The Boy Who Cried Wolf and other Bedtime stories

Once upon a time…

How many times did your parents read the Boy who Cried Wolf to you?  Perhaps you read it in grade school when you were learning about myths and fables.  I think almost all societies have a children’s tale about a child that cries out about something foul just to get attention only later to not be taking seriously when the foul actually happens because he’s just said it too many times to be believable.

Has the Obama campaign overplayed the race card yet? Has he yelled race-baiter one too many times? What will this mean, not only to Obama and his aspirations, but how will this impact black people who have legitimate experiences with racism but now face a cynical nation that’s been played one too many times?

Those of us that watched the Hillary/Obama primary unfold were horrified the day the race card was played on Bill Clinton.  He was talking about Obama’s ever evolving positions on the Iraq War, he labelled them a fairy tale, and bam!  There it was,  the race card.   President Clinton was charged with calling Obama’s life story a fairy tale– a story line clearly out of context and fabricated.  Like many fabrications, enough repetitions and they become legend.  Over and over we saw this pattern, some off the cuff remark by Geraldine Ferraro about Obama’s qualifications and resume and there it was again, the race card.

Each time we’d see the Obama campaign run to the press, demand justice, create a stir, then the, candidate would come out in a few days and say, well, I think this was a big misunderstanding.  Folks, how many times will this candidate cry wolf?

This time we see it at play against McCain.  When McCain uses images of Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton to imply that Obama is a media phenomenon, some one in the Obama campaign implies that it’s just one of those ads showing black men wanting young white women.  Scary black men!!!  Young white women!!! There it is again, that race card.

Then, in three separate speeches in Missouri, Obama tells his audience that McCain will try to frighten them because Obama doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency or his name is a little funny.  There it is again, the race card.

First off, EVERY one knows that Ulysses is a household name.  Didn’t you go to school with tons of boys named Ulysses?  I know my daughters bring home guys with powdered white wigs like Washington’s all the time.

Second off, some one should tell Obama that he’s about as scary-looking as Steve Urkel.

Finally, there are some real racial injustices in the world and I’m afraid they are going to get lost because of all this.  When folks starting talking about racism, I’m beginning to think that no one is going to listen any more.  If Obama keeps playing the race card every time he faces criticism, I swear, this is going to prevent any true dialogue about racism.

I had thought that this tactic would go away after Obama had solidified African American votes during the primary.  After all, it was a tactic that pulled the southern states out of the Clinton column.  However, what is the strategy now?  Portray McCain as a racist for the benefit of white liberals?  Most of the latte liberals are in his column any way, what particular good does that do?   How does this benefit any one at this point?

I teach seminars in economics.  Part of what I do is to try to get my students to think critically about promises candidates make on the economy and what is and isn’t possible.  I teach in New Orleans.  I have many black students.  I’m now completely self-conscious about discussing anything on the candidate’s economy policies now because I feel that any criticism of Obama’s positions or his judgment are going to be taken wrong.  Believe me, if you sit in my class, I run EVERY politician up the flag pole. I’m an equal opportunity critic. This is the first time in over 20 years of teaching I feel constrained.  I can’t discuss even the issues because any criticism surrounding Obama might be labeled racist and create a wall between me and the students I’m trying to serve. I feel like I’ve lost a tool from my tool box. This is impacting my ability to relate to people.

So, what do you think?  How many times can Obama play the race card and his campaign label folks as race-baiters before it is no longer taken seriously? Am I the only one that worries about race relations because of this campaign tactic?

Update:  This is so cute, I had to add it.

Is this the Ludacris Obama thought he knew?

Just when you think Obama can’t possibly have any more friends out there that could anger “typical white women” we get this inspirational gem from rapper Ludacris.

Oh, this is really going to go over well with the PUMA movement:  Hillary= Bitch per Ludacris

And the Civil Rights movement:  Jesse Jackson = Slick per Ludacris

And any one unnerved by violent imagery:  McCain= only chair fit to be sitting in is one involving a paralyzed John McCain per Ludacris

And any one that’s an advocate for the mentally handicapped individuals: Bush = mentally handicapped per Ludacris

Through out the song, Ludacris talks about folks that are haters.  I guess it takes one to know one.  Also, what fairy tale land does Ludacris live in when he talks about Obama winning majorities in every state?  Obama has never crossed even the 50% line nationally and if you believe some of the latest polls, he’s behind John McCain now among likely voters.

