http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/23811

last thread

And remember: Howard is first!

Charlels in Montana -- sorry about the Edwards false alarm -- my bad for not reading the whole thing before spreading the 'news.'

Mike Huckabee just cheated at air hockey on Colbert--on almost national television. He cheated!

Bill Nelson speaks for Florida Democrats..."Absolutely not" to caucus.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1817

"But then we caught up with Bill Nelson today: "Absolutely not," he said when asked if caucuses might be a good idea. "It’s a huge cost."

You would think he was party boss or something.

floridagal - What on earth will happen in Florida and in Michigan for that matter? Is it true that even if they did seat the delegates that it would be almost 50/50 even though Clinton *won* there?

It really bothers me that Clinton left her name on the ballot in Michigan I might add. No one likes cheaters.

1:00 am EST

The possibility (again) of impeachment.

On Thursday, Chairman John Conyers' House Judiciary Committee held a hearing at which Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he would not investigate torture (video) or warrantless spying (video), he would not enforce contempt citations (video), and he would treat Justice Department opinions as providing immunity for crimes (report).

None of this was new, but perhaps it touched something in Conyers that had not been touched before. Following the hearing, he and two staffers met for an hour and 15 minutes with two members of Code Pink to discuss impeachment.

Conyers expressed fear of what might happen following an impeachment, fear of installing a Bush replacement or losing an election. The "corporate power structure", he said, would not allow impeachment without unleashing "blowback." Conyers told Ellen Taylor and Manijeh Saba: "You need to be more than brave and courageous. You need to be smart."

Their response? They are asking people who care about justice to help them let Conyers know that the smart thing right now would be bravery and courage.

On Rosa Parks' birthday last week, Leslie Angeline began a fast for impeachment. Taylor and over 20 other activists have joined the fast. Conyers has agreed to meet with Angeline to discuss impeachment on Tuesday.

The Chairman told Taylor and Saba that he is listening to several advocates for impeachment, including Liz Holtzman and this author, and asked "So how would it look if I allowed two women to push me over the edge?" Conyers leaned out of his chair for dramatic effect.

A number of organizations will be sending their members this alert Monday morning:

    Let's push Conyers over the edge by flooding his office with phone calls, faxes, and Emails on Monday and Tuesday. Let him know that only impeachment hearings
    1-will make it on TV,
    2-will force compliance with subpoenas by eliminating "executive privilege",
    3-will hold brazen criminals accountable, and
    4-will convince voters that Democrats care about the Constitution.
    Call 202-225-5126
    Fax 202-225-0072
    Email john.conyers@mail.house.gov

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_sw_080207_conyers_says_he_s_on.htm 

We need to, at the very least , start impeachment to shoot a warning shot across the bow of the next prez.

Good morning, everybody

Boy, they must really be hard up for posts!! LOL 

5:22 AM EST

Colorado, 2/5/08 dem caucus win for Obama:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/06/focus-on-iraq-war-worries-positioned-obama-for/?partner=yahoo

Focus on Iraq War worries positioned Obama for win

David Montero

Rocky Mountian News

Feb 6, 2008

...

5:24 AM EST

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/us/politics/06region.html

Obama Takes Connecticut, Helped by Lamont Voters

By DAVID W. CHEN

Published: February 6, 2008

Ned Lamont was not on the ballot, but his presence was nonetheless felt in Connecticut’s Democratic presidential primary.

...

voters who called Iraq the top issue who helped provide the margin of victory for Senator Barack Obama in Connecticut

...

Tuesday’s primary suggested that although he lacks a political office, Mr. Lamont, chairman of Mr. Obama’s campaign in Connecticut, might yet have a political legacy.

“The Lamont campaign was part of my political awakening,” said Bill Dauphin, 47, a technical writer who attended the Obama campaign’s victory party Tuesday night at the Sweet Jane Bar in Hartford. “That’s the thing that got me off the sofa and onto the street.”

