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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 6952
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 01:49 pm: | 
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Hillary and Race Relations: GOP Tactics that Threaten the Democratic Party
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-schumacher-and-debbie-bookchin/hillary-and-rac e-relation_b_95231.html
Jim Schumacher and Debbie Bookchin
The Huffington Post
April 8, 2008
As left-leaning Americans living in Italy, we're often called upon by European friends to explain what happened to the America they once knew and loved. The theme of these inquiries is all too predictable: the mess in Iraq, a failed health care system, a tanking currency and a domestic economy that consistently snubs the average working person. The Bush/Cheney United States is no longer a model for western-style democracies, our friends tell us. With its hobbled economy and arrogant foreign policy, America has lost its claim to world leadership in every sense.
Until recently we felt we had at least one credible retort. The U.S., we asserted, is significantly more progressive than Europe in the area of race relations. In Europe, people of color are still routinely subjected to discrimination, publicly and privately, that most Americans would find backward and offensive. Compared to Europe, the U.S. is an enlightened society: We are far less likely to judge or be judged by race, religion or ethnicity; we're more integrated. No one is surprised, or cares, if their boss, co-worker, professor, doctor or banker is black, brown, red, or yellow. The U.S. presidential race is a perfect example: Name a single European country, we'd say, where a politician like Barack Obama would be taken seriously as a national candidate, let alone win primary after primary.
But after watching this same presidential campaign during these past few weeks, we no longer feel our claim to these bragging rights is unassailable. In her desperation to win at any cost, during the month of March and now April, Hillary Clinton has disinterred an ugly American skeleton, one that most of us from the generation that came of age during the Civil Rights era hoped we had finally entombed: You can still frighten a lot of white Americans into voting against a black candidate -- enough, anyway, to win a primary in a state like Ohio and perhaps Pennsylvania.
The Clinton campaign, its tinge of inevitability long vanished, has only one potent message left in its arsenal as Hillary slogs on to the convention. Cleverly packaged and cunningly encoded, the message is nonetheless simple: Obama can't win a general election. Why? Because he happens to be (whisper) "a black man." And, even if he says he's a candidate that appeals to all Americans, we all know (smirk, smirk) that average white Americans (not the latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, Birkenstock-wearing types) just won't vote for a black man for president. It's not that they're prejudiced; they're just not yet "comfortable" with the idea.
So what's a losing campaign to do? First, pigeon-hole Obama as the "black folks" candidate, who has no real appeal beyond a "narrow" segment of the electorate. Hence, we have überstrategist Mark Penn and Bill Clinton spinning ad nauseum that Obama is only winning because of African-American support and that his victories are, as such, insignificant compared to Hillary's. In this new electoral math a la Clinton, black votes are no longer "separate but equal," they're actually worth less than white votes, a return, as it were, to the original valuation assigned in the Constitution to each slave: three-fifths of a white citizen. The subtext, even while cloaked as "electoral strategy," is racist at its core: your vote doesn't count if you are black and happen to live in a "red state." Never mind that African Americans have been the most loyal Democratic constituency for more than forty years and that any Democratic nominee will need an enthusiastic and large minority turnout nationwide in order to win in November. And never mind that any thoughtful analysis of the results so far suggests that Obama may be assembling a new electoral coalition, a different one than the Clintons and other centrist Democrats have relied on for the past 20 years.
Next, remind everyone repeatedly just how uncomfortable some black people make the rest of us "average" Americans feel. Thus, the Obama campaign has found itself facing any number of over-blown controversies, such as the meaningless media dust-up over whether Michelle Obama was sufficiently patriotic when she said that for the first time in her adult life she was really proud of her country, or the Geraldine Ferraro incident in which Ferraro was allowed to paint herself as a victim of reverse discrimination after her tawdry attacks on Obama last month. To be fair, the Fox and MSNBC talking-heads are the source of many of these scurrilous assaults. But the Clinton team's silence when such attacks are aired, especially in response to Ferraro, Hillary Clinton's own finance chair, has been deafening.
