Americans are seeing first hand how Barack Obama has run his campaign using his knowledge as a community organizer and getting the grass roots of every day Americans to get involved in electing a President who will bring change in Washington and along with Joe Biden will get things done for the Middle Class.
Barack Obama for President!
Obama/Biden 08
I don't want to be an alarmist but there are a lot of people getting pretty edgy out here. Some are disappointed with the Senator changing his positions and some are disappointed with what they perceive as an inept response from the campaign to McCain's attack machine. Some have been reported by pollsters as abandoning what they perceive as a sinking ship.
Personally I understand all of Obama's position softenings and there is no doubt that I am here for the long-haul. But the sheep are being scattered by the wolf, and the fact remains that you have a shaky base. Over the weekend principles from MoveOn.Org asked you to address their concerns and you said you would. Some of us, including myself, have offered you pretty good suggestions on how to neutralize, possibly eliminate McCain as a threat, now under the tutelege of Karl Rove. What you have to believe is you can not back down, you can only fight back and realize until you get the upper hand it's going to be in the mud. I assume you also recognize the media loves dirty politics. Some of those ads are way past negative. They're simply vile and full of lies. They're just for fun McCain says. I see the gleem in the prognosticators' eyes and the drool sliding out the side of their crooked little mouths every time McCain launches another one.
Let your faithful know you have a plan of attack. If a little patience is all we need let us know. I'm pretty sure we can handle that. But let us know you have it under control, or we'll all be shaking our heads come November.
~::~ Greetings And Namaste To ALL Wonderful Obama Beings! ~::~
Just Like Many Of You ~ I Have Had My Inner Consternation And Feelings Of Dissappointment When I Found Out That Our Barack Obama Had Supported This 'Imperfect' Current FISA Bill. But, I Now Feel A Bit Better Upon Reading The Major Differences And Improvements In This Current FISA Bill That Barack Supports. When Barack Becomes President He Assures That He Will Make The Needed Further Improvements. Please Read The Below Email From Senator Feinstein:
This is an email from Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) explaining her reasons for supporting the current FISA bill.
Here it is:
I very much appreciate your concerns on the recent legislation to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). I would like to take this opportunity to explain to you my point of view. As you may know, the legislation passed the Senate on July 9, 2008 by a vote of 69 to 28 and was signed into law on July 10.
I have served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for seven and a half years and I take the responsibility extremely seriously. I believe the United States continues to face serious threats and there are many who seek to do harm to our country. The first responsibility I have is to prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack from happening. This requires getting ahead of the terrorists by identifying and preventing their attacks. We can only do this with good, actionable intelligence.
If the Senate did not pass this bill, Congress would have been faced with two options:
1) Extending the temporary surveillance bill passed last August; or
2) Passing no legislation, meaning that surveillance on specific terrorist groups would expire and our Nation would be laid bare.
Last year's stop-gap bill did not contain nearly the privacy protections that are in place in this FISA legislation. It was intended to be a temporary solution while Congress developed a more comprehensive approach to surveillance.
The communications industry has changed in the past thirty years since FISA was enacted in 1978. This has changed the way that communications are routed and how surveillance is conducted, and the original law technologically cannot function today. So, FISA needs to be modernized to fit the technological change from radio communications to wire and to provide additional privacy rights for U.S. persons.
I would like to take a moment to highlight five major improvements in this legislation, which I believe provide new privacy protections. This bill:
1) Includes provisions I authored that make clear that FISA is the exclusive authority for conducting surveillance inside the United States. This is crucial as it requires that all future Presidents must act strictly within the law. FISA will be the only legal authority for conducting surveillance on Americans for intelligence purposes, and only legislation that specifically provides wiretapping authority in the future would be an exception to FISA.
2) Requires the government to obtain a warrant before surveillance can begin. This applies to all U.S. persons - anywhere in the world. The Protect America Act allowed surveillance for up to six months before getting a warrant. This bill ends all warrantless surveillance directed at U.S. persons. In this sense it is precedent setting.
3) Bans reverse targeting, which was a concern under the Protect America Act. Reverse targeting would allow the government to collect the contents of telephone calls and e-mails of an American by conducting surveillance on the people with whom they communicate. This practice is prohibited in this bill.
4) Requires that the government implement procedures approved by the FISA Court for minimization. If an American's communication is incidentally caught up in electronic surveillance while the Government is targeting someone else, minimization protects that person's private information. This has been a hallmark of FISA for 30 years, but court approval of minimization procedures was not included in the Protect America Act. It is here.
5) Requires the Government to obtain a warrant to conduct surveillance on an American outside of the United States. This means that Americans' privacy rights are protected everywhere around the world. A court warrant has never before been required for surveillance outside the United States; this would be the strongest protection ever.
