What About Pro-Choice Republicans?

by: jbd

Mon Sep 15, 2008 at 08:35:55 AM EDT

The author, Virginia Battles-Raffa, is speaking for many Republicans, at least in the state of New Hampshire. She is obviously saddened and a bit flabbergasted by the shift to the right on social issues.

She compares the religious right to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban once required Afghanistan's male citizens to wear a beard based on religious convictions. Our country fought to free their people of that fanatical regime. We criticize China for placing reproductive restrictions on women and Muslim countries for their oppression of women. How can we support legislation that deprives our female citizens of their right to choose? This is a private decision.

She concludes with this:

We are the party that was once led by Abraham Lincoln in his efforts to abolish slavery and support every individual's right to control his or her destiny, regardless of color, creed or sex. I am a Republican, but a woman and a mother first.

We all must realize the potential ramifications of this election, regardless of party affiliation. If the Republican platform continues to support candidates who rally behind legislation that restricts our private choices, then we must choose a candidate who will protect them. If that means voting for a Democratic nominee, then so be it.

After the orchestrated defeat of Rep. Hager in Concord, and other attempts to unseat moderate Republicans in Amherst, it seems the Republican tent is growing smaller and smaller.

To lift the Oldsmobile slogan:

"It's not your father's Republican Party".

McCain Trying to Stall Investigation?

by: jbd

Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 12:50:19 PM EDT

If it's true, it's not good for McCain.

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

Palin, who has denied any wrongdoing and has said she has nothing to hide, hired private lawyers on Saturday, the day after Sen. McCain announced her as his running mate.

"Until then, the Governor used state lawyers and everything was fine," said Sen. French.

A team of McCain campaign operatives arrived in Anchorage over the weekend "to help coordinate" her vice-presidential campaign, according to a McCain campaign official.

According to Senator French, Palin has a "credibility problem" around the investigation because at first she denied any involvement, but then had to backtrack her story. The investigation will also look into how Palin got her ex brother in law's personnel file.

According to Palin, she fired the public safety commissioner over budget disputes.

French says the McCain campaign failed to contact any of the Senators involved in the investigation during the vetting process of Gov. Palin.

"If they had done their job they never would have picked her," said French. "Now they may have to deal with an October surprise," he said, referring to the scheduled release Oct. 31 of the committee's final report.

Palin and British Petroleum

by: jbd

Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 06:52:29 AM EDT

The oil and gas companies, so used to having their collective way with us through their BFF Dick Cheney, needed to make sure they have a puppet at the ready. Enter Sarah Palin.

From The Envoronment News Service (bold mine)

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, has worked to protect the polar bear from climate change. Today he called the choice of Palin "shocking."

"Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming," he said.

"Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration."

"Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP, formerly British Petroleum, has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska's coasts, and put special interests above science," Schlickeisen said.

The fossil fuel industry is on its last legs, and like any beast it will not go down without a fight. And it doesn't care who or what gets in the way.

It also shows that this choice was made by the fossil fuel lobby, and was done to have a tool a heartbeat away from the presidency.

McMaverick? McOil.

Mysterious Ways

by: jbd

Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 19:36:43 PM EDT

Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family, one of America's leading evangelical groups, was shown in a video filmed at Denver's Invesco Field, where 75,000 are expected to cheer Mr Obama on Aug 28, asking Christians to pray for "torrential" rain.

"I'm talking 'umbrella-ain't-going-to-help-you rain," the former pastor and television meteorologist said. He explained on the video: "I'm still pro life, and I'm still in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman. And I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."

It caused blowback, among the group's members, so the backpedaling started.

Mr Shepard, director of digital media at Focus Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family, insisted the video was supposed to be "mildly humorous". But it was hastily removed by Focus on the Family after complaints from at least a dozen of its members. "If people took it seriously, we regret it," said Tom Minnery, a spokesman.

Now weather reports indicate Hurricane Gustav may arrive during the Republican Convention, reminding Americans and the world just how pathetic the Bush/McCain Republican administration (remember the Congress was Republican then, too)was in handling it. As in not. As in allowing a great American city to be destroyed.

For Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gustav threatens to provide an untimely reminder of Hurricane Katrina. A new major storm along the Gulf Coast would renew memories of one of the low points of the Bush administration, while pulling public attention away from McCain's formal coronation as the GOP presidential nominee.

Senior Republicans said images of political celebration in the Twin Cities while thousands of Americans flee a hurricane could be dubious. "Senator McCain has always been sensitive to national crisis," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, noting that the senator postponed announcing his presidential candidacy in 2000 because of the war in the Balkans. "We are monitoring the situation very closely."

If God is speaking, the message is not what partisan Republicans want to hear. But God's funny that way.Inconvenient, some would say.  

McCain, Hess Oil, and Offshore Drilling

by: jbd

Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 17:05:34 PM EDT

The FEC filings show that Alice Rocchio, who's identified as a Hess office manager, and her husband, Pasquale Rocchio, who's described as an Amtrak "track foreman," each separately donated $28,500 to the RNC-McCain fund, which is called McCain Victory 2008. They gave the money on June 24th, the same day that eight other Hess execs and family members each shelled out the same amount.

So the Rocchios, who live in Flushing, Queens, donated a total of $57,000 to McCain's efforts.

The Rocchios joined Hess senior executives and two Hess family members who all gave about $285,000 in total when McCain reversed his position and began to speak out in favor of off shore drilling. Hess stands to gain a great deal of money if the ban on offshore drilling is lifted, of course.

I guess a McCain presidency would include energy policy made by oil companies behind closed doors a la Cheney.

More on the lobbyists:

The two lobbyists are Wayne Berman, McCain's national finance co-chairman, and John Green, who's been the McCain campaign's chief Congressional liaison since March. Both men worked for a firm called Ogilvy Government Relations. The firm has been paid $800,000 by Hess from 2005 up to the present, including $720,000 during the period that both of the two lobbied for the company, the forms say.

Berman, a prolific fundraiser and bundler for McCain, appears to still be lobbying for Hess. The most recently filed form shows that he was lobbying for the company as late as mid-July. Green took a leave of absence from Ogilvy to join the campaign, but was still on the Hess account up through the first quarter of 2008, the forms show.

This is more of McSame-er-McBush--McCheney?

Another Take on "Tax Caps"

by: jbd

Thu Jul 31, 2008 at 10:54:44 AM EDT

In the op-ed section, I came across this piece by Joanne Randall, an Epsom selectwoman. She says how difficult it is for the town to have emergency services on a default budget. Epsom was hit by the recent tornado.

Epsom residents should know that our budget for these departments (fire and police) is dangerously low because we are on the fourth year of a default budget. These departments are understaffed because the town does not approach the average wages for comparable departments across New Hampshire. They are working with less equipment because they are using the money to buy fuel, since we have not been able to increase their budget line for fuel in four years - even though fuel has almost doubled in that time.

In addition, the number and types of incidents that the fire and police departments must respond to have increased. We have also had to deal with three natural disasters in four years. Not all the cost of those has been covered by the state or federal governments.

Now I have to say, being from "away", the one thing that shocked me the most about NH was that each single town has to run its own police, fire, and other departments. Where I come from, counties do a lot of that heavy lifting and it's from a larger pool of money.

The cost of fuel is insane now, let alone springing for a fire truck or dump truck. I don't know what the answer is because of the structure of government, but it is dangerous for municipalities to skimp on public safety measures. Even depending on volunteer firefighters and EMTs is dicey because so few people work near where they live.

It seems NH has been able to keep an 18th century governmental structure going longer than most states, but it will catch up (or is catching up) with us eventually. Most people don't live on and from their farmsteads any more.

The positive side is we can try to imagine a way that is suitable to this century. Any thoughts?

Obama Speech in Berlin

by: jbd

Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 15:55:29 PM EDT

I lived in West Berlin a few years before the wall came down. When I was there, two walls and barbed wire (and God knows what else) were between those two points. Friedrichstrasse, one of the crossover points, was like a no man's land. Now, you'll be happy to know there's a Starbuck's there, among other things.

