get clobbered in the comments but I didn't care.  I was more than surprised to see that many actually posted supportive comments. I heard that 300 people recommended my post to others.  Several big name bloggers I notified, such as Marc Ambinder, Jake Tapper and Ben Smith, wrote about the strike.  The AP picked it up from there. The Huffington Post and countless other sites have cross-posted what I'd written.  Requests started pouring in from people hoping to join the Yahoo discussion group, Hillary's Voice, people beyond grateful to find a place where her supporters could share information and discuss the issues as we try to get Hillary's record and story out onto the blogs.  Those comments helped to remind me that there are thousands of bloggers out there who are doing all they can to help her make it to the Oval Office.
It was an interesting week to say the least.  I walked away from an online community where I'd been an active member for nearly four years and caused quite a dust-up.  My post generated more than 1,200 comments and would have gotten more if the administrators hadn't shut down the opportunity to comment.  Any more and it would have crashed the site.
A lot of people joined in on my writers' strike, and it was good to know I wasn't alone in thinking it was time to walk away from DailyKos.  The New York Times,  Bill O'Rielly, Stephen Colbert and the Washington Post covered us. Hillary's Voice has grown by more than 100 new members, and a few of us are in the process of building up a new web log to visit and post to.  In my wildest dreams, I never in expected all this to come from a simple post calling for a bit of a reality check and civility at DailyKos.  And I certainly never expected to get this kind of attention just because I walked away from some blog.  Me—a working mom who blogs late into the night on behalf of a Democrat she believes in.
I've often wondered why some of Senator Obama's supporters felt the need to get so abusive. A friend pointed out that many of them are younger than Hillary's supporters.  Those 20- or 30-something men grew up with the computer and are used to dealing with people in an anonymous manner.  They're invisible.  They have no way of knowing whom they're verbally attacking in those exchanges.  We could be their mother, neighbor, teacher or friend—or their boss.  They don't know and they clearly don't care.
Since I and others have left DailyKos, things must have gotten pretty boring for the haters there.  Some seem to have followed us over to our new blog-home, MyDD.   When we post, they've taken to jumping in with the same tired talking  points and abuse.  We try our best to  ignore them.
Some of the inquiries I've gotten from the press ask whether I think our online community can regroup once the primaries are over.  I can't speak for all of Hillary's online supporters, but personally, I'll follow my candidate's lead and do all I can to elect a Democrat dedicated to fixing our disastrous healthcare system, bringing our troops home from Iraq, reversing the damage we've done to our planet through years of neglect, repairing our economy after eight years of cronyism—the list goes on. And that means working together as a team on line using all the resources at our disposal—even DailyKos.


  
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Rove: My ‘tail and horns are retractable

 

During his speech last night at George Washington University, Karl Rove was interrupted by a group of protesters who unfurled a banner reading "War Criminal." The protesters were heckled by some in the audience. A couple of Rove supporters shouted "tase them" to the protesters.
Later on, a student asked Rove why some of his detractors believe he is a "fundamentally bad human being." Rove joked, "First of all, the tail and the horns are retractable." "I don't know! I'm a myth," Rove explained. "I mean, I'm like Grendel of Beowulf; I'm not often seen but people talk about me a lot. I don't know." Watch it:
Another student asked Rove whether he would still support the Iraq war if he knew then what he knows now. "It is what it is," Rove said, showing no remorse for his involvement in leading the nation into Iraq.


  
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McSame's First General Election Ad

these kinds of ad campaigns, and their effects on Dems' chances in November, must be discussed now.
We Must Make The Right Decision TODAY
 


  
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Fact Or Fiction

Attacker:
 
Target:
Truth-O-Meter says:
Barack Obama has written and co-sponsored more bills in three years than Hillary Clinton has in seven.
False
Obama spent "40 percent of the PAC money, 43 percent to be exact, on Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina politicians."
True
"(Obama) did accept donations from lobbyists and PACs and he spent money in this campaign from that, through his political action committee."
True
Hillary Clinton  wants to raise taxes on all income brackets.
False


  
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Why Obama Should Not Drop Out Of The Race

. Not all the votes have been counted yet, he should wait for Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and Kentucky to vote, millions of votes have not been counted yet.  
 
