Hillary’s Voice

Thomas Paine had some words of wisdom that are applicable to the current dismal state of affairs in the Democratic Party. Mr. Paine penned his words of “Common Sense” for a different time and his warning rings true today.
The few are manipulating the many and as Mr. Paine warned, it is to their own benefit not the benefit of those they were elected to represent.
I quote Mr. Paine here -

“In a former page I likewise mentioned the necessity of a large and equal representation; and there is no political matter which more deserves our attention. A small number of electors, or a small number of representatives, are equally dangerous. But if the number of the representatives be not only small, but unequal, the danger is increased. As an instance of this, I mention the following; when the Associators petition was before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania; twenty-eight members only were present, all the Bucks County members, being eight, voted against it, and had seven of the Chester members done the same, this whole province had been governed by two counties only, and this danger it is always exposed to. The unwarrantable stretch likewise, which that house made in their last sitting, to gain an undue authority over the delegates of that province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power out of their own hands. A set of instructions for the Delegates were put together, which in point of sense and business would have dishonored a school-boy, and after being approved by a few, a very few without doors, were carried into the house, and there passed in behalf of the whole colony; whereas, did the whole colony know, with what ill-will that House hath entered on some necessary public measures, they would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of such a trust.

I seldom recommend “must reads”, but the two excerpts below, if not the entire posts they come from, are absolutely essential reading for every progressive and/or liberal and/or Democratic-leaning commentator:

Media Bias (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Some very smart people on the media bias panel I moderated yesterday… The most interesting part to me was [Media Matters’] Eric Boehlert’s take on how the blogosphere is handling the primary… What’s happening online now is potentially dangerous: HRC has gotten dreadful press, not fair, “gotcha,” and so on — there’s a portion of the blogosphere that has ignored that and there’s a portion that has encouraged that. It’s dangerous because the media criticism has to be consistent and relentless, and we can’t very well say, “You can’t go after our candidates … except this one.” I get nervous about pushback regarding disingenuous coverage - our response needs to be, “You can’t treat Democrats this way.” When people in the left blogosphere are quoting an anonymous Matt Drudge source, it makes me nervous. I noticed that after he said this, only half of the audience clapped…

I’d been chatting with Eric the night before, and he told me he’d been interviewing Clinton bloggers for a book about how bloggers are affecting the 2008 presidential campaign, and was “shocked” to hear again and again that people felt they could no longer speak freely in the blogosphere. “I’m not,” I said. I told him most of the bloggers I know are appalled at the present state of affairs, and that they’d basically been bullied into silence. (Which I find ironic - white working class Clinton voters are called “Archie Bunker types” by Obama supporters, and yet the Clinton supporters are the ones being told to “Stifle yourself!”) He said he was astounded at the venom those bloggers described, and had already collected so much material, he was thinking of making it a separate book.

Why calling out misogyny matters (by zuzu at Feministe)
[A]llow me to explain why calling out the misogynist shit thrown at Hillary Clinton, even if you think that Clinton is a party-destroying, warmongering succubus feeding at the corporate teat, is important… It’s not so much that I’m defending Clinton (though I think she’s getting an unfair shake in the media and in the blogosphere, and that annoys me), but that I’m calling this shit out because this shit hurts women. Women like me. Women like many of you. Women like your daughters, your sisters, your mothers, your friends, your spouses, your SOs. If it’s okay to dehumanize a US Senator and presidential candidate as “that thing” or dismiss her as “that bitch,” or set up a 527 called “Citizens United Not Timid” (aka C.U.N.T.) to “educate the American public about what Hillary Clinton really is,” then we now have an environment in which it’s okay to dehumanize, demean and diminish ordinary women because they’re women.
And what has been the result of all this denigration?  See below.

Gallup: Obama has 10-point lead over Clinton — largest this year (On Politics, USA Today)
Today’s Gallup tracking poll puts the Democratic nomination race at Barack Obama 52%, Hillary Rodham Clinton 42%. That’s his largest lead of the year, Gallup says. “The latest results are based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted March 27-29.