And the under the bus moment:  (i.e. This is not the Ludacris I thought I knew)

“As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to. This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics.”

This is not the first time we’ve heard these words seeking distance from members of Obama’s celebrity stable.  Remember Bernie Mac?

“We can’t afford to be divided by race. We can’t afford to be divided by region or by class and we can’t afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you’ve got to clean up your act next time,” Obama said. “This is a family affair. By the way, I’m just messing with you, man.”

The incident drew response from Obama’s campaign, which criticized Mac for his choice of material.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080712/ap_on_el_pr/obama_bernie_mac

Why is it that the entourage surrounding Obama can get away with so much hate-filled language and the blow-back for negative campaigning hits Obama’s adversaries in the face?  This is getting to be way too much of a pattern. You are what you surround yourself with. You are known by the company you keep, even if you try, much later, to say they aren’t the person that you thought you knew.  If that’s the case–for ALL these folks–this man is WAY too dumb to be president.

Has any campaign that you know of had to spend SO much time disavowing its candidates supporters, friends, advisors, aids, and pundits?

We have NOT come a long way, baby

I’m the stereotypical PUMA.  I came of age in the 70s and joined the UWAG (University Women’s Action Group) while at the University of Nebraska working on the first of several degrees.  I remember fighting hard to get tougher rape laws in place including getting officers assigned to rape cases out of the Property Crimes Department and lobbying for laws that would let raped wives charge their husbands with rape.  This was not possible at that time.  We’ve made considerable progress on that front.  We now don’t need two to three people to witness rapes in order to get rapists prosecuted.  We also can charge our husbands with rape.  Violet crimes against women are no longer consider property crimes.

I also worked hard for the ERA.  That failed to pass although I travelled to both Missouri and Oklahoma to try to get the last few states to pass it.  I also was trying to fight Nebraska’s attempt to take back it’s pro-ERA vote sponsored by my local state senator who was also a neighbor and father to two of the least popular guys in my high school.  I always thought he’d sponsor the bill because neither of his sons had much luck getting dates back in the day.  He was mad that women could actually support themselves and therefor not have to marry the first thing that comes along to survive their adult lives.

I’m now an economist, and perhaps Equal Pay for Equal Work is the subject that is nearest and dearest too me.  We have another chance to right this problem.  What amazes me is that the current pay gap faced by my young daughters today –one being 25 and in her last year of med school and the other 18 and heading to university–is the same pay gap I faced at their age. This is one legacy I’d rather not leave to them. Women still earn 77 cents to men’s $1 for the same job with the same qualifications.  There is not one state in the country where women have gained traction on men’s pay.  There is an act now in Congress seeking to right this wrong once in for all,  it is called the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would “close loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay” and strengthen accountability in the workplace. The legislation increases penalties for sex discrimination in pay unless the company has a business-related reason for the inequality in wages. The PFA puts gender discrimination sanctions on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination ­ such as those based on race, disability, or age, allowing women to file lawsuits for compensatory and punitive damages. The bill also prohibits employers retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers. The legislation also strengthens opportunities for women. The Act requires that the Department of Labor “improve outreach and training efforts to work with employers in order to eliminate pay disparities” and “creates a new grant program to help strengthen the negotiation skills of girls and women.”

Source: From the Progress Reporthttp://pr.thinkprogress.org/

So think about which Senators would be most likely fighting for gender equality that would be the sponsors of the bill?   Yup, it’s our Hillary again. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) put this bill into play

The Institute of Women’s Policy Research found that this wage disparity will cost women anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million over a lifetime in lost wages. An April Senate report found that in contrast to previous slowdowns, the current economic downturn “is hitting women harder than men. They are suffering more job losses and larger reductions in wages than the general population.” 

I, like any parent, want to leave my children in a better position in life.  Just by having daughters instead of sons, I know they will suffer the same paycheck inequality that I have endured throughout my adult life.  This is yet another reason to thank Hillary and to write your Senators and Congress to support this Bill.

