Three states for Obama this weekend

Sun, February 10, 2008 - 12:14 AM

In case you thought it was over, it isn't

Here you go:

"Obama won the Nebraska and Washington caucuses by greater than two-to-one margins against Senator Hillary Clinton and easily captured the Louisiana primary by a double-digit margin with heavy support among African-American voters. Obama also swamped Clinton in the US Virgin Islands caucuses. But because of the proportional awarding of delegates in the Democratic contests, the two contenders remain locked in a close battle for the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination."

--------------

Obama sweeps races

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff
Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor February 10, 2008 12:43 AM

WASHINGTON -- Senator Barack Obama scored a clean sweep in Saturday's Democratic nominating contests from the West Coast to the Caribbean, giving him a burst of momentum in a Democratic campaign where every delegate has become crucial to capturing the nomination.

On the Republican side, a defiant Mike Huckabee easily won the GOP caucuses in Kansas and was projected as the narrow winner in the Louisiana primary, picking up support from social conservatives to best his party's front-runner, Senator John McCain, and giving a breath of life to the former Arkansas governor's uphill campaign. Huckabee and McCain were locked in a race that was too close to call early today in the Washington state caucuses.

Obama won the Nebraska and Washington caucuses by greater than two-to-one margins against Senator Hillary Clinton and easily captured the Louisiana primary by a double-digit margin with heavy support among African-American voters. Obama also swamped Clinton in the US Virgin Islands caucuses. But because of the proportional awarding of delegates in the Democratic contests, the two contenders remain locked in a close battle for the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.

"We won north, we won south, we won in between,'' a jubilant Obama told a Democratic Party dinner last night in Virginia. "And I believe we can win Virginia,'' he added to cheers and shouts of "Yes, we can!'' his campaign mantra.

The attention now moves to Maine, where Democrats will hold caucuses today, and to Tuesday's "Potomac Primary,'' in which Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia will hold primaries. Obama is leading in polls in Virginia and Maryland, and is expected to win in the District, so the Clinton campaign is banking heavily on wins in bigger states next month to keep her in the running.

While the Obama campaign celebrated, the Clinton camp sought to downplay Obama's successes last night, even before the votes were counted. "The Obama campaign has dramatically outspent our campaign in these three states, saturating the airwaves with 30 and 60 second ads,"' the campaign said in a memo to reporters. "Although the next several states that hold nominating contests this month are more favorable to the Obama campaign, we will continue to compete in them and hope to secure as many delegates as we can before the race turns to Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania.''

The Illinois senator has done overwhelmingly well among black voters, helping him score victories in the South and giving him an edge in the primaries coming up Tuesday. But Clinton has done very well among Latinos voters -- capturing California largely because of the two-thirds of the Hispanic vote there she received -- and her campaign expects the New York lawmaker to have an advantage in Texas because of the Latino vote there.

Heading into yesterday's contests, Clinton held a small lead over Obama in the delegate count, 1,055 to 998, according to an Associated Press tally, which includes the results of primaries and caucuses, plus a survey of unpledged "superdelegates." But Obama's campaign said last night that after his wins, he leads Clinton by about 70 delegates among those awarded in actual contests.

Obama can also claim wins in the popular vote in 18 states to 10 states for Clinton -- with votes still being counted in New Mexico from Tuesday. Clinton also won in Florida and Michigan, but those delegates are not being counted because the states broke party rules to move up their primaries. National polls show the two deadlocked.


www.boston.com/news/polit...eps_ra.html
www.latimes.com/news/natio...97845.story

image: woodburydems.com/blog/uplo...731285.jpg

Why do I like this guy?

Fri, February 8, 2008 - 11:33 PM

and think he'd be a great president? Looks like a lot of other people like him too. Was Oprah behind all this? He gives a good speech, you gotta give him that.

Watch this.

www.dipdive.com/

"we've been told we cannot do this..."

"..there's something happening in America,
that we are not as divided as our politics suggest.

That we are one people.
that we are one Nation and that together we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea,

Yes We Can."

...

damn..

If you think you can know a person by their words, if you can feel them by the way they speak, if you can believe them, even when you're watching them on television or the internet, and if you think they're the right choice to fix all that's been destroyed, well..

You should check this out.

