are the democrats and obama chiping away at first amendment rights

the washington examiner takes a look at a hate crime bill that has been attached to a defense spending bill by the democrats. does it chip away at freedom of speech in the u.s. and when it is passed, will it stand when one day it is challenged before the supreme court? the civil libertities police are on red alert.

obama gets nobel peace prize for showing up and reading teleprompter

hmm. he hasn’t closed gitmo. the afghanistan war rages on. the u.s. government is about to push through a 800 billion dollar healthcare bill that the majority of americans don’t want. and the u.s. deficit keeps climbing and the dollar is sliding. what’s not to like?

jose luis rodriguez zapatero and his unfortunate goth daughters

is that headline unfriendly? it’s sort of an unfortunate but true statement. well, now we know why he’s been hiding them. his poor children, not only do they have all the unfortunate physical characeristics of their parents –who individually are quite an attractive man and woman. but apparently this dna probably should’ve stayed separate.

barack and michelle obama with spain's prime minister jose luis rodriguez zapatero and family

photo courtesy of flickr.

obama booed at busch stadium

some cardinal fans took the time to either boo obama or his white sox jacket as he threw out the first pitch at the all star game in st. louis. curious that the t.v. stations failed to cathc his slow low one-hop ball that didn’t get over the plate. is obama incredibly lucky. or is the media really really in the bag for him. we would’ve expected more from fox. but to produce a shot that doesn’t even include home plate. we’re just waiting for the mobile phone images to surface.

consumption tax on the way in the u.s.?

the obama administration is considering the possibility of implementing a value added tax. this could be a 10% national tax on products that would be added to the state and city taxes on goods and services. so if a state has an 8% tax, this would raise the price of a purchase to 18%. thereby putting the nail in the coffin for retailers during this trying recession. you can find out more information here. and here.

the international monetary fund says: “VAT can be a regressive tax, especially when implemented at a single rate, as the IMF usually advises. This can worsen already-high inequality in developing countries, cut the tax base and cause a decrease in overall tax revenues. In addition, the ‘complex’ record keeping of VAT has been the source of problems: small businesses can be pushed into the informal sector, while governments may not have the administrative capacity to implement the VAT and its refund system.”

wall street journal exaggerates obama’s unpopularity

this article in the wall street journal, written by douglas e. schoen and the right leaning scott rasmussen, take information from the rasmussen report. there’s an excess use of the word ‘just.’ and ‘only.’ such as, ‘only one third agree’ or ‘just 19.’ the article also notes that barack obama has lost most of his republican support. does he mean david brooks from the new york times? is he even a real republican?

gordon brown and the wizard of oz

uk prime minister gordon brown was apparently snubbed by the new u.s. administration this week. to add insult to injury, brown, who is essentially blind in one eye, has a PhD and was formerly chancellor of the exchequer, was given a box of dvds which included star wars and the wizard of oz. perhaps he was mistaken for the queen. hopefully they are all region 2.

gordon brown snubbed by obama

that’s what the brits think. read the 375 comments and counting on the daily telegraph website. no lunch. no enthusiasm. no special press conference with british flags. maybe obama really is a friend of david cameron. he did seemingly bond with him last summer. the best comment on the post thus far is by old school esq: “It’s called being ruthless. You get what you want and then you move on. And it’s the American way.”

barack obama versus herbert hoover

the gloom and doom obama administration should probably consider no longer using the phrase ’since the great depression.’ and switch to ’since 1982.’ it would be a much better way to spin the current financial situation to the media.

but if the obama administration wants to make the comparisons. here we go. during the early 1930s, the hoover administration signed into law the smoot-hawley act, which was essentially a protectionist move to prop up american companies and jobs (a bit like the buy american bits that are in the current stimulus package). tariffs were increased on imports coming into the u.s. the world in turn increased tariffs on american exports. this in turn pushed the u.s. and the rest of the world deeper into a depression.

next the hoover administration raised taxes at the beginning of the depression in the hope of balancing the budget. in barack obama’s faux stat of the union address –the address to both houses of congress, obama laid out his plan to tax individuals who make over 200K and couples who jointly make over 250K. raising the current tax rate to somewhere around 39%. and not allowing the same people to deduct their donations to charity. given that charities are where struggling americans have had to turn to for food, clothing, and additional help, this bit flies in the face of reason.

the primary differenceds (thus far) between the two administrations is that, well, herbert hoover believed in the bootstrap concept and that charities should help bail out americans. that too was a disaster. the stimulus package that barack obama has signed has some good stuff in it. but the bit about giving $10M to one of nancy pelosi’s pet projects to save some obscure mouse that lives along the coast of san francsico should not be in this package.

charitable donations by rich folks not tax deductable

in barack obama’s new tax the rich budget, rich folks (which for some inexplicable reason is attached to couples who make over 250K and individuals who make over 200K), will no longer be able to write off their charitable donations. well, we all know that joe biden gave about 1% of his salary to charity in 2007. so this sort of all ads up.

visit the obama meter

according to the florida rag, the st. petersburg time, obama made over 500 promises during the marathon campaign season. here you can easily keep track of which ones he has kept and which ones he has thrown under the bus.

david axelrod on fox news chicago on rod blagojevich and obama senate seat

various incarnations of this video keep getting pulled from youtube. wonder if barack obama’s friends at google have anything to do with this.

incoming government’s new job creation plan

this new job creation plan proposed by barack obama, heavily weighted towards building and improving roads and highways, looks a whole lot like what mike huckabee proposed during one of the endless republican debates earlier this year.

what about high speed trains connecting american cities left to right?

michelle obama and the grinch separated at birth

sometimes doesn’t michelle obama look like a dr. seuss character? most first ladies do. barbara bush could’ve been the lorax. although it’s actually al gore who speaks for the trees. nancy reagan definitly resembles any random dr. seuss character.

in terms of separated at birth. michelle obama and the grinch. by claiming michelle o resembles the grinch is not to say that she _is_ the character. although earlier this year she and barack obama told people magazine and politico that they don’t give their kids christmas presents.

no filibuster proof u.s. congress

the run-off election in georgia has produced a republican winner. saxby chambliss beat jim martin by 60 to 40%. sarah palin, mitt romney, mike huckabee and john mccain all went down to georgia to help seal the deal while barack obama didn’t make the trip, but allowed his voice to be used in radio advertisements. so the democratic party will not get 60 votes in the senate and it will be possible for the republicans to block bills passed by the house. the check and balance system does work.

is it true what karl rove said, that barack obama has reverse coattails in the south?

17% college grads know diff between free markets and centralized planning

a new article in the washington post focuses on a recent study which includes gems llike ‘only 17 percent of college grads understood the difference between free markets and centralized planning.’ and ‘only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.’ i’m sure everyone knew the bit about ‘the right to bear arms.’ hey, this might be why barack obama thinks the u.s. has 57 states.

seems like the washington post is trying to make up for their poor coverage during the presidential election. or perhaps the zogby/ziegler poll which showed that ‘57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.’

barack obama avoids georgia run-off election

the previous posting was about sarah palin heading down to georgia (the state, not the country) to stump for chambliss whose trying to hold onto his senate seat. but barack obama, who we know as the president elect because we’ve seen this seal in front of his podium during numerous press conferences, has recorded some audio for jim martin, but won’t be stumping for the man.

is obama concerned because he’s read karl rove’s editorial about his reverse coattails in the south.

timothy geithner as secretary of treasury

a piviotal job in barack obama’s new administration was announced late on friday. well, early enough to watch the market react, but late enough (if taken badly) not to cause real damage.

geithner who is white, or appears to be, like obama has lived outside of the u.s. and may bring much needed international knowledge to the table.

how is the press covering the story. the wall street journal seems pleased. despite geithner’s relatively young age (47), he’s the president of the new york fed and worked with the IMF for 2 years according to wikipedia.

the problem with hillary as secretary of state

the problem with hillary clinton as secretary of state, doesn’t really have anything to do with hillary. it has to do with bill clinton. if she is nominated to the seat, during the confirmation hearings, the republicans (who at the moment look like they don’t have a foot to stand on) will go through the financial contributors to all of bill clinton’s projects line by line. some of whom include members of families from oil rich countries, and by that we don’t mean the united states. as bob woodward recently asked, what is barack obama smoking?

but how is this story being convered by the mainstream political media? most publications such as the new york times are enthusiastic about all of obama’s appointments. there have been sceptical editorials in the washington post. the guardian, a british newspaper with a sizable u.s. readership, is gushing as well. other sceptics including the new republic which writes in a recent blog entry that no drama obama is inviting drama into the white house with open arms.

faux republican david brooks fawns over o

the barack obama love affair (aka media hype and bias continues). just read david brooks’ new column in the new york times.

