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DAYTIME
PHONE NUMBER at NBC
ANDREA MITCHELL
202-885-4835
************
BACKGROUND
IF you saw coverage of Andrea Mitchell's appearance on Hard Ball
(http://tinyurl.com/5v6gxg)
exposing fake reporting on Obama's Afghanistan and Iraq trip...
and want to thank her...
found phone number(ABOVE)
where comments will be recorded for her by receptionist.
(email not available)
I hereby predict on record that John McCain will select Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota as his running mate. For more, check out the book "The Shell Game" by Steve Alten. This fictional book is terrifying.
The leftist agenda to a college student living in Iowa or Texas might seem like the stuff that dreams are made of. Radical ideas always sound great when you are reading about them in a book, but rarely do people take into consideration the Law of Unintended Consequences. So, rather than ride out the next 3 months until you can cast your vote for Barack Obama, I suggest you simply pack your tie-dyed shirts and Patchouli, and move to Maryland. As a matter of fact, I think an off-campus semester in Maryland should be a general college requirement to any newly registered Democrat in college. Rather than inflict your vision onto the rest of the country, simply move to where it is already in action…
If the tables were turned, and Barack Obama were trailing Hillary Clinton in pledged delegates, I would still be posting this - because an injustice to one candidate is an injustice to all of us. This is why I support an open, honest and true democratic convention in Denver.
The following poem/song by Charles Mingus is a variation of the original written by Pastor Martin Niemoller in Germany. The poem(s) relate to the apathy and silence of intellectuals as they watched one injustice after another - and said nothing.
I was unable to locate the Mingus poem set to song, and the youtube link will take you to a different Mingus classic.
Enjoy while you think. Here's the poems:
Charles Mingus - "Don't Let It Happen Here"
One day they came and they took the Communists
And I said nothing because I was not a Communist
Then one day they came and they took the people of the Jewish faith
And I said nothing because I had no faith left
One day they came and they took the unionists
And I said nothing because I was not a unionist
One day they burned the Catholic churches
And I said nothing because I was born a Protestant
Then one day they came and they took me
And I could say nothing because I was as guilty as they were
For not speaking out and saying that all men have a right to freedom
On any land
I was as guilty of genocide
As you
All of you
For you know when a man is free
And when to set him free from his slavery
So I charge you all with genocide
The same as I
One of the 18 million dead Jews
18 million dead people..
Martin Niemoller's original version:
Original (English version below)
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.
xxxxxxx
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Republican numbnuts are going to pay this election. For all the bull sh!t they are spreading about providing solutions on lowering gas prices they are pretty worthless. There is a bill to cut down on speculators' influence on gas prices and those Republicans are dragging their feet.The only way to stop this bigotry is to vote GOP out of Congress.
I'm opening up this week's strategy session to all Hillary Clinton Democrats who have suggestions on which Congressional candidates & progressive organizations to support. Who best embodies Hillary Clinton's progressive values? Who best delivers Barack Obama's message of change? Who will make great members of Congress? And which organizations best serve our cause?
So Fowler and Pelosi and Brazile et al are getting fatigue and irritation from our ‘carping’ and ‘demands.’
Okay, let’s simplify. Hillary for President.
If she is the nominee for President, fine. (We can even live with Clinton/Obama.) But if Obama is nominated for President, then we don’t vote for him.
That’s what we have 9 million HIllary supporters saying in the world outside the internet (per recent poll). They’re simply saying they won’t vote for Obama. They’re not talking about speeches at the convention or other cosmetic stuff. They’re talking bottom line.
Now that we have the DNC’s attention, maybe it’s time for us to talk bottom line.
No fiddly symbolic stuff, not even just an honest-appearing vote (which Pelosi could strong-arm just as she did in June).
Please put your money where your mouth is. Hillary needs to retire the debt before the convention. That is the time limit. Afterwards, there is a limit to the amount that she can raise (I believe it's only $250,000) for this purpose. This link takes you directly to her contribution page. Give up cocktails this weekend and make a small but significant dent, if you can.
Any contributions made in July will not be made public until August. In June, Hillary did contribute $1M of her own money as a goodwill gesture that the vendors would be paid. The total vendor amount (not including Marc Penn) is about $7 million as of the end of June.
I think we can do this. Please contribute now. Thanks,
The bloggers are going crazy over the Veepstakes it seems, and jay1949 over at A McCain Democrat’s Journal recently posted an article inviting readers to put in their 2 cents about who McCain’s selection might or should be. I started to write a comment then realized, as usual, I was going a bit too long, so I decided instead to post it here:
As a Democrat, my gut tells me that Hillary Clinton will not be Obama’s choice as many voters hope or fear. Hillary has already started setting the stage for 2012 by writing to her top contributors. Although this move is supposedly intended to finance her re-election for the Senate, most of us have read between the lines: It’s not.
