would be, "do you feel Obama's campaign and supporters have helped or hurt race relations in this country?"

IMHO, they've been set back at least 50 years. Probably more.

We're electing the President of the United States, not some g.d. prom king.

I say this with a heavy heart. I can't believe what this Dem party has become.

Michigan Democrats Plan for Delegate Seating
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050808L.shtml
Kathy Barks Hoffman, of The Associated Press:

"Michigan Democratic leaders on Wednesday settled on a plan to give presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton 69 delegates and Barack Obama 59 as a way to get the state's delegates seated at the national convention. Clinton won the Jan. 15 Michigan primary and was to get 73 pledged delegates under state party rules, while Obama was to get 55. The state also has 29 superdelegates."

We're electing the President of the United States, not some g.d. prom king.

I was over to TM site, and a BO memo was sent out to all O supporters, that they had to be nicer to HC supporter to bridge the anger. YIKES guess he is trying to build a bridge to NoWhere....As i left, a NEW BO poster came on with peace offering..I had to leave. OH and someone also said that, MAY 20th...after Kentucky and WV, BO is going to declare his winning of the primary. What an arrogant as*ho**... I am steaming..shower time...

but wanted to post this before leaving.

Anyone who paid attention the last few elections, or read ms in la's Who's Counting knows about election fraud. This comment at No Quarter points out the various tactics used by O!'s team in caucus and primary states. If Hillary's team was not or is not aware of the fact that yes, elections CAN be rigged, I just don't know what to say. But I find it entirely feasible, in fact, very likely that the **new** Chicago style politics that are entrenched in O!'s political career have played a part in the primaries.

Want more on how to rig an election?

Notice how Obama camp always pushes for early voting, that is an old Chicago trick to sway outcomes as needed by a precinct captain! Something along what was going on in Lake County!

Now some info for you, Indiana and most states use the Diebold Accu vote machine, as pointed out on the Indiana Sec of State website, so check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5VeaMZ9Fb0

Now how can you sway the paper ballots? watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZKfP1ObSaU

Now go back to the leaked Obama spreadsheet forcast on the election outcomes, how can someone predict so far in advance all the outcomes that is almost right on the money? Only way, fix is in Chicago style!

Same happened with caucuses, stack them knowing you will have enough people to win, done easily!

All it takes is a Precinct captains with a rigged pass card to do what you saw above!

If the prediction isn’t coming out as planned state wide, the early votes swing it to the candidate and take Lake county, 10% in one city of early votes of an entire county, enough to swing things!

Take a look at the maps in each Primary state, who won the major areas and the rate of the wins are high enough to make the outcome close enough to win!

Missouri had a major blimp towards the end in non reporting areas, and it went to Obama, strange outcome, like Indiana, yet not caught, as an example, Ohio, two counties held back, Obama counties, same thing, Texas same thing, the hold back counties were always Obama counties!

Let’s not forget the multiple reports of how Michelle needed to be convinced that they’d win and her father was for years a Precinct Captain before his death, so she knows a thing or two!

Think the fix was in Chicago style?

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Would anyone who wants to preserve Clinton’s cleaner longterm energy planning from destruction under the magic “lets not look closely” contingent of our former party now laying waste our future - please call Rep Jerry McNerney today.

Please call SF Bay Area Superdelegate Jerry McNerney this moning!!!

Last night he was being accosted today by the thug army of kossarians unleashed by some diaryist there who is, like all of them over there, clueless about what his energy policy really is - they just read the pretty headlines, not the fine print.

Here’s the phone number:
925-833-0643

Ask why should a wind advocate like Jerry settle for someone who only offers a mere 5 year extension of the PTC? Hillary makes it permanent.

This is so crucial to enabling windfarms to start up in this country, so its crucial to solving the energy crisis (you can then develop a clean electric car industry to run on the windpower) and great climate change policy.

I believe McNerney is torn. He would obviously prefer Hillary on clean energy (he’s obviously read both the plans!) but the kossarians will be really hammering on him. Don’t let those ignorant mobs decide your future!

Here’s the phone number:
925-833-0643

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/48-2-legitimacy/#comments

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

Whose shameless spinning is this? Scroll to next page for answer:

However, the popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee – since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. More importantly, the rules of the nomination are predicated on delegates, not popular vote.