Maybe He Can’t; Robert Reich Says 2009 Darkest Year

now that everyone knows that change is not coming to washington but a mini-clinton restoration is taking its place, the american people are now being told that this financial crisis this and the recesiion (both of which are of course connected) may go on for 2, 3, or even 4 years. the barack obama people, like david axlerod and robert reich. (who was bill clinton’s labour secretary) are trying desperately to lower –some might say trample, on people’s expectations.

editor of newsweek drops by fox news

you know the magazine must be hurting when jon meacham goes on hannity and colmes to push newsweek magazine (as well as his new book). you can located the video of this exchange about the similarities between obama and lincoln (NOT) on fox news.

here are the similarities between obama and lincoln. lincoln had only served for 2 years in the house of representatives. barack obama served for less than 2 years in the senate prior to running for the presidency. abraham lincoln was the first republican president. barack obama is the first black president. both studied law. so we’ve got the neophyte bit covered and the first one of something covered. and they both served a term (or in obama’s case almost a full term) in the federal government representing the state of illinois. but the similarities end because the operative word is that abraham lincoln was a member of the GOP.

lincoln had a legal career which spanned 2 decades. during which he argued numerous landmark cases. the cases on which obama has worked have so far not been scrutinized by the press or revealed by his former law firm.

during his campaign abraham lincoln and stephan p. douglas debated in an endless series of town hall meetings famously called the lincoln-douglass debates. something that barack obama refused to engage in with john mccain. it is conceivable, that obama would’ve prevailed and could’ve turned a modest win into a landslide of ronald reagan proportions. but we’ll never know.

but one thing’s for certain, this newsweek barack obama cover story is uncritical.

another clinton years veteran for attorney general

according to newsweek, known for its flair and fair and balanced reporting, eric holder, former deputy attorney general in the clinton administration has been offered a job as attorney general. well, looks like the 1990s are about to play themselves out again. hopefully without the lewinsky scandal. so far obama has announced 2 white guys and leaked the names of two women and two minorities. now all his supporters will be some what appeased. its a balancing act that the outgoing president, george w. bush, played but in a slightly different way.

hillary clinton as secretary of state, say it ain’t so

this would be a disaster. and even the washington post agrees.

why a disaster? 1.) hillary clinton voted for the iraq war 2.) who do you think will really be in charge? 3.) hillary only speaks one language. it would be nice if language skills was an actual job requirement here. but this is the united states and most english speaking people are monolingual. although condi rice’s russian was suspect. 4.) those americans who live overseas will be forced to look at her every single day on TV. 5.) we thought the 90s were over 6.) shakespeare may have said, ‘keep your enemies close,’ but he didn’t mean that close.

kroft serves up softball questions on 60 minutes

yesterday, cbs ran a taped interview with barack obama as interviewed by steve kroft. not only did kroft basically hand obama his answeres.he didn’t press him for any details and there were virtually no follow-up questioins. and was the timing of the interview a way to cover up the fact that barack obama missed the g-20 summit this weekend, aka bretton woods 2?

obama skips bretton woods 2

the g-20 summit that’s taken place this weekend in washington dc is being billed as bretton woods 2. all the heads of state of the 20 most economically relevant nations have descended on washington and barack obama is tucked away in chicago. or perhaps hiding.

so what was the original bretton woods? set forth in 1944, the meeting of key nations was attended by 730 representatives of 44 nations and was organized by franklin d. roosevelt and winston churchill in the hope to establish economic cooperation. the meeting established a set of rules and regulations surrounding the international monetary system. a general description can be found here.

it is possible that george w. bush set up the meeting for this particular time partially for political reasons. had john mccain prevailed and become president of the united states, the meeeting would’ve reassured global markets. and perhaps bush and his handlers also took into consideration that if barack obama won (as he did), he would be hardpressed to prepare for such a monumental meeting and with george w. bush leading the event, obama’s stature within the community would be diminished.

the g20 summit without obama and with gordon brown in lead role

a financial pow-wow is happening this weekend in washington dc. last week ‘a blog about whatever’ pointed out that barack obama will not be attending. today, the international herald tribune basically supports his idea to duck the meeting.

it is conceivable that george w. bush picked this moment partially for political reasons. had john mccain won the election, it would’ve shorn up the markets’ trust in him. and with a barack obama win, it could show him up as the financial and political neophyte that many suspect that he is.

with the absence of obama at the g-20 summit and george w. bush being basically the lame duck president that he is, gordon brown is asserting himself on the world stage according to the international herald tribune. brown was recently quoted as saying that he was prepared to take obama under his wing and teach him about the financial markets. that may sound condescending. and well, quite frankly it is. but brown was chancellor of the exchequer of the uk for 10 years.

resounding conservative silence following obama election

there has been little if any protest by conservatives over the election of barack obama. that’s due to multiple reasons. one of which is, the powers that be in the party didn’t expect to win. but as the democratic primary dragged on and on, hope started to rise. the second reason is, due to the large turn out of black and latino voters, proposition 8 passed. many african-american voters turned up to vote for obama, and in the process, 70% of those voters voted ‘yes’ on proposition 8, which amends the california state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. around 60% of latinos voted to amend the state constitution as well. so the phrase ‘the lord works in mysterious ways,’ has recently assumed a whole new meaning for the focus on the family types and others who favored the passage of the amendment.

meet the economic advisors for the new u.s. president’s administration

obama’s economic advisers consist of congressman david bonior, former fed chairman paul volcker, former treasury secretary larry summers, time warner chairman richard parsons, fomer labour secretary robert reich, former treasury secretary robert rubin, former SEC commissioner roel campos, mayor of los angeles antonia villaraigosa, michigan governor jennifer granholm, warren buffett, former congressman david bonior, former fed vice-chair roger ferguson, and google ceo eric schmidt. while some may be obsessing about the lack of semi-colons in this incomplete list. let’s take a look at some of the people.

antonio villariaigosa, mayor of los angeles, who graduated from an uncredited law school and failed the california bar exam. according to the l.a. times, he quit trying after four attempts.

paul volcker, former chairman of the federal reserve, was initially appointed by jimmy carter. that may not sound encouraging. but he’s credite with having tamed stagflation. and was reappointed by ronald reagan in 1983 and replaced by alan greenspan in 1987. you can watch an interview with volcker on charlie rose. an article from the new york times published in 1987, at the close of his tenure states that his legacy is that “…he freed the economy from its worst predicament since the great depression.” his reviews are somewhat mixed given that some believe his tight control of the money supply made the recession during the early 80s a lot worse.

governor jennifer granholm, the chief executive of the state of michigan, is originally from canda. she presides over a state with the highest unemployment rate in the u.s. in 2005, according to the wall street journal, she proposed to raise taxes on insurance companies, banks and thousands of small businesses that private studies said would have cost up to 20,000 jobs (obviously her canadian roots were showing). but her plan was killed by the legislature.

obama not attending g-20 economic summit

according to the bbc, barack obama will not be attending the group of 20 economic summit next weekend. is this by choice? the spanish prime minister will be incognito as well. according to an article in last weekend’s edition of the financial times, jose luis rodriguez zapatero, who the spanish fondly refer to as ‘little feet,’ wasn’t invited by the bush administration. and since then, he has been lobbying anyone who will listen to try to get them to get bush to send him an invitation.

cbs early news host weeps over obama win

more ‘unbiased’ reporters weap tears of joy over obama win.

european union pushes for global free trade deal before obama administration gets in

you can read more information about this here

obama computers hacked during the election

why is it that this information comes from the financial times and the daily mail two uk based newspaper? apparently mccain’s campaign network was hacked as well. the u.s government cyber investigation believes this cybercrime originated in china.

