Facing mounting opposition in both Venezuela and from abroad, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela reserved course and said Saturday he would withdraw a decree overhauling intelligence policies that he had made earlier that week. But Chávez has another little problem, or better put 40,000 little problems, on his hands. Yesterday, Colombia announced the arrest of the Venezuelan officer, captured in Puerto Nariño in the department of Vichada in eastern Colombia with another Venezuelan citizen and two Colombians. The Venezuelan officer in question, Manuel Teobaldo Agudo Escalona, had in his possession 40,000 AK-47 cartridges destined for the FARC. The type of cartridges in the possession of the four men are used in assault rifles commonly employed by the FARC. Chávez is, of course, dismissing the accusation. General Fredys Alonso Carrión denied that Agudo Escalona is even a member of the Venezuela’s Guardia Nacional. For Colombia and the world’s intelligence community, however, it is only further proof that Venezuela continues to provide assistance to the FARC, a terrorist organization.
Formerly Boston Globe columnist but now a Boston Herald columnist and MSNBC pundit Mike Barnicle is a sexist pig and should have been reprimanded for suggesting on national television that Clinton looks:
“like everyone’s first wife standing outside probate court.”
I decided to do this segment to identify all the misogyny in the media and let them know that we are not going forget the comments made. You can watch the video for this post in my more recent post Sexism in the Media and Politics.
Was the game played in Lisboa or Geneve? In the end, it did not matter as Luis Felipe Scolari’s side took command of Group A in Euro2008 with a 2-0 victory over Turkey.
Now that a would-be first female president is ending her quest for the White House, the race is more about women than ever before.
So begins an article in today’s New York Times. The article’s title is even more ominous for Obama and his merry band at the DNC: Clinton Bloc Becomes the Prize for Election Day.
Well there are more than 18 million of us and number does not include people like myself who voted for John Edwards in the California primary who then came on board later nor does it include many who did vote for Obama in January and February but who by the end of the process have a severe case of buyer’s remorse. Let’s say the real number is a bit higher, let’s say 21 million. Polls have consistently shown that some 30% to 40% of Clinton will not support in the general election either by voting for John McCain, by spoiling their ballots or simply staying home. The numbers tend to be higher in states like Kentucky and West Virginia and lower in states like Oregon and North Carolina.
So as of right now, between 7 million and 8.5 million people are not going to support Obama. I do think some of the wounds will heal but most won’t. The anger is too real and too deep. Organizations and groups are popping up all the place and with these as an outlet and continuing place to go for support and political activism, Obama will be lucky to win back a third of those disaffected Clinton voters. That means that out of the gate, the loss for the Democrats is between 5 and 6 million people. A just a note to Howard Dean:
“The wounds of sexism need to be the subject of a national discussion,” the chairman, Howard Dean, said in an interview. “Many of the most prominent people on TV behaved like middle schoolers” toward Mrs. Clinton.
Are you kidding me? You say this now? Where were you three months ago when she was being savaged on NBC and MSNBC? It was incumbent upon you to bring up the subject then, now it just sounds like you are desperate, which is what you are. I might add pathetic.
And if I am your prize, you must be cracker, jack.
He panders. Obama says things to please his audience and you can’t do that to foreign audiences. Words really matter, precision in statements are not just nuances, they are paramount. The results of a poor choice of words can be deadly.
Look at his statement on Jerusalem this past Wednesday at AIPAC. He knows he has problems with the Israeli lobby because of his past associations and his statements on Iran and on Israel. So he pandered and told them that an undivided Jerusalem must forever be the capital of Israel. And with that statement, Obama stepped into a minefield.
Mind you, it’s excusable if he actually meant to offer a change in the direction of US Foreign Policy, but he didn’t. He erred and had to backtrack. Of course, he sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so you would think that he might know that the long-standing US foreign policy has been not to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel since it was moved from Tel Aviv. No country on Earth does, El Salvador and Costa Rica moved their embassies back to Tel Aviv in 2006. Those were the last two countries to have an embassy in Jerusalem. It’s common knowledge if you read a paper regularly. Clinton knew these things, so did Biden. Does Obama read a paper or attend a State Department briefing?
Václav Svěrkoš came off the bench and scored a goal in the 71st minute to lift the Czech Republic over co-host Switzerland in Basel in the opening game of Euro2008, the European Football Championship (or as some say, the World Cup without Brasil and Argentina).
Thank you, Hillary Clinton. We’ll take it from here.
Hillary Clinton has suspended her campaign for the nomination of her party and is supporting Barack Obama for president. The Democratic party is a poorer institution today. Hillary was a candidate for the ages, historic by her very presence in the race. She inspired millions with her grace under pressure, her command of the issues and challanges facing our country, her practical competence, her warmth, and her class.
