Barak Obama TV

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Supreme Court denies Kucinich bid

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Texas to print presidential primary ballots without Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich's name.

The court refused to step into a dispute between Kucinich and the Texas Democratic Party over a loyalty oath all candidates must sign to make the ballot.

Kucinich and singer-supporter Willie Nelson objected to the party oath that a presidential candidate must "fully support" the party's eventual nominee. Kucinich crossed out the oath when he filed for a spot on the primary ballot.

MORE...

I'm with Kucinich on this one. Why should he have to abdicate his thoughts, his personal beliefs, his convictions on what's good for the future of this country to some "higher authority" when that authority is merely a political party bent on self interest?

Of course, Mr. Kucinich could start a write-in campaign (if that's even possible for this State's primary).

This is just another example of why I am an independent and why I don't much care for any of the major political parties.

Say, what??? BOTH Hillary and Barak won in Nevada?

So Hillary "won" the Nevada primary? But, she got only 12 delegates to Barak winning 13. Huh? So how does that make her the winner?

READ MORE HERE

Giuliani Loses Lead In New York

This is, obviously, not a good sign for the Rudy Giuliani campaign. A poll set to be released next week will have the former New York City mayor trailing Sen. John McCain in his home state.

New York Post writer Fred Dricker announced on Tim Russert's show this Saturday morning:

"Tim, you'll find this interesting. One poll that's going to come out here next week, I'm sworn to secrecy on some of the details, but not on this part -- it is going to show John McCain overtaking Rudy Giuliani in his home state, I am told. That would be extraordinary."

LINK

Yes, indeed. I guess Rudy shouldn't have filled in all those potholes with firemen remains. His campaign was tanking, anyway, but this about flushes it down the toilet.

[How humiliating... for him to be beaten in his home State and by the candidate that was supposedly dead in the water.]

Ron Paul not so crushed in Iowa?

This blog entry titled, "Ron Paul Crushed in Iowa," makes one point but the comments section has a few interesting points of its own. First, the main point ofthe original blog entry:

No surprise, of course, but some vindication for our own Michael Learmonth, who caught hell's full fury earlier for observing the obvious--that Iowa would be the beginning of the end for the president of the web.

And some of the comments:

"Crushed? Double Digits is alot better than anyone expected him to do just a few weeks ago. What about Rudy, is his campaign over now?"

"...he more than exceeded my limited expectations..."

"...it was almost a three way tie for 3rd."

"Wyoming on 01/05/2008 may be a good showing for Rep. Ron Paul (although probably little media coverage). New Hampshire, with it's libertarian leanings, may be really big for Paul. Also, I suspect that Nevada on the 19th will be good for Paul especially if N.H. is big on the 8th."

"...Lastly, Paul's fund raising has been increasing at an exponential rate and far surpasses Huckabee."

"10 percent is not crushed. 10 percent with no mainstream media coverage is impressive."

And so on. Some of the commenters seemed a bit "testy" or upset at the notion that Ron Paul should be portrayed as any sort of loser.

Yes, if 10% of the judges at a beauty pageant said I was drop-dead gorgeous, that still wouldn't get me the Miss America crown. I'd be merely dropped dead from shock, lol.

A three-way tie for third place is still third place. It ain't winnin.'

Huckabee gaffes tarnish credibility

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Republican Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses by campaigning as an honest conservative, yet he has made a series of blunders that raise questions about his credibility.

..."He's not plastic," said GOP strategist Greg Mueller. "He speaks American, not Washingtonian. The way he communicates is coming off as a person who understands and can connect with middle America."

...For all his directness, Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, sent a series of conflicting messages in the days before the caucuses:

_He decided not to air a commercial attacking Romney but played it for journalists, anyway.
_He said he supports the Hollywood writers' strike but crossed the picket line to appear on the Jay Leno's "Tonight" show.
_He campaigned at a casino in Burlington, Iowa, despite his opposition to gambling.

Even his senior aides have had trouble keeping their story straight.

LINK TO ARTICLE

Obama, Huckabee sweep to Iowa victories

DES MOINES, Iowa - Sen. Barack Obama swept to victory in the Iowa caucuses Thursday night, pushing Hillary Rodham Clinton to third place and taking a major stride in a historic bid to become the nation's first black president. Mike Huckabee rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians to win the opening round among Republicans in the 2008 campaign for the White House.

Obama, 46 and a first-term senator from Illinois, told a raucous victory rally his triumph showed that in "big cities and small towns, you came together to say, 'We are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come.'"

Nearly complete returns showed the first-term lawmaker gaining 37 percent support from Iowa Democrats. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina appeared headed for second place, relegating Clinton, the former first lady, to a close third.