michelle obama’s fashion faux pas

your husband becomes the first black president in the history of the united states and the first non-white head of state of any western country. so what do you wear? well, if you’re like michelle obama, who freely admitted to jay leno that she shops on the internet, you wear something that looks like it was purchased atross dress for less. unfortunately, it wasn’t. because then she would’ve had an excuse. it was actually by narcisco rodriguez, better known as the man who made The Dress for the late mrs. john f. kennedy jr.’s wedding.

the downside to all of this for her is that she will see images of this dress for the rest of her life. perhaps now we understand sarah palin and the rnc’s investment of 1% of their budget in hair and makeup and clothing for the vice presidential candidate.

rupert murdoch worried about possible u.s. protectionist policies

in an interview broadcast on the bbc rupert murdoch voiced concern that barack obama’s instinct might take him toward protectionism. while acknowledging that he liked him as a person, murdoch voiced concern regarding obama’s inexperience.

there’s a fairly lively comment section on murdoch’s wall street journal website concerning what a obama presidency will mean for small business owners.

asian industry is leary of possible protectionism arising under an obama administration and a democratic controlled congress.

county by county election map 2008 presidential election

this county by county election map, provided by the washington post shows that obama essentially played the john kerry and al gore game last night, but was far more successful. he ran up the margins in the urban areas of places like ohio and pennsylvania, which overpowered the more rural areas. but in terms of red versus blue and square meter, the u.s. is very red.

you only need 700 million dollars to buy your way into the white house

which is a certain sort of equality. in countries like the uk or germany, which have stricter rules regarding politics and advertising, it would not be possible to completely saturate the airwaves with wall to wall television commercials or to buy time on 7 TV channel to rollout your fluffy infomercial –without the opportunity for the opposition to challenge you. but in the u.s.a., it would’ve been possible had the mccain campaign had 7 – 20 million floating around. a.) to buy airtime b.) to produce a slick, fluffy piece of television propaganda.

4 million less voters in 2008 than in 2004

with all the hoopla surrounding the election. and images of long lines. in 2008, 117 million people voted, 4 million less than who voted in 2004. barack obama has won the presidential election with 62 million to john mccain’s 55 million votes. in 2004, george w. bush won with 62 million and john kerry racked up 59 million votes. so about 4 million people sat this one out.

the final count is 63m to 56m. so 3 million less voters turned out in 2004 than in 2008.

john mccain and obama saturday night live montage

this is pretty funny.

b-list actors go to missouri to tell folks how to vote

ryan philippe, aka the ex-mr. reese witherspoon, is in suburban st. louis today with c-list actress olivia wilde to tell missourites they should vote for you know who. the two actors, who have most likely never stepped foot in flyover country, probably couldn’t even locate missouri on a map prior to barack obama pointing it out to them (obama only knows where it is because he lives in neighboring illinois).

john mccain’s vice presidential running mater, sarah palin puts in an appearnce in more rural missouri today with hank williams, jr.

obama and biden say spread the wealth but only not from their pockets

joe, gaffe machine, biden gave about 1% of his earnings to charity last year. while barack obama has an aunt, who is written about extensively in his book living in the projects in south boston.

the october surprise comes in november

first barack obama disowned reverend wright. and now reportedly hisaunt is an illegal alien who has been living in a housing project in boston, obama says ‘all approriate laws should be followed in this case.’ and that he was unaware he had an illegal aunt. guess he just tossed his aunt under the bus.

but was millionaire barack obama aware that his aunt has been living in a ghetto in boston? was he aware that she has donated money to his campaign?

it took a UK based newspaper, the times of london, to uncover barack obama’s aunt who obama talks about in his book. but these days claims not to know very well, although she did attend his inauguration in 2004 — the same year she was reportedly denied asylum by a u.s. court and told to leave the country.

obama has already picked his cabinet

according to foxnews, barack obama has already essentially picked his presidential cabinet and already discussing what he’ll do in his first 100 days.

more americans trust mccain on economy, taxes; the economist says ‘voting for obama a risk’ but backs him anyway

the editors write ‘But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk.’ and then the go on to endorse him. which is sort of a backhanded compliment, don’t you think.

at the moment according to rassmussen reports, more americans trust john mccain on taxes and the economy. is this the joe-the-plumber effect?

barack obama’s new head of gray hair

in 1992, bill clinton suddenly got a whole head of gray. barack obama, who sometimes looks like he’s about 30 years old, has suddenly sprotted a whole head of gray hair. if you didn’t notice this in his weapy, self-indulgent infomercial, you can see it here in the photo next to the wall street journal article about barack obama and fannie mae and freddie mac.

gallup likely voter poll mcain gains 2 points now at 47 obama at 49

according to gallup, the poll of likely voters–traditional, has mccain but 2 points shy of overtaking obama. for registered voters, they are separated by 7 points.

media bias and where’s barack obama’s friends?

abc news editorial about lopsided media coverage of the 2008 presidential election. the journalist writes: ‘if current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the united states a man who…has left no paper trail,seems to have few friends and has entire years missing out of his biography.” you can read the full article here.

preppy east coasters caught up in ohio voter fraud scandal

so you’re a trust fund kid from the east coast and have some extra time on your hands. why not move temporarily to ohio and register people to vote. and while you’re at it, why not register yourself to vote too. thirteen campaign workers have yanked their voter registrations and ballots.

why are these 20 and 30-somethings not being charged? smells like a kind of george w. bush silver spoon in mouth (or was that a fork?) scenario. reportedly, the spokesperson for the group, who apparently did not turn in a ballot, is a stanford law student, according to the palestra student network.

joe biden gaffe in new mccain ad

joe biden, aka ‘gaffe machine‘ went on the record last week saying ‘mark my words, obama will be tested by an international incident sometime within the first 6 weeks of his presidency.’ or something like that. that blurb has just made it into a new mccain ad:

a bit of right of center support for barack obama

over the past 2 weeks, barack obama has racked up support from moderate republicans such as colin powell, scott mcclellan, and chris buckley. colin powell has always been essentially a non-partisan figure while scott mcclellan was dubya’s spokesperson during most of the iraq war. what would william f. buckley, jr. say to his son’s endorsement of obama. since he died earlier this year (and perhaps a certain kind of conservatism died with him as well), we will never know.

as the democratic party has a left wing (obama) and a right wing (billary clinton, evan byah, etc.), the republican party has this as well. which was more pronouncedly on display during the 2007 debates and this past spring’s primaries. with mitt ‘i gave taxachussets universal health care and gay marriage’ romney and rudy guiliani (cross dresser that he is) representing the left flank and mike huckabee essentially representing the right flank and mccain running basically in the middle.

but is this a valentine to barack obama, an f–k you to george w. bush, or a slap in the face to john mccain? hard to say. or is colin powell, now in his twilight years, eager to rehabilitate his reputation after his performance at the un in 2003 during which he made the u.s.’s case for heading into iraq. and scott mcclellan possibly overcome by protestant guilt that he told numeours big ones over the pass few years. was chris buckley, an eastcoaster, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy his weekends in the hamptons without catching s–t and is now anxious to be invited by the kennedy clan to martha’s vineyard? only mr. buckley knows.

whatever happened to obama’s reverend jeremiah wright

last sping, during primary season, barack obama’s pastor, reverernd jeremiah wright, from trinity united chuch of christ in chicago surfaced as a cammpaign issue.

he disappeared for a period. then resurfaced in front of the national press club in washington.

initially he was to be the october surprise. a report went out over the summer, that rev. wright was releasing a book in october. wonder what happened to this? was it right (so-to-speak) for the media last spring to focus on wright and pull out snippets of his sermons with incidiary yelpings like ‘god damn america?’ but now that the press has tired of the story, is it fair game for the mccain campaign to bring it up. or god forbid, bloggers.

media asked to pay for access by obama campaign on election day

according to fox news media organizations are being asked to pay upwards of $1,870 if they want a prime spot to cover barack obama’s election night party.

on paper, it seems reasonable. given that they are asking news organizations to cover their costs. but according to the report there’s some nonsense about paying to be in areas with heat and areas that don’t have an obstructed view. has the political news media created an icon of such proportion that even prior to gaining election, he’s suddenly become as inaccessible as bush ever was.

it is quite likely that whomever put this out to the press did not think the whole thing through. in that now obama is being thought of as say more like his pays george clooney or equated with the likes of angelina jolie. such people whom the media generally must negotiate endlessly with p.r. people in order to obtain access. arnold schwarzenegger made a similar screw up when he initially ran for governor. as an actor, all of his questions were pre-screened and when prior to holding his first press conference, as a gubernatorial candidate, his handlers requested that journalists hand their questions in in advance.

one would think that barack obama might actually rethink having his election night party in chicago and move it to springfield, the capitol of illinois.

campaign expenditure breakdown mccain and obama

apparently the barack obama campaign spent 430K on food (which presumably includes michelle obama’s $500 snack at the waldorf astoria last week) $44m on salaries and benefits, 160m on broadcast media and $10m on internet media. there is an area called unknown which sucked up $550K. what unknown element consumes half a million dollars?

the mccain campaign spent $6m on broadcast media and $3m on internet media. miscellaneous expenses with insufficent info sucked up about $160K –about $400K less than the obama campaign.

from the 2004 presidential campaign, john kerry, a staunch barack obama supporter, still has incomplete finance reports. there is no disclosure for $26m of funds and incomplete information on $4m funds. that’s about 19% and $30m that is unaccounted for.