[…] Essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller.

David Plouffe, Obama campaign manager, in a memo today to superdelegates.

Talk about moving the goalposts….

http://susiemadrak.com/2008/05/07/14/34/hmm-64/

Posted in Politics As Usual

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

 http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/4099/

http://www.womens-health.com/boards/teeth/4881-made-china.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=528615&in_page_id=1770

Cheap dental crowns from China may contain dangerous levels of LEAD
excerpt
 
8th March 2008

Dental experts say the crowns can contain dangerous levels of lead
Dentists who use cut-price and potentially deadly crowns and dentures from China are putting their patients at risk, it was claimed today.

The products are often made in unregulated laboratories and can contain dangerous levels of lead, dental experts warned.

In the U.S., four cases of lead poisoning have been linked to Chinese dental fixtures. A laboratory test revealed that some contained 210 times the acceptable amount of the toxic metal.

Richard Daniels, the chief executive of the Dental Laboratories Association, said the number of potentially dangerous imports was rising.

"At this point nobody knows what the health risks are," he said.

"How long would we have to hold Iraq before we could flip it for profit" Jon Stewart asked Sen. Harry Reid.

The Delegate Math

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Thu May 08, 2008 at 12:36:16 PM EST

It looks less definitive than I thought it would. Here is Chris Bowers' analysis:

[W]ith Florida seated as is, Clinton trails by 95 delegates when the Michigan Party's plan is enacted. Further, since Edwards has declined to make an endorsement, his 32 delegates are now effectively uncommitted superdelegates. So, this means that the best case-scenario for Clinton right now is that she trails by 95 delegates with 550.5 delegates remaining. So, even in Clitnon's best case scenario, Obama only needs 228 of the remaining 550.5 delegates, or 41.4%, to win the nomination.

Obama still needs 41.4% of the remaining delegates with this FL/MI plan? I thought the math was worse than that for Clinton.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/5/8/133616/9063

Keep fighting, Hillary. You can do this!

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

When Matt Taibbi’s bad, he’s bad. And when he’s good, he’s good:

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

Only Republican US Congressman from NYC, Vito Fossella's DWI, affair and love child.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/8/103416/3505/886/511684

Anybody know the answer? Making a living is an alright answer if true. It is a bit remarkable that he has not been very visible in the last few weeks....

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/05/07/preposterous-gray-epa/

EXCERPT  

Yesterday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) chaired a hearing of the Environment and Public Works oversight subcommittee investigating the politicization of science at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The administration witness was Dr. George Gray, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development at the EPA. At the hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) described Gray's misuse of the English language as "Alice in Wonderland," telling Dr. Gray, "You have tried to defend the indefensible and you have failed." Sen. Whitehouse described the EPA's actions as "Orwellian" and concluded the hearing with the sarcastic salute:

I have to applaud Dr. Gray for his ability to say what I found to be preposterous things with a completely straight face throughout

"How long would we have to hold Iraq before we could flip it for profit" Jon Stewart asked Sen. Harry Reid.

Pay no attention to those armed soldiers circling the boat in a small vessel... Seems like a fine place! Heh...

Wifi is costly and limited and news is hard to come by-- I was dying to read the papers after the election. The few we get on the ship (WSJ and USA Today) made it sound brutal and are claiming that everyone insists Hillary should drop out now and is broke, of course, etc etc. I don't know what to believe sans blogging... Haven't read anything here at CCN yet, just wanted to say "HI!" first and then go read quickly to catch up. A knot in stomach over the IN numbers though...and the NC spread. Yikes.

Otherwise this has been a fantastic trip!! All the food you can eat (and it's soooo good), all the drink you can drink, and no one has to drive home. :) Service is impeccable and we're having a ball. Nice little patio overlooking the ocean. Hot Hot Hot here!

Costa Rica was wildly beautiful-- with huge rolling verdant hills dotted with rainforest and jungle terrain. Beautiful.

Otherwise star gazing at night, and just chillin'...

Sorry for OT post. Miss you all! Miss blogging!

