Yesterday, watching those poor people lining up for buses to yet again flee a hurricane, my heart broke.

With all our riches how can there still be people in America who are so obviously so impoverished and helpless?

Unfortunately, it is because our system of education is broken, failed, shameful.

How can any politician believe that property taxes from impoverished areas can pay for world class schools and world class teachers?

A factor in our broken system of education is that first, teachers are underpaid so that schools for teachers "sometimes" fail to attract the most talented people.

Second, the curricula are not teaching prospective teachers how to really teach.

I want every teacher in America to receive the same starting pay as computer programmers and engineeers.

I want better curicula for preparing teachers.

And I want 3,000,000 more, high paid, talented, dedicated teachers who are fully prepared to teach THE LOVE OF medicine, bioscience, math and engineering, starting in the first grade.

Let us all work for an America where everey child has absolutely equal and excellent education, so that in the future no American is so unprepared for life that they end up helplessly standing in line for buses to flee for their lives.

Please donate, tax deductible, to these goals at http://www.fluni.com

I cannot think of anything more consistent with the core values of our Democratic Party.

Gen. Petraeus success came from convincing the Sunnis to fight alongside us to expel Al Quaeda. We promised them a role in the government in exchange for fighting on our side. Now that we and the Sunnis have succeeded, the Iranian backed Shiite government has put a bounty on the heads of the Sunnis fighters and have sent the Shiite Iraqi Army (that we equipped and trained) out to arrest and disarm our Sunni allies. The Sunnis now view us as having betrayed them. Iran and their ally Russia correctly view us as fools for letting this disaster occur. The next world war will be Russia and Iran taking all the MidEast oil while China sits laughing in the background as the rest of the world destroys itself and us. And Nobama and McSleep are too stupid to notice this happening, let alone how to do anything about it. Iran benefitted tremendously from Jimmy Carter. Before Jimmy Carter Iran was our strongest ally. Carter turned it over to the Shiite extremists, who thanked him by seizing our Embassy and humiliating America. Now Nobama and McSleep are letting the Shiite Extremists take over Iraq, and from there, the entire MidEAst. May God help us, because both our Democratic party and the Republicans are never going to help us.

Super Rich Tax Cheats Outed by Bank Clerk --Technician in Liechtenstein Turns Over Names of Americans With Secret Bank Accounts 15 Jul 2008 Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician [Heinrich Kieber] in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme.

 US soldier who deserted over Iraq is deported 16 Jul 2008 Canada yesterday deported to the US the first American army deserter fleeing the Iraq war across the US-Canadian border. Robin Long, 25, faces a possible court martial and jail, and even redeployment to Iraq. He joined the army in 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, but became troubled by the war. In 2005 he fled to Canada and applied for refugee status, because the US army wanted him to participate in what he called an "illegal war of aggression in Iraq."

16 Jul 2008

 President [sic] Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision. But a second, overlapping 5-to-4 majority of the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, ruled that Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar now in military custody in Charleston, S.C., must be given an additional opportunity to challenge his detention in federal court there. The decision was a victory for the Bush regime, which had maintained that a 2001 Congressional authorization to use military force after the Sept. 11 attacks granted the president the power to detain people living in the United States.

US plans to station diplomats in Iran for first time since 1979 --Washington move signals thaw in relations 17 Jul 2008 The US plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years as part of a remarkable turnaround in policy by President [sic] George Bush. The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section - a halfway house to setting up a full embassy. The move will see US diplomats stationed in the country. Cases against Iraq IG, deputy, end without charges 16 Jul 2008

 The government has cleared the top U.S. watchdog of Iraq reconstruction projects and his deputy of fraud and abuse allegations lodged by former employees, officials said Wednesday. On July 3, federal prosecutors alerted the office of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen that a grand jury declined to indict him or deputy Ginger Cruz. A complaint to the presidential council filed by anonymous former staff members in 2006 focused on a number of fraud and abuse allegations, as well as descriptions of possible workplace violations, including sexual harassment. Bush won't give Congress papers in CIA leak probe 16 Jul 2008

President [sic] George W. Bush, asserting executive privilege, has rejected Congress' request for documents on FBI interviews with Bush and Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney from a probe to find who leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. The Bush administration said on Wednesday that turning over such records would violate the president's rights to counsel from his staff. Bush claims executive privilege on CIA leak

I think Obama and the Campaign Veep Committee has a Vice President contender right on the Committee. Her name is Caroline Kennedy the daugther of John F Kennedy. She is bright no baggage and would be a great Women to have on his ticket. It would to me make for a strong ticket. I am going to contact the Obama campaign and suggest they consider Caroline Kennedy for the 2nd spot on the ticket. How many Democrats on here like Caroline Kennedy and would support an Obama/Kennedy ticket?

Jun 3, 9:15 PM EDT

Obama clinches nomination; Clinton seeks VP spot

By TOM RAUM and NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writers
 

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation's first black president. A vanquished Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.

Obama's victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.

Both men promptly exchanged criticism over the war in Iraq and sought to claim the mantle of change in a country plainly tired of the status quo.

"It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery in St. Paul, Minn.

"It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs. ... And it's not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave young men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians." In a symbolic move, he spoke in the same hall where McCain will accept the Republican nomination at his party's convention in September.

McCain spoke first, in New Orleans, and he accused his younger rival of voting "to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job" in Iraq. It was a reference to 2007 legislation to pay for the Iraq war, a measure Obama opposed citing the lack of a timetable for withdrawing troops.

McCain agreed with Obama that the presidential race would focus on change. "But the choice is between the right change and the wrong change, between going forward and going backward," he added.

Obama sealed his nomination, according to The Associated Press tally, based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and delegates' public declarations as well as support from 19 delegates and "superdelegates" who privately confirmed their intentions t/o the AP. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer, and Obama had 2,129 by the AP count.

