Hillary’s Voice

Daily Show: Terror Attack + Election = Republican Victory (by SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars)

In light of Charlie Black’s ridiculous and revealing comments to Fortune magazine Monday, Jon Stewart shows how Republicans are calculating their winning November strategy. “Why is it that a terror attack helps Republicans? Well, it’s quite simple. A terror attack, when added to an election, equals Republican.”
But it works.  It’s what I’ve been warning everyone about.  See below for the results.  Click through to watch the video.

Gallup Daily: Obama, McCain Tied at 45%
Barack Obama and John McCain, who have been closely matched in Gallup Poll Daily tracking for the last week, are now even at 45% each.

Feingold on FISA “Compromise”: “It’s not even a fig leaf; it’s a joke.” (by SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars)
Senator Russ Feingold joined Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Tuesday to speak out about the reprehensible FISA “compromise” brokered by House Leader Steny Hoyer. Feingold has always been the most articulate and outspoken voice on Constitutional liberties, and he sure didn’t hold back. “SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: It’s not even a fig leaf; it’s a joke. It does not in any way prevent the ruling from that court, basically automatically, of immunity.”
Click through to watch the video.

Schumer to oppose FISA bill. (Think Progress)
Newsday reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will oppose the FISA bill because it grants retroactive immunity to telecoms and expands the president’s power to wiretap without court order. “If Schumer backs an effort to remove the immunity provisions, that could be a big deal,” writes John Riley. “No signal yet from Sen. Clinton on her position, and it’s not clear whether the Democrats will have enough votes to successfully attack the immunity issue.”

Senator Chris Dodd, Constitutional Champion (by SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars)
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), who along with Russ Feingold has been the fiercest defender of Constitutional rights, took to the floor last night to deliver a two-hour impassioned speech in defense of the rule of law, and offered a scathing critique of the sham FISA bill about to become law.
Click through to watch the video.

Hatch compares FISA critics to those ‘who wear tin foil hats and think 9/11 was an inside job.’ (Think Progress)
Speaking [Wednesday] on the Senate floor in favor of the Foreign Service Intelligence Act legislation, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) compared critics of the bill — which include Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), among others — to deluded conspiracy theorists. Hatch mocked the what he called “onerous oversight provisions” included in the bill, and said those who raise the specter of unchecked executive wiretapping power “feed the delusions of those who wear tin foil hats around their house and think that 9/11 was an inside job.”
Did they have tin foil hats when the founders wrote the Constitution?  Click through to watch the video.

FISA: Money Talks (by shystee at Corrente)
Complaints by citizens concerned about losing their constitutional rights? Not so much: Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:
$8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
$4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)

Deja Vu (Political Wire)
Dan Balz: “A campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain once offered enormous possibilities for something new. Instead, the two presumptive nominees have opened their campaigns for the White House with what looks and sounds like a repeat of the kind of politics both have promised to leave behind.”

Obama’s Unprecedented Attack on Free Speech - Mechanisms and Results (Political Center, Newsvine)
For many months now, Obama has run a campaign that has as its centerpiece the control and manipulation of the media, and the elimination of free speech. This began as a methodology designed to control the Internet. And moved to the main stream media very quickly.
Click through for the details.

Kansas governor, Obama ally, warns GOP will play race card (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Echoing comments by Barack Obama, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius predicted that Republicans would undertake “a major effort to try and frighten people about him” because of his race.

Selling Race Bait (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

[W]hy did Obama recently warn us that the Republicans will use his race against him? [He] was using a simple political persuasion technique. This manipulation is called “inoculation” by social scientists … A negative accusation is made, and the intended prey (in this case the RNC) is blamed as if it had already engaged in the substance of the charge even though no such thing has actually occurred. This way, should any race-based RNC attacks take place in the future, Obama can say “I told you so.” But there is a much bigger fish just underneath the surface. Actually, the intended message was, “Republicans are racists.”