MORE HERE...

What ALL other candidates of any party need to address now is the magnetic attraction Barak Obama has with the American people and the REASONS FOR IT. Here's a hint: People regard Mr. Obama as a family man who speaks for REAL family values -- not the kind of "family" values that the Republicans push that entails sex scandals and blatant corruption and a crazy man who wants to be Emperor of the World occupying the Oval Office -- and not the slick political machine that is the now stopped-dead-in-its-tracks Clinton "juggernaut."

The just plain folks of America, especially those of independent mind, those who cherish real family values are sick unto death of the stinking pile of shit that our government has become.

Americans are going to vote for the candidate they believe actually cares about their family and the struggles that most working families must face on a daily basis.

Oh, the reality may very well be that Barak Obama is as heartless as the rest of them but that's not what he represents. And people will vote for the representation.

Dropping Fast In Polls, Rudy Unveils New Campaign Tack: Call For More War

With his candidacy cratering in multiple polls, Rudy Giuliani has hit on a new campaign strategy designed to turn things around: He's calling for more war on multiple fronts.

READ THE ARTICLE

Are Candidates Telling LIES? Eek. Who'da thunk it?

FROM POLITIFACT...

Fast and furious finish
With just two days until the Iowa caucuses, the candidates are unleashing a flurry of charges -- and making a few slip-ups. We find that Biden is overstating his role on Bosnia, that Romney never got an NRA endorsement and that Obama is wrong about gas prices. >>more

More from PolitiFact:
Pardon me: Huckabee vs. Romney: The two former governors have been criticizing each other about pardons. We find their claims are accurate and reveal starkly different approaches on clemency.

He didn’t stand in the way, but he didn’t always lead: The former Arkansas governor says he had the “most impressive” education record among the GOP pack. But open-ended superlatives are tough to prove, especially when you’ve got critics.

Who Can Win in November? A guide to 'electability,' as the voting draws nigh

Even at this late date, more than half of all voters in Iowa and New Hampshire say they have not made up their minds for sure. Many are still deciding which candidate they think would make the best president. But thousands of others are wrestling with a more cold-blooded question: who can win in November?

Most early head-to-head polls show John McCain and Barack Obama as the strongest candidates in a general election, a reflection of their slight edge over their primary opponents among independents, who make up at least a third of the electorate and often determine the outcome.

But "electability voters" need more than polls. With the stipulation that 10 months is an eon in politics, let's make some educated guesses about the pros and cons of how each of the plausible candidates would do in the Big Show.

READ THE ARTICLE

I probably won't have my mind made up with 100% certainty until the moment I mark my ballot but in all likelihood, I think I would prefer to vote for Barak Obama even though I do not believe he can win a general election. I don't think the scum of society with all its racist blatherings (which you can find in plentiful supply on many right-wing messageboards) is enough to keep Barak Obama from winning. I do believe a general lack of confidence in his ability to lead just because he doesn't have much of a track record in national leadership will keep him from winning an election.

Hillary is fifty-fifty. I think she is the best qualified in terms of national and world experience for the job but she has a lot of negatives. If she was the only name on the ballot, I think there would still be a significant portion of the voting public who would come out to vote against her if that was an option on a Hillary-only ballot.

I can't think of a single Republican candidate that I would consider voting for. I think I am most closely aligned, politically speaking, with the candidacy of Rudy Guiliani but I think his past numerous ethical challenges are good reasons to be concerned. I don't think I can vote for him. Pity.

Even with all the rats scurrying to desert the sinking Bush ship, I do believe he is going to drag the entire Republican Party down with him. The Republicans have not seen an election disaster like this looming since the Watergate era.

It's all up to the Democrats now. Will they follow their own usual course and shoot themselves in the foot, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? Really, '08 is the Democrats' election to lose.

Ron Paul Doesn’t "Accept" Evolution

This is an interesting opinion put forth on an Alternet blog by Manila Ryce who is (obviously) not a Ron Paul supporter.

This line is kind of funny: "I guess Paul decided to keep Huckabee company amongst the presidential candidates who think the Flintstones was a documentary."

The blogger goes on to mention some of the paradoxes that make up the paradox that is Ron Paul... voting for the border fence while claiming to be a libertarian, for example. I don't really know enough about the Libertarian Party to understand that. I'm pretty sure that Libertarians are against any sane gun laws and they are for the legalization of marijuana but that's really all I know about them.

This one makes a little more sense: the paradox of voting against the impeachment of Dick Cheney while claiming to love the Constitution. Dick Cheney is only Public Enemy Against the American People Number Two by virtue of the fact that he is Vice-President and not sitting in the Number One spot.