As is often the case when racial bogymen are invoked, the tarnish applied to Obama is guilt by association -- and in this application, Clinton's brushstrokes are clearly visible. In Ohio, during a televised debate, we heard Senator Clinton complain that Obama wasn't forceful enough in denouncing Louis Farrakhan, whose support Obama never sought and whom he had publicly repudiated. Now, in Pennsylvania Senator Clinton and surrogates have made the Jeremiah Wright issue an ongoing campaign theme, with Clinton piously announcing that she would never join Wright's church. Guilt-by-association, of course, is a wonderful "wedge" issue. Nothing need be said overtly; the imagery is what counts. In this case, the notion is that if Obama's pastor was an "angry" and "confrontational" (translated together as "scary") black man, then Obama may actually be the second coming of H. Rap Brown. And, of course, there's that Muslim middle name of his. And the picture of him in the head garb. And he studied the Koran. Do you really want a nominee like that?
There is much to lament here. First, this tactic works with some portion of white voters, suggesting that the racial gap in the U.S. still remains wide. Second, since it works, and since the entire Clinton strategy is to make Obama appear unelectable, we can expect plenty more of it during the coming weeks from Clinton and her surrogates. We are witnessing an astonishing spectacle: a Democratic presidential candidate, the wife of a former Democratic president who professes to have a deep connection with African Americans, condoning -- if not actively exploiting -- racial divisions and misunderstandings in order to win the nomination of a U.S. political party which has a half-century history of promoting racial equality.
In doing so, not only does the Hillary Clinton campaign repudiate the Democratic Party's post-1960s history, it threatens to destroy the party's chances of recapturing the White House. Indeed, there is talk that there will be a repeat of Chicago 1968 should Clinton lose the popular vote and pledged delegates, as seems quite likely, yet still "win" the nomination based on superdelegate support. But another historical comparison also comes to mind from 150 years earlier. At its 1852 presidential nominating convention, the Whig party split over the issue of slavery. Four years later, the national party ceased to exist, with the anti-slavery Whigs having joined the new Republican Party.
It would be an ironic coda to the Clintons' supercilious boast that they have done more than any other couple to strengthen the Democratic Party if the result of Hillary's campaign is not only to lose the general election but create an irreparable split within the Democratic Party itself. But that is where the divide-and-scare tactics that her handlers have borrowed so adeptly from the Republican playbook are headed. Should the superdelegates succumb to the pressures emanating from the Clinton campaign, hundreds of thousands of Obama supporters may feel much the same way McCarthy supporters and anti-war activists felt in 1968.
Hillary is betting that if she becomes the superdelegate nominee, blacks and liberals will have "no place else to go" and will fall into line. But if Hillary's race-card politics make them feel sufficiently disenfranchised, these Obama supporters may abjure Hillary and sit out the general election altogether. Worse still for Democrats, they may see the party as no longer relevant: a moribund party hijacked by the Clintons' ambition, one that lacks the vision so desperately needed to revive our democracy, a party better left behind and replaced with one built on a new politics of unity and hope.
"Polls: 'Race Helps Clinton With Whites'" (AP):
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jVp8jvZjNqaQKRDGM2Xdt0zCII7AD8VT7GB80 |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 6956
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 04:27 pm: |
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Clinton has lost ground among white voters & men in Pa.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama continues to chip away at Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, a new Quinnipiac poll out Tuesday showed.
The New York senator's lead over Obama now stands at 6 points in the new poll, 50-44 percent.
That compares to the 9-point lead Clinton held in a similar survey released five days ago, and an 11-point lead in a Quinnipiac survey late last month.
Specifically, Clinton has lost ground among white voters and men: She now holds an 18-point lead among whites, down from a 25-point gap in last week's poll, and trails Obama by 4 points among males. Last week, the two drew equal support from men.
full article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/08/democrats.pennsylvania/?iref=hpmostpop
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Nels
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 1115
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 11:39 pm: |
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The Clinton's are barely hanging on. Even the lunch bucket crowd is beginning to see through their phasod of opportunistic racial isolation. Don't worry, someone's going to send Hillary some Clintonite. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6564
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 01:20 pm: |
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It ain't over til its over.
Remember what happened to Paul Wellstone and Mel Carnahan. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 6958
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 04:00 pm: |
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What happened to Paul Wellstone and Mel Carnahan? And be specific. Start by explaining wtf are they btw.
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 6959
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 04:06 pm: |
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http://www.wanttoknow.info/wellstonecarnahan
Two Strange Deaths Which Changed History
Paul Wellstone and Mel Carnahan
Dear friends,
Most people are not aware of how two strange deaths dramatically changed the balance of power in US government for two recent years. Democratic Senate candidate Mel Carnahan died in a private plane crash on Oct. 16, 2000, just three weeks before the 2000 elections. Mr. Carnahan went on to win the race as a dead man against his rival John Ashcroft (who went on to become appointed the U.S. Attorney General!).
