More on the process of seating the FL and MI delegates.  

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1824

Restore the United States to "One Nation Under God"
Return to Constitutional, Limited Government
Protect the Inalienable Right to Life of All, including the Unborn and Infirm
Protect Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Restore National Sovereignty, including Withdrawal from the U.N.
Maintain a Strong National Defense
Repeal the Unconstitutional Income Tax
Stop All Unconstitutional Spending
Protect the Inalienable Rights of Liberty and Private Property
Abolish the Federal Reserve and Restore Constitutional Money
Promote Pro-family policies
End Federal Subsidies for and Control of Education and Welfare
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Return Control over Elections to the People
Abolish Special Interest Entitlements (corporate welfare)

Buchanan Campaign Speech

The Keating Fivehttp://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/m...

Good morning, everybody

Dean is first.  Somebody's really faling down on the job.

Things that aren't under threat don't have to be protected.  

5:16 AM EST

Were you able (Monica) to get a viewing of the lunar eclipse last night in New Hampshire ?

It was cloudy here in southeastern MA earlier in the evening but fortunately the clouds cleared for good viewing.  Last night Phil reported having a good view of it from the Midwest.

5:20 AM EST

speaking of the Midwest:

http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/15834187.html

Posted: 4:08 AM Feb 21, 2008
Last Updated: 4:08 AM Feb 21, 2008
Reporter: Associated Press

...

More on the process of seating the FL and MI delegates

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

very concise explanation anyone can understand, floridagal

Obama will also seat Florida and Michigan in the same manner if his lead is insurmountable, even with their inclusion. the press is including Hillary's Michigan delegates without crediting uncommitted ones to Obama

If the people of Texas and Ohio want to see their brothers and sisters from those two states seated they can just give Wisconsin sized blowouts to Obama.

same with super-delegates

Obama keeps winning and his margin with them will reflect his pledged totals without any need to change the rules.

Obama volunteers need to run up the score and beat the spread.

once the delegates are seated, the convention floor has the final say, and is the governing body of the party by majority vote

The DNC is actually just a caretaker body between conventions, just like any State Central Committee, and once it is gaveled in a majority of those present and voting have the final say

It isn't a good reason to vote for one or the other though, who will best lead the country should be much more important.

Do not let any story blaming ethanol for wheat and flour prices pass your smell test. No wheat has gone into ethanol plants. Weather is the culprit.

the farm bill is being held up so agri-biz can get acres added out of conservation reserve land by a food price scare

what do you think would happen to world demand for food when the economies of both billion population nations India and China have had double digit growth for years?

hunger is always caused by poverty, less poverty more demand

going forward the population of the planet will bump up against the food supply everytime there is a major weather disruption in an important growing area

I'd start worrying a little more about global warming than whether or not hedge fund traders have captured the wheat futures market in Minneapolis and have the squeeze on (because in futures trading every loser has a winner).

Farm input prices have skyrocketed so food prices will too eventually, and mainly caused by energy rises, so is ethanol a problem or a solution? think about it

I might have had an excellent viewing of the eclipse but had to go out in all time record cold temps for this date. The dewpoint is extremely low so the stars were spectacular as well, but I would prefer lying on the grass on a summers eve for viewing pleasure.

the view of the sky is so much different than it was in my youth what with so many "stars" being satellites

Hello people, its your old friend Darrell in Iowa

Well its been several years since any of you have seen me around.  Yes, I am still alive but I did have a pretty rough time for a few years.  I am now down in Florida.

Something has happened just a mile from where I am staying in a remote Florida location that gives me concern there's a government cover up.  Here's the story.

 At 2:30 pm yesterday afternoon an aircraft marked as Iraqi Air Force landed on CR 731 approximately 8 miles west of HWY 27 in southwest Florida.  Its landing location is in an area known as Venus Haven, Florida in Highland County.  On board the aircraft were three Iraqi's who identified themselves as Iraqi Air Force to the person on the ground who first came to their aid.  They stated the reason they were in the US was for repairs to the aircraft.