I understand your concern regarding Title II of this bill, which provides an immunity provision for telecommunications companies that are alleged to have provided assistance to the government. I agree that this is not the best approach to the current legal challenges facing these companies. In February, I offered an amendment that would have required court review of the legality of a company's actions. The court would have been required to find that the assistance was provided in good faith, and pursuant to an objectively reasonable belief that it was lawful, before immunity could be granted. Unfortunately, that amendment did not pass.
During consideration of this bill, I co-sponsored an amendment authored by Senator Bingaman (D-NM) that would halt any action on immunity until three months after Congress received a report from the relevant Inspectors General on the Administration's warrantless surveillance program. This amendment would have provided an independent review of the telecoms actions, and those of the Government, and would have provided Congress with additional information before immunity was granted. Unfortunately, the amendment failed on a vote of 42-56.
I have spent hours reviewing the telecom immunity issue and my conclusion is that the Government asked them to provide certain data in the wake of 9/11 and, at the highest levels, assured them that it was legal. In my view, if there is fault, it is the Government's and it is not immunized by this bill. They did not have to move outside the law but did. This program is now subject to FISA Court warrant.
In conclusion, this FISA legislation, while not perfect, brings intelligence activities back under U.S. law. It provides significant improvement in oversight and accountability of our intelligence collection programs while still empowering the intelligence community to keep our Nation safe. And, it provides the strongest privacy protections to U.S. persons in history. Additionally, the President - any President - cannot enact a program outside of this law in the future. While the immunity language was not what I would have preferred, I believe that passing a bill with the important improvements was a better choice than doing nothing or extending the Protect America Act.
I hope this helps you understand why I support this bill.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~::~ Shivani Sannyasini ~::~
http://AuthorsDen.Com/ShivaniSannyasini
In a word, YES, for a variety of reasons, not least the following:
1. Everyone, no matter who they are, would be eligible to do service for the country. It would be expected, accepted and be part of the national fabric of society. Drafting is good for building character, instilling discipline, self esteem and the confidence to lead others and also to take directions. It is a golden opportunity for young men to train to be more effective and socially aware people, which would lessen the emphasis on the current 'me' culture. It also helps each soldier to be more socially skilled at a younger age, especially in a multicultural group, and should help to break down interpersonal barriers much earlier in life.
2. Currently defence of the nation rests mainly on the shoulders of volunteers, men and women who are prepared to give their lives for their country, risking the ultimate for their beliefs etc, often with little thanks for that loyalty and patriotism. That is an unequal burden that keeps the number and availability of service manpower at the mercy of those who wish to take up the armed forces as a career. This is not the best situation for such a large country as the US, especially in times of conflict. It also encourages resentment among those whose sons and daughters are dying and the rest who have not contributed as much to keeping the country safe.
3. By having the draft back, everyone will be encouraged to participate in a shared purpose of national defence, while being encouraged to be better citizens. Most families will have greater understanding of the sacrifices involved and, above all, youngsters will be given a greater sense of purpose from an earlier age which should improve social behaviour, personal development and personal perception relating to their own value in the scheme of life, especially in relation to their peers.
In dealing with the Clintons, I hope that Obama and his people realize that apropos of Hillary, that the "Empress has no clothes."
Whether due to the acceleration of the news cycle, or just the nature of politics, Hillary has little to bring to the table, and even less to withhold. For the most part her supporters were merely opportunists who wanted a Democrat in the White House and who simply assumed Clinton would be the nominee. Which is to say they could not conceive anyone breaking the Clinton hold on the party. (Let's be honest a good number were frightened of the Clintons and acted out of fear and not loyalty. No longer afraid, the Clintons can no longer count on their "good will."
Now, that that this hold is broken, better, proved to be illusory, simply self fulfilling, Hillary has lost any power she once could assert. Saying this, as the heat of her campaign cools, she is only another politician jockeying for position. Obama needs to say, play well the position we give you, or go sit on the bench.
My hope Obama will show real leadership by benching both Clintons. Let them cheer from the dugout.
On Saturday, Allan Katz of Obama for America insisted on the campaign's right to replace Florida's elected Obama delegates at the convention. The Obama delegates in Florida are committed activists who have made personal, professional, and financial sacrifices over the last seventeen months to support Senator Obama, and then they were elected by the voters in their Congressional Districts. Replacing them with some latecomers who happen to have more money would be a betrayal of us long-time supporters of the Senator, and a betrayal of everything we thought the Senator stood for.
I urge Senator Obama not to allow his campaign staffers to replace elected Obama delegates, and to state so publicly. I urge him to do so today. It would be the gravest possible mistake to so egregiously abandon his loyal supporters at such a critical point in a swing state.
