GOTV!

Get. Out. The. Vote.

I Voted Today!

Yay! I went down to the City Hall and cast my vote for Obama. I felt all emo when I did it, like I was doing something important, something historic. It's the best feeling EVER! Go Vote!!!!























It was a cold rainy day today... I voted and then walked around the veggie garden that was planted in front of city hall for a Slow Food Conference a couple of months ago. Sadly they will have to pull it out soon, as it has to be guarded 24/7 or other wise be ravaged by our urban campers... don't worry, all the produce goes to local shelters.

In case you missed Obama's 30 minutes...

So informative, if anyone is wondering what Obama's plans are, send them this video. Wonderful... I feel like this is truly a historic time in our country, a time when we can change how we live, take a better, more humane, less materialistic course in life and restore compassion to our national agenda. Let's get out the vote people!!!!!!!

A Reason for Hope in Humanity

I've been sitting here, slogging through video after video of Americans in line at McPalin rallies spouting "he's Muslim, he's communist, he's an Arab," etc.( and worse) and getting very depressed about the state of ignorance and fear rampant in our country these days. And I ran across this much needed piece of hope and the triumph of reason and intelligence... hope you enjoy it as much as I did and may it send you off into todays activities with renewed faith that something good can indeed come of this...

150+ Professors Call Out McPalin's Racist Tactics

http://politicalcommunication.info/

In a nonpartisan statement headed by Professor Edward Schiappa, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota, more than 150 college professors have drafted a statement decrying the McCain/Palin's campaign for the overt racism and bigotry that they are currently engendering. A bold statement to say the least...

In recent weeks, the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin has engaged in such incendiary mendacity that we must speak out. The purposeful dissemination of messages that a communicator knows to be false and inflammatory is unethical. It is that simple.

150

VoteVets Commercial

The Importance of Fruit Flies

Apparently Palin and the GOP have no idea about how scientific research works. An why would they? They reject evolution for the belief that the world is 6,000 years old. Following is a wonderful diary from DailyKos from a scientist who explains it all...

Of Flies and Worms: Model Systems for Research
by mole333
Sat Oct 25, 2008 at 10:58:14 AM PDT

Sarah Palin thought she had a funny one liner about "fruit fly research" in Paris, France..."I kid you not." And golly gee, the crowd of right wing nuts she was speaking to guffawed on cue, yuck yuck yuck.

Sarah Palin, it's not useless earmarks. It's called science, that thing that leads to actual discoveries, gives America a competitive edge and actually cures or mitigates the severity of many human illnesses. I am sick and tired of Republican anti-intellectualism. Eisenhower would be appalled at the stupidity displayed by Palin and her audience. Republicans used to value science. Now they consider it nothing but the butt of lame jokes.

I am a research biologists at New York University's Medical Center. I don't work on fruit flies. I work on a model system I am sure Palin would find even more joke worthy. I work on worms. They are called model systems and amazing discoveries, not to mention Nobel Prizes, come from this kind of research.

* mole333's diary :: ::
*

On Kieth Olbermann, Richard Wolffe of Newsweek put it this way, and he says this is being restrained:

"This is the most mindless, ignorant, uninformed comment that we have seen from Governor Palin so far, and there's been a lot of competition for that prize."

I will not be restrained. It is not only ignorant, stupid and idiotic, but it is outright dangerous as it suggests that we should not be funding critical research done in model systems like fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) or worms (Caenorhabditis elegans).

What is a model system? It is an animal that is easy to work with and whose genetics is easy to manipulate and observe that can give us insights into human biology and disease. For details, go here.

Here is a brief description of model systems, particularly Drosophila as a model system:

In the 20th century, there were two decades during which Drosophila melanogaster was the most significant model organism and each decade led to the establishment of new scientific disciplines. The first decade was roughly from 1910 and during this period a small group at Columbia University, headed by Thomas Hunt Morgan, established the rules of transmission genetics with which we are all familiar. In the second decade, roughly from 1970, many of the principles and techniques of the earlier period were used to determine the genetic control of basic aspects of the biology of organisms, notably their development and their behaviour. In this review I will show that it was not only the genius of the research workers (five were awarded Nobel Prizes and it has been argued, with justification, that at least one more should have been awarded) but also the special features of D. melanogaster that led to these advances.