50,000 commercials and 605 million dollars

according to the new york daily news, citing the campaign media analysis group, last week the barack obama campaign broadcast 50,000 30 second commercials on national, local and cable TV channels. counting his primary run, obama has thus far raised $605m. some might call this a perversion of democracy. in most first world countries, there are strict regulations which would prohibit dominating the airwaves in such a way. but obama is in america, so he doesn’t have to worry about this.

but how much traction is he gaining. at the moment he is 4 or 5 points up.

whatever happened to barry soetoro

while barack obama attended school in indonesia, he went by the name barry soetoro. here’s a new video on youtube called ‘october surprise’ by illuminati pictures which asks questions about barack obama’s citizenship. questions such as, was he adopted by his step father? did that make him a citizen of indonesia? and addresses the philip j. berg vs. obama lawsuit which is asking barack obama to present his birth certificate and proof of citizenship. apparently the DNC and howard dean are fighting this.

so the question is, why is the democratic national committee fighting this? case documents can be found here if this is only a frivilous lawsuit.

but why isn’t the mainstream political media talking about the fact that barack obama is in the middle of a lawsuit?

there are also questions about whether or not john mccain is a natural born citizen considering he was born in the panamal canal. during the time of his birth, this area was u.s. territory. but it raises the question of what did the fathers of the american constitution mean when they wrote ‘natural born citizen?’

edit: thanks to the poster who pointed this out. friday, a lawsuit was filed in hawaii demanding that barack obama present his birth certificate.

michelle obama’s $447 lunch

last week, while staying at the waldorf astoria in manhattan, michelle obama got a wee bit hungry so she ordered some lobster and champagne. you can take a look at the bill here. well, that’s just chump change considering the obama campaign has raised $650m this election cycle. was michelle obama just spreading the wealth or rather, sharing the wealth? click the highlighted link to read the obambi.com story.

ohio disenfranchising cops?

apparently sometimes police officers are reluctant to list their home address on voter registration cards. given their line of work, this is understandable. are they about to bedisenfranchised due to this practice?

joe the plumber unemployed

yesterday joe wurzelbacher (aka joe the plumber) stopped by mike huckabee’s new show ‘huckabee,’ which appears of fox, as well as fox and friends. he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he had a job anymore because his company had been closed down.

does this have anything to do with the brave new world we presently live in? has 1984 show up a couple of decades late? has the obama campaign, which has just reportedly raised $150m in september, by snooping around in joe’s background and havine joe biden announce on jay leno that joe doesn’t even have a license, cause the powers that be in ohio to shut down his company and put joe and his family in the unemployment line? this is unclear.

but bloggers are reporting that someone contacted the local union of plumbers, steamfitters and service mechanics in toledo and the toledo division of building inspection and as of friday they were trying to track him down to tell him he can’t work without a license.

hopefully joe will end up with an offer from rupert murdoch and a television show on fox. or maybe cindy mccain could offer him a job.

have the media and the obama campaign killed joe the plumber’s american dream?

joe the plumber saves the mccain campaign

over the weekend, both barack obama and john mccain sent themselves and each other up (as well as billary clinton) at a white tie affair in manhattan (see below).

peggy noonan of the wall street journal stepped up to give both mccain, and his much maligned running mate sarah palin, a backhanded compliment saying joe the plumber has done a better job of laying out the republican platform than the republican party.

the so-called joe factor. should not be overlooked. that mccain has been able to attach a visual image to barack obama’s taxation proposal has probably helped as well. reuters/cspan/zogby now show john mccain as being only 2.7 percentage points behind barack obama. which is a statistical tie. these numbers are reflected on gallup.com as well, for likely voters.

barack obama and joe the plumber

fox news thinks barack obama is a socialist because he wants to spread the wealth around in the u.s. which for some equals wealth distribution. you can watch fox’s commentary below. and below that, you’ll find the full length video of obama’s conversation with joe the plumber from ohio.

the world series rolls over for obama

game 6 of the world series will be delayed by fox, the rupert murdoch owned station, so barack obama can have his 30 minutes before the u.s. audience. that is, if there’s a game 6. his ad buys on fox, cbs, and nbc amount to about 3 million dollars.

will this bolster barack obama? or is it analogous to hillary clinton’s one hour TV buy one night prior to Super Tuesday? which was staged managed within an inch of its life. will people love him more the more they see of him? or will this backfire on him in the way that his excellent adventure to europe did?

mccain’s new ad with obama and bill ayers

the new york times recently ran an article connecting barack obama with bill ayers, a 1960s left-wing radical. ayers and his wife were part of the weather underground, a group that terrorized the u.s. in the 60s. it’s almost a parallel tale to how the baader-meinhof group terrorized germany during the same period.

the weather underground may sound like a industrial band or a sister group to the weather girls. but it defintely wasn’t. bill ayers and his wife went on the run for 20 years while they were on the FBI’s most wanted list. apparently the ayers family is part of the chicago neighborhood barack and michelle obama live in and they have moved in some similar circles. which could be analogous to holding john mccain responsible for the actions of any number of people. or who knows.

how much of an influence will this have on voters? the real question is, why was this glossed over by the media during the primaries when the clintons brought it up? and since it didn’t gain any traction then, will it gain any traction now? the video has been up on youtube for about 2 or 3 days and already has over 500K views.

hillary clinton, failed DC bar, wants supreme court appointment

is this even possible? according to the ever reliable new york post, billary clinton are doing the bare minimum to get obama in the white house because mr. obama won’t guarantee that he’ll nominate hill to the supreme court. given that she has never served as a judge and failed the dc bar. what are the clintons thinking?

nancy pelosi voted for bank deregulation

nancy pelosi took the time to bash george w. bush prior to the vote on the $700B wall street bailout plan that was before the u.s. house of representatives today. in the video linked to above, she rails against ‘no regulation, no supervision, no discipline,’ presumably of the u.s. banking system and not the iraq war.

but the reality is this, nancy pelosi voted to repeal the glass-steagall act in 1999, which regulated the u.s. banking system as a response to the financial fallout of the great depression. glass-steagall stood the country in good stead for over 70 years.

the move toward bank deregulation and less supervision in the 1990s is believed by many to be at the heart of this global financial crisis. pelosi’s beloved bill clinton, whom she praised in her ill-timed speech, signed the damn thing. click here to see how pelosi voted on the financial modernization act which is described in the summary of the bill as: ‘an act to enhance competition in the financial services industry by providing a prudential framework for the affiliation of banks, securities firms, and other financial service providers, and for other purposes.’ written by republican phil gramm, the bill got a lot of yeas. only a handful of democratic senators voted against it, including california’s barbara boxer and only one republican senator voted against it. while john mccain didn’t vote. joe biden voted yes. barack obama had the fortune of being in the illinois state senate at the time.

obama attacks bill clinton’s economic legacy

according to the financial times, during the presidential primaries, barack obama clearly laid the blame on the financial crisis that was unfolding on banking deregulation in the 1990s.

