Wednesday, September 24, 2008

McCain Asks To Postpone Friday Debate Due To Economic Crisis

Beth Fouhy writes for HuffPost:

NEW YORK — Republican John McCain said Wednesday he is directing his staff to work with Democrat Barack Obama's campaign and the presidential debate commission to delay Friday's debate because of the economic crisis.

In a statement, McCain said he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Clinton's Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation's financial problems.

McCain said he wants President Bush to convene a leadership meeting in Washington that would include him and Obama.

"It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the administration's proposal," McCain said. "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time."

McCain said if Congress does not pass legislation to address the crisis, credit will dry up, people will no longer be able to buy homes, life savings will be at stake and businesses will not have enough money

"If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted," McCain said. "We cannot allow this to happen."

McCain said he has spoken to Obama about his plans and asked the Democratic presidential nominee to join him.

The Obama campaign said Obama had called McCain around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. McCain called back six hours later and agreed to the idea of the statement, the Obama campaign said. McCain's statement was issued to the media a few minutes later.

"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved," McCain said. "I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so."


(Link)

Whatcha scared of Johnny?

Smackdown!

ABC News/Washington Post poll gives Obama a 9 pt lead over McCain!

(Source: Real Clear Politics)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The "bounce" giveth...

...and the "bounce" taketh away!

McCain's convention bounce now dwindled down to .6 in the national polls with some once again showing a lead for Obama.

Real Clear Politics has the latest.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Something's rotten in the state of Michigan, Part 2... Obama strikes back!

Obama campaign files suit over “voter-foreclosure” plans

Ed Brayton writes for the Michigan Messenger:

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan over the Michigan GOP’s plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls, as first reported by the Michigan Messenger.

Bob Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, and Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, announced the lawsuit in a conference call with reporters this afternoon. It was filed on behalf of the campaign, the party and three Michigan residents who have had their houses foreclosed upon in recent months.

Bauer called the GOP plan to use foreclosure lists “a new and especially repellent version of caging.” Caging is a technique of challenging voters where they take lists of addresses, mail to them with a “do not forward” marking and if for whatever reason those mailings are returned, they use this as a basis for claiming that the voter no longer lives at the address at which they are registered.

Bauer noted that using foreclosure lists to challenge a voter’s address is “false and illegal” for several reasons. First, because getting a foreclosure notice is not evidence that the person’s address has changed. In Michigan, homeowners have the opportunity to redeem the foreclosure even after a sheriff’s sale has occurred, which means they can stay in the home for many months after a foreclosure notice has been sent. Second, because under Michigan law a person can vote at their old precinct if they lost their home within 60 days of the election.

Brewer noted that in July alone 11,000 Michigan residents received foreclosure notices. The McCain campaign, he argued, “wants to add insult to injury” by denying those residents their right to vote. “The right to vote is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans,” said Brewer, “To try to strip our fellow citizens of their right to vote is un-American and unconscionable.”

Last week, James Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County GOP, told the Messenger’s Eartha Melzer in a phone interview: “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.” The Michigan Republican Party has denied that Carabelli made the statements that the Michigan Messenger reported, but Bauer said that the complaint includes quotes from Republican operatives in Ohio and other states saying much the same thing Carabelli said and defending the legitimacy of using foreclosure lists and voter caging techniques.

Bauer also said that they expect that the lawsuit will allow them to subpoena emails and memos from the state and local GOP officials that will prove that they had obtained foreclosure lists and were planning to use them for this purpose.


(Link)

National Organization for Women endorses Obama

AFP reports:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The National Organization for Women (NOW) said Tuesday it had been pushed by the Republicans pick of Sarah Palin as vice presidential nominee to back Democrat Barack Obama for the White House.

"NOW is going to be endorsing the Obama-Biden ticket," NOW head Kim Gandy told National Public Radio (NPR), referring to Obama and his running mate Joseph Biden.

The 500,000-strong women's movement, which "very, very rarely endorses in a general election", broke with its tradition of neutrality after "the addition of Sarah Palin gave us a new sense of urgency," said Gandy.

"She is being portrayed as a supporter of women's rights ... as a feminist when in fact her positions on so many of the issues are really anathema to ours," Gandy said.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain electrified his party's conservative base when he named Palin, a devout Christian and staunch opponent of abortion, as his running mate some two weeks ago.

The move was seen by some as an attempt by McCain to win over disappointed women voters who had backed Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, and also saw her passed over by Obama in favor of Biden.

"There's no question that a lot of women think it's a great thing for a woman to be running for vice president," Gandy said on NPR.

"But they are completely dismayed when they find out her positions.