THAT is what Palin was deriding and the right wingers were guffawing about. And just what research in Paris might she have been laughing at?

Could it be the work of Yohanns Bellaïche on cell polarity in asymmetric cell division and differentiation, issues basic to developmental biology?

Or was it Bruno Lemaitre studying the mechanisms of microbial infection and host defense using Drosophila as a model system?

Or perhaps Jacques Montagne studying the integration cellular growth (i.e. cell size increase) and proliferation in coordination with nutrient availability?

And this just names a few. Each of these are key areas of research in development, immunology and/or cancer research. And Palin thinks they are not important.

Drosophila research began with Thomas Hunt Morgan who ultimately won the Nobel Prize for his work. Morgan dsicovered the phenomenon sex-linked—characters, which led to the understanding of sex chromosomes. Prior to this painstaking work in fruit flies we didn't understand how gender was determined.

Since then Nobel Prizes have been awarded for the following work in fruit flies: (not comprehensive)

Hermann Muller: 1946 for the discovery that X-rays cause mutations

George W. Beadle: 1958 for the discovery of the "one gene-one enzyme" theory of gene action...one of the most fundamental theories (though since modified) of genetics.

Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and Eric F. Wieschaus: 1995 for discovering how the very early stages of embryogenesis are controlled

Richard Axel and Linda Buck: 2004 who used Drosophila as part of their work identifying the molecular basis for the sense of smell (olfactory receptors)

I work in another model system. To Sarah Palin it probably is even more laughable than fruit flies. I work on microscopic soil worms called C. elegans. My research is in the role of insulin signaling in development and is getting to some very fundamental aspects of how organs develop and what controls the balance between cell division and cell differentiation, something that goes wrong in cancer.

But to Sarah Palin my work is just some unimportant work on worms. Microscopic worms, no less!

The originator of fruit fly research was Thomas Morgan. With C. elegans it was Sydney Brenner, who specifically set out to discover the ideal model organism. Nobel prizes awarded to C. elegans research includes:

John Sulston, Robert Horvitz and Sydney Brenner: 2002 for research into the genes that control development and cell death

Andrew Fire and Craig Mello: 2006 for discovery of an RNA-based method for controlling the expression of proteins

Martin Chalfie (sharing with others working in other organisms): 2008 for the discovery and application of Green Fluorescent protein...which has become one of the fundamental tools in all biological research and was the basis for my last four or five publications on protein localization of oncogenes in mammalian cells.

So my basic question is this: just what about all of this does Sarah Palin and the Republican Party find so objectionable?

For those who want to uphold science in the face of right wing attacks (and idiocy!), I can recommend three groups.

Union of Concerned Scientists: UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.

National Center for Science Education: providing information and resources for schools, parents and concerned citizens working to keep evolution in public school science education. We educate the press and public about the scientific, educational, and legal aspects of the creation and evolution controversy, and supply needed information and advice to defend good science education at local, state, and national levels.

Scientists and Engineers for America: Our mission is to facilitate evidence-based decision making at all levels of government. Our programs include both a short-term focus on the 2008 national elections – through the SHARP Network – and a long-term focus on building a more engaged and politically active scientific community – through SEA Chapters and the Campaign Education and Training program. Click here to become a member of SEA and to sign up for our daily Science Policy News Alerts!

Umm...

Opey, Sheriff and the Fonz are voting for Obama

This is cute...

Why Palin Would Be President

this morning I suddenly grasped a horrid, sinking realization of what is going on in the Republican Party: Sarah Palin, not John McCain, is the candidate. Please bear with me as I struggle to connect the dots of my erratic thought processes...

When my Kenyan friend first came to this country on a scholarship, he said the thing that struck him the hardest is that we, the USA, have a system of law in which (ideally) any person can have access to justice, a fair trial. This doesn't exist in Kenya, he explained. And what blew him away is that he saw that the reason this justice system exists, is that we all have collectively chosen to, and continue to believe in the rule of law. At that time, I had never thought of it in that way. That the only reason the justice system exists is that we, as a society, believe and uphold the concept of law. It is, indeed, just that fragile, and once the masses cease to believe it, or are duped into believing in a facade of it, it no longer exists. His words came back to me this morning.