AP tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination

By DAVID ESPO and STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press Writers

AP Tally: Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, ending a grueling marathon to become the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.

Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

The tally was based on public declarations from delegates as well as from another 16 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. It also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination.

The 46-year-old first-term senator will face John McCain in the fall campaign to become the 44th president. The Arizona senator campaigned in Memphis, Tenn., during the day, and had no immediate reaction to Obama's victory.

Clinton stood ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials in her campaign. They stressed that the New York senator did not intend to suspend or end her candidacy in a speech Tuesday night in New York. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to divulge her plans.

Obama's triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy - all harnessed to his own innate gifts as a campaigner.

With her husband's two-White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready, she said, to take over on Day One.

But after a year on the campaign trail, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and the freshman senator became something of an overnight political phenomenon.

"We came together as Democrats, as Republicans and independents, to stand up and say we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come," he said that night in Des Moines.

A video produced by Will I. Am and built around Obama's "Yes, we can" rallying cry quickly went viral. It drew its one millionth hit within a few days of being posted.

As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama's were bigger still. One audience, in Dallas, famously cheered when he blew his nose on stage; a crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland, Ore., the weekend before the state's May 20 primary.

The former first lady countered Obama's Iowa victory with an upset five days later in New Hampshire that set the stage for a campaign marathon as competitive as any in the last generation.

"Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice," she told supporters who had saved her candidacy from an early demise.

In defeat, Obama's aides concluded they had committed a cardinal sin of New Hampshire politics, forsaking small, intimate events in favor of speeches to large audiences inviting them to ratify Iowa's choice.

It was not a mistake they made again - which helped explain Obama's later outings to bowling alleys, backyard basketball hoops and American Legion halls in the heartland.

Clinton conceded nothing, memorably knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey at a bar in Indiana, recalling that her grandfather had taught her to use a shotgun, and driving in a pickup to a gas station in South Bend, Ind., to emphasize her support for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

As other rivals quickly fell away in winter, the strongest black candidate in history and the strongest female White House contender traded victories on Super Tuesday, the Feb. 5 series of primaries and caucuses across 21 states and American Samoa that once seemed likely to settle the nomination.

But Clinton had a problem that Obama exploited, and he scored a coup she could not answer.

Pressed for cash, the former first lady ran noncompetitive campaigns in several Super Tuesday caucus states, allowing her rival to run up his delegate totals.

At the same time, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., endorsed the young senator in terms that summoned memories of his slain brothers while seeking to turn the page on the Clinton era.

In a reference that likened former President Clinton to Harry Truman: "There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a new frontier. He faced criticism from the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party."

Merely by surviving Super Tuesday, Obama exceeded expectations.

But he did more than survive, emerging with a lead in delegates that he never relinquished, and proceeded to run off a string of 11 straight victories.

Clinton saved her candidacy once more with primary victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, beginning a stretch in which she won primaries in six of the final nine states on the calendar, as well as in Puerto Rico.

It was a strong run, providing glimpses of what might have been for the one-time front-runner.

But by then Obama was well on his way to victory, Clinton and her allies stressed the popular vote instead of delegates. Yet he seemed to emerge from each loss with residual strength.

Obama's bigger-than-expected victory in North Carolina on May 6 offset his narrow defeat in Indiana the same day. Four days later, he overtook Clinton's lead among superdelegates, the party leaders she had hoped would award her the nomination on the basis of a strong showing in swing states.

Obama lost West Virginia by a whopping 67 percent to 26 percent on May 13. Yet he won an endorsement the following day from former presidential rival and one-time North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Clinton administered another drubbing in Kentucky a week later. This time, Obama countered with a victory in Oregon, and turned up that night in Iowa to say he had won a majority of all the delegates available in 56 primaries and caucuses on the calendar.

There were moments of anger, notably in a finger-wagging debate in South Carolina on Jan. 21.

Obama told the former first lady he was helping unemployed workers on the streets of Chicago when "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

Moments later, Clinton said that she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

And Bill Clinton was a constant presence and an occasional irritant for Obama. The former president angered several black politicians when he seemed to diminish Obama's South Carolina triumph by noting that Jesse Jackson had also won the state.

Obama's frustration showed at the Jan. 21 debate, when he accused the former president in absentia of uttering a series of distortions.

"I'm here. He's not," the former first lady snapped.

"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama countered.

There were relatively few policy differences. Clinton accused Obama of backing a health care plan that would leave millions out, and the two clashed repeatedly over trade.

Yet race, religion, region and gender became political fault lines as the two campaigned from coast to coast.

Along the way, Obama showed an ability to weather the inevitable controversies, most notably one caused by the incendiary rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

At first, Obama said he could not break with his longtime spiritual adviser. Then, when Wright spoke out anew, Obama reversed course and denounced him strongly.

Clinton struggled with self-inflicted wounds. Most prominently, she claimed to have come under sniper fire as first lady more than a decade earlier while paying a visit to Bosnia.

Instead, videotapes showed her receiving a gift of flowers from a young girl who greeted her plane.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Several sources tell CNN that House Majority Whip and superdelegate James Clyburn of South Carolina will endorse Senator Barack Obama Tuesday.

Clyburn, whose congressional district went overwhelmingly for Obama in the state's January primary, had said that he would wait to weigh in on the presidential race until the last nominating contest had been held. Earlier this spring, he had made remarks critical of Bill Clinton, calling his conduct on the trail "bizarre," and telling interviewers that some of the former president's actions had deeply upset African-Americans.

"There are African-Americans who have reached the decision that the Clintons know that [Hillary Clinton] can’t win this," he told Reuters. "But they’re hell-bound to make it impossible for Obama to win.”