R.I.P.  Abe Osheroff.  Sincere condolences goes out to your family and friends.

         JM in NY

NC is being targeted with fundraising phone calls now. I told the caller that I already give to the DNC and DFA.
I would give a lot to Obama if I were sure Howard Dean would be the VP. He said Howard Dean was great.

Hey, he's not only great, he's no. one by a mile.

7:05 PM EDT

in memory --

Abe Osheroff:

http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/images/releases/297_0.jpg

7:06 PM EDT

ex-president taxpayer-funded welfare --

-- maybe it's time for some reform ?:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9531.html

By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 4/10/08 6:32 PM EST

The Clintons have made a $100-million fortune since leaving the White House, but a Politico analysis found that hasn’t kept Bill Clinton from taking full advantage of the publicly funded perks offered to ex-presidents.

In fact, his presidential retirement benefits cost taxpayers almost as much as those of the other two living ex-presidents combined.

The price tag for Clinton’s federal retirement allowance from 2001 through the end of this year will run $8 million, compared to $5.5 million for George H. W. Bush’s and $4 million for Jimmy Carter’s during the same period.

Since 2001, Clinton has received more of almost every benefit available to former presidents — from his pension to his staff’s salaries and benefits to supplies. His $420,000 phone bill and $3.2 million office rent tab both nearly surpassed the totals rung up for those purposes by Bush, Carter and the late former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan combined. As a group, they spent $484,000 on telephone service and $3.8 million on rent in the same span.

The figures come from congressional reports studying the presidential retirement program and from summaries of annual budget requests by the U.S. General Services Administration, which administers the program, created to allow former presidents to enjoy dignified retirements without having to take jobs that demean or commercialize the presidency.

...

7:22 PM EDT

know your roots - tonight 9PM EDT on MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23760280/

Today show

Doc Block

-Meeting David Wilson Web site
-MySpace site
-MSNBC press release

  Race in America: More headlines

In the year of Barack Obama, there is much discussion of the state of race relations in America. But many other race-related topics are barely being discussed. Read NBC Senior Vice President Mark Whitaker's essay on the subject and then tell us what's going on in your town or community.

An MSNBC event
April 11, 9 p.m. ET

David Wilson was a 28-year-old African-American man from Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in a tough, urban neighborhood, but managed to navigate his way out of poverty and into the world of news production in New York City. Now, meet another David Wilson: a 62-year-old white man from rural North Carolina. He grew up in Caswell County, where his ancestors once farmed tobacco. He now operates a small chain of BBQ restaurants in nearby Reidsville. Although they have never met, the two men share more than just a name...

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., MSNBC will premiere "Meeting David Wilson," the remarkable and inspiring story of a young man's reconciliation with his ancestors' history as slaves. The world premiere of "Meeting David Wilson," will be hosted by "Today" Correspondent Tiki Barber and followed by a 90-minute live discussion of racial issues in America.

That's just great!!!!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ME_RETAIL_SECURITY_BREACH_NHOL-?SITE=NHCON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Hannaford Bros. yanks ads from TV station for reporting

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The Hannaford supermarket chain says it's pulling advertising from WGME-TV.

The Scarborough-based company says it's doing that for what it calls "aggressive" reporting of a security breach that put the credit and debit card information of millions of consumers at risk.

WGME says it asked Hannaford if its coverage included any factual errors, but Hannaford only says the coverage has been too "aggressive." The station says it made several attempts to ask Hannaford for more information, but got no response.

A special thanks also to Constitutional Scholar Jonathan Turley for explaining just how immoral and "illegal" this all is!

That is like citing Johnney Cockren for criminal justice. Just because a dude named Jonathan says it is illegal to interrogate terrorist does not make it so. Jonathan, yeah, thats who I want protecting us from attack.

How Obama is getting to single digits in PA:



Campaignng with Pittsburgh Steelers Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris, along with Sen. Bob Casey... just like I hoped he would!

GObama!

Hm, how do you post a picture?

-- volney

I guess no one is watching Keith and the big breaking Obama story.

John Dean is a paragon of virtue.

re: created to allow former presidents to enjoy dignified retirements without having to take jobs that demean or commercialize the presidency.

I'm not sure I'd call Bill's retirement dignified - lately, anyway.  and it's obvious he's been 'commercializing the presidency', so I think it's time to cut his allowance.  and he doesn't need it anyway - their 'nest egg' should do them just fine, if Hillary doesn't break the bank running until the convention.  it seems the Clintons fade from my esteem each and every day lately. 

What's the big breaking Obama story and how do I post a picture?

-- volney

nope, just got home from doin' some 'puter work for a friend.  thanks for the heads up, sea.  I'll go turn it on.  later...  ;)

my condolences to all of Abe's many family, friends and admirers.  thank you for a life well spent, Abe.

and thank you, Danny.

What more do they need to start impeachment?

Bush: "I Was Aware" of Harsh Tactics
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041108U.shtml
For ABC News, Jan Crawford Greenberg, Howard L. Rosenberg and Ariane de Vogue report, "President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al-Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday."

Is this the big Obama story? Telling supporters:

‘‘You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years. ... And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.’’

What is false in that statement? In what way is it different from Howard's "guns, God and gays" statement?