This morning I was reading (thank you Daily Kos)an article published by the imminent author and journalist, Chris Hedges, The Idiots Who Rule America, I began to mentally debate my usual argument with those who, rightfully so, reproach the elite oligarchy of our country for getting us into the current state of affairs. And not just the past 8 years, but perhaps the past 50 or more. And that argument is this: that there will never be a class based revolution in this country because every citizen and immigrant (legal and otherwise) is vehemently, and , as we have seen more and more lately, sometimes violently clinging to and invested in the belief that one day THAT will be ME. One day I will be a member of that rich, elite class, the American Dream, I will have it all. It's only a lottery ticket away, or.... I will invent something and sell my idea to Apple or IBM, or... I'll score a big record deal, or... I'll get on a reality show and launch a Hollywood career, or perhaps, less so now than in the past, I can work hard and catch a lucky break.

No matter how you slice it, Americans are invested in a life long fantasy of striking it rich and joining the ranks of the upper class. Even as, in the real world that exists outside our heads, the gap between the classes widens and the middle class disappears, Americans will never overthrow and abolish that very thing that they, with a fervor surpassing religiosity, fantasize about obtaining.

This is why the concept of socialism is NEVER understood in America and can be conjured up a a tool against Obama, or whatever public figure you want to demonize. The idea of socialism is always equated with communism and met with a stubborn refusal to educate oneself on the differences between the two, and thus realize what the fuck one is actually talking about. Threaten the belief in an American's fantasy world that the lifestyle of the rich and famous can soon be theirs, and you might get a knife in the back. Or a candidate assassinated.

That is why there will never be a revolution in America and the country will disintegrate, rot away from the inside while half of us write, protest and wring our metaphorical hands, the other half lays down willingly to be the stepping stones of the religious-diatribe-spouting oligarchy.. and strew our lawns with dead bear cubs, hang racist effigies, slash our tires and spit in our faces if we try to wake them up. They fight for their ignorance... to wake up would be to strip away everything they cling to- psychologically, economically, religiously and, gee whiz, you might have to actually think for yourself!

Sarah Palin, I am convinced, was picked by the party, not by the candidate. She consistently echoes the right wing extremes of the party line (and if you want to see the nastiness at heart of the Republic Party, just go check out their website) even if McCain, who himself, perhaps unconscionably foreshadowing what will come by proclaiming that he is not popular even within his own party, may try to advance a more reasonable rhetoric. People think Palin is being used by the machinery... I suggest it's the other way around. She, and the GOP, are using McCain in their desperate attempt to win and maintain control of the Oval Office. And, my friends, this incarnation of the GOP is far more dangerous than even the inept "incompetarchy" of the Bush administration.

Where Bush can be seen as bumbling, Palin is coldly calculating. The similarities are rife, however.. a faux populist identification, accomplished with fake homey accents, folksy catchphrases and an appeal to be, in Bush's case "a guy who you want to sit down and have a beer with" and with Palin, someone you invite "to sit at your kitchen table."

OK, we all know that, but here's the crux...McCain as president would be the impotent, puffed up figurehead while Palin, as Cheney, will operate the country to the party's pleasure. And all those pseudo Joe-the-plumbers will get their guns out of their closets and defend the GOP to their death, or more likely, ours.

This is my new realization... that this, yet another wholesale charade that is being promulgated by the GOP and their god-addicted, fist-pumping constituency, is rising with every hate-filled speech on the campaign circuit to maintain a divided populace and destroy all chances of real revolution in the policies and structure of our government.

My only hope is that with the election of Obama, the tide can begin to shift. Not that I am expecting any real revolutionary changes to be made, but maybe, just maybe, people can be enticed to lay aside their fear and reactionary politics and step into the light... a society of reason, discourse, intelligence, examination, compassion and justice. That is the system I choose to believe in. And hope for.

Contribution dislosure? More GOP LIES!