Washington Post Reporter: Obama ‘Is Much More White Than Black’ (Think Progress)
During a washingtonpost.com web chat [Monday], a questioner noted that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has launched a new presidential campaign television ad, claiming it is “playing up his white family.” “Until now he’s been ‘African American;’ now suddenly he’s a white Midwesterner?” wrote the questioner. He or she then asked Post reporter Jonathan Weisman if Obama would be “criticized” for allegedly changing his image. Weisman responded by saying Obama’s “great irony” is that he “is much more white than black“… “…He really did not become immersed in black American culture until he left college and went to Chicago. The great irony is that he is much more white than black, beyond skin color.” It’s unfortunate that as a Washington Post reporter, Weisman’s rhetoric is echoing that of right-wing blowhards Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
And it’s also unfortunate that every mention of race, no matter whether it’s true or not, must be jumped on with both feet, and the speaker of the words made to be a racist. The fact that similar words were spoken by right-wing blowhards doesn’t automatically mean that they’re not true, even if that’s usually the case.  A stopped clock is right twice a day.

Obama rips Nader’s ‘talking white’ remark (Chicago Sun-Times)
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama hit back at third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader Wednesday, dismissing Nader’s claim that Obama is “talking white” as an attempt to get attention for his fringe campaign… “There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader told the paper. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white?”
But guess what?  The Black Agenda Report agrees with Nader.

Freedom Rider: Obama Comes Out (by Margaret Kimberley at the Black Agenda Report)
Barack Obama is coming out of the corporate closet, so to speak - in an unseemly rush! Having finally made his nomination inevitable, the Democratic standard bearer-to-be is going public with what was also inevitable: a full unveiling of his pro-business, pro-imperial, don’t-give-a-damn about Black folks policies. Yet Obama’s free pass remains in effect in Black America, where he “is held to no standard at all.” With nearly five months of campaigning to go, Blacks and progressives are surely in for many more bitter disappointments. “Obama has gotten away with making a 180 degree turn because he is now the only Democratic game in town.”

Obama Disagrees With Supreme Court Ruling Requiring a Death to Invoke the Death Penalty (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
Where is Sen. Barack Obama on the death penalty? With Justices Alito, Scalia and Thomas. Here is what Sen. Obama had to say about [Wednesday’s] excellent Supreme Court ruling striking down a state statute allowing the death penalty to be imposed for crimes where no death occurs: “…I disagree with the decision. I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for most egregious of crimes. I think that the rape of a small child, six or eight years old is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable. That does not violate our constitution…” He sounds just like John McCain

Why Bill Clinton’s Miffed At Obama (by Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic)
A Democrat who has spoken directly to [Bill] Clinton about his feelings said that the former president remains “miffed” for two reasons. One is that he feels that Obama’s candidacy was essentially an anti-Clinton candidacy; that Obama ran against Clinton’s presidential record at times, implying that it was timeworn, divisive, and damaging to the party while adopting policy positions that seemed to flow directly from the Clinton oeuvre… Two: Clinton is convinced that the Obama campaign went out of its way to portray the former president as a racist. Clinton wants a private meeting with Obama to sort these things out; he has reconciled himself to the reality of Obama’s nomination and does not want to sit on the sidelines.
And I agree with President Clinton, 100%.

Obama tackles Clinton campaign donors’ hurt feelings (New York Newsday)
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama faces a tough crowd as he attempts to soothe the bruised feelings of several dozen of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top campaign donors in Washington tonight. Obama, who will join his former rival for a $1 million fundraiser at the Mayflower Hotel, has been less than enthusiastic in courting Clinton’s money team, according to several major donors and supporters of the former first lady who spoke on condition of anonymity. And that could dampen enthusiasm for raising the tens of millions Obama might get from his former rival’s fundraising operation. “It’s going to be a really tense meeting … Obama and his people have had this we-can-do-it-without-you attitude,” said a Clinton ally from New York. “They haven’t exactly been enthusiastic about reaching out. … Hey, they might be right, maybe they can win it all without us.”
HURT FEELINGS??!!  What is it going to take for the media and the Democratic Party leaders to understand that our outrage is more than hurt feelings.  The leadership pulled the rug out from under the candidate who got the most votes and the most pledged delegates before they were stolen from her, and all we have is hurt feelings.  Get real!