"The idea that she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest -- those kinds of positions are completely out of step with American women and once they find out about those positions, they get a little less excited about a woman running for vice president," Gandy said.

NOW was due to formally announce its endorsement of the Obama-Biden ticket later Tuesday at a news conference.


(Link)

An addition to "Important Links"...

The McCainPedia tracks his lies and exposes his record on the issues.

Thanks to From The Left for the link!

Something to ponder...

This piece was written by Judge Andy Sonner of Maryland:

If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire."
If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."

Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic."
Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reck less."
A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a "maverick."

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African American voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of=2 0the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.

If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you've got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.

If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an "arrogant celebrity".
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are "energizing the base".

If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are "presumptuous".
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a "shoot from the hip" maverick.

If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are "an elitist-out of touch" with the real America.
If you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions, you are a hero.

If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an "empty suit".
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an "experienced executive".

If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are "extremist".
If you believe in creationism and don't believe global warming is manmade, you are "strongly principled".

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman with whom you've been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you're "risky".

If you're a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you're an irresponsible parent endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you're a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you're spunky.

If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you "First dog."
If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you "beautiful" and "courageous."

If you kill an endangered species, you're an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion your not a Christian, you're a murderer (forget about if it happen while being date raped.)

If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.



******Keep up with the political campaign please. You'll see all these to be true. This November we will all be making a critical decision. Do your research and choose wisely.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Take no prisoners Joe!

Whatcha' gon' do Hillary?

During the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton asked her supporters if they were in this for the values of the party, or just in it for her.

In an article for HuffPo, Lisa Gans points out why now is the time for Hillary to prove that she meant it.

Women, and people who care about women, should be afraid of this Republican ticket. They should be affronted by the Republican's appeal for support to the very people whom they sees to harm. And they should look to Hillary Clinton to make clear the distinctions between herself and the Sarah Palins of the world. John McCain and Sarah Palin are people who can be counted on to repair any cracks in the glass ceiling made by Hillary and countless others, and roll back progress made by and for women over the past half century. Hillary is in a unique position to point out that this Republican ticket proposes to pack the Supreme Court with radical conservative judges, take away a woman's right to chose, blur the line between Church and State, jeopardize Social Security, and cut social programs whose beneficiaries are primarily women and children.

Yet, following the announcement of Palin as the VP nominee, Hillary Clinton released the following tepid statement: "We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate."

During the debates against Barack Obama, a man with whom she voted approximately 90% of the time in Congress and with whom she shares a basic set of values, beliefs and core political principles, Clinton did not hold back her pointed criticisms of the man she hoped to defeat. It is now time for her to unleash her oratory power and, in this case, well-deserved indignation, against John McCain and his choice for vice president.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are the antithesis of everything that both Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton stand for, and everything that Hillary Clinton has fought for during her political career. I have been an Obama supporter from the start, but I always knew that, if Hillary turned out to be the nominee, the Supreme Court would be safe from justices who would seek to prevent women from maintaining control over their own bodies and reproductive decisions. I knew that the fight for healthcare, education, social security, and support for our nation's veterans would be in capable and concerned hands. And, I had the comfort of knowing that the unilateralism that has been the hallmark of the Bush foreign policy would come to an end and that we would once again reach out to our allies. These are the common causes that should spur Hillary on to step forward and make the difference she clearly can in shifting the tone and substance of the media coverage of this campaign. As a woman who has become a feminist icon with serious track record on issues relating to women and children, she is needed at the front lines, a place where she told us during the primaries she has always been.


(Full Article)

Some great books on Obama you may not know about (but should)...

Some of you may have seen the clip of the reprehensible Sean Hannity foaming and spitting at economist Robert Kuttner...



Kuttner held his own and threw it right back at him!
Kudos to Mr. Kuttner!

He was on Hannity and Colmes to promote a book that we should all know about, "Obama's Challenge".
In it, Kuttner provides an economist's view of the difficulties that Obama will face in taking on the presidency and how he can surmount those challenges to become a truly transformative leader.

You can read more about the book here.
Also, here is a great promotional video to help spread the word...


----

Next up is a detailed and instructive look at the power and efficacy of Obama's delivery, and the skill and dedication that is required to pull that off.

"SAY IT LIKE OBAMA: THE POWER OF SPEAKING WITH PURPOSE AND VISION
will be available everywhere books are sold on October 1st, 2008, and is all about the art of persuasion, the power of presentation, and the most effective techniques of communication - all of the things that has made Obama one of the most notable orators of recent times and has helped move him from relative obscurity, overcoming challenges that could have thwarted another candidate - his race, his youth, his 'exotic' name - to becoming one of the most important figures in the Democratic party."

