Can we make it allWright?

Since the media is going to fire away at Obama regarding Wright, i.e. the promo spot for Hardball today says "Fallout From the Wright etc...: I decided to e-mail TUCC since there is an address on their website. Here is what I sent:

Sir:
As a supporter of Barack Obama, I ask that you confer with your church heirarchy and advise Rev. Wright that he has supplied enough raw material from his NAACP and National Press Club speeches for the mainstream media to weaponize themselves sufficiently to defeat Obama's bid for the Presidency of the United States. Does he understand this?

The best opportunity in decades for race relations to take a giant leap for mankind has been scuttled by one of your own.

What can be done?

Black churches should unite and present the spectrum of theology practiced and not let the singular interpretations of one, speak for what I am sure is a many colored coat of belief practices. I fear it is too late to remedy the damages done by Reverend Wright, and frankly I am surprised that a man with his educational background and wide experiences is so naive about what the MSM would do with his presentations.

He owes a public apology to the Obama family and the newer generations of African Americans.

With true sincerity.


graysmoke

De-BAIT......no thanks

Of course Hillary wants to.......her coffers are empty and the campaign is in debt so why not try to carve out some free tv time, then she can make attacks again that the media will regurgitate over and over keeping the spotlight wherever she directs it with her brand of math or her misinformation.

Twenty-one already were way to many using the formats disguised as debate. The last one confirmed that conclusion, Gibson and Stephanopolous turned that one into their own side show. Nothing objective or neutral about their immoderating.


Goodbye Hillary.



graysmoke

Hillary's Plan

Destroy the opponent in any way possible including using fiction.

She is willing to roll in the gutter to try to steal the nomination. She is busy now after the Pennsylvania resuscitation ( no matter how temporary it may turn out to be) creating inaccurate numbers by a special Hillary math method. It counts votes that don't count. Imagine what she can do with that national deficit. Lie us right out of it......doesn't this sound like Bush 3rd?

And the media jumps right into the gutter with her, they like the opportunities for sensationalizing which they are far more practiced in than in fair and balanced journalism. Most top media newstainment personalities are about as far from being journalists as one can imagine.

Now I am not talking here about any Republican opponent but the Democrat that has the actual lead in number of popular votes, number of pledged delegates and number of states won. This has led to her becoming more and more desperate. Now she thinks she can take a case to the convention and persuade the uncommitted superdelegates that are indebted to the DLC machine that they should ignore reality. That Obama should be thrown under the bus.

It may be a dream (entitlement?) of hers to become the first female president, for the rest of us it has become a nightmare. What she tries to pass off as experience is not what is needed, we need to move to the future.

Support Barack Obama. For confirmation of his leadership, just look at how he has run his first national political campaign. Then look at hers.


graysmoke

The Campaign Battlefields

I am waiting patiently for the backlash that is going to smack Hillary down for the count after her attack techniques that are showing signs of desperation. I see the condition of the midwest decay post globalization involving all the outsourcing and post trade agreements that are not balanced nor fair, in even more devastating terms than how Obama phrased it. These citizens have been reduced to third world status right here in our midst. The majority of them hate the position they have had bestowed on them by a government totally dedicated to the corporations and the super wealthy. I think they will still view change much more probable by voting for Obama rather than Clinton. And I think they will also view a vote for him as one for better judgement and greater competence.

Clinton may have more allegiance to Burson/Marstellar and Mark Penn than her displacement of his campaign organization title purports to indicate. She and Bill have been developing their political machine for twenty-five plus years. And Penn is the poster boy.

Maybe someone should initiate a "tour third world USA" travel package. Just think where you could visit, capping it off with New Orleans. Huge areas of Appalachia, that would make a good fall feature, the autumn color spectacular equals that of New England but maybe go to both and get enough photo's to make miles of slide shows. The tour agent could feature visits with the resident unemployed the longest. Or a seminar on how to live after your unemployment benefits end. Or another in how to survive without medical services. Lots of options.

Or maybe a counter tour - urban poverty. Opportunities galore. And why not use old school buses for tour vehicles. Nostalgia. That always sells.

Does this sound bitter?



graysmoke

Who's "Slow-Walking" whom

Today was the highly anticipated Senate hearings with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker coming before the Senate Armed Services and also the Foreign Relations committees. This was the promised appearance to review the effects of the "SURGE". I listened for hours, missed some but not much because of a medical appointment mid-day at Mayo.

There was a lot of the usual, dancing around the issue of what precisely is to be achieved in order for the U.S. to withdraw. No answer really and my impression is they don't know, expect to know when it bites them, and then there was ignoring the elephant in the room. Two men obliged to support - by virtue of their positions - the flawed decisions of a lame duck president.

I do not view Iraq as being significant to U.S. security. And another definition that is never detailed is - what exactly are the national interests of the U.S. over there? There has never been any acknowledgement only allegations, a multiple choice of those. Al Queda? Middle East stability? Power demo? Israeli survival? Fight there so we don't have to here, the WOT excuse?