The senators that are sponsoring this bill:

The Paycheck Fairness Act is co-sponsored by Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Harry Reid (D-NV), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Bernard Sanders (I-VT).

Also, NOTICE who’s name is missing?  

For more information please go to Senator Clintons site:

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=272301&&

Today is the Internet Censorship Day of Protest!

 

This website supports Amnesty International’s Uncensor China Campaign

The source of this information and of this protest is Amnesty International.  If you lived in China you would not be able access even the most basic information about Human Rights, Freedom, the Falun Gong, AIDS, SARS nor would you be allowed FaceBook, MYSpace, CNN or Wikipedia.

http://uncensor.com.au/uncensor/info/about_the_uncensor_china_campaign/

There are people in China who need your support. In their country saying what you think, confronting authority, standing up for basic rights or just sharing information can leave you imprisoned, tortured or dead.

In its bid for the 2008 Olympics China promised that it would make life better for its 1.3 billion citizens.

Liu Jingmin, Vice-President of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee, even said: “By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help in the development of human rights.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also repeatedly said it expects human rights in China to get better, as a result of Beijing’s selection as host of the 2008 Games.

Time to deliver

China has yet to deliver on its words and the Olympics are fast approaching. We are demanding the Government live up to that promise and make China a free, fair and open place to live.

We need your help to do it. A lone voice is not enough, but hundreds, thousands, and hopefully millions of people speaking up together can bring change.

Campaigning for change

We are mobilising people from all over the world – from Mongolia to Denmark, from Chile to Australia – and calling on China to change.

Our campaign focuses on four areas, where we believe reform will have the most impact:

• Unwarranted Internet and media censorship
• The death penalty
• Repression of human rights defenders
• Torture and detention without trial

China’s legacy

Right now, our supporters are organising demonstrations and vigils, lobbying, writing letters to governments and radio stations, building alliances, exerting influence on companies and intergovernmental groups, and raising public awareness.

The aim of every word and action is to bring about change in China. We need your help.

We want the legacy of the 2008 Olympics to be more than medals and records. We want the legacy to be a China where human rights are respected and protected.

Shopping for Superdelegates

 

My friend Geeklove08 was approached by Dr. Lynette Long and Real Democrats USA to help expose the pay off of superdelegates by Obama’s Political Action Committee, the Hope Fund. 

Other examples of Geeklove’s great work can be found here:

–
GeekLove at
http://comealongway.wordpress.com

My suggestion is that you write the superdelegates in your state and tell them you know their price tag.  I’d also suggest you write your local newspaper and let them know their price tag also.

Worst of the One Hit Wonders

Remember those days of AM radio when every radio station played the same songs endlessly?  Some of them were really good, but by the time you heard them for the umpteenth time, you felt like screaming and throwing your little radio in that pool.

There are now two folks on that one hit wonder list for me that make me want to toss my TV through the window.  The first has been Dubya for some time now.  His “lessons of 9-11″ song in its various riffs makes me twitch and throw nerf balls at the TV.  Every time Dubya is on the tv set now with his snarky little “heh, heh, heh” and his ability to mangle even the easiest of adjectives, I grab the remote.  To me, he’s like an endless loop of “Billy, Don’t be a Hero”.  That was one of those songs that used to torture my young eardrums to the point I felt they were bleeding.  I hated this song the first time I heard it.  Yet, it became a one hit wonder and I know there were some folks out there that bought enough to make it a hit.

Some where about a month ago, Obama joined my list of one hit wonders on overkill.  This time it’s one of those songs you think you like the first time you hear it, but after the radio stations play it the umpteenth time, you start thinking you’ll choose ritual suicide over one more listen.  Then there’s the attempted follow-up to the song, or the rip off of that song where ever one has the same words and the same basic theme so you think you’ll never turn on the radio again because it’s spawned those evil spin-offs.  It’s like a horror movie!  They’ve invaded your radio and they’re every where!  Well, it used to be just AM radio, and there’s no place else to turn.  Now, thankfully we have alternatives.