When I started interviewing supporters for Interview4Obama, my original idea was that the day would come when voters, and women especially, would find themselves needing to transfer their support, enthusiasm, and sense of dyed-in-the-wool loyalty from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.
I have been compiling in-depth interviews with Obama supporters and podcasting them. It's looking like Obama will be the nominee, but not without alot of feelings of betrayal getting expressed. Call me kooky, but I think a supporter of Hillary will appreciate hearing from Obama supporters what they see in him and why they want him to be president.
If you would like to add your voice to this project, call me at 206-350-5368 & leave a message, or write to me.
McGovern, former Clinton backer, urges her to drop out
SIOUX FALLS, SD: Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama.
McGovern said he had no regrets about endorsing Hillary Clinton months ago, [which he did] even before the Iowa caucuses.
"She has run a valiant campaign….but Obama has won the nomination "by any practical test" and is very close to a majority of the pledged delegates.…It's time to unite the Democratic Party. Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November”, he said.
This new endorsement from Mr. McGovern is, of course, encouraging support for our candidate!
Thank you North Carolina, and thank you Obama supporters in the Great Hoosier State!
Hillary Clinton probably won't drop out of course, but with influential support being added almost weekly from honorable statesmen such as Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson, and now George McGovern, the un-pledged Superdelegates are surely getting the message if they haven't already. I, for one, plan to take the time to contact as many individuals of influence such as John Edwards - as well as uncommitted delegates, and Superdelegates - and ask for their public support for Barack Obama, and I hope you fellow Obama supporters will as well.
Still, the potentially problematic issues that remain unresolved and that concern me are twofold.
First - For some unexplained "reason" there is still the possibility of Hillary Clinton being allowed to change the rules and have Michigan and Florida counted, which change she began clamoring for only when she realized that the groundswell of support for Barack Obama posed a decided threat to her ascension to the throne, excuse me, the Presidency. I know I am not the only person who would be VERY UPSET if that were to occur, and IMHO that would be an extremely DIVISIVE act on the part of those who have the POWER in that arena.
This nomination contest has morphed into an (extended) historic event that, from my perspective, seems not unlike a second Civil War, only one without physical weapons. I deplore the fact that the racial divide in the U.S. remains as wide as this election year is revealing to everyone, not just to people in this country but to people around the world
Secondly - There is the problem of the "association" with one J. Wright, to whom some are determined to keep our collective focus diverted.
Like others, I was stunned and outraged myself when the media circus came to town again and Wright was its star attraction. I don't know beans about public relations, but I am hoping that people who do will get to work disarming the opposition so their continued use of this absurd distortion of the Senator's LOYALTY (which is a virtue, not a vice, the last time I looked) in A PERSONAL, NOT A POLITICAL CONTEXT will be to their disadvantage.
Barack Obama has a heart for people. A person like that is not cutthroat and calculating and is not going to kick someone to the curb just because that person's views DIFFER from his. He is also is intelligent enough to know where boundaries exist in terms of what part of his public service career people are in, and whether they have a part in it at all, especially when it comes to his political office. I have a feeling that he is keenly aware of the separation of church and state.
I saw a page in today’s issue (May 7) of the L.A. Times online this morning, one that featured ONLY politicians and others who are DIRECLY involved in politics. In the most prominent position on that page were the photos of (from left to right): John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and, would you believe, Jeremiah Wright!
Would someone please inform the media that HE IS NOT A POLITICIAN? HE HAS BEEN ENTICED BY THE SENSATIONAL MEDIA (and others whose motives are impure) TO THRUST HIMSELF INTO THE POLITICAL SPOTLIGHT even though he has no place there. Clearly if this man had been as all-inclusively involved in Senator Obama’s life outside of the traditional religious rituals of marriage, baptism, and (basically obligatory) Sunday services, Barack Obama would have observed these attention-seeking aspects in a context outside of his religious activities. But Barack did not have this man as a “bosom buddy”, or an advisor to his political decisions, contrary to what the opposition would like people to believe.
But I insist that Wright be put into context. If the “sins” of the clergy are to be attached to anyone who won’t drop his or her “association” with a person or a church, then every person who, like myself, was baptized and raised as a Catholic “should” be expected to cut their ties with that church when we began to be aware of not only words, but the actions of the now infamous among those clergy. What when JFK and later Bobby Kennedy sought the Presidency? Looking back, if those cases of child molestation by priests had been made public prior to their bids for the highest office of the land, would we have expected JFK, or of Bobby Kennedy to leave the Catholic Church?