.The vote will all be counted when Puerto Rico and Montana and South Dakota  has voted after June 3rd.
 
. Obama should not let the Media decide when this race is over
 
. 22 Percent of Democrats think Obama should drop out, just like 22 percent think Hillary should drop out
 
. Every state that has a PRIMARY, interest in the race increases and voter rolls swell, This  process has been good for the Democratic Party  
 
 
Right now, nobody has enough votes to claim the nomination. That's just a fact. Read Marc Ambinder's piece if you want to know just how close this race really is.


  
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This Is Your Brain On Obama



  
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How The Media Distorts Facts

Speaking in North Carolina last Friday, Bill Clinton talked about a potential general election matchup between Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Bill Clinton's comments were quickly distorted by several news reports; here's what he actually said:
BILL CLINTON: I believe those are the three reasons you ought to be for her: She'd be the best for the veterans, she'd be the best commander in chief, and she would certainly be the best at managing this economy. And finally, according to the evidence today, she's also the most electable. She's running ahead of Senator McCain in Ohio; her opponent's running behind. She is ahead in Florida and Arkansas, a state that voted for me twice, 'cause I was the governor -- they sort of had to, I guess -- and voted for President Carter once. They haven't voted for another Democrat in 44 years. This week's survey in Arkansas: Senator McCain is leading Hillary's opponent by 16 points; Hillary's leading him by 15 points. So she can win this election. And, and, we need to change the direction of this country.
But it won't be an easy race. John McCain is an honorable man, and as all of you know, he has paid the highest price you can pay for the United States, short of giving your life. And he and Hillary are friends; they like and respect each other. They have big disagreements on foreign policy and economic policy, they have taken reluctant Republican senators all over the world to prove that global warming is real but there is a way to deal with it that grows the economy and doesn't shrink it. And we now have a bipartisan majority in the Senate to do something about this. That's the kind of leadership this country needs.
And I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who love this country and were devoted to the interests of the country, and people could actually ask themselves, who's right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics. So that's my argument for her. She'd be the best for veterans, the best commander in chief, the best for the economy, and is the most electable.
You can watch video of Clinton's comments here.
Clinton's comments were quite clear: The former president simply said that his wife is the best candidate on the issues, and that it would be "a great thing" to have an election about those issues rather than one about "all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
Those last comments -- about how great it would be to have an election about issues rather than "all this other stuff" -- are most easily read as a critique of the news media for obsessing over candidates' haircuts and houses and earth tones and sighing and middle names and how many buttons are on their suits and whether they'd be fun to have a beer with. That's the nonsense that has defined our politics for the past decade thanks to the news media, and Clinton seemed to be making what should be the obvious point that it would be better to focus on candidates' foreign policy views and economic policies than on what they like on their cheesesteaks or whether they "look French."
If, as seems obvious, Clinton was tweaking the news media for focusing on trivia and nonsensical phony controversies rather than on important issues, many journalists quickly -- and unwittingly -- proved his point.
MSNBC's Alex Witt, for example, described Clinton as having "raised the issue of patriotism" in his comments, instructing viewers to "[l]isten carefully to what he says here." MSNBC then played a short excerpt of Clinton's comments, while an on-screen graphic read: "RACE & THE RACE."
Now, go back and read Clinton's comments. Watch them again. He didn't say anything about "race." Nothing at all. Not a word. In portraying Clinton's comments as having something to do with race, MSNBC was inventing a controversy where none existed -- and, in doing so, grossly misleading its audience. Nor was Witt right to say Clinton "raised the issue of patriotism." He hadn't done so -- he hadn't suggested that anyone lacks patriotism, or that anyone is more patriotic than anyone else. It just didn't happen.