What will McCain/Palin NOT do to try to discredit Obama? Every accusation they have made has been either gross misrepresentation of facts or straight out lies.
1)ACORN you say? Well first of all, that's not voter fraud, and no arrests have been made... meanwhile CEO of a company hired by Repubs has been arrested today in Canada for voter registration fraud committed in CA and across the country.
2) Ayers: Not only is the Annenburg Foundation a McCain supporter stronghold, but two of the folks who worked with Ayers on his grant are now working for McCain. There's more....McCain's staffer Timmons is under investigation for working/lobbying for Saddam Hussain while the US was at war with him, Gordon Liddy is a convicted terrorist, another McCain staffer is under investigation for war profittering.
3) McCain totally lies about Obama's tax and health care plans.
4) Socialism? I can't even go there because we all know that corprate welfare adds up to billions of dollars. Why is that not called socialism? Redistribution of wealth? What do they think taxes are anyway? It makes my head hurt to realize how stupid people truly are....
5) Joe the not-a-plumber... ugly
6) Now this campaign contribution shit... want to see just how transparent the campaigns really are? I mean, who would let a little thing like FACTS get in the way of good campaign rhetoric? It seems that third party evaluation finds that Obama has provided almost half the amount of undisclosed donation as McCain. I mean, how can they spout off this shit and not think that people can look up the facts online, very easily and quickly.
Go here... Obama McCain
And then campaign director Davis injects a little Arab-terrorist angle by stating the Obama is "selling T-shirts all over the Gaza strip" this comes in from our good friends in Russia...

On a day on which McCain campaign manager Rick Davis hinted that Obama was taking foreign money, the Russian Mission to the United Nations has released a standard-issue fundraising letter gone a bit astray: It was addressed to the Russian envoy to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, at the mission's address, but without his title. [...]

"We have received a letter from Senator John McCain with a request for a financial donation to his presidential election campaign. In this respect we have to reiterate that neither Russia's permanent mission to the UN nor the Russian government or its officials finance political activities in foreign countries," the statement said.

Here's a list of all the newspapers who have endorsed Obama...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/20/144828/87/833/635803
California

Daily Breeze (south of LA) (first Dem in decades)
San Bernadino Sun
Stockton Record (first Dem in 72 years)
Tri Valley Herald (Pleasonton)
San Francisco Cronicle
LA Times

Colorado
Denver Post

Florida
Naples Daily News
Orlando Sentinel (OK, they endorsed Kerry, but he was their first Dem)

Illinois
Chicago Tribune (first Dem, ever)

New Jersey
Asbury Park Press

New Mexico
Las Cruces Sun News

New York
Daily News (NY)

Ohio
Canton Repository

Oregon
Yamhill Valley Sun News

Pennsylvania
Express Times

Texas
Austin American Statesman
Bryan Eagle
Houston Chronicle

Utah
Salt Lake Tribune

Washington
Columbian (Vancouver, WA)
Yakima Herald-Republic
Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Journal

Why Obama?

Oh, so THIS is why I don't like Sarah Palin?

During his presidential campaign Mike Huckabee expressed a set of opinions not strikingly different from Sarah Palin's, yet my guess is that if he were John McCain's running mate these same women would not despise him with the same vehemence they do Sarah Palin. Some of this is due to snobbery, some possibly to envy.
Governor Palin is, after all, a good-looking woman with what appears to be a happy family life who has achieved a great deal in a relatively brief time. But above all Sarah Palin's opinions, because they are held by her, a woman, suggest betrayal.

This stuff astounds me... so irresponsible, so wrong. This amazing observation is made by conservative columnist Joseph Epstein in The Weekly Standard, a repository of right wing thought and punditry. He goes on to state that the reason we feminists support abortion rights is so we ca kill kids with Downs Syndrome!?! This kind of stuff is out there, people read it, subscribe to it and repeat it faithfully:

Strongly liberal women get most agitated over the issue--though of course to them it is no issue but a long since resolved matter--of abortion. Abortion, to be sure, is the great third-rail subject in American politics. But when a male politician is against abortion, these women can write that off as the ignorance of a standard politician, if not himself a Christian fundamentalist, then another Republican cynically going after the fundamentalist vote. A woman not in favor of abortion is something quite different.And it is all the more strikingly different when the same woman not only holds this opinion on abortion but acts on it and knowingly bears a child with Down syndrome, a child that most liberal women would have thought reason required aborting. What else, after all, is abortion for?

the Weekly Standard
It is amazing to me that this kind of ignorant rhetoric is upheld highly at all levels of society, by even the most educated persons. For a great analysis, I found Bill Maher's show on Friday night, in which they were discussing the McCain campaigns' new strategy of labeling Obama as a Socialist. Martin Short, comedian, talked about how he grew up in Canada... "What's with all the fear?" he asks. (he starts around 7:20)


So what IS the deal with all the fear? There is definitely two Americas... one that lives in anger and in constant, overwhelming fear of everything around them, everything that is somehow different, challenging, intellectual or intelligent, so that it prevents them from seeing what is actually REAL about the world. I know, it's an age-old tactic that no one seems to question or either be ashamed of promulgating. Om Real Time, Senator Bernie Sanders, a Socialist-Democrat, Ben Affleck and Martin Short discuss this and other issues in the most reasoned and intelligent hour of discussion that I have heard in a very long time. Check it out!