DENVER GROUP UPDATE
The Denver Group was formed less than one week ago in response to information that Howard Dean and the DNC wanted to keep Senator Clinton’s name off the ballot in Denver in an attempt at fostering the appearance of party unity at the convention. Through the use of mass media the Group intends to make it clear to Howard Dean and the DNC that the convention must be an open convention and must function that way, and to that end Senator Clinton’s name must be on the ballot.
Click through to contribute, but please help Hillary retire her debt first.

Kobe, R. Kelly…Obama? (by iam0nly1, a major contributor at DoneDems.com DONE—Democrats Over Nominating Elitists, posting at No Quarter)
[T]oo many African Americans are simply judging Barack Obama by the color of his skin, and not by the content of his character, much less the depth of his achievements and length of his resumé… If you are a supporter of Senator Obama, and want to help him, then instruct him to go back to the Senate for a few years, at least serve his first term, and gain some experience. Introduce him to some non-radical non-domestic terrorist, non-racist and non-anti-semitic preachers, and non-convicted on 16 of 24 counts of corruption friends! Help him form a platform and a record, and teach him not to change his position on an issue every time he goes to a new state or switches from primary to general election mode. But do not pretend like he is above reproach, a saint, or a messiah. And stop covering up for him or threatening and intimidating those who disagree with you. He is a politician!

And please, stop the chanting and fainting. It’s creepy.

OBAMA’S SEAL OF DISAPPROVAL (by Marc Rubin at Tom In Paine, thanks to bostonboomer at The Confluence)
After capping off probably the worst first two weeks any supposed Presidential nominee ever had, two weeks where he angered Muslims, Jews, civil libertarians, Democrats who opposed the telelcom immunity bill, and the editorial boards of every newspaper that had endorsed him because of backing out of his pledge on public campaign financing, Obama did what any thoughtful, serious, reflective serious, nominee for President would do. — he unveiled his own fake Presidential seal. Not the kind that flaps their fins and catches fish in mid air. He already has enough of those with Keith Olbermann, Arianna Huffington, Newsweek and the rest of the news media swallowing everything he throws their way. This one is supposed to make him look presidential which if you think about it, shows how unpresidential he really is, since if you are Presidential you don’t need a prop to make you look like you are…

Speaking behind a phony Presidential seal is going to be a reminder of everything else that’s fake that the seal represents. All the lies, deceptions, deceits and conceits that has earmarked his entire campaign, from his lies about his relationship to Wright and the Trinity Church to NAFTA, Iraq, and his current lies and reversals of the last two weeks. It will act as a warning label, reminding people that when he speaks no one needs to listen because what he has to say isnt any more genuine than the seal he is standing behind.

The seal itself is so preposterous and clownish, it’s almost as if Obama is intentionally trying to make a fool of himself and he is succeeding, exhibiting the kind of behavior crisis counselors describe as a cry for help, as if he were saying “I’m over my head and I know it, I know I don’t have a clue as to what I’m doing, I’ve suckered all these people in but now what? What am I going to do? Help me. Get me out of this”.
Since he doesn’t have one any more, Clyde kindly created a new one.  See below.

A New Obama Presidential Seal (by Clyde, via Uppity Woman at No Quarter)

WHAT, THEM WORRY? (by Bob Somerby, the Daily Howler)
Maybe Pelosi’s remarks were unfairly excerpted. But to our mind, [a] “Caucus” report from the New York Times captures the “What, Us Worry” attitude Dem leaders routinely adopt toward the work of the press… “…House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today that she believed sexism against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was a factor in the 2008 Democratic primary fight, but added that the Democratic presidential candidate also benefited from being a woman.”… [Tuesday] evening, Pelosi offered a similar framework on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren…

“VAN SUSTEREN (6/24/08): You should see the e-mail I receive. I hear the Democratic Party talk about unity, and there is going to be unity in November. I hear that talk and I read my e-mails think it is almost delusional, because there are so many supporters of Senator Clinton who are absolutely outraged. PELOSI: What are they outraged about? That she did not win?”