I have to admit it, the media has overexposed Obama to the point, I have to turn the TV off now when they do a story on him.  For CNN, it seems like Obama is on an endless loop and he’s always singing that same damn song.  It’s the one that sounds like it should be meaningful, but after about a 1000 repeats, you begin to realize that some studio hack took the latest cool words and threw them together with a very simple melody they call  a ‘killer’ hook.  It’s that same killer hook that becomes endless torture after awhile because it’s so repetitive that you can’t get it out of your ears, even when you’re begging the Greater Ethos to wipe your memory clean.

The thing about these one hit wonders is that even if they don’t have substance or style, like a good Gerswhin tune or a great Rolling Stones Riff, they sell to some one.  Just for a period of time, the public is all tripped out over them and the radio is more than happy to oblige if it ups their numbers.  Pretty soon, those folks have gone over to the next one hit wonder, and the rest of us get twitchy when the stupid song shows up on an oldies station.  Unfortunately, unlike music with a lot of alternatives, there’s very few alternatives to the few remaining newspapers and the news channels.  If you don’t search out the alternatives on the internet, you’re stuck with that damned endless loop.

So I was going to torture you with some of the worst of the touchy feely sixties one hit wonders that sound a lot like Obama’s speeches but I just couldn’t do it to you or me, for that matter.  I really associate Obama more with the Archies “Sugar, Sugar”, but I couldn’t bring myself to post it.   So, I’ll leave you with one of the songs that got ripped off a lot because it’s got that 60s touchy changey hopey feel and a killer hook that every one used to sing over and over and over and over and over and over and over ….

Plus, I can still take listening to it a few times without screaming.

Human Rights Violators should NOT be rewarded with Money or Prestige!

This picture was sent to me earlier this year by a friend that is a Buddhist monk.  We are both of the faith typically called “Tibetan”  Buddhism.  As such, we’re pretty much automatically labelled enemies of the Chinese People.  I wanted to share this picture with you because of several things going on right now concerning His Holiness the Dali Lama, the candidates for President, and the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

This picture demonstrates the real force being the so-called rioting monks and the violence last April in Tibet.  It was posed so China could justify the disappearance of over 10,000 Buddhist monks and nuns. You are seeing this correctly.  It is a group of Chinese soldiers holding monk garb.  This was taken by a friend of ours right after some of the riots. I think you can figure out the rest for yourself.

I decided to re-open this issue  since I was also speaking to my Lama today. A lama is a spiritual teacher along the lines of a Rabbi in Judaism.  His wife, Ang Dawa,  is an activist for the Sherpa peoples.  They both are from Nepal but were born in a section where the line between Nepal and China is more relevant to countries than native peoples.  The Sherpas are indigenous people living in the Himalaya Mountains and you all probably know them best for their incredible mountaineering skills.  Ang Dawa has just been elected to the new Nepali parliament and has been an activist/journalist for the UN for many years for Human and Women’s Rights.  She just wrote an article in the local newspaper stating that there are basic human rights and they include being able to practice religion as you see fit, including becoming monks and nuns. It was a very generic article on human rights and mentioned no countries by name.  However, there are over 10,000 tibetan buddhist monks and nun–many of which are Sherpa–unaccounted for after the april/may so-called uprisings. This includes some of the senior most and most respected rinpoches.  They have simply disappeared.

While I am not surprised the President George W. Bush has decided to attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, I had held out some hope.  This week there have been several headlines out there concerning both the Olympics and the struggles of the Tibetan people to maintain their cultural identity and practice their religion. There have also been some activities on the parts of presidential candidates.  I argue, both activities are essential windows into their approaches to Human Rights.

The first was this picture of John McCain and his Holiness the Dali Lama.  The New York Times in its story stated this:

“But other Republicans — the so-called foreign policy pragmatists, many of whom have come to view the Iraq war as a mistake — say the administration’s policy shifts highlight the more confrontational nature of Mr. McCain’s foreign policy, particularly in his approach toward Russia and his embrace on Friday of the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese regard as the fomenter of a rebellion in Tibet. They say the meeting will only antagonize China before the Summer Olympics, and at a moment when the United States is seeking its cooperation on economic issues and negotiations with North Korea.”

source:   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26policy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

At the same time, we see this move from the Obama Campaign.