"In speech after speech, Barack Obama has “fired up” millions of enthusiastic supporters with his inspiring vision, rousing rhetoric, and charismatic presence His outstanding communication skills gave rise to an unprecedented political movement and fueled Obama’s success in becoming the first African American presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party.

But inspiring and persuading millions isn’t simply a product of innate ability—Barack Obama honed techniques that made him a highly effective speaker before audiences numbering thirty to 200,000. These techniques are vital not only in the political arena, but also for business executives, managers, and leaders from all walks of life."

"The author, Dr. Shel Leanne, is uniquely qualified to speak on this topic - she runs a leadership development program for the Fortune 100s, has worked for McKinsey & Company and Morgan Stanley, and has degrees from Harvard and Oxford."

Lynn Andriani writes for Publishers Weekly:

In the book, Leanne, president of the leadership development company Wilshel Corporation, uses examples of Obama’s speeches to explain the art of persuasion, the power of presentation and effective communication techniques. The book includes Obama’s 2004 DNC keynote address and his 2008 Democratic National Convention speech, given just two weeks ago on August 28.


Republicans constantly try to dismiss Obama as a "good talker" without any substance.
It's great to see a book that breaks down the formidable substance behind the talk.



Thanks to Jesse McDougall and Kenya Henderson for the info!

McCain gets hit... by Mitt!



Ouch!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Oops!

Et tu Chris Matthews?

So I watched the forum on service last night.
Most of it was as expected.
The one thing that stood out to me though, was McCain reiterating that somehow the negative mud-slinging from his campaign was Barack Obama's fault.
That if Obama had only agreed to McCain's insistence on joint town-hall meetings, then the campaign would have been honorable and civil.

This is ludicrous, of course. We all know that, don't we?

Apparently MSNBC's Chris Matthews didn't get the memo...



Writing for the Huffington Post, comedian Paul Reiser nails it...

Republican John McCain takes a moment to point out that even this is Barack Obama's fault.

Y'see, all the crap being thrown at Obama -- the fear-mongering, the half-truths, the full lies -- all the character assassination hurling Obama's way, is in fact, his own doing.

"I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all over America," the Senator from Arizona tells us.

Am I just losing my friggin' mind? Seriously. I keep looking around the room to see if I'm living in some suddenly altered state where everything we know is now called the opposite, and nobody notices. Or can stop it.

"I wish I didn't have to take your lunch money, but you should'nt of hadda brung it."

We're in the 3rd grade again. The skinny, smart kid who just moved in to the neighborhood is getting roughed-up by the asshole bully. The kid who hits you in the head with your hand and says, "Why're you hitting yourself? Why're you hitting yourself?"

"Um, actually I'm not. You're hitting me."

"You calling me a liar?"

"No, I'm just pointing out that..." SMACK!

"Why're you hitting yourself?"

And there seems to be no one to appeal to. There're no grown-ups around when you need 'em. No one to step in and say, "Alright, that's enough now. We don't do that here, fella." And in the absence of any authority, the asshole gets to keep doing it.

"Why're you hitting yourself? SMACK! Why're you hitting yourself?"

From the few minutes of the GOP convention I could stomach watching, all I could think was that Giuliani and Sarah Palin were doing some big-person, lethal version of "I know you are, but what am I?"

America: "Well, respectfully, Governor Palin, it could be argued that you are, in fact, relatively inexperienced."

Her: "I know you are but what am I?"

"Hm? No, perhaps you misunderstood. We are talking about you."

"I know you are but what am I."

"Well, Governor, just listening to your speech, you seem awfully caustic."

"You are."

"And, frankly, a little bitter."

"You're bitter."

"I mean, where's your sense of humility?"

"I'm rubber, you're glue. It bounces off me and sticks to you."

"My God - you're... dangerous."

"I know you are, but what am I?"

Maybe that's the problem. Obama treats us like adults, and McCain's team treats us like children.

Obama seeks to inspire and raise us as a nation. McCain's people want to reduce us to infants.

Obama asks us to be deep. And courageous.

McCain prays that we're simple. And cowardly.


(Full Article)


C'mon Chris. You don't seriously believe that McCain's sleazy campaign (that he promised not to sink to) is actually Obama's fault, do you?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

New addition to the blogroll...

Women Against Sarah Palin


Thanks to Big Yellow Forehead for the link!

Something's rotten in the state of Michigan...

Eartha Jane Melzer writes for the Michigan Messenger:

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”

One expert questioned the legality of the tactic.

“You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”

As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.”

GOP ties to state’s largest foreclosure law firm

The Macomb GOP’s plans are another indication of how John McCain’s campaign stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state. McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.