But that quickly became conventional wisdom among the news media.
Maureen Dowd, displaying a stunning lack of self-awareness, wrote:
On Friday in Charlotte, N.C., Bill Clinton, the man who once thanked an R.O.T.C. recruiter "for saving me from the draft" during Vietnam, sounded like Sean Hannity without the finesse.
Extolling John McCain as "an honorable man," and talking about McCain's friendship with his wife, the former president told veterans: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
Some people consider the Clintons to be the "stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
Yeah, and others think Maureen Dowd is the stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics. Those people are right. As Bob Somerby explained in March 2007:
In Dowd's work, John Edwards is routinely "the Breck Girl" (five times so far -- and counting), and Gore is "so feminized that he's practically lactating." Indeed, two days before we voted in November 2000, Dowd devoted her entire column, for the sixth time, to an imaginary conversation between Gore and his bald spot. "I feel pretty," her headline said (pretending to quote Gore's inner thoughts).That was the image this idiot wanted you carrying off to the voting booth with you! Such is the state of Maureen Dowd's broken soul. And such is the state of her cohort [Ann Coulter].
And now, in the spirit of fair play and brotherhood, she is extending this type of "analysis" to Barack Obama. In the past few weeks, she has described Obama as "legally blonde" (in her headline); as "Scarlett O'Hara" (in her next column); as a "Dreamboy," as "Obambi," and now, in her latest absurd piece, as a "schoolboy" (text below). Do you get the feeling that Dowd may have a few race-and-gender issues floating around in her inane, tortured mind?
The New Republic's Marty Peretz jumped in, agreeing with Dowd's interpretation of Clintons' comments:
What Bill Clinton was saying in full consciousness is that yes, John McCain loves America and that, yes, so does Hillary. And that Barack Obama does not. What else could he possibly have meant? And that nasty little line about that other kind of politics (Obama's) intruding on our lives! None of this is a slip. It is deliberate. It is also ugly, very ugly. If Clinton gets nominated and gets elected, we will rue the day we ever met her ... and him.
Chris Matthews agreed that there was only one possible interpretation of Clinton's comments:
MATTHEWS: There's only one way to read that. He's saying that if you pick these two people, you get two people that love their country. If you don't, you don't get two people that love your country. You get this other guy, Obama, who has all this other stuff, as if that other stuff is Obama's problem. He's getting pretty tough here, isn't he, in these last efforts to hold onto reality or something like a Clinton reality?
I'm not sure which is more troubling: the possibility that Peretz and Matthews are so slow they really cannot imagine any other possible interpretation of Clinton's comments? Or the possibility that they know perfectly well that other interpretations exist, but are dishonest enough to pretend they don't?
Whatever the reason behind Matthews' comments, Jill Zuckman of the Chicago Tribune disagreed with him: "I don't believe that he's trying to suggest that Senator Obama is not a patriot. I think what he's saying is Senator Clinton and Senator McCain like each other and they have policy disagreements."
Freelance writer and political consultant Steve Benen agreed with Zuckman and wrote in a post on his blog, The Carpetbagger Report:
There's just nothing striking about the comments. He said Clinton and McCain are patriotic Americans who can face off in a campaign about issues. It wasn't a shot at Obama; it wasn't about Obama at all. I suppose one, if they were really anxious to parse the words and raise a fuss, could make a variety of inferences, but there's really no rational need to do so. At face value, his comments were harmless.
And syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, in a post on National Review Online's blog, The Corner, wrote that she was present for Clinton's comments and "[i]n no way did I interpret Clinton's remarks as questioning Obama's patriotism." Parker elaborated:
Clinton was making the case for his wife's electability against McCain, who last time I checked is the presumptive Republican nominee and her challenger should she win the Democratic nomination. He may have intentionally bypassed Obama in his leap to match Hillary against McCain, but he didn't say anything that could be construed as questioning Obama's patriotism. The sequence went as follows: He noted that Hillary polls ahead of McCain in Ohio and Florida and also that McCain leads "Hillary's opponent" (I quit typing here and don't recall exactly which states he mentioned in that part of his comment.) His point, obviously, was that Hillary should be the nominee and, in that case, she and McCain would face each other in the final contest.