As reported by Advertising Age, it appears that the Obama campaign is going to be a major TV sponsor of the Beijing Olympics.

“It’s official. Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal’s Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads. According to NBC’s political file, the campaign had initially requested information about 500,000, $2 million and $4 million package of Olympics spots. The network also offered the candidate a $10 million package.”

So, let me ask you a question.  Aren’t the progressives supposed to be the ones concerned with Human Rights and standing up for them regardless of the economic consequences?  Is it way too cynical of me to see this move by the Obama campaign as finding a way to profit and gain votes from an event that highlights a country that mistreats its peoples?  This is Communist China folks!  Monks and Nuns disappear there.  Google and MIcrosoft have had to build limits into their software to suppress free speech in this country.

Oh, btw, after the Chinese government protested the publication of Ang Dawa’s statement of basic human rights, there were threats issued to the publisher of that paper in Nepal.  The paper has been been barred from further publication.

Is this the type of thing the Obama campaign should be sponsoring with campaign dollars?

In Other News … There’s an Environmental Disaster in My Back Yard

While the East Coast-centric press is following the very junior senator’s campaign to look presidential and world leaderly, there’s a major oil spill in my back yard.  I live about three blocks from the Mississippi river in New Orleans and for the last three days, my home and my neighborhood have smelled like diesel.  My nose is burning and I have a headache.   About 9,000 barrels or 400,000 gallons of nasty, unrefined, sludgy oil spilled in the river that is the life blood of America’s trade–we’re loosing about $275 million in trade every day that it’s closed.  That’s not a good thing for an economy teetering on recession.

There are a variety of issues going on with this huge spill and the coverage by the national media has been pathetic.  The West Bank area of New Orleans along with two downriver parishes are in a state of water emergency.  Their water purification facilities have had to close access to the water coming from the Mississippi and they’re about to run out of potable water.  These two parishes were some of the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and the small towns scattered around the parishes are still experiencing problems even three years after the devastating storm.  Just when these folks thought they were winding down their stormy relationship with FEMA, they’re now depending on the agency again.  This time for drinking water and the oil washing up on their levees and coastlines.

Here we go again.

http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/7861

There was an article in today’s NY Times on the devastating spill.  We have yet to see the full environmental impact, but I think it’s safe to say, if you like to give baths to birds and swamp critters, we’re going to need you down here shortly as this putrid puddle is making its way down river to the environmentally sensitive wetlands and swamps.  These same areas protect New Orleans from any hurricanes this year.  The swamp grasses slow down hurricanes as they move on shore.

July 25, 2008

Oil Spill on Nearly 100 Miles of Mississippi River By ADAM NOSSITER

NEW ORLEANS — A sheen of oil coated the Mississippi River for nearly 100 miles from the center of this city to the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday following the worst oil spill here in nearly a decade. The fuel-laden barge that collided with a heavy tanker on Wednesday was still leaking.

The thick industrial fuel pouring from the barge could be smelled for miles in city neighborhoods up and down the river, even as hundreds of cleanup workers struggled to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons. Some environmentalists worried about reports of fish and bird kills in sensitive marsh areas downstream, though officials said they had so far heard of only a handful of oil-covered birds. Booms to protect areas richest in wildlife, at the river’s mouth, were being deployed, officials said.

The Mississippi remained closed to all boat traffic, stranding about 65 vessels. The effect on the area’s economy was thought to be significant, with this city’s port estimating a loss of at least $100,000 a day and probably more as the river remained closed, and petrochemical facilities dependent on it for shipping were threatened with a bottleneck, the Coast Guard said. Some suburbs stopped drawing drinking water from the river.

“We’ve had a number of large spills in the New Orleans area, but this is a heavy, nasty product, problematic in the cleanup,” said Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau of the Coast Guard, adding that it is of the sort normally used to fire up boilers at power plants.

“It’s a significant spill, if for nothing else because of its impact on the water supply,” Commander Ben-Iesau said. “We’ve got a lot of commerce dependent on this water supply, so we’re scrambling to get it cleaned up.”

