Who is more American Lieberman asks anything not to discuss issues!

Dear Obama Supporters:
McSame and his new BFF Lieberman really stepped over the line yesterday. In York ,PA , Lieberman called this election a "choice between one candidate John McCain, who has always put his country first,worked across party lines to get things done,and one candidate who has not." Between Lieberman and McSame they must have mentioned American 15 times and Lieberman in his introduction called McSame the most American of the candidates. Now this is odd, they are talking about this guy(McSame) born in Panama who is accusing a man born in Hawaii(America in case Joe doesn't know it) not being American enough since he spent time in Indonesia when he was 6-9 years old. This idea of Obama being not American enough is scary ,outrageous and bordering on racism. Mark Penn tried to push Ms Clinton into using this type of dirty dealing and to her credit she refused. It is a terrible way to win the White House and a crossing of a line that no candidate should cross. We also have McSame rattling the sabers and using old time "cold war" terminology over Russia's invasion of Georgia. He even quoted something used in 9/11 after we were attacked, "Today we are all Georgians," he said. Give me a break couldn't he think of anything more creative? He is pitiful and sounds like he is taking up the charge and going on a crusade. We all know he is using this cold war rhetoric because of the oil pipe lines that run through Georgia. He is throwing out statements like Russia is attacking Georgia because they are a friend of the West and anyone aligned with the West is Russia's enemy. He is making out like Russia is the evil empire once again and we have to be ready with all of our "might". Has he looked at our "might" lately, since we are in the midst of two wars his BFF in the White House started? One war was started because of lies over WMD's and an affiliation of Saddam with Al Queda. The other is under manned and going very badly. Where is he getting these troops from that he is threatening to put on alert so he can remain strong and ready? He is the definition of fear mongering at its worst. This exploitation for political gain is all about two things oil and Christ said Keith Olbermann last night on MSNBC. Here we have W and McSame who couldn't get enough of Putin. W even said ,"I looked into his eyes and saw his soul". They are not happy with this invasion and neither is Barack Obama. However, Obama on vacation issued a statement, that we need to sit down and talk with Russia and gain support from NATO and show the world's dissatisfaction with this invasion. It would be an intelligent way of handling the situation and one McSame can't even fathom. He has only a few sentences he has practiced over and over again (otherwise he couldn't remember them), drill now and we must remain strong and be ready for all attacks. To McSame diplomacy is somewhat un American and certainly doesn't show leadership as evidenced by watching his hero W.
I am so tired of dumb and watching this absurd angry man continue to run away from the issues. We are as Madhuri Kommareddi mentioned on the Tri State Women for Obama call the ambassadors for Obama. She and Lee discussed the issues and where to find out information on Obama's positons. They pointed out that we have to know the issues and feel comfortable talking about them and directing people to www.barackobama.com . WE talked about Obama's concerns over the economy and his concerns for women working and not getting equal pay. We listened as Madhuri spoke about health care issues and credit card lending (Obama's developed a credit card bill of rights and rating system so the public can easily compare the various credit cards and how they are set up and what they will require of you) . Issues that are all addressed on the web site and available for all to easily access. Obama isn't getting side tracked by this negative name calling and accusations of his not being American enough. He is focused on letting people know who he is and what he stands for. The campaign is in the midst of publishing a book, Change We Can Believe In, showing his policies, experience, and vision for America. The convention will be a great opportunity for the country to find out his platform and who he is! As was said before, we are the ambassadors for this campaign. I for one will not let McSame divert us from getting out Obama's message. WE have to keep fighting and looking up smears on www.snopes.com,factcheck.org www.barackobama.com/index etc. More than this we have to engage people in talking about the issues. My dear friend Toni actually did this at a party recently and told me I would have been so proud of her(not her nature to do this but she did it!) . I was and am proud of an attempt to set the record straight and not let people perpetuate lies (in Toni's case about Obama's stance on Israel). As you know, I think this is the way we will win this election ,person to person and state by state getting the word and facts out. Mr. Lieberman and McSame, I have news for you, you can distract some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. Yes We Can.
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
PS I am going away on Friday until Sunday before Labor Day. I will have e-mail some of the time and will try to keep up with you all. If I can't you'll have to forgive me but can't wait to hear from you after the convention and we nominate the next President of the USA!!! Anne don't forget you and Nancy promised to give us the inside report since you will be there in person!


From Kathy and John in KCMO: Wow this is such great news, we will take MO, you watch us make Harry proud again!!!

I asked John about our canvassing. You will be so proud! Platte County had the most homes visited and contacts made of any of the Western MO counties. We were also 3rd highest in the state! He said we got a special recognition from the state director! This is so awesome. Just a few days before the canvass I was frantically calling people because we only had 4 volunteers. We ended up with 32! Isn't that great? I think we can really make a difference.

From Sue in Hamptons:
Hi--

As we countdown to the convention, we have lots of opportunities to show our support for Obama locally.

Two highlights:

Come to the Recycling and Change Party in Remsenberg on Saturday!

Volunteer and shop at the Shelter Island Yard Sale on Saturday!

Join us for the Pre-Convention Kickoff in Sag Harbor on Sunday! (details for all three below)

In Brookhaven: We’re looking for volunteers to staff the Obama office at Farmingville Dem HQ on Saturday mornings this month, in 2-hour shifts, from 10-12 and 12-2. Help make phone calls and greet other volunteers. Drop by to pick up flyers, buttons, bumper stickers and other items. Or pick up forms and head out to register voters. Contact Jennifer if you’re willing to help out: jennicrouch@hotmail.com or (631) 675-0913.

Women for Obama: I urge everyone to watch the video of Michelle Obama’s speech on women and families. It blossoms into a powerfully heartfelt and inspiring talk about Michelle and her daughters, Obama’s commitment to helping working women and families, and why we need to win in November!
Here’s the link:
http://women.barackobama.com/blueprintvideo
Inspired? Organize a house party to watch Michelle’s video and then discuss Sen. Obama’s Blueprint for Women and Families. Ask each friend to bring an undecided friend along.
Click here to print copies of the Women and Families Blueprint:
http://obama.3cdn.net/2778abe561ba550d40_f7m6bsa2i.pdf).
Email women@barackobama.com to get template fliers and a “how-to” on organizing house parties.

Everywhere: We need help with continuing voter registration and leafleting efforts (Fri nights and Saturdays). Any volunteers please contact Jennifer (North Shore) jennicrouch@hotmail.com, Terri Watkins (Patchogue area) ltwatkin@suffolk.lib.ny.us or Sue at suehornik@aol.com.

At the end of the month: Host a convention viewing party for friends! The Democratic National Convention in Denver starts on Monday, August 25th and culminates with Sen. Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Stadium on Thursday night, August 28th.

OTHER UPCOMING OBAMA EVENTS

Here are some upcoming events in the First Congressional District. Please join us!


VOTER REGISTRATION AND LEAFLETING IN PATCHOGUE,
Friday 8/15
Join the Jeffersonian Democratic Club and the Obama team to register voters and hand out leaflets for Obama and local Democratic candidates.
Patchogue Live After Five
Live music, outside dining, vendors, children's activities, Main Street closed to traffic.
August15, 6-10 p.m.
Main Street, Patchogue
To volunteer, contact Terri at ltwatkin@suffolk.lib.ny.us or Sue at suehornik@aol.com or 631-294-9324.

A RECYCLE AND CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN PARTY! on Saturday 8/16
Please join us! These are fun!
Bring your empty bottles and spare change to support Obama and help the environment at the same time!
Here’s all you need to do:
1) Bring a minimum of 40 New York State refundable glass bottles, plastic bottles, and cans as your donation. (If you don’t have a lot of empty containers, bring full ones and share them with fellow Obama supporters!)
2) Or gather all your loose change. Bring a credit card or check made out to Obama for America. We have a change counter to tally your coins, and contribution forms, so you can donate that amount to the campaign. A little change adds up!
Saturday August 16, 3-5 PM
At Nicole’s
37 Rogers Lane
Remsenburg
To RSVP and for info, call Nicole at 631-618-5344 or email Sue at suehornik@aol.com

SHELTER ISLAND YARD SALE: PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT BARACK OBAMA, on Saturday 8/16
Donate! Donate! Donate! We need lots of good items for the sale. And we need volunteers to make this event a success.
Drop off donations on Friday 8/15 afternoon 12 to 6
and Saturday 8/16 at 9:00 A.M.
Thanks for your support!
Saturday, August 16 (rain date, August 17), 10-4
Debi's home
102 South Midway Rd.
Shelter Island (near Wade's Beach)
To volunteer, contact Debi at 631-749-0848 or debim22@optonline.net.

VOTER REGISTRATION IN CENTER MORICHES 8/16
We'll register voters in cooperation with the Brookhaven Southeastern Dems.
NOTE DATE CHANGE! August 16, 9-4:30
Old Ship of Zion Craft and Flea Market Fair
Corner of Railroad Ave. and Frowein Rd.
Center Moriches
To volunteer, contact Sue at suehornik@aol.com or 631-294-9324

CONVENTION KICK-OFF IN SAG HARBOR, on Sunday 8/17
Join us as we gear up for the convention and general campaign! Let’s give CD1 volunteer coordinator Sue Hornik, who is on the Convention’s Rules Committee, a rousing send-off as she heads for Denver for a week. We’ll update everyone on what we need to do as soon as the convention ends, so we can be certain Obama is in the White House in January! Please come and sign up for volunteer activities! Refreshments served.
Sunday, August 17, 1-3:30 PM
Moyer home
4284 Noyac Rd.
Sag Harbor
Please RSVP by August 15 susanmoyerlandscape@mac.com or 631.725.8489

SAGAPONACK FUNDRAISER WITH CAROLINE KENNEDY, on Sunday 8/17
Join a star-studded list of co-hosts, including Alec Baldwin, Isaac Mizrahi, Gwyneth Paltrow and Billy Joel. for brunch with Caroline Kennedy.
August 17, 11 AM
The home of Ross Bleckner & Dorothy Lichtenstein
683 Daniels Lane
Sagaponack
Ticket Price: $2,300 or $1,000 for youth (16-25)
RSVP: Bridget Siegel at (212)763-4850, bridgetsiegel@gmail.com
Or http://my.barackobama.com/EastEnd

Save the date: CAMPAIGN TRAINING FOR VOLUNTEERS! on Saturday 8/23
Long Island volunteer coordinators have tentatively scheduled a campaign training session for August 23. The seminar will cover voter registration, getting out the vote and leadership development. More details soon! If you want to help organize this training session, contact Marvin Kreutzberger, our Congressional District 3 co-coordinator, who is leading the effort at: mkyankee@verizon.net.

BAYLON: RUN FOR OBAMA! on Sunday 8/24
Let’s join our neighbors in CD2 for a 5K walk/run to raise money for Obama and raise his profile on Long Island! BARACK'S RUNNING FOR US! LET'S RUN FOR HIM!! Please walk, run or attend the event in your Obama gear – whether purchased or homemade. We want everyone who see us on the street that morning to know that we are there to support Barack's bid for the Presidency!
Sunday, August 24 at 8 AM
Argyle Park
Babylon Village
Click here for more info and to RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/fundraising/4qlv

CABARET FUNDRAISER IN SUPPORT OF OBAMA, Southampton, on Friday 8/29
“There Is Nothing Like A Dem!” A Political Cabaret Revue
Enjoy sophisticated entertainment with the satisfaction of knowing your admission supports Barack Obama! Bring your friends and make an evening of it! Starring Rhonda Liss, Morgan, Nicholas Rudd, Allan Wieman, Tom Zimmerman, directed by Todd Caporizzo, music direction by Tom Buckley.
Friday, August 29, 7:30
Southampton Inn
91 Hill Rd.
Southampton
Admission: $100 contribution to the Obama campaign
$25 prix fixe dinner will be served at 6 pm, payable separately to Southampton Inn on 8/29. Cash bar.
Print out your contribution form here:
http://thereisnothinglikeadem.com/images/ContributionForm.pdf
Select the number of seats you want and mail the Contribution Form with your credit card information or personal check payable to:
Obama for America
c/o There Is Nothing Like A Dem!
20 Sea Spray Road
Westport CT 06880
Unreserved seats available for sale at the door. For further information, go to:
thereisnothinglikeadem.com
Or write to: info@thereisnothinglikeadem.com

LOOKING FOR THREE VOLUNTEERS FOR THE CABARET!
Volunteers needed for three primary tasks:
- make the entrance look like an Obama event
- admissions (check paid reservations or take contributions and ensure contribution forms at the door)
- offer Obama "stuff" for sale
- take turns watching the show
To volunteer, email Nichoals Rudd at nick@andersonrudd.com (please cc: Sue so we know the slots are filled suehornik@aol.com)

OBAMA AND THE JEWISH VOTE, on Weds. 9/10
This event is geared toward the Jewish voter and community. Rabbi Adam Fisher will discuss Obama’s positions on Israel, issues of concern to Jewish voters and why an Obama presidency is so important for this constituency. Please join us to learn Sen. Obama’s real positions and help refute several disinformation campaigns.
Capacity is 25 people.
Sept. 10 at 7 PM
Host: Shoshana Hershkowitz
10 Tracker Lane, South Setauket, 11720.
RSVP Shoshana at (631) 828-5594 or at this link:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/44b7h

SAG HARBOR YARDSALE on Saturday 9/13
We need good stuff, and lots of it!
We need volunteers:
to make great road signs leading to the sale.
to place ads with local radio stations.
to accept donations, help with pricing and set up
Hosts Julia Adams and Grania Brolin
Saturday, Sept. 13
Sag Harbor Village
(exact time and location to be announced)
To volunteer and donate, contact Grania at: 631-537-1428 or brolin@optonline.net

NORTH FORK FUNDRAISER! on Saturday, 9/13
Join us for cocktails and lively conversation on our back porch overlooking beautiful East Creek and Peconic Bay in Cutchogue. Get involved! Stay involved! Do your part while having fun and meeting other supporters! Tell your friends and help us spread the word.

Minimum contribution is $50 per person -- it's worth it! OK, we'll throw in a Free Obama Button, too! This is the most important election of your lifetime! Show your commitment to change!

Saturday, September 13, 2008
At Anne and Mort’s home
1395 Fleetwood Rd.
Cutchogue 11935
RSVP at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/fundraising/44jjj
For more details, contact Anne at: coho@optonline.net
Directions:
Take the Long Island Expressway East toward Riverhead to Exit 71 (Montauk) Route 24 Hampton Bays/Calverton. At stop sign turn right onto Route 24, toward Hampton Bays/Riverhead. Travel on Route 24 to the traffic circle (4.1 miles). Go through the traffic circle and continue on Route 24 south to the light at Route 105. Turn left. Go to second light and turn right onto Route 25 toward Orient Point. Welcome to Long Island Wine Country! Continue on Route 25 East to the light in downtown Cutchogue (9.9 miles). Continue to Pequash Ave. Turn right on Pequash Ave. at Hertz sign. Continue about 1 mile on Pequash, past Midwood to Fleetwood Road. Turn left. Fleetwood runs along the water on the left. Go to top of the first hill. Our house is set back from the road, on the left (1395 Fleetwood, sign on tree for Cogen/Howard and Commoners Hill).

Thanks to those of you who have hosted such great events over the past couple of weeks! We appreciate your support, dedication and enthusiasm!

Best,
Sue
NY CD1 volunteer coordinator
Obama for America
631-294-9324


From Marla in GA:
i hope all is well in your world!
i was reading this article this morning and wanted to share it with you.
i'm terrified at this point that obama is not going to be tough enough
with the attacks coming his way. while i appreciate him trying to take
the high road i really don't think it works in this country. i would like
to be able to read your blog ... so let me know what i need to do!

Paris Hilton rides a Swift Boat on Lake Obama
Posted by Steven Goldstein August 11, 2008 7:01AM
Categories: Hot Topics, Politics

Mocked by television ads that morph his mass appeal into a celebrity
status as vapid as Paris Hilton's, Barack Obama has had three of the worst
weeks for a Democratic presidential candidate since the Swift Boat
veterans demolished John Kerry in the summer of 2004. The denial that
doomed Kerry back then threatens to doom Obama right now.

It's easy, after all, to laugh off John McCain's first round of
advertising. As progressive thinkers from Montclair to the Upper West Side
declaim, McCain's commercials trivialize the issues and lower the debate.

Of course McCain's ads trivialize the issues and lower the debate. They're
also tactically brilliant and right out of Karl Rove's playbook, now
executed by Rove protege and McCain's new chief strategist, Steve Schmidt.

The formula? Take your opponent's greatest strength - in this case, Barack
Obama's admirable, indeed astonishing, ability to inspire millions across
the country and the world - and turn it on its head into a negative.
Transmogrify Obama into an airhead celebrity who's all words, no depth,
right in the face of his being a Constitutional law scholar who was
president of the Harvard Law Review.

If Hillary Clinton had won the nomination - in full disclosure, I
supported her in the primaries - the McCain campaign would be portraying
her today as the number one enemy of women across America. But does anyone
believe she wouldn't be throwing punch for punch, and more?

Democratic nominees have no other choice. Four summers ago, after a couple
of weeks of Swift Boat commercials, John Kerry went from war hero to war
wimp. Against that backdrop, his military salute at the Democratic
Convention went from clever gesture to desperate gimmick, reminding voters
of Michael Dukakis riding a tank in a Snoopy helmet.

Similarly, the more eloquent Barack Obama becomes, the more it threatens
to ricochet.

When you take away John McCain's commercials, McCain's candidate skills
are as terrible as those of the least appealing candidates who have ever
run for President. This Halloween, children ought to trick or treat
dressed as McCain reading a teleprompter. But voters are not thinking
about that now. They have the image of Obama as Paris Hilton instead. It's
the consequence of effective negative commercials and not straying from
their message on the campaign trail. McCain is doing at least that.

Some Republicans have wanted McCain to define himself further before going
negative. From a strategic standpoint, that's ridiculous. Not since the
1974 midterm elections, in the aftermath of President Nixon's resignation,
have so many people been so eager to vote Democratic. When voters are
asked if they would rather have a Democratic or Republican Congress,
Democrats run away with the lead. The only way for McCain to win the
presidency is to drive up Obama's negatives.

Obama's response has been alarmingly weak. Sticking to the positive, one
commercial is based on the metaphor of people's hands, announcing that
"the hands that built this nation can build a new economy," followed by
images of various hands building sectors of a new economy. It's all too
clever by half - too abstract and too soft - when McCain has admitted he's
clueless on the economy and it's on videotape. What in the world is the
Obama campaign waiting for?

It's too early, say some Obama diehards. It's August, no one's watching.

Nonsense. Mike Dukakis got tanked and John Kerry was Swift Boated during
the early stages of their campaigns. The opposition defined them before
they could define themselves. And if anyone believes that voters aren't
paying attention because all eyes are on the Olympics, what kind of logic
is that? The candidates' commercials are running during the highest-rated
Olympics in years.

If the Obama campaign is going to use hands in a commercial, they should
be throwing punches at John McCain. Take a page from Karl Rove's playbook.
The Washington cognoscenti know, for instance, that McCain's got one of
the most out-of-control tempers ever to find its way into government - a
temper not quite within the range of normalcy. There are countless news
accounts of the McCain Temper, replete with quotes from Republicans who
can't stomach McCain because of it.

Portray this election as the cool and steady Barack Obama running against
a John McCain too hot-headed and irrational to lead our nation. Turn
McCain's greatest perceived strength right on its head - that he's tough
enough to be president - into a negative from which he could not recover.

Get up off the mat, Senator Obama, and do it now. First impressions are
called first impressions because they're just that: Impressions, not
issues.

While you're at it, don't make the mistake at the Democratic convention
that John Kerry made at his convention four years ago. Don't script a week
of positive messaging that doesn't lay a glove on your Republican
opponent. Kerry tried that and gained no ground from his convention.

Sure, voters tell pollsters they want positive campaigns. Throw that
shibboleth out the window. The fact is, whenever the Republicans succeed
in portraying the Democratic candidate as too weak, the Democrat loses. No
- the Democrat gets trounced.

America wants to see that you're tough enough and aggressive enough to be
President, Senator Obama. Show you know how to fight back. To voters, it's
an indication of how hard you'd fight for the country itself.
If you believe otherwise, you're not only on vacation in Hawaii, you're
also on vacation from reality.
#2 From Marla:
i TOTALLY agree with you. strong but not angry...and intelligent (i am so
sick of the tactic that the rove group uses by turning someone's strengths
into weaknesses and also they do this thing where they project the truths
about themselves onto the other candidate.... i noticed this the most on
the kerry campaign). i remember thinking that john kerry should have come
right out and said...that changing your mind in light of new information
(on the iraq war) was the sign of intelligence....not weakness!!! what
was his campaign thinking? anyway....let's just hope that they handle
this properly b/c it's so close!! it's going to be a real nail biting
time the next few months....b/c there is so much at stake!

i am in atlanta and really loving being back home and near family/old
friends. let me know if you find yourself down this way.

p.s
i love the McSame name!!! it's right on.

From Barbara in KS:
Thanks for all of the info that you sent to Mindy-----I am forwarding it to my friends that are "on the fence". Also, thanks so much for the Buttons that you sent to me for Judy and I to wear when we are campaigning. I have the one I got when we were in NY and wear it every day!!! These are bigger and better and I like that!!!!

From Eileen in MO on the road:
on our drive to Rochester we are listening to john deans book you have no idea how bad w is and Cheney until you hear this--UNBELIEVABLE I really blame the press--try to get it for your trip. will send you the name later--it is really unimaginable--written by someone who has been there!!

From Hank in RI:
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 9:01 AM
To: 'letters@nytimes.com'
Subject: To The Editor
“Baleful Bundlers” – Editorial – August 11, 2008

Your editorial correctly states that we need a complete overhaul of the public financing system for presidential campaigns, but does not go far enough to say we also must overhaul the antiquated Electoral College system that begs for big money to be spent in a handful of states with large Electoral totals. Candidates must raise millions of dollars to be seen and heard in New York, California, Texas, Illinois and Florida, as well as other battleground states, leaving voters in smaller, less important Electoral states without much exposure to the contenders. Public financing has not kept pace with the needs of modern day presidential campaigning, but neither has our outdated way of electing a President. Whoever is elected needs to create bi-partisan legislation to completely overhaul our election process and the way in which we finance it.

From Rice in Staten Island:
Hi Sunny and fellow supporters. Hope that all is and will remain well. But I must say, that when I saw that "PANTSUIT" back again, I knew we were in for a bumpy ride. That said, we know our man is smart and he has taken his time off well placed. He is going to come back fired up and ready to go. I feel a bit sorry for those not yet on the bus, especially in DC, The party is over. No pun intended, but I guess it fits.
Keep the faith. Have an interesting fundraiser in town tomorrow, so with every little bit, keeping up the good fight. Keep the faith.

From Eileen in KCMO on a trip :
On our drive to Rochester we are listening to John Dean's book Worse than Watergate ,you have no idea how bad W is and Cheney until you hear this--UNBELIEVABLE I really blame the press--try to get it for your trip. It is really unimaginable--written by someone who has been there!!
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Former Republican Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa Tuesday endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president.

The former House member said Obama's platform is one of "old American values that are as much a part of the Republican as the Democratic tradition," ABC News reported.

The Illinois senator's platform is "a call to change," Leach said. "But the change that he so gracefully is articulating is more renewal than departure."

When asked if Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was planning to endorse Obama, Leach said, "I think we'll wait for Chuck to make that announcement."

Leach made his announcement in a conference call announcing the start of "Republicans for Obama."

Others in the group include former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee and Rita Hauser, who served on President George Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the President's Intelligence Oversight Board...(Read rest on line Click here: Republicans come out for Obama - UPI.com )

From Kathy in KCMO:
About the canvassing, it went well. No one yelled at me. No one called us names. It was definitely more friendly than 2004! Many people were not home or were not answering their doors. We canvassed for about 4 1/2 hours. I would say half were not home. The other half had more Obama support than McCain of the people who would answer our questions. Some just said "no" and closed the door. Others stood there and filled out support cards. It was not as positive as my poll watching (which was overwhelmingly Obama) but it was still a good showing for Platte Co! I haven't heard what the totals for the day were although John said we had more support cards filled out than any other team. We were canvassing in the rain so we may have gotten the sympathy vote!