Slate's John Dickerson likewise saw that Clinton's comments were innocuous:
Clinton appears to be imagining a post-nomination world and characterizing the debate among two senators (Hillary and McCain) as respectful because -- as he had just finished explaining to the crowd -- his wife and McCain had traveled the world together working on the issues like global warming. When he refers to "the other stuff that always seems to intrude," it's plausible to assume -- if you strip him of the horns and pitchfork for just a moment -- that what Clinton was talking about was the "stuff" that intrudes in general-election fights -- swift-boat ads and Republican claims that Democrats aren't patriots.
Still, major news outlets persisted in portraying Clinton's comments as controversial -- some by misleadingly cropping Clinton's statement. NBC's Today, for example, played a clip of Clinton saying only: "And I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who love this country and were devoted to the interests of the country." They carefully clipped Clinton's comments to hide the fact that he was talking about the importance of having an election about issues rather than "other stuff" -- clipped it so viewers would have no idea what he was really talking about.
Days of media obsession about Bill Clinton's comments -- featuring reporters ignoring the plain meaning of what he said and reading into his remarks things that he plainly didn't say -- perversely prove Clinton's point. This is exactly the kind of "other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." This is the kind of nonsense the media want to talk about instead of meaningful issues.
And some of them, deep down inside, know this is a problem.
Here's Chris Matthews, for example, earlier this week:
MATTHEWS: It's not important what the politics of the Clinton family is now; it's what [sic] important to the country. And I really think we got to stop talking about this as if this were a sitcom. We had eight years of this sitcom: What are the Clintons up to? How do they relate to each other? What do they feel today? Mika, it's a sitcom -- and it's gotta end. We gotta focus on America. We're stuck in Iraq; 4,000 people are dead now because of decisions made by politicians like the Clintons. We've gotta focus on what matters and stop this sitcom approach to politics. It doesn't matter what happened on the phone between Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson. What matters is what Bill Richardson has to say about the future of the country. Bill -- Governor, why is it important to have Barack Obama our next president? That's a question.
That was on the March 24 edition of Morning Joe. Matthews didn't seem to understand that he and his colleagues are the ones responsible for the "sitcom approach to politics." But at least he understood that this approach is hurting America. Then, on that evening's broadcast of his own show, Matthews devoted a six-minute segment to speculation about Hillary Clinton's motivations and preferred outcomes in the event that she loses the Democratic nomination for president.
This is hardly the first time Matthews has lambasted the media for behaving like ... well, like Chris Matthews.
In September 2006, Matthews declared: "The news media ... sucks lately in covering the Iraq war ... We don't cover a war our guys are fighting? ... I watch the news and I don't see the war anymore. It's been taken off television. And Bush must love it, because certainly Karl Rove loves the fact that the Iraq war has gotten boring for the American people. ... I have been a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning."
In January 2007, Matthews followed up by saying media coverage of the war is "all about vague heroism and the medals people win. But there's nothing about what is going on in our military hospitals now. Why don't we focus on the cost of this damn thing?"
But Matthews wasn't using his own television shows -- he hosts two -- to give viewers regular, detailed, thoughtful segments about the costs of the Iraq war. Instead, he was calling Al Gore fat and leading inane segments in which he and his guests imagined poodle-skirt-wearing presidential candidates in high school.
And yet it doesn't even cross Chris Matthews' mind that when Bill Clinton talked about "other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics," maybe -- just maybe -- he was referring to the mindless chatter and sophomoric insults that Matthews and his colleagues inflict on the nation on a daily basis.