On Thursday afternoon, the picturesque walk along the Mississippi at the French Quarter, normally full of tourists and pedestrians, was nearly deserted as a pungent chemical stench wafted up from the oil- covered water. A few skimmer boats, deployed to suck up the oil, constituted the only traffic on the nearly half-mile-wide river; a plastic boom to contain the fuel hugged the rocky shoreline, and the seagulls had disappeared.

“It’s going to take a good couple of weeks to get it all off,” said Petty Officer Jesse Kavanaugh of the Coast Guard, surveying the oily muck. Officials were unable to predict how long the river might remain closed, however. “We’re hoping days, not weeks,” Commander Ben- Iesau said.

The 61-foot barge that has been leaking heavy fuel oil for nearly two days could be seen underneath the mammoth Crescent City Connection bridge. It was carrying 419,000 gallons of the heavy fuel it had just picked up from an oil distributor when it collided with a 600-foot tanker ship around 1:30 a.m., just off this city’s Uptown neighborhoods. The tanker did not leak.

Coast Guard officials said the tugboat operator pushing the barge, from the local DRD Towing Company, was improperly licensed, possessing only the equivalent of an apprentice certificate. They said the incident was being closely investigated, though no blame had yet been assigned.

Oil continued to leak from the barge Thursday afternoon, and the Coast Guard was deploying a diver to check the flow.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin told residents of the city’s neighborhoods on the east bank of the Mississippi that they could safely drink the tap water, though he was more cautious about water in the one neighborhood on the west bank, Algiers. Meanwhile, water intake facilities in the neighboring parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines remained closed. There were no respiratory risks, officials said, despite the sometimes heavy odor.

As the oil slick moved downstream, officials remained concerned about the impact on the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, at the mouth of the Mississippi, and they were scrambling to place booms around it. Tens of thousands of feet of the plastic booms had already been put in place Thursday. If the oil flows through the main pass, or outlet, and on into the Gulf of Mexico, the effect will be limited; but if it seeps into the secondary passes, there is a more serious risk to the environment, they said.

“I’m very concerned, but I don’t think it’s a calamity of the proportions of Exxon Valdez,” said Robert A. Thomas, director of the Center for Environmental Communication at Loyola University. “Here, you’re talking about an enormous amount of oil, but it’s in a river that averages about 450,000 thousand cubic feet per second of flow,”  he said.

“It’s going to flush this stuff out,” Mr. Thomas said.

Officials were generally guarded about the possible effects on fish, plants and wildlife in these rivers of grass and marshlands, but some in the state’s environmental community were not.

“When it goes down to the area where there are no longer levees, it gets into the swamp,” said Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. “It’s going to contaminate the marsh.”

Ms. Subra said she had heard reports of dead fish and birds, and of people vomiting, but officials and the local Sierra Club could not confirm these reports.

source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/us/25spill.html

Is it just me or is this a HUGE story that deserves front page coverage?  Shouldn’t it be the lead story in TV News?  We’re not talking chump change or small problem here.

Next up in Germany: Obamapalooza

Yesterday, a Rasmussen Poll demonstrated that the majority of American’s are not buying the Obama Magical Mystery Tour.

“While Barack Obama has touted his travel to the Middle East and Europe this week as a “fact-finding” trip, 63% of Americans do not believe it makes the Democratic candidate any more qualified to be president.”

source:  http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/63_say_trip_does_not_make_obama_more_fit_to_be_president

I’ve been looking around in the foreign press for coverage of Obamapalooza.

This is from Germany’s Der Speigal

Initially Obama wanted to hold his speech at the Brandenburg Gate, but the proposal drew widespread criticism in Germany. Given its charged history, Chancellor Merkel said, through a spokesperson, she thought the choice had been “odd.” And even today, criticism continues about the hubris of holding a speech on such a grand scale when he hasn’t even been elected president yet.

“If a person who hasn’t even been nominated as the official candidate is allowed to hold an address like an elected president, then one has to ask the question: What’s going to happen if a truly elected president (like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands the same?” Peter Ramsauer, the head of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union party, told the Schwäbische Zeitung newspaper. “Are we allowing Germany’s great sights to become stages for the American election?” He said he would have expected “better instincts on the part of Obama’s campaign managers.