But enough of my nostalgia--the speech rocked. The people were with him. They were even waving American flags. They never do that. And we know they weren't US Foreign Service wokers

TPM has the speech's transcript.

Obama was basically healing the "you're with us or against us" mentality of the last eight years. He urged the Berliners and by extension Europeans in general, to work with the US to help end world poverty, terrorism, and all the other plagues of the present. He said it will take work and sacrifice. He said--hide your eyes if you're squeamish--America hasn't been perfect. Imagine!
Not perfect ! I'm sure McBush will jump all over that one after his lunch at a German restaurant in Ohio. Who schedules this guy's campaign, anyway?

I have very close ties to Germany and am very partial to Europe in general. Shhh, I even lived in France for a while.

We have to deliver NH blue up and down the ticket. That's all there is to it.

Sraight Talk Express Losing Wheels

by: jbd

Mon Jul 21, 2008 at 16:42:22 PM EDT

According to Huff Po, McCain made the first gaffe of Obama's trip with a geography error.

Asked by Diane Sawyer whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in precarious and urgent," McCain responded: "I think it's serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border."

But as ABC's Rick Klein noted: "Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do."

If that weren't enough, The New York Times rejected McCain's Op-Ed piece because it criticizes Obama's position on Iraq without articulating what McCain would do differently.

More if you follow the link.

Now we're sure to hear howling about the Times. They broke the story about the now less than scarce Vicki Iseman.

What a double standard! With all the gaffes, etc. McCain has made thus far, a Dem in his position would be Post Toasties.

I guess trad med needs the horse race.

Still, we can't count on McCain to hoist himself by his own petard--Lieberman would save  him somehow, so we have to work hard for our entire ticket!

Sununu and Gregg Vote Against Medicare

by: jbd

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 19:20:52 PM EDT

Today the US Senate voted 70-26 to override the President's veto of HR6331, the abstract of which says

A bill to amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act to extend expiring provisions under the Medicare Program, to improve beneficiary access to preventive and mental health services, to enhance low-income benefit programs, and to maintain access to care in rural areas, including pharmacy access, and for other purposes.

New Hampshire is dependent on federal funds for health programs, including monies for Medicare, Medicaid and S-CHIP. Our Republican Senators are more concerned about supporting George W Bush than with the needs of the people of this state.

They were elected to represent us, but they represent Bush &Co. (I guess they're part of &Co)

We need to make sure Sununu is defeated and Governor Shaheen is elected and Gregg needs to be voted out in 2010.

Report Says Ethanol Behind Food Crisis

by: jbd

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 13:03:25 PM EDT

According to the Guardian, the development and use of ethanol is behind the present food crisis. A concern of mine is the use of genetically modified organisms in food. Most of the corn in the US has been genetically modified, or contaminated through pollination. I'm not going into that now, but may at a future date.

But politically, this "cover-up" of the source of the worldwide food crisis is worrisome, to say the least.

LONDON - Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.

"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."

Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".

President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."

Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.

Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.

It's shameful that the Bush administration has so much influence still that it can not only keep domestic information from us, but tries to keep things concerning the rest of the world secret.

And we have to look beyond ethanol for green energy sources.

Feingold and Dodd FISA Filibuster

by: jbd

Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 13:03:28 PM EDT

It looks like Dodd and Feingold will ride to the rescue here.

From their statement

"This is a deeply flawed bill, which does nothing more than offer retroactive immunity by another name. We strongly urge our colleagues to reject this so-called 'compromise' legislation and oppose any efforts to consider this bill in its current form. We will oppose efforts to end debate on this bill as long as it provides retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies that may have participated in the President's warrantless wiretapping program, and as long as it fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans.

The statement goes on to say that if the bill does move forward in the Senate, they will intoduce an amendment to strip the retroactive immunity out of it.

NASA Scientist Warns on Warming

by: jbd

Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 13:15:03 PM EDT

Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.

James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.

"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance."

I'm not an expert on this by any means. But there is a perfect storm here conspiring to perhaps bring some relief to the atmosphere. High gas prices will hopefully cut down on driving and bring more political will for public transportation.