If someone who is Catholic wants to become the Presidential nominee in the future, what if, at some point, people learn that his or her priest had molested children, and the candidate-to-be had had that person as a friend? Would we assume that he or she condones pedophilia? How far are some people going to take this “association” thing?
And what of Hillary Clinton’s choice (which, by the way, I agree with) to not end her “association” with ‘that man’ whose actions were definitely immoral when he elected to commit adultery? There were those who criticized Mrs. Clinton for staying in her marital relationship with Bill Clinton even though his actions were illegal - as in sexual harassment - if my understanding of that law is correct. Her association with him goes back quite a number of years, and, if memory serves me, there was at least one other young woman with whom he was, let’s say, inappropriately involved.
When the Lewinsky affair nearly caused the impeachment of Bill Clinton I found the graphic description of their illicit behaviors to be a total embarrassment. I’m sure Hillary Clinton did not agree with what the person with whom she was associated for more than 20 years did, or, for that matter what he said when questioning about the affair began. I found the whole thing distressing and I just wanted it to go away. I find Jeremiah Wright distressing and likewise, I want him to go away and live his life somewhere other than on the political center stage.
Hello America: J. Wright, as well as the lapel pin silliness both need to be relegated to a backwater of our national consciousness, so THE REAL ISSUES THAT ARE PRESSING IN ON US CAN BE DEALT WITH…AND SOON! It's the economy, sweetie. And housing that is affordable at EVERY income level, or homelessness “will be with us always”, and its numbers will swell exponentially. And healthcare, or rather the lack thereof, as I personally know. And education, before America falls even FURTHER BEHIND THE REST OF THE "DEVELOPED" WORLD. And Mr. Bush's war in Iraq which has not made the U.S. safe (or even any safer?) from KNOWN terrorists (not to mention incipient terrorists). Is anybody concerned about the price of food and of gasoline? I don’t care about what someone inconsequential said in the past, I care about what is going to be done in the very near future.
Hillary Clinton IS hanging on in this nomination contest by a slender thread. This FACT has been reported on by credible experts – people who are presumably impartial and who know how to run the numbers. Mr. McGovern's restatement of that numerical reality should be a wake-up call for the wife of the former President. But she wants to win badly; it’s my perception that saving face is more her style than facing facts. But what I and many other Americans want, and will insist upon, is significant change in the way things are done. From where I sit it goes without saying that John McCain won’t take us there…and neither will Hillary Clinton.
My having been inspired – or I should say “fired up” – enough to connect with fellow Americans about this political process and to take the time to WRITE THOUGHTFULLY (a task which had become distasteful to me post-Master's thesis) says a lot about the persuasive nature of Senator Obama's sustained commitment to changing the way things have always been done.
“I don't contribute money to political candidates”, says I, yet I have made modest contributions into Senator Obama’s campaign coffers. “I don't participate in partisan politics”, I add, and I am passionately involved in communicating by phone and in writing about this nomination process to an extent to which I have never before been motivated in any of my MANY years as an adult.
I believe that the participation of ALL Americans is vital at this point in this country's history if the U.S. has any hope of thriving as a nation. I also firmly believe that it is any nation's fatal flaw to fail to include any group that resides among it. In unity there IS strength, and, make no mistake about it: divided we will fall.
We, the people, are the ones who are building the momentum behind the leadership of the ONE CANDIDATE - in the person of BARACK OBAMA - who has the unique combination of abilities that are needed if America is to come up out of the pit into which the past eight years has placed this country.
We stand behind and beside Barack Obama and pledge our support to the HOPE and POSSIBILITY of achieving The Dream that we all have of being a Great Society.