Source:  http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,567804,00.html

There is also some discussion about Obama’s assertion that the European Allies are not doing enough in Afghanistan and the War Against Terror.  There’s some pretty good indications that while Germans like Obama, Merkel and the government of Germany aren’t that impressed.

A similar message appeared yesterday in An Open Letter To Barack Obama from the Israel National News.

Source:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/8126

Barack Hussein, why don’t you just go home? Your visit to Israel this week is not because you’re looking out for the wellbeing of Israel and the Jewish people. You’re coming to Israel looking for the Jewish vote; your goal is to
speak with the Jewish American voters through the press coverage of this tour to the holy land. You want them to think that you took the time off from your busy campaign to further peace in the Middle East. Your hope is that enough stupid Jews will misread the message and take it as an act of support for Israel.

Don’t use us or our land as a photo-op to transmit a twisted call for support to Jewish-American voters. You don’t fool us. We know who you and your friends are.

This is from the UK publication the Economist:

Source: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750395

Foreigners would be wise to temper their Obamamania, if only to limit future disappointment

There are reasons for them to be more cautious. Marvellous orator and skilled electoral tactician though he may be, Mr Obama has not repealed the basic laws of politics. Most obviously, he may not win. Rasmussen, a pollster, rattled the Obama machine this week by showing the two candidates tied, and most other analysts agree that the bounce he enjoyed after seeing off Hillary Clinton has been small and short-lived. Mr Obama still definitely has the edge, but opinion at home diverges sharply from that in most of the rest of the world

Second, President Obama would not be answerable to the world that so adores him. A president is elected by America’s more ambivalent people, and is accountable only to them. And his powers are mightily constrained by Congress, which is even more immediately accountable to its electorate.

Finally, there are some disquieting signs of a tendency on Mr Obama’s part to tailor his message to whichever audience he is talking to. All politicians do this of course. But Mr Obama’s two-steps have become Astaire-like. For instance, in his primary battle with Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama laid out a timetable for a virtually complete withdrawal from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, specifying a rate of one to two brigades a month. Since starting to campaign in the general election, he has fudged this clear line: he committed to withdrawal again this week (see article), but he has also been careful to give himself wriggle-room on its pace. Similarly, he once talked of negotiating with the Iranian leadership without preconditions: now he talks of the need for “preparations”.

Both these alterations make sense, but many Europeans won’t like them. Other bits of pandering could be more costly.

It seems many Brits don’t trust the junior Senator and his ability to change message based on the target audience.

More telling is that other polls show that Obama is not getting a bounce from this trip AND he still has a huge portion of the democratic party that has yet to join his cause.   So far, the only fawning over Obama by a foreign leader has been that of the Jordanian Monarch.  Other leaders remain cautious and rightly so.  Most do not like being used as political props by the Obama propaganda Machine.

Something that has not come out in the U.S. media is this Saudi Cartoon showing both Obama and McCain in the pocket of Israel.   The ADL has condemned this as anti-Semitic and rightly so.  It seems there is some skepticism in all parts of the world.

Source:  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1005113.html

This cartoon was published in the Saudi newspapers Al-Watan and Arabnews last month.

Yes We DID!!!

Lookat this!!!  This is Hillary’s financing report!  Notice the Cash on Hand and the Debt!  You know what that means, don’t you!!!!!   Also, notice the best part … that would be the 89% coming from individual donors.

After raising $229.4 million through the end of May, Clinton lost the delegate race to Barack Obama and ended her bid after the final Democratic primary contests in early June. She started 2007 as the candidate to beat in the money race, but Obama surpassed her early in 2008. Clinton left the race with $22.5 million in debt, at least $11.4 million of which came from her own pocket.

 

Cash on Hand: $26,046,667

Debts: $25,201,723

Date of last report: Jul 29 2008 12:00AM

Source of Funds

	Individual contributions	$207,054,929	89%
	PAC contributions	$1,276,379	1%
	Candidate self-financing	$13,175,000	6%
	Federal Funds	$0	0%
	Other	$11,501,357	5%

How complete are this candidate’s campaign finance reports?

	Full Disclosure	$128,922,913	(90.3%)
	Incomplete	$0
	No Disclosure	$13,875,901	(9.7%)

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2008 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on Monday, June 30, 2008. 

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