In a state where Mrs. Clinton consistently held double-digit poll leads until mid-January, Mr. Obama ran strong among voters who made up their minds in the last month, the last week and the last three days, the exit poll showed. Thousands of unaffiliated Connecticut voters joined the Democratic Party in recent weeks in order to cast ballots in the primary, and among the nearly 20 percent of voters surveyed on Tuesday who identified themselves as independents, Mr. Obama won 6 of every 10 votes.

...

6.  You'll remember that Dodd left his name on as well, but had left the scene by the time the vote came.  The rules were that candidates couldn't campaign.  The voters were still to have a choice in indicating a preference.  Presumably, whatever super delegates those states have would take that choice into account in casting their ballot.  (Of course, I may be wrong).

Just keep repeating that "elections are about the voters" and you won't be misled.

Yes, I am going to have to write up more about "Huckabee the Honest Huckster"  Which is, of course, an oxymoron.

It occurred to me this morning that the science of economics contributes to unethical behavior because it's based on a number of false assumptions.

1)  That the participants in a transaction (buyer and seller) have an equal amount of information going into the transaction.

2)  That any economic assessment is for one moment in time and no other, and that's acceptable.

3)  That transactions not mediated by money don't exist from an economic perspective.

4)  That public transactions (government), perhaps because they are based on obligations (?), are not part of the economy.

So, what we end up with is a "values free market" which promotes the advantage of the seller by hiding that he has one.  Buyers are exploitable and exploited by the fiction that they know what they are getting into.  It's possible to perpetrate this fiction by equating expectation with experience.  In the political philosophy of conservatives this is manifest in the equation of intention with the act.

By that I mean that an act is considered complete when someone forms the intent to carry it out (Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the U.S. because that's what he intended) and the moral value of the act is similarly defined.  In other words, we've got a world where whether or not anything actually happens is irrelevant.  Nobody's responsible because nobody actually does or needs to do anything.

Experience and expectation are never reconciled.  Fact and fiction never collide.  Which is why it's a faith-based existence.  Belief in a superior being (super power) is consistent, but it's an adjunct, not determinative.  In other words, the proponents of this philosophy accept the existence of a superior being, but not as directing of their actions.  Because, they don't act.  At most, if they are aware of their behavior at all, they're reactive. 

In a sense, this world as figment of the imagination is on automatic pilot.  There once was an initiating action and ever since everything's been a reaction.  Free will does not exist.

How do we deal with this?  If some people have figured out how to escape responsibility for their actions, can we blame them?  Can we change them?  Can we force them to accept responsibility they don't want?  How do we deal with Bartleby?

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/bartleby/ 

I fear mischief in the Washington state voting as well with a caucus and a primary almost like Hillary gets two chances.

somebody from Washington please explain

Iowa has a primary in June but no Presidential portion 

Obama might have won California too since the machines didn't count the non party voters. someone from California?

 If some people have figured out how to escape responsibility for their actions, can we blame them? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

those would be Republicans (who follow orders) and the dictate after 9-11 was "go shopping"

all they want is a nation of consumers

kind of like a sewage treatment plant "consumes" the biologically active portion of the waste stream

remember your function when you get your check (and that Democrats were complicit)

7:07 AM EST

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080208/NEWS09/802080378

By JASON CLAYWORTH • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • February 8, 2008

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president.

Culver, a Democrat, announced his support for the Illinois senator's presidential bid during a rally Thursday night in Omaha. Nebraska's Democratic caucuses are Saturday.

...

Obama won the Jan. 3 Iowa Democratic caucuses, capturing the equivalent of 38 percent of the state's delegates. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards took 30 percent and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton got 29 percent.

The win had a ripple effect on Obama's campaign. In recent weeks, his national support has surged and he has been able to aggressively compete with Clinton, who was once ahead in some national polls by more than 30 points.

...

Culver, who has been governor of Iowa for about 13 months, said Thursday that he purposely waited to endorse Obama because he wanted Iowans to speak first.