  
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Friday, March 28, 2008

Pundits Versus Reality

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton will lose New Hampshire and the race will be over
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton wins New Hampshire, defying the predictions and the polls

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton will lose the big states on Super Tuesday and the race will be over
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton wins the big states on Super Tuesday – and wins them by double digits

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton will lose Texas and possibly Ohio on March 4th and the race will be over
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton wins both Texas and Ohio on March 4th – and she wins Ohio by double digits

THE PUNDITS
Despite Hillary Clinton's big victories on March 4th, "the math" works decisively against her and the race is essentially over
THE REALITY
The math is simple: neither candidate has reached the number of delegates required to secure the nomination and either candidate can win

THE PUNDITS
Barack Obama is substantially ahead in the pledged delegate count; pledged delegates are the only measure of success; therefore the race is essentially over
THE REALITY
The candidates are within fractions of one another on delegates; Barack Obama needs super delegates to win; and a marginal pledged delegate lead does not determine the outcome

THE PUNDITS
Barack Obama is substantially ahead in the popular vote; Florida and Michigan don't count; therefore the race is essentially over
THE REALITY
The popular vote is virtually tied; half of Barack Obama's narrow vote advantage is from his home state; and his lead excludes Florida and Michigan

THE PUNDITS
Once the remaining states vote, Barack Obama will be substantially ahead in delegates and votes and the race will be over
THE REALITY
The race is a dead heat now and no one knows where things will end up after millions of remaining voters in the upcoming states make their choice

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton's situation is dire; her campaign is struggling; her supporters are disillusioned and desperate
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton and her supporters are calm, confident, and focused heading into the key state of PA, where she is running strong

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton's campaign lacks significant grassroots energy; only one candidate has mobilized supporters to take action for the campaign
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton's supporters across America have written letters, blogged, donated tens of millions of dollars, volunteered millions of hours and made millions of calls

THE PUNDITS
There is a loud and growing chorus of voices asking Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the race
THE REALITY
Precisely the same number of voters (22%) think Barack Obama should drop out of the race as Hillary Clinton

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton is the candidate running a negative, divisive campaign; she is throwing the "kitchen sink" at Barack Obama
THE REALITY
Barack Obama has been throwing the sink, the stove, the plates and the garbage can at Hillary Clinton, attacking her integrity and character every day

THE PUNDITS
For Hillary to win the nomination, super delegates will have to "overturn the will of the people"
THE REALITY
The will of the people is split and both candidates need - and are making their case to - super delegates

THE PUNDITS
Hillary Clinton is threatening to poach pledged delegates from Barack Obama
THE REALITY
Barack Obama is reportedly already trying to poach pledged delegates from Hillary Clinton

THE PUNDITS
Florida and Michigan's voters won't be heard and their delegates won't be seated all because of complicated procedural roadblocks
THE REALITY
Barack Obama is intentionally disenfranchising voters in two critical states for purely political reasons, namely, that he'll lose his small advantage if they count

THE PUNDITS
Every single word or action from Hillary Clinton, her campaign, her surrogates and her supporters is part of a calculated and cynical political strategy
THE REALITY
Hillary Clinton is a loyal Democrat, a lifelong public servant, a tireless and tenacious candidate, and is fighting hard - and fair - to win with the help of millions of dedicated supporters



  
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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Jamie Rubin Bitch Slaps Andrea Mitchell



  
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NBC/Wall Street Journal Deliberately skewed poll for Obama

 
 
 
NBC/Wall Street Journal Embarrassed on Oversampling


... .. But one which, tends to undercut the arguments of the Obama campaign that he would be a substantially stronger candidate in the general election than Clinton. And evidence that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has taken the luster off Obama and made him a weaker candidate against McCain than he was two week ago. ... ..
This poll has gotten them into trouble, so they're trying to explain themselves. Short answer: You all are idiots. In a post entitled "What 'Oversampling' Means," the group that conducted the poll "explains." In other words, covering their political posterior for a poll that should never have been released they blame you for being ignorant.
The sample for the March 24-25 poll on race included an "oversample" of 100 African American voters. - MSNBC First Read


  
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Make Florida Count



Grassroots Dems are on the job.
It originates from a Facebook group.


  
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Obama Shill Ed Shultz Gets The Axe At WINZ

"Big Head Ed" Schultz has been canceled from http://940winz.com Miami/Fort Lauderdale
 
radio. Miami, one of radio's largest media markets has seen the slipping ratings of the Ed Schultz show for months and replacing him with a Live show of Thom Hartmann.
 
Maybe the other Obama shills, on progressive radio, better watch their backs.


  
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Joe Scarborough Cleans Obama's Shill Richard Wolfe's Clock

Richard Wolffe is so impressed with himself. Seriously, have you watched this guy?
 
