Thursday, May 01, 2008

THIS JUST IN! SUPERIOR JUDGEMENT?

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE.
 
"I'VE BEEN TO THE MANSION," BARACK OBAMA WAS SAYING INTO THE CAMERA, "AND FROM WHERE I SEE IT, THE LAST THING AMERICANS NEED IS A GAS TAX HOLIDAY.  JUST STOP DRIVING.  SHOW SOME DISCIPLINE."
 
 
THESE REPORTERS WERE INVITED TO WATCH THE TAPING OF BARACK OBAMA'S NEXT SERIES OF ADS.  AFTER HE WAS FINISHED, HE SPOKE BRIEFLY.
 
"I PROVED MY SUPERIOR JUDGEMENT YESTERDAY," HE SAID SIPPING BOTTLED WATER OUT OF ONE SIDE OF HIS MOUTH. 
 
WELL, HE PROVED IT TAKES HIM 20-YEARS TO MAKE A DECISION.  THAT IS HOW LONG HE HAS KNOWN JEREMIAH WRIGHT.
 
"TIME DOESN'T MATTER," HE INSISTED.  "I SHOWED I HAVE THE SUPERIOR JUDGEMENT.  I WILL NOT ALLOW PEOPLE LIKE THAT AROUND ME."
 
 
SUDDENLY BARACK HAD TO GO.  HE INSISTED HE NEEDED TO MAKE "WEE WEE" AND WASN'T TRYING TO AVOID US OUR QUESTIONS.
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  Iraq War resister Ehren Watada will be the topic Friday at Carleton College (1 North College Street, Northfield, MN).  Esther Pak (Carleton News) reports:
 
Dr. Vijay Prashad will present a convocation entitled "Watada's Election: Asian Americans and These Asian Wars" on Friday, May 2 at 10:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Prashad's presentation will examine Asian Americans, the Iraq War, and the upcoming election, with reference to Hawaii-born First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, who was the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the Iraq War and occupation. Following the convocation, Prashad will sign copies of his books, which will also be available for purchase at the event at a 15% discount. Prashad's appearance is free and open to the public.
 
The presentation is scheduled to last one hour.  In February 2007, Watada was court-martialed and Judge Toilet (aka John Head) ruled a mistrial over defense objection as the defense was about to present their side (Watada was taking the stand and suddenly Head felt a stipulation both the defense and the prosecution had agreed to, one Head has not only signed off on but explained to the jury, was 'prolbematic,' Watada was prepared to testify, Head stopped the trial).  Due to Judge Toilet's ruling, the Constitution's provision against double-jeopardy should have kicked in.  Judge Toilet immediately announced a new court-martial would take place in March (2007) but, of course, it didn't.  A civilian court found (in November) the double-jeopardy argument compelling and Watada's legal status is currently in limbo.  He continues to report for duty on base despite the fact that his service contract expired in December 2006.  It's long past time for the military to stop their persecution of Watada and discharge him.
 
While he waits, so do US war resisters in Canada who are hoping to be granted safe harbor status and the Canadian Parliament will debate a measure this month on that issue. You can make your voice heard. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use.         

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
 
[. . .]
 
Turning to the US presidential race, this morning on NBC's Today Show, Andrea Mitchell reported  on Barack Obama's speech and remarks yesterday on his mentor, friend, and pastor of 20 years Jeremiah Wright.  Mitchell noted the changes in tone throughout Obama's remarks on Wright since Barack declared his intent to run for the Democratic presidential nomination and noted, "Critis say he should known better" regarding Wright.  On CBS' The Early Show, Bob Schieffer explained, "The question now is will people him?" Him is Barack. Schieffer listed the questions people would be asking such as, "Why didn't he know about all this before? Why didn't he stop going to the church?"; and wondered, "Will this be enough?" Meanwhile Carol Marin (Chicago Sun-Times) noted of Barack, "And he still had nothing new to say, just what he'd said before, that some of Wright's comments 'offended me, and I understand why they have offended the American people'."  Marin observed:

This isn't the first time the campaign has waited out a problem, declining to take a controversy by the horns.  
It took a relentless chorus of Chicago media almost a year to finally get Obama and his people to deliver long-asked-for documents and answer what were, at best, incompletely answered questions about his former friend and now-indicted fund-raiser, Tony Rezko. He finally did so in March.  
There are judgment questions, fair ones, to be asked about Obama's past dealings with controversial people.  