Also, another major use of petroleum products is in factory farming, from the fuels needed for the equipment and transportation to the poisonous "fertilizer" used on the food itself.

One thing we can do in NH is to buy as much local food as possible, start or join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and of course, cut down on the use of plastics. Demanding more public transportation is also key. Rural areas in England and Germany have buses and in England, even high speed "mini-rail". The trains go between larger towns and cities, such as the size of Manchester (NH) and Concord, for example.

"We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes," Hansen told the AP before the luncheon. "The Arctic is the first tipping point and it's occurring exactly the way we said it would."

Hansen, echoing work by other scientists, said that in five to 10 years, the Arctic will be free of sea ice in the summer.

Longtime global warming skeptic Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., citing a recent poll, said in a statement, "Hansen, (former Vice President) Gore and the media have been trumpeting man-made climate doom since the 1980s. But Americans are not buying it."

But Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., committee chairman, said, "Dr. Hansen was right. Twenty years later, we recognize him as a climate prophet."

Tim Russert Dies

by: jbd

Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 16:03:03 PM EDT

From MSNBC's website:

Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.

Senate staffer before entering journalism
After graduating from law school, Russert went into politics as a staff operative. In 1976, he worked on the Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and in 1982, he worked on Mario Cuomo's campaign for governor of New York.

Russert joined NBC News in 1984. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of NBC's TODAY show from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television. In 1986 and 1987, Russert led NBC News' weeklong broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.

Cuomo, Russert's onetime boss, wrote of Russert: "Most candidates are not eager to present themselves for Tim's incisive scrutiny, which is fed by his prodigious study and preparation. But they have little choice: appearing on 'Meet the Press' is today as vital to a serious candidate as being properly registered to vote."

Russert wrote two books, won an Emmy for his coverage of Ronald Reagan's funeral, and was recognized for his contributions to broadcast journalism.

Clint Eastwood At It Again

by: jbd

Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 12:22:02 PM EDT

Clint Eastwood has advised rival film director Spike Lee to "shut his face" after the African-American complained about the racial make-up of Eastwood's films.

It seems Eastwood is incapable of civil discourse, and has some problems accepting people who are "different".

In typically outspoken language, Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn't raise the flag. The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

That piece from HuffPo reminded me of the film "Million Dollar Baby", wherein the Eastwood character shoots the Hillary Swank character at her request because she is wheelchair bound after a spinal injury. Interestingly he made that film not long after his attack on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

John M Williams writes

I cringe every time I see a story about lawyers' abuses of the ADA. The latest: A May 9 article in the Wall Street Journal about actor Clint Eastwood's campaign to get Congress to amend the law to give businesses more leeway to comply with it. Eastwood is livid that, as the owner of an historic, 32-room hotel and restaurant in Carmel, Calif., he along with hundreds of other small-business owners have been sued for failing to conform quickly enough with the accessibility requirements of the ADA. Repeated attempts to reach Eastwood at his hotel were unsuccessful.

It's bad enough to have the guy who portrayed Dirty Harry in the movies gunning for the 10-year-old landmark act. But what's most distressing to me is the amount of misinformation that is always thrown about whenever lawyers team up with disabled clients and start waving the ADA at business. This great law becomes a red flag, and it shouldn't be.

Williams goes on to explain the potential abuses of the act, but also how people like Eastwood don't have all the facts straight, either.

And from a press release by the National Spinal Cord Injury Association on "Million Dollar Baby"

Eastwood's message that life with SCI, with a disability, is not worth living is a prejudice shared by many. Missing is an exploration of why Maggie was in a nursing home without rehabilitation rather than returning home and attempting a decent quality of life.

Eastwood fails to include mention that it is discrimination, poverty, and an inaccessible society that sometimes lead newly-injured people to abandon hope and choose death.

"Eastwood is remembered by many for his attack on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 2000," said Marcie Roth, CEO of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. "I'm saddened but not surprised that he uses the power of fame and film to perpetuate his view that the lives of people with disabilities are not worth living."

We need to be reminded, from time to time, that the entertainment industry not only reflects societal images and prejudices, but also creates them.