I was 11 years old in 1964 and proud of being the latest New Yorker promoted to the 8th grade. The familiar smells of my mother’s Spanish cooking added to the comfort of being included in the monthly gathering of my father, an “old-world” Puerto Rican, and his two brothers and their families. My father was the elder and, for as long as I could remember, like clockwork, these men met at my house, every month, to discuss politics, the month’s novelties, my cousin Nancy’s first Holy Communion, Uncle Oscar’s new job, who would be on Ed Sullivan, and so that everyone could tease my mom about her ongoing obsession with feeding my dad and I to death. This "five-foot-dumpling" of a wife and mother was convicted in her certainty that the measure of a woman’s worth, was found in the girth of her family's waistlines! As the kids ran about to the sporadic heralding of “…if you make me get up from here…” and the women discussed Lucy Ricardo's latest dress, the talk at the smoky table… where the men sat…always seemed to turn to HONOR. It was a subject spoken of in "broken English" by those who clutched the fierce objective of arriving at these shores, not merely to live in America... but to BECOME IT. HONOR: At that table, it was measured by how well each man there cared and provided for his family; how well each had repaid America’s hospitality and, each was accountable to the other two for compliance. It was, they said, what gave our family name its worth. HONOR; it was a word that seemed to be a big deal to these men and any one of them would grow by two inches when acknowledged with it by the others, but specially by the women of the clan. They were larger than life, those men, and as they donned their fedoras and left, I was always left with a yearning to somehow...one day, grow up to be just like them. Most of all, I wanted to grow up to be like my dad; the patriarch. On this particular night, just as he closed the door behind the last to exit, he turned to me and asked “Are you a man of HONOR, son?” I was startled... I wasn’t expecting the question! Searching for what I felt he was expecting as the “right” answer, I said “SURE, dad!” Pleasing him was my life's purpose. “Why," he asked. "Well... because I’m your son.” This must certainly be the right answer. A silent moment ensued, as he seemed to study me with an unsettling scrutiny that I had never before seen in his eyes. It made me uneasy…like being on stage…and forgetting your lines. “Then, you won’t mind explaining… what honor IS.” As I fumbled and scoured my brain for an answer, he stopped me in mid “fidget” and said... with something between a smirk and a smile,“You cannot be that which you do not know. Honor is different things to different people but, to all, it is the thing that, when choosing which fork to take when life’s road splits, compels a person to DO THE RIGHT THING. So from today forward, because you are my son, I will ask that you begin to reflect on the things that you are... and on things that you would like to become... so that you may grow into what you are meant to be. Whatever that may be, son, I need for you to become it…like your uncles and like me; as one of the "Basora men" who always try, no matter what, to DO THE RIGHT THING.” "You know..." he said, starting down the hall, "...the best gift that I can ever give your mother... and this country... is to build them AN AMERICAN."
Thirty three years later, mom succeeded and fed him to death. In my arms and surrounded by love; his two favorite Shepherds, like sentries, flanking his bed, I had never wished so hard for anything in my life, as I wished for that day; that he could speak to me from beyond this thing, this coma...just one more time...just one more time before he left me. "You're my best friend," I muttered. "I still need you. How can you even be certain that I've become this... man of HONOR?" His eyes parted slightly; mom, a nurse and my wife gasped... wide, reddened eyes... hands cupped to their mouths... as if frozen. "Because... it was you that compelled me... to never... ever... stop being one," he whispered... and died.
It has taken those 33 years of a work-in-progress to write this. It found its origins in the ways of my father and inspired, yet further, by the ways of WOLVES; the noble, social creatures that they are; a species that forsakes the frenzied existence of "the individual," living solely to amass "THE MOST THINGS" in favor of caring for their old... for their injured and disabled; of raising their young in a culture with no ORPHANS; of insuring the survival of THE PACK and in embracing a wondrous commitment by ALL… to doing THE RIGHT THINGS.
The Way of the WOLF Doctrines and Covenants of the Alpha MaleHonor is the inherent dignity of the doctrines and covenants by which one lives and the values that compel you to embrace them.To live with honor fulfills a life. To die with honor fulfills a destiny.Respect is the premium owed only to those with the courage to earn it.Nothing good will be written of the coward, the tyrant or the mediocre.Courage is not found in the absence of fear. It is found in the ability to step forward in spite of it.The tyrant orders the charge. Only the leader will head it.The tyrant fights all…to appear to be right. The leader fights for all…and for all that is right.Power not tempered by wisdom and compassion defines tyranny.Love with your heart; commit with your soul; believe with your gut; lead with all three.The true measure of strength is found in the ability to choose not to use it. But…if you must… Hurt before you injure; injure before you maim; maim before you kill; choose DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR.To ignore abuse is to endorse it. Love is the unselfish pursuit of the happiness of the beings you cherish.If you cannot express love, no one will know that you do.As you give of yourself, you will give to yourself.At the point of arrogance does pride lose its virtue.True partnership can only be achieved by separate and whole beings that retain their uniqueness even as they unite.A friend’s worth is measured by the stature of the person you become when they enter your life.Accept your relatives. Choose your family.A man’s honor can only repose in the heart of a woman whose strength and virtue proclaim and confirm the substance that it took to earn her.When life is allowed to yield less than its best, it will.Put mind in gear before mouth in motion.Dreams are the children of hope that whisper of all things that can be…in words that were never written…yet refuse to remain silent. Dreams are the blueprints of a better reality.Those who howl at the stars will be heard, at least, on the moon.For a pack without a destination, no trail is favorable.To solve a problem, you must first acknowledge that you have one.Doing nothing means nothing will change.Those who believe their own lies have fools as their witnesses.Pursue what you wish to do until summoned by what you are meant to do.Evil, like the blackest of nights, is the necessary darkness without which the magnificent aurora of virtue could never appear as splendid.Goodness is but a choice. Even the minions of the morally bankrupt are no match for one child clad in virtue and armed with truth. Nurture and proclaim him for in his spirit rests the seed of the alpha male, the heart of the pack, KING OF THE WOLVES. Rick F. Basora, son of Fil Basora, an Alpha Male
The Way of the WOLF
Doctrines and Covenants of the Alpha Male
But…if you must…
Rick F. Basora, son of Fil Basora, an Alpha Male
By now you've probably heard what James Carville, advisor to President Clinton and to the Hillary Clinton campaign and political pundit on CNN, had to say about Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama:
"[The endorsement] came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic"
Many others have pointed out some obvious concerns about this statement. Most commonly, folks have noted that if Richardson is Judas Iscariot, does that imply that Hillary is Jesus? I myself had a passing thought that there was a tinge of anti-semitism in the remark, since Judas sold the information to minions of the High Priest (back in the day when Jews had priests).
