quote:

Originally posted by kresge:

That would really shake things up.

Now that's an understatement!!

It's ticket I would bounce to the polls to vote for .... but, I think too many people would have a heart attack and fall over!

That Mr. Obama is being a very busy man these days!

Famed pastor defends invitation to Obama

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 29, 9:02 PM ET



Famed pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren on Wednesday defended his invitation to Sen. Barack Obama to speak at his church despite objections from some evangelicals who oppose the Democrat's support for abortion rights.

Obama is one of nearly 60 speakers scheduled to address the second annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church beginning Thursday at Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

Obama, who is mulling a run for president, plans to take an HIV test during his appearance Friday and encourage others to do the same. The Illinois Democrat will be joined by a potential 2008 White House rival — Republican Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record) of Kansas — and is urging unity to fight AIDS despite differences on other issues.



Conservative evangelical Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, e-mailed reporters Tuesday to protest the visit because of Obama's support of abortion rights. "Senator Obama's policies represent the antithesis of biblical ethics and morality, not to mention supreme American values," Schenck wrote.

Saddleback responded with a statement acknowledging "strong opposition" to Obama's participation. The church said participants were invited because of their knowledge of HIV/AIDS and that Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," opposes Obama's position on abortion and other issues.

"Our goal has been to put people together who normally won't even speak to each other," the Saddleback statement said. "We do not expect all participants in the summit discussion to agree with all of our evangelical beliefs. However, the HIV/AIDS pandemic cannot be fought by evangelicals alone. It will take the cooperation of all — government, business, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and the church."

Obama declined an interview request. But in a statement, he said while he respects differing views on abortion, he hopes for unity "to honor the entirety of Christ's teachings by working to eradicate the scourge of AIDS, poverty and other challenges we all can agree must be met.

"It is that spirit which has allowed me to work together — and pray together — with some of my conservative colleagues in the Senate to make progress on a range of key issues facing America," Obama said.

Brownback, who has close ties to conservative Christians, responded to the dispute with a statement also calling for unity. "To win the fight against AIDS we must each set aside our differences and join together as human beings from all political, religious, and nonreligious walks of life, fighting for the lives of people who are suffering and dying," he said.

Though still in his first term in the Senate, Obama has attracted national attention for his fresh face, commanding speaking style and compelling personal story. He also has encouraged liberals to engage in religious discourse and not leave the topic to conservatives to claim as their own.

While in California, Obama also plans a Friday night appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" to promote his best-selling book, "The Audacity of Hope."

The senator met with the rapper Ludacris in Chicago on Wednesday and the two discussed "empowering the youth," according to the artist, whose real name is Chris Bridges. Obama declined comment after the meeting.

As part of the lawmaker's consideration for a presidential run in 2008, Obama will make his first political visit to New Hampshire on Dec. 10 for a celebration of the state Democratic Party's victories in the congressional, gubernatorial and legislative races.

Obama has traveled to Iowa, site of the leadoff presidential caucuses, but New Hampshire hasn't been on his itinerary.

The race for the Democratic nomination is considered wide open, and at least a dozen potential contenders are weighing formal bids, including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

___

On the Net:

Global Summit on AIDS and the Church: http://www.purposedriven.com

And so it begins.

CNN Apologizes for Mistaken Headline

Date: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
By: The Associated Press, APonline



NEW YORK (AP) - CNN apologized Tuesday for mistakenly promoting a story on the search for Osama bin Laden with the headline "Where's Obama?"

A spokesman for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said the apology was accepted.

The blunder came Monday evening on Wolf Blitzer's news show "The Situation Room." Both Soledad O'Brien and Blitzer offered separate apologies during CNN's morning show Tuesday.

CNN called it a "bad typographical error" by its graphics department.

"We want to apologize for that bad typo," Blitzer said. "We also want to apologize personally to Sen. Barack Obama. I'm going to be making a call to him later this morning to offer my personal apology."

Tommy Vieto, Obama's press secretary, said he appreciated the bloggers and activists who brought the error to light so quickly and helped make sure it was corrected.

"Though I'd note that the 's' and 'b' keys aren't all that close to each other, I assume it was just an unfortunate mistake, and don't think there was any truly malicious intent," Vieto said.

That's one.

Not counting all the crap Limbaugh 'puts out there' daily.

He's gettin' around to it'.

It's coming.

PEACE

Jim Chester

Yeah ... these kinds of "blunders" really make you think.

