Tell me again how awesome Obama is people…

Thanks to Tengrain I have seen how the bullshittery will be passed around once again. This is complete and utter horse piss people. Religious groups have one thing on their minds..getting more chumps as cough..believers. From the fucking link:

Reaching out to religious voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and - in a move sure to cause controversy - support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

Organized religion is bullshit. Its fucked up, its disgusting and its single purpose is to clean out your wallet while telling you that you will be going to hell soon if you don’t buy into their bullshit.

Pander away you sumbitch. Faith-based funding is pure crap. Religious groups should not be government funded Gawd Damn it. The NYT tries to paint a rosy picture of this nonsense..I still ain’t buying it. The federal government can’t even keep track of the money it gives to contractors..how in the blue hell will it know if a religious group is adhering to the rules? They won’t…

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GOP hates Bob Barr

And why wouldn’t they? He is a right of the center guy that seems to have more scruples than any Rethug on the ballot. Yes, I am looking at you John Weathervane McCain. According to the NYT writeup yesterday, Barr is trying to appeal to the vast majority of Ron Paul enthusiasts, of which there are many.

Third party candidates can fuck up a party’s wetdream. Nader has done it to the Dem’s and Ross Perot did it to the Rethugs. From the NYT writeup:

On the ballots in 30 states so far, Mr. Barr has the chance to be a spoiler for Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, in several states, among them Alaska, Colorado and Georgia. Mr. Barr’s campaign advisers also assert he has similar potential in other mountain states, New Hampshire, Ohio and other swing states.

The Republican Party and the McCain campaign have swatted away the Barr candidacy, but some Republicans are taking it seriously. If the early polls hold up, and Senator Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee, pours heavy resources into Georgia, that state could be up for grabs, said Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia.

Nader isn’t a new face on the general election front and I personally think any damage he will do to the Democratic nominee is marginal, but Barr could embarass the Rethugs. A point to make, and the NYT does, is that no Libertarian has ever gotten more than 1% of the vote. Money isn’t flowing into this campaign yet either. From the NYT writeup:

Yet Mr. Barr faces formidable obstacles. No Libertarian candidate has ever won more than 1 percent of the vote in a presidential election, and Mr. Barr is severely lacking in money, resources and name recognition. He has yet to lease a campaign headquarters, have a fund-raiser, tape a television advertisement or hold a campaign event.

There is also the fact that the convention which nominated him wasn’t completely behind him either. It took six votes to hand Barr the nomination, and it was by a very thin margin. Before anyone gets excited about Barr, they should consider his record as a former Rethug member. His votes for the Patriot Act bill, the Iraq AUMF, impeaching Bill Clinton and sponsoring the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 shouldn’t endear him to anyone but the most right of the rightwing nutjobs.

Barr is attempting to distance himself from those votes now however, blaming them on the (R) after his name at the time. He now states he is “for a speedy and complete withdrawal of troops, with no permanent bases; on same-sex marriage, he believes that states should make their own laws; and on wiretaps without warrants, he is fiercely opposed, arguing that the bill that would legalize searches without warrants violates an individual’s constitutional rights”.

Barr is eyeballing the Ron Paulistas right now that consider themselves Libertarian. The Paul supporters aren’t flocking to Barr at this point however. Some are highly pissed off that Barr is pandering specifically to Ron Paul supporters. Ron Paul has refused to endorse Barr’s candidacy as well.

The long and short of it is how much support in November Barr and Nader will draw from the two main parties. Polls, which I hate with a passion, are showing both Nader and Barr garnering 3% of the vote in specific toss-up states. Obama’s bean counters are happy that Barr has joined the fray, saying he might make the difference in states which are important and still close between Obama and McCain.

All in all, it remains to be seen what Barr can do..money is his nemisis right now, and the same goes for Nader. This general election season looks to be all about the money and breaking records for how much you can raise and spend. Obama has the edge there and frankly I just want to get past the Democratic convention and head into the final stretch..I am so ready to get this shit over with, it ain’t even funny.

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Et tu, ‘bama?