Anyone Obama chooses should be of no concern to Republicans. Barack Obama is in a serious pickle when it comes to his VP selection. He needs to pick "experience" to offset his own single-sheet resume, so the only option is an old party troll like Sam Nunn or Joe Biden. .....
"The Berlin Victory Column is dedicated to the victory over neighbors, who today are our European friends and allies. To me that is an unfortunate imagery." Rainer Brüderle, deputy leader of the Free Democrats said in the same paper, that the column was moved to its current location by Adolf Hitler. Brüderle added: "For him (Hitler) it was a symbol of German superiority and victorious wars over Denmark, Austria and France. I ask myself whether Obama was well advised to choose the Victory Column as a venue for a speech about his vision for global cooperation."
Midday report from Seneca Falls, from speaker Heidi Li Feldman, JD, PhD
The power of place ... and the power of process
"The power of place" is a phrase used by Mayor Diana Smith about Seneca Falls. "The power of process" is a phrase one of the audience members at the breakfast event used to sum up the theme of my remarks. I had explained that in some states where I volunteered during the primaries I had done voter protection; I had explained that people who said the Party has its nominee are ignoring the processes set up by the Party itself to determine the nominee. The thread that ran through my remarks is that the entire point of setting up governance processes is to rely upon them when there is a real dispute, not kick them aside in an effort to produce some predetermined result. The power of process.
Not only did I learn phrases from the men and women in attendance, I learned anew just how angry rank and file Democrats are with the DNC, Dr. Dean, and Speaker Pelosi, to name a few. The people at that breakfast are the people who must go to the polls if a Democrat is to take the Presidency this November. Right now, they do not seem to be willing to go. They do not want to vote for Senator McCain. But they do not want to be party to a Party that has eroded their trust because of processes that the Party has already used, especially in caucuses and at the RBC meeting where Florida and Michigan voters were denied full enfranchisement.
These Democrats want to see the Democratic Party run an authentically democratic convention, where the votes for the nominee really count. When I said that I thought it would be easier for people to vote for the eventual nominee as opposed to just sitting out this election were a genuine and meaningful nomination process to occur, everybody in that room nodded. I've said it before and I'll say it again: faux unity is no unity.
The sooner the DNC, Senator Obama, and, yes, Senator Clinton step up together and announce that the Democratic Party does not yet have a presumptive nominee because superdelegates will not be pressured to vote for either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton; and that no candidate will be pressured to agree in advance to refuse nomination, the sooner the DNC will begin to earn back the legitimacy so many of its tactics have cost it this election cycle.
John McCain has never suggested that a single trip to Iraq and Afghanistan would enlighten Obama’s foreign policy judgment the way a dose of acid gave Timothy Leary the keys to the universe. But true to his naivety, Barack Obama either believes he will gain this kind of celestial insight, or that we are stupid enough to think he will.
With any luck, the American voter will see Obama’s "rock star" tour as nothing more than what it is — too little, too late. Bob Hope did it for the troops, who is Barack Obama doing it for?
No doubt, his favorite person in the world: Himself.
I don't agree with some of Raimondo's assertions in this, but I think he is right about what is going on with sending a diplomat to Iran. It has nothing to do with a new direction, and everything to do with setting us(we the people) up for war.
"The Europeans, who tend to resent Washington's unbridled arrogance, don't want a war that would wreck the world economy. They can't be trusted to deliver our intended message to Tehran: surrender or die. This is just foreplay – if such a thing can be said of an intended rape – and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino didn't try very hard to put a good face on it:
"The substance remains the same, but this is a new tactic. What this does show is how serious we are when we say that we want to try to solve this diplomatically."
The Bush administration is interested only in appearing to be serious about resolving this peacefully, when in actuality this diplomatic "surge" is merely a new tactic aimed at their real goal, which is regime-change in Iran.
Hardline neocon John Bolton was quick to denounce the administration for what he characterized as "a complete capitulation," but Philip Zelikow, formerly with the State Department, got it right when he told the Post:
"For some time, we and our allies have been reflecting on ways to reinforce that basic approach while taking away some of the more superficial complaints about it. This move does that. But the substantive position remains unchanged."
I will never believe that the Cheney administration would ever do anything for the good of the nation. I don't think this has anything to do with pressure from Democrats, except that maybe the Neo-cons think it might shut them up for a while, and I don't believe this has anything to do with a new direction toward Iran. It would be nice to be wrong, but It doubt that I will be.