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/election2000/races/mo-senate.html
Carnahan's wife was appointed to fill his position, but as she was appointed rather than elected, her Senate term was limited to two years rather than the normal six. She lost her 2002 race to her Republican opponent. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/13/politics/main529148.shtml
On Oct. 24, 2002, just two weeks before the 2002 elections, Democratic Senate candidate Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash. His wife died with him. Wellstone had been projected to win the election.
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=562
His Republican rival went on to take the Senate seat.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,69286,00.html
There are many suspicious circumstances surrounding Wellstone's death. (See media article below).
The balance in the Senate for years 2002 to 2004 was 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and one independent. If both Wellstone and Carnahan had not been killed, and Wellstone had gone on as projected to win his race, the balance would have been 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and one independent. This would have significantly changed what happened in Congress and in the US, where the presidency and both houses of Congress were Republican controlled over those two years.
Isn't it quite a coincidence that these two Democratic candidates both died in plane crashes only two years apart, both just weeks before the elections? It's even more of a coincidence that both were very progressive Democrats. Wellstone was often labeled the most progressive member of Senate. As a National Review article stated, "Probably no other member of the Senate had been on the losing side of more 99-1 or 98-2 votes. None had voted more consistently against the Bush administration."
http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller102502a.asp
And even more strange is the fact that no one in the media has discussed these highly strange coincidences.
I realize that what I am implying here is very serious. It is important to understand that many of the players in the world of politics play the game very seriously. Is it possible that someone might have arranged for one or both of these deaths to give Republicans control over both houses of Congress and the presidency? And just to be clear, I do not consider myself a Democrat or a Republican. As an independent, I am deeply dedicated to what's best for all people both in the US and in the world. I feel it is unfortunate that the US has become so polarized politically and in many other ways.
I invite you to join me in remembering that all of us - liberal, conservative, or otherwise - are simply trying to do what we believe is right and best. Only when each of us chooses to try to better understand our differences with others can we move towards greater peace and harmony in the world. Yet it is also vitally important that we expose the hidden agendas of those who would place their own selfish interests above the interests of all people of our nation and world. I invite you to read the article below, and if you feel this information is worthwhile, please pass it on to your friends and colleagues. By exposing the facts and the truth, we are building a better world for ourselves and our children.
With very best wishes,
Fred
Note: On October 16, 1972, just weeks before national elections, two other Democratic Congressmen were killed in a mysterious plane crash. Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr. was the Majority leader of the House of Representatives at the time. Congressman Nick Begich of Alaska was with him in the plane. Their bodies were never found. Congressman Boggs had been involved with the Warren Commission investigating the Kennedy assassination. To read about the crash, click here.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/news/opinion/7306797.htm
Point of View by Prof. JIM FETZER
One man's opinion: Evidence indicates that Wellstone crash was no accident
Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone was a serious man who cared profoundly about his fellow citizens. He took courageous stands against an administration that he viewed with profound suspicion, arguing eloquently against tax cuts for the rich, the subversion of the Constitution, and violating international accords. He would have led the opposition to the war in Iraq if only he had had the chance. Everyone knew it and he may have died because of it.
For nearly a year now, evidence has been accumulating about the event that ended the life of this magnificent human being. Whatever caused the crash was not the plane, the pilots or the weather. In spite of what you may have heard, the plane was exceptional, the pilots well-qualified and the weather posed no significant problems. Even the National Transportation Safety Board's own simulations of the plane, the pilots and the weather were unable to bring the plane down.
This means we have to consider other, less palatable alternatives, such as small bombs, gas canisters or electromagnetic pulse, radio frequency or High Energy Radio Frequency weapons designed to overwhelm electrical circuitry with an intense electromagnetic field. An abrupt cessation of communication between the plane and the tower took place at about 10:18 a.m., the same time an odd cell phone phenomenon occurred with a driver in the immediate vicinity. This suggests to me the most likely explanation is that one of our new electromagnetic weapons was employed. [see www.WantToKnow.info/mindcontrol10pg#nonlethal for more]
The politics of the situation were astonishing. The senator was pulling away from the hand-picked candidate of the Bush machine. Its opportunity to seize control of the U.S. Senate was slipping from its grasp. Its vaunted "invincibility" was being challenged by an outspoken critic of its most basic values. Targeted for elimination, he was going to survive. Here's one man's opinion: Under such conditions, the temptation to take him out may have been irresistible.