This was in response to a fellow at B. Obama’s official campaign site, who asked that I vote for Obama, his capitulation to the FISA/telecom Immunity bill notwithstanding:

• Sender: trog69
• Subject: Voting for Barack
• Received: 6/27/08 6:13PM

Thank you for your response to my comment, and in let me say in answer that I will probably vote for Mr. Obama; In any case short of mass murder by Barack, (And I’d still want to know who and why first.)there is no possible chance of me voting for the warmonger on the Republican ticker. Er…ticket.

OTOH, I have no intention of participating in anything resembling Obamania. I will strive to always remember, as I hope others will, that Barack Obama is a politician first. As anyone paying attention will attest, after winning the nomination, seeing him fling himself as far right as possible to reach out to the Republican voters who, like me, do not trust the party itself anymore, and who learn what they can about the candidates from a variety of sources. I do indeed understand WHY he is doing that, and I’m not condemning it out of hand. I merely point out the similarity to past elections, and how it shows that Barack Obama hasn’t done anything that past candidates haven’t also done.

I do not watch TV, nor do I read the actual newspapers anymore. I am, for good or ill, tied exclusively to the internet. (Which of course relies on those shunned news delivery vehicles, but anyway…) I mention this because I care a great deal about the internet’s freedoms, and our right to read and say whatever we want, with no fear of repercussions by government eavesdroppers. So you can imagine my shock and horror to learn about Mr. Obama’s recent capitulation on the FISA/Telecom Immunity bill. I refuse to just keep quiet about this, just because Barack’s positions mirror mine on most other topics. To me, this goes to the heart of the problem we already face. The news media, considered by T. Jefferson to be one of the most important tools the common populace has to keep our elected officials somewhat honest, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate interests. Newspapers themselves are turning to the internet to save money, since they’ve laid off or by attrition lost most of their reporters and overseas bureaus. So, if the only way to get some basic, honest reporting is from my laptop, I don’t want to fear that my profile in the gov’t. database is flagged because I frequent liberal websites. Sure, I’m probably worrying needlessly; I don’t want to have to consider it, though. Giving the NSA the ability to not only datamine, but without oversight, is not my idea of protecting our rights. I won’t even go into why the immunity for telecoms is so blatantly against the Rule of Law, and instead shows the two-tiered standard of ‘justice’ now being openly  considered .

Even if I decide not to vote at all, in protest, I would not do anything to derail Barack’s election chances, in case someone thinks I’m one of those “Repub. trolls sicced on the liberal sites.

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On acting white…

We’ll be jumping right on into shit this morning, chil’ren.

I can not stand it when people refer to a person’s manner of speech as “talking white” or their ways as “acting white”.

Black is not a monolith and we do not all think, act, talk, eat, pray, fuck, sing, dance, vote or manifest anger the exact same motherfucking way.

If a black person is running for office that does not automatically mean that she or he is going to make affirmative action, poverty and pay-day loan scams the foundation of their platform. For the record - black America is also complex and there are a lot of policy issues that impact the lives of a majority of black people, which include but are not limited to poverty, affirmative action and pay-day loan scams.

Pause…breath in and then exhale…continue.

All people running for office…any office…should be expected to build a platform that addresses the needs of the people they wish to serve.

Black candidates…being human (gasp!) and therefore people (shock and awe!!)…should be held to that same standard.

That isn’t acting white…speeches about the shit are not examples of talking white…and this bitch is going to move past anger into some serious rage if one more motherfucker insults me and mine through the assertion that only white people discuss the economy, healthcare, the war and international diplomacy.

Ralph Nader ought to be ashamed of himself for high-jacking legitimate important policy issues and telling the American people that those are black issues.

He ought to be ashamed of himself for putting forth the notion that a black person isn’t fully black if they don’t act like he expects them to and society has instructed them to.

And he should have checked himself before he wrecked himself by jumping onto the ‘I can say this ig’nant, insulting and racially stereotyping bullshit because I’ve spent years channeling my white guilt into black people issues!’ platform with Geraldine Ferarro and the rest of the I’m-not-a-bigot-I-just-play-one-on-t.v. crowd that lurks within all political parties.