Now somebody please tell me I shouldn't be worried about ObamaNomi and the inevitable Pres McBush. Please... :/

Nervous in Chiapas.

...calls BS on the SCOTUS argument....

If Obama becomes the party nominee, as seems likely, those of us who are not Obama supporters will get an earful on why we have to vote for him in November. Some of these reasons will be fairly good ones. One of them, IMO, is not. That one is that of course we all have to support Obama, think of the Supreme Court. This one is often aimed at those of us who are women with the implied threat that if we don’t fall in line and be good girls, we’ll lose our rights under Roe v. Wade.

I call bullshit on this argument. I will not have my body held hostage by the Democratic - or any - political party.

McCain cannot stack the Supreme Court or any Court with wing-nut judges by himself. His nominees have to be confirmed by the Senate. A Senate that will almost certainly be controlled by Democrats, probably with an increased majority. Why should I have to worry about Roe v. Wade or any other core constitutional right? While the Democrats would inevitably have to compromise on some issues with a Republican president (just as Obama will have to compromise some to get legislation through the Senate given the unlikelihood of a filibuster-proof majority), surely a body that is controlled by the Democratic Party will fight for my right to control my body. And if they won’t, then why am I electing any of them to Congress?

So I don’t want to hear about the Supreme Court. There’s already a check on McCain’s power to stack it. And if the Democrats won’t use that power to protect a fundamental freedom of more than half of their base, then the answer is not to vote for Obama, it’s to find people who will.

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

While we all sleep - they delete abortion on Monday.  Thu May 08, 2008

Everyone has been so distracted by the election that no one has been paying attention to single issues -- and by this single issue I mean abortion and reproductive justice.

Well, while we were sleeping,  The Family Research Council plans to present Bush with a petition next Monday from 80 pro-life groups with the request he extend the global gag rule on abortion domestically via Executive Order.  The gag rule will be tied to Title X funds and will prohibit clinics that receive money to provide reproductive health care to the poor to even discuss abortion as an option with their patients, likely regardless of socioeconomic status.

Are you horribly awake now?  I wasn't sleeping but I wish I was dreaming.

<!-- polls come after this -->

• Janusdog's diary :: ::

Recently, social conservatives have been attacking Planned Parenthood funding.  The loss of does not only affect PP, but it also substantially affects other health centers that provide services to the underserved and uninsured.Title X funding cannot be used for abortions.  To "move funding into abortions," as the conservatives say PP especially is wont to do, is illegal and fraudulent.  In short, this fraud is not something that health systems are interested in doing due to the penalities (and of course it is not the right or ethical thing to do).

All this attack does is remind us that our disgusting policy overseas -- to not provide any money for programs that include even discussion of abortions -- is coming home.  That means that your local health center will not be able to talk about the options with you if they receive Title X.  They can't even refer you out to a provider who does abortions.  It's like the option doesn't exist.  And that's exactly what these people want.

"How long would we have to hold Iraq before we could flip it for profit" Jon Stewart asked Sen. Harry Reid.

I just copy pasted a few blogs to read offline (in Word) incl Jen's long election thread (thanx jen!!!) So I can catch up and save the minutes...

Thanks everybody and I really really really reallly realllllly don't want us to have an Obama nomination hence a McCain presidency. Getting quite scared here.

More iced coffee.

How can we stop this from happening?

Don't answer that- I'll be offline! :)

Till next time. Ahoy Mateys!!

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/videos/overview/640x480/t1/nhmfl.html 

"How long would we have to hold Iraq before we could flip it for profit" Jon Stewart asked Sen. Harry Reid.

John Cusack, via Huffpo

THAT WAS FUN. Just got done spending $3 trillion. Try it yourself - it's a lot harder than you might think. Honestly, it would have been a whole lot easier just to follow the president's example and blow it all on one illegal occupation of Iraq.

$3 trillion is the projected cost of the Iraq War according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes. That's a whole lot of zeros, but what does it really amount to? How many homes would it buy for Americans who've fallen victim to the subprime meltdown? How many debts would it pay off for developing nations? For that matter, how many of those new Mac Air laptops would it buy me? As it turns out, one whole hell of a lot of all of those things combined.