"I think Iowans have spoken loudly and clearly in the Iowa caucuses, and now the campaign will come into a new phase," Culver said.

Culver's wife, Mari, endorsed John Edwards during the caucus campaign.

7:10 AM EST

http://www.projo.com/news/politics/content/chafee_vote_02-08-08_A88UCGM_v13.37f3a0e.html?npc

Chafee

Driven by his strong opposition to the war in Iraq, former Republican U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee may do something radical, at least for him: cast a vote in a Democratic primary.

Chafee, who lost his reelection race in 2006, left the GOP last summer and joined the ranks of Rhode Island’s unaffiliated voters, who can participate in either party’s primary on March 4.

In his deliberative manner, the former senator says he is considering a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.

“It’s a big decision to go into the Democratic primary,” Chafee said in an interview yesterday.

Chafee was once a leader of the Rhode Island Republican Party, as his father, John Chafee, a former governor and U.S. senator, was before him.

But the moderate Lincoln Chafee found himself increasingly at odds with a party that had moved to the political right. “It’s not my party anymore,” Chafee said last September.

No issue isolated Chafee among national Republicans more starkly than the war in Iraq. He was the only Republican senator to oppose it.

...

In his upcoming book, Against the Tide [due April 1 from St. Martin’s Press], Chafee excoriates congressional Democrats who voted in 2002 to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.

He writes: “Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill.” Some leading Democrats “argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment.”

Obama was not in the U.S. Senate in 2002; he declared his opposition to the Iraq war in a speech delivered in Chicago that October.

Two other leading candidates, Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain, voted for the 2002 resolution that gave the president the authority to attack Iraq.

I'll be seeing Chet Sat. afternoon rdorgan and will let him know I approve of his choice. The Edwards supporters are the key to Iowa's final delegation to Denver. The allocation happens March 15th after Ohio and Texas and will be influenced by those elections.

7:18 AM EST

Phil -

Good to hear.  Thanks.

Yeah, mary vb got a little excited last night when she saw a news title that stated "Edwards endorsed Obama".  She posted it so quickly here and then later realized, in the body of the news piece, that it was Donna Edwards running in Maryland, who did the endorsing.

Edwards is a common name, so the CM should be more careful with their titles (or the reporter was just trying to be a little cute, or, as the Brits say, cheeky).

As for Chet, I wonder if his decision now to endorse was also helped later along by his wife Mari, after Edwards dropped out, and there was only one left standing in the way of a Hillary dem corination.  (sorry to any Gravel supporters here but realistically ?)

http://hannah.smith-family.com/?p=2230

I found this on CommonDreams...
What does “losing a war” mean?????
Of course, this isn’t really a war, but an illegal occupation of a sovereign nation (which was SECULAR, btw, where women were treated as human beings as opposed to Saudi Arabia, our great big buddy) whose only fault was to possess a lot of oil which our HUGE cars suck on daily, hourly.
If you have to call it a war, who are we fighting? Not the poor bedeviled Iraqis who are caught in our crosshairs and crossfires. Or we just “fighting” a small group GB & Co. call TERRORISTS. Who knows who these TERRORISTS are? Are they the little people who would like us to get the h out of their country? Are they the Al Qaeda who were never there before the U.S. invasion? Are they young boys whose lives have been ruined by our occupation, whose families may have been just the collateral damage, or whose little brothers and sisters may have stepped on our land mines (weren’t they forbidden?).
Let’s drop the “WINNING” word–we’ve already LOST piles and piles of people, money, good will, and the price of our GAS has never been higher, and never have the big oils made so much PROFIT.
What’s left to lose? Pride? Give me a break. If your pride is synomnous with Winning, redefine your pride before the U.S. goes broke as all the empire seeking nations have before us. And the good old dollar continues to sink everywhere.
I believe that of all the candidates, only Obama has expressed any interest in even talking with our ENEMIES. There is a chance for peace with him. With H and Mc, it’s more of the same, and watch our economy, our lifestyle, as well as our morale and integrity get flushed… while the super wealthy just keep getting wealthier… they are probably already converting to Euros…they’re not stupid, only greedy and amoral, folks.