Hillary Clnton is the champion of small-minded bigots everywhere. I think we need to appeal to all people to think bigger and outside their comfort zones, which is the only way we'll ever solve the melanin-fixation problem in America.

-- volney

8:52 PM EDT

Is this the big Obama story?

...

+++

volney -

If that is the "big" story -- it's a yawner to me.  There's more important things to deal with (ie. GE stock fell by 14 % today, a bellweather of the recession starting to really get going, 200000 bank layoffs are expected soon, etc.).

Wake up PA voters !

Drive by post.

Just had a very upsetting incident on the road. Let me back up. There were some teenagers flirting in another car ten minutes prior to the incident so when a car pulled by me then passed me I thought it was my lucky day (LOL) another flirt. Well, the guy slammed on his breaks and was flipping me the finger. He was swerving back and forth and continued to slam on his breaks forcing me to break. This went on for several minutes. Finally, I held my phone up to take a pic of his license plate (which can't be made out unfortunately) and started to dial 911. Then he sped off. I have an Obama magnet on my car -- this must be the reason. I was going 55 in a 50 mph zone. Can you imagine going 55 and then slamming on your breaks? Good grief.

Fox - Jon Turley is brilliant.  few know the Constitution like he does.  I've listened to him (and others of his caliber) for hours in detailed testimony when the minority dems were still relegated to holding 'hearings' in the basement of the Capitol building (bless you, CSPAN!).  the evidence has been collecting - the laundry list of impeachable crimes was at about 9 then and I'm not sure how many more they are investigating by now.  DOJ has had crack teams working on this for at least 4 years.  if it isn't impeachment, it will be crimnal court.  not to mention what the Hague may be preparing to take on.  when it all comes together, hold onto your hat.

{ { { {mary vb!} } } }

glad you're okay! 

EXCERPTS FROM BARACK OBAMA INTERVIEW

On the N.C. economy:

"North Carolina in some ways is representative of what's happened around the country. You've got a high-growth sector of the economy based around research and development and technology and finance. But then you also have a rural economy and an economy of small-town America that has been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs."

On trade with China:

"What I'd like to see is that first of all we enforce the agreements that we have in place. So if you are seeing China subsidize its steel industry for example and then dump steal in this country, that's a problem. If they are devaluing their currency to disadvantage our exporters and advantage their exporters, that's a problem. If we are seeing them steal our intellectual property or not enforce basic laws, that's a problem."

On economic transition:

"I think that some jobs won't come back to the United States, and we should be realistic about that. The key is to make sure that we are building off those industries where we're competitive and that we're constantly developing new industries and training our workforce to be a part of those new industries."

On Blackwater's activity in Iraq:

"I am deeply concerned about Blackwater, in particular the immunity that they've had from prosecution where Blackwater operators are engaging in inappropriate activity.... It's critical that we not endanger our troops because of the misbehavior of private contractors. I also think just as a matter of principle that the use of private contractors -- who are getting paid much more than our enlisted men and women for doing tasks that in some cases are much less dangerous -- is a problem. ... I'd like to have much more careful oversight of how they are used and I don't think that we should continue our heavy reliance on private contractors in the future."

http://news.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?a=337177&z=42

 mary, yikes!

I have these jc stickers in my back window and so far, not one incident has occurred. Guess I'm lucky.  Sounds like he was targeting you for the Obama magnet... what a jerk!

I don't know what the 'big breaking Obama story' might have been - but I did hear this afternoon that the Philly old guard is quite upset that he won't be handing out street money - Monica left this great vid on the last thread about his success in SC while not playing that game.  what he did in SC was tell them that instead of street money he would rent the vans and buy the food and they could come work the voter lists with them and get out the vote their way. ONEAL, the fellow in the video, is quite a guy - he really wanted to help Obama so he raised money, started BARACKOBAMAQUE and proceeded to feed the Obama volunteers at the local campaign office.  his truck is great advertisement - it's painted up nicely and his logo is the Obama logo with a chef's hat.  watch the video - it's great to see his enthusiasm for a new way to campaign!  ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mp7K-tizRI

and here's the skinny on Philly street money:

Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who has built his candidacy on the promise of a “new kind of politics,” has run up against the old kind of politics in Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Obama’s refusal to pay “street money” to volunteers in Pennsylvania’s largest city may cost him support in the state’s April 22 primary.

Local party leaders in Philadelphia expect candidates to deliver cash to help them get out the vote, the Times says. Teens who hand out leaflets typically get a $10 bill, while more experienced volunteers can get up to $100. The total for America’s sixth-largest city could come to $500,000.

“This is a machine city, and ward leaders have to pay their committee people,” ward leader and Obama supporter Carol Ann Campbell told the Times.

Obama often rails against the influence of money in politics, and his campaign has told Philadelphia officials they should expect no street money.

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/04/11/philly-suporters-to-obama-pay-up/

Barack Obama's battle to win the soul of blue-collar America suffered a major blow Friday when he claimed small-town Pennsylvanians "cling to" God, guns and hostility toward immigrants to cope with their bitterness over the economy.

More.....................

 "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama told supporters at a San Francisco fundraiser Sunday, according to a transcript posted on the Huffington Post blog.

"It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he added.