It occurred to me today that many a Republican strategist would love nothing more than to see Obama throw his hat in the ring, as it would almost surely (im)mobilize the Black vote against any of the other contenders with a much better chance of winning than their nominee.

No doubt the tricks are just starting. After all, it is more the you-know-who-owned media that's really kicking up all the fuss and keeping the frenzy of him even considering running in the forefront of political news.

I'm sure this is all being weighed by thee Democratic powers-that-be ... except their kinda busy right now trying to razzle and dazzle the country with their newfound power. I hope there's still somebody paying attention, though.

After all, it is more the you-know-who-owned media that's really kicking up all the fuss and keeping the frenzy of him even considering running in the forefront of political news.---EbonyRose

Precisely!!

The goal is to prevent an Americzn os African ancestry from getting into the fray.

The power potential is awesome.

A effect, across the fruited plain, of a candidate with clearly African ancestry, will devastate the political landscape.

PEACE

Jim Chester

The Hutchinson Report: All the Hype About Hillary or Obama for Democratic Nod Should Remain Just That - Hype

Date: Friday, January 19, 2007
By: By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

Last December, presumptive presidential candidate Barack Obama slipped into presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s Manhattan turf to schmooze with the Democratic Party’s liberal and left money shot callers. Obama didn’t tell Hillary he was there. But then, why would he? Both of them think that they might have to duke it out with each other to get the Democratic Party bid for the White House in 2008. Obama has taken the first step and set up his exploratory committee, and that almost certainly will force Clinton’s hand.

But talk about their presidential top spot will and should stay just that -- talk.

First, let’s take Obama. Even he recognizes that much of the talk about his candidacy is more media talk than voter talk, and he said as much in his statement announcing his committee. But media inflated hype is hype because there’s not much else to report, or news rooms are simply looking to titillate the public with celebrity doings.

If Obama is judged on his record, there won’t be much to go on. Apart from his speech at the Democratic National convention in 2004 that created the first buzz, we’d be hard pressed to name any meaningful piece of legislation he’s rammed through the Senate, any break new ground foreign policy statement he’s uttered, or point to any particular diplomatic coup he’s scored with a foreign leader. The brutal truth is that Obama is too new on the political scene, too untested, too politically nice, too liberal and most of all, he’s an African-American. That’s simply too many strikes for anyone to seriously think he has a real shot.


If the Democrats, in a moment of delirium, shoved Obama to the head of their presidential heap, they can kiss off 170 electoral votes before the first ballot is cast. That’s the number of electoral votes in the South and the border states. That turf is still mostly white, conservative, male, pro war, anti-big government, vehemently opposed to any political tilt to minorities and is heavily influenced by ultra-conservative, Bible Belt fundamentalism. That has been the bread and butter ticket to the White House for GOP presidents Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. It will be the same for a GOP centrist-conservative again in 2008.

There’s even grave doubt that Obama can bag the majority of black votes. In polls and surveys, blacks have been lukewarm at best toward him. Again, he’s just too new on the scene, too foreign sounding and looking for many of them. They suspect that he’s a flash in the pan and will wilt under pressure.

As for Hillary, unlike Obama, she has phenomenal national name recognition. She can raise tons of money. She’s morphed into a stateswoman like, seasoned centrist politician. She’s the consummate party insider. But she’s still, well Hillary, and to top cat Republicans licking their wounds over their midterm debacle, she’s still their made-in-heaven balm. Hillary is a living, breathing wedge issue. Like Obama, the Democrats can also kiss the South and the Border States goodbye with her at the top of their ticket.

The talk about an Obama and Hillary showdown, or even more preposterous, an Obama and Hillary ticket (not sure in which order) has captured the imagination of some who think, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently mused, that America is ready to elect a black president. Others, and that includes Hillary for one, think that America is ready to elect a woman president.

This is more delusion.

Of course, when pollsters ask voters about the importance of gender and race when they vote for president, anybody that doesn’t wear a white sheet or sport a Nazi swastika tattoo will swear that they don’t vote color or sex. After all, who wants to come off looking and sounding like a bigot these days? Yet, even at the risk of the gender bigotry tag, far more voters in a 2005 CNN poll said they were “more likely” to cast a vote against Hillary than for her.

In any case, it’s a far different story when voters in large swaths of America step into the privacy of the booth. Color and gender still count, and count big for many.