 


  
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Obama Words Don't Match Deeds

 Obama Words Don't Match Deeds


There are many examples in the Obama banquet of presidential propaganda, but one of my very favorites comes from FactCheck: Selective, embellished and out-of-context quotes from newspapers pump up Obama's health plan. It comes under the banner headline of: Obama's Creative Clippings, which is then followed by sub-headings of "Obama Writes His Own Reviews," "Obama Strengthens His Own Reviews," and let's not forget "Obama Edits His Own Reviews."
Let's just call this the politics of pure fiction.
I was dismayed, however, at what I found when I read Dreams from My Father. Composite characters. Changed names. And reams of dialogue between Obama and other people that moves the narrative along but is an approximation'' of the actual conversation.
Except for public figures and his family, it is impossible to know who is real and who is not. ... ..
There's also this beauty from the same piece by Lynn Sweet: ... .. Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter. ... ..
One can only wonder what Iowans would have done with the Rev. Wright revelations if they'd known about them. But what if they were made aware that Obama told a tall tale about legislation he said he passed,which actually hadn't, while he really rewrote it favoring one of his major contributors? I wrote about this when the story broke (also see NBC news follow up). Where were the Obama blogs? **crickets** The fiction Obama told on his big nuke contributors Exelon is a whopper of jaw dropping proportions.
Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was "the only nuclear legislation that I've passed."
"I just did that last year," he said, to murmurs of approval.
A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks.
Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But, contrary to Mr. Obama's comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate. ... ..
Oh, and about that civil rights love story he spun regarding his mother and father, false, as well:
Mr. Obama relayed a story of how his Kenyan father and his Kansan mother fell in love because of the tumult of Selma, but he was born in 1961, four years before the confrontation at Selma took place. When asked later, Mr. Obama clarified himself, saying: "I meant the whole civil rights movement."
Hey, but let's not nitpick.
White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was forced to revise a critical stump line of his on Saturday -- a flat declaration that lobbyists "won't work in my White House" after it turned out his own written plan says they could, with some restrictions. ... ..
Let's just put this next one as also belonging in the Exelon (see above) category of exaggerating your accomplishments 2.0:
Earlier this year, Obama sponsored an amendment in the Senate requiring lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they bundle. Obama's amendment would not, however, require candidates to release the names of their bundlers. What's more, although Obama's amendment was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent, the measure never become law as Obama seemed to suggest.
But this one is simply Bush stupid.
Then sometimes, arrogance can be greeted by a senatorial slap:
Immigration is a case in point for Obama, but not the only one. In 2007, after the first comprehensive immigration bill had died, the senators were back at it, and again, Obama was notably absent, staffers and senators said. At one meeting, three key negotiators recalled, he entered late and raised a number of questions about the bill's employment verification system. Kennedy and Specter both rebuked him, saying that the issue had already been resolved and that he was coming late to the discussion. Kennedy dressed him down, according to witnesses, and Obama left shortly thereafter.
"Senator Obama came in late, brought up issues that had been hashed and rehashed," Specter recalled. "He didn't stay long."
This week brought another false claim of credit from Obama:
Just this week, as the financial markets were roiling in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse, Obama made another claim that was greeted with disbelief in some corners of Capitol Hill. On March 13, Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, unveiled legislative proposals to allow the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee new loans from banks willing to help homeowners in or approaching foreclosure.
But a couple of gaping holes in Obama's resume that have always bothered me include Iraq. Why he wasn't a leader on Iraq in the Senate once he had the chance? Nothing, until he decided to run for president. Obama's disinterest in foreign policy imperatives extends to ducking out on the Kyl-Lieberman vote as well. I disagreed strongly with Clinton on that vote, but she took a stand and did her job. Then there's Obama's foreign relations committee where he couldn't bother to do his job, because he was too busy looking for a better job. Let's just say I'm not all that impressed with Obama's work ethic, which seems a lot more talk than action; as he seems a lot more interested with titles than the hard work that's required to get something done.
...and we haven't even gotten back into all the ramblings on Obama and Rezko, or to the current status of Rev. Wright, where Obama said he hadn't heard his preacher's anti-American screeds, before he had to admit he had. As they say in blogworld... this one is still developing. However, unlike the other stories that the press shrugs off, Rev. Wright seems to be sticking. Something about it goes deeper than policies and politics, and Obama's team senses it, too.

posted at taylormarsh.com

  
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Obama: Folks In Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones

after hearing this March 25, 2008 NPR report from Don Gonyea. Gonyea reported on Obama's now-famous 2002 anti-war speech. Jackie wrote:
  
