Monday, February 11, 2008

John.I.Am - John McCain Video Parody of "Yes I Can"

Hillary Clinton Disses African Americans and Activists After Obama Wins



In an uncharacteristic show of unfortunate speech, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, as reported by CNN , unleashed her anger over losing to Senator Barack Obama by targeting the reason for his wins to activists and African Americans.

Clinton told reporters who had gathered to watch her tour a General Motor plant here that "everybody knew, you all knew, what the likely outcome of these recent contests were."

Clinton: "These are caucus states by and large, or in the case of Louisiana, you know, a very strong and very proud African-American electorate, which I totally respect and understand."

Clinton has publicly dismissed the caucus voting system since before Super Tuesday, seeking to lower expectations heading into a series of contests that played to Obama's advantage. His campaign features what many consider to be a stronger and more dedicated grassroots organization than Clinton's.

Noting that "my husband never did well in caucus states either," Clinton argued that caucuses are "primarily dominated by activists" and that "they don't represent the electorate, we know that."


So let's take a time out from this and think. Senator Clinton has just said essentially that African American and activists in a caucus system are the reason she lost. Why say that at all? It's a total dis -- and she failed to congratulate Senator Obama, which means she's totally angry about the whole thing. But to say all of this is a totally terrible thing to do. Now, she's going to have to back-track on her statements -- again.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Washington Caucus' Voting On, then Off, and On Again -- WTF?

You've got to read this Washington craziness!

Huckabee won't concede state; GOP resuming delegate count
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
Related
Postman on Politics | State GOP to count more today
Obama beats Clinton 2-1; McCain edges Huckabee
The results of the state Republican caucuses were called into question today after presidential candidate Mike Huckabee challenged the party's declaration that Arizona Sen. John McCain had won the delegate count.

Huckabee's campaign took issue with the fact that Washington state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser called the race Saturday night with 87 percent of the precincts counted. At that point, McCain was ahead of Huckabee by 242 delegates out of the 13,000 counted, Esser said. The Huckabee campaign contends there were another 1,500 or so delegates not counted.

In the face of the Huckabee protest, the state Republican Party quickly resumed its count today, a bit sooner than it had planned.

In a news release, Huckabee's campaign said there were "obvious irregularities" in the state's Republican caucuses and that it is sending lawyers to explore "all available legal options regarding the dubious final results."

According to the GOP's Saturday tally, Arizona Sen. John McCain won about 26 percent of delegates, Arkansas Gov. Huckabee won 24 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul finished with 21 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has dropped out of the race, got 17 percent. Most of the rest were non-committed.

"This was an error in judgment by Mr. Esser," the release from the Huckabee campaign said. "Washington Republicans know, from bitter experience in the 2004 gubernatorial election, the terrible results that can come from bad ballot counting."

The state Republican party posted new numbers late this afternoon, with 93 percent of the precincts reporting. The percentages didn't change much, with McCain winning about 25 percent of the delegates, Huckabee 24 percent, Paul 21 percent, and Romney 17 percent.

Esser's acceleration of the count hasn't altered the Huckabee campaign's intent to investigate. Its lawyers should reach the state by late today, said James P. Pinkerton, a campaign spokesman.

"This clearly requires a full excavation as to what happened," Pinkerton said. "The political impact of calling an election before all the votes are counted is pretty seismic. Chairman Esser should fully explain what happened and why to the satisfaction of all Washington state Republicans and all Republicans nationwide."

Esser said this afternoon that the Republican Party was going to try to get as "close as we can to 100 percent" in the vote count, and may have more numbers by later today. But Esser doesn't believe counting more votes will change the outcome.

"We're eager to give everybody the same level of confidence in the numbers as we have," he said.

Esser said their last county report on Saturday came shortly before 10:15 p.m., at which point they had 87.2 percent of precincts reporting. That's when they did an analysis, saying: "Let's take every county where Huckabee is beating McCain, and double the margin of victory," Esser said. "And then take every county where McCain is winning and cut in half that margin of victory. Even if you assume that, Sen. McCain still holds on.



"That's when we said we're confident that Sen. McCain's lead was going to hold up," Esser said. "I would have done the same for Gov. Huckabee if he had the same margin and the same underlying dynamics as Sen. McCain."

Esser said he spoke today with Pastor Joseph Fuiten of Bothell, who's heading Huckabee's volunteer effort in this state. According to Esser, Fuiten said Huckabee supporters reported some voting irregularities. Esser said the party would investigate those allegations. Fuiten could not be reached for comment.

Esser said he didn't have a figure for the number of people who attended the Republican caucuses, since he asked workers to focus on the delegate elections.

Saturday's caucuses will determine only a portion of the 40 Republican delegates who will go on to the Republican National Convention. Caucuses at various levels will determine 18 of those delegates; 19 will be based on the state primary election on Feb. 19. The three remaining positions are "automatic" delegates — the state party chairman and two national-committee members.