And, this was an interesting editorial in the SFChronic today.

I hadn't read his stuff before en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sirota
but I found this interesting and worth a read. He makes a good point about the Clinton machine (and don't get me wrong, I thought Bill did a great job and Hill would probably do that same if she could get elected) but his point is - You mention class and we'll talk about race.

The Democrats' class war

David Sirota, Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Friday, February 8, 2008

or all the hype about generational and gender wars in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, we have a class war on our hands. And incredibly, corporate America's preferred candidate is winning the poorer "us" versus the wealthier "them" - a potentially decisive trend with the contest now moving to working-class bastions like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In most states, polls show Hillary Clinton is beating Barack Obama among voters making $50,000 a year or less - many of whom say the economy is their top concern. Yes, the New York senator who appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as Big Business's candidate is winning economically insecure, lower-income communities over the Illinois senator who grew up as an organizer helping those communities combat unemployment. This absurd phenomenon is a product of both message and bias.

Obama has let Clinton characterize the 1990s as a nirvana, rather than a time that sowed the seeds of our current troubles. He barely criticizes the Clinton administration for championing job-killing trade agreements. He does not question that same administration's role in deregulating the financial industry and thereby intensifying today's boom-bust catastrophes. And he rarely points out what McClatchy Newspapers reported this week: that Clinton spent most of her career at a law firm "where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards," including Wal-Mart's.

Obama hasn't touched any of this for two reasons.

First, his campaign relies on corporate donations. Though Obama certainly is less industry-owned than Clinton, the Washington Post noted last spring that he was the top recipient of Wall Street contributions. That cash is hush money, contingent on candidates silencing their populist rhetoric.

But while this pressure to keep quiet affects all politicians, it is especially intense against black leaders.

"If Obama started talking like John Edwards and tapped into working-class, blue-collar proletarian rage, suddenly all of those white voters who are viewing him within the lens of transcendence would start seeing him differently," says Charles Ellison of the University of Denver's Center for African American Policy.

That's because once Obama parroted Edwards' attacks on greed and inequality, he would "be stigmatized as a candidate mobilizing race," says Manning Marable, a Columbia University history professor. That is, the media would immediately portray him as another Jesse Jackson - a figure whose progressivism has been (unfairly) depicted as racial politics anathema to white swing voters.

Remember, this is always how power-challenging African Americans are marginalized. The establishment cites a black leader's race- and class-unifying populism as supposed proof of his or her radical, race-centric views. An extreme example of this came from the FBI, which labeled Martin Luther King Jr. "the most dangerous man in America" for talking about poverty. More typical is the attitude exemplified by Joe Klein's 2006 Time magazine column. He called progressive Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., "an African American of a certain age and ideology, easily stereotyped" and "one of the ancient band of left-liberals who grew up in the angry hothouse of inner-city, racial-preference politics."

The Clintons are only too happy to navigate this ugly cultural topography. After a rare Obama attack on Hillary Clinton for supporting policies that eliminated jobs, Bill Clinton quickly likened Obama's campaign to Jackson's, and the Clinton campaign told the Associated Press Obama was "the black candidate." These were deliberate statements telling Obama that if he talks about class, they'll talk about race.

And so, as Marable says, Obama's pitch includes "no mention of the class struggle or class conflict." It is "hope" instead of an economic case, bromide instead of critique. The result is an oxymoronic dynamic.

Obama, the person who fought blue-collar joblessness in the shadows of shuttered factories, is winning wealthy enclaves. But Clinton, the person whose globalization policies helped shutter those factories, is winning blue-collar strongholds.

Obama, who was schooled by the same organizing networks as Cesar Chavez, is being endorsed by hedge fund managers. But Clinton, business's favorite, is being endorsed by the United Farm Workers - the union that Chavez created.

Obama, the candidate from Chicago's impoverished South Side, is finding support on Connecticut's gilded south coast. But Hillary Clinton, the candidate representing Big Money, is finding support from those with relatively little money.

As the campaign heads to the struggling Rust Belt under banners promising "change," this bizarre class war may end up guaranteeing no real transformation at all.

David Sirota is a bestselling author whose newest book, "The Uprising," will be released in June of 2008.

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi

Who is watching the voting machines?