I heard recently that there is a big increase in the Hispanic population in KC and the biggest growth was in Platte Co! We had a 7% increase. We have to find those people and make sure they are registered. There is so much to do, but I am very hopeful for Platte Co and for MO!!!!

Isn't this contraception=abortion movement horrible?????
From Lisa in PA:
Any one thinking of voting for John mcCain needs to read what he did to his 1st Wife!!!! Just Google 1st wife of John mccain

From James in Nantucket:
The Skeletons are coming out of the closet.....again..... This story confirms all we suspected about
Subject: The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind


FYI: The Edwards affair 20 has resulted in the redistribution on the Internet of this Daily Mail item on McCain with commentary that while the Edwards behavior is tawdry the McCain history 20 is far worse, and he's still running for President.

From Daily Mail,=20= UK,=20 online 11 Aug 2008
The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind

By Sharon Churcher
Now that Hillary Clinton has at last formally withdrawn from the race for the White House, the eyes of America and the world will focus o n Barack Obama and his Republican rival Senator John McCain.
While Obama will surely press his credentials as the embodiment of the American dream a handsome, charismatic young black man who was raised on food stamps by a single mother and who represents his countryfuture McCain will present himself as a selfless, principled war hero whose campaign represents not so much a battle for the presidency of the United States, but crusade to rescue the nation tarnished reputation.
Forgotten woman: But despite all her problems Carol McCain says she still adores he ex-husband
McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.
But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain three eldest children.
And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain first Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swim wear model when they married in 1965.
She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam infamous Hanoi Hilton prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.
But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.
When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of=20 shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.
Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.
Today, she stands at just 5ft 4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.
For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.Golden couple: John and Cindy McCain at a charity gala in Los Angeles
Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. I have no bitterness, she says. My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn't reason for my divorce.
MY marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.
Some of McCain acquaintances are less forgiving, however They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to play the .. They accuse= him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.
McCain was then earning little more than a year as a naval officer, while his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections.
He first met Carol in the Fifties while he was at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. He was a privileged, but rebellious scion of one of=20 Americas most distinguished military dynasties his father= and grandfather=20 were both admirals. But setting out to have a good time, the young McCain hung outwith a group of young officers who called themselves the Bad Bunch=
His primary interest was women and his conquests ranged from a knife-wielding floozy nicknamed Marie, the Flame of Florida to a tobacco heiress. Carol fell into his fast-living world by accident. She escaped a poor upbringing in Philadelphia to become a successful model, married an Annapolis classmate of McCain and had two children Douglas and Andrew before renewing what one acquaintance calls an old flirtation with McCain.
It seems clear she was bowled over by McCain attention at a time when he was becoming bored with his playboy lifestyle.
=He was 28 and ready to settle down and he loved Carol and the children recalled another Annapolis graduate, Robert Timberg, whowrote The Nightingale Song, a bestselling biography of McCain and four other graduates of the academy.
The couple married and McCain adopted Carol sons. Their daughter, Sidney, was born a year later, but domesticity was clearly beginning to bore McCain the couple were regarded as fixtures on the party circuit before McCain requested combat duty in Vietnam at the end of 1966.
He was assigned as a bomber pilot on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin.
What follows is the stuff of the McCain legend. He was shot down over Hanoi in October 1967 on his 23rd mission over North Vietnam and was badly beaten by an angry mob when he was pulled, half-drowned from a lake.
War hero: McCain with Carol as he arrives back in the US in 1973 after his five years as a PoW in North Vietnam

Over the next five-and-a-half years in the notorious Hoa Loa Prison he was regularly tortured and mistreated.
It was in 1969 that Carol went to spend the Christmas holiday her third without McCain at her parents home. After dinner, she left to drop off some presents at a friends house.
It wasn't until some hours later that she was discovered, alone and in terrible pain, next to the wreckage of her car. She had been hurled through the windscreen.
After her first series of life-saving operations, Carol was told she may never walk again, but when doctors said they would try to get word to McCain about her injuries, she refused, insisting: got enough problems,didn't want to tell him.
H. Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, future presidential candidate and advocate of prisoners of war, paid for her medical care.
When McCain his hair turned prematurely white and his body reduced to little more than a skeleton was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again.
But friends say privately he was appalled by the change in her appearance. At first, though, he was kind, assuring her: look so good myself. Its fine.He bought her a bungalow near the sea in Florida and another former PoW helped him to build a railing so she could pull herself over the dunes to the water.
I thought, of course, we would live happily ever Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles.
Through Ross Perot, he met Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California. A sympathetic Nancy Reagan took Carol under her wing. But already the McCains marriage had begun to fray.Johnstarted carousing and running around with womensaid Robert Timber
McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details. Some friends blame his dissatisfaction withCarol, but others give some credence to her theory of a mid-life=20 crisis.He was also fiercely ambitious, but it was clear he would never become an admiral like his illustrious father and grandfather and his thoughts were turning to politics.
In 1979 while still married to Carol he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Carol and her children were devastated. It was a complete surprisesays Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide.
They never displayed any difficulties between themselves. I know the Reagans were quite shocked because they loved and respected both Carol and John.Another friend added: =Carol didn't fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through. She used to say, =E2=80=9CHe just wants to make up for lost time.Indeed, to many in their circle the saddest part of the break-up was Carols decision to resign herself to losing a man she says she still adores.
Friends confirm she has remained friends with McCain and backed him in all his campaigns. He was very generous to her in the divorce but of course he could afford to be, since he was marrying Cindy one observed.
McCain transferred the Florida beach house to Carol and gave her the right to live in their jointly-owned townhouse in the Washington suburb of Alexandria. He also agreed to pay her alimony and support. A former neighbour says she subsequently sold up in Florida and Washington and moved in 2003 to Virginia Beach. He said:My impress ion was that she found the new place easier to manage as she still has some difficulties walking.Meanwhile McCain moved to Arizona with his new bride immediately after their 1980 marriage. There, his new father-in-law gave him a job and introduced him to local businessmen and political power brokers who would smooth his passage to Washington via the House of Representatives and Senate.
And yet despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won=E2=80=99t forget his treatment of his first wife. Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans rights, said: have been following John McCain career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is .When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.
Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought 20 was better. This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first=20 marriage, it all belonged to Carol.
One old friend of the McCains said:Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that a defence mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.
Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her.Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. a good guy, she assured us.We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.
But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel even by the standards of modern politics McCain is the classic opportunist. He always reaching for attention and glory he said.
After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history Additional reporting by Paul Henderson in Virginia Beach and William Lowther in Washington
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/art= icle-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html


From Judy in Mamaroneck:
August 12, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Empty Promise
By BOB HERBERT
Senator John Kerry was on the phone and the words were coming in a rush.“It’s a completely fraudulent argument,” he said. “It’s misleading. It’s snake oil salesmanship of the worst order.”He was talking about the latest smoke screen in the presidential election, the bogus contention that lifting restrictions on offshore oil drilling would somehow, in the foreseeable future, bring down the price of gasoline for American motorists.

This absurd contention is now one of the main issues of the campaign. It’s the latest example of a very real fear (that sky-high energy prices will undermine the average family’s standard of living) being exploited shamelessly for political purposes. Senator John McCain told cheering bikers at a giant motorcycle rally in South Dakota: “We’re gonna drill offshore! We’re gonna drill here, and we’re gonna drill now!” He told an audience in Lafayette Hill, Pa.: “We have to drill here and drill now. ... Drill here and drill now.”

With Senator McCain and the Republicans painting a false portrait of drilling as a method of relief for today’s high prices, and with polls showing the G.O.P. gaining traction on this issue, Senator Barack Obama has eased off his previous opposition to new offshore leases.And so dies the possibility of the presidential campaign offering any real clarification of this important issue.

As Senator Kerry and many others have pointed out, it would be nearly 10 years before any oil at all would be realized from new offshore leases. So your adorable 7- or 8-year-old would be just about 17 and clamoring for a license when this new oil started coming online.

Maximum capacity from these new leases wouldn’t be reached until 2030, when that 7- or 8-year-old is approaching 30, finished with college and graduate school, and very likely married with children. And even then — after more than two decades and who knows how many graduations, weddings, funerals and family cars — even then, the amount of oil expected to come from these leases would have little or no effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.

Assuming that everything over all those years goes all right, it is estimated that an additional 200,000 barrels of oil a day would come from the additional offshore drilling. That’s a tiny share of the world’s daily output of 85 million or so barrels. Here’s what the Energy Information Administration, the statistical agency that provides official data for the federal government, had to say about the anticipated additional output from offshore drilling:

“Because oil prices are determined on the international market ... any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” Did anyone mention that to the bikers who were so fired up by John McCain’s “drill here and drill now” mantra? Or to the 63 percent of respondents to an ABC News poll who want the embargo on new offshore drilling to be lifted by the federal government?

I wonder how they would have responded if they had been told that lifting the offshore restrictions would risk serious environmental damage to the U.S. coastline over the next several decades while having no significant effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.

Public officials should be disabusing the electorate of its delusions, not encouraging them. The widespread mistaken notions about the potential impact of offshore drilling on gasoline prices reminds me of the large percentages of Americans who were encouraged to believe, and did believe — erroneously — that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I wonder if the electorate will ever wise up. We’ve known, or should have known, since the 1970s that the day of reckoning on energy would come. The U.S., blessed with so many resources, is no longer blessed with an abundance of oil. Jimmy Carter, for all his faults, was on the case when it came to energy. He saw the challenge as “the moral equivalent of war,” and dared to ask the public to make sacrifices as part of a coordinated national effort.

Senator Kerry, in accepting the Democratic nomination for president in 2004, said: “Our energy plan will invest in new technologies and alternative fuels and the cars of the future so that no young American in uniform will ever be held hostage to our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”...(Read on line Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - The Empty Promise - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com )

From NY Women for Obama:

Dear Women for Obama:

Here is the latest collection of information to help us keep the momentum going for Senator Barack Obama.

Upcoming Fundraising Events
“Barack and Michelle: The Full Interview” in Ladies Home Journal
Report on the Impact of Obama Economic Plan on Working Women
Fundraising Competition – Show Your Primary Colors
Barack’s VP Choice
Voter Registration in Downtown NYC
Voter Registration in Jersey City
Voter Registration in Philadelphia
Volunteer Opportunities

1. UPCOMING FUNDRAISING EVENTS:

Tuesday, August 12th - New York City, NY
Hiro Ballroom & Lounge at the Maritime Hotel
7:00pm – Asian American Finance Committee, South Asians for Obama, Generation Obama, DNC Trailblazers Council with Actor Kal Penn, Director Mira Nair and others
Event Host/Sponsor/VIP/Guest: $5,000, $2,500, $250, $100
Contact: Gautam Raghavan, (202)427-1392, RaghavanG@dnc.org
http://my.barackobama.com/nycSA
Sunday, August 17th - Sagaponack, NY
The home of Ross Bleckner & Dorothy Lichtenstein
11:00am – Brunch with Caroline Kennedy
Co-Host/ Ticket Price: $10,000, $2,300
Contact: Bridget Siegel, (212)763-4850, bridgetsiegel@gmail.com
http://my.barackobama.com/EastEnd
Monday, August 18th – New York, NY
Address provided upon RSVP
6:30pm – Cocktail reception with NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Sponsor/Contributor: $2,300, $1,000
Contact: James Pepper, (212) 763-4850, jpepper@barackobama.com https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Aug18Cuomo
Monday, August 18th – Saratoga, NY
The Saratoga Hilton, 534 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY
6:30pm VIP Host Reception, 7:00pm Main Reception with Governor David Patterson
Host/VIP/Guest: $10,000, $1,000, $250
Contact: Vinson Cunningham, (212)763-4850, vcunningham@barackobama.com
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Aug18Saratoga
Tuesday, August 19th - New York, NY
Address provided upon RSVP
12:00pm – Luncheon with Jason Furman and Ingrid Ellen
$5,000 per person
Contact: Hildy Kuryk, (212)763-4850, hkuryk@barackobama.com
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/August19NYC
Thursday, August 21st - Hoboken, NJ
Monroe Gallery at Monroe Center for the Arts
6:00pm – Reception with Mayor Corey Booker and Mayor Jerramiah Healy
VIP/Attend/Generation Obama: $500, $250, $150
Contact: Vinson Cunningham, (212)763-4850, vcunningham@barackobama.com
http://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/HobokenAug21

Tuesday, September 9th – Shea Stadium, Flushing, NY
Mets Game with Governor Howard Dean in the Managers Box
7:00pm – 9:00pm

Host(raise or write)/Guest: $10,000, $2,500
Contact: Celeste Wolter, (212) 763-4850, WolterC@dnc.org

http://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Sept9MetsGame



2. “BARACK AND MICHELLE OBAMA: THE FULL INTERVIEW”:
Ladies Home Journal sat down with Senator Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. The couple spoke candidly about navigating tough times in their marriage, their dreams for their daughters, and his crucial message to women voters. LHJ: Upstairs at the press conference, you were introduced as a power couple. Ladies' Home Journal's motto is "Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman." Could you each comment on what that phrase means to you? MICHELLE OBAMA: Well, for me, I think of all the things that women are capable of balancing -- even starting as young children. We have two daughters, and when I think about the complexity and level of detail of their thought and their emotional empathy -- people do note that there is a difference in girls in that respect. And I think that begins to arm us with the tools to be able to juggle all that we have to juggle. Those skills turn out to be pretty amazing resources that can and should be harnessed in society for the benefit of many. LINK

3. REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF OBAMA ECONOMIC PLAN ON WOMEN:
Please be sure to check out the Report on the Impact of the Obama Economic Plan for America’s Working Women: http://obama.3cdn.net/fa6127179d2b5a86dc_lym6bhdat.pdf

4. FUNDRAISING COMPETITION - SHOW YOUR PRIMARY COLORS:
With only 18 days until the Primary is over, we need EVERY PRIMARY DOLLAR now! After August 28th when Senator Obama officially accepts the nomination, we can only raise General Election funds. So, we challenge you to find at least $5,000 in Primary money by August 27th. (Reminder: the limit for Primary contributions is $2,300.)

The person who collects the most money will get 2 tickets to our next event with Senator Obama! The 2nd runner up will get 2 tickets to any of our upcoming surrogate events!

Contributions must be given via this link or the attached donor form. All contribution amounts are welcome! https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/OVFTriState

One of the biggest reasons we need the contributions is our 50 State Strategy. Senator Obama pledged to compete in every state and no where is that more evident than Nevada. Right now, Democrats have a registration edge of 60,000 voters, many of them signed up by our campaign! Since last month the campaign has trained 600 precinct leaders statewide, joining the more than 1,000 who were trained for the caucus. Thousands of others are making phone calls and knocking on doors. By the end of August, the campaign expects to have 20 field offices and 75 paid staff members statewide! (LINK)

6. BARACK’S VP CHOICE:
No, he hasn’t announced his choice yet but it will be any day between now and the start of the Democratic Convention on August 25. You can be the first to know by signing up here http://my.barackobama.com/vp to receive an email the moment Barack makes his decision, or you can text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone.

7. VOTER REGISTRATION IN DOWNTOWN NYC:
Wednesday, August 13th, 1:00pm - 7:00pm
14th St. & 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10003

Voter registration. Visibility. Volunteer recruitment.

Come when you can, stay as long as you can.

http://newyork.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/voterregistrationdrive/44qvl
(Include your EMAIL and PHONE # when you RSVP)

8. VOTER REGISTRATION AT JERSEY CITY PRIDE FESTIVAL:
On Saturday, August 23rd, from 11:00am-8:00pm (in shifts)
1 Exchange Place, Jersey City, NJ (PATH and NJ Transit go to Exchange Place)

This Pride event attracts over 10,000 people - a perfect venue to communicate Barack Obama's positive LGBT message.
They are going to need volunteers assigned to different shifts throughout the day - unless you really want to be there for 10 hours.
When you respond indicate which shift(s) - (1) 11am-2pm (includes set-up) (2) 2pm-4pm (3) 4pm-6pm (4) 6pm-8:30pm (includes tear-down)
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/prideevent/4gskx (Include your EMAIL and PHONE # when you RSVP)
9. VOTER REGISTRATION IN PHILADELPHIA:
Pennsylvania is a key swing state in November's election, and Philadelphia is a fantastic place for those in neighboring states to make a positive impact on the outcome.
Saturday, August 16th, 8:00am to 8:00pm

Depart from Brooklyn and Manhattan locations 8:00am

Spend the day in Northeast Philly (near the Frankford Transportation Center)

Depart Philly 6:00pm
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/44vpb

10. VOLUNTEERING FOR THE CAMPAIGN:
Last week the campaign announced Dave Pollak as our New York State Director. Dave joins Tricia Mueller, our NJ State Director, in the Tri-State Region. We hope to round out the team with a Connecticut State Director soon. Volunteers are using the on-line campaign tools to organizer their communities.

a. Go to the barackobama.com website and sign up for the Women for Obama newsletter. Use this link: women.barackobama.com

b. Go to your state page to receive updates from the campaign specific to your state.



Click here for Connecticut for Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/cthome

Click here for New Jersey for Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/njhome

Click here for New York for Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/nysignup
c. Here is a general list of volunteer activities you can do for the campaign on your own:
- fundraising, reaching new donors
- organize house parties and gatherings to speak to friends and family
- travel to see friends in other states to speak to them about Senator Obama
- participate in the Vote for Change initiative to register voters http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/vfchome

- participate in volunteer activities in other states
- write letters to the editor in support of Senator Obama
- call in to radio stations in support of Senator Obama
- write blog posts in support of Senator Obama

From Prisiclla on the Vineyard:

Greetings from Martha's Vineyard Sunny!
We went to a fascinating panel discussion in Oak Bluffs the other day. Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School had organized it, with David Gergen, Al Sharpton, Alan Dershowitz, Roland Martin, Lani Gunier, Ted Shaw, other very sharp minds, all talking about race, gender and politics in this election.
Points I took away:
1)Women can not be allowed to sit out this election. There are hurt feelings all around. We have to acknowledge that they are valid and real but look forward and not backward. What if black people said they were going to sit out an election? That is not a productive way to fight for the values and ideals we share
2) The issue of race is real and we have to acknowedge it. The panelists thought it could make a difference of up to 10 points! What people say and what they do when they get inside the voting booth can be quite different. We can't hide it. We have to bring it out into the open, and the person who is nost eloquent on the topic is Barack.
3) In terms of race, people must understand that there is not a monolithic black vote. There is a huge range of experiences and viewpoints within the black community. Barack is not the first black candidate to be embraced by the white electorate and he can't be stereotyped (nor can anyone!)
4) We have a wonderful opportunity to repair and heal the relationship between Jews and blacks, which has historically been so close and powerful, especially re the civil rights movement. Alan Dershowitz is working hard, in states like Florida, to inform Jewish voters that Barack is truly a friend to them and Israel
5) We have to make sure that young people, so enthused about Barack, do not sit on their dorm rooms or living rooms on election day as many have in the past. They can make the difference. Register young people and make sure they vote!
6) Mainstream media does not do a good job of covering the most important issues and gets sidetracked easily. We must demand more of them...don't underestimate the intelligence of the American people. We cannot allow the media to allow Barack to be swiftboated by covering the microstories that are meaningless to the big picture.
7) Barack must tell his story to all of America. They all need to know his powerful narrative. Raised in Kansas and born to an African father. Editor of Harvard Law Review and community organizer, he is the classic American dream, and not an exotic elitist..
Go Barack!!!



From Judy in Mamaroneck:
August 13, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Eight Strikes and You’re Out
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America’s energy crisis. “Tell them to come back and get to work!” McCain bellowed.

Sorry, but I can’t let that one go by. McCain knows why.

It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.

Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits — which expire in December — to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.

Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.

“McCain did not show up on any votes,” said Scott Sklar, president of The Stella Group, which tracks clean-technology legislation. Despite that, McCain’s campaign commercial running during the Olympics shows a bunch of spinning wind turbines — the very wind turbines that he would not cast a vote to subsidize, even though he supports big subsidies for nuclear power.

Barack Obama did not vote on July 30 either — which is equally inexcusable in my book — but he did vote on three previous occasions in favor of the solar and wind credits.

The fact that Congress has failed eight times to renew them is largely because of a hard core of Republican senators who either don’t want to give Democrats such a victory in an election year or simply don’t believe in renewable energy.

What impact does this have? In the solar industry today there is a rush to finish any project that would be up and running by Dec. 31 — when the credits expire — and most everything beyond that is now on hold. Consider the Solana concentrated solar power plant, 70 miles southwest of Phoenix in McCain’s home state. It is the biggest proposed concentrating solar energy project ever. The farsighted local utility is ready to buy its power.

But because of the Senate’s refusal to extend the solar tax credits, “we cannot get our bank financing,” said Fred Morse, a senior adviser for the American operations of Abengoa Solar, which is building the project. “Without the credits, the numbers don’t work.” Some 2,000 construction jobs are on hold...(Read rest on line:Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - Eight Strikes and You’re Out - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com )

#2 From Judy and the NY Times:

August 13, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Yes, She Can
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON

While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention.

You can almost hear her mind whirring: She’s amazed at how easy it was to snatch Denver away from the Obama saps. Like taking candy from a baby, except Beanpole Guy doesn’t eat candy. In just a couple of weeks, Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama.

Now they’ve made Barry’s convention all about them — their dissatisfaction and revisionism and barely disguised desire to see him fail. Whatever insincere words of support the Clintons muster, their primal scream gets louder: He can’t win! He can’t close the deal! We told you so!

Hillary’s orchestrating a play within the play in Denver. Just as Hamlet used the device to show that his stepfather murdered his father, Hillary will try to show the Democrats they chose the wrong savior.

Her former aide Howard Wolfson fanned the divisive flames Monday on ABC News, arguing that Hillary would have beaten Obama in Iowa and become the nominee if John Edwards’s affair had came out last year — an assertion contradicted by a University of Iowa survey showing that far more Edwards supporters had Obama as their second choice.

Hillary feels no guilt about encouraging her supporters to mess up Obama’s big moment, thus undermining his odds of beating John McCain and improving her odds of being the nominee in 2012.

She’s obviously relishing Hillaryworld’s plans to have multiple rallies in Denver, to take out TV and print ads and to hold up signs in the hall that read “Denounce Nobama’s Coronation.”

In a video of a closed California fund-raiser on July 31 that surfaced on YouTube, Hillary was clearly receptive to having her name put in nomination and a roll-call vote.

She said she thought it would be good for party unity if her gals felt “that their voices are heard.” But that’s disingenuous. Hillary was the one who raised the roll-call idea at the end of May with Democrats, who were urging her to face the math. She said she wanted it for Chelsea, oblivious to how such a vote would dim Obama’s star turn. Ever since she stepped aside in June, she’s been telling people privately that there might have to be “a catharsis” at the convention, signaling she wants a Clinton crescendo.

Bill continues to howl at the moon — and any reporters in the vicinity — about Obama; he’s starting to make King Lear look like Ryan Seacrest.

The way the Clintons see it, there’s nothing wrong with a couple making plans for their future, is there? That’s the American way and, as their pal Mark Penn pointed out, they have American roots while Obama “is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.”

The Clintons know that a lot of Democrats are muttering that their solipsistic behavior is “disgusting.” But they’re too filled with delicious schadenfreude at the wave of buyer’s remorse that has swept the Democratic Party; many Democrats are questioning whether Obama is fighting back hard enough against McCain, and many are wondering, given his inability to open up a lead in a country fed up with Republicans, if race will be an insurmountable factor.

Some Democrats wish that Obama had told the Clintons to “get in the box” or get lost if they can’t show more loyalty, rather than giving them back-to-back, prime-time speaking gigs at the convention on Tuesday and Wednesday. Al Gore clipped their wings in 2000, triggering their wrath by squeezing both the president and New York Senate candidate into speaking slots the first night and then ushering them out of L.A.

Wednesday will be all Bill. The networks will rerun his churlish comments from Africa about Obama’s readiness to lead and his South Carolina meltdowns. TV will have more interest in a volcanic ex-president than a genteel veep choice.

Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women ... dampen the dreams of our daughters.” This, even though postmortems, including the new raft of campaign memos leaked by Clintonistas to The Atlantic — another move that undercuts Obama — finger Hillary’s horrendous management skills.

Besides the crashing egos and screeching factions working at cross purposes, Joshua Green writes in the magazine, Hillary’s “hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency.”

It would have been better to put this language in the platform: “A woman who wildly mismanages and bankrupts a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar campaign operation, and then blames sexism in society, will dampen the dreams of our daughters.” Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - Yes, She Can - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

From Victory for Obama:

John McCain and the Republican National Committee are trying to convince you that you've been swept up and tricked into wanting change.

They want you to believe that everything is just fine -- that we need to stay the course and elect someone who's voted with George Bush 95% of the time.

To sell this ridiculous idea, McCain and the RNC are using huge checks from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs to run negative ads attacking Barack Obama and the millions of volunteers and donors who have joined this campaign for change.

While supporters like you are out knocking on doors, registering new voters, and organizing in your local communities, our opponents are not even trying to match your efforts. Instead, they're spending millions to spread the smear that Barack is just a "celebrity" and that our grassroots movement is just a bunch of mindless fans.

So who is John McCain really attacking? Real people like Brandon, a carpenter from McCall, ID. Stephanie, a registered nurse from Phoenix, AZ. And Pamela, a retired teacher from Franklin, WV.

These are actual people who have made donations to our campaign this week.

Join supporters like Brandon, Stephanie, and Pamela in fighting back against McCain's negative attacks. Please make another donation, and give $500 or more today.

From Kathy in MO:


Click here to sign an emergency message to the Department of Health and Human Services: "Contraception is NOT abortion. The Bush Administration's proposal to change the definition of abortion and reduce women's access to birth control must be stopped."


Sign the petition


In partnership with:





Dear family and friends,

Please sign this petition and forward on to others. Bush and his right wing crazies are trying to get abortion redefined by the government to include birth control! I am outraged by this and sick of this administration interfering with women's rights. Their little "redefinition" that contraception = abortion could make it so many forms of birth control would be unavailable and even illegal!!! Families are already struggling, we don't need these crazies making things harder!
Kathy
Can you imagine living in a place where birth control is considered an "abortion" and health insurers won't cover it? Where even rape victims are denied emergency contraception?


It seems unbelievable, but the Bush Administration is quietly trying to redefine "abortion" to include birth control. The Houston Chronicle says this could wipe out dozens of state laws that protect women's reproductive freedom and protect rape victims.1 Access to basic health care for millions of women would be jeopardized. And it's being pushed as a "rule change"—meaning, it doesn't need congressional approval.


Can you sign an emergency message to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, whose department is considering this rule change right now? Tell him: "Contraception is NOT abortion. The Bush Administration's proposal to change the definition of abortion and reduce women's access to birth control must be stopped."

Clicking here will add your name to this message:
http://pol.moveon.org/contraception/o.pl?id=13468-4506833-D7yer8x&t=4

The best way to beat back this proposal is to show Secretary Leavitt massive public outrage—that's why today we're launching this petition jointly with Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Together, we'll deliver every signature to Leavitt. You can help add to our momentum by forwarding this message to friends.


Here's what some others are saying about this proposal:

The draft regulation would define birth control as abortion...it could deny access to critical family planning for women across the country.—Letter signed by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and 26 other senators.2

The draft rule could void laws in 27 states that require insurance companies to provide birth control coverage for women requesting it [and] laws in 14 states requiring that rape victims receive counseling and access to emergency, day-after contraceptives.—Houston Chronicle editorial3

The administration needs to stop playing word games with women's health and state clearly they will reject any regulations that will undermine women's access to basic health care.—Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.4


[It's] a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right... —RH Reality Check, Information and Analysis for Reproductive Health5

The birth control pill, the IUD, and emergency contraception might all become unavailable—illegal—as a result.—Brigid Riley, executive director of a Minnesota teen pregnancy prevention organization6
Can you help send a loud message to Secretary Leavitt that birth control is NOT abortion? Clicking here will sign your name:
http://pol.moveon.org/contraception/o.pl?id=13468-4506833-D7yer8x&t=5

Thanks for all you do.

–Nita, Laura, Patrick S., Adam G., and the rest of the team


Sources:

1. "Redefining abortion; Federal officials considering a rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide contraceptives," Houston Chronicle, August 10, 2008
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5935532.html

2. Letter to Secretary Mike Leavitt from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and 26 other senators, July 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=4042&id=13468-4506833-D7yer8x&t=6


3. "Redefining abortion; Federal officials considering a rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide contraceptives," Houston Chronicle editorial, August 10, 2008
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5935532.html

4. "Birth control: is administration backing down—or not?" Los Angeles Times blog, August 8, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=4043&id=13468-4506833-D7yer8x&t=7

5. "HHS Moves to Define Contraception as Abortion," RH Reality Check, July 15, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=4041&id=13468-4506833-D7yer8x&t=8

6. "White House Considering Contraception Restrictions," Public News Service, August 11, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=4040&id=13468-4506833-D7yer8x&t=9

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

From Marla in Atlanta GA:
#1 e-mail:
i wanted to make sure you saw this today!

this is the kind of thing that i think can turn the voters (those who are
on the fence) against mccain. people are really struggling and are sick
of the special interests running things.

campaign finance watchdog group that has been going after John McCain's
campaign and its lobbyist connections reported this morning that his
staffers, advisers, and top fund-raisers have received nearly $1 billion
from domestic lobbying clients over the past decade.

Campaign Money Watch, analyzing data from the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics, also said that employees and political action
committees of the clients have donated nearly $12 million to McCain's
campaigns over the years.

“The McCain campaign relies on big money lobbyists, and they’ll rely on
him,” David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch, said in a
statement. “In the ‘you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours’ world of
Washington, $931 million gets the special interests the best government
money can buy. But just think of the payday these lobbyists might expect
in a McCain Administration.”

The group launched a website today to focus more attention on McCain's
lobbyists. “How can John McCain say he’ll reduce the influence of special
interests in Washington, when he’s so fully dependent on lobbyists and
their clients to finance his campaign?” Donnelly asked. “All candidates
need to raise money, but is this exemplary of a candidate who claims he’ll
tackle the special interests?”

While McCain has had to dismiss several top campaign aides because of
their lobbyist ties and Democrat Barack Obama has eschewed campaign money
from Washington lobbyists, independent observers say that lobbyists play
an important role in how the federal government works.


#2
I hope you all will forward this to as many people as you know.
Even billionaire oilman T.Boone Pickens says more off shore drilling will
not solve our problem. We need to think progressively and not ruin any
more of our environment...we need it to survive.
Many thanks
Are McCain and Obama playing politics with our environment?
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=1139&id=701-1650260-p_fvwDx&t=8
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=1140&id=701-1650260-p_fvwDx&t=9

In 1969, an offshore rig spilled 3 million gallons of oil off the coast of
Santa Barbara. Oil-drenched sea birds and beaches galvanized concerned
citizens, who worked to institute a moratorium on offshore drilling.
However, in June of this year, President Bush demanded that Congress lift
the ban on offshore oil drilling that's been protecting our beaches for 27
years.

Why? It comes down to fearmongering and oil company profits. Economists,
environmentalists, and energy experts agree that this plan would have zero
effect on gas prices in the next six years, let alone the next six months.

Unfortunately, the presidential candidates are now playing politics with
our beaches. Senators McCain and Obama were both against oil drilling
before they were running for President, but times have changed.

In June, McCain did a complete 180 on his original position, and his
switch has left him awash in oil industry donations. As a leading voice on
campaign finance, his position is also hypocritical. McCain knows the
right position on drilling -- he supported it in the past. No new drilling
off our coasts.

Click here to tell Senator McCain to reverse his flip flop on offshore
drilling.
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=1139&id=701-1650260-p_fvwDx&t=12

Obama hasn't done a 180 on this issue like McCain. But he is flirting with
allowing some drilling, even though he knows that it couldn't help relieve
gas prices until 2014 at the earliest. Obama shouldn't compromise on
offshore drilling just because it's become a central front in the battle
for the presidency. He needs to do what's right and oppose all new
offshore drilling.

Click here to tell Senator Obama not to cave in to fearmongering on
offshore drilling.
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=1140&id=701-1650260-p_fvwDx&t=13

After you sign the petitions, please be sure to tell a few friends.

Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=12&id=701-1650260-p_fvwDx&t=14
from Working Assets

From Women for Obama:

Wednesday, August 13, 2008


Watch the new TV ad



NEWS FROM THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

Platform Reflects Barack Obama's Commitment to Women and Families

Last weekend in Pittsburgh, PA, the Democratic Party finalized the platform in advance of the upcoming DNC Convention. The new platform takes strong positions on issues of particular importance to women that have been major campaign themes and lifelong priorities for Barack Obama. The Platform process was led by an impressive group of women including Governor Janet Napolitano, Chair of the Platform Drafting Committee, Judith McHale and Patricia Madrid who co-chaired the Platform Committee, and the Platform Author Karen Kornbluh.

The platform states its explicit support of Roe v. Wade:

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

The party reinforces Senator Obama's insistence on equal pay for equal work:

When women still earn 76 cents for every dollar that a man earns, it doesn't just hurt women; it hurts families and children. We will pass the "Lilly Ledbetter" Act, which will make it easier to combat pay discrimination; we will pass the Fair Pay Act; and we will modernize the Equal Pay Act.

Building on Barack Obama's commitment to helping victims of domestic violence, the party lays out a strong stance on domestic violence:

Ending violence against women must be a top priority. We will create a special advisor to the president regarding violence against women. We will increase funding to domestic violence and sexual assault prevention programs. We will strengthen sexual assault and domestic violence laws, support the Violence Against Women Act, and provide job security to survivors.

The party is committed to expanding the Family & Medical Leave Act:

We will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to reach millions more workers than are currently covered, and will enable workers to take leave to care for an elderly parent, address domestic violence and sexual assault, or attend a parent-teacher conference. Today 78 percent of the workers who are eligible for leave cannot take it because it's unpaid, so we will work with states and make leave paid.

And the platform recognizes that there is no place for sexism in our party:

We believe that standing up for our country means standing up against sexism and all intolerance. Demeaning portrayals of women cheapen our debates, dampen the dreams of our daughters and deny us the contributions of too many. Responsibility lies with us all.




Ike's Granddaughter Calls Obama "Future of America"

By Sridhar Pappu
August 11, 2008 - The Washington Independent

This race is very similar to the 1952 campaign that brought my grandfather to power," Eisenhower said, continuing the comparison. "He was an outsider who was nominated by the Republican Party -- but it was not an easy process at all. He was an outsider who threatened to shake up the party itself."

"I can't speak for my grandfather," Eisenhower said, but clearly felt she could speculate. "First of all, what's not to love? This is one of the great American stories. About a year-and-a-half ago, I said to Sen. Obama, 'I really welcome you into this race, because it helps underscore to people at home and abroad that in America anything is possible. I was beginning to worry that we were a country that were beginning to look at the political process as something for the select few.' And he said, 'Oh Susan, you must never worry about this country. This is a great country.'"


From the DCCC:

Here is my theory on what to do in politics if your opponent is sinking: throw him an anvil.

That's just what we're doing right now to the Grand Oil Party by exposing all their sleazy ties to those Big Oil companies lining their pockets and sticking it to average folks at the gas pump. How would you like to help?

The Republicans are so desperate to hide their ties to Big Oil that they enlisted none other than the shadowy Karl Rove-backed Freedom's Watch to try and change the subject and promote John McCain's 100 Year Plan in Iraq. Right now, Freedom's Watch is spending millions on attack ads of the worst kind against any Democrat who dares to oppose their Big Oil agenda.

It's up to us to decide whether they get away with this trash.

My friends at the DCCC have launched an all out campaign including radio ads that started running on Friday to defeat these Republicans and their oil soaked campaign coffers. These Republicans have accepted millions and protected oil profits in the billions while we're left with nothing but empty wallets at the gas station.

Help spread the word far and wide about the GOP's big ties to Big Oil - check out the DCCC's latest radio ads.

Even worse, The Washington Post reported that Republican Leader John Boehner has spent the last week doing a series of golf outings while a small band of House Republicans remain in Washington to call for "drill only" legislation that does nothing to bring immediate relief to Americans paying high gas prices.

Changing the subject with their Karl Rove campaign of distraction is what Republicans do best. The only way we're gonna win this fight is by getting the word out, which is just what the DCCC is doing.

They're going up on the radio with response ads and doing whatever it takes to make sure everyone knows how hard Republicans are working to protect those same Big Oil companies who earned a whopping $44 billion in profit last quarter alone.

Help spread the word far and wide about the GOP's big ties to Big Oil - check out the DCCC's latest radio ads.

The last thing those Big Oil Republicans want is for word to leak out about how much money they're taking from those oil companies who are profiting off the pain of America's families. So let's tell everyone all about it.


James Carville

P.S. Last week, we asked for your help to support the 45 strong Democrats in the DCCC's Red to Blue program who are running to replace Roadblock Republicans in Congress. We're only $97,500 away from our goal - contribute today to help put us over the top and spread the word about the GOP's big ties to Big Oil.





IN THE NEWS
Hillary Clinton Campaigns in Nevada for Senator Obama

Last Friday, Hillary Clinton stumped for Senator Obama in Henderson, NV. Speaking in front of a boisterous crowd, Senator Clinton explained why she, and all of her supporters, should support Barack Obama. She spoke about the equal pay benefits as well as improving healthcare and raising the minimum wage.
"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain. Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign." She continued, "we may have started on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now."

Like Senator Clinton, Obama has been a champion for pay equity. In the Illinois State Senate, Obama cosponsored and voted for the Illinois Equal Pay Act, which provided 330,000 more women protection from pay discrimination. In the U.S. Senate, Obama joined a bipartisan group of senators to introduce the Fair Pay Restoration Act, a bill to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Obama is also a cosponsor of Senator Tom Harkin's (D-IA) Fair Pay Act which requires employers to provide equal pay for equivalent jobs and disclose their pay scales for all job categories, and Senator Clinton's (D-NY) Paycheck Fairness Act which provides greater protections for women who suffer discrimination. As president, Obama will continue to promote paycheck equity and work to close the wage gap between men and women.

Women will make the difference for Obama

By Speaker Nancy Pelosi
August 11, 2008 - Detroit Free Press

I've been in Michigan twice in the last two weeks, and each time I come back I am reminded how beautiful the state is and how wonderful the people are who call it home. Being in Michigan you see everything that is great about America.

The spirit of entrepreneurship and hard work that built America are fundamental to the history of Michigan, and that spirit is alive and well today.

Unfortunately, you can also see the hurt that is facing America. Families are struggling under the burden of the failed policies of the Bush administration, and no one is shouldering that burden more than women.

Read the rest of Speaker Pelosi's Op-Ed



Obama Supporters Rally in Woodstock

By Josh O'Gorman
August 12, 2008 - Rutland Herald

About 70 people turned out for the United for Change Potluck Supper at the Woodstock Firehouse, where Madeleine Kunin, former governor, and Gaye Symington, democratic gubernatorial candidate, urged the crowd to back Obama's bid for the White House.

"The whole idea is to unite the Barack-Clinton wings of the party and get somebody in Washington who will bring change and end the war," said event organizer Bob Williamson.

As democrats piled their plates with pasta, meats and salad, Symington circulated with potential voters and discussed her newfound support for Obama...

Kunin noted that after the Clinton campaign there was a period of mourning, "and I think we were entitled to that," she said, but it was now time to back Obama.

Read the rest of the article here



Women Leaders on the Campaign

Check out our profile of Senior Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes, the second in our series of highlighting key women staff on the campaign.



WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP


How you can help Barack this week:

-- Send us 5 names to add to our WFO list. Have them sign up at www.women.barackobama.com and email us at women@barackobama.com to let us know who you've signed up!

-- Go to your local field office and help register people to vote. Voter registration will be key to Barack's victory in the fall. Click here to find out where your local Obama campaign office is located. Or you can find or host a Vote for Change event by clicking here.

-- Forward this newsletter to all of your friends!




















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Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read

Drill Drill all McSame can talk about is drilling!

Dear Obama Supporters:
I was sitting outside in beautiful downtown NYC eating dinner with my college roommate Toni visiting from LA, Renee,and my family and we were talking about Obama ,what else? Anyway, Toni mentioned she was surprised age hasn't come up and Brad said it is a big problem. We all chimed in about our concerns over his obvious memory difficulties. Kathy from MO sent a terrific e-mail below *** on just this subject and it is very concerning to many of us. It is confusing to say the least that more has not been made of this issue. McSame is showing himself to be forgetful , misspoken, angry ,and most of all he repeats himself all the time. I was amazed and pleased by Gail Collins Oped column, The Energy Drill, yesterday . She said all the things we have been talking about here in our group on line. It is JM's constant repeating of the same words and focusing only on offshore drilling that gets me. McSame seems to have embraced offshore drilling as if it is the only solution to our energy problems. IF this were the case we'd be in big trouble since this drilling wouldn't produce result for ten years at least. Collins says," ...he sees this as the key to salvation. Really, it's a little scary. You can't help wondering if he's been captured by some kind of drilling cult". McSame goes on to say as only he can, "We are not going to pay $4 a gallon for gas because we're going to drill offshore." He goes into his script over and over again, "We're going to drill here. We're going to drill now!" I am telling you he sounds like an angry crazed man who has to stay on program or he will get in trouble. Next up he rants ,my opponent doesn't want to drill . He wants to inflate your tires. Well, my gas station suggests this as well. It is a fact if you keep your tires inflated it could save as much oil as we could gain from off shore drilling. I don't get his point and again I worry that he is not capable of answering questions and remembering speeches and that his age is showing.
Two wonderful things occurred yesterday. I hopped in a taxi and was met by a terrific upbeat driver who saw my button(can't miss it) and started talking about Obama. He was outraged after eight years of losing jobs, and the pain of paying for gas now that anyone could vote for McSame. Every time McSame opens his mouth said he, he sounds almost as dumb as W and is just like him. He presents nothing tangible. When Obama talks it is easy to understand him and the way he answers questions with practical solutions is so impressive. I just sat there listening to this 50 year old African American taxi driver and wanted to shout bravo. He talked about the European tour and the respect shown Obama, and how well liked he was over there. I wish I had a longer ride but we were only going to Grand Central. When I was about to get out, I handed him a button and he was so thrilled he put it on then and there. I asked him if he talks about Obama with his customers. He said it is often his main topic and he would proudly wear his button. I must say he made my day. Then I cam home to about 58 e-mails and was a little taken aback.
I opened one from Val in Ohio(see below*** and then I was back on a roll again and feeling good. I am so proud of her and those other protestors in front of John Boehner's offices. They went to his conservative district to protest his energy solutions. They held up signs and had a reporter with them. This is what is called creative campaigning. They made their voices heard and he wasn't there but you know he will read about it in the paper. Also, it shows others that people have concerns about McSame's/GOP policies and they want to talk about this with him and get Obama's solutions across (if they can get him off the golf course) Note from Val, Did you see Boehner on Olberman tonight? Seems he was pushing to shut down the House insisting Congress should not be on vacation when they discovered he was playing golf in his district. Actually someone at the protest mentioned the country club where Boehner spends most of his time.. I believe this is how we can win this campaign small steps in pointing out the flaws, inconsistencies,hypocrisies ,lies, and political benefits of McSame and the GOP but no results for the public. I say you go girl to Val( a new grandma to Noah who will grow up to be very proud of his grannie for helping to get Obama elected!)
When asked how people can get involved in this campaign I answer immediately be creative, join a group like ours on line, e-mail your friends, learn the issues, and go out there and sell Barack Obama a man we believe in. To quote my taxi driver, Obama is a man who has tangible suggestions for change! I also suggest you take a lesson from Val and their group. You don't have to make a huge impact tiny steps are fine. Just make your voice heard in protest against McSame and the last eight years and help get Barack Obama's wonderful practical and caring ideas out there. Remember, one vote a day keeps the guy who wants to drill and is over the hill away!
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama



***From Kathy in KCMO:
I am worried about McCain's age. No one wants to talk about it...that would be ageism! I think we need to talk about it. The presidency is the most stressful job in the world, and we see how much every president has aged under the pressure. If you really watch and listen to him, he is not always tuned in. He has to read everything off of cards, even the price of milk and his stupid jokes! He can't remember his own voting record. He often responds when asked how he voted with "I'll have to get back to you on that!" He doesn't know his own policies to such an extent that his own surrogates had to say that McCain doesn't always speak for the McCain campaign! He mispoke several times last week on taxes, social security, and affirmative action and his own campaign said he did not speak for them! How can this not be reported in the mainstream media? They try to create "gaffes" and "missteps" for Obama and completely ignore that this man is losing it! The public needs to know what McCain is like mentally! Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, we need to ask if he is up to the job physically and mentally. The media also likes to point out how "fit" he is. Have you noticed that he almost never campaigns on the weekends and most sources say he does just one event per day. The presidency would be a part time job for him if these are his working hours! Also complicating the situation is we know he has had cancer. He was very secretive and gave limited access to his medical records. Remember, it was only certain reporters in a locked room for a short time, no copies to be made, and hundreds of pages to review. What else are they hiding?

Have you seen this video of him a few days ago at a press conference in FL? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkKk2C1W1c&eurl=http://www.americablog.com/ He generally is confused and can't even keep straight what question was asked. This is scary. He is looking older and more out of it all the time. The press ususally edits this so you don't see all of the pauses and missteps. This was filmed from several angles making it more difficult to edit. We don't need this old man with his finger on the button. We don't need him at a time when our country is in crisis domestically and internationally. Whoever he picks for VP is truly a heartbeat away if he is elected.

Below are some good points made by Americablog on this subject.
This isn't a joke, and it isn't an attempt to mock McCain or elderly people. There's a reason that 72 year old men aren't professional football players or even commercial airline pilots (commercial pilots are required to retire at age 60). And there's a reason that there's no great uproar over the fact that senior citizens don't work in those professions. It's the height of political correctness to suggest that the presidency of the United States during war time requires less skill, stamina, and mental acuity than flying the friendly skies.

I've gotten feedback from some readers asking if McCain has had a "cognitive impairment" test. I'm told that everyone should get them as they get older, and that it's not clear from the medical records released (you'll recall that McCain only let a select group of reporters review his medical records in a sealed room for a few hours). I hope some reporters out there have the gumption to ask the McCain campaign for a specific answer to the question - has he recently taken a cognitive impairment test and what were the results?

We all need to be asking is this man physically and mentally up to the demanding job of the presidency! I am just sick that the country is not discussing this important issue. Oops, I forgot...we can't ask any questions about his fitness for office because he was a POW!

From Judy in Mamaroneck:
All I can say is Remember Reagan in his mental decline? We all saw it but nobody acknowledged it.. it was like watching The Emperor and His New Clothes. I think we are seeing that now with Mc Cain not knowing the difference between Shias and Sunnis and Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan borders.. and his mocking what he doesn't know and understand.... Very scary!

From Susan in North Carolina:
Susan here in NC. Well today saw McCain now admitting the tire gauge is actually quite useful - wonder what they will do with all those tire gauges!

Although I am out of the country until Sept 3rd our local group has plans. We believe right after Labor Day is perfect. Our group of 50 is meeting in September at our house for an "ENERGY NITE". So what is an "ENERGY NITE"?

Two things:

1. Saving energy........a.k.a. Green

2. Building energy - team energy to bring in the win for Obama in North Carolina.

SAVING ENERGY - we have a local expert on Conservation who does surveys in your home and advises how much each appliance is costing you for example (down to the light bulb). A complimentary Energy Review is offered via a draw for a donation to the Obama campaign. The main focus of the evening is to build a sense of team, belonging to a smaller group is very helpful as you likely know.

RNC Rep was in town today, "We haven't forgotten North Carolina", he was quoted as saying on local television. "We are here in force." [So when are they setting up local offices? Or more of them? In the coming weeks.]