As my frequent readers know, I am inclined to see people's intentions on the good side. So I'm going to give Carville the benefit of the doubt and say that he neither intended his remark to compare Hillary to Jesus nor to cause offense to Jews such as myself. All he intended to say is that Richardson is a traitor. And therein lies the problem, and it's not unique to Carville.
Excuse me, James Carville, but I believe Gov. Bill Richardson's loyalty should lie first with his country and it's citizens, being a public servant. He did as I believe, "You know what's right. Do the right thing." He placed loyalty squarely where it belongs. He has selected who he believes will be best for Amercia. Bravo Governor! And since Hillary and Bill are citizens too, I guess he did right by them too!
Hillary should not be able to BUY the candidacy with favors or $$$$.
NOT THIS TIME!!!
The past few weeks in the news cycle have been very trying for many people and most are left in limbo about what comes next.
One of the things that has struck me is how silent both Senator and President Clinton have been.
Of course I did not expect them to come out in support of Barack or the Rev Wright. However, I expected one of them to at least come out and explain to some of the pundits that have never entered a Black church that the atmosphere of worship and social issues discussed my be different from what they are used to in their own community.
As long as I have know of them, the Clintons have always claimed that they are part of the black community and that are well versed in all things black.
I have therefore not faiiled to notice that they have remained largely silent during the past few days and have not at the very least come in defense of the congregation of the Black Church. This silence is despite the fact that they have been in attendance in a number of Black Churches and are well aware of how some preachers may go unconvetional when discussing some sensitive issues.
Members of the African American community fiercely defended the Clintons throughout their darkest days and the Black Congressional Caucus in particular even led the defense in the media during Clinton's impeachment.
Going foward, I hope members of the African American community remember that the Clintons have not stood up for the Black Church when the loyalty of its congregation has been treated as a cult (at least accoding to Fox News) or had its patriotism questioned.
I wonder how other African Americans feel when they see this "missing in action" at the crucial hour when it seemed that the full assault of the congregation was going on
Maybe I am picky by I know of one political leader who stood up and he was the conservative Gov Mike Huckabee from the other party.
Compare the silence of the Clitons with Governor Huckabee who said:"[You] can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do," Huckabee says.
I hope that when the dust settles, the actions of the two Arkansas governors during this time will be contrasted
The last words, "Thank you," had barely left the mouth of the candidate on TV and I heard a boisterous commotion coming from just outside of my middle class, suburban Fort Lauderdale home. I started to become apprehensive and instinctively reached for "protection" (top drawer on the right) while trying to silence the "Alpo" security system. As I looked beyond the blinds, what started as a cacophony of voices, yelling, screaming; two women hugging and weeping in a driveway…, dropped in noisiness and rose in both theme and essence. As I stepped out, curiously, a neighbor yelled out "Did you hear the speech?" I asked myself, is this hoopla of laughter and weeping over Barack Obama's speech? Nah uuh…" The two women embracing had, for a long time, been neighbors but, more so, friends. The "Wright controversy" had really tried their friendship because one was an Obamite; the other, a Hillerean (both husbands Republicans). We are "close" on our block and we can find any excuse to kick up our heels and "get silly;" so…the beer, the music and the collapsibles came out as people spoke to people and to cell phones at the same time; Bill, Mike and Pedro blocked off the street with their trucks (Pedro's a State Trooper so…YES WE CAN (lol) and doors were opened and an impromptu block party was underway. I would have wished for "converts" but…oh well. The new subject of contentious BUZZ: a black Bobby Kennedy or a "jacksonized" Luther King? THIS IS NUTS, I thought! Conspicuously missing was the cloud of suspicion that had recently come to pollute the interactive trust of our block community and that had lingered until just before noon. All of a sudden I realized just how affected America has actually been over the Wright controversy. As I excused myself because I was compelled to satisfy the need to pen this, I was overcome by an almost melancholy sense of accomplishment. I knew then…in my heart…as did the people outside making the noise…that if America did NOT elect Barack…it was because it was not yet ready for the wonder that it would first need to grow into.Today, on this the 18th day of March, 2008, we have been served with what may be written into history as the 21st Century's most defining moment in the chronicle of a people's transition from THE SINS OF OUR FATHERS to THE DESTINY OF OUR CHILDREN; from hate and fear to