Obama's ad on anti-war speech is staged
 
 The speech was given at an anti-war rally on Oct. 2, 2002…..Jessie Jackson was the main speaker.  Obama's speech went mainly unnoticed. He had not yet announced his run for the Senate, although now he claims he risked his political career.  Of course we know that there was NO risk in running against Alan Keyes, all Obama had to do was breathe..
Gonyea says….."In an age of YouTube there is no video of the speech and only a snippet of audio. The Obama campaign has reenacted the speech in a campaign AD they are now running."
If there is no video available it would seem the entire Obama anti-war speech on which he is basing his Ad campaign may be faked.  In fact the entire speech could be distorted. LISTEN.
Is it a creation or a re-creation? You decide. But those aren't Sen. Obama's only "creative" embellishments:
I wonder if THIS GUY had anything to do with all that?
THE EMBELLISHMENTS:
"Senator Obama has called himself a constitutional professor, claimed credit for passing legislation that never left committee, and apparently inflated his role as a community organizer among other issues.  When it comes to his record, just words won't do.  Senator Obama will have to use facts as well," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said.
Sen. Obama consistently and falsely claims that he was a law professor.  The Sun-Times reported that, "Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter."  In academia, there's a significant difference: professors have tenure while lecturers do not. [Hotline Blog, 4/9/07; Chicago Sun-Times, 8/8/04]
Obama claimed credit for nuclear leak legislation that never passed. "Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was 'the only nuclear legislation that I've passed.' 'I just did that last year,' he said, to murmurs of approval. A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks. Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But, contrary to Mr. Obama's comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate." [New York Times, 2/2/08]
Obama misspoke about his being conceived because of Selma. "Mr. Obama relayed a story of how his Kenyan father and his Kansan mother fell in love because of the tumult of Selma, but he was born in 1961, four years before the confrontation at Selma took place. When asked later, Mr. Obama clarified himself, saying: `I meant the whole civil rights movement.'" [New York Times, 3/5/07]
LA Times: Fellow organizers say Sen. Obama took too much credit for his community organizing efforts. "As the 24-year-old mentor to public housing residents, Obama says he initiated and led efforts that thrust Altgeld's asbestos problem into the headlines, pushing city officials to call hearings and a reluctant housing authority to start a cleanup. But others tell the story much differently. They say Obama did not play the singular role in the asbestos episode that he portrays in the best-selling memoir 'Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.' Credit for pushing officials to deal with the cancer-causing substance, according to interviews and news accounts from that period, also goes to a well-known preexisting group at Altgeld Gardens and to a local newspaper called the Chicago Reporter. Obama does not mention either one in his book." [Los Angeles Times, 2/19/07]
Chicago Tribune:  Obama's assertion that nobody had indications Rezko was engaging in wrongdoing 'strains credulity.' "…Obama has been too self-exculpatory. His assertion in network TV interviews last week that nobody had indications Rezko was engaging in wrongdoing strains credulity: Tribune stories linked Rezko to questionable fundraising for Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2004 — more than a year before the adjacent home and property purchases by the Obamas and the Rezkos." [Chicago Tribune editorial, 1/27/08]        
Obama was forced to revise his assertion that lobbyists 'won't work in my White House.' "White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was forced to revise a critical stump line of his on Saturday — a flat declaration that lobbyists 'won't work in my White House' after it turned out his own written plan says they could, with some restrictions… After being challenged on the accuracy of what he has been saying — in contrast to his written pledge — at a news conference Saturday in Waterloo, Obama immediately softened what had been his hard line in his next stump speech." [Chicago Sun-Times, 12/16/07]
FactCheck.org: `Selective, embellished and out-of-context quotes from newspapers pump up Obama's health plan.' "Obama's ad touting his health care plan quotes phrases from newspaper articles and an editorial, but makes them sound more laudatory and authoritative than they actually are. It attributes to The Washington Post a line saying Obama's plan would save families about $2,500. But the Post was citing the estimate of the Obama campaign and didn't analyze the purported savings independently. It claims that "experts" say Obama's plan is "the best." "Experts" turn out to be editorial writers at the Iowa City Press-Citizen - who, for all their talents, aren't actual experts in the field. It quotes yet another newspaper saying Obama's plan "guarantees coverage for all Americans," neglecting to mention that, as the article makes clear, it's only Clinton's and Edwards' plans that would require coverage for everyone, while Obama's would allow individuals to buy in if they wanted to." [FactCheck.org, 1/3/08]
Sen. Obama said 'I passed a law that put Illinois on a path to universal coverage,' but Obama health care legislation merely set up a task force. "As a state senator, I brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass legislation insuring 20,000 more children. And 65,000 more adults received health care…And I passed a law that put Illinois on a path to universal coverage." The State Journal-Register reported in 2004 that "The [Illinois State] Senate squeaked out a controversial bill along party lines Wednesday to create a task force to study health-care reform in Illinois. […] In its original form, the bill required the state to offer universal health care by 2007. That put a 'cloud' over the legislation, said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon. Under the latest version, the 29-member task force would hold at least five public hearings next year." [Obama Health Care speech, 5/29/07; State Journal-Register, 5/20/04]
ABC News: 'Obama…seemed to exaggerate the legislative progress he made' on ethics reform. "ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: During Monday's Democratic presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., seemed to exaggerate the legislative progress he has made on disclosure of "bundlers," those individuals who aggregate their influence with the candidate they support by collecting $2,300 checks from a wide network of wealthy friends and associates. When former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel alleged that Obama had 134 bundlers, Obama responded by telling Gravel that the reason he knows how many bundlers he has raising money for him is "because I helped push through a law this past session to disclose that." Earlier this year, Obama sponsored an amendment [sic] in the Senate requiring lobbyists to disclose the candidates for whom they bundle. Obama's amendment would not, however, require candidates to release the names of their bundlers. What's more, although Obama's amendment was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent, the measure never became law as Obama seemed to suggest. Gravel and the rest of the public know how many bundlers Obama has not because of a 'law' that the Illinois Democrat has 'pushed through' but because Obama voluntarily discloses that information." [ABC News, 7/23/07]
Obama drastically overstated Kansas tornado deaths during campaign appearance. "When Sen. Barack Obama exaggerated the death toll of the tornado in Greensburg, Kan, during his visit to Richmond yesterday, The Associated Press headline rapidly evolved from `Obama visits former Confederate capital for fundraiser' to `Obama rips Bush on Iraq war at Richmond fundraiser' to `Weary Obama criticizes Bush on Iraq, drastically overstates Kansas tornado death toll' to `Obama drastically overstates Kansas tornado deaths during campaign appearance.' Drudge made it a banner, ensuring no reporter would miss it." [politico.com, 5/9/07]
Courtesy of AndreWalker's MyDD diary, "Just Embellished Words: Obama's Record of Exaggerations & Misstatements" and campaign press releases.
::::::::::::::::::::::