For the record, this is an example of a race card this bitch is familiar with…the one that has so-called allies maintaining low expectations and out-dated assumptions that they dress up in the language of the Civil Rights Era but which are actually built on a foundation of bigotry that’s been masquerading as tolerance far too long.

I leave you with the words of the fantabulous Aretha Franklin…

Let’s go back, let’s go back, let’s go way on back when
I didn’t even know you, you came to me and too much you wouldn’t take
I ain’t no psychiatrist, I ain’t no doctor with degree
It don’t take too much high IQ’s to see what you’re doing to me

You better think
Think
Think about what you’re trying to do to me
Yeah, think
Think, think
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

Oh freedom…freedom…freedom…

Yeah,

Freedom!

Crossposted from the Angry Black Bitch.

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Ground Zero for 2008

MSNBC put up their list of the current “likely scenario” for the electoral map.

Base Obama: CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, MD, MA, NY, RI, VT (153 electoral votes)
Lean Obama: ME, NJ, MN, OR, WA (47 votes)
Toss-up: CO, FL, IA, MI, NV, NM, NH, OH, PA, VA, WI (138 votes)
Lean McCain: AR, GA, IN, LA, MS, MO, MT, NE, NC, ND (84 votes)
Base McCain: AL, AK, AZ, ID, KS, KY, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, WV, WY (116 votes)

I’m not going to get into their premise that by adding the Base and Lean numbers for each candidate they are a tie and of equal strength, which I don’t buy for a New York minute, and once you factor in who has what money and fundraising potential, becomes even more ludicrous.

Instead, I’m going to reach out in a conciliatory way to CO, IA, MI, NV, NM, NH, OH, PA, VA, and WI (I’m in FL) and say, gee guys, fall is going to suck with the ad blitzes. The second tier of blitz is ME, NJ, MN, OR, WA AR, GA, IN, LA, MS, MO, MT, NE, NC, and ND - because “Lean” is not bagged, and until it is, you’re going to get mauled too.

Which takes me back to my above point. 26 of 50 states are in play this election. That’s going to take monster bucks. From The Politico:

• If each of Obama’s donors gave him a modest $250, he’d have $375 million to spend during the two-month general election sprint. That’s $186 million a month, $47 million a week.
• During the same September to Nov. 4 period, McCain will have about $85 million to spend since he has decided to take taxpayer money to help finance his campaign activities.
• The Republican National Committee, which is charged with closing the gap between McCain and Obama, has $40 million in cash. Obama raised almost as much - $31 million - from just his small donors in the month of February. His total for the month, $57 million, exceeded the RNC’s cash balance.
• Obama has more than 1.5 million donors; McCain has a few hundred thousand. If just a million of Obama’s donors sent him the maximum donation, $2,300, he could raise $2.3 billion.

Granted, that last one is an outlier. Nevertheless, this is a recipe for low budget muck raking ad buys from McCain. He doesn’t have the jack to run positive. Obama has enough jack, george, jill, bob and donna to do whatever needs to be done, and the cojones to call McCain on the muck. By November the Republican implosion will be complete, with 26 states completely sick of McCain and the Rep’s BS. Further, Obama will probably be able to afford to run positive ads in McCain’s base states, which will give the down tickets more traction there. (50 State strategy rocks our world!)

I am LOVING the rise of the Democratic phoenix. Burn, baby, burn.

Crossposted at Bring it On!

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If He builds it, They will come.

Who’s your Party now, baby?

The Democratic Party maintained its huge edge in party identification during the month of May. Barack Obama’s Party now has the largest partisan advantage over the Republicans since Rasmussen Reports began tracking this data on a monthly basis nearly six years ago

During the month of April, 41.7% of Americans considered themselves to be Democrats. Just 31.6% said they were Republicans and 26.6% were not affiliated with either major party. This is the third straight month Obama’s team has enjoyed a double-digit edge. - Rasmussen

This is a GOTV director’s wet dream. Turn these voters out and work those 26% with dedication, and this gig is bagged.