compassion and understanding; from resentment to thoughtfulness; from denial to courageous realization; from sempiternal racial division to a celebration and exaltation of the magnificent multi-colored tapestry stitched by the very hand of GOD into the splendid work of wonder that is HUMANITY. Today, those who have depended on the demons of fear, ignorance and distrust to act as their captive audience made ripe for the continuance of a SOCIAL DIVISION that has become the drug of choice for those sociopaths obsessed with its perpetuation, have been dealt a mortal blow. On this day, the people of America have been given an improbable, albeit remarkable tool with which to breach the SOCIAL DIVIDE that has become the sole and hungry client base of the career American BIGOT; WISDOM. Make no mistake, however. The celebrated triumph of the human spirit that most of us are, at this very moment, reveling in, must and will be met with violent repudiation by those who stand in opposition of reconciliation. If the words of Barack Obama are allowed to speak to the very heart of a country hungry for unity and who, in moving forward, turns its back on the icon which is INTER-RACIAL FEAR, the leaders and lieutenants of institutional, racial and social prejudice will be denied the listeners for their sole subject of expertise; the GRAIL that they have practiced to validate, justify and champion; THE VERY CHALICE of HATE. Despite the disdain that I heard in the televised voice of Mr. Rush Limbaugh, it will be written that, in the middle of a day, in the middle of March on the year of the most contested presidential election in the history of America, even those held in humanistic stagnancy, not through malice, but by ignorance, have been literally pushed upward into a conscious, enlightened awareness that guarantees that, from this day, the harvest of recruits available to the minions of the morally indigent; those drawn to the ranks of racist America, will be reduced to the chronically cynical, the galactically disoriented, to those in terminal denial and to those choosing to live, from here forward, for the words "The HATE will Rise Again."The landmark discourse, made minutes ago by Senator Barack Obama, has been quickly touted as the most significant address of race issues in America since King's now legendary 1963 "I have a dream…"speech. It provides those who did not merely listen, but who objectively assimilated its content, with a rational narrative of answers to the questions that, with obvious and transparent intent, have been repetitiously brought forth, regarding his 20 year relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his Trinity United Church of Christ. A metal beyond his years was evident as this young legislator from Chicago showed the resolve to denounce Wright's radical rhetoric while retaining the integrity that it took to declare inviolate the spiritual kinship that has existed with this, his former minister, who, quite frankly, would have been given up as burnt offerings by any of the other contenders facing the same "trial by fire." The most poignant reality is that it is a disconnection with the enigma that is HONOR that explains any inability to regard this courageous action as anything but HEROIC. The nobility of the gesture augured that, when pushed to the wall, Barack Obama, as my President, will not barter ME for political safety. Of equal importance, Barack spoke to the post-trauma of the black experience in America and reminded a beleaguered white working class that they too suffered from a post-traumatic syndrome rooted in their own history as kindred targets of unfairness and disregard. To "accuse, denounce, renounce, decry, rebuff, rebuke, reject, beat with a bat, dismember and summarily execute" are the standards of acceptable disassociation that, throughout this campaign, have been reserved SOLELY for the candidacy of one Barack Hussein Obama. Despite the tacitly ridiculous, I feel that the answers to any concerned questions have been tendered beyond any reasonable expectation. It would need to be left to the polls to determine if the rest of America concurs. Therefore, if the people of America call for the tired issue to be laid to rest, any Neoconservative measure intended to perpetuate that which has now been answered to the point of the redundant, can only be interpreted as an act of HARASSMENT and should be met by a vote of solidarity returned to sender in the words of those who spoke them to the centuries of distorted inhumanity that shaped Reverend Wright's painfully distorted views; "GET OVER IT!" It will be at the time, when those words are forced from our lips, that the floodgates will be thrown open on what has become known as "THE LAUNDRY LIST" of Obama's opposition. This WILL NOT happen because Barack will initiate or even desire it. It will be driven by citizens, worn by the "trailer park politics" that are the trademark of "The King of the Double-Wides", Rush Limbaugh, and his "pimp your vote 'n pull my finger" election strategies and who, like me, WILL FORCE THE ISSUE in our courts. Moving towards the election of a President, America must observe the politically postured alignment of FOX Television and its Neoconservative pundits, anchors and commentators. History has shown that their obsession with the forced-feeding of America