Barack Obama reportedly said this at a speech yesterday:

“’My attitude is that Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants,’ Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said at a news conference in a high school gymnasium here. ‘Her name is on the ballot. She is a fierce and formidable opponent, and she obviously believes she would make the best nominee and the best president.’” (New York Times)

Contrast that statement to the strongly implied message his campaign sent out in a March 5th email, signed by Obama Campaign manager David Plouffe:

Is Pentagon using Guantanamo trials to influence election?
The Navy lawyer for Osama bin Laden’s driver has accused senior Pentagon officials of orchestrating war crimes prosecutions of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to influence the outcome of the 2008 presidential campaign.
I’ve told you.  I’m telling you now.  And I will continue to tell you.  BUSH WILL USE EVERY FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT TO MAKE SURE MCCAIN IS ELECTED IN NOVEMBER.  We had better be ready.  We had better factor that knowledge into our decision on a Democratic nominee.  As you know, I think Hillary Clinton is the better candidate to counter these blatant uses of government entities for political gain.

Presidential Primary Polls Conflict: Pick the One You Like? (by D. Cupples at Buck Naked Politics)
Over the last couple days, media reporting of a Pew poll’s results simultaneously upset some Clinton supporters and excited some Obama supporters. I’m not sure why. Before significant presidential Democratic primaries this year (e.g., California, Iowa, New Hampshire and Texas), different polls showed different results.  The upshot: some of those polls necessarily turned out wrong — we just didn’t know which ones were wrong until after those elections took place.  Recent  nationwide polls are similarly conflicting.

Obama’s Strategy for the Nomination (by PlainWordsat MyDD)
I’ve been watching the Obama campaign and I think I’ve nailed down the 10-point strategy he is using to get the nomination.1. Give one great speech in an ultra-liberal precinct in your state when you have nothing to risk and then vote the same as the Senator you oppose, who came from the state that was attacked on 9/11 and supported the resolution to force inspectors back into Iraq to find out the truth.  Then when you do have something to risk, say that you pretty much agree with Bush on the war.2.  Vote Present whenever there could be some risk in standing on principle.3.  Take credit after the fact for other people’s legislation, while explaining at the same time that you didn’t have time to do anything because you were running for President.4.  Put all your efforts into caucuses where few people can vote and volunteers can steer the results your way.5.  Dismiss all the big primaries in critical states that you lose as unimportant and not representative.6.  Block democratic votes in important states that you lost by arguing that we should stick to the rules, even though those rules were made by people with an astonishing lack of foresight.7.  Block superdelegate votes that could go against you by arguing that we should throw away the rules because allowing superdelegates to vote their conscience would be undemocratic.8.  Call the other candidate an ambitious monster lying racist cheater who takes credit for things she didn’t do, and belittle people who vote for her as Archie Bunkers, while making speeches saying you will unite America.9.  Buddy up with the Reverend Wright- God- Damn- America- and- all- white- people- and- Italians- who- killed- black- Jesus and, just for good measure, call your grandmother a “typical white person.”  Then make another great speech about how this is necessary to unite America.

10.  To avoid another loss in another critical big state, which would make you the loser in every one except the one you live in, demand that your opponent get out of the race now.
My only quibble is with the wording of #1.  Obama’s 2002 speech on the war wasn’t as anti-war as he wants us to believe.  In fact, he never said directly, do not attack Iraq.