u.s. financial meltdown clinton greenspan

at the moment loads of people are fingering alan greenspan. but a lot of the press has failed to point the finger at the 1999 repeal of the glass-steagal act. according to pbs “in 1933, senator carter glass (D-Va.) and congressman he enry steagall (D-Ala.) introduce the historic legislation that bears their name, seeking to limit the conflicts of interest created when commercial banks are permitted to underwrite stocks or bonds.” it stood in good stead (albeit with a bit of tinkering) for 75 years until congress and bill clinton repealed it in 1999 following hundreds of millions of dollars worth of lobbying efforts by banks. under the gise of making the u.s. banking industry more competitive, the financial services modernization act passed by an overwhelmingly majority in congress and was signed by bill clinton.

joe biden voted yes and john mccain did not vote. barack obama was somewhere in illinois. house speaker nancy pelosi voted to repeal glass-steagal as well.

but the sponsor of the bill, phil gramm was advising john mccain at some point during his campaign.

the experience fallacy

numeorus u.s. presidents, such as woodrow wilson and abraham lincoln, held an elected office for a mere 2 years prior to becoming president. lincoln wasn’t even in office when he became president. which is why sarah palin is on the republican ticket and barack obama is on the demcratic ticket. truman didn’t even have a vice president for 4 years.

woodrow wilson was governor of new jersey for 2 years prior to becoming president. abraham lincoln served one term in the house of representative.

what happened to obama?

this is what barack obama is asking as are democratic members of the house and senate. does the u.s. have obama fatigue? after both the DNC and RNC conventions, obama’s speech was roundly praised while mccain’s speech was roundly criticized by the media. but it seems that mccain has made a better connection. was it all sarah palin’s doing? if you compare the two speeches. you’ll notice obama speaks in abstracts. he talks about ‘the man in indiana’ and so on. you can view the whole speech here. while mccain speaks specifically about ‘jake in pennsylvania who works on a loading dock.’ you can view mccain’s speech here. don’t blame obama. blame his speech writer and campaign manager.

obama addresses the lipstick gaffe

obama makes a good showing on the david letterman show. or is it just called letterman?

matt damon thinks because we watch his films we care what he thinks

the jason bourne movies are fabulous. especially the first and third films in the trilogy. and everyone’s hoping there will be a fourth. but although people like some of damon’s movies, that doesn’t mean they care about his political opinions. in this video damon talks about disney movies and hockey moms and creationism. yes matt, we know you went to harvard. but you didn’t graduate. did you flunk out? or did you leave voluntarily?

obama has about 3 days (if not 2) to reverse his slide. he’s 5 points down according to gallup, which means mccain got a 13 – 15 point bounce out of the republican national convention. while obama got an 8 point bounce.

maybe obama’s appearance on david letterman helped with the pig with lipstick gaffe. but he had better walk walk on pins in needles the way he did with hillary clinton during the primaries(who democratic women adore). because unlike clinton, who men across all parties view negatively and who republican women can’t stand with a capitol ‘can’t stand,’ men think palin is a guy’s girl and women across the board (54%) have a positive view of her.

but if obama is running for president. why is he spending so much time talking about john mccain’s VP? sounds like a political mistake.

gordon brown backs obama

‘brown backs obama’ is the headline from today’s the evening standard. the uk prime minister, also known as the man with one eye, guided the uk through a decade of prosperity as chancellor of the exchequer.

rewind obama speech versus mccain speech

you can watch both speeches on c-span’s website. or here:

dnc convention and cindy mccain’s sister feels like non-entity

from the opening speech made by michelle obama to the yawnable speechmaking of the washed up clintons, the dnc convention has been well, uneventful. tonight obama addresses the crowd. sure you’ll be able to find it on youtube immediately after it’s over. one day, youtube will be up for live streaming. am i the only one who noticed that throughout the primary season, barack obama’s youtube page was the only one with a ‘donation’ button?

looks like cindy mccain made a mistake years ago (or maybe even recently) by declaring herself an only child. wonder if her half sister also sits on her board-of-directors.

mccain’s new ad featuring biden

here we go. the mccain campaign has produced a pretty good commercial. but the real question is, does the campaign have enough money to get it on t.v.?

john mccain and barack obama with rick warren

a fellow blogger was kind enough to post the videos as well as the transcripts here. you can watch the full forum on trevinwax.com. at the moment, it seems like it’s only possible to locate bits and pieces at msnbc and cnn.

biden delivers delaware

the headline heard round the world. what does joe biden bring to the presidential ticket? what does this choice of the 66 year old say about barack obama? that he’s a bit conservative? evan byah would’ve been a more interesting vice presidential choice. he is a known commoditiy in states such as ohio kentucky.

obama bombs at rick warren forum

this is a more dramatic headline that we’ve been seeing in u.s. newspapers. when in fact, obama seemingly held his own in a forum that wasn’t really geared toward his message. needless to say, john mccain ruled the day. rick warren, whose highly influential book, ‘a purpose driven life’ has sold tens of millions worldwide, hosted the event in the o.c. at saddleback church, which i myself have attended in the past.

you can watch the full 2 hour session on the saddleback church website once the site is up again. you can also watch bits and pieces on msbnc, as well as cnn.

cindy mccain gets attention from the press

the european press routinely ignores john mccain as a rule. walk into any news stand in any international airport and you will see a plethora of barack obama cover stories and headlines. but you will be hardpressed find much info on john mccain. but then you get this headline from the uk’s guardian newspaper. ‘cindy mccain taken to the hospital.’ then you’ll discover that it was merely for carpal tunnel syndrome. well, at least they’re paying attention.

putin and medvedev hand mccain u.s. election

consciously or unconsciously. russia has perhaps handed john mccain the u.s. election. george will hints at this in an opinion piece in the washington post.

bill clinton, fade to grey

billary clinton just won’t go away. bill clinton has just nabbed a prime-time speaking spot on day 3 of this year’s democratic national convention. he follows hillary who will speak on day 2. and more notably, speaks before whomever will ultimately be obama’s running mate (aka, vp). are the clintons relevant? will they cause obama problems over the next 90 days? is machavellian bill willing to fade to black like previous presidents (see richard nixon)? bill clinton makes george bush the elder look like the dali lama every time he opens his big mouth.

tory boris johnson endorses barack obama

according to the financial times, london’s new mayor, boris johnson recently went out on a limb and threw his weight behind barack obama. what this means for obama is unclear. but this coupled with his having seemingly bonded with david cameron, the youthful tory who is most likely the uk’s next prime minister, is not necessarily a bad thing.

no birthday or christmas presents for obama kids

according to the daily telegraph, , barack and michelle obama’s kids malia and natascha (nickname, sascha) don’t get christmas or birthday presents. according to politico, the obama kids have children don’t receive Christmas or birthday presents but birthday slumber parties instead. no mention about christmas slumber parties though.

mccain hits obama with new ad with berlin britney and paris hilton

obama in paris

the weekly standard pauses for a moment to take into account barack obama’s trip to paris. sarkozy notes that france will do well with john mccain, who he met with earlier this year, or barack obama.

madonna without makeup part 2

here’s another shot of madonna from a different angle with her kid loudres from the german rag bild zeitung. you know, the same scandal sheet that recently ran an article entitled i worked out with obama.

obama misses his money shot

the image of barack obama among a sea of bodies at the victory tower in germany was beamed around the world. but, unfortunately for obama germans don’t vote in the u.s. elections. although we’re pretty sure some american expats were among the 200,000.

but perhaps the powers that be within the obama campaign, missed their real money shot for the american public. according to fox news, barack obama made the call not to go to landstuhl regional medical center, where wounded u.s. troops from both the iraq and afghanistan wars are cared for, because he didn’t want to involve them in what could be perceived as a campaign event. also, according to the article, if obama’s plane had touched down at the ramstein base in the country, the pentagon would’ve considered it a campaign stop. but it’s not really clear what that means. obviously the pentagon is presently controlled by the republican party and W wouldn’t want to be seen as helping out obama. it’s not clear if obama could’ve just landed anyway and just had his campaign foot the bill or what. but i somehow think the gipper would’ve gone for the money shot and chucked the victory tower speech.

is this a controversy? who knows. but obama definitely missed his money shot.

