Clinton RFK Assassination: Samantha Power Must Be Smiling
In the wake of Senator Clinton's amazingly shocking and hurtful statements regarding her reasons why she should remain in the campaign we have to go back and reconsider the supposed-to-be off-the-record comment by now former Obama for America Foreign Policy advisor Samantha Power, who famously said that Senator Clinton "Was a Monster."
Even though she apologized for that statement, you've got to believe Professor Power's smiling whereever she is in the World.
It was as shocking as it was sudden. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, then top campaigner against and now only the challenger to Senator Barack Obama's run for the Democratic Nominee for President of The United States, has made what in my estimation is the largest mistake of her candidacy, and yes, even larger than her comments on Martin Luther King where she said "It takes a President.."
Today, Senator Clinton really stuck her foot in it, calling up the image of Bobby Kennedy's Assasination in 1968 as a historic reason for her to stay in the current Presidential Election race. This Talking Points Memo video captures Hillary Clinton at the Argus Leader editorial board interview, May 23, 2008 which is today and where she made the comments:
This has caused an outrage all over. I first listened to this, and turned around and looked at my Mom, who's visiting, and she said "She's gone crazy." Over at the Huffington Post, the comments below Sam Stein's article are not supportive. I took it as this: she's waiting for someone to kill Barack Obama.
Senator Obama has been compared not just with JFK, but with RFK, as my video here shows.
Now, I'm hearing Clinton supporter, former aide, and CNN Contributor Paul Begala trying like heck to put lipstick on this pig, and it's not working at all.
This has spread like wildfire. Clinton's comments are on five videos on YouTube in just the last hour. AmericaBlog.com is calling for Superdelegates to make their decision now, based on the Clinton error, and the fact that Obama's only 56 delegates from the magic mark.
It's caused a firestorm over at DailyKos, and the -- as of this writing -- 1,400 + comments are overwhelmingly negative. Ann Kornblut over at Saddlebrook Democrats linked her statement with Governor Mike Huckabee's words that someone was aiming a gun at Barack Obama, saying "shame on you" to both.
She's right.
I wonder what's in her head to come up with that comment? I wonder if she's daring to think that someone will try to kill Senator Obama by June? There's something dark back there in the deep recesses of her mind and it's not good in my view.
It was a terrible statement for which she apologized:
But for me, it's not enough. Michelle Benard on MSNBC's right: Clinton's comments have cemented her terrible relationship with the African American community, perhaps for good.
While the mainstream media was hammering Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama over his relationship with his now-former Pastor Jeremiah Wright, many bloggers were pointing to presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain's problem with not one, but two men of the cloth.
Now, thanks to YouTube, the controversial remarks of Pastor John Hagee, a prominent Christian minister who's endorsement McCain doggedly pursued and got, said these very ugly words according to The Huff Post's Sam Stein:
Hagee preached: "'And they the hunters should hunt them,' that will be the Jews. 'From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can't see that.
"Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said 'I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.' So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.
"Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." (Listen to the audio below.)
In other words, blame God for sending Hitler to "cause" the Holocaust.
Fortunately today, McCain rejected Hagee's endorsement. Not to be embarassed, Hagee rejected McCain.
But it all didn't stop there. McCain had to kick to the curb the backing of another pastor by the name of Rod Parsley, who openly said that Islam was a religion that was inherently violent.
I wonder what other people of God McCain will have to reject before this campaign is over.
NFL Owners opt out of CBA-Upshaw Not Fazed By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Football Reporters Online-Special to SBS
Early this week the NFL owners group opted out of the collective bargaining agreement extension which was signed two years ago. Simply put, we are talking about three more years of labor peace (through 2010) even though both sides claim they "want to get the talks rolling now." NFLPA Head Gene Upshaw wasn't even upset. "We knew this was coming" He said. "We just didn't think it would be so soon". I guess he thought the owners would wait until the November 8th deadline.
Something tells me the owners aren't that interested in talking right this second. They will wait until next year at the earliest to call meetings and discuss getting the players to give back some more money, stating hard financial times. While it's true that the country is headed for a recession, there is no concrete evidence of this in professional sports when contracts are getting higher all the time.Could their possible be a strike after the 2010 season, something that has not taken place since 1987(you remember the 87 strike right? Games were played with replacement players) Sadly i remember the 1987 strike. It stunk of sports politics gone bad. We should pray it just doesn't happen again.
