INDIANA INSULTED BY KANTOR - HE DID SAY THEY ARE "SHIT"

Ok, I've went back and forth on this one, but the official word on the street is, yes, Clinton campaign advisor and then (1993) campaign head Mickey Kantor did insult the people of Indiana in the movie "The War Room", and while we can't -- I certainly can't -- make out the whisper, it's clear that he did call them "shit."

This was revealed in the Washington Post today and before that the story spread like wildfire in the brush of the Internet and then finally hit the mainstream media, though for some irresponsible reason CNN's not mentioned the matter, which just goes to show what lengths they'll go to to protect Senator Clinton.

YOUTUBE UP AT 7:31 AM SATURDAY, MAY 3RD

After being down for hours, YouTube's finally came up at 7:31 AM, or that's when I rechecked its status. More on this later, if any news comes in.

YOUTUBE DOWN AT 6:16 AM SATURDAY, MAY 3RD

I do not know how this happened, but YouTube is down and so is my 230 video channel. Centernetworks reports that -- yikes -- the DNS for YouTube has been hacked. Man Chad (Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube) must be going nuts.

Subject: route fully down
Pinging the Youtube DNS shows the route is down at the datacenter:

traceroute to 208.65.152.137 (208.65.152.137), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
...
3 xe-0-1-0-19.lon10.ip.tiscali.net (77.67.64.193) 1.094 ms 10.260 ms 1.101 ms
4 ge6-2-1000M.ar4.LON3.gblx.net (64.212.107.89) 1.392 ms 213.200.77.234 (213.200.77.234) 1.607 ms 1.708 ms
5 YOUTUBE-LLC.tengigabitethernet8-2.ar3.DCA3.gblx.net (208.48.1.186) 80.579 ms 80.300 ms 80.451 ms
6 * * *

IRON MAN | Iron Man Is Excellent; Robert Downey Jr.'s Cool Performance

I just returned from seeing "Iron Man" at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, and I must say that it did indeed meet my expectations; in fact, it surpassed them. The movie, Directed by Jon Favreau, is tight, with little wasted scene or motion, and it manages to pull a lot of ideas in for you to grasp but it doesn't hit you over the head with it's overall anti-war theme.

The images of the idea of de-militarization are all around us in the film and the biggest one is of Stark as Iron Man destroying the very weapons he made for use by the U.S. Defense Department, which have fallen into terrorist hands. But that's only part of a great movie. There's the love between Stark / Downey and Pepper Potts, expertly played -- really well played -- by Gweneth Paltrow. There's also the family feeling between Stark, Johnson, and General James Rhoades, performed with ease by Terrance Howard, who also gives us the idea that he will be in that Iron Man suit in one of the future films.

I could go on and on about this movie. Yes, it really is as good as the first Spiderman. Yes, the special effects are terrifically real, and the sky scene featuring Iron Man being chased by two F-18s is a classic in movie making. It's better -- far better -- than the Space Shuttle crash-save scene in Superman Returns of two years ago. And the best effects are when Stark is testing the parts and engines that make up the Iron Man suit.

The villian. Well, there are two really, but Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane is simply so good you hate him. He's really the heavy. Indeed, there's much about this movie that's heavy and light all at the same time. A good flick. See it.

Obama on Native Tribal Sovereignty, the Freedmen, & NAHASDA

Obama vs. CBC on the passage of NAHASDA "as is"

In a March 13, 2008 Letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, members of the Congressional Black Caucus stated that “members of the CBC will not support, and will actively oppose passage of NAHASDA” unless the bill contains a “provision that would prevent the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma from receiving any benefits or funding” until they extended tribal membership to the Freedmen. The letter contained the signatures of 35 CBC members, but not the signature of White House hopeful Senator Barack Obama. The Native American community began raising questions about an Obama Presidency that could potentially support CBC efforts to undermine the rights of tribal governments to determine their own membership.