What, her worry? But then, this was their attitude during the Whitewater hoaxing—and during the two-year wilding of Gore. (Happy with the way that turned out?) Nothing makes these people mad. Again: By normal interpretive standards, they just don’t seem to care.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Obama ads. (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
I won’t put the ad itself in this post because, frankly, it makes my skin crawl… But in BHO’s first national buy of the general he claims credit for “Extended health care for wounded troops.” Lie. 91 Senators voted for this bill. Obama was not one of them. That is the truth. Obama did not show up to work that day. When will the media begin to call this fraud out on his relentless lies?

The Black Stake, and All Our Stakes, in the Media Justice Movement, Part 1 of 2 (by Bruce Dixon at the Black Agenda Report)
Mass media determine public consciousness. But in the US, where mass media are owned and operated almost entirely by and in the interest of a greedy and irresponsible corporate elite, who keep the issues of control and governance of the internet, cable, broadcast and other media off the table. Potential growth of the media justice movement into an arm of a broad and popular social movement is a clear and imminent threat to the nation’s bipartisan elite. And it’s the only hope for many millions of Americans currently unable to speak with or hear their own voices, or to realize their own power.

Obama Does Not Support Return of Fairness Doctrine (Broadcasting & Cable)
There may be some Democrats talking about reimposing the Fairness Doctrine, but one very important one does not: presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama. The Illinois senator’s top aide said the issue continues to be used as a distraction from more pressing media business.

Obama Charges Rightward, Five CBCers Earn Bush Loyalty Points (by Leutisha Stills, CBC Monitor, posted at the Black Agenda Report)
Five Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members revealed themselves as abject servants of George Bush’s wars, approving the biggest Iraq and Afghanistan expenditures to date. Eleven members later joined Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in shameful surrender to Bush’s secret, warrantless spying on American citizens. However, 70 percent of the Black Caucus stood firm for civil liberties. Meanwhile, Barack Obama has lent his “brand” and voice to a radio commercial supporting a rightwing white Georgia congressman facing a progressive Black challenger - in a primary election in which 70 percent of the voters are Black!

GOP senator makes ad touting work with Obama (On Politics, USA Today)
Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon is tying himself to a presidential candidate in his new TV ad. Just not his own. The new ad for the Republican senator is about his work with Democrat Barack Obama to reduce oil consumption.

Karen Hughes Alert!: Obama’s ‘musical hero’ is Stevie Wonder (On Politics, USA Today)
“If I had one musical hero, it would have to be Stevie Wonder,” Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tells Rolling Stone. His musical tastes extend to Bob Dylan, Jay-Z and Yo Yo Ma, Obama adds.

JUDGING CORDELIA: (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
Did Obama reverse his previous stand when it comes to public financing of the general election? In our view, it’s hard to argue that he didn’t. (On Sunday, we thought people looked fairly silly when they said he hadn’t reversed.)… Presumably, Obama will gain an advantage over McCain by making this decision. But in current discussions of this matter, an earlier fact has rarely been noted; Obama gained an advantage over Clinton during the primaries by taking his previous stand. All during 2007, those “normally sympathetic editorialists” compared Obama favorably to Clinton because he was taking a high-minded stand—and because she wouldn’t follow. Let us stress: This wasn’t a giant part of the coverage, but we think it’s worth noting.

PUMA PAC makes “The Show” (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Murphy gave an interview on NECN. {{sniff}} They grow up so fast. Funny, she doesn’t look like an old, working class, uneducated, sino-peruvian lesbian, not that there’s anything wrong with that. She looks like a youngish strawberry blonde lovely from Massachusetts with the same two apple computers that I have. Do you suppose the Obamaphiles and media people were *wrong* about us???
No Quarter has the video.

Democratic Convention to Be Simulcast In Spanish (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
The Denver National Convention Committee (DNCC) announced today that the August convention in Denver will be simulcast in Spanish.

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com