obama german love fest and what about the troops stationed there

obama opted out on visiting a hospital with wounded u.s. troops from the afghanistan and iraq wars stationed in germany. according to the wall street journal, he did not visit the military hospital in landstuhl germany, but managed to speak before 200,000 in berlin germany. apparently, obama’s campaign would’ve had to foot the bill for going to the military hospital. the details in the article aren’t 100% clear. i had read elsewhere that some people from his campaign would’ve been denied entry. but not sure where i read that or if i’m ‘misremembering’ things, as W might say. if i find the info, i will post it later.

obama’s 250M euro speech in berlin

on thursday, obama is set to give a speech in the haupstadt of germany. with security and what not, the whole thing reportedly will cost the city, that is already like 60 billion euros in debt, 250,000 euros. that’s what, like almost $400,000. and loads of people aren’t happy about it. the whole event costs almost $800,000.

david cameron wants to be like obama

but there’s a distinct difference between barack obama, who is black (and was raised by a slighly overweight unattractive single parent), telling black fathers they need to step up the plate and david cameron, the head of the british tory party (and possibly the next prime minister of the uk), who is white and was raised under well above average circumstances (with more than one but less than three parents), telling absent black fathers that they need to take care of their babies and their babie’s mama. or something like that. but cameron seems to have taken this issue to the african-caribbean churches in the uk and according to the guardian, they are in agreement with him. perhaps camron gets a pass because he generally doesn’t come across as racially insensitive and he can give a 50 minute speech without notes.

will obama say i am a jelly donut?

when john f. kennedy jr. visited berlin many moons ago in the pre-acid 60s, he said these infamous words: ‘ich bin ein berliner.’ translation. ‘i am a donut.’ when amanda from ’sex in the city’ attended the premiere of the aforementioned film in berlin last summer she said, ‘ich bin ein berliner.’ ‘i am a donut.’ hopefully obama won’t make the same mistake’

obama used as pawn in german election

seems like every german politician wants to get close to barack obama. from head of state, the well-respected yet dowdy angela merkel, to the dour yet popular frank-walter steinmeier, the present foreign minister, to the gay mayor of berlin, klaus wowereit.

barack obama, in his reported quest to speak at the brandenburg gate, where ronald reagan famously demanded, in an alzeheimer induced haze, that gorbi ‘tear down this wall,’ has sparked a diplomatic fight. the mayor of berlin is anxious to one day become the first homosexual chancellor of germany, although one might argue he would be the second, while angela merkel is anxious to win re-election and increase her party’s national standing.

in germany, it’s all about percentages. and right now, steinmeier and wowereit, members of the SPD (social democratic party), have watched their party’s percentage quickly erode over the past 3 years and increasingly so over the last 12 months. the present SPD candidate for president, gesine schwan is currently polling at 17%. a photo op with obama, who 72% of germans apparently like, would be a big boost to the local politicians.

it would make more sense for obama to touch down in london, ireland, and perhaps poland or denmark. all of which are countries involved in the iraq war.

obama seeks photo op with gay berlin mayor

is it that big of a deal? no, not really. but is this the headline barack obama wants to see in kansas city, kansas? or lincoln, nebraska? following the ill advised long-playing interview with his kids malia and sasha obama on access hollywood. well, that’s the headline he just might get, at least in the blogospher, after he touches down in berlin, germany. the mayor, klaus wowereit, who has also in the past extended an official welcome to a controversial international sex festival is anxious to roll out the red carpet for obama as well. perhaps he should speak with jesse jackson about that one. obama would most likely love to be seen with angela merkel, the present head-of-state of the european union’s largest member.

hillary clinton was politically minded enough to blow off the ex-german foreign minister, joschka fischer at a new yorker party last year, so she wouldn’t have to live down being photographed with the ultra-liberal, ex-street fighter who caused a lot of left-wing ruckus in germany in the 70s and 80s and whom some believe helped sew the seeds of anti-americanism in europe.

malia obama gives interview in cornrolls

i thought i might give the obama’s a tip. although hip-hop is more popular with suburban than urban youth in the u.s., no one in the apalachians gets cornrolls. here’s malia obama giving access hollywood the scoop.

germans forget not allowed to vote in us presidential election

germans have a special relationship with the u.s., considering it was, like panama (aka john mccain’s birthplace), once a colony of the u.s. at least, the former western part was. now they think americans actually care who germans would vote for in the u.s. presidential election. some organization went as far to take a poll.

bill clinton and anne hathaway 6 degrees of separation

who would’ve thought we could play the kevin bacon game with billary clinton and anne hathaway via her ex-italian boyfriend whose presently in the slammer. it’s not exactly a ‘princess diaries’ kinda story but more like ‘the devil wears prada.’

bill clinton hopping mad at barack obama

the telegraph headline reads ‘bill clinton says barack obama must kiss my ass for his support.’ this coming from the man (aka, hillary clinton’s husband) who got less votes than both john kerry and al gore in both the elections handed to him by ross perot.

clintons off tim russert

tim russert, host of meet the press, cheerleader for barack obama, and arguably the man who knocked hillary clinton off her pedestal, has died at the age of 58 of an apparent heart attack. but we’re not really blaming the cintons for killing tim russert. why would they want to kill russert? maybe metaphorically, but not literally. because you know, the billary aren’t criminals

barack obama first non-white presidential candidate for major party

yesterday, barack obama crossed the magic line to become the first non-white presidential candidate of a major u.s. political party. the last time hillary clinton acknowledged that obama had won a primary or caucus was last january –almost exactly 5 months ago when he won iowa. even last night, hillary clinton failed to acknowledge obama’s win of montana or the nomination. how delusional is that?

100 delegates left to go for obama

as oregon and kentucky vote today, barack obama has merely 100 delegates left to go to wrap up the democratic nomination.

barack obama inches to 1907 delegates

barack obama inches to the 2025 (magic number) for capturing the democratic nomination. this weekend, conventions were held in nevada and kansas. in nevada, obama picked up 1 additional delegate and leads hillary clinton 14 to 11.

bill clinton only ever got 39%

in 1992, bill clinton, who in his 2 elections never got more than 43% and 46% of the national vote, won the u.s. election with 39% of the white vote, according to boston globe. some people within the democratic party are a bit up-in-arms that hillary clinton has decided that there’s this demographic of hardworking blue collar americans, who in her mind are only white. or rather, this is what she seemingly informed u.s. today earlier this week. but we know hillary clinton, famous for misspeaking (remember how she was under sniper fire in bosnia). perhaps she was having yet another senior moment. or she was having an al gore moment.

obama takes north carolina by 14 points

barack obama won north carolina yesterday by 14 points. as of this morning, the vote in indiana is virtually tied with hillary clinton leading by 51% to 49%. at 12.05am EST, illary was leading by about 28K votes with 91% of the vote in. but in northern indiana, the area around chicago, which includes michael jackson’s hometown of gary, only 28% of the precint had been counted and obama has been picking up 75% of the vote. this of course didn’t stop hillary from claiming victory and according to the washington post, saying “We’ve broken the tie and thanks to you its full speed on to the White House.”

moveon.org rolls out anti-mccain ad

moveon.org, the organization filled with hopping mad democrats has produced the ad below taunting mccain about the iraq war. will the democrats be running against george w. bush? no. but no one seems to understand this. most americans don’t think dubya when they think john mccain. but perhaps spring is a good time to do a bit of test marketing.

hillary hopes to become the energizer bunny

hillary clinton eeked out a 9 point win over barack obama in pennsylvania. 54% to 46%. but ultimately, she merely gained 13 more delegates. while daily she loses more superdelegates.

abc gets lost in stephanopoulos land in presidential debate

as i’m an expat, i rely on cspan to watch the presidential debates. so i don’t necessarily have the same complaints that loads of bloggers have about the debates. although i did find it curious that abc did cut to a commercial after both hillary clinton and barack obama finished their opening statements. but as i watched the re-run on c-span, it just merely cuts away and then returns to the program.

i’m not sure why it’s taken some people this long to recall that george stephanopoulos worked on the initial bill clinton election campaign back in the 90s and served as spokesman for the first couple of years. ex-clintonites abound in the media both directly and indirectly. case in point, james rubin, who recently contributed an opinion piece to the financial times is married to cnn chief international correspondent, christiane amanpour.