Democratic Campaign Fundraising Success Stymies FEC

by: jbd

Mon May 26, 2008 at 12:00:06 PM EDT

The record-shattering fundraising by Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has reshaped the financing of presidential elections and generated breathless coverage and analysis of the otherwise arcane area of campaign finance.

Yet it's had another consequence that has gone all but unnoticed. The campaign finance reports filed by Obama and Clinton have grown so massive that they've strained the capacity of the Federal Election Commission, good government groups, the media and even software applications to process and make sense of the data.

Building on Joe Trippi's use of the netroots during Howard Dean's 2004 presidential run,  the Obama  campaign has been able to bring millions of new people and their dollars into the process. This is campaign finance reform without the legislation! The participation of millions of smaller donors (and the power of this) trumps the power of the big wigs more than McCain Feingold, I believe.

A milestone of sorts was reached earlier this year, when Obama, the Illinois senator whose revolutionary online fundraising has overwhelmed Clinton, filed an electronic fundraising report so large it could not be processed by popular basic spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel 2003 and Lotus 1-2-3.

This shows what amazing potential we have for this election cycle, and hopefully the next. We can bring more people on board to work toward a progressive agenda that will not only undo the damage of the last few decades (I see the real damage to our country beginning in 1980, with Reagan), but help us change direction toward a humanely sustainable future.

What is everyone doing to help harnass this wonderful energy? Any great organizational ideas out there?

There's A Joke in There Somewhere

by: jbd

Mon May 12, 2008 at 19:07:51 PM EDT

This little tidbit from HuffPo caught my eye.

It seems the new slogan for the GOP Congressional races is "Change You Deserve". Uh--anyone say change ?

   Through our "Change You Deserve" message and through our "American Families Agenda," House Republicans will continue our efforts to speak directly to an American public looking for leaders who will offer real solutions for the challenges they confront every day," said the memo prepared for lawmakers.

What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that "the change you deserve" is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism. (Hat tip to Bluestem for catching this gem.)

Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment "of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults." Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - "electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps.'"

The last paragraph of the item goes on to explain the FDA criticized the company that manufactures Effexor because its slogan, "the change you deserve" is a claim of "false superiority."

This will be an interesting election cycle, to say the least.

The Democratic Party Going Forward

by: jbd

Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 10:04:03 AM EDT

Most agree that this primary race, along with major dissatisfaction with Bush and his party, has galvanized more people than ever to participate in the Democratic primary, especially the young and so-called minorities. The youth vote is very important because research shows people tend to stick with the party they chose as young adults, whether Democratic or Republican. I know more than one elderly Republican whose views tend more Democratic these days, but will not change party registration.

There is a real chance, in my opinion, for the Democratic party to lose the potential for new members, fresh ideas and new energy if there is a "coup" of super delegates or some other smoke filled room scene a la 1968. The story is as old as Chronos eating his own children for fear they will usurp his power.

But what of the youth, many of whom are involved in their first political campaign? Will they stay with "the party" if they perceive the nomination being stolen somehow? Do they accept the "politics ain't beanbag" meme?

There's an interesting take on this from Elizabeth Drew on Politico.com

Drew cites three reasons why super delegates will not be rushing to abandon Obama:

(a) Hillary Rodham Clinton is such a polarizing figure that everyone who ever considered voting Republican in November, and even many who never did, will go to the polls to vote against her, thus jeopardizing Democrats down the ticket - i.e., themselves, or, for party leaders, the sizeable majorities they hope to gain in the House and the Senate in November.

(b) To take the nomination away from Obama when he is leading in the elected delegate count would deeply alienate the black base of the Democratic Party, and, in the words of one leading Democrat, "The superdelegates are not going to switch their voter and jeopardize the future of the Democratic Party for generations." Such a move, he said, would also disillusion the new, mostly young, voters who have entered into politics for the first time because of Obama, and lose the votes of independents who could make the critical difference in November.

(c) Because the black vote can make the decisive difference in numerous congressional districts, discarding Obama could cost the Democrats numerous seats.

