Jan 20 2008
According to CBS news, Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Caucuses. Not that there’s any surprise in that, since she and Obama were seen as the true possible winners most of the way through. No, Nevada’s just telling us what we’ve known all along. The big two media darlings are going to be the front runners. Let’s look at the results:
Clinton – 54%, Obama – 45%, Edwards – 4%
Jan 15 2008
I’d filled out the little form online to say I could go to South Carolina and work for the primary on behalf of Edwards, my choice for president, but I didn’t expect they’d need me.
After all…I can’t pay for my accommodations, and can’t do a lot of walking or standing. But today someone from Edward’s campaign staff in SC called, asking me to come to volunteer –asap.
Jan 07 2008
A picture sometimes really is worth a thousand words…
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Rassmussen conducts a daily national tracking poll of all presidential candidates. The latest shows John Edwards picking up significantly more support, since the beginning of the year, than any candidate of either party.
The percent change for Republicans is: Huckabee 18.8% / Giuliani 13.3% / McCain 11.8% / Thompson 8.3% / Romney -6.3%.
So why isn’t this news?
Jan 06 2008
Cross posted from Dkos.
In the debate last night, John Edwards reiterated that the battle against the enrenched interests is personal to him. He also spoke about Nataline Sarkiysan:
What’s happening now is insurance companies are running all over people. I mean, the case of Nataline Sarkisyan, which a lot of the audience would be familiar with — 17 year old girl who lost her life a couple of weeks ago because her insurance company would not pay for a liver transplant operation. She had health insurance, but the insurance company wouldn’t pay for it. They finally caved in a few hours before she died.
snip
You know, we need a president who believes deeply in here, who believes deeply in this battle, and it is personal for me.
According to Ezra Klein, and Ben Smith the family of Nataline Sarkisyan will join Edwards today on the campaign trail. It’s personal for them also. Very personal. Come around after the fold and let’s talk about why it’s personal.
Jan 04 2008
Michael Moore has it partly right, a Big Part, for the Failed Foreign Policies, The War in Iraq and on Terrorism, of this Incompetant, Corrupt Administration will be defining what this Country faces for Decades!
We have Set In Stone, what many in the World, had already thought about Us. And in doing so have Created even More Hatreds, towards the Country, but even more Damaging, towards Us the Citizens Of!
Jan 03 2008
At this point I believe that any one of the possibilities that the Democrats have for a nominee would not leave us in Iraq if they became our next President. Because the existing bipartisanship still has our soldiers as solidly in Iraq as they were last year at this time I still don’t claim to be Democrat and instead lay claim to being an Independent now. Bipartisanship has brought me lots and lots of tears and heartache and night terrors and lost sleep last year over military service that provided no safety for any of us on American soil and may have in actuality inspired and impassioned further acts of terrorism.
So while John Edwards has an Out Of Iraq plan very similar to the other Democratic candidates, he sports one thing that sets him apart for me and that is this portion of his Iraq plans.
Clarify the Lack of Legal Foundation for the War
The 2002 authorization did not give President Bush the power to use U.S. troops to police a civil war. Edwards believes that Congress should make it clear that President Bush exceeded his authority long ago. The president now needs to end the war and ask Congress for new authority to manage the withdrawal of the U.S. military presence and to help Iraq achieve stability.
Now we can all speculate all day long about how and why President Bush has used our troops to police a civil war he created but I’d like to stay with the facts and just acknowledge that he is and he did. And he did so without any oversight from anyone other than Laura for a hell of a long time. Now he does so with as precious little oversight as he can manage to dodge, finagle, threaten, beg, borrow and steal. And that shouldn’t ever happen to us ever again, I know it should never ever happen to our soldiers and their families ever again. It’s time for people to be accountable. After people are once again accountable for their actions I think I might be able to start making some nice.
Jan 03 2008
More unfortunate climate change news for us and the candidates – this time from the boreal forests. The Guardian and others are reporting on a new study that finds trees are absorbing less CO2 as the world warms.
The ability of forests to soak up man-made carbon dioxide is weakening, according to an analysis of two decades of data from more than 30 sites in the frozen north.
The finding published today is crucial, because it means that more of the CO2 we release will end up affecting the climate in the atmosphere rather than being safely locked away in trees or soil.
The results may partly explain recent studies suggesting that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected. If higher temperatures mean less carbon is soaked up by plants and microbes, global warming will accelerate.
Worldwide, only tropical rainforests are larger then boreal or northern forests. They cover Alaska, northern Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia.
Dec 31 2007
How do you go about choosing a candidate to support? Is it an entirely rational process? Do you decide what the most important issues are for you and then compare each candidate’s proposed policies on them point by point to make your selection? Or do you go by your “feel” for the integrity and character qualities of the individual candidates? When the candidates are in broad agreement on the major issues (such as ending the Iraq occupation, providing healthcare for all Americans, restoring constitutional limits on executive power, etc.) and they only differ in some specifics of how they would get to those goals, questions of character begin to take on more weight, even among those who are most wonkishly informed and passionate on the issues.
Political psychologist Aubrey Immelman, research director and founder of the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict in Collegeville and St. Joseph, Minnesota, specializes in developing personality profiles of prominent political figures (as well as criminals – heh).
Dec 31 2007
Early on, I chastised Maryscott for speaking to “who was electable” and her premature outright dismissal of all but the top three candidates. I thought it fair to see where the coming months would lead. Time has proven her right.
Whether or not the Murdoch-Media-Monolithic-Magnate has been successful in the preordaining our candidates by sheer barrage and unfair coverage; the time for Primaries is at hand.
I want to talk about the Objective of a Primary, and why I think Docudharmans should join me in supporting John Edwards.
Dec 25 2007
X-posted at Kos
Genia over at SistersTalk did some very interesting research on the candidates in regards to the topic of Domestic Abuse. And I thought to myself…why is this the first time someone raised the issue? Why did it take a blogger to pull this into the light? Was it the Corporate Media’s fault? Was it our fault? Did we all turn our backs on this issue?
Then I thought about how difficult it was to raise cash recently for Pretty Bird Woman House when compared to other fundraising drives…
Dec 21 2007
Last night on the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric presented another in her series of Primary Questions to the candidates for president of both parties. The question for this installment dealt with marital fidelity and whether it should be a determinative factor when deciding for whom to vote.
This question, while not as elevating to the debate as questions about Iraq, global warming, the economy, or health care might have been, could still have produced some observable squirming from a number of the candidates. But in reporting on Couric’s broadcast, the rapidly deteriorating TVNewser was more interested in propagating rumors than in objective journalism. In an item by Steve Krakauer, who joined TVNewser last month and previously worked for Fox News, two candidates were singled out as having answers that would “be of interest,” and they might not be who you would think.
Brought to you by…
News Corpse
The Internet’s Chronicle Of Media Decay.
Dec 20 2007
Cross posted at KOS
How can we demand courage from our leader when we have so little?
How can we continue to support candidates who do not support us NOW?
How can we uphold the Constitution when we allow others to abrogate our most important responsibility, our vote?
How can we beg for change when we cannot face change?
How can we save the planet when we cannot save ourselves?
Follow me below the fold and I will give you my take on why who and what we are can be another recipe for a continuing disaster.