Barack spoke out against Wright only because he was tanking in the polls over Wright and because he was offended by what Wright said of him:
 
What I had heard was that he had given a performance. And I thought at the time that it would be sufficient simply to reiterate what I had said in Philadelphia. Upon watching it, what became clear to me was that it was more than just a -- it was more than just him defending himself. What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that -- that -- that contradicts who I am and what I stand for. And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me and anybody who knows what I'm about knows that -- that I am about trying to bridge gaps and that I see the -- the commonality in all people.
 
Desperado (Houston Chronicle) notes that unanswered questions and the "many different versions of answer" that Barack has provided, before declaring: "A focal point is Wright being "uninvited" to the announcement of Obama's presidential candidacy. In an interview with the New York Times, Wright had this recollection of the disinvitation, from RealClearPolitics:
'Mr. Wright said that in the phone conversation in which Mr. Obama disinvited him from a role in the announcement, Mr. Obama cited an article in Rolling Stone, "The Radical Roots of Barack Obama."  According to the pastor, Mr. Obama then told him, 'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we've decided is that it's best for you not to be out there in public'." The Rolling Stone article was from the February 22. 2007 issue and was entitled 'The Radical Roots of Barack Obama', a title later changed to 'Destiny's Child'".  Dan Balz (Washington Post, link has text and video) notes that US Senator Evan Bayh (Hillary supporter) has warned that the Republicans would try to make an issue of Wright in the general election.  Of course they will.  Last week North Carolina's GOP began running ads on Wright.  John McCain, the presumed GOP nominee, may or may not call for the ads to cease but North Carolina ignored him (as is their right) and others will as well.  The damage isn't just to the top of the ticket if Obama is the Democratic nominee.  The North Carolina GOP targeted Obama supporters.  That will take place across the country in a general election should Obama be the nominee.  The people he has brought in from outside the Democratic Party have proven repeatedly that at least 30% of them are unwilling to vote in other Democratic races -- they show up, vote for him and leave the rest of the ballot blank. That's bad news for every Democratic race in November 2008.  That's before others are smeared for Barack's lack of proper judgement.  (To put it mildly.)  He is a drag on the entire ticket, he runs off the base and his nomination risks the Democratic control of Congress and Democratic state and local offices across the country.  A new CBS News - New York Times poll finds Obama's negatives on the rise and Hillary faring better in a match-up against John McCain.  In 2004, Dems just knew they'd reclaim the White House.  They didn't.  Having reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in 2006, they party needs to smarten up and realize what a drag on the ticket Barack will be.  Wright is not going away, not during the Democratic primary and not, were Barack the nominee, during the primary.  The only way to put the matter to rest is to back the candidate Democrats are overwhelming backing, Hillary Clinton.  CBS and AP report (text and video):
 
Clinton also reiterated her previous remarks about Wright that she would not have stayed in the church after hearing the comments. She said it was up to voters to decide how the controversy over Wright impacts the campaign.  
O'Reilly asked Clinton to describe how she felt "when you hear a fellow American citizen say that kind of stuff about America."  
"Well, I take offense," Clinton said. "I think it's offensive and outrageous. I'm going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. It is part of just, you know, an atmosphere we're in today."  
Meanwhile, Obama was scrambling on Wednesday to put his presidential bid back on track a day after a public denouncing of Wright and both Democratic candidates pushed onward in a nomination struggle that appears to be dividing the party.
 

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