Howard Dean is first and his 50 state strategy is also tops!

85.

Phil Specht
Fri, 02/22/08

Reply to this

Racism is alive and well in America and will rear its ugly head many times before November Denise
=======================================

Not all social conditioning is racism. Many people struggle with their social conditioning that is pounded into their brains from their early childhood.

It could work either way for Obama. Some socially conditioned people will succumb to it and see him as inferior, and some will vote for him partially as a way to put a stake through the heart of that conditioning.

For them it is a struggle within.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/23955...

shortcut to last thread

1:15 PM EST

SD movement since Wisconsin:

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/superdelegate-list.html

...

2-20-08 - Moved DNC John Rednour (IL) to Obama from Clinton. His son, also John Rednour, is on Clinton's steering committee
- Added DNC Donald Norcross (NJ) for Obama.
- Switched DNC Dana Redd (NJ) from Clinton to Obama
- Added Rep. Lloyd Doggett (TX) , Rep. Ron Kind (WI) , Rep. Kathy Castor (FL) for Obama
2-21-08 - Added DNC Jason Rae (WI) for Obama.
- Added DNC Margaret Xifaras (MA) for Obama
- Added Rep. Steve Kagen (WI) for Obama
2-22-08 - Added DNC Sonni Nardi (OH) for Obama

Stay tuned... we'll update this list as we find out more.

"A struggle within" the original meaning of the word "jihad" before it became the battle cry of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.

I didn't know that about "jihad" Fred, thanks.

Jihad from wikipedia

Jihad (Arabic: جهاد‎ IPA: [ ʤi'haË�d]), which means "to strive" or "to struggle", in Arabic, is an Islamic term and considered a duty by most faithful Muslims. Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".[1][2] A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural is mujahideen.

A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this Islamic duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status.[3] In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion.

According to scholar John Esposito, Jihad requires Muslims to "struggle in the way of God" or "to struggle to improve one's self and/or society."[3][4] Jihad is directed against the devil's inducements, aspects of one's own self, or against a visible enemy.[1][5] The four major categories of jihad that are recognized are Jihad against one's own self (Jihad al-Nafs), Jihad of the tongue, Jihad of the hand, and Jihad of the sword.[5] Within Islamic jurisprudence, the term jihad is usually used in reference to military combat.[6]

6. Denise
==============
No problemo - here it is from Wikipedia

Jihad (Arabic: جهاد‎ IPA: [ ʤi'ha�d]), which means "to strive" or "to struggle", in Arabic, is an Islamic term and considered a duty by most faithful Muslims. Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".[1][2] A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural is mujahideen....

The term "Jihad" used without any qualifiers is generally understood to be referring to war on behalf of Islam.[5] In broader usage and interpretation, the term has accrued both violent and non-violent meanings. It can imply striving to live a moral and virtuous life, spreading and defending Islam as well as fighting injustice and oppression, among other things.[7] The relative importance of these two forms of jihad is a matter of controversy...

Sunni view of Jihad
See also: Opinion of Islamic scholars on Jihad
Jihad has been classified either as al-jih�d al-akbar (the greater jihad), the struggle against one's soul (nafs), or al-jih�d al-asghar (the lesser jihad), the external, physical effort, often implying fighting.

Shi'a view of Jihad
Shi'a Muslims classify Jihad into two; the Greater Jihad and the Lesser Jihad.[32] The Lesser Jihad refers to defending oneself, one's family and community against oppression and tyranny, upon which there are strict regulations.[33] The Greater Jihad refers to the struggle inside oneself to obey God (Arabic: Allah) and reject sin.[34] The Greater Jihad, or the struggle to follow God (Allah) and reject sin, is one of the Twelver (Arabic: Ithna 'Ashariyya) Shia Practices of the Religio

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

A great article by Zinn.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022108B.shtml

[snip]

Let's remember that even when there is a "better" candidate (yes, better Roosevelt than Hoover, better anyone than George Bush), that difference will not mean anything unless the power of the people asserts itself in ways that the occupant of the White House will find it dangerous to ignore.

    The unprecedented policies of the New Deal-Social Security, unemployment insurance, job creation, minimum wage, subsidized housing-were not simply the result of FDR's progressivism. The Roosevelt Administration, coming into office, faced a nation in turmoil. The last year of the Hoover Administration had experienced the rebellion of the Bonus Army-thousands of veterans of the First World War descending on Washington to demand help from Congress as their families were going hungry. There were disturbances of the unemployed in Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York, Seattle.