Dare one mention, OIL?

I try my best to be informed. So here is what I see. The U.S. is being played as a sucker, courteous of the "W" neocon war fevers.

Al Queda has us exactly where they want us --- pinned down in Iraq while they reconstitute in remote areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan and continue working on their next nefarious plans. They have accomplished bankrupting the U.S. - So here we are crippled militarily and monetarily.

The out of power Sunnis are trying to slow walk the Shia. Then there is the "reverse" slow walk, meaning Iran and Maliki.

None of the regional Muslim countries want to touch peacemaking roles. So we are getting slow walked there too.

Basra was supposedly "secured" by the British coalition force.......that farce is over now with the events of the last week or so there.

And worst of all, the American public is being "slow walked" by the Bush administration and that statergy is going to continue right through the rest of this administration.



graysmoke

Credibility test?

Tomorrow is the day that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee with the promised report on the surge effects in Iraq.

How can anyone expect to hear anything other than the administration's propaganda? Both men are beholden to the President. Wouldn't it be amazing if they suddenly embraced the Constitution and held themselves liable to it instead of their boss.

In spite of what appeared to be media control - diverted to the campaigns-facts have a nasty habit of eventually breaking through the fog of war. Even though embedding journalists was highly controlled and ground events served to reinforce the restrictions, there is no way that anyone with a few brain cells still functioning can't fairly easily find much to bring dismay over the actual circumstances of ordinary citizens trying to survive the havoc that has destroyed their lives, homes, professions, job market, social networking, schools, utilities services, medical treatment, just about every facet of existence you can think of. For many this has meant total displacement within their country or temporary refugee status, in a disaster of mammoth proportions.

It will be interesting how much of that will be touched on in the testimony coming up.

Meanwhile, I still suggest you find some Iraqi residents that are still occasionally able to make entries into their personal blogs. See the events through others eyes and not those whose careers are at the whim of the C-I-C -- will either of them have a Fallon moment?


graysmoke

Taffy Pull anybody?

I don't expect many can recall participating in making and pulling taffy - in my parents generation these were sometimes social affairs, maybe two to four couples would do this while visiting each other. The kids would stick around waiting for the final product. And the final product has no similarity to what the ingredients (only sugar, water, butter and vinegar), boiled into a syrup until it forms solid thread when dropped in cold water.

Someone should stage one for a video.

Timing the pulling and folding and twisting becomes a challenge and if pulling a huge batch the earlier work may be done by the ladies and the final harder pulling and stretching was passed on to the men. These loops of taffy were lengthy, my guess is 3, 4 maybe even five feet around the loop.When it is ready it takes on a shiny ridged look and then is made to whatever thickness is wanted, twisted finally onto a counter or table top and after resting for a while, it is broken into lengths that can range from bite size to about 3 inches. This can be done just by tapping with the handle of a dinner knife.

Now how does this relate to politics --- well ---I was just thinking of how the remarks by Barack Obama when addressing sexual responsibility have been twisted, pulled apart and knocked to pieces until it (the punishment by pregnancy) has no resemblance to what he said in the full context of his remarks. Sure sounds like taffy to me.


graysmoke

Bill Blows His "COOL" in California

Getting to see more than the camera sometimes allows:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/02/BAVNVU2PJ.DTL
Matier and Ross
Bill Clinton's tirade stunned some delegatesPhillip Matier,Andrew Ross
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Matier & RossMatier and Ross page
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Bill Clinton's tirade stunned some --

The Bill Clinton who met privately with California's superdelegates at last weekend's state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to "chill out" over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama.

In fact, before his speech Clinton had one of his famous meltdowns Sunday, blasting away at former presidential contender Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process.

"It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended," one superdelegate said.

According to those at the meeting, Clinton - who flew in from Chicago with bags under his eyes - was classic old Bill at first, charming and making small talk with the 15 or so delegates who gathered in a room behind the convention stage.

But as the group moved together for the perfunctory photo, Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton, told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media's unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

"It was very, very intense," said one attendee. "Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns."
When he finally wound down, Bill was asked what message he wanted the delegates to take away from the meeting.

At that point, a much calmer Clinton outlined his message of party unity.

"It was kind of strange later when he took the stage and told everyone to 'chill out,' " one delegate told us.

"We couldn't help but think he was also talking to himself."

When delegate Binah - still stunned from her encounter with Clinton - got home to Little River (Mendocino County) later in the day - there was a phone message waiting for her from State Party Chairman Art Torres, telling her the former president wanted him to apologize to her on his behalf for what happened.

Still, word of Clinton's blast shot all the way back to the New Mexico state Capitol, where Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley reiterated Tuesday that his boss had never "promised or guaranteed" Bill and Hillary his endorsement.

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Bill is still looking for Richardson's "pound of flesh" - it's a Clinton "entitlement" complex.

Bill as baggage again -- they send him out as advance man to soften up voters but I don't think this will do it. He needs to be sent for long R&R.

graysmoke