So who is going to lose their Senate seat? Dole. Why? Great ads...how ineffective she is. Why is it resonating? Her record for the last 40 years - branded "ineffective. She was ranked 95th.

North Carolina is a battleground but should soon move to the Obama column.

Missed opportunity for the Obama campaign with women - McCain at the biker convention - offering Cindy for the Miss (whatever) contest. Sexist! So Hillary supporters - THIS is your alternative?

For the next few weeks, I will be 'reporting' in from Scotland.

From Judy in Mamaroneck:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

August 7, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Energy Drill
By GAIL COLLINS
“Tell them to come back and get to work!” John McCain yelled out. “Tell them to get to work!”

This was at a biker rally in South Dakota where McCain was wooing the crowd by demanding that Congress return to Washington and do something about the energy crisis. Demanding that Congress come back from vacation to do something is a time-honored political gambit. But is it the best line of attack for a senator who last showed up for a vote himself back in early spring? Perhaps not.

Also, there was the problem of tone. McCain has sometimes been charged with sounding like a cranky neighbor yelling at kids to get off the lawn. This time, he turned into a cranky neighbor who hires you to cut his grass and then follows you around, pointing out blades that you missed.

This is energy week on the campaign trail. In honor of the critical nature of the debate, let’s try to clear our heads of all thoughts of Paris Hilton ads, and questions of whether McCain knew, when he expressed a yen to see his wife compete in the bikers’ Miss Buffalo Chip beauty contest, that the contestants frequently went topless.

Issues. It’s all about issues.

Both McCain and Barack Obama have spent the last few days wandering around the country, scowling at gas pumps and talking up their energy plans. McCain dubbed his The Lexington Project. Obama’s seems to be called New Energy for America. If these guys really cared, wouldn’t they have come up with better names? But we digress.

Much of the debate has focused on offshore drilling. This is not actually all that critical a concern, but it has the advantage of being fairly simple. The alternative is trying to figure out whether Barack Obama’s promise to wean us from Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil in 10 years is more prone to breakage than McCain’s vow to build 45 nuclear power plants by 2030.

Obama was against ending the current ban on offshore drilling, but now he’s sort of open to it, if it’s part of a bigger energy-independence deal. This has upset a number of his supporters who desperately want a president who will adhere firmly to his positions, even when they become totally irrational.

While McCain was never violently opposed to offshore drilling, he has now embraced it as if it is not only the solution to our energy problems, but also the key to eternal salvation. Really, it’s a little scary. You can’t help wondering if he’s been captured by some kind of drilling cult...Read the rest on line:Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - The Energy Drill - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

From Val in Ohio:

Yesterday, I attended a book signing for a book written by Bryant Welch. The author is the Executive Director of Professional Practice for the American Psychological Association. The book entitled, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind, is a must read for this political season.

The author grew up in a suburb (Kettering) of Dayton, OH where his dad served as the first city manager. It's a conservative community so I knew many of the people in the audience would not be Obama supporters. I sat next to an older lady who started a conversation about the PBS program that recently aired on the topic of the brain. She shared her concerns about being diagnosed with Alzheimer's as some point in her life. Since just the other day, I read Sunny's blog and viewed some You Tube speeches delivered by Mc Cain, I suggested to the lady that McCain might be showing some early signs. That led her to tell me how she could not vote for Obama because he was too far to the left. I asked what led her to that opinion and she said she had been reading a book about him. Without asking her to name the book I cautioned her to be careful about drawing conclusions from what someone writes without getting verification of the book's accuracy. I did recommend both books written by Obama. She went on to voice her belief that people needed to help themselves without relying on the government. I asked if she had heard any of Obama's speeches about personal responsibility. She had heard him speak on this topic and she was impressed. Her next rant was about our failing education system. I reminded her that education systems serve the students from the community and poor communities present very challenging products. That observation seemed to resonate with her. While I would have enjoyed going toe to toe with her for a full evening, the book discussion began.

Here's a brief summary of what the book addresses:

There are a myriad of differences from which people construct reality.

The mind is a chaotic enterprise

If and when one allows the mental state to become fragmented, mental illness occurs

For that reason, people integrate events into a reality that they can comprehend

There are 3 areas that can challenge ones mental state:

(1) The politics of fear can be utilized when ones physical space is invaded by a foreign force. It's a violation of our boundaries that can trigger paranoid mechanisms of the mind. That is why 9-11 continues to be a powerful influence in shaping our politics.

(2) Our nation maintains a state of sexual perplexity. The gay marriage agenda was exploited in the 2000 election with pictures of gays kissing in public that proved nauseating to the heterosexual community. The Republicans portrayed their party as the "protector" of our value system.

(3) A generalized sense of deprivation can lead to expressions of resentment. Adulation can lead to envy particularly if the adulation is perceived as undeserved. Maureen Dowd's column, Green Eyed Monster, addressed this very point. Negative campaign ads have been developed to subtly tap into our subconscious human envy.

The author went on to discuss other means of manipulating voters. He made the observation that Democrats have not been players in this game but they serve as "default candidates." Rove & Co. do not wait to assess which way the wind is blowing but they determine which way the wind is going to blow so they can get out in front of it.

There's a chapter in the book on religion and how religious experiences have now reached an ecstatic fervor with Messianic overtures.

There's a chapter about Fox News and how Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News, was George Herbert Walker Bush's public relations man. He's famous for the Willie Horton ads when the other Bush was running for office.

During the Q&A session, the older man in the audience admitted to a visceral hatred toward the Clintons asking if his views were a product of the manipulation cited in the book. While the author didn't defend Bill's sexual proclivities, he did point out his focus on policy during his tenure in the White House and how the country, as a whole, had benefited from his intelligence. He aborted on the country's upward mobility during the Clinton era when another questioner attempted to diminish the two candidates (McCain/Obama) to Tweedle-dee vs. Tweedle-dum. Through a non partisan lens, he was able to diffuse that argument.

I think we need to increase our awareness of how the political process has been molded and shaped so we can become players. The influence of the media is also discussed in an article I read this morning with the worrisome title: Why Obama Could Be In Trouble (View this story on line at:http://www.alternet.org/story/94030/) I also think it's important to find ways to plant ourselves in "mixed company" so we can engage the Rethugs and undecideds in civil conversation to point out the errors in their thinking. Thanks to all of you who contribute to Sunny's blog. It's one of my best sources of information.

#2 ****I went to a protest at John Boehner's office today. It was a gathering in an ultra conservative district but we did get news coverage and a few honks when we held up signs along the road. The organizer had researched alternative energy processes and she came armed with info on a major discovery from MIT on solar energy (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html). There was another lady in the group who was an MIT alum so she added her 2 cents for the benefit of the press. We had one reporter who went into Boehner's office with us and she was asked to leave. Boehner wasn't even there because he was somewhere promoting the McCain energy proposal.

I'll keep you posted on happenings in Ohio. Keep on keeping on

Did you see Boehner on Olberman tonight? Seems he was pushing to shut down the House insisting Congress should not be on vacation when they discovered he was playing golf in his district. Actually someone at the protest mentioned the country club where Boehner spends most of his time.

I just got this:Dear Val, Thanks so much for participating today at Boehner's office. The woman who organized it was Carol Stewart and her email address is carolst@one.net if you want to have her get in touch with you directly the next time something comes up quickly. I went to the McCAin event at the country club in Mason and they had a little over 30 people there. Several camera crews so that was a great thing to be a part of also. The 30 people at the country club were protestors. It was great to be with that protest group as well as our earlier gathering at Boehner's office.


From Susan in Rye:

Sunny,
As usual, your blog has tons and tons of great links and information. I particularly enjoyed Hank's assessment of the Bush "legacy." At least we can keep our sense of humor. However, I am also very troubled by the wackiness of McSame after watching the youtube video of him at the Sturgis bike rally. He is really scary. Why are people saying they're scared of Barack Obama? McSame is a totally confused person with anger management issues and someone like that is NEVER ready to be President. I know that the Obama campaign can't attack him on his age and they are trying to keep to the issues and stay on the high road, but this is seriously scary stuff.

The David Brooks op-ed was so backwards and I think today's letters in response were excellent because they addressed the whole point of who this special once-in-a-lifetime candidate is. He's not an empty celebrity or a person who is "in but not of." He is brilliant and the sheer fact that he is not allied to any one special interest group is what makes him a unique candidate. Maybe that is why he is drawing huge crowds and has raised so much money from small donors. He is truly more "of the people," than any candidate has been.

# 2 From Susan:
You are the energizer bunny with all your activities. I hope you'll take a few days off before the convention and relax a bit. After that, it will be a sprint to Nov. 4th and non-stop motion. Thanks for your complement about my writing. When I am passionate about a topic, I like to write about it and I am so passionate about this election. I thought the Huffington Post's blog yesterday by Drew Westen was excellent regarding Obama's message and how his personal narrative must be emphasized in contrast to McSame's narrative: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/why-voters-say-they-dont_b_117238.html. The best part is:
"The average American actually doesn't know Barack Obama, despite all the media attention. They know that he's a gifted, charismatic man with a winning smile, a keen mind, and a tendency to alternative between RFK on the stump and Michael Dukakis in interviews and debates. Most people haven't read Dreams from my Father or The Audacity of Hope, and their only exposure to either will be in Republican attack ads using his words against him. Most white people who worry that he doesn't share their values don't know that he grew up in a family much like theirs, with a white mother and blue collar white grandparents. Most people don't know that he cares so much about the absence of black fathers from the lives of their children not only because he understands the destructiveness, particularly to boys, but that he understands it firsthand, and was only saved from its more destructive impact by the presence of a loving (if sometimes overly fun-loving) maternal grandfather..."

"While getting smacked repeatedly with the charge of elitism, the candidate with the humble roots hasn't mentioned that perhaps McCain is so out of touch with the concerns of everyday Americans because he was born with a silver spoon in his hand, is a poster child for affirmative action for the wealthy and well connected (having both gained admittance to and barely survived the Naval Academy at the bottom of his class as the son and grandson of four-star admirals), and that maybe he should speak more with the servants in his eight homes if he wants to know what the energy crisis or health insurance crisis or mortgage crisis he's been part of the problem in creating in the Senate for three decades actually feels like to everyday Americans."

When you talk to people involved with the campaign, do they discuss this? I know all of us are frustrated that so many people in this country still don't really know Obama. His books should be required reading for every American this summer!
Take care,

From Hank in NYC:

Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 7:35 AM
To: 'letters@nytimes.com'
Subject: To The Editor

“The Energy Drill” – Op/Ed – August 7, 2008

John McCain’s outburst to the biker’s group sounded strangely reminiscent of Howard Dean’s primal scream during the 2004 presidential campaign. Like Governor Dean who felt John Kerry pulling away from him, Senator McCain is ranting and whining because Senator Obama is more popular and has better judgment. Drilling for more oil, offshore or anywhere else is exactly the opposite of what America and the rest of the world needs to do. Barack Obama is willing to accept offshore drilling only as part of a broad, comprehensive plan to develop alternative sources of clean and sustainable energy. Even T. Boone Pickens, the oilman’s oilman, has started to drink the Koolaid and understands we cannot drill our way to energy independence.

Senator McCain would be thrilled to drill, but it would yield almost nil. John McCain is simply over the hill.

From Ohio Joe:


I am doing all grassroots this election........we just got back from Portland, Maine attended some Obama meetings there.....this country must get better...things are so bad in Maine that lobster is $4.90 per pound.

When I emailed you about the numbers in Ohio this came from an Obama campaign person.........and I am shocked at the DEMS who supported Hillary who have McCain signs....this makes me mad as hell. From past experience I can do more good as grassroots


I will be in touch....Hope all is well with you. I sat here yesterday and thought.....HOW F_____ will we be if the day after the election McCain is president. Just think about it........really.......ask those who question Obama, can they stand FOUR MORE YEARS ???
PS......there are days that I could shake my parents for moving from Brooklyn to Ohio......but I guess my dads job.......there is a reason for everything.
There are even blacks who support McCain because they feel Obama is too WHITE....this is OHIO. OSU FOOTBALL, FASTFOOD and STUPID PEOPLE.

From Susan in North Carolina off to Edinburgh:

I am involved in a smaller group of about 100 folks, not working directly with the offices. This is allowing us to work in our own neighborhoods. After we have our 'meeting' at our place, we will be ramping up to helping folks get to the polls. As I cannot vote, I can be of most help making sure Obama gets EVERY vote.

Thanks for keeping in touch Sunny, I know you are super busy!

On to Edinburgh!



From Kathy in KCMO:

Below is a great MoveOn Ad that the public needs to see. Please pass it on! McCain is good at accusations and falsehoods that he repeats over and over. Remember: he is operating with the Rove crew on the assumption that if you repeat a lie enough times, it becomes the truth. Pretty ironic that he is telling Congress to get back to work when he has missed more votes than any other senator. Many of these were votes on key issues that he supposedly supports! People need to know the truth about this guy. I hope MoveOn keeps hammering McCain on his record and hypocrisy! I also would encourage everyone to keep writing to the TV networks and newspapers with the truth about McCain. Whether they print it or not, it gives them an idea of what the public is thinking and can affect the way they cover this campaign.



Dear MoveOn member,
At the world's largest motorcycle rally, John McCain angrily accused Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi of skipping out on votes to solve the energy crisis. "Tell 'em to get to work!" he shouted.


This from the man who has skipped more votes than any other senator.

McCain even missed two key votes to repeal Big Oil tax breaks and ramp up solar and wind power—both of which lost by a single vote!


We put together a short video overnight to call McCain's bluff. Please check it out, then pass it on.



Watch the video

If you like this video, it'd be great to donate so we can keep countering McCain's false attacks on Obama.


John McCain and the Republicans think demonizing Obama and the Democrats over high gas prices is their ticket to victory. We need to get the word out—when it comes to the energy crisis, McCain is all talk.

Thanks!

–Noah, Justin, Daniel, Marika and the rest of the team

P.S. Here's the link to the video:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=4015&id=13424-4506833-iwc8yFx&t=3

From Vicki in KCMO:

Hey gang!
I have been invited to be on the pundit panel on Nick Haines' KC Week in Review on the PBS channel KCPT Channel 19 (11 on Cable) tomorrow night - Friday, Aug. 8, at 7:30pm. It re-airs on Sunday at 11am. They will be talking politics, elections, and voting. I'm scared poopless - so if you want a great laugh! Tune in. I'll be with Mike Mahoney, Steve Kraske and Jack Cashill.



Vicki Walker
KC Media Watchdogs
90.1 FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio
Read me on eKC - www.kcactive.com
From Lee in NYC in order to find out how to work in campaign and where to go to find headquarters and people in charge:

All the offices are listed on the campaign's website. The information is really easy to find.

Go to the website: www.barackobama.com

Go to the state section: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages

Choose the state you want.
Each state has a link for either "Visit our Campaign HQ" or "Find Your Local Field Office"

That's where you find the list of offices. All the information is available for people. They just need to go get it.


From Women for Obama:

Women for Obama Newsletter

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Countdown to Election Day: 90 DAYS!

WIN A COPY OF THE “BLUEPRINT FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES” SIGNED BY MICHELLE OBAMA!

Michelle Obama has been traveling the country, talking with families and leaving behind copies of the comprehensive Blueprint for Working Women and Families (which you can read by clicking here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4194155/Barack-Obamas-Plan-to-Support-Working-Women-and-Families)

YOU have the opportunity to win a copy of the Blueprint personally inscribed by Michelle Obama! The first 50 women to recruit and sign up FIVE new women to join Women for Obama will receive a signed copy in the mail. All you need to do is have them sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/womenforobama, then send your completed list of names and contact info to us at women@barackobama.com.

In case you missed it, you can check out a video of Michelle’s remarks at the Chicago luncheon, the day the Blueprint was launched, by clicking here: http://women.barackobama.com/blueprintvideo. Please take a moment to watch, and to share the video as well as the Blueprint with everyone you know – men and women!



Check out our profile of IN State Director Emily Parcell, the first in our series of highlighting key women staff on the campaign! http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/annebrewer/gG58VH



NEWS & VIDEO
* READ: Connie Schultz’s column in the Plain Dealer about her interview with Michelle Obama (8/3/08): http://women.barackobama.com/page/community/post/annebrewer/gG5zzx. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist sat down with Michelle and talked at length about how life in the national spotlight has impacted her and the Obama family – and how she balances her first priority (her daughters) with the demands of “auditioning for first lady.”
* WATCH: Barack Obama’s new campaign ads highlighting his New Energy for America Plan:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/nationalpriority_ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPo5IGTd0A
You can also read Sen. Obama’s remarks to launch the Plan in Lansing, MI below…

WHAT YOU CAN DO

How YOU can Help Barack This Week:

· JOIN the National Women for Obama MYBO group and become a part of the nationwide Women for Obama movement: http://my.barackobama.com/womenforobama

· Volunteer in your local field offices on WOMEN’S WEDNESDAYS! Bring a friend along! You can go out and canvass, register voters, or make phone calls. Click here to find out where your local Obama campaign office is located: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages. If no campaign office exists in your area, you can search grassroots groups in your area by clicking here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/actioncenter

SEN. OBAMA TAKES A STAND ON ISSUES IMPACTING WOMEN

Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the 15th Anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act

Chicago, IL -- “Fifteen years ago today, working families everywhere achieved a victory when the Family and Medical Leave Act went into effect. This groundbreaking law helps guarantee that America's workers shouldn't have to choose between their jobs or their health and the health of their families.

“Because of the FMLA, more than eighty million people have been able to take needed time off work to care for themselves or family members. Because of the FMLA, mothers and fathers can take time off work to care for a new baby without fear of being replaced by their employer…”

Click here to read Barack Obama’s plan to expand the FMLA, as part of his broader work-family balance agenda: http://obama.3cdn.net/c44c41eb942c97377b_u1pwmvnfl.pdf

Senator Obama Praises the House of Representatives’ Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, a measure that would strengthen women's ability to fight pay discrimination in the workplace. Senator Obama commented:

“Throughout my life, I have seen first-hand how women struggle with balancing work and family and issues of fairness. I saw my grandmother, who helped raise me, work her way up from a secretary at a bank to become one of the first women bank vice presidents in the state. But I also saw how she ultimately hit a glass ceiling - how men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her. And throughout my time in public service, I have heard from women who are struggling to make ends meet and still seeing their male colleagues make more than they do. Those stories reflect the fact that women still make just 77 cents for every dollar men make - black women and Latinas make even less. That doesn't just hurt women, it hurts families who find themselves with less income, and have to work even harder just to get by. In 2008, a time when more and more women are supporting their families, we should all hope that the pay gap would be a thing of the past. But it's not. And that's why today's vote in the House is so important.”

Click here to read more on this: http://women.barackobama.com/page/community/post/ellenblogs/gG5kRM

SENATOR OBAMA UNVEILS PLAN TO END THE AGE OF OIL
New Energy for America

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for delivery)
Lansing, MI – Monday, August 4th, 2008

We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges greater than any we've seen in generations. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack. Our changing climate is placing our planet in peril. Our economy is in turmoil and our families are struggling with rising costs and falling incomes; with lost jobs and lost homes and lost faith in the American Dream. And for too long, our leaders in Washington have been unwilling or unable to do anything about it.

That is why this election could be the most important of our lifetime. When it comes to our economy, our security, and the very future of our planet, the choices we make in November and over the next few years will shape the next decade, if not the century. And central to all of these major challenges is the question of what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil . . .

Now, increased domestic oil exploration certainly has its place as we make our economy more fuel-efficient and transition to other, renewable, American-made sources of energy. But it is not the solution. It is a political answer of the sort Washington has given us for three decades.

There are genuine ways in which we can provide some short-term relief from high gas prices - relief to the mother who's cutting down on groceries because of gas prices, or the man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job and can't even afford to drive around and look for a new one. I believe we should immediately give every working family in America a $1,000 energy rebate, and we should pay for it with part of the record profits that the oil companies are making right now.

Click here to read the full remarks and Senator Obama’s Plan: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gG5zCW

WHAT’S AT STAKE!
Senator McCain’s health care plan would make health benefits taxable for the first time ever, representing a huge tax increase for working families and giving an incentive to businesses to cut benefits or end insurance altogether. Senator Obama’s plan would cut the cost of health care by $2500 per family on average.

Did you know? – Women tend to have higher healthcare costs than men: nearly 40 percent of women report struggling with medical bills, compared to 29 percent of men, and one-third of women spend more than 10 percent of their income on out-of-pocket health costs, compared to 18 percent of men.

Women for Obama:

An interview with Michelle Obama will air tomorrow morning (Thursday, Aug. 7) on ABC’s Good Morning America during the first half hour of the show, and an extended version of the interview will air on ABC’s Nightline tomorrow evening.

Check local listings for times and stations: http://abc.go.com/site/localstations.html?lid=ABCCOMGlobalFooter&lpos=STATIONS

And check out a preview of Michelle’s interview here: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/story?id=5529046-----------

Visit our website: women.barackobama.com

Join the National Women for Obama group: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/WomenforObama

From Brave New Films Team:




1. Watch the video
2. Teach O'Reilly a lesson
Dear sunny,

It's back-to-school time! Parents are starting to shop for their children's school supplies: notebooks, pencils, crayons, and of course, Bill O'Reilly's book, "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids." Talk about one of these things being NOT like the others!

O'Reilly thinks he can teach our children proper behavior, and we can't think of a worse father figure than an angry, hate-filled shock jock notorious for telling guests to "Shut up!" We wondered what would happen if kids read O'Reilly's book and then saw the real O'Reilly for themselves. So we put together a video to illustrate O'Reilly's duplicity.

Watch the video.

O'Reilly's bullying antics show he never learned the lessons the rest of us were taught in school. Send this video to all the teachers, parents, parents-to-be, and anyone who has contact with kids, and don't forget to Digg it! Tell us what your teachers taught you that O'Reilly should have learned about how to be a responsible grown-up, or what your kids' teachers have taught them. We'll put all your suggestions together and send the list to O'Reilly at FOX News.

It's bad enough O'Reilly spews hate-filled lies on his shows to grown-up audiences, do we really want our children to be exposed to the same behavior? Do we really want this angry adult influencing our kids? While we only subjected the kids in our video to a few minutes of O'Reilly in order to prevent permanent damage, imagine the harm his children's book could do!

Yours,

Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Team


From Heather Hussein F in DC(both she and Justy changed their middle names in honor of Barack!:

Top Ten Crooked Things About McCain From This Phoenix Alt-Weekly ArticleDo you have time to read a 45-page-long first-person alt-weekly newsfeature about John McCain’s long life of being a political crook in Arizona and how everyone there fears and hates him? Of course not! Lucky for you, Wonkette has a team of offshore article readers, in Bangalore, who go through this stuff and whittle it down to a simple Top Ten list. You are welcome for this Service Journalism.
1. Back in 1994 when this reporter was doing a feature on McCain, she went to his house before dawn, for some reason, and Cindy was doing a whole fake routine of cooking eggs for the kids, even though it was still nighttime.
2. Sometimes John McCain would be a guest host on talk radio, and he’d be polite to the callers but then say terrible stuff about them, off the air.
3. Before that whole campaign-finance reform stunt, McCain was totally against any changes to the campaign-finance system, and in fact repeatedly voted against reforms in the 1980s.
4. This is because he got all his money from lobbyists and corporations, especially the crooked Savings & Loan run by McCain’s best friend, Charles Keating, who would also take McCain on sexy free vacations to the Bahamas, which Keating owned.
5. Ha, nobody even remembers the Keating Five scandal anymore, even though the GOP candidate for president was one of the Five senators deeply involved in the crooked Savings & Loan scandal,which almost destroyed America forever and wound up=2 0costing taxpayers $125 billion dollars.
6. Cindy’s dad the Budweiser Brewery kingpin also has special dealings with Keating.
7. When Rose Mofford, a nice old Democrat lady who was Arizona’s secretary of state, wound up serving out Ev Mecham’s term as governor — the whackjob Mecham was forced out of office in 1988 — McCain conspired to shame Mofford during a brief appearance before Congress. Asked why, he cackled and said, “I’ll embarrass a Democrat any time I get the chance.” Minutes later, he swears to reporters that he’d “never do anything like that.”
8. McCain is always mentioning Arizona’s political greats, as if he’s one of them, too. But Arizonans say McCain shouldn’t even be allowed to talk about Barry Goldwater, beloved conservative senator, and Mo Udall, beloved liberal congressman. “It drives some people here nuts. Particularly those who know, or knew, all three men.”
9. Goldwater distanced himself from McCain once it became clear that Arizona’s new senator was a conniving little crook. After being scammed into attending a McCain fundraiser disguised as a “tribute” to Reagan, Goldwater insisted that McCain give half the take to the state GOP party, but of course it didn’t happen. “You will recall during my speech at the dinner for the president in Phoenix, I announced that you were going to give half of the funds you raised to the State Republican Party,” Goldwater wrote to McCain. “I am told by the Party, that you still owe them $35,000, and unless you pay all20of it, or most of it, they cannot meet their payroll next Wednesday.”
10. The guy who worked for Cindy’s charity and caught her stealing a million pills wrote this in his journal, at the time: “During my short tenure at AVMT, I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate all-American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman whose marriage of convenience to a U.S. Senator has driven her to: distance herself from friends; cover feelings of despair with drugs; and replace lonely moments with self-indulgences.”
Baker’s Dozen Bonus No. 11. And now RNC private investigators are chasing that guy, Tom Gosinski, even though he long ago moved to another state and started a totally different career and has had nothing to say about the McCains since the pill-addict scandal, which he only told the DEA about because he was scared of going to prison if he covered up Cindy’s opiate scandal.
Postmodern John McCain: the presidential candidate some Arizonans know — and loathe [Phoenix New Times] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-frank/put-your-john-hussein-han_b_89358.html
From Judy in Mamaroneck:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

August 8, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Know-Nothing Politics
By PAUL KRUGMAN
So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.

Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”

It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina — when the heckuva job done by the man of whom Ms. Noonan said, “if there’s a fire on the block, he’ll run out and help” revealed the true costs of obliviousness — that the cult began to fade.

What’s more, the politics of stupidity didn’t just appeal to the poorly informed. Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter...(Read rest on lineClick here: Op-Ed Columnist - Know-Nothing Politics - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com)

From Herb in KCMO:

To: cablefilms@kc.rr.com
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 1:14 PM
Subject: We did it!




We did it!

Dear Friends,

Last week, Congressman Dennis Kucinich delivered a petition bearing more than 100,000 names to the Speaker of the House urging that impeachment proceedings begin into the conduct of President Bush. In a special video message, Dennis is asking for your help to deliver an even more powerful message to Congress when it reconvenes in September.

With new disclosures that the Administration tried to "cook the books at the CIA" by creating a phony, forged link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, "We cannot step back and let this President escape accountability."

If you have already signed the impeachment petition at www.kucinich.us, thank you. If you haven't, please do. And, in the next few weeks, please ask just one more person to sign so we can let the members of Congress hear our collective demand that they meet their obligation to uphold the Constitution.

Thank you.
The Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee





From Eileen in KCMO:

just got this

Planned Parenthood Action Fund wrote:
Subject: New rule: don't tell the truth

Trouble viewing images? Read our e-newsletter on the web instead:
http://www.ppaction.org/network/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=14609045




Dear Eileen,
We've heard the rumors for weeks, but newly surfaced documents have confirmed the unthinkable — the Bush administration is considering a politically motivated new rule that deliberately confuses contraception with abortion, allowing providers to cherry pick the information they give women and cut off access to some of the most commonly used forms of birth control. In less than 48 hours, Planned Parenthood supporters sent more than 25,000 messages to President Bush voicing their opposition. Thank you! And if you haven't done so already, please take a moment now to give the White House a piece of your mind.
While we battle the current administration's dangerous decisions, we are also working harder than ever to make sure the next U.S. president believes in women's health. When Sen. McCain was asked whether he believes insurance companies that cover Viagra should also cover birth control, he reacted like he'd been hit by a stun gun. See our ad with actual footage of this interview.
Stay tuned — we won't stop asking McCain about his position on birth control until he has an answer for us.
Sincerely,

Cecile Richards, President
Planned Parenthood Action Fund











--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Netgative negative all the McSame can be is negative to distract from issues

Dear Obama Supporters:
Judy from KCMO asked me how I can remain so positive in light of all that is going on with the negative campaigning. I have only one answer for her, I believe in Barack Obama with my whole heart. I know he is the right man for the country in the most important election of our time. I also am not so naive that I don't know John McSame is ecstatic today since his negative, inane ads have pushed Obama's wonderful trip off the front pages of the papers and buried his economic statements as well. Bob Herbert actually said on MSNBC this morning, "does anyone know what Obama said last week about the economy?" We hear nothing from the press other than Obama's responses to the race issue and the Britney/Paris ridiculousness. The Washington Post actually had a front page story on McSame's campaign and the distortion of facts about Obama. Still the ugliness continues, and how sad is that? It makes sense becasue if McSame runs on the issues he will lose. So he and the Rethugs, as Kathy in MO calls them, have to keep the record high gas prices, mortgage foreclosure, and oil/energy addiction off the front pages. How better to distract people than throw in the race card and celebrity issue, and most of all keep using drilling offshore for oil as the answer to our energy crisis. Even though it has been proven that this drilling will do nothing to relieve prices until maybe between 2015-2017 he keeps on advocating for it. He now admits it will bring only "psychological relief" but this is something. If no one calls him on it, then people begin to believe it. Someone once said if you said it enough it becomes truth. His distortion of facts is his way of distracting the public from the horrible results of W's eight years. He is betting on the uninformed voter to help him get into the White House. Don't be fooled he also has tons of money to support his negative campaign. If this whole John McSame campaign didn't lead to such serious consequences it would be sad and kind of funny. Here he is talking about race, arugula and Britney/Paris as "Rome burns". Does he think the American public won't catch on? I heard him say John McSame doesn't speak for the campaign when asked about the negativity. What is he thinking,and yet we have gone down 8 points in the Gallup poll since this horrible last week of non stop attacks. We have our work cut out for us and again I say, get out the facts to all, engage people in intelligent discussions,and quote the people closest to him. These are those people who can't recognize the McCain of 2000.They are asking who is this McSame of 2008 who is distorting the facts and grasping at straws . Many GOP are disillusioned with him and these are people we need to read about and study their thoughts. When it comes to McSame I have been listening to Hagel and many of those who served with him and don't recognize this very angry clone of W. He was the man who stood up against W's tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans, he was against off shore drilling for oil, and now he is the spokesman for these issues. He has the nerve to say Obama is flip-flopping, I don't think so but please see Kathy's notes at end on McSame flip flops so you can be ready with that info***! From that e-mail Kathy in MO said,"Many people like to reminisce about the John McCain of 2000. We remember him as the "maverick" who rode the "Straight Talk Express" and went up against Bush. To many of us Democrats, he was a more palatable Republican who had at times gone against his part and crossed the aisle. However, in his quest for the Presidency, the wheels came off the Straight Talk Express. He decided to tack far to the right and embraced Bush and his cronies in order to get the nomination. His voting record for the last two years is 95% with Bush policy. He has reversed his previously moderate stances on so many issues, it will leave your head spinning. Some say the McCain of 2000 would not vote for the McCain of 2008. He is not the same man. Jack Cafferty quipped on CNN that McCain could break a hip flip flopping back and for so much." Remember that old television program where he said "just the facts just the facts". Well, informed voters will not be able to vote for eight more years of the same! This is what makes me positive and keeps me working on a day to day basis.
Yes WE Can!
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama

From Helen Older Women for Obama:
Ford also noted something that Obama backers need to keep in mind. Our enthusiasm won't translate into more than one vote apiece. Our commitment won't mean that our vote will be worth 1.5 votes. It'll be worth the same one vote that a reluctant McCain voter's will be worth. So, we need to keep working on getting him elected, right now, today, and every day from now until November 4th.

From Allison in NJ:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/DD691227FH.DTL&type=politics thought of you! xo

From Veronica in NYC as well:
Hi guys,
Check out this nice piece in today's SF Chronicle on the art community's support for Obama. The second half of my brief quote doesn't really make sense without it being connected to the art crawl, but I'm certainly not complaining.

It's especially gratifying to see him quote Michael Chabon's intro to Obama's art policy, which I love and forwarded to him. And its fun to be quoted in the paper Vanessa and I grew up reading, and that our proud Democratic Grandma is probably making her way through now, if she's not playing catch up with her New Yorkers!

Hope all of you are well--I'm so grateful to the many of you who came to the crawl or supported it. Thank you, thank you!
xoxo,
Veronica

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/02/DD691227FH.DTL

From Randy in Berkeley:
anyone who made the most absurd and untrue statements about obama as mc
same has done would be prosecuted for libel! here in berkeley there is
no other candidate and it's very comforting but ........ this is not
america and I, for one, am getting very nervous. i really believe mc
same's negative attacks are beginning to take hold. i feel completely
powerless and that the republicans are once again going to put the
screws on the democrats as they have done in the past. i have tried to
convince some mc same supporters that obama would be the better choice
and they are completely unconvinced.
hi justy!!!!

From Judy in KCMO:
Sunny - I love your positive outlook - but I remain a bit concerned. I hear too little from O re the issues...and I hear people being upset with his comments such as "I am the symbol of change...."
I believe the campaign needs to respond and not be swift boated, but I also believe we need to hear more about the issues from O//I am now interested in his reasoning for being opposed to nuclear power. I understand the opposition to off=shore drilling. When I get some time, shall look at his web site and see what I can find there.
PS I am working with the O people here - have helped them set up 4 house parties so far.

From Herb in KS in response to Kathy from MO's e-mail see what happens when you just do outreach!!!:
Hi Kathy (from Mo) and I'm delighted to hear from you. Yes, not only am I interested but not hooked up on either side of the State Line. I'm here in Johnson Cty, primarily in the Prairie Village area --- and I'll be interested in working either side -- as would be my son, Marc Miller, living around 128th and State Line, but on the MISSOURI side. Marc already has Obama signs both on his lawn, and front door ("Have you had enough already?") or words to that effect! Sunny is a sweetheart ----never having met her, but have thoroughly appreciated what she has done and contributed during all these years of Republican and Bush misery that has happened to our country. Jane Bartholomew is another strong Obama supporter and as I recall, she too, has been active politically, on both sides of the state line. (By the way, who doesn't love Parkville?! Remind me to mention the time I was involved as a minor player during theHBO filming of the TRUMAN Story with Gary Sinese in Parkville.) Being more experienced in these matters, I would rely on you to tell me how and where to participate in order to play my part in electing Obama, and a strong Dem ticket. With warm wishes, cordially.......Herb


From Rachel in NY:
Did anyone in headquaters address this situation...let me know..Rachel Obama has to stand up strong against these McCain people and call their behavior out for what it is...


From Judy in Westchester:
Click here: Economic Models Predict Obama Win - AOL News


From Kathy in KCMO:
Here are two very interesting articles about the campaigns.

One is an excellent article from the Huffington Post about how Obama is winning the ground game with field offices in every state. Look at how few McCain has. There are states where he has no offices open and no volunteer network. This is what we have all been talking about...the ground game. Person to person getting out the vote. We are watching it right here in MO and in every state! This article points out that the national media coverage being so skewed in McCain's favor really doesn't matter because people's perceptions are being formed out in the individual states. Keep reaching out to people wherever you are. That is what truly works! This is how we win!
The second article is pretty revealing about how much campaigning McCain is really doing.

Seth Colter Walls
walls@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting From DC
Obama's Field Domination Plays Out In Local Press
July 31, 2008 02:09 PM
Late last week, as Barack Obama's trip abroad was dominating national media coverage, John McCain's campaign issued a retort for pundits who wondered if the Arizona Republican was getting lost in all the hoopla.

In an email to reporters, McCain's director of regional media Jeff Sadosky claimed that a majority of Americans actually get their news from "local and regional newspapers and local television news programs" that had been covering McCain all week long.

The purpose of the memo was two-fold: first, to pressure big media to show McCain a little more love, but secondly, to argue that McCain's freeze-out perhaps wasn't such a big deal after all. Featuring numerous clippings from four states the presumptive Republican nominee had visited while Obama was abroad, Sadosky's implicit claim was that the campaign was winning the media war where it really counts, closer to home.

But the local coverage wars are not so clearly tilted toward McCain's advantage. A review of reporting in local papers finds a slew of coverage of Obama's active field operation, mostly hooked on the dozens of Obama campaign offices opened in recent weeks.

This week in Montana, for example, the Helena Independent Record led its story on local organizing with a Obama staffer's line: "Republican presidential candidate John McCain is taking Montana for granted..." The paper noted that the Illinois Democrat currently has six state offices in action to McCain's zero. In a July 31 Bozeman Daily Chronicle story headlined "McCain campaign manager expects big victory," the paper pointed out that a Obama's advantage in paid field staff may be yielding dividends -- citing a Rasumussen poll that showed McCain down five points despite the fact that President George W. Bush carried the state handily over John Kerry in 2004.

Montana isn't the only Republican stronghold where Obama's unprecedented field operation is inspiring positive local coverage. In The Oklahoman, a recent report detailed how a gang of enthusiastic Obama volunteers opened the first office of either campaign in Sooner State. After noting that Obama's national campaign was finalizing plans to open their own official site, the paper reported that "U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has no immediate plans to open an Oklahoma campaign office."

Battleground states are also interested in reporting on Obama's superior ground game. Ohio's local ABC affiliate WTVG reported last week that, even while Obama was abroad, he was also dominating in terms of local outreach.

"And while [Obama] spent more time in Paris today than he has in any part of Toledo this summer, Obama has opened a campaign office in Toledo with dozens of young enthusiastic people pushing his message," the station reported, adding: "McCain does have a headquarters [in Ohio]," the station added. "It's a regional office in Columbus that covers both Ohio and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Obama has satellite offices open all over both states."

In Michigan, papers in Macomb and St. Clair counties gave prominent coverage to the openings of new Obama offices. And in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, The Daily News reported this week that Obama has 10 to 1 advantage over McCain in terms of state offices.

So while McCain has a valid point that the national media may navel-gaze from time to time, by electing not to match Obama's investment in field offices, his may also be losing the race to inspire the positive local coverage they cite as being important.

This is another article that is very interesting based on observations by a FOX employee who is covering the McCain campaign. It is backed up by Wall Street Journal reporter. Remember, these are two Rupert Murdoch organizations criticizing him. Read about how tired or lazy McCain is about campaigning. He barely does one event per day. Just what we need, a president who is too tired to work a full day! We have an awesome field organization and an intelligent and energetic candidate!


FOX employee covering McCain: "It's unbelievable" how little campaigning McCain does

Sounds like someone is getting tired. A Wall Street Journal reporter backs him up. It's a longer article in Rolling Stone, and isn't online. This is just a snippet - you can find the entire article at the news stand. The rest of the article reveals that McCain is no longer talking to the press at all on his bus.

From Susan in NC:
Have you seen where John McCain will be speaking???? Checkout Huffingtonpost.com. Now THIS is news. Family Values and Ready to be President of the United States? Are we kidding????

URL http://www.buffalochip.com/EVENTS/SenatorJohnMcCain/tabid/322/Default.aspx

One event.........Sucker Punch Sally.................

U.S. Senator, John McCain will participate in the Buffalo Chip’s annual Tribute to American Veterans and Active Duty Servicemen on Monday, Aug.
From Sue in Hamptons:
CALLING SHELTER ISLAND AND EAST END OBAMA SUPPORTERS -
WE NEED YOUR HELP FOR THE

SHELTER ISLAND YARD SALE:
PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT OBAMA!!!
Join us and tell your friends!
The sale will be held at
102 South Midway Rd, Shelter Island
(near Wade's Beach)
Saturday, Aug. 16 (Rain date, Aug. 17rd )
from 10:00 – 4:00
DONATE! DONATE! DONATE! DONATE!
We need lots of good items for the sale.
Drop off donations on Friday 8/15 afternoon 12:00 to 6:00
& Saturday 8/16 at 9:00 A.M.
VOLUNTEER!
We need volunteers to help make this event a success.
CONTACT:
Debi Marino
749-0848 or e-mail debim22@optonline.net
Thanks for your support!
From Elizabeth in Mamaroneck:
Dear Obama friends,
I realize that some of you have been out of town or otherwise encumbered or unavoidably delayed, and some of you were contacted by Fran and don't know me, but the campaign is seeming more urgent by the hour. Could you please let me know over the next week or two what you've been able to do and what you may need, whether it's lapel buttons or explanation. The Ten Friends is the most important effort right now, but everything matters.
Thanks very much!
Elizabeth Saenger
702 Hall St., Mam'k
914-698-7569, cell 914-523-1764

From Judy in Mamaroneck:
August 2, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Running While Black By BOB HERBERT
Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office — say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford — the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”

There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us — the “us” being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.

Since then, Senator McCain has only upped the ante, smearing Mr. Obama every which way from sundown. On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran an extraordinary front-page article that began:

“For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.”

Evidence? John McCain needs no evidence. His campaign is about trashing the opposition, Karl Rove-style. Not satisfied with calling his opponent’s patriotism into question, Mr. McCain added what amounted to a charge of treason, insisting that Senator Obama would actually prefer that the United States lose a war if that would mean that he — Senator Obama — would not have to lose an election.

Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.

The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, “Harold, call me.”

Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.

The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control. It was at work in that New Yorker cover that caused such a stir. (Mr. Obama in Muslim garb with the American flag burning in the fireplace.) It’s driving the idea that Barack Obama is somehow presumptuous, too arrogant, too big for his britches — a man who obviously does not know his place.

Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this — the sole reason — is that he is black..(Read the rest on lineClick here: Op-Ed Columnist - Running While Black - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com )

From Kathy in KCMO:

This is an interesting piece on Rick Davis, McSame's campaign manager and how they go about attacking. Obama must fight back with ads about McCain. They need to show McCain for what he is and what he is doing like taking a million dollars from big oil for changing his mind on offshore drilling. He needs to show America that McSame is looking out for big oil, not for us! Then he can tell what he will do about the energy crisis.

Rick Davis does know his “smears” alright. Obama needs to hit back hard
By: John Amato @ 12:00 PM - PDT
Obama needs to become much more aggressive against the McCain campaign since they have begun a huge smear campaign against him. Saying “we’re above it” won’t work. Here’s Rick’s article called ‘The anatomy of a smear campaign‘ in the Boston Globe back in 2004:

All campaigns do extensive research into their opponent’s voting record and personal life. This so-called “oppo research” involves searching databases, combing through press clips, and asking questions of people who know (and preferably dislike) your opponent. It’s not hard to turn up something a candidate would rather not see on the front page of The Boston Globe.

It’s not necessary, however, for a smear to be true to be effective. The most effective smears are based on a kernel of truth and applied in a way that exploits a candidate’s political weakness.

Having run Senator John McCain’s campaign for president, I can recount a textbook example of a smear made against McCain in South Carolina during the 2000 presidential primary. We had just swept into the state from New Hampshire, where we had racked up a shocking, 19-point win over the heavily favored George W. Bush. What followed was a primary campaign that would make history for its negativity.

And here is what they did to try and stop the smears and how the failed:

We chose to address the attacks by trying to get the media to focus on the dishonesty of the allegations and to find out who was making them. We also pledged to raise the level of debate by refusing to run any further negative ads — a promise we kept, though it probably cost us the race. We never did find out who perpetrated these smears, but they worked: We lost South Carolina by a wide margin. Read the whole article.

Obama can’t let the media try to clean up the smears coming from McCain for him. Having Andrea argue with Davis isn’t enough. He has to hit back and hit back hard every time Davis and friends goes on the attack. It doesn’t have to get personal because McCain has given Obama plenty to work with. Produce an ad with McCain standing in an oil spill, (where he was supposed to go and do a photo op) list all the money he’s getting from big oil since he became the nominee, list the incredible profits that big oil just reported, then say something like:

Is Driving to work costing you a fortune while Big Oil reaps in record profits? John McCain’s solution to the rising gas prices that we face is to reward Big Oil with incredible tax breaks after he received thousands of dollars in contributions. That’s the real Straight talk about John McCain.

John McCain, he’s looking out for Big Oil, but who will look out for you?

The second article is about how McCain is trying to swiftboat Obama, but it probably will not work because it is McCain doing the lying himself and endorsing it. With the swiftboaters, it was a 527 that Bush could distance himself from if he chose to. With McCain, he personally endorses them and then brags about them at town meetings! What an old fool!
Why McCain's personal attacks on Obama may not work
I've been talking with Chris about whether we should be worried or not about McCain's ongoing personal attacks on Obama. (McCain's latest is an ad comparing Obama to the Messiah, which might cause some problems with Christians who don't appreciate McCain using God in a TV ad). And there are a few significant differences between the Swift Boating of John Kerry and McCain's sleazy attacks the past week or so.

George Bush had nothing to do with the Swift Boaters (at least putatively) - they were an outside group he was able to disavow any connection to. John McCain, on the other hand, has heartily endorsed the ongoing attacks against Obama, and is actually coordinating them - they're McCain's own statements and McCain's own ads. I think this matters for a number of reasons.

First, the degree to which the media, and the public, reject the ads and attacks as too negative and inappropriate, while the Swift Boaters' tactics wouldn't necessarily taint George Bush, John McCain will take full blame or credit for his attacks.

Second, the media has been far more critical of McCain's recent attacks than they were the Swift Boaters. The media treated the Swift Boat attacks as quite possibly true and worthy of further, and never-ending discussion. And while the media is still rebroadcasting McCain's sleazy attacks against Obama, they're making clear that the attacks are desperate, inaccurate, and kind of sleazy.

Third, George Bush's forté wasn't his status as a "maverick" who was above politics, someone who would never embrace the nasty, sleazy politics that seems to have engulfed Washington. McCain isn't just risking some bad press, he's risking his signature definition of self as someone different and better than traditional politicians and politics.

Finally, the country isn't in the same place it was four years ago. In 2004, we were still suffering from the September 11th effect - people were willing to forgive a lot because they were scared to death. Now people are just pissed. While McCain may still be able to tar Obama with whatever desperate absurdity he comes up with next, I think there's a reason that Karl Rove and his minions - that George Bush himself - are no longer the stars they once were. People have changed, the country has moved on. And while negative campaigning will never lose its potential punch, I just don't get the sense that McCain is handling this very well. It seems to be blowing up in his face. And that was not the impression any of us had during the Swift Boating of John Kerry.

From Val in Ohio:
Paris and Kathy Hilton
Paris Hilton's mom takes offense at McCain's humor
Aug. 3, 2008, 1:17 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Paris Hilton's mother doesn't share John McCain's sense of humor.

McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, said last week that his campaign ad mocking Democrat Barack Obama with images of Hilton and singer Britney Spears was part of an attempt to inject humor into the presidential race.

On Sunday, Hilton's mother, Kathy Hilton, a McCain donor, registered her disapproval.

"It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs," Kathy Hilton said in a short article posted on the liberal Huffington Post Web site. "And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next president of the United States."

The ad plays on Obama's popularity by dismissing him as a mere celebrity, like Hilton and Spears. The Obama campaign has said the ad is proof that McCain would rather launch negative attacks than debate important issues.

McCain on Friday denied that his campaign had taken a negative turn, saying, "We think it's got a lot of humor in it, we're having fun and enjoying it."

Kathy Hilton, however, was unpersuaded, calling the ad "a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign."

Kathy Hilton and her husband donated a total of $4,600 to McCain's campaign earlier this year.

From Hank:

Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 8:20 AM
To: 'letters@nytimes.com'
Subject: To The Editor
“Energy Follies” – Editorial – August 4, 2008

Does the expression “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” grab your attention? This Congress, and especially the Senate, talked more and accomplished less than any similar body in decades. Republican’s can’t stand the thought of big business being made to cut carbon emissions and thereby profits, and the Democrat’s live in fear of their across the aisle counterparts threat of filibuster. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have risen to new heights of mediocrity, and both could have starred in the movie “Dumb and Dumber.”