 There were no reports on the news last night so I called an area television station (WINK-TV, a CBS affliate) last night to report the incident.  It struck me curious that this aircraft came down roughly thirty minutes before two US aircraft were reported missing in Florida.

The television station did report this morning on the news they had verified the incident, however, they reported the US Department of Homeland Security stated the aircraft was a US contractor's aircraft with Iraqi Air Force markings.  This is in conflict with what really happened.

You draw your own conclusions, but I am always concerned when our government lies. 

hey Darrell good to hear from you

the Iraqi Air Force plane huh?!!!

you picked a dang good winter to be in Florida instead of Iowa, worst since 1978-79

Darrell, we finally have a Democratic majority in the Iowa State Senate, you and I both know it could have happened sooner without the "targeting" of certain races and not others

Howard Dean's fifty state wins can translate down to the state level too. your efforts had a paid off just not as quick as we would have hoped

keep in touch

bbl

Darrell 

BTW the blog is in one of its periodic screwed up phases and posts comments in a random order

I'm blaming that on running it through NSA computers for "homeland security" lol

"they're everywhere, they're everywhere" (just like Chickenman)

11. Darrell -- keep us posted.

8. Phil -- I've decided I'm against biofuels - it is just trading one use uppable energy for another. And if we use the land for growing fuel instead of food, the opportunity to 'abuse' the soil, as we have abused animals on factory farms and land around fossil fuel gathering places, at a time when the earth population is growing and will have to be fed, seems like a bad idea to me. Solar and wind - plenty of it. Of course birds get killed in windfarms -- maybe solar is the only good solution.

Phil-thanks for telling us about your trek out to see the moon. I'm afraid I forgot about it - enjoyed painie's animated photo too.

I really like trains. I hope if Obama wins and gets his infrastructure reinvestment program in place, he will have train tracks built along the interstate highways so we can take trains from place to place the way we take our autos and it eases up the airports. Unlike Daniel, doing some searching of passenger train makes sense to me -- it is a neglected item like searching cargo on planes and in ports.

That's enuf from me for one morning on one cup of coffee -- off to the pop tart preparation area.

Darrell I live in north central FL. For the last two nights there has been a large helicopter virtually buzzing my house with lights on in early dusk - say 7 to 8 pm. I don't think too much about it as we have a tiny airport nearby as well as a n'al guard training base. It was noisy enough - low enough - tho that I went out to reassure cat#2 and that's when I noticed the lights on it - search lights?

well somethings don't change do they....LOL

 Phil, I left Iowa in 2005 but have come back a few times for stays with my family.  Its nice to see Iowa finally in Demo hands.

 My health has made it impossible for me to be politically involved over that time; but things are going much better these days and hopefully I will be helping somewhere in 2008.

Anyone have any super brainy, high achieving kids out there and make less than 100K a year -- Stanford might be free for them.

http://origin.mercurynews.com/ci_8314377...

Stanford offers free tuition, expenses to students from less-affluent families
By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/20/2008 09:05:33 AM PST

51.

seashell :-)
Thu, 02/21/08

Seashell I don't buy the experience thing with Clinton. I think her, Obama's and for that matter Edwards experience level in government is roughly the same - in fact of the three, Obama may have the most having been in the IL Statehouse. I don't think you can count her experience as First Lady. Would you count Laura Bush's?

I hear how cold it is up north Phil.  My daughter is still a student at U. of Iowa.

The Eclipse was fantastic here. 

I was laying next to the pool on my lounge chair in only my boxers with a good German beer and classical music playhing in the background as I gazed into the sky watching the eclipse.  Some days I just don't miss Ioway. 

 I will be back in Iowa in mid April to do some fishing with my father on Clear Lake.  Last spring the Walleyes were really biting, so I will be back for a few months to chase them again.

7:25 AM EST

pic of Vicki Iseman:

http://old.www.iup.edu/publications/iupmag/BACKISSUES/Fall02/iseman.shtm

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003713517&imw=Y

'Wash Post' Airs Its Own McCain/Iseman Story

By E&P Staff

Published: February 20, 2008 10:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Hours after The New York Times produced its newsmaking story alleging some sort of possibly improper relationship between Sen. John McCain and a female lobbyist, The Washington Post came out with a story that confirmed the Times report at least in part.