Try it yourself: http://3trillion.org

What a colossal waste of money. What a tragedy of lost opportunities. Where is all this money going? KBR, Halliburton and the other war profiteers have made out like bandits in Iraq, while taxpayers and their own workers get screwed. KBR enjoys contracts worth $16 billion, and still avoids paying Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies in the Cayman Islands.

In the Bush Administration's defense, of course, they had no idea it would cost this much when they embarked on their insane crusade (in fact, they still don't) Along with cheering Iraqis, arsenals of WMDs, and leprechauns and unicorns, the White House expected to be presenting the American people with a much, much smaller bill for its services. Back in 2003, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld (remember him?) was fond of quoting the projected cost at $50 billion.

You may recall that about six years ago, Bush's own chief economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, was pushed out of the White House for suggesting that the war could cost up to a trifling $200 billion - still $2.8 trillion off the mark. "Baloney" was how Rumsfeld characterized Lindsey's estimate, before quoting the $50 billion figure.

With Rumsfeld gone, one would hope to see a little more honest accounting out of the Defense Department. So what does The Pentagon have to say about Stiglitz's sobering calculation? That number "seems way out of the ballpark to me," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

Could $3 trillion cover the cost of a worthwhile accountant at the DoD? Apparently that's the only thing it can't afford.

<!-- single link -->

YouTube of Howard Wolfson on Morning Joe today.

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Obama Like Kerry In Terms Of Electability? And That's A Good Thing?

By Big Tent Democrat

So writes our friend SusanG (and TalkLeft does think of her as a friend) at the Great Orange Satan's place, citing Gallup:

Obama stacks up against McCain at this point is similar to the way in which Kerry performed against Bush in 2004 within several key racial, educational, religious, and gender subgroups. That is, the basic underlying structure of the general-election campaign this year does not appear to be markedly different from that of the 2004 election.

Assuming that is true, and I does have quibbles with that, it is important to remember John Kerry LOST to Bush in 2004. This is not exactly the electability argument I think I would want to make. More . . .

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

By Big Tent Democrat

This may come as a surprise to some people, but there will be an election in November. To read some blogs, you would think that Barack Obama's almost certain victory over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination means Obama advances straight to the White House. In case they did not know, it does not work that way.

One blogger says that it is silly to discuss Obama's failure to connect with white working class voters because:

Demographic and socio-economic differences between the two states,* plus the effects of Clinton’s ugly “kitchen sink” campaign, are not considered. [*For example, 31.7 percent of Virginians have college degrees, while 23.4 percent of North Carolinians have college degrees. Obama tends to do better among college-educated voters.]

I am curious if the blogger expects those voters without college degrees to suddenly get them by November and thus solve Obama's problem here. But I especially wonder if the blogger expects that Republicans will not campaign against Barack Obama. Or if they do, whether their campaign will be so much nicer than the Clinton campaign.

The reality based community? Not so much. Not anymore.

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Should Hillary drop out?

http://elections.foxnews.com/

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Via HireHeels... LOL!

hillary’s path to victory - albeit “backwards and in high heels".

Start donning your chanel blinders and ipod earphones - there’s a tough road ahead, but there a path to victory on that road. Our gal knows it and you know it too. And don’t be fooled by “mob-boss” Dean and “party elder-wimp” McGovern - they’re both exorcizing their own demons from past, catastrophic failures and implosions. As they plant more land mines, expect things to get even more callous. And when that happens, just keep returning to hireheels for a nice spa pedicure!

Wes Clark Democrats...let the Clinton campaign know who sent you

He just said his 'middle class tax cut' is for people making $75,000. Wolf asked him what he meant by middle class. He said people making less then $100,000.

That's not a middle class tax cut. That's an upper-middle class tax cut.

d.c. darling in dior...

on May 7th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

THIS STRAIGHT FROM OUR “D.C. DARLING in DIOR” who was with Hillary Clinton tonight at the fundraiser!!! :
“OK - she was OUTSTANDING as usual. We learned that she intends to let the people decide this race - so she is going on to the next six primaries - next stop: West Virginia (she already campaigned there today). You can hear in her speeches that she is now trying to make the case that she is the best candidate to beat McCain in November. She needs the superdelegates to think that too - or else it’s all over. I think she has a very decent chance - DESPITE THE PRESS. When I came home from the 1,400 person HRC rally, my fiance told me that he heard on the news that she was dropping out. I am ready to bash the tv set in, but that would only hurt us. I am so sick of the lies that the press spreads - drives me nuts.”