No candidate for president should ever have to face what she faced in order to get to this place in the nomination process. No popular two-term US senator should ever be required to justify or defend his or her presence in a presidential race. No distinguished and admired American, one who represents the hopes and dreams of millions of other Americans, should ever be expected to be ashamed of him or herself for running for office, for competing strenuously, and for challenging their opponent vigorously. No former First Lady, whatever her party affiliation, personal style, or opinions, should ever be treated with scorn, disrespect, or rhetorical violence by the public institutions of American life — our media, our political parties, and our elected and appointed officials. Today is a shameful day for them.
Riverdaughter over on The Confluence created the concept. And others have taken up the PUMA cause, I am on board and I’ve got a mean kick and an even meaner bite. I’m in a fighting mood and I am ready to stand up for working class values of fairness and tolerance. I’m joining a Political Action Committee (PAC), PumaPAC. Here’s their mission statement:
Puma PAC is a political action committee organized in June 2008. We are registered as a non-affiliated Political Action Committee (PAC) with the Federal Election Commission and have organized as a 527 Organization with the Internal Revenue Service. This is our official website and blog. You may know that there is another, more defiant meaning for the acronym P.U.M.A. and that many of us are motivated by a deep disgust with and distrust of the DNC leadership. There will be no unity in the Democratic party until the voices of the 18 million voters who support Hillary Clinton are heard and heeded. Until the voices of Pumas are once again listened to by the leadership of the Democratic party, we will be guided by that defiance. We will treat insult with uprightness and will meet disdain with disdain. We will not be bullied, brainwashed, or bossed into falling in line.
We are motivated to action by our shared belief that the current leadership of the Democratic National Committee has abrogated its responsibility to represent the interests of all democrats in all 50 states. They are misleading our party and aim to mislead our country into nominating an illegitimate candidate for president in 2008. Our goals are fourfold:
1. To support the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
2. To lobby and organize for changes in leadership in the DNC.
3. To critique and oppose the misogyny, discrimination, and disinformation in the mainstream media, including mainstream blogs and other outlets of new media.
4. To support the efforts of those political figures who have allied themselves with Hillary Clinton and who have demonstrated commitment to our first three goals.
Nope, not today sorry. Still not voting for you no matter what she says, You see I disliked you even before I became a Clinton supporter so her thoughts on you today really ZERO impact. Even going back to last year I felt you’re quite up to the job and while others have a short memory or frankly eyes, I do remember little things and I frankly I see you as you really are. Back on January 22, 2008, not even a scant six months ago, this was how I felt:
I have been for a long time in the ABC crowd, Anybody But Clinton. But a curious thing has happened. For much of last year, I did not pay attention much to Senator Obama because frankly I find him guilty of speaking in platitudes. He is the Barnum Effect candidate. If you’re not familiar with the Barnum Effect, it is the principle behind astrology and horoscopes. Couch things in general enough terms and they can apply to anyone. You see meaning because you want to see meaning not because there is any actual meaning there. Senator Obama talks of “hope” “unity” and “change”. Well who doesn’t want that? We all do and hence his appeal to independents and to a younger generation that has not been tempered by the experience of everything the progressive left has endured since 1968. But if I look at his proposals on energy, on health care, on financial reforms, I find that they are not much different than Republican proposals and very different from Democratic proposals. Edwards and Clinton both have universal health care mandates, Obama does not. On energy, as Paul Krugman noted, Obama too falls far short. There are huge subsidies for coal and nuclear energy but relatively little for alternative energy development unlike both the Edwards and the Clinton proposals. Increduously, he voted for the Bush-Cheney Energy Plan. Senator Clinton did not. Neither did John McCain for that matter and he’s a Republican. If that’s the kind of reaching across the aisle he is talking about well energy policy is frankly the most important issue because so much else depends on it, our lifestyle, for instance, then I want no part of Barack Obama. Then there are issues like gay rights, I am gay for the record. On the one hand none of the front runners (Kucinich does) give me all I want , they are all for civil unions. Fine as a first step, I suppose. However, I did catch Elizabeth Edwards last year here in San Francisco, and she more than reassured me when she in response to a question said she would whisper sweet-nothings into John’s ear to make him see the light. But Senator Obama while he espouses civil unions, he also goes out campaigning with the likes of Donnie McClurkin. Actions sometimes speak louder than words. Why campaign with some one that you then have to repudiate? It showed poor judgment. His support of Senator Lieberman in the Connecticut Senate race last year to the tune of some $74,000 was another sign of poor judgment. If accommodating Senator Lieberman is Senator Obama’s idea of “unity” then I want no part of that. That is the politics of acquiescence, not compromise.
Well, I am not going to take this sitting down. The break with the Democratic Party is done. In the coming months, I intend to work with others in forming new political alternatives and bringing them to your attention. It is amazing the number of pro-Clinton blogs that were born these past few months. The readership at these blogs continues to grow and I expect in the coming months will continue to do so. These nascent blogs will form the nuclei of a future political movement that fights for the interests of working Americans.
I’m with Harriet, the Democratic Party left me.
Obama does not speak for me. I do not share his values and that ultimatelty marks whom I can support.