An excerpt from the Thursday Page One article by Jeffrey Birnbaum and Michael Shear, up at www.washingtonpost.com, follows.
*

Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a elecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who served as McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe in Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

Members of the senator's small circle of advisers also confronted McCain directly, according to sources, warning him that his continued relationship with a lobbyist who had business before the powerful Commerce Committee he chaired threatened to derail his presidential ambitions....

...

The aide said the message to Iseman that day at Union Station in 1999 was clear: "She should get lost." The aide said Iseman stood up and left angrily.

7:31 AM EST

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936)

...

SpouseCarol Shepp (1965-1980) (divorced)
Cindy Hensley McCain (1980-Present)

...

mc cain is over. bye bye.

maybe the rethugs sent their own overboard.

I would like to thank DFA for again ignoring me in my part of VA and not having training here.

You are missing a great opportunity here. but you know that.

7:48 AM EST

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/01/mccain/

Glenn Greenwald

Here is John McCain's "straight talk", in defense of traditional marriage yesterday, regarding the Iowa state court's decision declaring unconstitutional that state's opposite-sex-only marriage law:

John McCain also entered the fray last night, calling the decision "a loss for the traditional family," and noting that he supports "the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman."

McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, "aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich." McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife's family money.

The issue is not that McCain sinned in the past. It is that he argues now that the law ought to recognize only "the traditional definition of marriage" while simultaneously demanding that the law recognize and treat as equal his own "marriage," which is as much a deviation from the "traditional definition" as the same-sex marriages he opposes. How can someone with this "family" stand up in public and claim to support the "traditional definition of marriage"?

McCain married Carol Shepp, his first wife, in 1965. He adopted her two children from a previous marriage, and they have a daughter, born in 1966. The couple divorced in 1980. He and his second wife, Cindy, have four children.

7:53 AM EST

U.S. soldier death toll in Iraq today =s 3967

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Considering that Huckabee is being financed by the people who financed the Bushes and the Clintons, it's not surprising that maverick McCain is being gotten out of the way for the Huckster.  They need a pleasant follow-directions kind of guy in the White House.  If his speech is occasionally incomprehensible, that's already proven to be a worth-while attribute.  Sort of like the organ grinder's monkey while the audience's pockets are being picked.

What the law defines and what people do are often quite different.  What McCain supports is the tradition of hierarchy which makes the male superior to and more important than the female.  Being able to rid oneself of a spouse that is no longer pleasing is a long-standing male tradition.  The rather recent legal trend towards making males liable for the financial support of their children is a thorn in the side of traditional men, but bearable in the sense that it recognizes their "authority."

8:04 AM EST

http://www.timesreporter.com/index.php?ID=80119&r=6

When Kaitlin Gallagher of New Philadelphia heard about Hillary Clinton’s television advertisement about working

the night shift, she wasn’t impressed.

The ad for the Democratic presidential candidate is intended to appeal to night shift voters and pledges to help them with health care, daycare and elder care. It closes by showing Clinton at a desk and comments that she’s “worked the night shift, too.”

To the 20-year-old Ohio University student, there’s no comparison.

“I was offended that Hillary Clinton’s campaign made the comparison of sitting at a desk, being a corporate lawyer and senator, to being an assembly line worker, hospital worker or doing physical labor,” she said.

In September 2006, Gallagher started working on the Athens campus at the auditorium, loading and unloading tractor-trailer rigs on the night shift

...

was McCain cheating on his first wife with this lobbyist too?

what does McCain's current wife say on record about John and his zipper problems? not much I suspect

McCain sounds a little like Bob Dole, who lived in the basement of his house, ignoring his wife and children upstairs, while courting a girlfriend (pre-Liddy Dole) and giving her a no-work job in his office.

I really don't care what they do except when they turn around and lecture about morality or even try to legislate it.

Great to see you Darrell and I would take that story to Keith Olbermann.