Furthermore, the congressional Democratic leaders don't draw the same conclusion from Pennsylvania and also earlier contests that many observers think they do: that Obama's candidacy is fatally flawed because he has as yet been largely unable to win the votes of working class whites. They point out something that has been largely overlooked in all the talk - the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries were closed primaries, and, one key congressional Democrat says, "Yes, he doesn't do really well with a big part of the Democratic base, but she doesn't do well with independents, who will be critical to success in November."

"We may have to go to June, and whoever ends up with the most delegates wins," a key Democrat says. "Meanwhile, the attention will be on the battle she can't win, so why is she doing this - from here on out she's only bleeding the party. The right way to put it is, 'This is a war of attrition and it's obvious that the numbers aren't going to add up, so what's the point?'" He added, "The hope is that at some point the superdelegates will get frustrated and join the Obama bandwagon."

The question is why doesn't this happen sooner rather than later?

Another perspective on the same theme from a Daily Kos blogger.

That's why Obama is the right nominee for Democrats in 2008.  Not just because he is winning by all real measures, including actual delegates and the popular vote, nor because he is just as electable as Clinton if not more so.  All of these are true, but it wouldn't matter if they were not.

Obama is the nominee who can literally lock in structural advantages for Democrats for the next forty years (to say nothing of Obama's downballot advantages today).  Clinton is the nominee who will wage an increasingly futile battle to bring back the lost Democratic coalitions of yesteryear.

Win or lose in November, the right choice for the Party and the country is obvious: Barack Obama is the candidate who will secure the future of the Party--win or lose.  Just don't expect pundits, prognosticators and consultants still stuck in the realignment patterns of 1968 to understand that.

They just don't get it--and they probably never will.

This primary is more than just to see which candidate gets the nomination. It is for the future of the Democratic party. I believe there are times in history when a window opens and real change can occur. If that window shuts, the opportunity may be lost for another generation.  

Penn Debate Backlash

by: jbd

Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 12:30:23 PM EDT

Articles and op-eds abound with criticism for last night's excuse for a debate. The Philadelphia Daily News writer Will Bunch said it best, in "An Open Letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapolous":

With your performance tonight - your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters - you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one of those nations where America is seeking to "export democracy," and I had watched the debate, I probably would have said, "no thank you." Because that was no way to promote democracy.

You implied throughout the broadcast that you wanted to reflect the concerns of voters in Pennsylvania. Well, I'm a Pennsylvanian voter, and so are my neighbors and most of my friends and co-workers. You asked virtually nothing that reflected our everyday issues - trying to fill our gas tanks and save for college at the same time, our crumbling bridges and inadequate mass transit, or the root causes of crime here in Philadelphia. In fact, there almost isn't enough space - and this is cyberspace, where room is unlimited - to list all the things you could have asked about but did not, from health care to climate change to alternative energy to our policy toward China to the deterioration of Afghanistan to veterans' benefits to improving education. You ignored virtually everything that just happened in what most historians agree is one of the worst presidencies in American history, including the condoning of torture and the trashing of the Constitution, although to be fair you also ignored the policy concerns of people on the right, like immigration issues.

Are you even thinking when simply echo some of the vilest talking points from far-right talk radio? What are actually getting at - do you honestly believe that someone with a solid track record as a lawmaker in a Heartland state which elected him to the U.S. Senate, who is now seeking to make some positive American history as our first black president, is somehow un-American, or unpatriotic? Does that even make any sense? Question his policies, or question his leadership. because that is your job as a journalist. But don't insult our intelligence by questioning his patriotism.

Here's a question for you, George. Is it true that yesterday you appeared on the radio with conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity, and that you said you were "taking notes" when he urged you to ask a question about Obama's supposed ties to a former member of the Weather Underground - which in fact you did. With all the fabulous resources of ABC News at your disposal, is that an appropriate way for a supposed journalist to come up with debate questions, by pandering to divisive radio shows?

Bunch goes on to note Gibson's apparent ignorance of what constitutes "middle class" when he questioned them on capital gains taxes for the poor folk who are earning $200k a year.