I have been very curious as to why nobody seems able to locate a copy of “The Trumpet” containing the eulogy for Asa Hilliard written and delivered by Jeremiah Wright. The media has been quoting parts of the eulogy noting that Pastor Wright calls Italians “garlic-nosed” and giving references to “lynching” Italian style.
In an effort to be fair minded and read the whole sermon, I went to Googling the “Trumpet.” HM MM, very strange, all issues have disappeared from the Internet. As another writer, I think it was Flea Flicker, (apologies to the writer if it was not Flea Flicker, get with me and I will give you credit) pointed out in another publication, not an easy task to just make things disappear from the Net. I did find a cached version of the Nov-Dec issue, with the first page of the eulogy. It continued on page thirty, which was not cached.
Now I was getting REALLY curious. What was in this eulogy that could be so inflammatory as to cause it to be eliminated (is suppressed to strong a word?) When you follow the link to the Trumpet, you get re-directed to another page. Not willing to give up, I continued searching.
On a discussion board I did find what purports to be a copy of the eulogy. Seems a participant in the discussion board was very upset that the bad old media was once again taking the poor Reverend out of context. Said participant provided a link so others could read the entire eulogy and see the Italian comments in context. AH HA, just what I wanted- to read the whole thing, to get the “context.”
What an eye-opener! The eulogy does praise Dr. Hilliard for his life’s work. The eye-opening part is what the media is not telling us. Given that the Texas County conventions are upon us and that the National convention is being held in Denver, I offer the following (out of context) as the reason this is being suppressed. I do not think the people of Texas view the Alamo in quite the same way as Rev. Wright. And what the people of Denver would think of the comments regarding their city remains to be seen.

Memo to Barack Obama:  Stop Whining Already and Start Fighting for Votes!

From:  A Disaffected Democratic Voter

Dear Senator Obama:

 Why do your campaign and its surrogates keep telling Hillary Clinton that she needs to drop out of the race?  What are you afraid of – competing against a “girl”?  Come on — don’t be a wimp!

A majority of Democrats want this race to go on.  Millions of people in ten additional states want an opportunity to vote.  I’ve heard you’re not much for hard work, but is it really too much to ask someone who wants to be President of the United States to spend two more months meeting the very Americans you want to represent? 

I’m getting the feeling that you want to be coronated rather than nominated.  Well, no one said this race was going to be a cakewalk.  And besides, you have only yourself to blame for not being able to close the deal with voters up till now.    

Look, you purposely ran for President — as one Pennsylvania paper put it – with the thinnest resume of any Presidential candidate in modern times.  A year ago probably fewer than 50% of Democrats even knew your name.  Even now Democratic voters seem almost split between you and your opponent.  Let’s face it — you still have a lot of work to do. 

I will be a guest on Head-On with Bob Kincaid today at 6:00 PM ET.  Listen to Bob from 6:00 to 9:00 PM ET every weekday on the Head-On Radio Network.

This Modern World  

Compassion Meditation Changes The Brain
ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2008) — Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples’ mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Liberals have allowed to go unchecked a 35 plus year, multi hundred million dollar campaign to convince Americans that compassion is foolish, and that helping people actually harms them.  But as we’ve seen from recent studies, cooperating with each other makes us feel good, giving to others makes us feel good.  That means cooperation and compassion are built-in traits, just as is selfishness.  They are traits that help us live together in groups.  They are important.  And as we see from this study, they can be nurtured.  I’d write a book about it if I could ever find a publisher.

Obama blames ‘ethic of greed’ for economy (Politico )
Barack Obama went to New York Thursday and blamed lobbyists, greedy businessmen and complacent Washington politicians for creating “an ethic of greed” that led to today’s foreclosure crisis. Not long after he left the stage, the Democratic presidential hopeful attended a fundraiser held by his campaign in a room in the Manhattan headquarters of Credit Suisse, one of the major investment companies caught up in the subprime lending mess. [Emphasis added.]