Phil, on the food issue, one of my great disappointments with our government continues to be their refusal to consider wide decentralization of the food supply as a defense against terrorism. Instead of "go shopping" I wish Bush had said, "Plant a victory garden and swap produce with your neighbors." I used to live in an agricultural area but now virtually all the land is under either subdivisions, mega-churches or stores.

We need local food supply everywhere.

-- volney

8:08 AM EST

...

"Being able to rid oneself of a spouse that is no longer pleasing is a long-standing male tradition."

...

+++

Of course, not all men act in that manner. 

As for McCain, the more I read about his personal life, the less I'm inclined to respect him.  What he has done reminds me alot of what Newt Gingrich did (divorcing his wife at her hospital bedside).

IMO, McCain is an old man with old ideas.

linda b

DFA might ignore you but we here at BFA love what you do.

8:21 AM EST

McCain -- the opportunist:

http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=banter&tid=815716

Before John McCain's tour of duty in Vietnam, he married Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia. On his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam in 1967, McCain was shot down and captured.

While he was imprisoned, Carol was in an auto wreck (1969), thrown through her car's windshield and left seriously injured. Despite her injures, she refused to allow her POW husband to be notified about her condition, fearing that such news would not be good for him while he was being held prisoner.

When McCain returned to the United States in 1973 after more than five years as a prisoner of war, he found his wife was a different person. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight."

...

In his book, The Nightingale's Song, Robert Timberg chronicled McCain's post-Vietnam military assignments and some of his "adulterous" behavior leading to his divorce from Carol and marriage to Cindy Hensley.

Timberg wrote, "in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather [both were Navy admirals], since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path."

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and "engage in extra-marital affairs." Such behavior was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates..

Timberg wrote, "Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

...

While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping Carol and securing a divorce. The newlyweds honeymooned in Hawaii.

McCain followed his young, millionairess wife back to Arizona where her father helped catapult McCain into politics,

Today, Cindy Hensley McCain is chairwoman of Hensley's board of directors. Hensley and Company financial reports show assets worth a minimum of $28 million for the McCains

Hannah has suddenly gotten a lot of links from people interested in Kosovo, perhaps because it turns out that Camp Bondsteel is in Kosovo.

On McCain's wife being a "different person" because of her injuries... reminds me of a remarkable interview with Dustin Hoffman I once saw.

He was talking about "Tootsie" and the insight it gave him into what it would be like to be held to the physical standards that women are held to. He said that all his life he had totally ignored average-looking women, many of whom were fabulous people well worth knowing. By the time he was done talking about this he was actually shedding tears about all the richness of life he had missed through his own narrow focus on appearance.

It's funny to me that so often it's short, average-looking men who have this need to compensate.

-- volney

8:49 AM EST

I wonder how rae hart is doing 1000's of miles from her AK home, volunteering in OH ?:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/sarahramey/gGC7bH

By Sarah Ramey - Feb 20th, 2008 at 7:50 pm EST

...

So, what's the Iraqi Air Force doing in Florida?  Did they really fly this plane all the way here by themselves?  Where is Venus, Florida? 

volney--I think that they're the objects of psychological abuse as boys and that sets up an inferiority complex for which nothing can ever compensate enough to bring them into balance with themselves.

rd,

When I first read about HRCs night train, I started laughing, who comes up with these ideas?

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

Anyone who dumps his wife because she gains weight, loses four inches in height, uses crutches, doesn't deserve anyone's respect, I don't care if he is a war hero.  Go to hell McCain, your a jerk. 

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

Wasn't able to see the ecllipse here in UT, too cloudy, snowing again this morning, will it never stop?  My son in WA state said it was glorious.

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

Thinking of McCain brings back  memories of Clinton and the I did not have sex with that woman.  I don't want those years back.  America lets move forward.

One of my political heroes is poised to endorse Obama.

http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/15834...

jc made a coffee mug that reads *There's nothing sexier than a man with integrity* and it has a picture of Russ Feingold.

-I think that they're the objects of psychological abuse as boys and that sets up an inferiority complex for which nothing can ever compensate enough to bring them into balance with themselves.

Probably goes for girls too. It's all about people, not categories of us. 

