Friday, May 30, 2008

Father Michael Pfleger Is NOT Obama's Pastor or A Trinity Pastor; He's At Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church!!

What Father Michael Pfleger said about Senator Hillary Clinton is on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News (of course) but each of these mainstream media cable networks is telling a huge lie:

Father Michael Pfleger is not -- I repeat -- not a pastor of Trinity Church. He's also catholic, whereas Trinity is methodist. Father Michael Flager is the white pastor of predominantly black Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side.

So now, I guess the media's going to set up camera's over at Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church? Oh brother!

But the biggest problem is the ever-lowering credibility of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Thank God for Scott McClellan.

Did George Bush "Out" Valerie Wilson?



The question of the day: did Did George Bush "Out" Valerie Wilson ? Kpete certainly thinks so. In Democratic Underground, Kpete observes
During the (Today's Show) interview, Scottie revealed the two things that really pissed him off with the Bush Administration. First, being set up to lie by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. And second, learning that Bush had--himself--authorized the selective leaking of the NIE.


The "NIE" is a National Intelligence Estimate, and according to Wikipedia,
are United States federal government documents that are the authoritative assessment of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on intelligence related to a particular national security issue. NIEs are produced by the National Intelligence Council and express the coordinated judgments of the United States Intelligence Community, the group of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. NIEs are classified documents prepared for policymakers.


This NIE was the document that in this case contained Valerie's identity. Even though Scott McClellan has tried to protect the President and even fingered Vice President Dick Cheney, it seems that the more Scott talks, the more likely the President may be in some trouble. The reason is that while it's not clear that President Bush did do what Kpete asserts, and there's no direct smoking gun, it seems that McClellan may be giving more ammo for people to try and connect disparate dots. Stay tuned.

NYC Crane Collapses And Falls Killing Two - Why?

Ok. We've got to ask what's going on when we hear about yet another crane collapsing in New York City. These things are supposed to be reliable both for crew and the public below. What's going on?

I'm wondering if, overall there's a kind of "crisis of competence" in America, which could be the result of a terrible and poorly funded education system and low wage pay relative to the cost of living. What ever the case, something is clearly wrong. It kind of violates the overall faith we have that "things will work" -- you know?

¡VIVA OBAMA!

El Latino principal calcula en un vídeo español maravilloso que apoya la campaña de Barack Obama -- cambíenos puede creer adentro. Podemos Con Obama. Siga este acoplamiento para ver el vídeo.

Podemos Con Obama


"Este es en hombre que nos entiende y que nos va a respetar."
~Governor Bill Richardson

Next Democratic Battleground: DNC Rules Cmte meeting 5/31/08

Marriott Wardman Park Tomorrow may be a strange day at the Marriott Wardman Park in NW Washington D.C.

UPDATE: DNC Rules Committee Online As of this writing.

While the Clinton campaign denies organizing a scene to influence the decision of the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee, reports persist that they've been actively urging supporters to pressure the DNC to fix the game Hillary's Way - in marked contrast to messages to Obama's supporters. On a conference call with reporters, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe appeared to distance the Obama campaign's intentions from Clinton supporters' planned protests outside Saturday's meeting. "We are NOT encouraging our people to gather and protest on Saturday," he said.

Meanwhile, according to Carl Hulse in the NY Times, the two top Democrats in Congress were pressing superdelegates who had yet to declare a preference in the race to make their choice public by the middle of next week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly have been contacting uncommitted superdelegates, encouraging them to prepare to go public and resolve any last question about the contest between Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. "By this time next week, it will all be over, give or take a day," Mr. Reid said in a Thursday appearance at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

And Senator Obama does seem to be enhancing his delegate count with the support of Boyd and Betty Richie, two of the few uncommitted superdelegates from Texas. "I believe Senator Obama is the candidate who can best provide the leadership and change Texans desire," said Boyd Richie in a statement issued by the party. "Senator Obama has the skill and ability to unite Americans from all walks of life and put our country back on the right track."

Of course neither candidate can control what goes on outside the Wardmann Park hotel; even if they have generally good control over their own campaigns the passions are running high among volunteers and supporters - and one cannot totally ignore the potential that provocateurs might be inserted by parties interested in seeing the situation spin into a conflict which is then splashed all over the Sunday morning talk shows in pursuit of ratings.

What will Saturday foreshadow? The Denver nominating convention will be a lively affair, and the turnout in November's general election should reflect a highly energized desire to seat a Democrat in the Oval Office atop record numbers of first-time voters which increasingly looks like a mandate for change.


Zennie's Zeitgeist Blog Credentialed For 2008 Democratic Convention

I just saw the news in a weird way: checking our blog traffic, which I do regularly. In looking at a link from the blog "Demconwatch" it took me to a story on blogs approved for the historic 2008 Democratic Convention, and to the DNC Page itself. To cut to this chase, this blog is on the list! Yippee!

In other words we're going to be brings you both live and video blog coverage from the floor of the 2008 Democratic Convention. It also means a milestone in the assent of our blogs as a business unit of Sports Business Simulations and is major proof that I made the right bet in 2003 when I determined to establish a writer's group called SBS Personalities and in 2005 when I first started this blog network.

All I can say is thanks to Drew at the DNC, and thanks to the DNC. We -- Ashley, Tom, Dave, and myself -- are excited!

CNN's Jessica Yellin Blames ABC News Execs For "Fixing" President Bush Coverage

One major casualty of the release of the book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McCllellan was the White House Press Corp and ABC News (so far).

CNN's Jessica Yellin, who was employed by CNN during the initial years of the Iraq War, dropped a bomb of her own on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, when she revealed that her news was "fixed" -- my term -- by ABC News execs, who killed negative Bush stories and generally made her feel pressured to make positive stories about President Bush while his approval ratings were high.

Yellin says so in this video:



Charlie Gibson, the host of Good Morning America, essentially but unknowingly confirmed Yellin when he said this:

I think the questions were asked. I respectfully disagree with the gentle lady from the Columbia Broadcasting System [group giggles]. I think the questions were asked. . . . I can remember getting in trouble with administration officials for asking questions they didn't feel comfortable with.
It was just a drumbeat of support from the administration. And it is not our job to debate them; it's our job to ask the questions.


This bit of a revelation is damaging to the overall credibility of the mainstream media and calls into question the state of American Media. It may very well be that we've been the victims of fixed news coverage all along and are entering a new era of telling the actual story via new media. But for the present I think Yellin's revelations are stunning and I'm not sure what the fallout will be, but I do think the FCC should look into this ASAP. It seems Noam Chomsky was right after all.