i would like to know why george stephanopoulos couldn’t ask hillary clinton about her telephone conversation with bill richardson. but it is true that no new policy issues were brought up and that charles gibson and stephanopoulos and the producers at abc could’ve done a better job for the american people.

here’s dee dee meyers, ex bill clinton press secretary whose book about how women should rule during the democratic primary coincidentally came out during the middle of primary season.

hillary clinton grabs the issues loses the audience

hillary clinton spoke at the capital conference luncheon on april 15. tax day. and the speech was somewhat taxing. but not completely. a journalists from a buffalo based paper questioned hillary about the 200K jobs she promised upstate new york during her last senatorial election campaign. and asked how she would address the economic crises in the u.s. her marathon 15 minute answer never fully addressed the bit about upstate new york. i do agree with her that more apprenticeships should be created for young people who aren’t into going to college (or can’t afford it). but one has to wonder why when hillary was ‘co-president’ and the u.s. had a 100B surplus and high poll numbers, this wasn’t addressed in the 90s?

but it is clear that hillary has a firm grasp of the details of issues. at least that’s true if you’re not sitting in front of wikipedia, aren’t fully equipped with google, or have access to archive video footage from cbs while she’s speaking. but yesterday, after having sat in a room filled with eager listeners who work in the newspaper industry, i was amazed at how quickly the level of excitment dissipated about 10 minutes into her speech. was her speech any more boring than the one either john mccain or barack obama gave the previous day? no, not really.

‘me thinks’ hillary suffers from the gordon brown sydrome. the present uk prime minister, gordon brown, and the leader of the tory party, david cameron, were to have duked it out for the PM seat last fall but gordon brown got cold feet and decided not to call an election when david cameron and the conservative party’s poll numbers shot up 9 points after cameron delivered this fabulous 60 minute speech without assistance of either notes or a telepromoter. cameron, who was barely out of diapers while hillary and bill were co-presidenting the u.s. of a, still has the infintely more seasoned gordon brown quaking in his boots.

the captial conference kicked off today, bringing together the newspaper association of america, nexpo, and asne under the same tent in washington dc. topics on the agenda for the week include content management, goin green, building an audience in a fragmented world and evolving digital media. within the conference is the associated press’ annual meeting. the organization will host a luncheon on monday at which barack obama will speak. john mccain turns up earlier the same day for the ap meeting. while hillary clinton will speak at a nexpo event the following day.

perhaps during the event, barack obama will clarify what he meant by bitter people. i don’t think this is an elitist statement. and most poor people, if they are honest with themselves as impoverished university students do from time-to-time, the majority would confess to being bitter about their prospects in society.

i had hoped to attend at least a couple of function opening day, but due to the lateness of british airways, this just was not possible. the airline recently opened a new terminal. the infamous terminal 5, where naomi campbell had an air rage incident last week. as i snaked through the security cue in london, i noticed a sign which essentially said, ‘don’t assualt our employees, they’re people too.’ or something to that effect. i could only think that perhaps the sign is a thinly veiled reference to naomi.

martin luther king died 40 years ago today

remember back in january, when hillary clinton dissed martin luther king, jr and robert f. kennedy (who died 40 years ago this june) to praise lyndon b. johnson, of all people. during the course of her tirade, she got ted kennedy so hopping mad that the whole kennedy clan that matters (ted, caroline, and ethel. forget rfk, jr, the recovering addict turned environmentalist who threw his um-hum, weight behind hrc.)

it should be noted that hillary clinton and john mccain are taking part in an event to honor martin luther king. it should also be noted that last year, along with pbs, the congressional black caucus hosted debates for both the democratic and republican candidates. if i remember correctly, all the dems turned up, but rudy, mccain, and romney couldn’t be bothered to put in an appearance. but ron paul and mike huckabee both gave very impressive performances.

spies in the pews as trinity united church of christ is hounded

this should bother us all. now journalists religiously (so-to-speak) descend upon obama’s church, trinity united church of christ on the south side of chicago to take notes and to you know act like joe mccarthy did during the ‘red scare’ in the u.s. when he was trying to root out communism. you know, that evil -ism which allowed millions of people to not be homeless and have free health insurance. the denomination, which is primarily made of of white churches, is slowly coming to its rescue. it is ludicrous that reverend wright is being called a racist based on a series of 30 second snippets from a 2 hour sermon.

la opinion weighs in on obama unity speech

california based la opinion endorsed barack obama last january heading into super tuesday. while the spanish language newspaper didn’t put obama over the top, it most definitely helped him halve the 20 point lead hillary clinton had in january.

john stewart on obama philadelphia speech

mccain defends obama on hannity

obama passport information breached state department

one report states that obama’s passport information was accessed 3 times since january. another one says twice. either way, gotta wonder. is this the clintons or bush? or just a temp trying to satisfy curiousity.

mccain and huckabee defend obama on reverend wright

the best part of this post are actually the comments beneath. someone notes that both john mccain and mike huckabee have defend obama saying a candidate shouldn’t be held responsible for what the people around them say yet hillary clinton has said nothing. you can read the details here. there’s also video floating around about this as well.

hillary missed obama philadelphia speech

hillary clinton says she’s glad obama gave his race speech although she didn’t see it. she can find it here. you’ll notice whenever she mentions barack obama’s name she says ‘african-american’ or ‘black.’ in this video, you’ll notice that there is a lone black guy standing behind her throughout her speech.

billary clinton campaign tactic reverend wright

so what’s hillary clinton’s campaign up to? well, tagging barack obama as a candidate only for one minority group while slowly slicing the others away. here’s how their doing in this time around. 1.) trot geraldine ferraro out and let her claim sexism is worse than racism and accuse the media of reverse racism 2.) edit 30 second loops out-of-context of a 2 hour sermon and then hand them around to the media 3.) get your friends at the wall street journal to write about it. 4.) trot bill clinton out to do the TV rounds to deny that he’s injected race into the whole campaign and so on and so on. then watch the white american vote get wedged from barack obama. that’s a bit whatdick morris thinks. and he ought to know, he used to work for the clintons. forgive the typos.

bbc gets it wrong on the u.s. election and billary clinton

this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7287595.stm
is a complete farce. the journalist only lists the popular vote for selective states and not all states. –all the states not listed were won by barack obama. she decides to include florida, votes which aren’t acknowledged by the party because the state broke party rules. but then doesn’t include michigan, which has the same problems.

pleeeeeze do some fact checking. i luv the bbc:-)

obama falling for clinton dirt

hopefully obama won’t let the clintons drag him down into their cynicism and negativity. it’s fine to point out the differences, the flip-flops and so forth. do it in a bush-esque way. with charm and not with malice. hillary clinton has got zero personality. don’t let her taint yours.

texas race obama ahead by 5 delegates

the texas primary still hasn’t been decided. the 2-step system has billary clinton winning the primary by 3 percentage points –but all the absentee ballots haven’t been counted. and obama at this point leads the caucus voting 56% to 44%. you can read more details here. at the moment, obama leads hillary by 5 delegates.

clinton sabotage obama campaign with eye on 2012

click here.

pledged delgates obama has led since january

don’t let billary clinton fool you. barack obama has led the delegate count since he won iowa. he won iowa by 8 points, lost new hampshire by 2 points. but in new hampshire, he picked up 1 less delegate than hillary. in the next race, nevada, although he lost the popular vote, he won nevada by 1 delegate.

after that there was the blow out in south carolina. super tuesday gave the 2 a bit of a draw, but obama won more states and won his states by larger margins than hillary.

what happened with california and obama’s lead. well the economist just thinks it’s the goofy pollsters. but california had early voting. so people started voting fully 1 month prior to the election when the perception was that hillary clinton would be the nominee. CA picking hillary is yet another sign that the western state is completely out of touch with the rest of the u.s.