What Colin Powell Said

Reporter: Sir, what part did McCain's negativity play in your decision, the negative tone of the campaign?

Powell: It troubled me. We have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. So those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about, not about Mr. Ayers, not about who's a Muslim or who's not a Muslim. Those kinds of images going out on Al-Jazeera are killing us around the world.

And we have got to say to the world, it doesn't make any difference who you are or what you are, if you're an American, you're an American. And this business, for example, of the congressman from Minnesota who's going around saying, "Let's examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America or not pro-America" -- we have got to stop this kind of nonsense, pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and in our diversity. And so, that really was driving me.

And to focus on people like Mr. Ayers and these trivial issues, for the purpose of suggesting that somehow Mr. Obama would have some kind of terrorist inclinations, I thought that was over the top. It was beyond just good political fighting back and forth. I think it went beyond. And to sort of throw in this little Muslim connection, you know, "He's a Muslim and, my goodness, he's a terrorist" -- it was taking root. And we can't judge our people and we can't hold our elections on that kind of basis.

So, yes, that kind of negativity troubled me, And the constant shifting of the argument. I was troubled a couple of weeks ago when in the middle of the crisis, the [McCain] campaign said, "We're going to go negative," and they announced it, "We're going to go negative and attack [Obama's] character through Bill Ayers." Now I guess the message this week is, "We're going to call him a socialist, Mr. Obama is now a socialist, because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have."

Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who paid them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there is nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more, who should be paying less. And for us to say that that makes you a socialist, I think is an unfortunate characterization that isn't accurate.

I don't want my taxes raised. I don't want anybody else's taxes raised. But I also want to see our infrastructure fixed. I don't want to have a $12 trillion national debt, and I don't want to see an annual deficit that's over $500 billion heading toward a trillion. So, how do we deal with all of this?

John McPenguin

Wow... this is so right-on it's scary!

Maybe Plumber Joe shoulda kept his mouth shut

Joe the Plumber:
*is not a licensed plumber
*is not a union member
*owes over $1000 in back taxes (guess the IRA knows where to find him now)
*is a registered Republican (and NOT an undecided voter)
http://cbs2.com/national/plumber.taxes.registered.2.842376.html
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/16/111449/53/191/632401
Doesn't the Republican party know we can check public records online these days? And shame on the national news media for not vetting this guy before flying him out to every morning "news" show in the country.

Meanwhile...
http://cbs2.com/national/late.show.john.2.842268.html

No One wants to be seen as a Republican...

OK, this is really interesting:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/13/1626/2826/599/628926

I LOVE Daily Kos, because people from all over the country write in with their views and experiences.
Here's some more good news:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/13/113110/70/338/629179
My second cousin is working for Obama in Georgia. He is one of the few white and democrat people in his small town, and he gets all kinds of threats, I'm sure. So good job Byron! It's easy to work for Obama here in San Francisco, but you have to really fight against ignorance in other places of the country and I am proud of my cousins, brother and sister-in-law for supporting Obama!

In addition, get some facts on ACORN:
http://tocquedeville.dailykos.com/
I heard an interview with one of the federal attorneys fired by Gonzales, David Iglesias. He was pressured by Republican members of his district to investigate voter fraud. He found only one irregularity... a woman who was being paid by the signature who was making up names to get paid more. I said to prove a charge of voter fraud, someone has to actually vote using a false name, And further, to prove a charge of intent to fraud, you must show that the person was motivated to subvert the election. In this case, the criminal's intent was to make herself some extra money, she could not have cared less about the election. The charges of voter fraud were dropped... other charges applied, but not voter fraud. If I remember correctly, this was the one and only case he found, after spending thousands of taxpayer dollars investigating phony reports. You can hear for yourself... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95489844

Now for some good news...

check out this diary

Pennsylvania McCain Rally, October 8th

Are you kidding me?!?! Republicans need to be ashamed and stand up against this kind of behavior!