Wes Clark Democrats...let the Clinton campaign know who sent you

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117985296.html?categoryId=19&cs=1

EXCERPT

ROME — Al Gore launched an Italian outpost of Current TV in Rome on Thursday, marking the first localized non-English-language version of his expanding youth-oriented web that offers plenty of user-generated content.
“Voi siete la voce!,” said Gore in Italian. “You are the voice!” he repeated, reverting to English. “With Current you will find real freedom of information and opinion.”

The packed presser took place in Rome’s Richard Meier designed Ara Pacis museum, which houses a peace altar commissioned by Emperor Augustus, just as TV-tycoon-turned pol Silvio Berlusconi officially began his third term as premier.

"How long would we have to hold Iraq before we could flip it for profit" Jon Stewart asked Sen. Harry Reid.

Just a note to let you know John and I are going to be gone this weekend. Our son Clay is graduating cum laude -- Mom and Dad are smiling-- from Texas A&M University and receiving his commission in the Air Force on Saturday.

Kelly Flinn will be watching the blog while we're gone. She has admin rights and my cell phone number if something comes up she needs me for.

I don't think, though, that ANYTHING has ever happened that Kelly can't handle tout d'suite, so they say. If you need to reach her directly:

kellyflinn@securingamerica.com

Congratulations Clay!! Have a great future!

You two must be so VERY proud!! :)

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/05/the_year_of_hea_3.html

Excerpt

May 8, 2008

The "Year of Health Reform" in California: Take Two--Lessons for the Next Attempt
 
By State Senator Sheila Kuehl

It's been over a year since Governor Schwarzenegger decided to join the decades-long debate on health reform, and I'm actually quite pleased that he's indicated he will continue to focus on health reform in the years remaining in his administration. It may not have been clear to the Governor, but we always knew that the sheer magnitude of the needed reforms would take more than just one year to achieve. Any success to be gained on his "second try," however, will require a very different approach, both in terms of policy and in terms of politics.

Predictably, a number of interests in Sacramento have attempted to characterize the failure of the Governor's and the Speaker's bill as the victim of uncompromising single payer proponents on the left and powerful insurance companies on the right, as though the Governor's plan was "just right" in a three-bears, middle of two-extremes, spin. In fact, the Governor's plan appropriately fell because of the Governor's own reluctance to make the difficult policy decisions necessary for the plan to be in any way affordable to the state as well as to businesses and individuals, but which would have stirred up strong opposition from insurance companies.

Simply put, insurance companies will not support any plan that would prevent them from continuing to raise premiums 2-3 times faster than wages, limits that must be imposed in order for any long term financing to work. In the positive column, the Governor's plan included a number of reforms needed, if insurance companies were to be retained, that would have regulated (read wrestled) them into good behavior. It required insurers to accept all patients, to spend a minimum amount on actual care, and to refrain from singling out sick patients for unaffordably high premiums.

Unfortunately, it contained nothing that would have made premiums affordable for the vast majority of Californians, all of whom would have been required by the law to buy health insurance. The "subsidies" contained in the plan were only for very low income families (not a bad thing) and, except for those at the very poor end of the scale, would have partially subsidized premiums but left families to pay whatever co-pays and deductibles were set by the companies.

It's also worthwhile to refresh everyone’s memory that labor unions and health care advocates who ostensibly "supported" the Governor's compromise plan did not register a support position with the Senate Health Committee, but rather indicated they supported the bill only if it were amended. The requested amendments, which were lengthy and substantive, were rejected by the Governor and the vaunted "support" was actually no support at all.

"How long would we have to hold Iraq before we could flip it for profit" Jon Stewart asked Sen. Harry Reid.

Most (374,221) of Obama's popular vote lead comes from one of the red states (GA) he will put into play in November:

Election 2008: Georgia Presidential Election Georgia: McCain 53% Obama 39% Thursday, May 08, 2008