    In 1934, early in the Roosevelt Presidency, strikes broke out all over the country, including a general strike in Minneapolis, a general strike in San Francisco, hundreds of thousands on strike in the textile mills of the South. Unemployed councils formed all over the country. Desperate people were taking action on their own, defying the police to put back the furniture of evicted tenants, and creating self-help organizations with hundreds of thousands of members.

    Without a national crisis-economic destitution and rebellion-it is not likely the Roosevelt Administration would have instituted the bold reforms that it did.

    Today, we can be sure that the Democratic Party, unless it faces a popular upsurge, will not move off center. The two leading Presidential candidates have made it clear that if elected, they will not bring an immediate end to the Iraq War, or institute a system of free health care for all.

    They offer no radical change from the status quo.

Well thanks to both of you, and good morning dog soldier :)

Seems very complicated. One of those good things with a potential for wickedness.

Thanks, dog. You did a better job.

I'm wondering if the enormous changes taking place in the world aren't being reflected in this election.  The Internet, the awareness that we must begin to protect the planet or we will perish, the publication of ancient wisdom: Native American, Buddhism, the Tao Te Ching, the Gnostic Gospels, the Koran, the New Testament , and  native religions and practices such as Yoga, shamanism,etc. 

The ways of war, cruelty, hierarchy, greed, exploitation  are becoming ever clearer.  Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King was martyred.  We had the martydom of civil rights workers like Medger Evers, and then of course, JFK, Robert Kennedy (not in chronological order), the Civil Rights and anti-war marchs and protests, and now, a young biracial, multi-cultural man running for president, a woman, and an old warrior.

I sometimes wonder if we have a lot less control than we think, that there is destiny and karma, that the operation of the universe isn't materialistic and aggressive, but is more like the unifying force of all things, is spiritual even more than material.

I, of course, don't know anything at all, but I do see people from all over the country and the world engaging in dialogue, communicating with each other, getting to know one another through millions of words and exchanges.  

I wonder. 

Morning all...just catching up.

1:42 PM EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-barol/dem-debate-shocker-every_b_87994.html

Bill Barol

Posted February 22, 2008 | 12:53 PM (EST)

A close reading of the transcript from last night's CNN/Univision debate reveals that everyone on stage plagiarized from me. The proof:

Whatever happens, we're going to be fine. -- Hillary Clinton, last night
I'm fine. I'm going to be fine. Just go away.-- Me, to my wife, after stepping on a rake and whapping myself in the face with the handle, July 2002

There were rocky periods during my youth, when I made mistakes and was off course. -- Barack Obama, last night
I've made a mistake, okay? I've gone off the course. Okay? Is that what you want to hear? Jackasses. -- Me, to my golfing buddies Steve and Tito, after driving the cart off the fairway and getting us all lost in a thicket of birch trees, August 2006

...

DOW falling, unemployment and inflation rising, dollar falling, recession looming, debt collapse imminent. Wow, it's the economy, supid!  

Edwards had the message for workers in Ohio. Now it should be taken up by the Dem nominee, whomever he or she may be!

Will Edwards endorse anyone? Should he?

How sad.....

(02-22) 10:38 PST DALLAS (AP) --
A police motorcycle officer died after a crash while escorting Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade to a campaign rally.
"We are just heartsick at this loss of life in the line of duty," a subdued Clinton told reporters after the Dallas rally.
The New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate canceled her next appearance in Fort Worth, Texas, telling about 2,000 people who had gathered outside the Tarrant County courthouse that it would be inappropriate to campaign in the wake of the officer's death.
Instead, she went to Methodist Medical Center, where she planned to visit with the officer's family.
"It is important that we respect and appreciate their service," she said. "I certainly am grateful for all they do for me."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...

Russ Feingold: I voted for Obama.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2...

OK, let's go thru this again.

Pat said to me several months ago:

" So, I apologize once again for mischaractering people, though I stand by my perceptions of statements.  So, yes. I have interpreted your comments as racist as anti Jewish as anti religious, but I think if I have committed any faults, they are for more than those you have committed.  You are an astounding, creative, passionate, and misguided, conceited, arrogant human being.

Then today she wrote:

So, in my perception, Denise, Audrey, Linda in NM, Phil, Seashell, Indy, Tom, and others. We are not the enemy.  The qualities of thinking, speaking, feeling, and promoting that cause distrust, anger, fear, etc. are. 

Pat, you've known me over 40 years.  Have you thought all this time that I'm a racist and anti-semitic?  You know that I'm not, so what's going amiss with your "perceptions?"  You say you apologized yet in the next breath you take it back.