First there was the Christian Coalition separating Real Christians from the Others.
Then there was Bush making us Red or Blue.
Now Obama using the race card again and again separating blacks and white.
The Obama Campaign’s Strategic Blunder – They Made it Personalby Angie Pratt

When the Obama campaign made its claim of racism against Hillary after theNew Hampshire primary they made a booboo. A big one. Prior to that Clinton’s supporters were open to entertaining a vote for Obama. Maybe he’d be OK.
The evening of Hillary’s win in New Hampshire the claim came out that Hillary had somehow cheated. Somehow she had gotten white folks to vote for her because she was white and Obama was black. That claim was used to explain away Obama’s defeat and set the stage for getting out the black vote in South Carolina.
The media jumped on it. It explained how they could have been so wrong. Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann actually had to tone down their anti-Hillary rhetoric for a week or so. So this lie got repeated over and over again.

>snip<

It worked. Obama had a winning strategy. If he could consistently get 80% to 90% of the black vote he’d be set.
Well … if it worked once … try it again. So the Obama camp called the Clintons racists again and again and again – at every opportunity.

Jamiol’s World

Obama pastor cancels Texas events, citing safety
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the controversial former pastor of Barack Obama’s Chicago church, has canceled appearances in Texas this weekend, including a Dallas event that was to honor him.
If it’s true that Wright has been threatened, then shame on us.  No one should ever have to worry for his safety for saying what he believes.

Sign the McCain FEC Complaint Letter (Firedoglake)
By his own admission, John McCain is breaking the law. His latest spending report has him $4 million over the limit he imposed on himself when he accepted public financing. We’re not about to let this stand, so on Tuesday we filed an FEC complaint against the McCain campaign… Now we’re set for a second larger delivery, on behalf of the thousands of Americans who won’t stand by while John McCain breaks the law.

Michigan Primary Found Unconstitutional (Political Wire )
A federal judge “ruled Michigan’s presidential primary law unconstitutional and blocked the state from giving voter lists from the Jan. 15 election to the state’s major political parties,” the Detroit News reports. “The ruling likely further damages the already small hope that the Democratic Party would honor the Jan. 15 results. It is unlikely that national Democratic officials would relent in their opposition to seating delegates based on a disputed vote that has now been declared flawed under the constitution.”

Matt Davies

Pat Caddell On Obama (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)
I found some of his comments, throughout — Obama faces a “real test in Pennsylvania” and “I’m telling you folks, this race is not over” — rather fascinating. There’s more to catch — including how Obama is going about this ALL the wrong way to “win.”
Click through to watch the video.

Tennesseean pushes plan to avoid brokered convention (The Hill)
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) is actively promoting a plan that he says would prevent a brokered Democratic convention, a situation he believes would pave the way for a Republican to maintain control of the White House. The second-term governor has proposed a “superdelegate primary” in which the 795 superdelegates who will likely decide their party’s nominee would meet to cast votes. The result would hopefully help the party avoid a contentious, brokered convention and allow a divided party to start the healing process before Labor Day, Bredesen said.
Talk about your smoke-filled rooms!  And the smoke would be coming from burning bodies!

The daily Gallup number and new Pennsylvania, North Carolina polls
The Democratic presidential race continues to be very tight. Gallup’s daily tracking number today, based on three nights of national interviewing: Barack Obama 47%, Hillary Clinton 45%. That’s a 1-percentage-point improvement for Obama, but the pair remain in a statistical tie, within the poll’s margin of error.

Since the Reverend Wright situation recently left splatter marks on Barack Obama, we’ve heard a lot from Obama’s campaign about how Hillary Clinton embellished the danger of her trip to Bosnia back in 1996, among other things.

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported on some of Obama’s own embellishments: i.e., his falsely taking credit for other U.S. senators’ legislative work. A few weeks ago, the Obama campaign sent a fund-raising email that 1) said that Hillary is attacking Obama’s supporters — a statement that’s as divisive as it is factually questionable; and 2) accused Hillary of being divisive.

Last night, I found a Time Magazine blog post called “Just Embellished Words: Senator Obama’s Record of Exaggerations & Misstatements.”

The original is posted on my Blogger site.