7:48 AM EST

http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/24865.asp

Illinois voters worry about economy, its ties to Iraq war

Published Friday, February 08, 2008

It’s understandable that people whom the war hasn’t personally touched would be more aware of lighter pocketbooks. And it doesn’t discourage war opponents, who say more people are recognizing the war’s monetary drain.

“The underlying issue is the war,” said Sister Karen Nykiel of the Lisle-based Illinois chapter of Pax Christi, a Catholic peace and justice group. “The economy is where it is because of the war.”

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-backed peace movement, estimates the U.S. has spent $1 trillion in Iraq through the end of last year.

“If you want to stimulate the economy, stop the war and spend that money domestically,” Friends regional director Michael McConnell said.

...

Question to ponder.

How can you have equal opportunity when you don't have equal information?

Information can be equalized, but not by demanding more education and irrelevant training. The participants in the market place aren't unequal as a result of a personal insufficiency, but because of a logical impossibility.  You can't know what you haven't experienced.  So, it's up to those with experience to compensate for in-experience.

Instead, in assuming that experience and expectation are equal, economic theory (and policy) sanctions the exploitation of that inequality.

For a practical example, consider this scenario.  A man owns a piece of land, including whatever lies beneath it (water, minerals, gas) but of which he has no knowledge.  Another man comes along and performs tests on the substrate that determine the presence of a valuable ore, such as uranium.  So, this second man sends a representative to the owner of the land and offers to purchase the owner's interest in whatever lies beneath at a minimal price, without making any representation as to what his associate has learned.  Economic practice sets no moral requirement that the information on which this offer is based be shared to equalize the participants in a transaction.

Now, it seems that the Peru trade deal, for example, makes an effort to compensate for the unequal information base.  However, the provisions which prohibit challenges in the courts after the fact, in the event that the one party feels cheated, suggests that the imballance which promotes exploitation is being legally affirmed.  Making participants more equal does not make them equal. 

Tom Vilsack was just a trusted community leader in Mount Pleasant  Iowa until a mad gunman shot down the mayor in an incident like Kirkwood Missouri.

takes a little bit of courage to go sit in that chair, and it meant quite a bit that the community asked him to do it

I'm sure the news of the day today has upset him.

since he and Culver have split their endorsements it is still a draw

 You can't know what you haven't experienced

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

experience is the best teacher, but I spend a lot of time going through safety protocols with new hires, because some mistakes are deadly

22.  What is being "lost" is our Super Powe status.  You know, that which we suddenly enjoyed when the Soviet Union was revealed to have been a figment of the imagination?  Iraq is important as a staging area for our military assets in the Eastern Hemisphere.  That there's oil under them there sands is lagniappe.  Though it does make it more likely that our Air Force won't be strapped for fuel.

What we need to recognize is that this is an Air Force project--projecting power around the globe by maintaining dominion over air, sea, land and space.  I'm beginning to think that the restrictions on civilian air travel are not incidental, but rather central to the over-all strategy to exercise dominion.

The absence of information about what happens up in the air is worrisome.  Why, for example, was it considered acceptable to inhibit the formation of a nuclear weapons free zone in central Asia with the explanation that such a declaration might preclude the transport of nuclear weapons through the air-space of the signatory nations on U.S. planes?   

26.  I made that statement in the context of differentiating between expectation and experience.  And would argue that unless an individual's expectations are informed by another's experience that is shared, no individual human is likely to survive for very long.  Which is probably why I consider the withholding of the information gained by experience as fundamentally immoral.

And yet, that's what our economic system promotes when it sanctions 'proprietary' rights and 'confidentiality' provisions.

When Huckabee suggests that moral considerations need to be relegated to the church and the prayer closet, he's arguing for an immoral economy. 