"To Everything, turn, turn, turn. There is a season.." A time to ..change blog designs. This is a new and evolving design that comes two years after Bloggers change to XML, and after our own -- and my own -- journey into rich media content. The increased use of video and special links gave such a weight to the original design that it was too slow to load. Finally push came to shove and here we have this new design.
Although it doesn't look like it, we are able to accomplish much of the same objectives with this cleaner look, from seeing our writer's names, to viewing the YouTube channel Zennie62, to buying tickets, to presenting our simulations. Plus, it's more in keeping with the fact that our blog network has taken on a life of its own and thus needed its own identity.
I also like the cool blue, but I'm now interested in XML, so future changes will reflect my increased knoweldge of how to code in it.
This design will evolve more, but the basic look is what you're going to see for awhile. Kudoes to Gekko and Fly for developing the look! Let me know what you think!
What if one candidate whined to the press that racism was keeping them down in the vote totals, but hinted that his opponent was unelectable because in the fall people were NOT going to vote for her because of her gender? Imagine if the surrogates blamed all Obama's problems on racism. Would there be a backlash? But somehow it's OK for Senator Clinton to point out that in her opinion it's racism that's going to keep Obama from being electable? Talk about a double-standard!
What should Senator Clinton do?
David Gergen hit the nail on the head on CNN. He suggested in light of Hillary Clinton's discussions of sexism in the election she should say, “You know, if you want to vote against him because he’s black, then I don’t want your vote.” Constitutionally it's obvious. For a candidate in the USA in 2008 it just makes sense. In fact, for a Democratic candidate, it's rather surprising that she's playing the "that's just how it is" card when it comes to racism, as though we cannot make progress in the pursuit of equal rights by expressing our dissatisfaction on election day.
I'm not sure what Senator Clinton's angle is, or what she's setting up. She's more savvy than I am about politics and campaigns, and she's got some of the best advisors that money can buy - but I'd sure like to see her denounce and reject racism rather than shrug her shoulders and tell the press and the superdelegates that too many people won't vote for something different.
We've had two centuries when the White House was controlled by men of pallor. Either Democratic candidate will change that. If Obama told us the country wasn't ready for a woman...?
Senator Barack Obama took a major step closer to achieving the Democratic Presidential Nomination when he reacted 1,965 pledged delegates and now needing just 60 more delegates and / or Superdelegates to reach the magic mark of 2,025 total delegates and the nomination.
All the others pale in comparison to the one that Senator Hillary Clinton has been giving, day in and day out, to Obama, starting more than a year ago. Indirect, unofficial, and obviously unstated, this constructive and active endorsement benefits Obama in ways any other endorsement doesn't. Her staying in promotes Obama's name. At last, Eteraz answers the question: why would savvy politicos like the Clintons keep campaigning when some said they were damaging the party? It's been said several ways, in several times, few matched this eloquent explanation. Once Senator Clinton's most loyal supporters understand this the "Democrats deep rift" that the GOP has been praying for will be seen as a short-lived myth.
I am counting the days before the end of President Bush's term. According to the Jerusalem Post, he wants to attack Iran and soon, because his days in office are winding down.
Bush has been a miserable failure, period. Our economy is a wrekc, wars don't help it and he breaks off negotiations with a small third World country and has another war in mind.
We meet the marketing people behind promoting the Oakland Raiders' new running back Darren McFadden. We also talk to Darren's Mom -- all at the NFL Draft.
The voter unity the Democrats will seek to support either candidate foreshadows (and mirrors) the unity the entire USA needs to support the next president. It may be trickier if Clinton prevails given Obama's broad support OUTSIDE his own party, but... Here's an audacious non-political formula to get there regardless. We can allow ourselves to grow apart, isolated and increasingly vulnerable, or we can decide to grow together. We must respect each other, and exhibit that respect even when we disagree, because despite disagreements what was true in 1776 is still true today: we are still seeking to form a more perfect union, and we flourish by unifying the myriad diverse strengths of individuals into a synergistic, unified democracy. It's a work in progress. Of course, it's easier in theory than it will be in practice, and we may have to oust the ratings-hungry sound-biters to succeed. (Oh darn.)
