Category: Barack Obama

The first, Obama’s Letters of No Apology by Paul Street via dissidentvoice.org asks:

Should Barack Obama’s volunteers mail “Letters of No Apology” to survivors of the large number of people killed by U.S. imperial assault in Iraq and Afghanistan?

While the media is pouring over the whole Edwards affair, Russia has been sending in military forces into Georgia.  Now I grant you, what John Edwards did was horrible, and I feel for his wife.  But the media has a responsibility to report all the news and to focus on events that will have greater impact on its viewers.

If you haven’t read Smirking Chimp writer Eric Boehlert’s excellent column regarding the shameless double standard in media coverage of John McCain, now is the time to do it.  There are some grammatical errors, but beyond those, the piece does a superb job of pointing out the tepid criticism of just one of the Republican candidate’s endless series of lies – compared to its record of pouncing on nearly everything, no matter how innocent, uttered by Democratic candidates as pathological deceptions.  Boehlert systematically dismantles the new Lie being promulgated that the media has somehow “turned” on McCain.

Barack Obama does not support the return of the Fairness Doctrine.  He should, if for no other reason than it would place some restraints on media goons who play favorites during electoral cycles.  Please use the comment feature for ideas on how we can get the Democratic candidate to change his mind.

(Cross-posted on Kos — with links)

Last night Barack Obama joined Hip Hop star Nelly in a performance of Tip Drill before 50,000 screaming fans at “Ho-Fest 2008” at Detroit’s Ford Field.

The high point of the night was when Obama invited his wife Michelle onstage and re-enacted the famous Tip Drill video.  The crowd went crazy as Michelle and Barack performed the hilarious credit card move.

The performance was immediately condemned by:

NBC, ABC, CBS the NY Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, FOX, Lifetime, Oxygen, Emily’s List, NOW, NARAL, PUMA, the Family Research Council,  the White Citizens Council, Focus on the Family, Family Circus, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the United League of Purity Balls.

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Getting Started

Barack Obama said something today that I think is beautiful from a framing perspective:

I mean it’s like these guys take pride in ignorance! It’s like they like being ignorant.

(hat tip to ruff4life at the Great Orange Satan)

I believe this is the counter frame to the Elitist Democrat.

Nobody wants to be ignorant, and depending on leaders who are proud of their ignorance and demand ignorance from their followers cannot be good for the running of a country.

Ignorance is simply not good public policy.

    Harmful If Swallowed

On the heels of his ad mocking Barack Obama as a Messiah-like figure, John McCain has now anointed himself as “The One.”

This new ad declares that “Washington’s broken” and “John McCain knows it.” He admits that “We’re worse off than we were four years ago.” But without acknowledging the brazen hypocrisy, the ad asserts that McCain is “the only” candidate who can fix our broken nation. Then he goes further to seriously describe himself in the same manner he had sarcastically portrayed Obama:

“One is ready to lead – McCain”

Maybe I’m nuts or unhinged or maybe I’m not. Perhaps its stress or the nerves acting up.  I need to lay off watching the news and politics.  Though something tells me I’m not gonna shake off this feeling I keep getting. Maybe some of you have felt this weird sense of dread too.

According to Yahoo News, Barack Obama backed away from an earlier challenge from McCain to debate.

WASHINGTON – Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain’s challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.

In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, “I think that’s a great idea.” In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.

Obama’s reversal on town hall debates is part of a play-it-safe strategy he’s adopted since claiming the nomination and grabbing a lead in national polls. Advisers to the Illinois senator, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss strategy, say Obama is reluctant to take chances or give McCain a high-profile stage now that Obama’s the front-runner.

This is just plain unacceptable.  Obama’s crafty enough to know that whether you’re playing chess or political games, sometimes you have to risk losing in order to win.  Other times you simply need to make a move.  It’s another lost opportunity, for it represented a chance for a gifted orator to show up an opponent who can’t even display publicly an understanding of his own policy proposals.

No wonder the Democrat can’t close the gap.  This was the latest round in a political game of chicken, and Obama swerved when he should have remained steady.  If he’s going to remain this timid, the media is going to help McCain walk all over him by November.

There’s got to be something we can do about this.

Original article by Shane Jones via Socialist Appeal.

After years of Bush’s open-ended war on working people at home and abroad, many on the “left” are desperate for an alternative. For many, that alternative is Barack Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois. Obama, who is very careful with his words and actions, has done a good job so far of portraying himself as a “sensible progressive”.  However, far from being a “progressive” alternative, Obama is at his core a typical representative of the bosses’ political parties. Despite presenting himself as a candidate of “change”, Obama is a defender of capitalism and imperialism, and hence of exploitation and oppression. On all fundamentals, he is far closer to Bush than he is to being a genuine alternative for working people.

The NGO network in Afghanistan (Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief – ACBAR) reports that the number of civilian casualties caused by all sides has “surged” and that insecurity has spread to previously stable areas.

The number of insurgent attacks for each of the months of May (463), June (569) and July is greater than the number of such attacks in any other months since the end of major hostilities following the international intervention in 2001…

July was reportedly the worst month for Afghan civilians in the past six years, with 260 civilian casualties recorded…

Now, due primarily to a stepped up air operations, Afghanistan, “the good war” is turning bad.

Original article, sub-headed A “flexible timeline” is not a timetable, and continuing the occupation is not ending it by Anthony Arnove via socialistworker.org.

THE WALL Street Journal reports that the “The Bush administration’s embrace of a flexible timeline for pulling U.S. troops from Iraq has accelerated negotiations between Washington and Baghdad over a long-term security pact.”

(Cross posted at Kos)

Yes, I met McCain years ago.

I remember it well….

The day was overcast but the crowds were bright. People were everywhere cheerful and happy. There was singing and flag waving! There were handmade signs and music! The music was free and joyful and political!

My husband and I walked the streets and laughing people greeted us with friendly smiles.

People we didn’t know offered us drinks and thanked us for being there!