QuasiPseudo wrote:

Just curious Moze, do you think that any to all of the elections since at least 2000 have been stolen/corrupted?

Moze replied:

I imagine that we've had stolen elections from the beginning of the American experiment, but I think 2000 was a banner year for the combination of technology and corruption when it comes to elections. That year we saw the traditional voter disenfranchisement mixed with blatant "voting irregularities", i.e. Diebold who've consistently promised to deliver elections. Katherine Harris is gone.. so is Jeb.

Somehow I rationalize it all by thinking that if we reach a certain, overwhelming percentage, we can beat the people who control the machines.

And that may be about as stupid as it gets.

Florida is out. I'm from Florida and I know how many soulless criminals live there. The ultimate justice would be if global warming sank the entire state and sent its residents scrambling like a bunch of insects upon the seas (except for my family who live there, of course). I got a kick out of the Democratic denial of their delegates. Seemed perfect.

You have a good point. Who is watching those machines? Everyone is partisan. And most people are fucking as ignorant as it gets when it comes to technology.

The question seems to be, are they going to be entirely stupid and skew things so far that people wonder wtf is going on .. oh, they've already done that.

I don't know. I think we need oversight. Who is in charge of that? Anyone? We can count of the current administration to always break the law. They've never done anything but. Who is watching the voting machines? Other than these guys, who just report on it: www.blackboxvoting.org/

Black Box Voting (.ORG) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501c(3) organization funded by citizen donations.

Donate Now by Visa, MC, Amex

Contact info: 425-793-1030; cell 206-335-7747; Mailing address: 330 SW 43rd St. Suite K, Box 547, Renton WA 98055. E-mail

When SF goes for McCain, we're truly fuct.

Bird is going to vote for Hillary. I'm voting for Obama. I may very well go door to door tomorrow. I gathered signatures for Jerry Brown when I first moved to California a long time ago. Could be fun. I know they always annoy me when they knock on the door. Ah, why not...

people.tribe.net/58284f03-...5a16901380




2 Comments

QuasiPseudo


Mon, February 4, 2008 - 11:00 AM
Thanks for taking the time to comment, this election season's got me pretty irked to say the least.

Im not so interested in proving electoral corruption at this point, but what I am trying to understand is HOW the people who believe that our elections are corrupted think that anything will be different this time around. Did I miss something? The results must still be taken on faith, no? Is this the last hope that people are clinging to, that somehow the removal of this administration will change everything? When Hillary gets elected, will it be a huge triumph for the anti-Bush crowd? Remember who succeeded the last Bush? Someone just as corrupt & connected as who will succeed the next. The hand lowers, shoves itself up a new puppets ass, and raises again. All IMO, of course, but is there any further reason that I should have more faith than none, simply because it is a defeatist attitude?

Moze


Sat, February 9, 2008 - 11:21 PM
Moze


Sat, February 9, 2008 - 11:17 PM
this is interesting

mediamatters.org/items/200802060008

'During MSNBC's February 5 coverage of that day's primary contests, on a day in which Democratic turnout reportedly exceeded Republican by 75 percent, co-anchor Chris Matthews suggested that Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean should be concerned about the party's lack of broad appeal."

75%?

so.. suppose that many democrats vote, even in a fucktard state like Florida, and the election is still stolen. I can't believe the fascists would be able to steal that.

I hope I'm right. I think they want to avoid a revolution because if that happens they'll lose more than they will having to pay taxes for four year.

As criminal as they are, really, something like this, the last thing they want is a spot light on what they've done in the past.

I'm hoping that the shit they've done in the last 8 years will finally make our country say enough. Maybe make us use our power, because voting is power, and even if you have to have a 50 to 1 majority when voting, that's power.

It's entirely anti American what the Bush Fascists have done, but I really don't want to give up hope yet.

Democratic Debate Thursday

Thu, January 31, 2008 - 6:19 PM

Tonight's debate is awesome. Both Barack and Hillary are doing a great job. They're articulate, gracious, intelligent.

Man I can't wait to get rid of Bush. Both of these people will be able to stand up to either Romney or McCain. The Republicans already have their Clinton Hate / Lie machine ready to go. I think they'd have a harder time with Obama. Plus, well, Obama consistently tells it like it is. He's got an ability none of he others on either side have, to see the big picture and make a point that he isn't being led into. He isn't worried about taking a stand.