The Annenberg Foundation supports guess-who?

http://jimmy-crackcorn.dailykos.com/
In 1968 William Ayers was leader of the Weatherman, a well known domestic terrorist organisation.
In 1993 William Ayers, Anne Hallett, and Warren Chapman decided to apply for a grant from the Annenberg Foundation for $49.2 Million to improve and reform Chicago's public schools.
In 1994 Ayers, Hallett and Chapman gathered a 73-member Chicago School Reform Collaborative Working Group from organizations involved in school reform to help them draft a proposal which was submitted to Vartan Gregorian, president of Brown University, for review and approval. Adele Smith Simmons, Deborah Leff, and Patricia Albjerg Graham helped negotiate its approval by Gregorian.
In 1995, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was awarded the $49.2 millon grant by the Annenberg Foundation.
Who are these scary people that showed such poor judgement that they were willing to fund and work with a known domestic terrorist? Republicans who support McCain.
See who it is...
http://jimmy-crackcorn.dailykos.com/

State Prosecutor regarding Ayers:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/10/75743/461/414/626076

The Real McCain

Make-Believe Maverick
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty
TIM DICKINSON
Posted Oct 16, 2008 7:00 PM
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print

McCain/Palin tactics truly frighten me

Honestly... this kind of hate-mongering is so dangerous! What are they doing?!?!?! Is this what McCain calls "reaching across party lines?"

Please write your congress persons, your news media outlets, and tell them how dangerous this is. I also wrote to Gov. Arnold and Senator Leiberman, trying to appeal to their consciousness.
I also wrote the Republican National Congress with the following letter:
Chairman@gop.com,
Info@gop.com,
Political@gop.com,
Counsel@gop.com,
ecampaign@gop.com
Dear Madames and Sirs,
The kind of hate speech that we hear being condoned, encouraged and agreed upon during McCain/Palin rallies is truly frightening to me. McCain speaks of uniting congress and the country. Is this how he means to do it? Is this "country first"? By inciting crowds of people to rise up against the government? Honestly, this is scaring the shit out of me. What is going to happen if Obama wins? Are all these crazy socialist-fearing folks that you have been encouraging going to come out of the wood work and, god forbid, try to hurt him in the name of "freedom"? McCain should have corrected the speaker in this video and toned the fervor down. This is highly irresponsible. At this time we need to be coming together, not being divided. Why are you taking this tact?!? Doesn't anyone see how dangerous what you are doing is? Why won't you stop this kind of campaigning? I am truly afraid for our country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuSYHnVpYbs

PLEASE! think about what you are doing and rise to a higher level. For the sake of our country.

NYT editorial condemning McCain/Palin hate mongering

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/opinion/08wed1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Please read this. Palin's hate speeches are unapologetically triggering racial divisiveness wherever she goes. In Florida a man was heard to shout "Kill him" during her railings against Obama. This is serious stuff. The good news is that the Secret Service are investigating this incident fully.

Senator Biden was on the Early Show this morning speaking out against Palin's methods:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7K20RiBJeMQhhTZUST64ABObHjAD93MAIU00

More information about Sarah Palin's frightening religious beliefs:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/20/171755/145

Republican Clears Obama on Ayers

[Needs Attention!:] Republican Clears Obama On Ayers!(Audio)

by JustForTheRecord

Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 10:11:20 AM PDT

Uh-oh...Ayers won't work anymore (There goes the kitchen sink, I guess here comes the table)...Some republicans from Chicago are saying what most of us knew all along. Bill Ayers was a commonly acceptable figure in Chicago by everyone--Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans. Are they all America hating, terrorist loving traitors to America?!

In fact, this NPR piece speaks to the Republican funded cause that Obama and Ayers worked on together. And that:

"It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier," said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. "It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

More Below The Fold!

• JustForTheRecord's diary :: ::
• 
  

Yesterday, in a rehash of the MSM acknowledged issues of the day, NPR did a short piece on Obama and Ayers. Fortunately for many, they made news.

First, Obama began working with Ayers and others (Republicans, Independents, and Democrats) at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Well, what is the Anneberg Challenge? Who is Annenberg? Well according to NPR,

The Obama campaign says he first met Ayers in 1995, when Obama became chair of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million fund that awarded grants to groups trying to implement new programs to improve inner city education in Chicago.