May was also the fourth straight month that the number of Democrats topped 41%. Prior to February of this year, neither party had ever reached the 39% level of support. - Rasmussen

Howard Dean deserves a lot of credit for this. The 50-State strategy was timely and brilliant. Remember the crap the Washington power wheels gave him for it? Dean’s vision revolutionized the Democrats. His candidacy was a wakeup call to the machine. He turned his campaign staff into the Democracy for America group, which is effectively training on the ground party activists in nearly every state (48 so far). As DNC Chair he’s made Dems competitive in more states in less time than anyone believed possible. You can lay 2006 and 2008 squarely at the feet of Howard Dean. I bet, every time Dean see a picture of “the scream”, he just laughs his ass off.

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From our Department of WTF?

From TO via McClatchy we get this news:

Washington - Beverly Fanning is among the campaign donors who’ll be joining President Bush at a gala at Washington’s Ford’s Theater Sunday night, but she says that won’t dissuade her from her current passion: volunteering for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Now, I knew I wasn’t dreaming because I have had two cups of Espresso and my insect bites are driving me nuts…so I had to click on that linky in my TO newsletter. Yep, sure as shit it lists some of the folks that gave to the Bush campaign as now contributing to Obama’s campaign..this info is available online of course if you know where to look and want to pour over pages and pages of FEC(Federal Election Commission) files. They list some of them:

Among them are Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the granddaughter of the late GOP president Dwight Eisenhower; Connie Ballmer, the wife of Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer; Ritchie Scaife, the estranged wife of conservative tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife and boxing promoter Don King.

Well, that isn’t a list of who’s who in the Rethuglican party but it is interesting none the less. Also noted in the piece is that the folks they talked to, who are moderate Republicans, are giving to OBAMA. Its a good read, and not real long..check it out…interesting as hell my dear readers .

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A word on misogyny…

First let me say, I am not supporting Obama..but I sure as hell am not supporting HRC either.

Allison Benedikt has written a wonderful OpEd for the Village Voice on Hillary, her supporters and her campaign. It tackles that pesky subject of misogyny very well m’dear reader and I encourage…yea I demand that you read it. Tell me then what you think of it. Just a small blurb of it to get you interested:

Next comes Arianna “No Fear” Huffington, suffering from a strain of short-term memory loss that seems to be going around, to declare: “The greatest triumph of Clinton’s campaign-a complete triumph-is the example she has set for the next generation.”

Currently pregnant with the next generation, let me just say this: There is no greater wish that a mother can have for her daughter than that she will exploit poor people, obliterate Iran, and win rigged class president elections, Putin-style. (Mom, I won 100 percent of the vote!)

I love her!!! Look, as a woman that has fought against sexism my entire fucking life and I might add, the first woman to hold the job as Project Manager on a NASA subcontract in the 80’s….I know how fucked up it is to be female and expect to be treated the same as males…and yet not be treated the same. I had to be better at my job than they were, work longer hours and make less money than they did. My husband divorced me because he was tired of me living at the office..I sacrificed my personal life for that fucking job..and I would probably do it all over again.

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75,000 people can’t all be wrong.

It shows the hope of America, this video. Disclosure: It was made by Obama for President. But it doesn’t matter who made it..what matters is that no presidential candidate has ever drawn this many citizens in one place on one day.

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Tomorrow…the last of the big primaries..

Primaries..aren’t we tired of them yet? Tomorrow will see half of the remaining delegates decided. Obama’s lead in NC has shrunk like a set of testes in the cold. Hillary is crowing about that, plus her margin has increased in IN.

After tomorrow, the biggest set of undecideds will be the Super Delegates..you know, the ones that don’t have to vote for anyone they don’t want to. There are roughly 260 of those folks still out there undecided.

Gas-tax Hillary will come out smelling like a rose no matter how tomorrow turns out. But those Supers…they still hold all the cards. Damn it.

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Clinton’s campaign advisors should let the adults take charge

CNN has an article concerning Hillary’s dropping a hospital horror story from her pre-moistened speeches, that turns out not so horrid after all. According to the story, which was told to by her host at a campaign visit at some poor schmucks’ home.( Now, if we were doing this at MY house, man, would I have some burning questions for her. Like, when the dog throws up that weird watery/slime/meat chunks concoction they do every so often, should I let her just lick it all back up, or shoo her away, with that “aaaakk…aaakkkk, baby NO, NO!” and then have to clean that goop up, with the dog giving me that “Wastrel” look she gives me anytime I throw away perfectly edible stuff like that.) The guy, Deputy Sheriff Bryan Holman, who I can safely assume was NOT the not-to-be father, relates that a young pregnant woman, suffering some type of complication, was denied treatment merely because she didn’t have the $100 dollar cover charge. The mother died after a stillbirth. The hospital has disputed this, and in fact says the woman had insurance.