You talk about qualities of thinking, insinuating that your quality of thinking and your perceptions are correct, true, and Okey Dokey, whereas mine (and others) are not.  Just who exactly are the ones angry, frightened and distrustful?  If we post something you don't particularly like that doesn't agree with you, does that make us angry and fearful?  According to you, it does.

Perceptions can be very nasty and judgmental, Pat.  Interpretations about s/o else's intent or meaning can be foolish.  But of all people on this blog, you should know better than to label me in such a nasty way.  Please check the origins of your perceptions and consider that perhaps you may be projecting a little or a lot.  

(And just for the record, I didn't want to get into this on the blog.  But Pat won't respond to my emails.)

Perhaps, Pat, you're not grieving the loss of a 40+ year friendship, in which I trusted you like a beloved sister, and trusted you with my life, but I am.     

Mary more good news you bring to us today. Got any cannoli to go along with it??

Politics aren't worth losing friendships over. Friendships last forever. Politics change. Cherish friendships. That's all I have to say.....

I don't know what was said on the previous thread....and I'm not going back to look.

Err on the side of generosity and kindness...forgive and move on.

As Thankful reminds us:

kindness is free.

Seashell,

I didn't call you a racist.  I said I interpreted your remarks as arrogant, conceited and mistaken. I apologized.  The remarks still seem that way to me.  You said you didn't mean them that way.  I accept that.

My comments, thoughts,  perceptions are not necessarily correct either.  I'm not projecting; I'm not characterizing you.  You are responsible for your own words as I am mine.

I've asked you to please stop this, to stop with the recrimination, but you haven't and won't.  There's nothing more I can say.  

I'm grateful for a long friendship, have said so.  But friendshp, Seashell, requires respect, trust, honesty, loyalty, generosity, and shared values.  Those things don't seem to exist anymore.  I'm  truly sorry, and I well know that anger and grief are two sides of the same coin.   But, for me you destroyed trust, and while I wish you well, love your creativity and energy, your daring, so many good things, trust is forever gone.  It can't be rebuilt.  Though you have my good wishes.

2.
FRED from Ashland OR
Fri, 02/22/08

It could work either way for Obama. Some socially conditioned people will succumb to it and see him as inferior, and some will vote for him partially as a way to put a stake through the heart of that conditioning.

For them it is a struggle within.
-------------------

5.

FRED from Ashland OR
Fri, 02/22/08

"A struggle within" the original meaning of the word "jihad" before it became the battle cry of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.
****************

“Before” and...“after”!

Congratulations Fred!

19.

Indy Steve
Fri, 02/22/08


Politics aren't worth losing friendships over. Friendships last forever. Politics change. Cherish friendships. That's all I have to say.....
--------

Sometimes (if not all times) "struggle within” is stronger than even friendship.

85.

Phil Specht
Fri, 02/22/08

Reply to this

Racism is alive and well in America and will rear its ugly head many times before November Denise

posted by Evan Smith at 7:50 AM

(cross-posted at State of Mine)

I just finished a thirty-minute interview with Hillary Clinton -- it will air statewide next week, just before the Texas primary, on "Texas Monthly Talks" -- and among the topics we discussed was the controversy over whether the Michigan and Florida delegations should be seated at the Democratic National Convention. Remember that she won both states despite signing a pledge with the other Democratic candidates not to campaign there -- and remember too that, as a result, her name was the only name on the Michigan ballot. Here's is our exchange on the subject:
There’s been a lot of talk about what your campaign would do should it get to the convention. Would you commit today to honoring the agreement made earlier not to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations?

Let’s talk about the agreement. The only agreement I entered into was not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. It had nothing to do with not seating the delegates. I think that’s an important distinction. I did not campaign--

The press seems to have missed the distinction if that’s the case. The talk is that you agreed not to seat the delegation.

That’s not the case at all. I signed an agreement not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. Now, the DNC made the determination that they would not seat the delegates, but I was not party to that. I think it’s important for the DNC to ask itself, Is this really in the best interest of our eventual nominee?

[...] 

Besides, the true friendship can’t contradict to "struggle within”.

Pat I do hope that you try to make it to DemFest in August. You are someone worth getting to know better and I would love to meet you in person. I know we have some common ground in our pasts that would be nice to explore.

24.

former
Fri, 02/22/08
=======================

I guess you say the same thing about sexism and male chauvanism with regard to voting for Hillary.