I don't understand the blogger here: "He's against the occupation of Iraq, yet claims to be from Texas." Hello?

The blogger states, "Understanding Paul is like trying to nail jello to a tree..." which is another very clever turn of phrase but couldn't the same be said of almost every politician?

"Despite eyebrow-raising revelations that continue to surface, such as Paul not believing in the separation between church and state or the donations he accepts from white supremacist groups, nothing is stronger than the love a Paul fanboy has for his golden idol." Yes, I have seen this devotion in action. And why does Ron Paul not seem to mind being associated with Nazis?

The blogger finishes by making the point that Ron Paul's background in and avocation for matters scientific seems to be woefully inadequate and the American people ought to consider electing someone with "at least an elementary school understanding of what constitutes scientific fact this time around, and not someone who thinks "both sides" are equally credible [re: evolution]." I agree with that.

We've had enough of morons and I'm not necessarily speaking of intellectual capacity (although, that may play into it). If you don't respect the Constitution, you're a moron. And you shouldn't be President of the United States.

Anyway, here's a link to the blog post.

Looking at America

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

...This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.

...Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.

...We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

For real Americans, those who actually cherish this nation and those G-d given rights that are our birthright, what's been done to our nation in the name of greed and zealotry is absolutely heartbreaking. We are shattered and it is nearly incomprehensible that an American President could so utterly betray the American people. It is to be hoped that our long national nightmare will begin to be over after this November. It's only the beginning for there is much damage to repair.

If you are an American and you love your country, it is your sacred duty to vote. Please, don't sit this one out and assume your vote doesn't matter. You matter. Your vote matters. America matters.

Is Huckabee his own worst enemy?

Huckabee's latest antic truly belongs in the bizarre column. It was "The Great WTF Moment" of his campaign.

It seems Romney launched an ad campaign that highlighted questionable things that Huckabee had done in his political past. All of the factual data in that ad was correct even if presented as negatives against Huckabee. Pretty much, par for the course in politics.

A source from Huckabee's own campaign said Huckabee went "white-hot" with rage over the political ad. So, Huckabee fired back with his own disturbing and nasty anti-Romney ad.

The problem with Huckabee's ad is that it was not entirely truthful. At least, Romney stuck with the facts. Huckabee, it seems, did not.

Probably, also par for the course in politics but there's just one problem when it comes to Iowans and their elections: they tend to turn against negative campaigners.

Somebody must have whispered same into Huckabee's ear so he thought to launch a preemptive strike against negative campaign ads in general by featuring his own negative campaign ad!

Are you still following this? LOL.

What Huckabee did was to hold a news conference in which he played his negative campaign ad for all the assembled media types stating something along the lines of, this is not the sort of ad he would be using in the media for his campaign.

HUH????

Dude, that's exactly what you just did! Huckabee claims he was using his negative attack ad for demonstration purposes only and not as an actual negative attack.

From the article:

Huckabee showed off the spot to the journalists, knowing full well his negative message would seep out of the room. He told the media to pay close attention.

"You're not going to get a copy of it," he warned, "so this is your chance to see it, then after that you'll never see it again."

The media laughed.

This man is indeed his own worst enemy.

READ THE ARTICLE

2008 Political Dashboard

This is a nifty little webpage from Yahoo. Includes "key indicators" on all the major candidates.

GO HAVE A LOOK

Clinton holds lead as Romney slips in Iowa

Interesting. See post below that proclaims Obama beating Clinton by a handy margin.

link to this article

Poll: Obama, Huckabee leading rivals

DES MOINES, Iowa - Presidential contenders rang in the 2008 election year with near-constant campaigning on Monday as a poll showed Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee leading their rivals with three days remaining before the Iowa caucuses.

The poll by the Des Moines Register showed Obama, an Illinois senator, with the support of 32 percent of those surveyed, compared to 25 percent for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and 24 percent for former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Among Republicans, Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, had the backing of 32 percent of those surveyed, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 26 percent.

MORE...

What???? Now the G.O.P. is BRAGGING about illegal campaign practices???

"Voter caging," according to the Brennan Center for Justice, "is the practice of sending mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of the mail that is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters’ registrations on the grounds that the voters on the list do not legally reside at their registered addresses."

The problem with all of the above is that voter caging is so extremely unreliable as an indicator of the legitimacy of a voter's right to vote that its use has been eradicated. Except by the Republicans.

And do you know why voter caging is near and dear to Republican hearts? Because they ONLY target minorities or any voting constituency they perceive as being likely to vote Democratic.

And THAT'S against the law. Republican abuse of voter caging was so extreme, the Grand Old Party was forced by federal court to sign a consent decree never to do it again.

