Operation Zero Cred: Calling the Leadership

Tell these guys to get some balls.

Majority Leader Harry Reid
(202) 224-3542

Majority Whip Dick Durbin
(202) 224-2152

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(202) 225-0100

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(202) 225-4131

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn
(202) 226-3210

The message:

“The Republicans have zero credibility on the economy.”

Paraphrase President Obama:

“Please reject the Republican theories that got us into this mess in the first place.”

And for Senator Reid:

“Make the Republicans stand and filibuster if they want to filibuster. No cloture votes!”

I Didn’t Vote For Obama Today (great piece from Talking Points Memo)

You can see the original post here

I Didn’t Vote For Obama Today

November 4, 2008, 9:37AM

I have a confession to make.

I did not vote for Barack Obama today.

I’ve openly supported Obama since March.  But I didn’t vote for him today.

I wanted to vote for Ronald Woods. He was my algebra teacher at Clark Junior High in East St. Louis, IL.  He died 15 years ago when his truck skidded head-first into a utility pole.  He spent many a day teaching us many things besides the Pythagorean Theorem.  He taught us about Medgar Evers, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and many other civil rights figures who get lost in the shadow cast by Martin Luther King, Jr.

But I didn’t vote for Mr. Woods.

I wanted to vote for Willie Mae Cross. She owned and operated Crossroads Preparatory Academy for almost 30 years, educating and empowering thousands of kids before her death in 2003.  I was her first student.  She gave me my first job, teaching chess and math concepts to kids in grades K-4 in her summer program.  She was always there for advice, cheer and consolation.  Ms. Cross, in her own way, taught me more about walking in faith than anyone else I ever knew.

But I didn’t vote for Ms. Cross.

I wanted to vote for Arthur Mells Jackson, Sr. and Jr. Jackson Senior was a Latin professor.  He has a gifted school named for him in my hometown.  Jackson Junior was the pre-eminent physician in my hometown for over 30 years.  He has a heliport named for him at a hospital in my hometown.  They were my great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively.

But I didn’t vote for Prof. Jackson or Dr. Jackson.

I wanted to vote for A.B. Palmer. She was a leading civil rights figure in Shreveport, Louisiana, where my mother grew up and where I still have dozens of family members.  She was a strong-willed woman who earned the grudging respect of the town’s leaders because she never, ever backed down from anyone and always gave better than she got.  She lived to the ripe old age of 99, and has a community center named for her in Shreveport.

But I didn’t vote for Mrs. Palmer.

I wanted to vote for these people, who did not live to see a day where a Black man would appear on their ballots on a crisp November morning.

In the end, though, I realized that I could not vote for them any more than I could vote for Obama himself.

So who did I vote for?

No one.

I didn’t vote.  Not for President, anyway.

Oh, I went to the voting booth.  I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine.  I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.

I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly.  But I didn’t vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.

When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for – and then decided to let him vote for me.  I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama’s name on the screen and touch it.

And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine.  But I didn’t cast it.

Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red “vote” button was the person I was really voting for all along.

It made the months of donating, phonebanking, canvassing, door hanger distributing, sign posting, blogging, arguing and persuading so much sweeter.

So, no, I didn’t vote for Barack Obama.  I voted for a boy who now has every reason to believe he, too, can grow up to be anything he wants…even President.

A Reverse “Bradley Effect”?

You guys know what the supposed “Bradley Effect” is, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_effect
Well, it turns out there a reverse version of it going on. in this version, white voters don’t want to reveal to their other white friends or family that they want to vote for Obama.

“The Bradley effect has mutated. We are seeing it in several states, but the reverse effect is much stronger,”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/A_reverse_Bradley_Effect.html

This post is on the wordpress.com main page:

This post is on the wordpress.com main page:

Obama Born in Kenya? (New Information) [Update x2]

Coast Provincial General Hospital, Mombasa, Kenya Update 2, 10/12/08 10:40 AM ET: Since originally posting this story Saturday, Atty. Philip Berg’s office informed us that they cannot discuss this matter due to pending [...]
td bl

Doesn’t seem all that bad, right?

Until you discover who is behind it

from the Racist White Supremist group Stormfront’s site

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php/which-hospital-obama-born-522021.html

And the usual pro-gun nuts

http://www.guncontrolkills.com/199/elections/barack-obama-is-not-a-us-citizen-not-eligible-to-be-us-president/

Two racist/violent groups came up with this stuff. I don’t know who texasdarlin is. But, my guess is she’s not so darlin.