Among the striking indications that something was wrong with the NTSB in its inquiry into the causes of the crash is that Carol Carmody, a former employee with the CIA, the head of the team, announced the day after that the FBI had found no indications of terrorist involvement. Yet it is the responsibility of the NTSB to ascertain the cause of the crash, which has yet to be determined to this very day.
So how could the FBI possibly know?
The FBI's prompt arrival was peculiar. As Christopher Bollyn of American Free Press reported (www.rumormillnews.net, Oct. 29, 2002), "According to Rick Wahlberg, then St. Louis County sheriff, a team of FBI agents was quickly on the crash site about noon, less than an hour after (assistant manager Gary) Ulman and the (fire) chief had first located the site and found a way to access the wreck. This FBI team had come from the distant Twin Cities in record time!"
When Bollyn "asked Ulman if he had notified the FBI about the accident, Ulman said he had not spoken with the bureau at any time. Asked how the FBI got to the site so quickly, Ulman said that he assumed they had come from Duluth. AFP contacted the Duluth office of the FBI and was told that the team of 'recovery' agents had not come from Duluth but had traveled from the FBI office in Minneapolis."
I calculate that this team would have had to have left the Twin Cities at about the same time the Wellstone plane was taking off.
Gary Ulman confirmed to me that the FBI had been on the scene no later than 1 p.m.
I have reviewed the log books maintained by the Sheriff's Department at Eveleth and have discovered that they are grossly incomplete and cannot confirm when the FBI showed up.
The FAA has told me that its records of private aircraft arriving in Duluth that morning have been destroyed, even though they might verify the FBI's early arrival.
And the NTSB has canceled sessions where it would ordinarily take input from the public.
Michael Ruppert (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/110102_wellstone.html, Nov. 1, 2002) has reported, "The day after the crash I received a message from a former CIA operative who has proven extremely reliable in the past and who is personally familiar with these kinds of assassinations. The message read, 'As I said earlier, having played ball (and still playing in some respects) with this current crop of reinvigorated old white men, these clowns are nobody to screw around with. There will be a few more strategic accidents. You can be certain of that.' "
If you think that's a stretch, consider: Hundreds of young Americans have been put in harm's way by a war that was promoted on the basis of lies about weapons of mass destruction, collaboration with Osama bin Laden, and Sept. 11.
Some 3,000 Americans were killed when the Twin Towers collapsed, and yet the president and the vice president of the United States have done everything they can to obstruct a open and honest investigation of the causes of that traumatic event. And when a leak from his own administration leads to the exposure of a CIA operative concerned with weapons of mass destruction, the President tells us "we may never know."
This is a corrupt administration.
One of the oddest events since the election is that Wellstone's successor in the U.S. Senate, Norm Coleman, has been placed in charge of the Senate Investigations Committee.
That is an extraordinarily sensitive responsibility to be placed upon a freshman senator with no previous experience. My guess would be that it has never happened before. But the reasoning behind it may not be that difficult to fathom: Would anyone be less inclined to pursue the Wellstone death?
One man's opinion: The evidence presented here and elaborated elsewhere in detail establishes a prima facie case that this death was no accident, that the motives were political and begs the question: Was the White House involved?
An investigation by the St. Louis County prosecutor would be most welcome.
In the chorus of memories for a man who made a difference, let us bear in mind that truth is our only defense against an onslaught of lies that have dominated a media that appears too weak or too complicit to resist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JIM FETZER, a professor in the philosophy department at University of Minnesota Duluth, is the editor of three books on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: "Assassination Science: Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK" (October 1997); "Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now that We Didn't Know Then" (August 2000); "The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK" (September 2003).
Jim Fetzer’s website www.assassinationscience.com is a goldmine of other information.
Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work.
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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2817
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 05:39 pm: |
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I live in Wellstone country. Folks have still not fully recovered from his death. You can still see many Wellstone bumper stickers and even yard signs around town. Some say "What Would Wellstone Do?"
Along with this mourning, conspiracy theories also exist in many quarters. |
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