From Talkleft, Big Tent Democrat has this to say:

If you are intent on hating Hillary Clinton, you can make a big deal about this honest potential mistake - which came from relying upon an honest Ohio Sheriff’s Deputy. If what you care about is blasting Hillary Clinton - if you do not care about reforming health care in this country - then by all means - act as if you see this as a big Clinton lie.

Speaking as someone who has tried mightily to keep my eyes, ears, and brain open to both candidates presentation, I really have not a problem at all with Hillary’s point in all this. I would like to know why she ran with this without even so much as a perfunctory check with the “offending hospital” before pointing at them and shaking her torch in outrage, however. Think of this; We read stories that make the back of your hair stand up and vomit just about daily with regards health care administrative retardation. The one story they pick, and they can’t even call the hospital first? Who the heck is in charge of the anti-foot-in-mouth preventative health awareness program anyway?

Mebbe Mark Penn’s idea to get back at Hil for making him look bad in Columbia. Go ahead and run with THAT one, since some guy said it.

Update: Penn has resigned this evening from Hillary’s campaign as Chief Strategist.

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Hillary, Can You Say, “Conflict?”

The other day, we noted that “Homeowner’s Best Friend” Hillary Clinton has on her staff a Board member from one of the nation’s most predatory subprime lenders. This is saddening to be sure, but I doubt anyone is very surprised by it.

Today, we learn about another little conflict of interest in Team Hillary. It would seem that “The Worker’s Best Friend” has a strategy guru who is working hard down south to implement one of those “free” trade agreements that Hillary finds so abhorrent (in 2007-08, at least. 1993 was another story, wasn’t it?)

I do not hate Hillary Clinton. I do not know if I know her for sure, but what I do know has caused me reservations. She was for Chimpy’s bloodbath before she was against it, and she was for NAFTA before she was against it, and she has people working for her who have a proven track record of being 100% against the ability of the common schmuck to have a decent life in America. Since she’s been murky enough to keep me from knowing her too well, is it OK for me to judge her by the company she keeps?

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The Next Best Thing to an Endorsement

Hands down, THE coveted Democratic endorsement is that of Al Gore. His fans in the base are huge, committed and active. A nod from Captain Planet could be a scale tipper. This explains why Gore has been so actively wooed by both Clinton and Obama, with numerous meetings between him and the candidates. Gore has insisted he intends to remain neutral.

Then Obama, as he is wont to do, dropped a bomb.

Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming.

At a town-hall meeting, Obama was asked if he would tap the former vice president for his Cabinet to handle global warming.

“I would,” Obama said. “Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He’s somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I’m already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now.” - Newsvine

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remember rev. wright?

thought folks might like to know a couple of the folks that mrs. clinton breakfasted with at her regular capital hill prayer breakfasts:

rick santorum- so devout that he and his wife brought their dead son home to show the other six kids before burial.

‘The fabric of democracy lies in religion, said U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in his presentation at St. Paul’s Seminary in Crafton this week. The “great gift of America” is that “we are free to espouse that faith in the public square,” he was quoted as saying in a report published in the Tribune-Review. The pro-life senator spoke as part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s lecture series, “Faithful Citizenship.”

“If we divorce public life from faith, freedom itself will fail,” he was quoted as saying.

He told the crowd that he views his political life through the lens of his Catholic faith and he spoke of the general public’s inaccurate presumption that politicians who don’t bring faith into the public forum are neutral, reported the newspaper.’

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Gov Bill Richardson endorses Obama

This is a huge deal. Just this past January, Richardson was watching the SuperBowl with Bill Clinton, his former boss as part of the Clinton administration. Richardson is also Hispanic, which might help Obama’s campaign as well.

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