The closing reflects my sentiments exactly:

This. Must . Stop. Tonight, if possible. I thought that we had hit rock bottom in March 2003, when we failed to ask the tough questions in the run-up to the Iraq war. But this feels even lower. We need to pick ourselves up, right now, and start doing our job - to take a deep breath and remind ourselves of what voters really need to know, and how we get there, that's it's not all horserace and "gotcha." Although, to be blunt, I would also urge the major candidates in 2012 to agree only to debates that are organized by the League of Women Voters, with citizen moderators and questioners. Because we have proven without a doubt in 2008 that working journalists don't deserve to be the debate "deciders."

ABC News and other entities are trying to tear down Barack Obama the way they tore down Dukakis with the tank, Gore with the internet, Dean with the "scream", Kerry with the "swiftboating" and others. But the difference is, this time it isn't working. The rest of America has seen what I saw in Senator Obama almost a year and a half ago in Manchester. Is he perfect? No. But nobody and nothing on this planet is. He's the best person to be president at this time, is all, IMHO. And whenever I talk to people outside the US, they're pulling for him. Germans, Italians. My friend was just on a business trip to Montreal, and the Canadians she met were all hopeful about Obama. "The US will be respected again, just by electing him", they told her.

A video clip on HuffPo shows the crowd heckling Gibson (well we hear them and see his reaction) as they went to commercial break. I say good. it's about time we stand up to this pablum of negativity we're being fed. We're being told negativity trumps hope. We're being told going the lowest we can go trumps being the best we can be. That isn't true.

And it seems many people are not going into this election asleep like we were led into the Iraq war. It's thanks to blogs like this and others that we have access to good information and discussion. But when comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert deliver better information and interviews than the biggest news outlets, well, we're in interesting times, let's say.

Breaking-Mark Penn Steps Down

by: jbd

Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 19:47:07 PM EDT

It seems his presence at a meeting with the Colombian ambassador to promote a free trade agreement Clinton has spoken out against was the final straw.

It must have been serious for him to have to resign.

Penn and Clinton have a lengthy history dating back to her time as first lady. In 1996, the strategist famously targeted "soccer moms" to help then President Clinton get reelected. Penn took the reigns of Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign in New York and was credited with helping her overcome high negative ratings to win in a state where she had no geographic roots.

This campaign season, however, has been, by most measures, a rocky one. Penn's strategy to ostensibly write off caucus states out of the conviction that Clinton could wrap up the nomination early in the primary backfired. And throughout the course of the campaign he has bickered -- occasionally in public -- with fellow staff.

His continued work with the firm Burson-Marsteller has proved particularly problematic. At the time he was criticizing Sen. Barack Obama for ties to the energy-giant Exelon, Penn, it was reported, was also representing that company. In addition, he has been involved with a list of businesses embroiled in deep-seated labor disputes including, as the Huffington Post reported, New Era Cap.

This has been a rough week for Penn, who also lost his Colombia gig.

After meeting with Colombia's ambassador this past week, Penn tried his hand at damage control, calling the move an error in judgment. The next day, Colombia fired him and his firm.

Forty Years in the Desert

by: jbd

Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 17:34:32 PM EDT

The Israelites were being punished for their worship of the golden calf after being freed from Egyptian slavery. God wanted a generation of them to pass before the new generation would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. And it cannot be a mere coincidence that precisely forty years after Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "I see the promised land." Barack Obama has emerged as the first credible African American candidate for President of the United States. The possibility of Obama's presidency is the fulfillment, in part, of King's vision that someday we will judge a person by the content of his character, not the color of his skin.
Skin color is still in the mix, but much less than  in King's time. The youngest among us are the in the vanguard. Will the "millenials" be the ones who bring the highest aspirations of the older generation to fruition? Is Barack Obama Joshua to King's Moses? Joshua is not as powerful as Moses, but it is he who is charged with leading the Israelites home, to the land of "milk and honey," their birthright. Moses had the inspiration and introduced the Law; Joshua took it and made it happen.

Here are some excerpts of Martin Luther King Jr.'s April 3, 1968 speech.