Road to redemption for Clintons: Embrace Obama
The train's leaving — Bill and Hillary should be aboard

There are consequences beyond losing elections for the Clintons. I wish the two of them could have overheard, as I did, the young African-American prosecutor behind me at the Obama rally in Houston Tuesday night, who told his friend how shocked he was by those comments, and how — I was surprised by this — it had made him cry when President Clinton said that voting for Obama was like "rolling the dice."

I wish the two of them could have seen the ocean of black faces, brown faces and white faces, and felt the good will that permeated that arena. I wish that they could have heard the excited 10-year-old next to me, jumping up and down on her seat, waiving her Obama sign and chanting, "Si, se puede" with the crowd. (In the interest of full disclosure, that child is my daughter, Caitlin, and in truth, as excited as she was over Obama, when he suggested that we have to do a better job as parents and turn off the TV, her mood darkened, and she asked anxiously, "What about new episodes"?)

I guarantee you, as the oldest living man in America who has actually attended a Hannah Montana concert, my daughter is completely colorblind. From what I have seen of her generation, and that of my grown sons', that is the norm, not the exception. Racial politics simply won't work; not this time — and if all that good will seeps into the wider world — perhaps never again

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5557189.html

9:09 AM EST

I'm a veteran myself (Air Force), so I find McCain extra-curricular affairs, especially whilst in the military, very bothersome.  I don't care if he is a former POW, there's no excuse for what he did.  He came back from Vietnam and he too was disfigured.  Why didn't his wife then (Carol) dump him instead ?

McCain -- an old man with old ideas

If the iraqi Air Force is made up of whatever that is... well, I'm very afraid for Iraq.

That plane never crossed an ocean, I'll bet.

-- volney

I think we just had a small earthquake here.  Sitting on my bed with laptop, bed shook, laptop shaking, tv creaking moving.  Guess I'll go check this out.   Feel shaky myself.

Wow Darrell stopped by - w00t!!

New thread by the way

Darrell's back.  I'll be darned.  I wonder if Bobby O will be turning up.

Think Clinton's experience makes her the more qualified candidate to be a competent next president?  It hasn't qualified her to be the most competent candidate.  This excerpt is from Ken Vogel and Jeanne Cummings in the Politico:

"Hillary Clinton ended January with $7.6 million in debt – not including the $5 million personal loan she gave to her campaign in the run-up to the critical Super Tuesday elections, according to financial reports released Wednesday.

"In contrast, Democratic rival Barack Obama’s campaign’s finances continued to be robust.

"He reported raising nearly $37 million and spending nearly $31 million. His cash balance was $25 million, of which roughly $20 million can be spent on the primary. He reported a comparatively small $1 million in debts, owed largely to just three vendors.

" . . . .

"Clinton raised about $20 million in January, including her loan. She spent nearly $29 million during the month.

"She reported a cash balance of $29 million. But more than $20 million of that is money dedicated to the general election. Her personal loan accounts for more than half of the remaining approximately $9 million, leaving just about $4 million in cash raised from donors.

"But even that money is illusionary when measured against the reported $7.6 million in debts.

" . . . .

"Clinton’s strapped financial situation in late January meant she couldn’t invest in all of the Super Tuesday states, particularly the expensive ground operations required in caucus states.

"Obama won every one of those caucus contests on Feb. 5, opening up a critical lead among pledged delegates.

"He was also able to launch television advertising earlier than Clinton in subsequent primaries in Virginia, Maryland and Wisconsin and other key states, which ultimately stretched his lead and fueled his momentum today.

" . . . .

"The New York senator launched her campaign a year ago with much of the party’s establishment and financial muscle behind her. The Illinois senator, meanwhile, built a grassroots fundraising operation reliant on small givers that continue to fuel him today."

The train's leaving — Bill and Hillary should be aboard

When McCain went to get a loan for his nearly dead campaign he had to promise the bank he would stay in long enough to repay the loan with federal matching funds.

I suppose Hillary must also stay in at least long enough to pay back the $5M she loaned herself.

Keep sending those contributions!

That was an earthquake in Elko, NV - 6.3 wow