Another of the many reasons I am voting for Hillary

I am voting for Hillary for many reasons but wanted to share one in particular. Affordable health care in this country is an oxymoron for many. We have health insurance through my husband’s job. However, said policy has a $500 per year preventative health care limit.I called the insurance company last year to verify they would cover the HPV vaccine for my daughter after being advised by the doctor’s office that they probably would not cover this potentially lifesaving vaccine. I was assured they would cover the vaccine. What they did not tell me was that they would only cover up to the $500 dollar limit. As my daughter was going off to college, she also needed the meningitis shot, one for chicken pox, and a booster for tetanus. plus the cost of the exam and her gyn exam and pap smear.Of course all this added up to much more than the $500. SO- I, who had a bout with severe dysplsia, the pre-cursor to cervical cancer, did not have my annual Pap smear or gyn exam.This is the choice I have to make. Do I, who have lived probably two thirds of my life, get a critical pap smear or do I spend that $500 preventative care limit on my daughter who has all of her life before her? Of course, I did as I think most mothers would- the health care goes to my daughter. It is my belief that when Hillary is elected President she will work hard to fight against the insurance companies who care nothing about our health. I believe Hillary can and will bring affordable universal health care to every American.Hillary has been fighting the insurance companie’s inanities for a very long time. It is time we help her.Vote Hillary and vote for health care for all.

Clinton Unveils Plan to Ease Housing Crisis (Washington Post)
On Monday, Clinton laid out a plan in Philadelphia aimed at slowing mounting foreclosures, renewing her call for greater lender transparency and for $30 billion in assistance for individual homeowners and communities to help most Americans through the credit crunch. Clinton used a speech at the University of Pennsylvania to argue that the federal government should apply the same kind of resources to assist individuals as it did in bailing out investment giant Bear Stearns. “Let’s be clear: When families are losing their homes, that’s also a financial crisis,” Clinton said… Aides to Obama responded by saying Clinton was simply echoing proposals offered by their candidate and by accusing her of hypocrisy on the issue because she had accepted contributions from the mortgage lending industry. Obama has offered a $10 billion relief package.

Clinton ‘misspoke’ about ‘96 Bosnia trip
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign said she “misspoke” last week when saying she had landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996. She later characterized the episode as a “misstatement” and a “minor blip.”

Let’s see, when to discuss race?  When, oh when?
Hypnocrites

Obama blasts Hamas Op-Ed published by his church’s pastor (JTA Jewish news service)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Barack Obama says that a pro-Hamas Op-Ed printed in his church’s bulletin was “outrageously wrong.” In an issue dated July 22, 2007, in a section titled “Pastor’s Page,” the Trinity United Church in Chicago reprinted an article by Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzook. The article, which originally appeared as an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times, justifies the Palestinian terrorist group’s denial of Israel’s right to exist. .. In slamming the Hamas piece, Obama noted that he strongly rejects some of his longtime pastor’s views.

Barack Obama: toxic mentors start to corrode pristine campaign (London Times)
Obama has often described [Emil] Jones as a key political mentor whose patronage was crucial to his early success in a state long dominated by near-feudal party political machines. Jones, 71, describes himself as Obama’s “godfather” and once said: “He feels like a son to me.” Like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the outspoken pastor of Obama’s Chicago church, and like Tony Rezko, the millionaire fundraiser and former friend of Obama who is on trial for corruption, Jones is in danger of becoming a hindrance to his protégé’s presidential ambitions. For almost a year Jones has used his position as leader of the state senate to block anticorruption legislation passed unanimously by the state’s lower house. He has also become embroiled in ethical controversies concerning his wife’s job and his stepson’s business. None of them is linked to Obama, but the Democratic contender can ill afford another scandal related to his former Chicago allies.

Between the media bias and some of the Obama campaign’s tactics, I’ve often found myself countering others’ statements — which often involves “negatives.” This is odd, because I’m far more pro-Hillary than I am anti-Barack.

That said, I thought I’d share some of the reasons that I like and support Hillary.