527s in ohio and obama

so according to abc news a pro-hillary rodham clinton 527 (a group operating independently of a politician but spends an unlimited amount of dough) is planning on running a series of ads trying to convince voters in ohio and texas and any other state that will listen that politicians shouldn’t be eloquent. well, george w. bush surely isn’t. i guess that must mean something.

american presidents used to give good speeches. just look at old speeches from george washington, abraham lincoln, thomas jefferson, and ronald reagan. jimmy carter was a big snoozer. george h.w. bush was too. both of them only lasted 1 term.

the u.s. presidency is a weak position. the founding fathers intended it that way. the president can ’set’ policy. but congress doesn’t have to work with him if they don’t like him. and the only way to push anything through is to use the big schmooze. meaning, you’ve got to convince the american people and you also have to convince congress.

total collapse

was the 7.2 earthquake in indonesia a sign for obama? who knows. maybe it was more of a sign for billary clinton. obama won wisconsin by 17 points. and beat billary clinton among men by 29 points, according to abc news. in his home state of hawaii, he blew hillary away by 52 points.

the economist cover story obama

not only does the economist try to reinforce the podcast they did with bob kerrey (former senator from nebraska) by mentioning (seemingly off-handedly) that barack obama grew up in a muslim country yet not pointing out that he is christian, the article also. well, just rambles. apparently the journalist never bothered to look at obama’s website and actually read his policy issues. for shame. the magazine lost it’s “mo” a few years back when the old editor retired.

obamamania and momentum

obama has swept the last 8 primaries and caucuses. he’s got the big mo and he’s hoping billary clinton will
get their alamo.

so the clintons are trying to go back to the playbook they pulled out in january as billary sought to win the new hampshire primary after a crushing defeat in iowa. basically, they are trying to say ‘boy, obama sure does give good speeches, but where are the details.’

there was a good article in the new york observer about 8 months ago with michael dukakis. remember him? well, he famously lost a 17 point lead to george bush the elder back in 1988. his campaign stump speech, much like billary’s, focused on how qualified and confident he was. in retrospect, he and a lot of dems realize the reason he lost, gore lost, and kerry lost –all against week republican candidates, is because they didn’t know how to give a really good stump speech and get people all riled up. they focused too much on details. which of course is important. but when you’re packing a stadium of 20K, like obama, don’t you want to give them something to take home and talk about?? and if you want the minute details you can go to barack obama’s website.

but now that hillary has the

obama clinton delegate count

with 70 delegates at stake in maryland, 15 delegates at stake in washington dc, and 83 delegates at stake in virgina, barack obama swept the so-called potomac primary. winning 60% to 37% in maryland, 75% to 24% in dc and 64% to 35% in virginia.

obama has 1078 delegates to billary clinton’s 969. this is without superdelegates. which some news sites are counting, but should not because superdelegates, which consist of present and former democratic politicians and flunkies, such as DNC chairman, howard dean, can change their votes at anytime.

delegate count obama 589 clinton 551

here’s the state by state tracking by real clear politics. i’ve subtracted the superdelegates, because these numbers are fluid and can change from day to day.

the race in california, where billary clinton leads by about 300K votes with only 33% of precincts reporting, is not over. barack obama pulled out a come-from-behind win in Missouri, winning the state 49 to 48. obama won the majority of his states with wider margins than clinton. he also won across the country, with clinton having left a gaping whole in the mid-west.

early voting in california may have hurt obama. people started casting their ballots january 7.

chris rock robo call and predictions

my prediction is that obama takes CA, MA, CT, ND, IA, KS, MO, AL, GA, IL (of course), AZ, AK, HI. hope i got all the abbreviations right. haven’t thought about some of these states in ages. some by wide margins, some by narrow. i still think he has a chance in NJ. but who the hell knows.

you can listen to the chris rock robo call.

ethel kennedy endorses obama

the la times reports that ethel kennedy, widow of robert f. kennedy has endorsed barack obama. la opinion, the l.a. based spanish language newspaper with a readership of 500K has also endorsed obama.

caroline kennedy barack obama commercial

here’s the ad caroline kennedy, daughter of john f. kennedy and neice of ted did for the barack obama campaign.

caroline kennedy in ad for obama

caroline kennedy will appear in commercials for barack obama.

bill and ted’s excellent adventure, roadsign in south carolina

pretty much sums up the primaries.

of course, the big news is that ted (martini) kennedy has endorsed barack obama. the endorsement follows on the heels of a touching endorsement of obama from caroline kennedy in an editorial which appeared in the sunday edition of the new york times. the editorial, entitled, ‘a president like my father,’ talks about how caroline kennedy feels that obama could inspire the electorate in the way that john f. kennedy jr. once did.

obama gives letterman’s top 10 list

last night, barack obama appeared on the david letterman show and this is what he had to say:  

GOP picks billary clinton apart

people are wondering why there was no mention of barack obama in last night’s debate. according to the washington post, everytime hillary rodham clinton’s name is mentioned, it brings the republican party together.

bill clinton global image down the drain

in an article in the financial times, bill clinton is being taken to task for getting all red nosed and angry during his quest to insure that his wife, hillary rodham clinton, is the next president of the united states. this bill clinton is a bill clinton world leaders have never seen. primarily because in 1992 and 1996, we didn’t have blogs and CNN (the clinton news network) was one of the few 24 hour news channels. now with BBC world, euronews, and various other 24 hour news channels and of course YouTube, world leaders are being exposed to the ugly politics of the clintons. the triangulation and the lies as he tries to take barack obama down. and people can’t meld this with the image they had of him in the 90s as he went out of his way to hide out overseas when things got tough in the u.s. back then. but it’s 2008 and you can run, but you can’t hide. is this really the person we americans want representing us around the world?

hillary will say anything and change nothing

you can listen to a new advertisement from barack obama that’s running on the radio called ‘hillary will say anything and change nithing.’ hillary clinton’s high negatives keep rising.

billary clinton liar

bill clinton’s lies started after iowa. hopefully independents –all those people who left the democratic party in the 1990s will step up for obama in the primaries.

obama picks up 13 delegates clinton 12

in the nevada caucus, well, the media headlines read hillary clinton has won. when, as with the 2000 presidential election, hillary rodham clinton may have won the popular vote, but she lost the delegate count. so obama is still ahead.

martin luther king jr’s son on the fence about obama says hillary wrong

why is it that more african-americans aren’t supporting barack obama? martin luther king III says he’s neutral in the race at this point, but he could change his mind at any point. in the same interview he said, hillary rodham clinton’s remarks about it taking a president to get civil rights past was wrong.

reuters gets it wrong u.s. presidential election

according to reuters hillary clinton is way ahead of obama in florida. but the article fails to mention that florida won’t have any delegates at the democratic national convention. since it moved it’s primary date up, the state was stripped of its delegates as was michigan.

9 delegates each for obama and hillary from new hampshire

why is the press going nuts about hillary rodham clinton’s win. she only won by 2%. and in the end, both get 9 delegates each from the race. is it really neck-and-neck? and what will happen in the southern states.does the world want to endure more of the partisanship of the clinton years? or as maureen o’dowd from the new york times put it, the people from hope are arguing against hope.

SNL blast from the recent past

obama made a surprised cameo on the halloween edition of saturday night live last fall. 

hillary brings bob kerrey in to pick at obama

hillary seems to be having problems. last month, we were watching her pre-mature coronation. now she’s trying to find a way to dig herself out of a hole that oprah recently made a whole lot deeper. so she’s got bill on charlie rose lying saying obama only has 1 year of political experience, when obama has 10. while hillary has 8 years as the first spouse. which i think makes nancy reagan and the bush twins as qualified as hillary.

now she’s got bob kerrey wandering around endorsing her. –the former senator from nebraska who i guess just can’t stand kansas any more as he now lives in new york, spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince a washington post reporter that obama’s middle name is not american. why does hillary need someone else to fight her battles? is she fighting like, dare i say, _a _girl? just don’t pull hair ms. clinton.

chuck and oprah making a difference?

i’m not sure how i feel about celebrities endorsing politicians. back in 2004, i believe it was joe pantaloni who showed up on the doorstep of some ohioian in thousand dollar tennis shoes, begging the family to support john kerry. this year, there’s the big ‘o’ as in oprah winfrey who is fully supporting barack obama. and then there’s the big ‘norris’ as in chuck norris of of walking tall fame, supporting mike huckabee. the chuck norris facts website is getting a lot of traffic at the moment. number 1 fact on the site, ‘guns don’t kill people, chuck norris does.’ apparently a norris favorite is ‘chuck norris gave mona lisa that smile.’