Paul's campaign is also not conceding the state.

Maureen Moore, Washington state coordinator for the Paul campaign, said her candidate "did wonderful — a lot more wonderful than what's being reported."

On the Democratic side, more than 200,000 people — a record number — turned out for the state caucuses. With 96 percent of the precincts counted, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won about 68 percent of the delegates, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton won about 31 percent, and the rest choosing either "uncommitted" or "other."

Final numbers will be released by 5 p.m. Monday, said Kelly Steele, spokesman for Washington State Democrats.

Randy Moss in College; 90-Yard Screen Pass To TD Video

For those who wondered what talent Randy Moss showed at Marshall that caused him to go in the first round of the NFL Draft, here's a good look. This video should be the measure of all wide receivers coming out of college to the NFL. If you can find a senior receiver who made a play like this, put him or her on your list. Check this out!

Barack Obama Wins Maine - Obama Sweeps Weekend Contests - Adds Maine Caucus

After taking Lousiana, Washington, and Nebraska, Senator Barack Obama captured Maine's caucuses this weekend. According to C-SPAN and CNN.com, Obama, with 70 percent of the precincts counted, had 58 percent of the votes, versus 41 percent for Senator Hillary Clinton.

This marks a clean sweep for Obama, and has started to turn the last part of this campaign into an ass-kicking. Let's see how this impacts the delegate race; it should put him past Clinton.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Barack Obama Sweeps Louisiana, Washington, & Nebraska Today - Washington Post

Riding a huge tide that's only masked by media outlets who support Clinton, Senator Barack Obama won the caucus primaries in Louisiana, Washington, and Nebraska, confounding "experts" and pointing to a clear movement. Read this account from the Wash Post..

Obama Sweeps Clinton in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington
By Eric Pianin
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) swept to solid victories over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y) in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state today, an impressive showing that left the two Democrats in a virtual tie for national delegates but with Obama gaining momentum.

On the Republican side, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee delivered two humiliating defeats to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in the Kansas Republican presidential caucuses and the Louisiana primary, while running slightly behind McCain in Washington state with incomplete returns.

Obama also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing his best night of the campaign. The freshman senator from Illinois celebrated his victories tonight in a speech to a Democratic dinner in Richmond Va., on the weekend before important primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

"We won in Louisiana, we won in Nebraska, we won in Washington State," he said. "We won north, we won south, we won in between, and I believe we can win Virginia on Tuesday if you're ready to stand for change."

In the wake of Tuesday's showdown in 21 states that left Clinton and Obama roughly even in the number of pledged delegates, the two lavished attention on Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington state, in a frenetic effort to bulk up their delegate counts. Obama stood to pick up as many as 170 delegates tonight.

With nine-tenths of the precincts reporting, Obama led Clinton, 56 percent to 37 percent, in Louisiana. Obama romped to victory earlier in the evening in Nebraska, 68 percent to 32 percent, and then overwhelmed Clinton in Washington, 68 percent to 31 percent, with 96 percent of the caucus vote counted.

That's called a butt kicking.

The Crumbling Educational System In The United States

What began as the great strong hold in our country, has rapidly increased to a grave crisis and epidemic across classrooms from New York to California. The public school system in the United States has precipitously deteriorated for years and inadequate action has been taken to discover any logical remediy for the failing districts.

Currently, the city of Detroit graduates 25% of students and a mere 50% of children have the opportunity to receive their diplomas in Chicago. Education is the key predictor and great equalizer in our nation, yet there’s no accountability from parents, teachers, administrators, politicians or the school boards. This is a serious emergency and the grim and harsh reality is that this conflict is only going to be exacerbated as time progresses.

It’s time for the millions of students who board buses to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools five days a week to be good at something and for something. We can not permit failure, and it’s completely irresponsible and unacceptable to have arrived at this startling point. Our economic success and viability is squarely dependant upon education and the availability of structured opportunities.

When 60% of African-Americans, 64% of Latinos and 80% of Caucasians graduate from the public school system that is incomprehensible and devastating. In addition, 40% of children drop out of secondary school before the possibility of graduating is even fathomable. Clearly, the thirst to live the American dream has dried up.

This situation is hampering people all across the nation at record depths. The magnitude and seriousness of this crisis is too high and transparent steps must be taken in order for the future of our great country to have even a slim chance of survival in an extremely competitive and thriving world.

At the current juncture, the facts indicate a despondent and gloomy outlook, not bright and prosperous. Since half of the teachers in public schools leave after five years, there’s an inability to establish any line of consistency and continuity with students. In New York City alone 6,000 teachers leave every year.

Incompetent educators, administrators and politicians have stolen an entire future generation of students and it’s time that they are held culpable for their actions.