"3 a.m. girl" = Obama supporter

This is too good not to pass along. Remember that "who do you want answering the phone at 3 a.m. ad"? Remember this sleeping girl? According to a report on KING5, an NBC affiliate station in Seattle, Washington: The first girl in the ad is young Casey Knowles. It's stock footage from 8 years ago when she worked as a TV extra - footage owned now by Getty Images and used by the Clinton campaign. Here's Casey today. She's 17 years old and an Obama supporter (and will turn 18 well before the general election in November). "It's perfect timing because I have a candidate that I really identify with,"; she said. "I've been campaigning for Barack Obama for a few months now," she said. "I was actually a precinct captain at the caucuses a few months ago. I attended his rally a few months ago and I'm, a very, very avid supporter." The Knowles family admit they have no control over how the footage is used. And while they see the humor of it all, they are mildly annoyed. "I think it would be really wonderful if me and Barack Obama could get together and make a nice counter ad," she laughed.

Hillary Ain’t No Obama

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeI just do not understand why Hillary sounds so hollow and insincere. When she is on the stump, her presentation lacks passion and conviction. So why is she still in the race? I think it is the politics of fear and dirty tricks. The 3AM phone commercial is an example of how she rolls. She doesn't try to convince you she is good, she tries to scare the hell out of you. Always insinuating what will happen when a Black man is in charge. She even claims McCain will make a fine Commander in Chief but Obama will be totally inept at it. The longer the campaign continues, Hillary shows just how far she is willing to sink to win the nomination. In this aspect, she is no different from Rove and Bush. Bush showed how low he was willing to go to defeat McCain in 2000 and again against Kerry in 2004. If you ask me, with that kind of track record, Hillary Clinton is not fit for office.

Over A Barrel

OPEC blasts U.S., stands pat Vienna, Australia (AP): OPEC said it will not put more oil on the global market despite record-high prices for crude, blaming the U.S. for economic "mismanagement" it said was having a global effect. Oil prices surged past $104 a barrel for the first time after the announcement and the release of a surprise drop in crude stockpiles. The dollar sunk to record lows, with the euro fetching $1.53, in a first. Ouch. Can you say "lame duck"? Bush really got punk'd by his Saudi buddies, huh? Still, thank God for the lousy economy. It might be the only thing that saves us from a McCain presidency. Usually, when people have already made up their minds, they will stubbornly ignore common sense and vote for the wrong candidate for the wrong reasons. To be blunt, if it's not effecting them personally, controversial issues such as abortion, global warming, Katrina, and the war in Iraq are vague abstracts that are happening to somebody else. Except when it's the economy. It's a hard reality that can't be ignored. Unless you're rich, you're the new guy in Oz being sodomized in the showers every goddamned day. So, voting for the Grumpy Old White Guy who's telling you that everything is fine just the way it is doesn't make a lot of sense. Not when there's a dollar in your wallet dying of loneliness. Hell, even voting for a black guy or a woman for President might be a better idea.

David Schuster Needs A Halo

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeSo I am up early working on my charity, BooksForSoldiers.com (donate), while watching Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. This morning David Schuster was on and discussing the race for the Democratic nomination. Joe kept spewing, as he usually does, utter bullshit and David kept sticking to his "common sense" talking points. One issue they kept arguing over was Hillary vs Obama in the general election. Joe kept saying that since Hillary won Ohio, Obama will probably lose in a contest with McCain. Schuster assumed the WTF attitude and said the contest between Obama and Hillary has no bearing on how a contest in the general election will turn out. Scarborough was adamant about how Obama would be a disaster. And so it went most of the early morning. The good side of this is Joe Scarborough is no longer in Congress. I assume this is the same level of critical thinking Scarborough used in his legislative career. No wonder things are so screwed up. The sad thing is, those that followed Scarborough in Congress were worse. Not just in his old district, but all over America, lesser brains in the GOP infused themselves into Congress - some so backward thinking they made George W. Bush look like a genius. Thankfully, some of that stupidity has been waning since the 2006 election. By the huge turnouts and independent support of Democratic candidates, it looks like even more Republicans will be swept out of Congress this fall. And they even put Dennis Kucinich back on the ballot. Good news all around.