Media Tenor’s Presidential Campaign Watch (by Media Tenor at Media Channel)
New York, March 20, 2008: Barrack Obama is fighting for the survival of his campaign. Up-to-data analysis of political coverage in US TV news shows a collapse of media support for Barrack Obama after the revelation of the divisive remarks from his long-term spiritual mentor, the Rvd. Jeremiah Wright. “Although Obama fought back with his speech in Philadelphia,” explains Roland Schatz, President of Media Tenor International, “the discussion has undermined his claim to transform race relations in the US.” At the same time, analysis of political coverage in ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox news, shows Hillary Clinton reclaiming lost ground after her win in Texas.
Click through for more analysis and graphs.

CLG exclusively broke the news of Stanley’s possible involvement early [Friday] (by Lori Price at Citizens for Legitimate Government)
The Bush Administration uses contractors instead of government employees to carry out GOP dirty tricks, so that the US government isn’t obliged to investigate the misdeeds. The ‘bad’ contract workers get punished by their employer - no questions asked - and the matter is put to rest. With a passport services contract - one of two-hundred contracts with forty federal agencies - worth $570-million, Stanley has every impetus to sweep the whole sordid affair under the rug.

I will be a guest on Head-On with Bob Kincaid today at 6:00 PM ET.  Listen to Bob from 6:00 to 9:00 PM ET every weekday on the Head-On Radio Network.

Motive sought for Obama passport breach
WASHINGTON - The State Department says it is trying to determine whether three contract workers had a political motive for looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s passport file.
Astute readers will remember that George H.W. Bush tried the same tactic with Bill Clinton.  But just as that trick didn’t hurt Clinton, security expert Larry Johnson says there’s nothing important to be found in Obama’s passport files.  What this incident does do, however, is give the opportunity to bring out, once again, Obama’s relative lack of foreign travels.

Obama’s Shallow Credentials on National Security Are Dangerous for the Country (by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, writing at No Quarter)
Senator Clinton has a long and well documented history of involvement in many of critical foreign policy issues we have confronted and will continue to confront as a nation. Critics can quibble about the details of the health plan she fought for in the 1990s, or whether hers was the decisive or merely an important voice in the Northern Ireland peace efforts, but there can be no denying that she has been in the arena for a generation fighting for what she believes in, gaining experience and developing leadership skills. She has traveled the world and met with international leaders both as the First Lady and as a respected senator on the Senate Armed Services Committee…

Sometimes I wonder how political campaign staff people sleep at night knowing the difference between what is truth and what is just a political game.

<blockquote><a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01axelrod.t.html”> Obama’s Narrator</a>

 This, Axelrod says, is what Karl Rove understood about George W. Bush. “One of the reasons Bush has succeeded in two elections,” Axelrod says, “is that in his own rough-hewn way he has conveyed a sense of this is who I am, warts and all.” For Obama, because of Senator Hillary Clinton’s far-greater experience and establishment backing, this is a particularly essential project. “If we run a conventional campaign and look like a conventional candidacy, we lose,” Axelrod says.</blockquote>

The Axelrod’s, Susan and David, must feel at times that they are ’sleeping with the enemy.’

Questions, problems, suggestions.  Sticky to keep up top.

UPDATE:  I’ve added a feature so that long posts are automatically split, with only the first 200 words or so showing on the front page.  Seems like a good idea to me, since we have multiple authors.  (Using the ”more” tag overrides the automatic split and instead inserts it where you’ve placed the “more.”)

Do we want this to be a publicly prominent blog, or do we want it to be a low-profile conference room for the members of the mailing list?   

I see that No Quarter has added us to their blogroll.    Should I add it to my own blogroll at Reclusive Leftist?  Should we cross-post at other sites with links back to here?  Should we promote our blog beyond the mailing list?  I’ve been holding off on these things because I didn’t know what we wanted to do.  

Also, should we change the name of the blog?  At least one person has wondered if it’s misleading.  It could also be restrictive if we’re going to grow into a stable community.

Thoughts?