Both of them truly believe they can beat the Republicans and that's good. I'm a little concerned that the megalomaniac spoiler Ralph Nader is thinking about running again, however, I think he's largely irrelevant now..

Best quote of the night so far is from Hillary.

"It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush and I think its going to take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/31/debate.main/

The Best Part of Bush's Speech

Tue, January 29, 2008 - 11:18 AM

hah, the poll from SF gate today

www.sfgate.com/

Barack Obama Responds to the State of the Union

Mon, January 28, 2008 - 10:30 PM

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/CGVX8

Here's some sense to counter Bush's State of Denial speech.... Barack Responds to the State of the Union


Tonight, for the seventh long year, the American people heard a State of the Union that didn’t reflect the America we see, and didn’t address the challenges we face. But what it did do was give us an urgent reminder of why it’s so important to turn the page on the failed politics and policies of the past, and change the status quo in Washington so we can finally start making progress for ordinary Americans.

Tonight’s State of the Union was full of the same empty rhetoric the American people have come to expect from this President. We heard President Bush say he’d do something to cut down on special interest earmarks, but we know these earmarks have skyrocketed under his administration.

We heard the President say he wants to make tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent, when we know that at a time of war and economic hardship, the last thing we need is a permanent tax cut for Americans who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them. What we need is a middle class tax cut, and that’s exactly what I will provide as President.

We heard the President say he has a stimulus plan to boost our economy, but we know his plan leaves out seniors and fails to expand unemployment insurance, and we know it was George Bush’s Washington that let the banks and financial institutions run amok, and take our economy down this dangerous road. What we need to do now is put more money in the pockets of workers and seniors, and expand unemployment insurance for more people and more time. And I have a plan that to do just that.

And finally, tonight we heard President Bush say that the surge in Iraq is working, when we know that’s just not true. Yes, our valiant soldiers have helped reduce the violence. Five soldiers gave their lives today in this cause, and we mourn their loss and pray for their families.

But let there be no doubt – the Iraqi government has failed to seize the moment to reach the compromises necessary for an enduring peace. That was what we were told the surge was all about. So the only way we’re finally going to pressure the Iraqis to reconcile and take responsibility for their future is to immediately begin the responsible withdrawal of our combat brigades so that we can bring all of our combat troops home.

But another reason we need to begin this withdrawal immediately is because this war has not made us safer. I opposed this war from the start in part because I was concerned that it would take our eye off al Qaeda and distract us from finishing the job in Afghanistan. Sadly, that’s what happened. It’s time to heed our military commanders by increasing our commitment to Afghanistan, and it’s time to protect the American people by taking the fight to al Qaeda.

Tonight was President Bush’s last State of the Union, and I do not believe history will judge his administration kindly. But I also believe the failures of the last seven years stem not just from any single policy, but from a broken politics in Washington. A politics that says it’s ok to demonize your political opponents when we should be coming together to solve problems. A politics that puts Wall Street ahead of Main Street, ignoring the reality that our fates are intertwined; a politics that accepts lobbyists as part of the system in Washington, instead of recognizing how much they’re a part of the problem. And a politics of fear and ideology instead of hope and common sense.

I believe a new kind of politics is possible, and I believe it is necessary. Because the American people can’t afford another four years without health care, decent wages, or an end to this war. The woman who’s going to college and working the night shift to pay her sister’s medical bills can’t afford to wait. The Maytag workers who are now competing with their teenagers for $7 an hour jobs at Wall Mart can’t afford to wait. And the woman who told me she hasn’t been able to breathe since her nephew left for Iraq can’t afford to wait.

Each year, as we watch the State of the Union, we see half the chamber rise to applaud the President and half the chamber stay in their seats. We see half the country tune in to watch, but know that much of the country has stopped even listening. Imagine if next year was different. Imagine if next year, the entire nation had a president they could believe in. A president who rallied all Americans around a common purpose. That’s the kind of President we need in this country. And with your help in the coming days and weeks, that’s the kind of President I will be.

State of the Union Address

Mon, January 28, 2008 - 7:53 PM

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Watching Bush's last State of the Union made me feel in parts sad for what he and his people have done to our country and hopeful, that possibly there will be some kind of change for the better. Perhaps now someone can come in and fix the damage.