It's Alive!

A Landslide of One

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeAs of this writing, Clinton gained one delegate from last night but is still behind in the total delegate count. After watching Hillary's speech last night, I found it remarkable that she portrayed it as a landslide night. Four states, millions of votes and a she gained one delegate overall. One.

This is what "experience" gets us?

Via AMERICAblog "I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002," Clinton says. Er, no. The *correct* response, as we saw during any one of the earlier debates, is, "Of course any one of us here on this stage would be a better president than John McCain." And by the way... Maybe I've been slow on the uptake, but this didn't occur to me until I saw it discussed recently. (Can't recall exactly where at this point) --Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996. --Clinton was sworn in as United States Senator on January 3, 2001. So, Hillary has held one elected office, and she has spent less time as an elected official than Barack Obama. How the hell does she get away with claiming that she has soooo much more experience? I look forward to having a woman president one day. But I'm more than happy to wait for one I can actually feel proud of.

Was it Bill or Hillary?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeBill is slick and I mean that as a compliment. He has to be one of the most effective politicians of the 20th century. Even the folks who hate him the most always admit that Bill has uncanny political skills. Bill could take any bad news and turn it into a golden ray of sunshine that you bought into and placed on your mantle - right next to the grandkids. But we often wondered if it was Bill who was the political mastermind or Hillary? Was it really Hillary who was the one moving the Clinton Machine forward, over seemingly insurmountable obstacles? While sitting around the dinner table during the holidays - over the years I have heard it explained that Bill and Hillary are the same. I used to agree with this idea, but no longer. Bill is more akin to Obama in his ability to communicate than Hillary ever will. Bill could take any microphone, at any rally where it was raining, snowing or bitter cold and somehow cheer people up - give them a glimpse to a more perfect future. Hillary not so much. As much as she tries, as much effort as she puts into campaign, I have never had her inspire me to do anything except drop my support for her. Her campaign's tumbledown started almost a year ago in Selma and has failed to move people ever since. Yes, she has her core supporters, but there is a movement afoot and she is not at the middle of it. Obama is. Tomorrow will tell the tale. Texas and Ohio will deliver their results. We will need to wait and see how it all washes out.

Mr. 19%

Is This What We're Fighting For?

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal, as well as the Wild Wild Left, Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust. A picture is worth a thousand words. This is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani together in Baghdad, today. Americans are fighting, suffering post traumatic stress disorder, permanent injuries, dying and killing innocent civilians to help establish an Islamic Shiite fundamentalist axis in the Gulf. Likely Republican nominee John McCain promises more of the same. Hillary Clinton enabled President Bush and John McCain to pursue this strategic calamity out of sheer political expediency. Yet Clinton has the temerity to suggest she has superior credentials to be commander and chief? Both Clinton and McCain represent more of the same. It's time for a change. Enough said.

Oops

Police concerned about order to stop weapons screening at Obama rally By JACK DOUGLAS Jr. Star-Telegram Staff Writer DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena. The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security. Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on. "Sure," said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a "friendly crowd." The Secret Service did not return a call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment. Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked. Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection. They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event. "How can you not be concerned in this day and age," said one policeman. I remember years ago when I walked into a store to buy a newspaper and I saw on the front page the news about how three white men in Jasper, Texas tied James Byrd naked to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to his death. There was another black man in the store who looked to be around my age and I heard him say in a voice choked with rage, "This is 1998! This ain't a hundred years ago! This shit ain't supposed to be happening!" He and I looked at each other and we understood, even though we were strangers, that we shared a painful history of loss and heartbreak. We remembered Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and those four little girls who died in a church in Birmingham, Alabama, and we realized that the brutal racism that killed those people so long ago wasn't gone and that it killed James Byrd. We were shocked, confused--and angry. The white guy behind the cash register appeared nervous. Thinking back on that terrible day, I thought, No, it's not a hundred years ago, but if a black man hitchhiking on a dark country road can be lynched, a black man running for President can still be assassinated. And it scares the hell out of me.