The Democrats are convinced that they are within striking distance of snatching the White House and that Hillary and Obama are the best, or at least the best known politicians, and their brightest stars for now. But a shining star looks pretty in the sky. But in earthly voting booths it’s a far different matter. If either one or the other, or even more disastrously for the Democrats, both together, are the presidential top cats, their shine will tarnish fast. Hillary and Obama are good to get the tongues wagging, but that’s about all.

---

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of “The Emerging Black GOP Majority (Middle Passage Press, September 2006).”

Obama's bid for presidency has finally made our prime time free-to-air mainstream television news... only a few minutes coverage... but now Obama has slipped into the broader Australian consciousness as would-be first black president. Most people here have never heard of him.

It was interesting to watch part of his speech and see and hear Obama speak for the first time.

Typically, the only public comment/reaction from our prime minister was to slam Obama's idea to bring home US troops by March next year.
.

Obama hits back after Australian PM slams his Iraq stance

Story Highlights• Australian PM John Howard slams Barack Obama over opposition to Iraq war
• Howard says if he was al Qaeda, he would pray for Obama victory
• Obama: "empty rhetoric" unless Howard Sends 20,000 Australian troops


CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday that victory for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his party in next year's presidential election would be a boon for terrorists.

"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats," Howard said, speaking on "Sunday," a TV show on Australia's Nine Network.

March 2008 is when Obama has said he would bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, according to legislation he introduced in the Senate.

Obama, who represents Illinois in the U.S. Senate, declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in a speech on Saturday in his home state. (Obama makes his announcement)

Howard -- who faces reelection this year -- is a staunch supporter of President Bush and committed Australian troops to help the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Like Bush, Howard has come under increased criticism at home for supporting the unpopular war.

Australia has more than 1,000 troops in and around Iraq, many in non-combat roles.

Obama, campaigning in Iowa, told reporters Sunday he's flattered that one of Bush's allies "started attacking me the day after I announced (his presidential run) -- I take that as a compliment."

The Democratic presidential hopeful said if the Australian prime minister was "ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq," he needs to send another 20,000 Australians to the war.

"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric," Obama said.

The Illinois Democrat dismissed the suggestion that his election would help terrorist groups, noting that even the Bush administration's "own intelligence agencies have indicated that the threat of terrorism has increased as a consequence of our actions over there."

When asked about Howard's comment, a senior White House official voiced support for the Australian leader.

"Prime Minister Howard knows that setting a timeline for a withdrawal sends the wrong signal to our enemies and sends the wrong signal to the Iraqi people," the official told CNN.


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/11/obama.comment/index.html

Yes, Obama he IS that stupid.

quote:

The Democratic presidential hopeful said if the Australian prime minister was "ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq," he needs to send another 20,000 Australians to the war.

now don't you start giving him ideas!

quote:

Howard -- who faces reelection this year -- is a staunch supporter of President Bush and committed Australian troops to help the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Dammit ER, now thanks to you, everyone knows the truth we've been trying to hide from y'all!!
.

I don't think I ever recall a foreign head-of-state interjecting himself so directly in U.S. electoral politics.

that the White House would basically co-sign the comment, is .... well to be expected of this White House.

Happily, there are some positives about John's ridiculous outburst...

1. Lots more publicity for Obama
2. A focus on intelligent (Obama) vs idiotic (Howard) in both dialogue and content
3. Lots more focus on how rapidly we need to vote out all of Bush's allies ~ and if there were any doubters over here.... proof positive
4. An even bigger hike up in the ratings as prefered Prime Minister and party, for Opposition leader Kevin Rudd

Interesting times... I can almost feel a hint of change and positivity in the air.

Isn't it the Chinese Year of the Golden Pig ~ the golden pig only happens every 60yrs or something... it's about renewal and change! Dare to dream....
.

quote:

Originally posted by FireFly:

quote:

Howard -- who faces reelection this year -- is a staunch supporter of President Bush and committed Australian troops to help the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Dammit ER, now thanks to you, everyone knows the truth we've been trying to hide from y'all!!
.

Ohhhh ... so y'all are part of the "coalition" are you?? Yeah, well, any friend of Bush's can never be a friend of mine!!

I wish you luck in your change of government!! Believe me, I know what it's like to have a moron in office! And if Obama is already making friends across the oceans ... well, that's a very good thing!

quote:

Originally posted by TruthSeeker:
I don't think I ever recall a foreign head-of-state interjecting himself so directly in U.S. electoral politics.

that the White House would basically co-sign the comment, is .... well to be expected of this White House.