  
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Obama’s “lobbyist money”

The Obama campaign is attacking Senator Clinton on the basis that the money she has raised from lobbyists makes her a tool of special interests rather than a representative of the people.  (link)
What Mr. Obama and his campaign staff are failing to mention in this new attack is their own effort to carefully conceal the money they have raised through lobbyists.  About a year ago The Hill revealed the Obama campaign's plan to raise money through lobbyists by having the lobbyists work as bundlers rather than donating money themselves. (link)

Gov. Crist of Florida likes women, A LOT, I mean it, stop laughing




by John Aravosis (DC) 

For some reason, the Florida press is pushing several stories feeding the notion that Republican Governor Charlie Crist really likes women. Could this have something to do with rumors that the very-single and always-tan Mr. Crist is being considered as a VP choice for John McCain? (There are other rumors too.) There's this, which is embarrassing enough ("chick magnet"? Yeah, right), and then there's this from his dad, regarding his son's "fondness" for women:
"Always! I mean, I can't keep up with him. And they like him, too."
Yeah, they like me a lot too.
 
From Americablog.com


  
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Days Since Michael Steele Said He Won't Resign

23 Days, 23 Hours, 32 Minutes, 38 Seconds.

"The Playa" said he wouldn't resign as head of the RNC ("Not me Baby! Nuh-uh. Not happening. No way, no how.")

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