can be predictably expected to drag this campaign episode to a conclusion of political martyrdom. As I listened to an MSNBC viewer e-mail being read on the air and insisting that the media now let go this matter in favor of legitimate ECONOMIC issues of paramount concern, I was reminded of the Clinton - Lewinski scandal of the late 1990s. Neocons of the Republican party, and their media vocals, blatantly disregarded the populous and dragged an American President through a highly protested impeachment proceeding that ultimately fell short of the 2/3 Senate majority needed to convict and remove him from office. In doing so, our "Magoo-like" conservative visionaries failed to see that, the only thing that they had succeeded in dragging across a snickering world stage; ragged, bloodied, ridiculed and clad in a muddied clown suite, was not Bill Clinton...it was AMERICA ITSELF. Those of us who can still recall that episode, as well as those of sufficient age to understand the function and mechanics of GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE will inevitably incur a rendezvous with OUTRAGE in confronting the following. At the time that this happened, the polls taken of the nations electorate showed that an average of 70% of Americans was against pursuing the allegations and impeachment. (N Y Times December 21, 1998). Neo-Republicans disregarded an overwhelming national majority...and simply...DID IT ANYWAY. I, for one, am on record as having shown my repudiation and disdain for neo-conservatism, and the EXTREMISTS that it breeds, by officially renouncing of my 20 year affiliation with the GOP. From that day forward, some ten or so years ago, I have been a proud registered DEMOCRAT. If this happens again, however, or if Superdelegates self-appoint themselves as the demi-gods that can replace a populous in the determination of an electoral outcome, we MUST then be attentive to the promise in the air that heralds the charter of The Constitutionalist National Committee aka THE CONSTITUTIONALIST PARTY. Most agree that it is an idea whose time has come. If we are to teach our children to believe in Democracy, then it is DEMOCRACY itself that we are bound to provide for them.As for Shawn Hannity, we can be assured of a unilaterally myopic assessment of today's event that, while panting with wet tongue slavering in the wind, will inspire him to eek out an "Atta boy" from his trailer-bound master, Rush Limbaugh, for having rolled over, played dead and for "fetching" a ball made slimy with the trivialization of the words of A GIANT. I await his show and you can expect that I will confront Limbaugh's political mongrel, Shawn Hannity, with the same stick that I did on March 10, 2008 and that, amongst numerous others, inspired American Initiative co-chair, Nancy Millinger, to follow with her now coined, "two word," grass-roots e-mail that simply said "TAKE THAT!"I leave you now to re-join the dancing in the MULTI-RACIAL streets...literally! RICK F. BASORA
Harold Ickes has taken a more public role in the Clinton campaign, particularly trying to attempt to stem the flow of superdelegates from Clinton to Obama. It makes you wonder about the reason for the loyalty of many Clinton supporters when the history of the Clintons is replete with stories like that of Ickes, who the New York Times reports:
"
is back in the circle of a political family that has a history of turning to him when it has skated into trouble — he directed the White House response into the Whitewater investigation, an effort that almost got him indicted — and then discarded him when it proved necessary. Mr. Ickes was removed from his job as deputy White House chief of staff three days after he helped direct Bill Clinton to re-election in 1996.
“I mean, I was fired publicly three days after the general election,” he said. “Learned it from The Wall Street Journal. Front page. Upper left hand quarter. You don’t forget that.”
Perhaps what we are seeing is people supporting Senator Clinton's campaign for their reasons, reasons that have little to do with who is the most qualified candidate, or who is most likely to do what is necessary and proper once in office.
Staffers may be supporting the campaign (like Ickes) out of a desire to establish a legacy, or simply to pad their resumes.
And the support among the electorate? Perhaps it is nostalgia for the 'good old days' of President Clinton, or perhaps it is risk-aversion; some people may just feel safer going with the name they've heard before.
All this begs the question: is there anything Senator Clinton could do that would finally cause her hard-core supporters to change their minds?
Interesting article by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. Strange..Hillary's emphasis is all about competence, yet as seen with her closest political advisors, she tends to value loyalty over competence (sound familiar - oh yeah, that's right. Sounds like George W.!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/opinion/17dowd.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Dear Mr. Obama,You have stated your loyalty to the State of Israel as reported in Haaretz newspaper.60 Minutes segment was nice, but you may not represent genuine change for leading America as President elect. Why, you may ask. Here's the truth in Theodore Roosevelt's unapologetic view...
