Source: Bloomberg
Author: Caroline Alexander
A year ago, Palestinian medical student Wessam al-Ghoul in the U.K. thought Barack Obama would break new ground in bringing Middle East peace. Today, he says the Democratic presidential candidate is merely “the lesser of two evils.”
Al-Ghoul changed his mind after Obama toughened his rhetoric against Iran and said on June 4 that ``Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.'' Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital.
``He has become virtually indistinguishable from any U.S. politician running for office,'' said al-Ghoul, 24. He added that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, 71, is worse only because he would continue the foreign policies of President George W. Bush, whose war in Iraq, now in its sixth year, has made him unpopular in the Arab world. Read More »
Source: The National
Author: Sharmila Devi
“The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out. What better way to start than at the highest level " through the president of the United States, one of their own.”
So reads an email widely distributed in the US from unknown senders as part of a smear campaign, satirised with mixed results by The New Yorker magazine last week, against Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee.
The liberal weekly might have been making a joke when it pictured Mr Obama as a Muslim terrorist, his wife, Michelle, as an armed radical, and the US flag burning in the fireplace in the Oval Office. But some Americans actually appear to believe it, according to opinion polls. Read More »
Source: Huffington Post
Author: Nico Pitney
South Carolina State Senator Kevin Bryant has removed a classy photo from his website showing Osama Bin Laden next to Barack Obama with text claiming the difference between them is "just a little B.S."
Update: Interview with Bryant added below.
The photo was highlighted by Wonkette and The Hill, among other sites, and when I tried to access the blog post in question at 3PM ET, it had been removed from Bryant's website. Read More »
By Sarah Cohen and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post blog
Posted at 6:50 PM ET on Jul 21, 2008
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/21/hillary_donors_give_obama_18_m.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/6mv375
Sen. Barack Obama has posted his first campaign report since the end of the contentious Democratic primary battle, and political reporters and bloggers are already trying to ferret out whether donors to Sen. Hillary Clinton have been helping her formal rival, now the party's presumptive nominee.
The Post has now conducted its own analysis of how Clinton supporters directed their money in June. More than 2,200 Clinton donors became first-time Obama donors, giving him $1.8 million of the $52 million he raised last month. Of those, 355 contributed at least $2,000, for a total of $1 million.
Source: Huntington Beach Independent
Author: Michèle Marr
For nearly two years detractors have accused Barack Obama of being a Muslim. Ultra-conservative commentators have referred to him as B. Hussein Obama and deliberately likened his surname to bin Laden’s first name Osama.
He has defended himself while also condemning the prejudice toward Muslims these acts reflect. As a presidential candidate he has stumped relentlessly on unity, equality and justice.
So to hear of him snubbing two Muslim women at a Detroit political rally in June rang dissonant. In case you missed the incident, I’ll explain. Read More »
On a conference call with journalists arranged by the Republican Party of Florida, Bud Day reportedly said: “The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us... I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.”
SEE: McCain Surrogate Makes Controversial Muslim Comment (CNN)
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/18/mccain-surrogate-makes-controversial-muslim-comment/
SEE: McCain POW Bud: Muslims 'Going to Kill Us' (Miami Herald)
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/07/mccain-pow-bud.html Read More »
WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Or maybe just changing your website to reflect the current reality (unlike some people posting here).
Iraq
Before the war in Iraq ever started, Senator Obama said that it was wrong in its conception. In 2002, then Illinois State Senator Obama said Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat to the United States and that invasion would lead to an occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. Since then, Senator Obama has laid out a plan on the way forward in Iraq that has largely been affirmed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton.
CONTINUE READING
“Here is the truth: fighting a war without end will not force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. And fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer.
So when I am Commander-in-Chief, I will set a new goal on day one: I will end this war. Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden- as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer.”
—Barack Obama, Clinton, Fayetteville, North Carolina, March 19, 2008
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/
WTF? What happened to women standing up for women? Why is okay for anybody to refer to Michelle Obama in this way? Would our reaction be as subdued if this were Hillary? I think not.
Is this what you think of when you see a Black women? If not, please stand up and speak out on sexism and racism wherever you see it!
AP: Obama tells NAACP blacks must take responsibility
By GLEN JOHNSON and DAN SEWELL, Associated Press Writers
42 minutes ago [Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:40 pm EDT]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_el_pr/obama_blacks
CINCINNATI - Democrat Barack Obama insisted Monday that blacks must show greater responsibility for their actions. In remarks prepared for delivery at the annual NAACP convention, the man who could become the first black president said Washington must provide greater education and economic assistance, but that blacks must demand more of themselves.
"If we're serious about reclaiming that dream, we have to do more in our own lives, our own families and our own communities," Obama said. "That starts with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework and setting a good example."
He added: "I know some say I've been too tough on folks about this responsibility stuff. But I'm not going to stop talking about it. Because I believe that in the end, it doesn't matter how much money we invest in our communities, or how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch — none of it will make any difference if we don't seize more responsibility in our own lives."
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complete copyrighted story at clickable link above
By Bob Moser
This article appeared in the July 21, 2008 edition of The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080721/moser
"Did I mention that it's fun to be a Democrat in Texas?" asks Matt Glazer, editor in chief of the Burnt Orange Report, the state's leading progressive blog. He has, in fact, mentioned it a couple of times over beers at Scholz Garten, a legendary liberal hangout in Austin, and always with the same glimmer of happy bemusement behind his black-frame blogger specs. I'd been seeing that look in Democrats' eyes all over Texas in early June--at their raucous, record-breaking state convention, at local Democratic shindigs, in giddily overburdened Obama HQs. "It's like everyone who toiled on that Democratic death march for years, when it was so difficult, is now seeing daylight," says Josh Berthume of the Dallas suburb Denton, editor in chief of TheTexasBlue.com and another key player in a vigorous blogosphere that has helped ignite the startling Democratic flare-up here, in the bright red heart of Tom DeLay and Karl Rove's "permanent" Republican majority.
The very notion of Texas Democrats glimpsing daylight--of America's biggest chunk of Republican real estate being shaded pink on the '08 election map--seems almost absurd, a contradiction in terms, even to those who are making it happen. Like many of the nuevo pols, bloggers and progressive activists who are constructing a state-of-the-art Democratic machine in Texas, Glazer and Berthume are too young to remember the last time skies were blue for the party that ruled Texas politics from Reconstruction clear through to Reagan/Bush. So is Burnt Orange publisher Karl-Thomas Musselman, who's 23. "The last time Democrats won my hometown"--a small outpost in the central Hill Country--"was 1964," he says. "And that was only because President Johnson brought the chancellor of Germany to Fredericksburg for a visit."
Read More »
Update for SMU Petition Signers, 7-14-08
Monday, July 14, 2008
I am Andrew J. Weaver, organizer of the petition at http://www.protectSMU.org and an ordained United Methodist clergyman and research psychologist. I am a graduate of Southern Methodist University (SMU) and live in New York City. There are over 12,500 petition signers including thousands of SMU alumni who are deeply concerned about the future of the university. I am very grateful for your faithfulness regarding this issue.
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Breaking Story About Bush Complex and Bribery
July 13, 2008
London Times
Stephen Payne: a hotshot lobbyist who can get you into White House
A lobbyist offered access to Dick Cheney and other US leaders in return for a