The Macomb County party’s plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan, according to a report issued last year by the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

Challenges to would-be voters

Statewide, the Republican Party is gearing up for a comprehensive voter challenge campaign, according to Denise Graves, party chair for Republicans in Genessee County, which encompasses Flint. The party is creating a spreadsheet of election challenger volunteers and expects to coordinate a training with the regional McCain campaign, Graves said in an interview with Michigan Messenger.

Whether the Republicans will challenge voters with foreclosed homes elsewhere in the state is not known.

Kelly Harrigan, deputy director of the GOP’s voter programs, confirmed that she is coordinating the group’s “election integrity” program. Harrigan said the effort includes putting in place a legal team, as well as training election challengers. She said the challenges to voters were procedural rather than personal. She referred inquiries about the vote challenge program to communications director Bill Knowles who promised information but did not return calls.

Party chairman Carabelli said that the Republican Party is training election challengers to “make sure that [voters] are who they say who they are.”

When asked for further details on how Republicans are compiling challenge lists, he said, “I would rather not tell you all the things we are doing.”


(Full Article)

The plot thickens...

'Nuff said...

McCain - The (not so) little boy who cried, "Wolf!"

Seth Grahame-Smith writes for HuffPo:

The man who can't remember how many houses he owns cries "elitist!"

The man who said "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should, and "I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong," cries "economy!"

The man whose running mate denies manmade global warming cries "environment!"

The man with ZERO executive experience cries "executive experience!"

The man who chaired the committee that set a record for unauthorized appropriations cries "I'll make them famous!"

The man who voted with George W. Bush 90% of the time cries "change!"

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The man who knowingly spreads malicious lies cries "honor!"

The man whose campaign is run by lobbyists cries "no more lobbyists!"

The man whose running mate has a pregnant, unmarried 17-year-old daughter cries "abstinence!"

The man who cheated on his ailing wife cries "family values!"

The man who can't tell Sunni and Shia apart cries "judgment!"

The man who picked the least experienced VP candidate in history cries "country first!"

The man who got caught in the Keating Five scandal cries "integrity!"

The man who joked about Chelsea Clinton being "ugly" cries "offensive!"

The man whose party mocks service cries "service!"

The man who supported abolishing the Department of Education cries "education!"

The man whose family was targeted by Karl Rove in 2000 cries "get me Karl Rove!"

The man who fought against the Bush tax cuts cries "permanent Bush tax cuts!"

The man who called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance" cries "I love evangelicals!"

The man who cried "no Iraq timetables" STILL cries "no Iraq timetables!"

A man who touts his running mate as a "reformer" cries "get me more Bush veterans for her staff!"

A man who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade cries "I'm the candidate for women!"

...and America eats it up.


(Link)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The forgotten constituency...

Jonathan Freedland writes for the Guardian:

Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.


(Full Article)


While I don't share his overly pessimistic assessment of the current polls (indeed the so-called "Palin Bounce" seems to be falling back to earth), he does raise a point that is far more important than the Republicans would have us believe.

If McCain is elected, the world and it's leaders may spurn the United States in a way that spells disaster for our efforts to combat terrorism and economic depression.

McCain misstates Obama's sex-ed record...

Margaret Talev writes for McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — Throw the flag against: The McCain-Palin campaign.

Call: Unsportsmanlike conduct.

What happened: A new 30-second TV ad attacks Barack Obama's record on education, saying that Obama backed legislation to teach "'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

Why that's wrong: This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.

But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

Republican Alan Keyes tried to use Obama's vote against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. At the time, Obama spoke about wanting to protect young children from abuse. He made clear then that he was not supporting teaching kindergartners about explicit details of sex.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Tuesday of McCain's ad: "It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls."

Penalty: 15 yards for the McCain campaign's deliberate low blow.


(Link)

"Don't call it a comeback!..."

"It's been a long time, I shouldn'ta left you..."

I've been out of the bloggosphere for a minute, but not out of the Obama campaign.
I'm organizing an environmental forum at a local college that will tout Obama's environmental and clean energy plans as well as get students registered to vote.

But I'm jumping back into the fray here because... well... it's too important not to.

I want to thank my homegirl over at Big Yellow Forehead for helping me realize that it's not about how many readers you have, or even how deep your posts are (or, in my case, the fact that I mostly aggregate information and articles from around the interwebs), but rather that you are doing something.

If I only have one reader, and that reader gets something out of what I post here, then I've done my job.
And so, on that note, back to work...


Edit: With great embarrassment I now realize that aggregate is an adjective, and has no verb form.
But y'all know what I meant.
Can we create new words? Yes we can! ;p