With every sneer, I remembered what a despicable little man the current resident of the White House is. When he chided Congress for not acting to maintain his "tax relief", when he told them they needed to pass legislation to keep his domestic spying program going, when he spoke of bringing Justice and Liberty to the world... it all makes you a little queasy. He'd spout some double speak and sneer then smile over at his applauding lapdogs on the Republican side of the isle who stood obedient and grateful for how he's filled their coffers with our money in the last 7 years.

Man, I can't wait to not have to see this guy again.

When he was mentioning protecting the environment and how to safeguard our future I felt sick knowing that these last 7 years of inaction will be paid for with global suffering on a scale that didn't have to occur if we'd had leadership rather than a criminal oil man running the show. When he was discussing alternative power and he said NuKuLar I thought to myself, that may be the last time I'll have to hear that idiot mispronounce the word, but later he spent plenty of time on Iran and the threat their NuKuLar program poses. You could almost see the spots of black that are Cheney's eye glisten when GW talked about how we need to keep an eye on Iran. Then he mispronounced Zimbabwe as Zimbawe.. you could tell he was getting tired and that the attention span was starting to wane.

Then he said: "As we increase funding, we must also reform our veterans system to meet the needs of a new war and a new generation." and I thought, a new war huh.. interesting choice of wording there.

Man I hope the final fuck you of this administration isn't to drop nukes on Iran months before they're scheduled to leave. People in the U.S. have gotten used to this administration's total disregard for the law. They're used to being spied on, for having their tax dollars funneled off into the coffers of the fat cat friends of the administration. They're used to hearing about how our government uses torture or how something like the aftermath of Katrina can happen and no one will be held responsible. They're used to seeing elections stolen. They're used to seeing the rich get richer and the middle class and poor get poorer to make them rich. They're used to seeing the Constitution used to wipe these guy's asses.

I can't believe it looks like we're going to survive eight years of this. We are a resilient people...

I imagine this is what it feels like to have an out of control abusive father who is going away to prison soon, or maybe it's like you're just getting better from a disease and you know that by the end of the year, you'll probably be well again. You just want it to be over and you want to get out with as little damage as possible.

I just want them to take the last of our money and leave the mess behind for someone else to fix. I just want them to go away. We've done better before, we can do better again.

www.sfgate.com/flat/archi...nion28.html
image: simondonohue.files.wordpress.com/2...pg




5 Comments

Sunburn Sarah


Mon, January 28, 2008 - 8:43 PM
half the time I was cheering he was on his way out,, and the other half, I was puking.. but that happens everytime the ass speaks..

Hot Damn


Mon, January 28, 2008 - 9:44 PM
You should watch Barak Obama's South Carolina primary victory speech- it'll clear your mind.

Moze


Mon, January 28, 2008 - 10:27 PM
good idea. I'll even post his response to the State of the Union

kaiya (La Princesa del Sol)


Tue, January 29, 2008 - 12:52 AM
I tried so hard.
I am an old man of sorts and watch Jeopardy! every night. For some reason I though the SOB'ss SOU address was on Wednesday. So I turn to ABC and my show has been pre-empted by a speech being given by the 'Leader of the Free World.' WTF?? I tried so hard. I tried so, so hard. But I literally could not sit through it. Just couldn't do it. That smug, smirk as people all around me are beginning to hunt for roommates because they can't afford the same stuff they were affording last year at this time because the price of everything went through the roof. When every effing time I go to LAX, I see some 18 or 22 year old being shipped off to a probable death; when some of my students' parents have become literally homeless as part of the fall-out from the sub-prime lending debacle; when even I have set my course to leave California in 21 months for North Carolina because it's so much more affordable ... that Soulless Demonic Loser, has the nerve to SMILE, at every pause he made? I couldn't do it without breaking sh*t and since I don't have the extra fundage to replace a television with a clawhammer lodged in its front, I went ahead and changed the channel.

Thanks so much for posting this...and your Statue of Liberty (float?) picture is PRICELESS!!!

best,
kaiya

Sunburn Sarah


Tue, January 29, 2008 - 5:51 AM
" that Soulless Demonic Loser"

well said!