Republican’s, led by McCain want to invest in offshore drilling which will not reap any real benefits for ten to fifteen years, while the best Democrat’s could muster was a weak-kneed bill to curb oil trading. We have wasted eight years “fiddling” with the planet’s future. When the Senate takes their recess later this month I hope they realize that without meaningful energy reform and development of alternative sources of clean energy, this may be the coolest August they will ever experience.

From Elizabeth:

A friend (saengereb@aol.com) has sent you an article:

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America

Sunday, 3 August 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert-cornwell-out-of-america-883638.html

Barack Obama will win the forthcoming presidential election. I can report this with some confidence on the basis of my latest foray into the American heartland ? both real and metaphorical.
#2
Must-Read from www.talkingpointsmemo.com
08.02.08 -- 12:05PM
By Josh Marshall
Stop what you're doing and read this article. Very acute take on the latest turn of the campaign.

From Sue :

CALLING SHELTER ISLAND AND EAST END OBAMA SUPPORTERS WE NEED YOUR HELP FOR THE

SHELTER ISLAND YARD SALE:
PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT OBAMA!!!

Join us and tell your friends!
The sale will be held at
102 South Midway Rd, Shelter Island
(near Wade's Beach)
Saturday, Aug. 16 (Rain date, Aug. 17rd )
from 10:00 – 4:00

DONATE! DONATE! DONATE! DONATE!
We need lots of good items for the sale.
Drop off donations on Friday 8/15 afternoon 12:00 to 6:00
& Saturday 8/16 at 9:00 A.M.

VOLUNTEER!
We need volunteers to help make this event a success.
CONTACT:
Debi Marino
749-0848 or e-mail debim22@optonline.net

Thanks for your support!


From Ron Feldman and Susan S in Mamaroneck:

Sunny….here it is …the big fundraiser!

Save the Date
Artists for Change

If you can't see the invite, please click here






From Judy in Mamaroneck:

Click here: Judge Rules WH Aides Must Testify - Political Machine

From Moveon.org and Susan S in Mamaroneck:

Dear MoveOn member,

The "Yes We Can" video by will.i.am. The 1000+ positive Obama ads created by MoveOn members. The iconic Obama "HOPE" poster created by artist Shepard Fairey.

Barack Obama's historic candidacy has sparked an unprecedented artistic outpouring. Now, in partnership with Shepard Fairey and his Obey Giant collective, we're offering a new way for artists—anyone with a pen and paper qualifies—to share their talents and help elect Barack Obama at the same time.

It's called Manifest Hope, and it's a new Obama art contest for 2D and 3D art, from painting to photography to sculpture. The winners will be shown at the Manifest Hope Gallery online and in Denver during the Democratic convention alongside works from dozens of established and influential artists.

If you think you might want to enter, or want updates on the contest, please let us know here:


http://pol.moveon.org/mh/signup/?id=13385-4046455-nHSZJdx&t=3

If not, can you pass this on to friends of yours who might be interested?

Anyone can enter. You don't have to be Picasso, you just need to be inspired by Barack Obama and willing to donate your creativity and time to the cause.


But you need to get started soon. The final submissions deadline is August 18th at 11:59 a.m. ET. That's not much time to conceive and create a piece of art, so get started today.

All submissions will be judged by a distinguished panel of judges—artists from Obey Giant, contemporary art curators, and multi-talented musicians. Finalists will be asked to auction off their pieces, and donate the proceeds to progressive organizations.


Denver will be buzzing during the convention, but this gallery is going to be one of the coolest places to visit there. Plus, the gallery's going to have an amazing party with live performances by Death Cab For Cutie, Moby, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

We're not going to send any more emails to the full MoveOn list before the submission deadline. So if there's any chance you might be interested, you have to sign up for contest updates now:


http://pol.moveon.org/mh/signup/?id=13385-4046455-nHSZJdx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Peter, Karin, Laura, Ilyse and the rest of the team

P.S. It's okay to enter a piece of art you've already created, as long as you're willing to offer it up for auction if it becomes a finalist. If you're ready to enter right now, you can upload your entry here:

http://pol.moveon.org/mh/enter/?id=13385-4046455-nHSZJdx&t=5

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

************************************************************************
Repeat of Flip Flops from McSame Kathy from MO:

Many people like to reminisce about the John McCain of 2000. We remember him as the "maverick" who rode the "Straight Talk Express" and went up against Bush. To many of us Democrats, he was a more palatable Republican who had at times gone against his part and crossed the aisle. However, in his quest for the Presidency, the wheels came off the Straight Talk Express. He decided to tack far to the right and embraced Bush and his cronies in order to get the nomination. His voting record for the last two years is 95% with Bush policy. He has reversed his previously moderate stances on so many issues, it will leave your head spinning. Some say the McCain of 2000 would not vote for the McCain of 2008. He is not the same man. Jack Cafferty quipped on CNN that McCain could break a hip flip flopping back and for so much. Here is a list of issues that McCain has reversed his stand on in recent years. You can read more about each one:
June 19, 2008
It’s a delicate dance, and John McCain is ‘liable to break a hip’
Posted June 19th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Share This | Spotlight | Permalink

Long-time readers know that I’ve been emphasizing John McCain’s dozens of major policy flip-flops for months now, hoping that this would a) catch on as a campaign issue; and b) undermine McCain’s unearned reputation for principled stands on the issues.

I’m beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, the criticism is taking root. Consider yesterday’s “Cafferty File” on CNN:


For those who can’t watch clips online, Jack Cafferty noted some of McCain more glaring recent reversals, adding, “If John McCain doesn’t stop changing his position on the issues, he threatens to make John Kerry look like an amateur. In order for McCain to win in November, he has to appeal to both the traditional Republican base and to Independents. Dana Milbank, in The Washington Post says that’s a delicate dance. And if McCain’s not careful, ‘he’s liable to break a hip.’ Of course, any doctor will tell you a broken hip can be very difficult to recover from.”

The past couple of weeks have been especially difficult when it comes to McCain flip-flops.

* McCain supported the drilling moratorium; now he’s against it.

* McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.

* McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.

* McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)

Wait, I’m not done with the last two weeks yet….

* McCain wanted to change the Republican Party platform to protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest. Now he doesn’t.

* McCain thought the estate tax was perfectly fair. Now he believes the opposite.

* He opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. When the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion, he called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

* McCain said he would “not impose a litmus test on any nominee.” He used to promise the opposite.

And these come after these other reversals from April and May:

* McCain believes the telecoms should be forced to explain their role in the administration’s warrantless surveillance program as a condition for retroactive immunity. He used to believe the opposite.

* McCain supported storing spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain supported moving “towards normalization of relations” with Cuba. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Hamas. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Syria. Now he believes the opposite.

* He argued the NRA should not have a role in the Republican Party’s policy making. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain supported his own lobbying-reform legislation from 1997. Now he doesn’t.

* He wanted political support from radical televangelists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Now he doesn’t.

* McCain supported the Lieberman/Warner legislation to combat global warming. Now he doesn’t.

And these are the flip-flops I’ve noticed earlier:

* McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain was asked if he is a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”

* McCain is both for and against a “rogue state rollback” as a focus of his foreign policy vision.

* McCain says he considered and did not consider joining John Kerry’s Democratic ticket in 2004.

* In 1998, he championed raising cigarette taxes to fund programs to cut underage smoking, insisting that it would prevent illnesses and provide resources for public health programs. Now, McCain opposes a $0.61-per-pack tax increase, won’t commit to supporting a regulation bill he’s co-sponsoring, and has hired Philip Morris’ former lobbyist as his senior campaign adviser.

* McCain has changed his economic worldview on multiple occasions.

* McCain has changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq on multiple occasions.

* McCain is both for and against attacking Barack Obama over his former pastor at his former church.

* McCain believes Americans are both better and worse off than they were before Bush took office.

* McCain is both for and against earmarks for Arizona.

* McCain believes his endorsement from radical televangelist John Hagee was both a good and bad idea.

* McCain’s first mortgage plan was premised on the notion that homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t be “rewarded” for acting “irresponsibly.” His second mortgage plan took largely the opposite position.

* McCain vowed, if elected, to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Soon after, he decided he would no longer even try to reach that goal.

* In February 2008, McCain reversed course on prohibiting waterboarding.

* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.

* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.

* On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own legislation.

* In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.

* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”

* McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.

* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

* On a related note, he said 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and insisted he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June 2007, he abandoned his own legislation.

* McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.

* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

* McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.

Confronted with the inconsistencies in McCain’s record in March, the senator’s aides told the New York Times that the senator “has evolved rather than switched positions in his 25-year career.” That’s a perfectly sensible spin — when a politician holds one position, and then, for apparently political reasons, decides to embrace the polar opposite position, it’s only natural for his or her aides to say the politician’s position has “evolved.”

But in McCain’s case, the spin is wholly unfulfilling. First, McCain sells himself as a pol who never sways with the wind, and whose willingness to be consistent in the face of pressure is proof of his character. Second, Republicans have spent the last four years or so making policy reversals the single most serious political crime in presidential politics. The dreaded “flip-flop” is, according to the GOP, the latest cardinal sin for someone seeking national office.

And if we’re playing by Republican rules, McCain’s “evolutions” should be a fairly serious problem. I’m beginning to think they might be.

Barack Obama will not be "Swift boated", the truth will set us free of McSame!

Dear Obama Supporters:

In recent days, McSame has been going after Obama with new fervor, painting him as not ready to lead and too liberal for the country. It's an aggressive approach reminiscent of GOP operative Karl Rove, who orchestrated Bush's back-to-back victories in part by tearing down Democratic opponents. Obama has entered the building according to McSame. John McSame's new ad states Obama is nothing more than a celebrity like Paris and Britney. I am confounded by this approach and wonder what his campaign organization is thinking. The NY Times yesterday had an article on a familiar battle cry:The Press Likes the other Guy Better. "They have done statistical studies and it shows when broadcaster expressed opinions about Mr. Obama, 72 percent of the comments were negative as opposed to 57 percent negative for McSame. Yet, McSame's group continues to cry fowl with the press. McSame launched this advertisement with a story line about Obama that he is cocky and presumptuous, which was all about trying to downplay his sparkling tour abroad.It looks to be that these ads are indicating that Obama is nothing more than a "star" but mentioning those two air heads in comparison to the brilliance of Obama is a disgrace.
I saw an article from AOL to subscribers that was a continuation of the discussion: "Opening a new front Wednesday, the GOP campaign rolled out a hard-hitting commercial that uses pictures of 20-something stars Britney Spears and Paris Hilton to suggest that Obama is little more than a media darling who is unqualified to be president. "He's the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead?" the ad asks. Obama's campaign countered with its own ad that called McCain's charges "baloney" and "baseless." In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, Obama steered clear of race as he chided McSame, saying: "So far, all we've been hearing about is Paris Hilton. I do have to ask my opponent: 'Is that the best you can do? Is that what this election is really all about? Is that worthy of the American people?'"
At campaign headquarters in Chicago, Obama's campaign unveiled a new Web site that accuses McCain of "negative attacks and false charges. He is not going to let them distract the American people from the issues! We can see that the GOP is up to its same old same old and I don't think it will work this time. Everyone is on to the Rovian way of politics, and his attempt to distract from issues at hand. We have seen this movie before, said Barack Obama. "The MCSame campaign is very good at negative campaigning and distracting the voters from things like another 50,000 jobs lost this last week. Barack Obama wants to talk about the economy, issues and how he'll make the American people's lives better. His talk in Union MO suggesting he didn't come out of central casting is nothing different than he has been saying all along and certainly not playing the "race card". He is young, lived in Indonesia, moved around alot, and not been on the scene as long as someone like McSame. McSame is trying to paint him as risky since he has no ideas to fix the mess of W. He in his own words stated he his not so good on the economy, and so this is a wonderful distraction for him, to go negative and scare you that Obama is a risk. In answering McSame is Obama negative as well, I don't think so. For example, was responding to four salvos delivered by the GOP in the last few weeks. Here they are, that he would rather lose the war than the campaign , he was not willing to visit troops without reporters, he was and is full of himself(presumptuous) I believe the word was, and nothing more than an empty headed celebrity. HOw would you expect him to take these attacks? He was not "swift boated" and responded to these attacks just as he promised me a year and half ago at Kenny Leher's apartment when I first met him! He will not allow the GOP to distract him or describe him. He promised to stay focused on the issues at hand and he is doing just that.
I agree with Mira in her commentarty and wonderful response to the news agency to this absurd ad by McSame. Your coverage tonight of John McCain's ad trying to create a link between Senator Obama and celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton came on a day where the New York Times had a fascinating article about Senator Obama's twelve years teaching law at the University of Chicago Law School (“Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart,” by Jodi Kantor, page 1, -- the impressive and challenging reading lists for his courses can be found online) and I happened to be reading the chapter on the Constitution in his book The Audacity of Hope. Against such a background of serious intellectual accomplishments, the McCain ad is scurrilous, but your superficial coverage of it is equally problematic. Indeed if the press is not vigilant and responsive to these lies (8 out of 9 ads accusations against Obama by McSame were not correct on www.factcheck.com) we in this group will be. I say thank you to all of you who have pointed out the ludicrous e-mails and articles that the Rovian GOP is trying to throw at Obama. WE and he is ready for this attack and the truth shall be known.
Yes We Can and will win this election for Barack Obama who will bring change from poliltics as they have been.
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
From Linda in FL:

It is so ironic. McSame plays the race card, Obama responds. Obama is "playing the race card" because he responded. He is really in a bind.
From Dani in Brooklyn:
Thanks for the update on The Boss - good to know he's still out there, although he must be exhausted defending Obama - I hope he gets an infusion of energy from his loyal Obama fans. Also important to remember that many people who are patriotic and suffering economically are NOT Obama supporters... yet... and have to be reached out to (go Lilli!). Every time we talk about the economy tanking and its worldwide reverberations, we must connect it to the corrupt regime (still earning a hefty profit off of oil vis a vis the stock market) and the need to get Barack in the White House before more people lose their jobs, homes, retirement savings and hopes for education. Before we all go down the tubes for good. Anyone who's seen NYC lately will attest to the observation that this summer in particular it looks all pretty for the tourists while the natives are losing their livelihoods. Get on a train away from the usual points of interest and see the mold and decay on the platforms, blights which the MTA can not afford to fix. Not that I object to tourists, but the metaphor is downright ironic.

When Camp Obama is attacked for invoking his personal history, we could refer to his comments in this week's Newsweek: his biography has embedded his politics in his mind and heart and he also hopes by speaking of himself as a human being, Americans will get to know him better. When he is attacked for being ambitious, comment "And a good thing too - we need someone whose ambition is to make a postive mark on this nation. We need an ambitious leader with energy and the will of the people to help get us out of this economic mess. FDR wasn't exactly plucked from the heavens either, but in 1933 he was the right man at the right time. Ditto Obama.

Also worth remembering that each time the Bushies are called on the carpet or blocked (which happens all too rarely), it's a potential wedge for regime change, not to mention Democratic activism in Congress. For example:

"A federal district judge appointed by President George W. Bush to the bench has done the right thing, ruling definitively this morning that the President's claim of absolute immunity for his advisors from Congressional oversight and subpoena is "entirely unsupported by existing case law."

The ruling by Judge John Bates is as important as much because of who issued it as it is for its impact upon Congressional investigations into presidential wrongdoing."

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lindorff/124

Yes folks, the Constitution lives!

From Kathy in KCMO:

All of this negative crap is coming out in rapid succession and getting all of the air time so that the real problems and issues are not getting discussed! The news makes me furious. They keep playing McSame's horrible attack ads so they can discuss them ad nauseum and all it is doing is giving him free air time. They say some of these he only bought air time in a few places and they are getting national play. They are slicing and dicing everything Obama says even accusing him of "playing the race card" like McCain is the one under attack! Unbelievable! McCain has become Bush and adopted any slime tactics that Rove and company have to offer! This is going to be a very long 3 months. We need to write the media every single day about how they are ignoring the fact that McCain's ads are low and full of lies and never discuss what McCain will do for the country. They are promoting these lies by playing the ads over and over. They are depriving the people of hearing about the issues that are so important to us. McSame has no programs or policies. All he can do is bloody up Obama! I had not seen the money ad but I did see the Moses one! Unbelievable. They are coming out with one crap ad after another because they know they can get free air time!

I hate this!
From Helen Older Women for Obama:

I know how it is, I"ve been working on spreading the word, discussing him and the issues with email pals of pals who were not, before I got ahold of them, willing to look at him.

I can't understand why everyone who backs him isn't working on the campaign every minutes they are not actually in the bathtub. ( I so love this statement!!!)

Great breakfast meeting with Harold Ford, Jr., yesterday, courtesy of Business Women for Obama and Leonore Blitz. Crazy busy!

From Marcelline and David in NY:
The Republican right wing elite is terrified because they're staring defeat in the face. They have a lackluster candidate who's old, not coherent and doesn't get anybody excited. They spent the last year thinking they were going to run against Hillary and they thought they knew how to do that. But they didn't get Hillary. Instead they got Obama, who's getting people excited, getting new people into the game, and they don't know what to do about it. So they're doing the one thing they can do, given that he is relatively new on the scene. They're trying to define him in the worst possible light before he can define himself. Obama's weakness is that he is not well known, not well defined, so he's open to having perceptions of him defined by the opposition. They're hitting him where they think it will stick -- he's high falutin, unconnected, a celebrity persona.


They cannot attack on the issues. The economy? People think the Democrats will do better. Health care? People want a universal health care plan and McCain is nowhere on this issue. Iraq? Obama was right all along on Iraq. Appeasement? The Bush administration is now talking to Iran. Energy? People may think we should be drilling but they know it's not the answer, that it will only take us so far. Sleaze? Obama isn't sleazy, but there's a pretty long list of Republicans who are. Inexperience? People have said they care less about experience and more about change. Would we rather have a candidate who can attract an audience of 200,000 people in Berlin, waving our flag instead of burning it, or one who goes abroad and is despised in almost every country, not to mention the gaffes. They want to tear Obama down but the list of things they've got to use is limited. They can't even attack him personally because he's viewed universally as a pretty likable guy. So, what's left? They will attack him for being TOO popular and try to translate that into narcissism, pretension, whatever.


Bottom line: Nothing much we can do about the Krauthammers of the world who will continue to spew. Obama needs to hammer (pun intended) on substantive solutions to issues. Pare down, choose several, put them into memorable prescriptions. And get out the surrogates to write op/ed pieces. This, more than anything, will prove that he has his feet solidly on the same ground as the American people.


Marcelline and David

From Susan in NC:
Susan here in North Carolina. Wanted to say I was on HuffingtonPost and saw an article or video that John McCain had on his web page.

Why is that important? Take a look....keep in mind the McCain now saying "Obama played the race card"...

When Obama said, "You don't see someone like me on a dollar bill."

WELL...McCain has his face morphed on to a dollar bill, YES he does and take a look at it.

THAT needs to be brought out.......interesting and I am sure McCain somehow thinks his web page (how is is now distributing his poison - new ad with Obama as the Messiah) and then mainstream media plays and plays and plays the ads.

We have to bring this to someone's attention...like Olberman, get it out.

Even Andrea Mitchell on Harball tonight is saying that McCain shows distain towards Obama. Ron Brownstein too.

HELP....how do we get this photo of Obama being morphed out there?

Oh yes and McCain says the Obama campaigned apologized...........NO they did not and NO ONE challenges him!

#2 Thanks Sunny, we need a 'watch' list to be able to report in to and make sure we flood the MSM TV shows, blogs, etc. That does work!

This is sickening and I loved Ron Brownstein and Andrea Mitchell standing up for business ethics.

Thanks Sunny, this is horrible and when I saw that photo being morphed on to a dollar bill and then distorted I thought, "Who can I tell?.

Yes I will write to the News and Observer in Raleigh.
From Linda in FL;
when you wrote "black and white," you expressed the essence of the problem. I am guessing that 99% of the "fear" of Obama is the strange-unknown"ness" by whites for blacks and black culture. Many Jews really believe that deep inside all blacks there is a hatred for Jews (and same with all whites)...which is ridiculous.

From Justy in DC:
Obama IS the race card. Always there with his black wife and kids ready to be the model first family for white Americans to identify with.......makes me nervous. Oprah, for example, lost 30+% of her advertising revenue since endorsing Obama; People magazine had "At Home with Obama Family" on its cover last week - picture of all four of them - and was the lowest selling issue of the entire year, by far.

So......confronting McCain's projections is important, but addressing peoples fears is more important. And doing so regularly without dismissing them.
Taking them seriously - after all, the anthrax thing was REALLY scary to lots of people. So the need for reassurance is great in PA and OH and God knows where else.

#2From me to him ,However, we are all damned and the courts as well with McSame!
Totally.
I think - oh, btw good morning - that people, most all of us at times, are not used to a politician who actually thinks. We confuse thinking with doing - whether because of a sound-bite culture and now the blog world, or because little kids hear their parents threaten them, or god knows what.
But having someone listen who isn't a psychoanalyst is unheard of in public life.


From Rice in Staten Island:
This has been the most ridiculous week in the media AGAINST Barack and for McCain. I almost threw up when I heard a pundit on MSNBC express disappointment at Barack supporters for booing those obviously planted hecklers at the town hall meeting yesterday. I was furious and truly sick when I heard a pundit on CNN say that McCain handles his hecklers "beautifully" while barack did "OK". Anyone who has been following knows that Mcinsane has a tradition of throwing out hecklers as he has so many, while Barack handled the situation with class and integrity as he does everything else.

This is terribly frustrating. The MSM is attempting to steer this election to maintain the status quo. I was not here for the last 2 elections, so I don't know how they got away with it before. I for one will continue to write to editors and producers in complaint, and I will also continue to write their advertisers to let them know that I will not purchase their products ( whether I do or do not already). They must all be held accountable for truth in journalism.

We must all keep up the good fight and show our support where ever we go. No more behaving like we are afraid or ashamed to support Barack out loud. Know his policies, be prepared to educate and confront when and if necessary( in our way of course, which is in the same tone of the campaign and Barck- with honesty and kindness).

It may feel like bizarro world sometimes, but it is not. This nonsense is over and we will take back the WH and support Barack's presidency for 2 terms and beyond.

Your help and our support of each other will get us through. Like Barack, we must keep our eyes on the prize.

From Elizabeth in Mamaroneck:

from reality Based Community at www.samefacts.com. or www.markarkleiman.com

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
« LA Times on the McCain payroll | Main
July 31, 2008
Obama's record: what Ambinder missed
Posted by Mark Kleiman
Marc Ambinder, who has my respect for what I take to be his good-faith effort to maintain his objectivity in the race for President, and who has hit John McCain some pretty good licks recently, repeats what seems to me an egregious error he made way back in May: Ambinder quotes an attack on Obama premised on the claim that Obama has no record, and treats that as a legitimate claim.

In this case, Ambinder simply asks his readership to name Obama's accomplishments, against the background of a story reported (or invented) by that blue-ribbon fool Richard Cohen in which an unnamed Democrat, asked to mention one of Obama's accomplishments, lists his speech to the 2204 Democratic Convention, the implication being that Obama didn't do anything noteworthy before and hasn't done anything noteworthy since.

That strongly implies that Ambinder, who after all is attentive to public affairs, can't himself name any of Obama's accomplishments. Maybe that's true, but if so all it means is that Ambinder hasn't bothered to do some basic Googling.

A short list of Obama's deeds, counting only his time in elected office, would include, in Illinois:

* Children's health care.
* The earned income tax credit.
* Ethics reform.
* Videotaping of police interrogations (an anti-torture measure, since imitated elsewhere, which required Obama to win the support of law enforcement groups who started out hostile to it).

In Washington:

* More ethics reform.
* Work on "loose nukes" with Richard Lugar.

Of course no legislator ever does anything alone, but that's not a bad record; year-for-year, it's much stronger than McCain's, even counting the parts of McCain's legacy he has already trashed, such as campaign finance reform and opposition to torture.

Details on Illinois are in this Charles Peters article; details on DC are in two long posts by Hilzoy, one on Obama's legislative record and one on Obama's style of bipartisanship. Really, this stuff isn't hard to find, though those of Ambinder's readers he chooses to quote don't seem to have found any of it. To ask "What's Obama's record?" without looking it up, like asking "What are Obama's specific proposals?" without checking his website, is journalistic malpractice, because asking those questions that way reinforces the impression carefully created by Obama's opponents that he doesn't have a record or detailed positions. And that is simply false, just like the claim that he didn't want to visit wounded soldiers if he couldn't bring cameras.