Walter Annenberg, a lifelong Republican and former ambassador who was appointed by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, funded an ambitious program to reform urban education in many cities in the mid 1990s. Ayers was an important member of the group that developed and wrote the grant proposal to the Annenberg Foundation.

Second, there were people of all political persuasions working on this effort with this "terrorist" Ayers and who saw him as acceptable and Obama was no closer than any of the others.

...no one on the board or on the Annenberg Challenge staff remembers Obama being any closer to Ayers than to any other member of the board. The Annenberg board also included several civic, business and education leaders, many of them Republicans...

In fact one person close to the issue states:

"I don't remember ever hearing anyone raise concerns or questions or concerns about [Ayers'] background," says Anne Hallett, who has worked closely with Ayers on the Annenberg Challenge grant and with Obama on education and other community and legislative matters. "And that included everybody I was engaged with," including prominent Republicans, and corporate and civic leaders in Chicago, Hallett adds.

Oh, really?!

So not only was Obama working on a Republican funded initiative, but prominent Republicans were involved on the board with Ayers. Do they all hate America so much that they are "palling" around with terrorist? He had been in their midst for years, why did not the republican's run him out of town.

Obama was new to Chicago. He hadn't been elected to anything. He really did even know where the bodies where truly buried in Chicago (evidenced by the thumping he received when he ran for the state senate). He just wanted to serve the community and do good work. However, Ayers had been there for years, building a reputation that was so mainstream that a life long Republican, who was a former Ambassador appointed by Nixon and Regan, allowed the release of $50 Million to let him, prominent Republicans, corporate, civic leaders, and a Harvard trained community organizer form a board to oversee the disbursement of these funds related to school reform.

And finally, the author notes:

Hallett calls this attack on Obama's association with Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge by further association, "a smear campaign. It's a political diatribe that has no basis in fact. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was an extremely positive initiative. It was well-vetted, thorough, and the fact that it is now is being used for political purposes is, in my opinion, outrageous."

And as noted earlier a former Illinois Republican state representative states:

"It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier," said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. "It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

I don't have a transcript. However the article provides the link to the audio.

My purpose hear is to have Kossacks spread the word, because most of the right leaning center and many independents don't even listen to NPR. In fact, many Kossacks don't have time to listen to NPR now either, because we are all out canvassing, phone banking, and supporting a democratic victory that has the governing power to finally "shake things up in Washington, gosh darn it" and get a bit "Marvericky" on it!

Rec'd this diary. Digg the story. Email it to everyone you know, and get it in the hands of more in the MSM, so that they can fight this racist attempt to destroy Obama and make him unacceptable as president and literally put his life in danger.

Now, not only, can we fight this with an emotional and logical appeal of the unfairness of guilt by association, but also with factual appeal that no one including Obama (Democrats, Republicans, or Independents) who all love this country like Obama does, saw Ayers for his acts 20 plus years earlier, but as another person trying to do God's work to better the future of children from some of the toughest meanest areas of Chicago.

Not Drilling Yet...

A tiny blurb from SFGate.com:

Drill, baby, drill - but not just yet: America's oilmen are not racing to the nation's coastlines, rigs at the ready. For one thing, they think the recently lifted drilling moratorium ban may come back.

Chronicle energy reporter David Baker dug up this nugget of news at the Independent Petroleum Association of America annual conference in San Francisco on Monday. "We don't consider the lifting of the moratorium a done deal," said Bruce Vincent, vice chairman of the group that represents less-than-Chevron-size oil companies. "A new Congress and a new president could reinstate (it) at any time," said Vincent, who is president of Swift Energy Co. in Houston.

But the latest opinion polls aren't the only reason for going slow. Fact is, the federal government won't start selling offshore drilling leases in newly opened areas until at least 2011. Then there's the minor matter of the financial crunch. Credit is harder to get, especially as oil companies see their net worth shrink along with the drop in oil prices. "It will impact ... our ability to keep drilling," said Buddy Kleemeier, chairman of the IPAA and president of Kaiser Francis Oil Co. in Tulsa, Okla.

"I don't want you guys to think we're going to be in Santa Barbara in four months," said Barry Russell, the IPAA's president.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/07/BUL713C93P.DTL