Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy made the following statement:

Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.

We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan.

The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.

We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.

I am not quite sure how it was a victory for the people of Florida, but . . .

It’s on to Denver!

Congressman Alcee Hastings will not attend the Democratic Convention in Denver.

His statement via the Miami Herald:

It is with reluctance and disappointment that I accept the DNC’s decision today. I do so not because I agree with the decision but because it is time for us to move on and focus on winning in November.

I applaud Karen Thurman and the Florida Democratic Party, Robert Wexler, Bill Nelson and others who represented our state and the candidates for doing the best they could with a bad situation.

Florida Democrats have been serially abused and the DNC is the latest of offenders. How the DNC has the authority to ignore the votes of ‘Jack and Jane Lunch Bucket’ is beyond my understanding. The insiders who actively sought to disillusion and disenfranchise the more than 1.75 million Florida Democrats who voted on January 29 give new meaning to collective arrogance.

The DNC’s decision today ignores the core principle of our great democracy: the right to vote. I know that the 1.75 million Democrats who voted on January 29 count and don’t give a damn what the DNC rules pronounce.

Going to a party’s convention is a privilege. Courts have said that political parties have a right to make their rules. In this case, the DNC has chosen to take away that privilege from people who I believe have earned the right to participate in the National Convention in Denver with a full vote. As Americans, we should never insinuate or give vent to taking away the constitutional, time honored, died for, and cherished rights of voters from any state. Yet that is what today’s decision has done to the people of
Florida and Michigan.

I suppose the DNC has the right to block Democrats in Florida from attending the National Convention. They also have the right to be stupid, and stupid they are.

At the beginning of our great country’s history my ancestors were counted as only 2/3 of a person. Until passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870, they weren’t allowed to vote. During that same time and until 1920, women could not vote. White men who did not own property could not vote at one point in our history as well.

Now, on May 31, 2008, a group of elitist insiders of the DNC have effectively said that some of my ancestors’ progeny equal only 1/2 and that men and women in Florida who voted on January 29th are 1/2 also. For a Party which will crown its historic nominee on the 45th anniversary of Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, the DNC’s decision today is tragically ironic.

As a matter of protest, I do not intend to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Despite all of this, too much is at stake this November. I refuse to allow those who have done me and my constituents wrong to stop us from taking back our country. Together, we will do whatever it takes to increase our majority in the House and Senate and win the Presidency.

While I cannot speak for others, I do not intend to take any further legal action against the DNC. If I believed that we could win, believe me, I would act and so would others. But based on case history, it is an uphill battle screaming for a change in federal law.

I will, however, spend enormous energy on convincing my colleagues in Congress that we must create a rotating regional Presidential primary system. 30 political insiders – nearly all of whom ain’t ever been elected to a damn thing in their lives – must never again have the ability to reject the will of and unilaterally disenfranchise 1.75 million voters.

This election is bigger than Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. It is certainly bigger than the DNC. There are over 46 million Americans who are uninsured, gas and energy costs are spiraling out of control, America’s economy is faltering, and U.S. troops are dying nearly every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will take the energy and resources of all of us to fix these problems and the others facing our nation.

As Florida voters have demonstrated time and time again, we will rise above those who have sought to silence our voices and vote big and win in November.

Once Alcee Hastings’ ancestors were worth only three-fifths of a human being. Today in the eyes of the Democratic Party, he is only worth half of one.

Return to Main

Via the New York Times:

Senator Barack Obama is ending his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he has belonged to for about two decades and one that had become a lightning rod in his Democratic presidential bid.

Mr. Obama informed his campaign advisers of his decision today, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the candidate. Mr. Obama is scheduled to explain his decision tonight in South Dakota.

For Mr. Obama, this is the latest effort to distance himself from a church that had repeatedly drawn negative attention to his candidacy. And, in turn, Mr. Obama drew negative attention to the church on Chicago’s South Side, where he was married and his two daughters were baptized.

Senator Obama would have us believe that this is the end of the story. It’s not. He can not just walk away from a twenty year relationship of hate. This is a decision borne of political expediency, not of conscience.

Louisiana automatic delegate Buddy Leach announced his support for Hillary Clinton today. Leach is a former Congressman and former member of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee. Leach was also a 2003 gubernatorial candidate from Vernon Parish in western Louisiana.
As long as she continues to pick up Super Delegates, she should continue to press on.

Here is the Saturday, May 30th, 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.

The Rome Summit, Part V
In Part V of the UK Guardian’s series looking at the Global Food Crisis, Julian Borger looks at the options to tackle the crisis. Meanwhile the New York Times reports that US Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week.

European Fishermen Protest High Diesel Prices
Commercial fishermen across Europe carried out new protests on Friday against soaring fuel bills, blockading ports and refineries in France and handing out fresh fish in Madrid. In Spain, Portugal and France, the strike by fishermen was 100% effective, it shut down all fishing out of Europe’s main fishing ports. Reports from the New York Times and the BBC.

Spanish federation Cepesca estimates fuel prices have surged 320 per cent in the past five years. Amador Suarez, Cepesca’s president, says it now costs £2,000 to £3,000 per day to keep a fishing boat working in Spain.

The strikes are most damaging in Spain, as the country’s fishing fleet is by far Europe’s largest. Spanish boat catches sell for up to £1.3 billion per year, according to Cepesca’s Suarez.

In the northwest Spanish port of Vigo, Europe’s largest fishing port, only nine tonnes of fish were sold today at its wholesale market, none of it from Spanish boats, compared to an ordinary daily turnover of 70-80 tonnes. Spanish and Portuguese fishermen branded the current malaise the industry’s worst crisis in a century, as 10,000 demonstrators marched on Madrid.

German Telecom Scandal Brewing
Deutsche Telekom is immersed in a deepening espionage scandal following allegations that senior executives ordered the covert monitoring of thousands of phone calls by customers, staff and journalists in an attempt to plug an information leak. The claims, published in Der Spiegel magazine, allege that the company, part-owned by the government, conducted its spying operations for 18 months in 2005 and 2006. “Hundreds of thousands of calls” were said to have been secretly subjected to surveillance. More from the British Independent.

Ireland Set to Vote on The Lisbon Treaty
With two weeks to go until the Lisbon Treaty referendum, Irish voters are slowly making their minds up on how to vote. Worryingly for Brussels it is the ‘No’ campaign that is steadily gaining support, as it plays on fears relating to neutrality, taxation and abortion. Reports from Der Spiegel and the Irish Times.

A Thai Coup?
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said he will crack down on mounting anti-government protests that have ignited fears of a military coup. More from the Straits Times.