It's already clear that McCain is working from the Rove playbook: tell lots of lies about your opponent, gambling that some of them will stick and that the press won't have the gumption to call "bullsh*t." I bet it won't work this year; with Ambinder, Joe Klein, and Andrea Mitchell all off the reservation this early, it looks to me as if McCain is going to lose his gamble on the supinity of the press. Still, it's sad to see a good reporter contribute to a bad line of argument.

#2 From Elizabeth:

... of questions for John McCain.-

http://WWW.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/08/i_have_a_little_list_.php



From Dudley in NYC:

You ask what can we do....I hope we will hear more from Obama about education. The website says all the right things, but the teachers union is powerful. There was a terrible editorial in WSJ portraying him against giving parents choice in the education of their kids/charter schools. This is a key issue for young adults and for the future of our country. So I ask how can his stance on this issue be clarified and expanded so as to grab the attention of voters? xox


From Carolyn in Mamaroneck:

How could this be and what are people thinking of when looking at candidate McSame?
McCain is more centerist-right, while Obama comes off as being way left. If Obama moved more toward the center politically (especially fiscally), he would attract more of those people, plus some in our party who might defect.

From Allison in NJ:

Hi there! thanks for adding me to this list again. Go BARACK and Sunny!!!


From Val in Ohio:
Obama has become a full time job for you. It's people of your ilk who will usher him into the White House. Ohio is still iffy and the staff on the ground in my area is not from his A-list. There's a bit of "drama" underway as they decide who will become part of the paid staff vs. volunteer status. I'm between Philly and Fulton, MD this week. I did see the boots on the ground in downtown Philly working for the DNC. I stopped to ask them about the Obama Hdq. but they didn't have much information. I find it interesting that the DNC is totally separate from the Obama campaign. I think it all boils down to fund raising.
No, Michelle was not the speaker at the convention. What a bummer.

Here's something for your blog:

http://www.236.com/blog/w/alec_sokolow/middie_mccain_more_moron_than_5544.php

From Gwynneth in White Plains:
by the way, for anyone who is still so angry (and rightfully so) at the new yorker, be sure to read this week's hendrik hertzberg article re obama's travels. it will make you feel good!!!!!
and also, indefensible is all i can say about pilfering obama's private comments at the wall. but as usual, he will take the high road on this event.

From Marcelline:

The wife John McCain callously left behind

Crippled by a car accident when he was a PoW, she’d lost her looks and her health. But soon her husband found himself a beautiful young heiress instead.
Full Story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

01 August 2008
www.dailymail.co.uk
#2 in response to Rachel's plea about help on article:

Further to the subject, one wonders what a psychiatrist would make of
John McCain? The lock step military career or all in the family, the
humiliations of prison camp, the aftermath with the throwing over of
the no-longer glamorous first wife for the trophy second, who just
happened to be rich, and all the womanizing to prove he got his macho
back, the temper and the tantrums, the potty mouth, his own feelings
of entitlement.

But we don't go there because we're too polite.

K'hammer, if memory serves, became a neo-con, with, therefore, a
neocon's huge investment in the "riightness" of the Iraq blunder.

From Rachel: This is being sent every where...Please advise...Rachel NYC

Krauthammer lives in suburban Washington with Robyn, an artist. Their son, Daniel, is a student at Harvard University.

Article by Charles Krauthammer

Washington Post

The Audacity of Vanity

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, July 18, 2008; A17

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Ronald Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush the elder -- who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap -- called "a Europe whole and free"?..



From Gwynneth in response to what to do about article and its attacks on Obama European trip:
What an outrageous article!
But can you imagine McCain having tried to do the same?
As we found out in yesterday's Jewish leadership call, the European leg of the trip was financed by campaign funds, so Obama had every right to speak in Germany, and what Krauthammer fails to grasp, is that the personal connections that Obama made to the German people, to all Europeans, government and populace, are beginning to heal very sore wounds all caused by our inept current prez. He is giving them hope, which is so valuable it cannot be measured.
Why don't we just respond to him directly?

From Elizabeth in Mamaroneck:


Check this!
Sent: 7/30/2008 10:55:34 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time

((((( The RBC Update: "Old age is second childhood": Aristophanes )))))

And John Weaver thinks John McCain's latest ad is "childish."

http://WWW.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/07/old_age_is_second_childhood_aristophanes.php


From Helen in NY ,Older Women for Obama:
Courtesy of Leonore Blitz and Women Business Leaders for Obama, a small group of us met for breakfast with The Honorable Harold Ford, Jr., former five-term Tennessee Congressman and Obama surrogate. He is now chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, which generally takes the more centrist positions in the Party.

Congressman Ford spoke informally about policy choices Obama faces, and his own vision of how to campaign in this most challenging year. It was a distinct pleasure for all the political junkies in the room to hear the ideas of so gifted an analyst of retail politics, of how you win on the ground. He spoke eloquently of the importance of each of us reaching out to every persuadable voter we can find, calling, going to swing states; that many Republicans do not like John McCain but will come out on Election Day and pull the lever for him; how important it is for all of us to be mindful of how high the stakes are this year. It was also noted that the Democrats who could not bring themselves to vote for Hubert Humphrey in 1968 gave Richard Nixon a narrow victory, and that, in 2000, Democrats who 'just didn't like Al Gore' gave us George W. Bush. This must not happen again.



From Judy in Mamaroneck:
July 31, 2008
Editorial Observer
A Tale of Three (Electronic Voting) Elections
By ADAM COHEN
Electronic voting has made great strides in reliability, but it has a long way to go. When reformers push for greater safeguards, they often argue that future elections could produce the wrong result because of a computer glitch or be stolen through malicious software. That’s being too nice.

There have already been elections in which it is impossible to be certain that the right candidate was declared the winner. Here are three such races. It is not just remarkable that these elections were run so badly, but also that the flaws are still common — and could easily create havoc in this fall’s voting.

1. The 2002 Georgia Senate and Governor Races — Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was defeated for re-election and Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, was unseated. Polls had suggested that both men would win.

The votes were cast on Diebold A.T.M.-style machines. A whistle-blower who helped prepare the machines reported that secret “patches” — software intended to fix glitches — were installed late in the process without being certified by the state, as the law required.

The unexpected outcomes were likely because of heavy turnout by rural whites, prompted by a Confederate flag dispute, not faulty voting machines. Still, skeptics wonder if the patches contained malicious software that changed votes. Because the Diebold machines did not produce paper records, there is no way to put those doubts to rest.

Lesson: Electronic voting makes large-scale vote theft easy. A patch slipped onto voting machines or centralized vote tabulators can change an election’s outcome. Every piece of software must be scrutinized by neutral experts. If there is not enough time, election officials need a backup plan, such as conducting voting entirely on paper ballots.

2. The 2006 Congressional Race in Florida’s 13th District — The machines said that Republican Vern Buchanan defeated Democrat Christine Jennings by 369 votes. But in Sarasota County, a Democratic area, up to 18,000 ballots, about 13 percent of the total cast, did not record a vote for Congress. That is extraordinarily high; in Republican Manatee County, only 2 percent of ballots didn’t contain a vote for Congress.

Sarasota’s low vote may have been because of a bad ballot design, which made the Buchanan-Jennings race hard to find. But the Jennings campaign said it received hundreds of complaints that the machines would not accept a vote for Ms. Jennings, or recorded a vote for her as a vote for Mr. Buchanan.

Did Ms. Jennings lose a seat in Congress because of a glitch? Could there have been sabotage? We’ll never know, because there are no paper records.

Lesson: Electronic voting machines must produce a voter-verifiable paper trail for each vote so voters can see that their choices register properly. In a disputed election, the paper, not the machine tallies, should decide who wins.

More than half the states require votes to be recorded on paper, but many still don’t. These include battleground states like Virginia.

3. Alabama’s 2002 Race for Governor — Former Gov. Don Siegelman has been in the news because it appears that federal prosecutors may have put him in prison for political reasons. The controversy has brought attention to the odd way he lost the governorship.

Mr. Siegelman went to sleep on election night thinking he had won. But overnight, Republican Baldwin County reported that a glitch had given Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, about 6,000 extra votes. When they were subtracted, Republican Rob Riley won by roughly 3,000 votes.

James Gundlach, a professor at Auburn University, crunched the numbers and concluded that Mr. Siegelman lost because of “electronic ballot stuffing,” possibly by an operative who accessed the computers and “edited” the results, though others dispute his analysis.

Baldwin County used paper ballots that were then read by an optical scan machine. Mr. Siegelman says local officials gave him permission to count the paper ballots by hand, but the attorney general threatened to arrest anyone who did. No count was done.

Lesson: Paper ballots alone are not enough. There must be strong audit laws that mandate comprehensive hand recounts when an election is close.

After the 2000 election debacle, Americans demanded a better system of voting. What we have gotten is new technology with different flaws. If the presidential race is close, this year’s “hanging chad” could be a questionable result on electronic voting machines that cannot be adequately investigated...(Read rest on line Click here: Editorial Observer - A Tale of Three (Electronic Voting) Elections - Editorial - NYTimes.com )


From Kathy in KCMO:
Lately, we all have been getting bizarre emails about Obama. He has been called everything from the Antichrist to a closet Muslim who is trying to infiltrate the government to blow us all up! Yesterday I got two more. One looked pretty convincing because it was about raising taxes and gave all kinds of facts and figures about how much Obama was going to raise your taxes. When I fact checked it, I found that it was all false. Here is the link so you can read for yourself. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp
The other one I got was really disturbing. It was supposed to be written by a military guy in Afghanistan who "saw" Obama being rude and disrespectful to soldiers. You know it is particularly convincing to have a "military man" dissing the candidate. Again I fact checked it and found the exact email and every bit of it was labeled as false. Here is the link: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/afghanistan.asp It even has a retraction from the soldier whose name was used saying his facts were wrong!

Obama has a fact checking site where they are trying to debunk this junk http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/. However, I think it is better to send these spreaders of hate to non-partisan, neutral sites like www.snopes.com or www.factcheck.org These sites really analyze the facts fairly on both sides.

Whenever I get these emails, my first reaction is to curse them out. My calm, level-headed husband, however, thinks it is better to educate them so I am taking a more benign approach. I explained to the sender that I was shocked by this information and decided to fact check it, then I sent them the articles that exposed the falsehoods. I told them that they might want to pass this information along to their friends and family who had received this email because I was sure they would not want to be spreading lies.

I also told them that it looked like they needed more information about Barack Obama instead of just reading the smears and lies so I sent them the link to www.barackobama.com so they could read his policies. I also attached the above document that my friend Sunny in NYC and I put together that gives a brief list of some of the important issues on Obama's agenda. (This is NOT an official document from the Obama campaign.) We felt that people needed some ammunition at their fingertips when talking about Obama and what he stands for. You can ask these people if any of these issues are important to them.

I just wanted to pass these tools along in case you are getting the same kind of junk in your inbox! Maybe for a few who are gullible and belief everything they see in print, being confronted with the truth will help.
Kathy
Where Senator Obama Stands

Barack Obama has developed an extensive agenda for restoring America’s moral authority and sense of well-being. Specific details are available on his website, www.barackobama.com. Here are some of the high points.

Economy

Create jobs with special emphasis on helping low-income workers achieve self-sufficiency

Invest in American transportation and communication infrastructure

Simplify the tax code, providing relief to middle-income Americans and ending Bush’s tax breaks for wealthiest Americans

Reward companies for keeping jobs here and close tax loopholes for those exporting jobs overseas

Raise minimum wage to make it livable

Foreign Policy

End the war in Iraq through carefully phased withdrawal of troops

Support our troops in Afghanistan

Restore America’s standing in the world as a moral leader

Emphasize diplomatic solutions for difficult international issues

Close Guantanamo and restore traditional habeas corpus rights

Focus our energies on causes of support for Al Qaeda

Health Care

Ensure affordable health care for all Americans

Require that all children have adequate health care

Support stem cell research

Reduce health risks due to mercury pollution



Environment

Limit the causes of global warming

Implement market-based cap-and-trade system

Decrease oil consumption

Increase energy efficiency

Increase domestic production, distribution, and use of biofuels for energy independence

Preserve the Great Lakes

Protect national parks and forests

Domestic Policy

Protect civil liberties

Maintain FISA courts

Strengthen support for public schools

Revise No Child Left Behind

Stress support for pre-school education

Make college affordable through tuition support in exchange for public service

Women’s Issues

Improve child support collection and fathers’ responsibility

Fight gender violence in this country and in developing countries

Achieve equal pay for women

Invest in women-owned small businesses

Ensure women’s right to self-determination with respect to reproductive health care

Assure access to comprehensive contraceptive care and health information

Combat domestic violence through new legislation

Provide early screening to protect women from cancer and other diseases

Empower women to prevent HIV/AIDS

Provide care for women veterans who have been largely overlooked and undervalued by the Department of Veterans Affairs



Westchester Women for Obama

From Andy T of the DNC:

So your $5,000 now gets you:

1. A share in winning back the White House

2. An afternoon cruise on a 101-foot yacht (there could be umbrella drinks and shrimp)

3. A memorable experience with just 24 other $5,000 donors including:

> Governor Howard Dean, who, with your help, has totally revitalized the Democratic Party

> former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (the only person ever to have held the Assistant Secretary of State post for two different regions of the world -- Asia and Europe)

> three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee (and that doesn't even count WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, over the non-winning of which several Pulitzer judges resigned)

> C-SPAN co-founder -- and *owner* of the 101-foot yacht -- John Evans in Sag Harbor NY


It's next Saturday afternoon, August 9.

Just reply to this email to RSVP. atobias@aol.com

Thanks!

Andy

From Hank in NYC:

Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 8:03 AM
To: 'letters@nytimes.com'
Subject: To The Editor

“McCain Trying To Define Obama As Out Of Touch” – Front Page – July 31, 2008

We should all take Senator McCain seriously when he talks about being “out-of-touch”. John McCain takes that expression to new heights. Even Brittany Spears would have voted for higher college tuition benefits for our veterans. Paris Hilton understands that a “gas tax holiday” and offshore drilling are idiotic ideas. While Obama has indeed attained “rock star” status, it does not detract from his judgment (voting against the Iraq war and seeing that Afghanistan and Pakistan are the centers of terrorist activity in the world).

McCain’s own supporters are saying that his comments are ridiculous, and that his negativity may cost him dearly in the fall election. John McCain is the product of Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove politics, and if anything is “out-of-touch” for the American people it is attack dog ads from a tired old man with nothing new to offer.

From Women for Obama:

Dear Friends,

Our next National Women for Obama leadership call will be held on Monday, August 4 at 6:30pm central. As usual, we will be updating you on our recent WFO activities, including Senator Obama’s new Plan to Support Working Women and their Families, unveiled this week at a luncheon in Chicago with Michelle Obama and 800 women. We are thrilled to have Melody Barnes joining us as our special guest speaker on the call. She has just joined the campaign as the Senior Domestic Policy Advisor.

Prior to joining Senator Obama’s policy team, Melody Barnes was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress where she coordinated and helped to integrate all of the Center’s policy work, from the policy departments, fellows, and the Center's network of outside policy experts. From December 1995 until March 2003, Ms. Barnes served as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Senator Kennedy’s chief counsel, she shaped civil rights, women’s health and reproductive rights, commercial law, and religious liberties laws, as well as executive branch and judicial appointments. Ms. Barnes’ experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and serving as assistant counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights.

The call will run approximately 30 minutes. You must RSVP to join the call. Please reply to this email by 11:00 am Central on Monday, August 4. We will then forward you the dial-in information.

We look forward to speaking with you on Monday.

Thank you for everything you do,

Becky Carroll

National Women’s Vote Field Director

Visit our website at: women.barackobama.com

Join the National WFO MYBO group by clicking here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/WomenforObama

To receive WFO newsletters and updates, email us at: women@barackobama.com

From Randy in CA:

I don't know how you can keep up your optimism. the campaign is just
getting uglier and uglier and i am beginning to get really depressed
about it. mc cain's camp is really doing a number on obama's and i am
beginning to think his negative attacks are beginning to rub off. his
campaign is nothing more than negative attacks and that's because he has
nothing to say about himself.

i'm beginning to withdraw.


From Elizabeth in Mamaroneck:

Sunny, all of these are terrific, but this one is your best ever!!! I really don't know how you keep up the pace of work and he quality of these blogs, but thank you!
love,
Dear Obama Supporters:
Monday night was a highlight for me, I saw Bruce Springsteen perform for three hours uninterrupted with my daughter who got the tickets . I have been going to see The Boss since the 80's and each time I see him it is better than the last time. Each concert is meaningful and he plays his heart out never leaving his fans disappointed...
From True Blue Women:

August 5th
Primary Election

Click Here to Download TBW's Primary Election Guide!

Take our election guide with you to the polls next
Tuesday, August 5th.




Be sure to check our website for election news and upcoming events.

Click here to become a financial supporter of True Blue Women





From Move On and Judy:


MoveOn members in action

In response to the news of John McCain's big influx of oil company cash, MoveOn members posted "For Sale" signs on McCain headquarters in 10 battleground states yesterday. Here are a few photos.








Dear MoveOn member,
Standing before a room of oil company executives in June, John McCain flip-flopped and declared support for coastal oil drilling. Now the Washington Post is reporting that, within days, oil and gas execs ponied up nearly $1 million to elect McCain.1 It's another piece of evidence that in a McCain White House, oil companies will call the shots—just as they have with President Bush.

Yesterday, MoveOn members jumped into action in response to the Post story, placing "For Sale" signs on McCain headquarters in 10 battleground states to call public attention to it.2 At the same time, McCain made our point for us, holding a photo-op yesterday in front of a California oil well and renewing his push for offshore drilling.3


McCain's hoping to use gas prices as a wedge issue to win the election. That's why it's so critical that we keep spreading the message that McCain's been heavily influenced by the oil companies—and so we can't count on him to solve the energy crisis. When people think of Bush, they think "oil," but that's not true of McCain yet—even though his energy policy is almost identical to Bush's and his campaign is literally run by oil lobbyists!4


Here's a video that makes the case, from our friends at Progressive Accountability. Please check it out, then forward it to a few friends, post it on a blog, or stick it on your Facebook page.


Click here to watch the video:



Click here
The energy crisis is shaping up to be a decisive issue in the election. MoveOn's ongoing campaign on the energy crisis has two goals: 1) highlight the progressive solution—a huge plan to shift our economy to clean energy, prevent climate change, and create millions of jobs, and 2) work together to block McCain and the Republicans from pushing gimmicks like drilling to win votes.


Please forward this email to your friends and family to spread the word about John McCain's ties to big oil companies.

Thanks for all you do.

–Noah, Daniel, Tanya, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:
1. "Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling," Washington Post, July 27, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3985&id=13350-1678364-_PAPA4x&t=3

2. "Activist group protests at McCain headquarters," WHP CBS 21 Harrisburg, July 28, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3986&id=13350-1678364-_PAPA4x&t=4

3. "Offshore Drilling is Something We Have to Do," Time Magazine, July 28, 2008
http://thepage.time.com/2008/07/28/oil/

4. "Oil Money: John McCain's Close Ties to the Petroleum Industry," Campaign Money Watch, July 11, 2008
http://www.campaignmoney.org/mccainoil


Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.




From Val in Ohio:

I watched Senator Obama's press conference on the ABC website. He's such an impressive figure and having Hagel and Reed as a backdrop gave me renewed hope for intelligence reentering public policy. I heard Andrea Mitchell complaining about a news "blackout" on a program last night. It didn't surprise me to find her jumping up to ask the first question at the news conference. Her one question turned into multiple inquiries with Obama patiently responding to all of her efforts to "trip him up."

Has Bush's constant reference to how he will listen to General Petraeus left you wondering just who is Commander-In-Chief? Well, Senator Obama addressed that issue by saying General Patraeus has the military as his sole interest whereas the Commander-In-Chief has to balance the interest of the military with the well being of the country as a whole (my words not his). He also spoke of how he would bring India into his diplomatic efforts to quell the unrest with Pakistan. Never hear our current administration pointing out the global aspects of regional conflicts.

I read the concerns mentioned by one of your readers about how many will vote for McSame no matter how much more qualified his opponent presents himself. Guess it's my job to find new voters to neutralize those old codgers.

Michelle Obama is one of the invited speakers at my husband's dental convention this weekend. I'll let you know if she accepts the invitation so I will have a chance to "experience" her wisdom.

From Move on:

Drilling won't help lower gas prices, but that won't stop John McCain and the Republicans from doing everything they can to convince voters they have a quick fix for our energy woes. In our new ad, called "Gimmick," we set the record straight: Offshore drilling is a scam that won't do anything to bring down gas prices.

Can you help counter McCain's ads promoting drilling and attacking Obama by supporting our new ad?




Watch the ad

Dear MoveOn member,
Last month, conservatives led by Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh sent over a million messages to Congress calling for offshore oil drilling. Then John McCain joined the push for drilling. Now he's running ads saying Obama's responsible for high gas prices, because Obama's energy plan focuses on alternative energy—not drilling.

It's a scam. Offshore drilling won't save any money at the pumps for years (although it will boost oil company profits). But some senior Democrats are showing signs of caving under all this pressure—and polls show McCain's attacks may be hurting Obama.

Here's the truth: Right now, progressives are losing this argument. We all need to fight back. If we don't, we could end up losing the election AND the fight for clean energy.

We've got a simple, powerful new ad that tells the truth about the Republicans' drilling scam. Will you check it out, and chip in $100 to help get it on the air right away?

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3996&id=13370-4046455-aHWriXx&t=4

McCain is so focused on drilling because he knows people are anxious enough about energy costs to make this the issue of the 2008 elections. When you're worried about how you're going to afford the drive to work, or how you're going to get your kids to school, and you have no other short-term options—you'll be open to anything that might help. McCain is preying on that anxiety by offering offshore drilling as a quick fix.

Offshore drilling won't fix gas prices or our dependence on foreign oil. There simply isn't enough oil offshore or in the Arctic, and it will take up to a decade to get what little is there. Even then, we would only save 3 or 4 cents a gallon!1

Offshore drilling is a gimmick—but it will be the gimmick that works for John McCain if we don't push back now. Our new ad has a regular-looking guy telling the truth straight into the camera. Isn't that the best thing for people to hear right now?

If you can, contribute to help get the ad up in more cities—so more people see McCain's drilling gimmick for what it is:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3996&id=13370-4046455-aHWriXx&t=5

Thank you for all you do.

From Nancy in NYC:
I spoke to a few of my friends and we discussed the issues. A lot of them feel the same way about the economic situation. In some way we should address this because many seniors are still old fashioned in their thinking. I don't know how that would work in a fundraiser, but it would help address the sceptics. You are so great. A true inspiration with that blog and your enthusiasm.

From Margot in Hamptons in response to my 10 friends e-mail:
I have gotten more than 10 people involved and on Sue's mailing list. Their organization is very impressive. Between book clubs and bridge, I have an email group of over 10 in NY to get involved - who is the contact in NYC?

From Obama Campaign:
Sunny --

A few hours ago John McCain, the same man who just months ago promised to run a "respectful campaign," said he is "proud" of his latest attack ad.

That's the one attacking your enthusiasm, comparing me to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, and making false claims about my energy plan.

Now, we're facing some serious challenges in this country -- our economy is struggling, energy costs are skyrocketing, and families don't have health care.

Given the seriousness of these issues, you'd think we'd be having a serious debate. But instead, John McCain is running an expensive, negative campaign against us. Each day brings a desperate new set of attacks.

And they're not just attacking me. They're attacking you.

They're mocking the desire of millions of Americans to step up and take ownership of the political process.

They're trying to convince you that your enthusiasm won't amount to anything -- that the people you persuade, the phone calls you make, the donations you give, the doors you knock on are all an illusion. They believe that in this election the same old smears and negative attacks will prevail again.

They're wrong.