What they’re trying to do is make a few voters think “He’s not one of us. he’s not American. He’s not white.” This is how ridiculous it’s getting out here. We’re in the midst of some very strange times. No single person, obama or anyone else, can change things by themselves. What Obama HAS done for many of us (especially campaign volunteers)….is made us come back to the idea that we can do an awful lot together.He’s taught us about teamwork and community.
There IS a lot of division in this country. It may be impossible to stomp out ignorance altogether. But, perhaps we need it there to keep us on our toes. Let’s just do our best.

What Obama (and the Dems) Don’t Get

It seems every four years we have a Democrat that runs on a Liberal platform during the primary. And each and every time, they decide, once they’ve cleared that hurdle, that they don’t need their base any more.

What Obama and the Dems don’t get is we don’t want wishy-washy, let’s go to the center, bullshit. They lose us every time when they do this. And I can tell you right now…The enthusiasm Obama had is starting to wane .
The reason? Like all the other losing candidates in our recent past, he’s forgotten what got him one and a half million donations. He forgot that we WANT a Liberal/Progressive agenda first and foremost. We expect it. And until we GET IT…we aren’t a lock (for votes) by any stretch of the imagination.

You abandon us? Guess what? We abandon you. This FISA thing, these Faith-based Bush initiatives…NO NO NO. We didn’t vote for more of the same. We didn’t “get involved” for more of the same. We opted in on the notion that CHANGE IS GOOD…IS NEEDED…and nothing less will satisfy us.

What the Dems don’t seem to understand is…THIS WILL NEVER CHANGE. We aren’t gonna vote for a slogan. Wake up. We WANT Liberalism to be a GOOD word. We want someone fighting for us. We’re the people who didn’t show up in 2000. We’re the people who voted for Nader. We aren’t afraid to send a message with our vote. We expect to be represented.

New RS Interview with Barack Obama

Obama talks about the youth vote, what’s on his iPod (some suprises there), and his top priorities if he becomes the President.

Read it here

How far is too far?

Today marked Hillary Clinton’s lowest point in a campaign of many low points.

Hillary Clinton today brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert
Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack
Obama.

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the
California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all
remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t
understand it,” she said, dismissing calls to drop out. from New York Post

Watch a video of the editorial board meeting here

We Hood! We Votin’–and Throwin’ It Up!

Whether it’s the Vote Different ad that kicked off the primary season’s viral warfare, or a completely loopy set of videos called Barack in 74 that imagine a man who may well be our next president as a resolutely nerdy stoner at Occidental College, this has been the best campaign ever for ads and videos.

Read story at NewsCloud.

What’s the Hillary Monster Hiding?

More reports of a planned election coup by the Klintons

Clinton – Texas Caucus Shenanigans

by campaignmonitor, Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 11:21:58 AM EST

This is interesting, from Politico:

The Dallas Morning News gets hold of Clinton caucus “training materials,” in which supporters are instructed to fight for procedural control of caucuses.

The materials say in part, “DO NOT allow the supporter of another candidate to serve in leadership roles.”

It goes on to say, “If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serve as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.

“The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions.”

Some of the moments on the ground in Nevada showed how crucial technical control can be, particularly when — there, as expected in Texas — nobody has any idea what the rules are. Really makes you love the caucus process.

More perspective:

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Clinton campaign training materials regarding Tuesday night’s caucuses ominously advise supporters to take control of caucus sign-in sheets and vote tallies especially “if our supporters are outnumbered.”

[Clinton caucus training material] goes on to say, “If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serves as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.
“The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions.”

Now there can be only one purpose in trying to control the tally of votes under circumstances in which a campaign knows it’s outnumbered, that it will lose an honest counting of the votes: to alter the true vote. To cheat. To steal. To suppress the votes of Texas caucus attendees and subvert the caucus process.

The phrase, “if our supporters are outnumbered,” means, in simpler language, “If we lose the vote, take control of the vote tally and change the numbers.”

Place this alongside the Clinton campaign threats to challenge the Texas caucuses and you get a full picture of what Clinton is up to: disrupt the caucuses at all costs. Steal votes, delay the reporting of honest vote totals, throw the process into chaos, do whatever it takes.

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Tags: election+theft, dirty+politics