They lied. That, and denying Americans the right to vote is a crime. But, it gets worse. Now, the Republicans are BRAGGING about it.

From "Crooks and Liars" and "Blue Tide Rising" we learn that the head of the Republican Party for the State of Kansas sent out an email bragging of the following, "To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!”

Slate.com also has a write-up on the Republican Party's attempt through voter caging to subvert yet another American election.

If you are curious about the Republican chairman whose big mouth has put the spotlight square on Republican efforts to steal America away from Americans, his name is Kris Kobach and you can learn more about him here and here. America may actually owe this bigmouth a huge debt of gratitude for being the practical whistleblower that he's turned out to be.

Here's yet another instance of Karl Rove and his bot interfering with the 2004 election. It begins: "For years, Tim Griffin, the former aide to Karl Rove who’s been at the center of the U.S. attorney controversy, has been dogged by allegations that he was a part of a 2004 scheme to block African-Americans in Florida from voting."

This article poses the very believable scenario that Tim Griffin, Karl Rove protege and champion vote-supressor, was persuaded to withdraw his name from Senate consideration to be permanently appointed as a United States attorney purely to avoid having to answer questions under oath about his illegal voter-suppression activities.

Then there's this article about Mr. Griffin's illegal activities on behalf of his master, Karl Rove.

And here's another report on how the Republicans are focusing on disenfranchising minority voters in Ohio and Florida for the 2008 election.

The PBS program, "Voter Caging & Housing Works" attempts to answer the following: "Was there a White House plot to illegally suppress votes in 2004? Is there a similar plan for the upcoming elections? This week NOW examines documents and evidence that points to a Republican Party plan designed to keep Democrats from voting, allegedly by targeting people based on their race and ethnicity with key battleground states like Ohio and Florida of particular interest." Here is their video (in addition to the linked article).

The PBS program makes reference to David Iglesias, one of the fired U.S. Attorneys, who was ordered to go out "fishing" for likely targets for voter caging and when all his investigating failed to turn up enough dirt, he was fired. Here is that interview with David Iglesias.

RELATED LINKS:

E-mails between National Republican Party headquarters and Ohio State Republican Party officials about plans to challenge voters in Ohio [pdf]

List of people in the Cleveland, Ohio area who the Republicans planned to stop on Election Day, 2004 [pdf]

Guidebook for Republicans interested in becoming poll monitors[pdf]

"Truth About Voter Fraud"

BBC: "New Florida vote scandal feared" by Greg Palast

"In 2004, BBC reporter Greg Palast obtained two e-mails -- prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director -- that listed '1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas' of the Jacksonville, FL Naval Air Station. Palast explains: "Here's how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, 'Do not forward', to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as 'undeliverable.'"

SO THE REPUBLICANS SUNK SO LOW THAT THEY SOUGHT TO DISENFRANCHISE OUR SOLDIERS. Who's the traitor now?

Here's one of those anti-American traitors...

Please, don't let them steal America again. This country belongs to the people!!! And 70% of us want the current crooked regime OUT OF THERE ALREADY!!!!

Permission is granted to repost my words in this specific article (only) on any blog or website or forum or messageboard. If you do copy this article, please keep "fair use" and "copyright" in mind and do not copy more of the excerpted articles than what you see here and please leave a link back to the original sources as I have done.

Well, I guess this is one endorsement Rudy won't be getting...

Rudolph Giuliani, Oxycontin Defender

One way that Rudy used his post-9/11 hero status was to go to bat for the makers of the drug Oxycontin. They were being criminally investigated for misleading the public and health care professionals about the potential dangers of using the drug. As head of Guiliani Partners, the lobbying firm hired by the Oxycontin makers, it was Rudy's job to thwart that criminal investigation. How is that representing the best interests of the American people? If he was President, what highest bidder would he sell us out to as George Bush has done vis-a-vis being owned in business by the bin Ladens and the Carlyle Group?

In western Virginia, far from the limelight, United States Attorney John L. Brownlee found himself on the telephone last year with a political and legal superstar, Rudolph W. Giuliani.

For years, Mr. Brownlee and his small team had been building a case that the maker of the painkiller OxyContin had misled the public when it claimed the drug was less prone to abuse than competing narcotics. The drug was believed to be a factor in hundreds of deaths involving its abuse.

Mr. Giuliani, celebrated for his stewardship of New York City after 9/11, soon told the prosecutors they were wrong.

In 2002, the drug maker, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., hired Mr. Giuliani and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, to help stem the controversy about OxyContin. Among Mr. Giuliani’s missions was the job of convincing public officials that they could trust Purdue because they could trust him.

READ MORE...

Rudy would never tell a lie... would he?