And right now, we have a few hours left to prove them wrong in a very concrete way.

Can you make a donation of $500 or more right now before the July fundraising deadline at midnight tonight?

Show the strength of our movement for change.

Thank you,

Barack
From Susan In Mamaroneck:
Is this useful to you at all…Racial profiling issue below?


Friends, whatever it takes, let’s do it. Best, Sally

PS Please pass this on!

Subject: Time for action....
Dear Friends and Family,

I've just returned from a very successful luncheon for Obama here in Washington. He was, as usual, intelligent, dignified, and charismatic all at the same time. The audience consisted mostly of Asian-American-Pacific Islanders and because of nature the audience he spoke mostly about the contribution made by AAPI'ers to our country. He cited their concerns but made it clear that their issues are shared by most Americans except for the problem of racial profiling. Those who introduced him reminded us that we have fewer than 100 days until the election and that every last one of us is needed if we want to be present at the inauguration of Barack Obama in January 2009. This is the most important election of my lifetime -- perhaps yours too -- and if that sounds like hyperbole, think John McCain and the Supreme Court!



Many of you have contributed beyond your means to the campaign, slogged through the snows of Iowa to register voters, done phone banking from home, and lots more. If you think that was enough, don't even consider resting now. You're needed now more than ever.. And if you've watched from the sidelines as events have unfolded and think you're too old, too tired, too busy to be actively involved in this effort, consider the latest poll numbers. The spread between Obama and Mcain is very small. An article in today's WPost talks about the continued dissatisfaction of Clintonites despite all efforts to bring them into the Obama campaign fold. Their defection could be determinative.



The point is that we're all going to have to work our hearts out for the next less-than-hundred days. A small investment of two hours a week might make a big difference. If you're moved to action, here are a few things you might consider doing:



o Send a letter like this to your e-list

o Contribute money yet again to the campaign

o Sign up to do voter registration. In the metropolitan D.C. area there's a big push to register voters in Virginia to boost Obama's voter base AND to help elect Mark Warner to the Senate.

o Volunteer to do phone banking to de termine which issues are most important to voters at this stage

o Write letters to the editor if you see unfair coverage

o Talk to young people and/or newly-registered voters about Obama. Help them see how crucial this election will be.

o Create your own list of things to do and circulate it among your correspondents

Anything which produces one more voter for Obama is a good thing to do!

You're all savvy enough to know how to do any of the above but if you want me to connect you with campaign people so you can get started, just let me know. Get moving!!

From Women for Obama:

Dear Friends,



This week was a special one for Women for Obama. Over 800 women gathered in downtown Chicago on Monday to listen to Michelle Obama talk about the critical role of women in this election, and to help launch Barack’s comprehensive Blueprint for Working Women and Families. She talked about Women for Obama's core principle -- women talking to women all over this country, sharing their stories, telling people about Barack, educating one another on the issues, and talking about the world and our place in it. Senator Obama’s Plan will provide a way for women across the country to start that conversation with their friends who may not yet be familiar with his stance on issues they care about.



Please take a moment to read over Senator Obama’s plan, and share it with everyone you know – men and women! Click here to check it out: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4194155/Barack-Obamas-Plan-to-Support-Working-Women-and-Families



Also, you can check out a video of Michelle’s remarks by clicking here! http://women.barackobama.com/blueprintvideo



Stay tuned for action items, including major voter registration efforts getting underway. To see what voter registration activities are already happening in your state and get plugged in, click here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/vfchome



Thank you for all that you are doing to elect Senator Obama. We’re now less than 100 days out – we’re counting on all of you!



Becky Carroll,

National Women’s Vote Field Director





WFO Updates

· Michelle Obama at Women for Obama Luncheon – Video, Photos and More

· Barack Obama’s Blueprint for Women & Families

· Obama Keeps Focus on Women Voters, Building Unity

· Remarks of Sen. Obama in Cedar Rapids, IA on Energy Policy

· Susan Eisenhower Joins Campaign Manager David Plouffe to Launch “Low Road Express” to Push Back Against McCain Tactics

· VIDEO: Women Governors Town Hall in PA – One Coming Soon to a City Near You!





VIDEO: MICHELLE OBAMA SPEAKING IN CHICAGO

Click here to watch Michelle addressing several hundred women at the Chicago luncheon: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gGxYst



READ MICHELLE’S REMARKS

Remarks of Michelle Obama - As Prepared for Delivery

Women for Obama Luncheon

Monday, July 28, 2008

[Barack] carries our stories – and the stories of women he’s met all across America – with him every day.

And that’s why as President, Barack will change Washington so that instead of just talking about family values; we actually have policies that value families. That’s why today, we’re unveiling what I call the Blueprint – our plan to support working women and families. There’s not enough time today to go through it all, but I encourage you all to read through it and share it with others.
It lays out my husband’s policies that make it easier for working parents to support, care for, and raise their families; policies that encourage healthy families; policies that no longer force working women to choose between their kids and their careers…

To read Michelle’s full remarks, click here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gGx9g8

Click here to check out photos of supporters at the Women for Obama luncheon: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gGxYsy



BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN TO SUPPORT WORKING WOMEN & FAMILIES

Michelle’s Message Introducing the Plan…

For working families trying to balance jobs and kids and maybe even aging parents of their own, the American Dream can feel like it's slipping away.

Over the course of this campaign, I've had the chance to sit down with so many working women across the country. I've talked with mothers struggling to make ends meet because their salaries aren't keeping up with the cost of groceries or the price of gas. I've listened to the moms who are nervous about taking time off to care for a sick child, and the moms-to-be who are scared of getting fired if the boss finds out they're pregnant.

Then there are women who work hard every day doing the same jobs as men, but earning less. And the military families, who struggle to make ends meet with one paycheck where there used to be two. They welcome their loved ones home with full hearts but little support from their government for their service.

These struggles – the struggles of working women and families across America – aren't new to me or to any of us. And they're certainly not new to Barack.

As President, Barack will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act, so that millions of additional Americans will be able to take time off to care for a baby or an elderly parent – or just to have a few hours to attend a school play or a parent-teacher conference or take a child to the doctor. Barack will require employers to provide all their workers with at least seven paid sick days a year, and ensure that women are paid fairly for their hard work.

This agenda is about helping women reclaim their dreams for themselves and their families. It's about giving them a helping hand, not a handout. The subjects here are near to my heart, and they're at the center of this campaign. But the policies will only succeed if they address your needs. So please let us know what you think.

Best,
Michelle Obama

Click here to read the Plan: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4194155/Barack-Obamas-Plan-to-Support-Working-Women-and-Families

OBAMA KEEPS FOCUS ON WOMEN VOTERS

Obama seeks to overcome doubts among women

By Christopher Wills

July 29, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) - After Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, one of her delegates wanted to send a message. So Mary Beth Pyle wore a Clinton T-shirt to a unity dinner meant to build support for Barack Obama.

Then she pulled it off to reveal an Obama T-shirt underneath—a symbol of her support for the party's new candidate for president.

"We were there to get over it. We had a sip of wine—goodbye, Hillary—and another sip—hello, Obama," said Pyle, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Mesa County, Colo.

But many of Clinton's supporters aren't so willing to embrace Obama, at least not yet. Independents and moderate Republican women remain a question mark, too.

So Obama is working fiercely to win their votes.

He has put out a report explaining what his economic plans would mean for women, reinforcing the message with town hall meetings devoted to the subject. He talks frequently about being raised by a single mother, her economic struggles (including a period on food stamps) and her worries about health insurance as she was dying of cancer.

Click her to read more: http://women.barackobama.com/page/community/post/emmalowry/gGx9JP



OBAMA SPEAKS ON ENERGY POLICY IN CEDAR RAPIDS, IA

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for delivery)
Town Hall on Energy
Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Thursday, July 31, 2008

It's great to be back in Cedar Rapids, where we've made so many friends throughout this campaign…. I've seen the flood damage here in Iowa and I've visited communities that have been devastated in my home state of Illinois. Now is the time for America to stand by those who have suffered so much, while helping them get back on their feet…We know that Cedar Rapids needs more than immediate assistance, because the problems that you're facing in your daily lives go beyond this year's storms.

Given the seriousness of the issues, you'd think we could have a serious debate. But so far, even the media has pointed out that Senator McCain has fallen back on predictable political attacks and demonstrably false statements. But here's the problem. All of those negative ads that he's running won't do a thing to lower your gas prices or to lift up the debate in this country. The fact is, these Washington tactics do the American people a disservice by trying to distract us from the very real challenges that we face.

That starts with energy. For decades, Washington has failed the American people on energy, and that failure has led directly to our current crisis. George Bush's approach was to let the oil companies write his energy policy. Now, we can't afford four more years of more of the same. We can't afford to let dictators hold our national security hostage because of our energy dependence. We can't afford to endanger our planet because we can't shake an addiction to oil. And we can't afford more tax breaks for oil companies while they make record profits and you pay $4 for a gallon of gas.

Click here to read the full remarks and see photos from the Cedar Rapids Town Hall: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGxYrp



DAVID PLOUFFE & SUSAN EISENHOWER DISCUSS McCAIN TACTICS; LAUNCH THE “LOW ROAD EXPRESS”

Obama campaign manager: Buckle up

By John McCormick

The Swamp (Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau) - July 31, 2008

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe charged today that Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express has taken a "nasty turn into the gutter" with a new ad that features pop stars Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

"It seems like we hit another low note every day from this campaign," Plouffe said on a conference call with reporters... The conference call was pegged to the release of yet another campaign web site. This one, called "Low Road Express," is sponsored by Obama's campaign and claims a mission of documenting and fact-checking McCain attacks. Plouffe said McCain's campaign is using Republican operative Karl Rove's playbook, but has taken it to a "further extreme." He was joined on the call by Susan Eisenhower, a lifelong Republican and granddaughter of the former president.

"I don't think that these kinds of comments and innuendoes have any place in a presidential campaign of this importance," she said. "I also think that ordinary voters are tired of the kind of swift-boating attempt to bring out the negative side of -- the twisted ways -- that they can create negativity about people."

Click here to read more:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/annebrewer/gGxYqf

VIDEO: GOVERNORS SEBELIUS AND GRANHOLM IN PENNSYLVANIA



Governors Sebelius and Granholm discussed issues at a recent Women’s Economic Townhall in Plymouth Meeting, PA, where five women governors from across the country convened to meet and talk with voters.

Check out the video here: http://women.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gGxyGD

Visit our website at: women.barackobama.com http://www.women.barackobama.com/

From Andy Borowitz:

Britney, Paris Air Savage Anti-McCain Ad
Party Gals Slam Mac in Negative Spot

One day after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) broadcast an anti-Obama ad in which he compared the presumptive Democratic nominee to celebrities Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the two tabloid mainstays fought back with an eviscerating anti-McCain spot of their own.

While Mses. Spears and Hilton said they had planned to remain on the sidelines during the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. McCain's negative ad "left us no choice," the notorious party gals said today.

"We don't mind John McCain going after us if he sticks to the facts," Ms. Spears said at a New York press conference. "But we are sick of the distortions about our record."

Ms. Hilton said that the McCain ad appeared to link herself and Ms. Spears to Sen. Obama, leading the casual viewer to conclude that the three of them had "the same energy policy."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," said Ms. Spears. "Both of us strongly favor off-shore drilling to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

Ms. Hilton said she was also "offended" by the implication that she and Ms. Spears favor a tax on electricity: "We have both been very clear on that issue."

In their anti-McCain spot, the two starlets fight fire with fire, comparing Sen. McCain to the Joker from the smash-hit film "The Dark Knight."

"It's perfectly fair," Ms. Spears said of the ad. "They both have pasty white faces and totally creepy smiles."

Elsewhere, Chinese Olympic officials confiscated the poles of the pole vaulting team to prevent athletes from going over the wall.

From Kathy in KCMO:

The Britney ad was just plain stupid. All of the Rovian ads this week have been dumb. The McLame campaign is looking more and more desperate every day. I liked Obama's remarks today where he said he doesn't really know what McCain stands for except to attack him. Even McSame's campaign manager from 2000 said these were awful ads and beneath McCain. He doesn't think it can help him to win while projecting such a negative image. Plus it makes a mockery of the "clean campaign that the American people want and deserve"!!!! He and his creepy wife were trumpeting that lie in the last couple of months. Now all of the wheels have come off the Double Talk Express!!!!


From Obama for America:

As we face the fundraising deadline at midnight tonight, I want you to know what we are up against.

Less than 24 hours ago, the McCain campaign launched the latest and lowest in a series of misleading attack ads.

This Karl Rove-style ploy misleads people about Barack's energy plan and even mocks his ability to inspire voters and bring Americans back into the political process.

Watchdogs in the media are calling McCain's accusations "bogus," "desperate," "wrong," "misleading," "ugly," "offensive," "reckless," and "a nasty turn into the gutter."

Some of McCain's own supporters agree. One senior Republican strategist quoted by the Washington Post called the latest ad a "wild swing at Obama" that reflects his campaign's "increasing bitterness" and the lack of "any coherent strategy to elect McCain."

Even John Weaver, a strategist who worked for McCain's presidential campaign in 2000 and on his current campaign last year, called the ad "childish," adding that this negative strategy "diminishes John McCain" and "needs to stop."

But we will not let any attack stand. Barack himself responded quickly and forcefully, and within hours our campaign created a response ad to take their smear tactics head-on.

As one of our most generous supporters, you can help show the McCain campaign that there is a cost to this kind of negative politics. Our records indicate that you have given the maximum amount for the primary and $1,125.00 in the general election, which means you are only $1,175.00 away from reaching the individual contribution limit.

Can you go All-In for Barack with a donation of $1,175.00 and help get our response on the air?






With the election less than 100 days away, media pundits and Washington insiders will be watching our fundraising numbers more closely than ever.

In the face of these new attacks, you can help demonstrate that a movement funded by grassroots supporters giving only what they can afford is ready to take on the Republican fundraising machine and its onslaught of negativity.

Your support will also give this campaign a crucial boost in momentum as we build our organization to compete in all 50 states.

There are only hours left to make an impact in July.

Watch the new ad and make a donation of $1,175.00 before the midnight deadline.

Thanks,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager

From Brave New Films:




1. Watch the video
2. Sign the petition
"What's worse than John McCain's dishonest ad? Finding out he had another, equally dishonest ad ready to air if Obama DID visit the hospital. He just wasn't going to be honest with American voters no matter what happened, and now everybody knows it, even the press he calls his "base." He'll never live it down." -- Kagro X, Daily Kos

Dear sunny,

The traditional press is up in arms over John McCain's latest dishonest ad attacking Barack Obama. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell called the ad "completely wrong, factually wrong!" The New York Times said it was "a false account of what occurred." And The Washington Post said the ad offered "no evidence" to support McCain's claims.

McCain must disavow this ad and make sure it never airs again. We won't let this race degenerate into ad distortions like the last election; we won't be silent in the face of lies. That's why we created this video entitled When McCain Attacks.

Watch the video and sign the petition.

Help end McCain's campaign of dishonesty. Sign our petition to compel McCain to disavow this ad and yank it from the air. Then send it to all your friends, family members, and colleagues. Tell them to spread it to everyone they know, and Digg it!

Hurry, because we're already seeing McCain's lies insidiously spread by other news outlets. Join us in declaring that we've had enough lies and dishonesty, we're ready for a new kind of politics.

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New team

From Nancy in NYC and Judy in Westchester: An article about treating animals humanely that was pointed out to me because of our family's devotion to animals, and Brad's work on this Propositon 2 coming up for a vote in CA, that we hope our like minded caring friends and family will support! Please pass this on to anyone you know in CA !

July 31, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist
A Farm Boy Reflects
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
YAMHILL, Ore.

In a world in which animal rights are gaining ground, barbecue season should make me feel guilty. My hunch is that in a century or two, our descendants will look back on our factory farms with uncomprehending revulsion. But in the meantime, I love a good burger.

This comes up because the most important election this November that you’ve never heard of is a referendum on animal rights in California, the vanguard state for social movements. Proposition 2 would ban factory farms from raising chickens, calves or hogs in small pens or cages.

Livestock rights are already enshrined in the law in Florida, Arizona, Colorado and here in Oregon, but California’s referendum would go further and would be a major gain for the animal rights movement. And it’s part of a broader trend. Burger King announced last year that it would give preference to suppliers that treat animals better, and when a hamburger empire expostulates tenderly about the living conditions of cattle, you know public attitudes are changing.

Harvard Law School now offers a course on animal rights. Spain’s Parliament has taken a first step in granting rights to apes, and Austrian activists are campaigning to have a chimpanzee declared a person. Among philosophers, a sophisticated literature of animals rights has emerged.

I’m a farm boy who grew up here in the hills outside Yamhill, Ore., raising sheep for my F.F.A. and 4-H projects. At various times, my family also raised modest numbers of pigs, cattle, goats, chickens and geese, although they were never tightly confined.

Our cattle, sheep, chickens and goats certainly had individual personalities, but not such interesting ones that it bothered me that they might end up in a stew. Pigs were more troubling because of their unforgettable characters and obvious intelligence. To this day, when tucking into a pork chop, I always feel as if it is my intellectual equal.

Then there were the geese, the most admirable creatures I’ve ever met. We raised Chinese white geese, a common breed, and they have distinctive personalities. They mate for life and adhere to family values that would shame most of those who dine on them.

While one of our geese was sitting on her eggs, her gander would go out foraging for food — and if he found some delicacy, he would rush back to give it to his mate. Sometimes I would offer males a dish of corn to fatten them up — but it was impossible, for they would take it all home to their true loves.

Once a month or so, we would slaughter the geese. When I was 10 years old, my job was to lock the geese in the barn and then rush and grab one. Then I would take it out and hold it by its wings on the chopping block while my Dad or someone else swung the ax.

The 150 geese knew that something dreadful was happening and would cower in a far corner of the barn, and run away in terror as I approached. Then I would grab one and carry it away as it screeched and struggled in my arms.

Very often, one goose would bravely step away from the panicked flock and walk tremulously toward me. It would be the mate of the one I had caught, male or female, and it would step right up to me, protesting pitifully. It would be frightened out of its wits, but still determined to stand with and comfort its lover.

We eventually grew so impressed with our geese — they had virtually become family friends — that we gave the remaining ones to a local park. (Unfortunately, some entrepreneurial thief took advantage of their friendliness by kidnapping them all — just before the next Thanksgiving.)

So, yes, I eat meat (even, hesitantly, goose). But I draw the line at animals being raised in cruel conditions. The law punishes teenage boys who tie up and abuse a stray cat. So why allow industrialists to run factory farms that keep pigs almost all their lives in tiny pens that are barely bigger than they are?(Read the rest on lineClick here: Op-Ed Columnist - A Farm Boy Reflects on Animal Rights - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com)

From Judy in Mamaroneck:
August 1, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Can This Planet Be Saved?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Recently the Web site The Politico asked Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, why she was blocking attempts to tack offshore drilling amendments onto appropriations bills. “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she replied.

I’m glad to hear it. But I’m still worried about the planet’s prospects.

True, Ms. Pelosi’s remark was a happy reminder that environmental policy is no longer in the hands of crazy people. Remember, less than two years ago Senator James Inhofe — a conspiracy theorist who insists that global warming is a “gigantic hoax” perpetrated by the scientific community — was the chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee.

Beyond that, Ms. Pelosi’s response shows that she understands the deeper issues behind the current energy debate.

Most criticism of John McCain’s decision to follow the Bush administration’s lead and embrace offshore drilling as the answer to high gas prices has focused on the accusation that it’s junk economics — which it is.

A McCain campaign ad says that gas prices are high right now because “some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America.” That’s just plain dishonest: the U.S. government’s own Energy Information Administration says that removing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn’t lead to any additional domestic oil production until 2017, and that even at its peak the extra production would have an “insignificant” impact on oil prices.

What’s even more important than Mr. McCain’s bad economics, however, is what his reversal on this issue — he was against offshore drilling before he was for it — says about his priorities.

Back when he was cultivating a maverick image, Mr. McCain portrayed himself as more environmentally aware than the rest of his party. He even co-sponsored a bill calling for a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions (although his remarks on several recent occasions suggest that he doesn’t understand his own proposal). But the lure of a bit of political gain, it turns out, was all it took to transform him back into a standard drill-and-burn Republican.

And the planet can’t afford that kind of cynicism.

In themselves, limits on offshore drilling are only a modest-sized issue. But the skirmish over drilling is the opening stage of a much bigger fight over environmental policy. What’s at stake in that fight, above all, is the question of whether we’ll take action against climate change before it’s utterly too late.

It’s true that scientists don’t know exactly how much world temperatures will rise if we persist with business as usual. But that uncertainty is actually what makes action so urgent. While there’s a chance that we’ll act against global warming only to find that the danger was overstated, there’s also a chance that we’ll fail to act only to find that the results of inaction were catastrophic. Which risk would you rather run?...(Read rest on line,Click here: Op-Ed Columnist - Can This Planet Be Saved? - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com )

#2 From Judy:

July 31, 2008
McCain Tries to Define Obama as Out of Touch
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON — After spending much of the summer searching for an effective line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain is beginning a newly aggressive campaign to define Mr. Obama as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency.

On Wednesday alone, the McCain campaign released a new advertisement suggesting — and not in a good way — that Mr. Obama was a celebrity along the lines of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Republicans tried to portray Mr. Obama as a candidate who believed the race was all about him, relying on what Democrats said was a completely inaccurate quotation.

The Republican National Committee began an anti-Obama Web site called “Audacity Watch,” a play on the title of Mr. Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.” And, in a concerted volley of television interviews, news releases and e-mail, campaign representatives attacked him on a wide range of issues, including tax policies and energy proposals.

The moves are the McCain campaign’s most full-throttled effort to define Mr. Obama negatively, on its own terms, by creating a narrative intended to turn the public off to an opponent.

Although Mr. Obama has been under an intense public spotlight for the last year, he is still relatively new on the national scene, and polls indicate that for all the enthusiasm he has generated among his supporters, many voters still have questions about him, providing Republicans an opening to shape his image in critical groups like white working-class voters between now and Election Day.

Mr. McCain’s campaign is now under the leadership of members of President Bush’s re-election campaign, including Steve Schmidt, the czar of the Bush war room that relentlessly painted his opponent, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, as effete, elite, and equivocal through a daily blitz of sound bites and Web videos that were carefully coordinated with Mr. Bush’s television advertisements.

The run of attacks against Mr. Obama over the last couple of weeks have been strikingly reminiscent of that drive, including the Bush team’s tactics of seeking to make campaigns referendums on its opponents — not a choice between two candidates — and attacking the opponent’s perceived strengths head-on. Central to the latest McCain drive is an attempt to use against Mr. Obama the huge crowds and excitement he has drawn, including on his foreign trip last week, by promoting a view of him as more interested in attention and adulation than in solving the problems facing American families...(Read rest on line:Click here: McCain Tries to Define Obama as Out of Touch - NYTimes.com )

From Charlie in Larchmont:
This looks like the thing for you...

http://www.prankplace.com/obamakey.htm?KBID=3644&sub=july29

From Gwynneth in White Plains:
Fw: humor: political
>Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:27:16 -0500
>
>
>One sunny day in 2009, an old man approached the White House from
>>>>across Pennsylvania Avenue , where he'd been sitting on a park bench.
>>>>
>>>> He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, "I would like
>>>>to go in and meet with President Bush."
>>>>
>>>> The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer
>>>>president and no longer resides here."
>>>>
>>>> The old man said, "Okay" and walked away.
>>>>
>>>> The following day, the same man approached the White House and
>>>>said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with
>>>>President Bush."
>>>>
>>>> The Marine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush
>>>>is no longer president and no longer resides here."
>>>>
>>>> The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.
>>>>
>>>> The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke
>>>>to the very same U. S. Marine, saying "I would like to go in and meet
>>>>with President Bush."
>>>>
>>>> The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the
>>>>man and said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been
>>>>here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr.
>>>>Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't
>>>>you understand?"
>>>>
>>>> The old man looked at the Marine and said, "Oh, I understand. I
>>>>just love hearing it."
>>>>
>>>> The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you
>>>>tomorrow."
>>>>
>>>>