Too bad that candidate Clinton still doesn't realize that she has no standing.  Elections are about the voters.

85.

Phil Specht
Fri, 02/22/08

Reply to this

Racism is alive and well in America and will rear its ugly head many times before November Denise

sorry about that unfinished comment. That was definitely the fault of the blog which stole the thing right out of my computer. Dang thing! Fix it!

anyway, my comment was Phil that I don't buy into that racism thing at all.

The more you keep repeating comments like that, verbally or otherwise, the more wings you give the small pockets of America that still need to have someone to look down upon. Women, blacks, latinos, Chinese, Indians, doesn't matter as long as they can rev up some support must like the religious fundamentalists need.

The voters have just proven that the overwhelming majority of this country want to move ahead of racism and sexism, be it with a black prez or a woman pres.

social conditioning does not only apply to white males. Many women suffer from inferiority from the same conditioning, and many African Americans struggle to see themselves as adequate and capable in a world dominated "ideal" models that don't look like them.

Hi

seashell :-)

Got your last response last night after my "goodnight."

Thanks, Denise.  I think we do have some things in common.

This whole thing has been hurtful, and I am largely responsible.  I've asked myself if I should have said anything, and I really don't know the answer.  I've had to deal with kids in a classroom who have made hurtful remarks and I have opposed that.  Something in me says we must oppose harmful words, but I don't want people to be harmed by my opposition either.

The Tao says that we must be ill to recognize illness, and then we heal.  In other words, we have to recognize the fear, anger, distrust, all those things that cause such human havoc, and then we can heal ourselves.  I have to think about that.

I am sorry for hurt feelings, for the dissension, I may have caused, but I still will oppose remarks that I feel are unfair, slanted, and harmful.  Nice paradox, eh?

Thanks again, Denise.

I'm off for a while. 

Cheers for Feingold, but why doesn't he just come out and endorse Obama instead of playing these games.

~~~~~~~~

It is obvious that Hillary Clinton's belief about the agreement she signed does not agree with any of the other candidates' beliefs. Being an attorney you'd think she would at least read the darn thing before spouting out such ideotic statements.

my comment was Phil that I don't buy into that racism thing at all.

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Joan, your Florida paradise is rife with racism, from cops intimidating black voters to purging voters lists of African Americans, to disenfranchising ex-felons who have "paid their debt to society".

Wake up and smell the fear............

WUFT FM classical music trivia question: Pianist Byron Janis's father-in-law was what Hollywood actor? Don't look it up. Answer tomorrow.

Pat in Colorado
Fri, 02/22/08
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Hell hath no fury like a womeans scorn"....................Linus '66

Indy wrote "Quit making things up. I never used any such terms about Edwards. EVER."

I apologize for the paraphrase "blown-dry gasbag."  Your descriptions were really much more colorful:

1) "the potato chip candidate....great tasting, no nutrition"; 2) "glitz over experience"; 3) "Edwards with his fake two Americas speech, smile and 'hope'"' 4)  "this potato chip"; 5) "I would rank Edwards at the bottom, only above Gephart"; 6) "a smiley guy" 7) " caters to the lowest denominator in politics"; 8) " good looks and phony 'two Americas' stump speeches"; 9) "main positive attributes are he looks good on camera and gives a good stump speech" and, to be cherished, the immortal 10) "Edwards is a phony."

There's an American Airlines flight that has a nose gear door problem being diverted to Miami (from a flight to Chicago). CNN has live film waiting for the plane to arrive.

It was going from Palm Beach to Chicago and it needs to burn off excess fuel so it can land.

I hope it's nothing real serious.

vb linked to Sen. Feingold's dKos diary "I voted for Obama."

I know this is exciting news for some people, but Linda thinks Feingold is just a member of the Senate's Good Old Boy Club, who wears rose-colored glasses.

17.

seashell :-)
Fri, 02/22/08

Reply to this

OK, let's go thru this again.

Pat said to me several months ago:

" So, I apologize once again for mischaractering people, though I stand by my perceptions of statements. So, yes. I have interpreted your comments as racist as anti Jewish as anti religious, but I think if I have committed any faults,...

===============================

Most people in this country are so brainwashed from birth to be biased in favor of Christians and Jews, they have no authority to judge someone who criticizes Israeli State policy and action.

Add to that empathy for the holocaust victims, and our Israel-biased filtered news media, and Pat should think twice, for such an intelligent communicator, to call any critic of Revisionist Zionist Israel "anti-Jewish."

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/23957...

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