Asked to clearly state his position on H.R. 2824, Obama’s campaign issued the following statement:

"Tribal sovereignty must mean that the place to resolve inter-tribal disputes is the tribe itself. Our nation has learned with tragic results that federal intervention in internal matters of Indian tribes is rarely productive; failed policies such as Allotment and Termination grew out of efforts to second-guess Native communities."

Clinton and McCain websites have no specific links or information for Native American peoples or issues, while Senator Obama’s campaign has a main page link directly to his website for “First Americans.” Further, a look at all three candidates’ campaign teams reveal that Senator Obama has a Native American Community Outreach Coordinator and a 30-member Tribal Steering Committee. If Clinton and McCain have a Native American presence on their campaign teams, it is well hidden.

Obama’s opposition to Diane Watson’s legislation will undoubtedly be met with unrest by those of his fellow members of the CBC that side with the Cherokee Freedmen, but Obama appears to be no stranger to the CBC’s disaffections. Last year, online political publication TheHill.com reported on the CBC’s anger with Obama about rejecting an invitation to debate on Fox News, and added that “Obama has irked fellow CBC members by failing to respond to a request made early last year that he host a fundraiser for the Black Caucus’s political action committee (PAC). [Senator Hillary] Clinton received a similar invitation and quickly followed through by headlining a CBC PAC fundraiser in March of 2006.” Perhaps this is why the CBC recruited Hillary Clinton and not Barack Obama to be the Guest Speaker at their 37th Annual Legislative Conference, prompting the Washington Times to speculate that the CBC was quietly trying to endorse her bid for the presidency.

"Tribal sovereignty must mean that the place to resolve inter-tribal disputes is the tribe itself,” Obama said.

"Discrimination anywhere is intolerable, but the Cherokee are dealing with this issue in both tribal and federal courts. As it stands, the rights of the Cherokee Freedmen are not being abrogated because there is an injunction in place that ensures the Freedman's rights to programs during the pendency of the litigation. I do not support efforts to undermine these legal processes and impose a congressional solution. Tribes have a right to be self governing and we need to respect that, even if we disagree, which I do in this case. We must have restraint in asserting federal power in such circumstances."

read more | digg story

CNN Paints "Blue Collar Whites" As Racist, So Why Did They Vote For Obama?

I've got CNN on in the background and it's funny how they seem to paint people into categories. For example, CNN's "The Situation Room" had a segment which claimed that "Blue Collar Whites" like Hillary Clinton but will not get behind Barack Obama.

That's silly as hell. How did he win 30 states without the support of Blue Collar Whites? And I wonder if this will cause a Blue Collar White backlash? And so Blue Collar Whites know they're Blue Collar Whites?

Geez, this is sick stuff.

Ecuador Blames Chevron For Oil Spill While Petroecuador Gets No Blame At All

In a continuation of what's turning out to be a big fraud, Ecuador's pushing a lawsuit against Chevron that is $16 billion. That's right, $16 Billion. The Minority Report's Steven Foley explains:

Ecuadorean indigenous groups have filed one of the largest environmental class action suits in history against an oil company to the tune of $16 billion and if successful could set a dangerous president.

Ripping off the facade and digging under the surface of what at first glance looks to be nothing more than deserved retribution by indigenous groups who've suffered at the hands of Evil Big Oil one begins to see more clearly the forces behind this fraud are non other than Ecuador's own state run oil company Petroecuador, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, and the powers-that-be who are working feverishly to re-identify and usher in a new socialist South America.

You see, the fact is, Chevron, through its Texaco subsidiary (which Chevron aquired in 2001) , operated an oilfield joint venture with Petroecuador as a minority partner between 1964 and 1992.
From 2002 to 2007, Petroecuador was responsible for more than 1,000 oil spills, of which 168 took place last year alone. In fact, Petroecuador (through its oil and gas exploration and production subsidiary Petroproducción) accounted for 90 percent of all oil spills in Ecuador last year, according to official government data quoted by local newspaper El Universo. The remaining 10 percent were contaminated by six different private companies. In other words, Petroecuador is clearly a major and serial contaminator.

You can read more here: Steven Foley.