8:35 AM EST

Sierra Leone's economy is finally starting to improve, now that they are no longer involved in a war:

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200802070822.html

Post-Elections - Country is Coming in From the Cold

Concord Times (Freetown)

OPINION
4 February 2008
Posted to the web 7 February 2008

By Karamoh Kabba
Freetown

The ruling All People's Congress (APC) and the opposition parties [the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) and the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC)] of post-elections Sierra Leone in West Africa have all put their shoulders on the wheels of governance

...

Sierra Leoneans have taken a bold step in redeeming themselves from their infamous warring reputation in the recent past

...

I may also not be any different from the often ten days foreign pundits and journalists who come here mostly in search of sensational stories. My observation, for the most part, is from a similar position I have to admit, having been away for so long. The only difference I may make, I am a Sierra Leonean who has seen enough reason in the three peaceful postwar elections to return to tough it out here at home: I need no interpreter of the lingo spoken here or for the body language of the people-I lived among for the first twenty-seven years of my life.

All I can say, this nation is bustling with life once more. I must also admit that though government is making tremendous efforts in restoring the previously dashed hopes of the people

...

Well, I would be informed later that, with the coming back of electricity after over ten years of darkness here, the price for ice water has been slashed by 50 per cent and ice cube has plunged from 500 leones to 100 leones.

Up the stairway past worn out and not properly kept walls at Latihide, one of two female dormitories at FBC into what seems like a six by eight cubicle with two small bunk beds for two adult female students, I met a student who only wants to be called Lucy with an unbelievable hope in this nation and its new leadership. "Once there is energy to turn the wheels of production the prices for essential commodities will plunge. At least we get occasional light now," she said.

...

Amidst unaddressed social problems here in Sierra Leone, is a glimmer of hope in the president's "attitudinal change" campaign that has just been launched. I attended the second much inclusive brainstorming meeting that is supposed to suggest a roadmap for the attitudinal change campaign. I hope that a huge government and citizenry propaganda campaign will soon come out of this effort to help change the mindset of the people about civic responsibility and national allegiance.

In a cordial discussion with Vice President Sam-Sumana, "My critiques were more concerned with experience than my vision," he stated. "But I asked them to show me where I could find some experience to buy before I start the job, if that would have made them comfortable. But apparently, we could not find a manufacturer or a retailer of experience," he laughed.

The Vice President added, "My being here in this office is a chance that has been given to our generation to prove itself in restoring the confidence of the people. If I allow my vision to be blurred by my critiques, I will fail myself, I will fail you and I will fail the entire generation that has been given the chance with governance," he concluded.

...

When Huckabee suggests that moral considerations need to be relegated to the church and the prayer closet, he's arguing for an immoral economy. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yet voters see him as arguing to bring the spiritual into that other "closet" the voting booth

"

8:39 AM EST

Sierra Leone voters went with something this past Nov, with a change agent called Ernest Bai Koroma.  He has inspired a lot of Sierra Leoneans to have hope for the future and to start thinking about how their own attitudes can negatively impact the nation, how the I should not always come before the WE.

IMO, America is at a similar crossroads now.

Two nations that I call home.

Monica

who has access to the proprietary information that is being swept up in the warrantless electronic surveillance is of immense commercial interest

I know one thing, I would sure like to know whether certain hedge funds will be long or short soybean futures today, and could listen in to orders to the floor. The opportunity for corruption is immense.