I can only imagine how good Bush and the U.S. has been to Mr. Howard. Everybody else in the world knows that doing something like that is probably political suicide right about now!!

Is Obama an imperialist? Glen Ford says: " No one but a deep-fried imperialist could describe U.S. behavior in Iraq as "coddling" the Iraqis, as Obama said to an establishment foreign policy gathering in Chicago, late last year." I don't get down with imperialists or imperialism.

In the article he also says "African Americans were perceived as different than the arrogant, racist "ugly Americans" - the whites that strutted around other people's nations as if they owned them. In the early years of the Vietnam War, there were many reports of Viet Cong attempts to spare Black American soldiers' lives, if practical, as an acknowledgment of shared suffering under white rule. When Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, in 1979, African Americans were soon released, along with female staffers."

With people like Rice and Powell, and possibly Obama in positions of power will black folks be the new ugly Americans?

quote:

Originally posted by EbonyRose:

quote:

Originally posted by TruthSeeker:
I don't think I ever recall a foreign head-of-state interjecting himself so directly in U.S. electoral politics.

that the White House would basically co-sign the comment, is .... well to be expected of this White House.

I can only imagine how good Bush and the U.S. has been to Mr. Howard. Everybody else in the world knows that doing something like that is probably political suicide right about now!!

If "we" are lucky, we'll get a new Prime Minister called Kevin. We can only hope....
.

quote:

Originally posted by Santana St. Cloud:
With people like Rice and Powell, and possibly Obama in positions of power will black folks be the new ugly Americans?

Good question, Santana St. Cloud!!

Time magazine recently did a story on Condi. And along with a couple of other things I've read and seen, I tend to think that a lot of people internationally see Condi and Powell as more of pawns within the Bush Administration. People that are paying attention can see that Black folks generally are not supportive of this Admin ... and by extension, those minions that stay up underneath him.

Now that Powell is gone, he's likely of out of the line of fire ... but, it's pretty much widely known internationally that Condi has no power ... she's just a Bush mouthpiece, talking soft and saying nothin'

Now, as for Obama ... I think he'd be on his own ... different policies, different politics. Unlike most (Black) people, I'm not expecting him to be some great champion of African American rights and causes, proudly carrying the Red Black and Green as he represents America. He will be more on the side of the "little people" as opposed to the corporatists, the have-nots as opposed to the haves, and towards the minority sector ... which, let's fact it, is us! But, he is half White and half Black ... half African and half American.

So, why so many people are surprised he's split down the middle, I can't understand. And I have a hard time conceiving why they would expect any less.

This is a rather long, not always flattering, but very intesting look at Obama's ascent into politics by the Chicago Tribune!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obam...1,57567.story?page=1

MAKING OF A CANDIDATE

Obama knows his way around a ballot
Some say his ability to play political hardball goes back to his first campaign

By David Jackson and Ray Long
Tribune staff reporters

April 3, 2007, 6:48 PM CDT

The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.

Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.

But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.

A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

One of the candidates he eliminated, long-shot contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights.

"Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?" Askia said. "He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?"

In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot."

But the unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had been set up," Obama recalled.

"I gave some thought to … should people be on the ballot even if they didn't meet the requirements," he said. "My conclusion was that if you couldn't run a successful petition drive, then that raised questions in terms of how effective a representative you were going to be."

Asked whether the district's primary voters were well-served by having only one candidate, Obama smiled and said: "I think they ended up with a very good state senator."

Obama behind challenges
America has been defined in part by civil rights and good government battles fought out in Chicago's 13th District, which in 1996 spanned Hyde Park mansions, South Shore bungalows and poverty-bitten precincts of Englewood.

It was in this part of the city that an eager reform Democrat by the name of Abner Mikva first entered elected office in the 1950s. And here a young, brash minister named Jesse Jackson ran Operation Breadbasket, leading marchers who sought to pressure grocery chains to hire minorities.

Palmer served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and interviews.

But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat.

Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.

"I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differently."

His choice divided veteran Chicago political activists.

"There was friction about the decision he made," said City Colleges of Chicago professor emeritus Timuel Black, who tried to negotiate with Obama on Palmer's behalf. "There were deep disagreements."

Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunting task of taking on an incumbent senator. Palmer's elimination marked the first of several fortuitous political moments in Obama's electoral success: He won the 2004 primary and general elections