8:45 AM EST

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080128/ids_photos_wl/r457442669.jpg/

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown (R) and his wife Sarah (L) pose with Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma and his wife Sia outside 10 Downing Street in London January 28, 2008.REUTERS/Stephen Hird (BRITAIN)

the I should not always come before the WE.

~~~~~~~~~~~

that will be the distinction Republicans will try to blur with the WE of security

I find it incomprehensible that 60 Senators will go along with warrantless wiretapping after their oath to defend the Constitution.

are we so corrupt that they are being bought off?

someone can be getting very,very, wealthy with insider trading

the Bush tax cuts robbed the productivity gains of working people and shoveled a trillion dollars for the common welfare to a few tens of thousands of individuals

if they give back just a tenth of one percent as a kickback to corrupt the political process that is a billion dollars into those coffers

do they get back access to intelligence?

30.  Yes, all of our understanding is colored by our prejudice.  It's really hard to keep our assumptions in mind and dismiss them when they are steering us wrong.  But that's what we have to do.  Pay really close attention.

9:12 AM EST

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/american.morning/

..

Would McCain fare better against Clinton or Obama?

9:14 AM EST

results so far:

Obama

35.  I think, Phil, it's a matter of pride.  Our Senators think they are too smart to be duped.  They can't imagine that they are being taken advantage of.

Rockefeller, of course, knows better.  He and his kin have been in the duping business for a long time.  Somebody needs to call his bluff.  What happened to his calls for the realease of information when he was in the minority when he assumed the chair?  Total silence, as far as I know.  Jay Rockefeller has betrayed his oath. 

I have no doubt that there are al-Queda sleeper cells in the United States and communications have been intercepted. (that could have also been obtained with a warrant) so the black mail that appears to me to be working is that such information would be leaked as an October surprise and held against the Democrats by voters, to me that is the most likely reason for the treason

36.  Yes, but the tax cuts are just a pacifier.  The real powers don't pay taxes.  They hide their wealth in non-governmental organizations and foundations and other eleemosinary institutions.

The real powers don't pay taxes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

which is why Obama has called for the Clintons to release their tax returns

Americans are ready to throw the bums out and make a fresh start in Washington which is the Obama appeal against McCain that Clinton would lose.

al Qaeda is a CIA creation 

setting up corporations is a habit that's peculiar to the U.S. It's a strategy designed to shirk personal responsibility.  The rest of the world has an honor system.  It allows them to claim moral superiority.  Claiming personal responsibility is a moral virtue. 

From the perspective of the theorcratic state, the secular state is ipso facto immoral.  Which means that Islamists and Christians are actually on the same side--the side of hierarchy and obedience as opposed to individual authority and self-control.

Is the individual capable of virtue or must he be subject to social direction? 

sequence check

9:39 am

Yes, and the list of donors to the Clinton Foundations.

Yes, it's 9:40 AM EST

PARTNERS IN CRIME

Making predictions, whether about sporting events or political events, is cheap entertainment.

9:45 am 

14.Phil - I got the scoop a couple of days ago. The primary which is the 19th of February does not count - only the Republican's count with that. The caucus is for the Dems.

I called the Elections Office who gave me misinformation. They told me to send in our primary ballots. But then I saw info about caucuses on the Obama website. So I contacted the Dem party in WA. They told me we had to caucus. This has caused a bit of confusion in the state. When we lived in WA before - we caucused. So, even though primary ballots were printed with Dems names on them and sent - they are not valid.

Are you confused yet?

I don't know if it is kosher to do this.  But here goes.  Anyone who is so inclined please call WA state voters to let them know they have to caucas for their vote to count.  I made calls last night, there were so many voters who thought the mail in primary vote counted.  You can get the names on Obama site. Thank You.

9:45 AM EST

online CNN poll going on now:

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/american.morning/

Phil Specht
Fri, 02/08/08
___________________________________________________________________________

Its 9.45am Friday 2008........agreed Phil.............IF the Democrats are smart(lol) they would put up the youthfulness and obvious vigor and enthusiasm of Obama against the old war hawkish Mccain..............I dont trust the American voter however...........1980, 1984, 1988, 2000, 2004 is evidence enough...........I still say Mccain in the finale.

maryvb and the WA caucuses: good on you for checking things out and bad on the Elections Office. *Eternal vigilance* and all that.

Mz Little must be awfully busy right now; it's too bad that she hasn't had time to post lately.