Does Obama Need a Bigger Bus?

It seems the presumptive Democratic nominee may be getting off to a shaky start. Progressives, who were not too happy with his FISA comment, are now questioning his comment about MoveOn and his distancing himself from Gen. Wesley Clark.

For more on these two stories:

UPDATED with video: Obama criticizes MoveOn.org in patriotism speech: Wesley Clark hears it too…
by John Amato at Crooks and Liars

... which included this comment: "Can we draft Hillary at the Convention?" Meanwhile, some of the former (and probably would be current) Hillary haters now find they must redirect their, well, hatred.

Wesley Clark and the Mock Military Molehill
by Taylor Marsh

But if you want to read something reprehensible, it's not Clark. Stop over to see Ben Smith's column if you haven't already.

"A lot of people don't know ... that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity," wrote Americablog.com's John Aravosis. "Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief?"

"Getting shot down, tortured and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience," Aravosis wrote in the blog post, titled "Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?"

Not having Hillary to hate has obviously caused Mr. Americablog's last wheel to come off. Joan Walsh calls it. To add, this is the type of crap that makes people walk away from being Democrats. It asks the wrong question completely, while taking valid points off the table because the track is so unseemly.

The entire post led one commenter to suggest that maybe Obama needs a bigger bus.

.

Sunday Funnies

What you can do with your phone

I just bought a new Samsung Instinct, so I can identify.

Unity: Not Just a Town in New Hampshire

Clinton and Obama Unity Campaign

Following a Thursday night meeting in DC where Sen. Clinton urged her major donors to support Sen. Obama (and where he contributed the maximum amount allowable to help pay her campaign debt), the two were off to New Hampshire for a unity rally.

In what will most likely be the first of many such events the two took to the stage to remind Democrats why we need to defeat John McSame in November.

Rivals turned allies, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton made a display of unity Friday in a hamlet named for it, their first joint public appearance since the divisive Democratic primary race ended.

"Unity is not only a beautiful place as we can see, it's a wonderful feeling, isn't it? And I know when we start here in this field in Unity, we'll end on the steps of the Capitol when Barack Obama takes the oath of office as our next president," Clinton said just after she and Obama took the stage together.

In turn, Obama praised both Clinton and her husband, President Clinton, as allies and pillars of the Democratic Party, saying: "We need them. We need them badly. Not just my campaign, but the American people need their service and their vision and their wisdom in the months and years to come because that's how we're going to bring about unity in the Democratic Party. And that's how we're going to bring about unity in America."

The location for the event seemed fitting for a number of reasons:

Moments earlier, the two snaked their way through some 6,000 people who gathered in a wide-open field and overflowed some bleacher seats in this town of 1,700. It was a carefully chosen venue in a key general election battleground state: Unity awarded exactly 107 votes to each candidate in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary in January.

Which, in hindsight, set the tone for the next six months.

Clinton encouraged her supporters to join with his "to create an unstoppable force for change we can all believe in." She addressed any of her backers who are considering not voting or voting for McCain instead of Obama: "I strongly urge you to reconsider."

"I know that he'll work for you. He'll fight for you, and he'll stand up for you every single day in the White House," Clinton said, calling Obama "a leader who invests in our future." [...]

"For 16 months, Senator Clinton and I have shared the stage as rivals for the nomination, but today I could not be happier and more honored and more moved that we're sharing this stage as allies to bring about the fundamental changes that this country so desperately needs," Obama said. "Hillary and I may have started with separate goals in this campaign, but we made history together."

"I've admired her as a leader, I've learned from her as a candidate. She rocks. She rocks. That's the point I'm trying to make," Obama said in response to cheers from the crowd.

Okay, I simply can't let this moment pass without making one final observation. Did Obama call Clinton to coordinate their wardrobe before the event? Just asking ...

.

The Gay Agenda

And check out SueJ's follow up post: "The gay mayonnaise scandal: If only people cared this much about things that actually mattered"

Obama's Pastor Problem

What is it with clergy and Sen. Obama? A controversy erupts ... it gets press for a few days ... the person in question apologizes ... Obama apologizes ... and then a few weeks later the person who provoked the controversy is BACK IN THE NEWS!

What do these clergy have against Obama?

The latest incident involves Father Michael Pfleger. The Catholic priest who mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" Pfleger said:

"I was giving a talk about race. And is entitlement one of the things about race that I believe in? Is an unequal playing field one of the things I believe in? Yes, so I don't apologize for being passionate, I don't apologize for being free ... I apologize when my passion or my freeness and my flawness of character get in the way of the content, which is much more important to me — that people hear the message. And when I am in the way of the message then I'm not only apologetic, but I have to change."

Are these guys going to keep popping up through November? If so, it's a good thing Obama decided against public financing because he's going to need all the cash he can get his hands on just to protect himself from some of his "followers."

NOTE to future political candidates ... lose the clergy connection.


.

Don't get me started on Ralph

Eight years ago Ralph Nader lost whatever moral authority he might have had when he turned his back on his own ethics to try and convince voters there was no difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

Nader: Obama trying to 'talk white'

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards."

We all know his comment in 2000 was a lie. Only a complete idiot would listen to anything Nader has to say today.

.

Indecision 2008 - Obama and McCain Reach Out

OMG a new yardbird!

Tonight, Gretchen was over for dinner, and when she went out to her car, she heard an owl! It was dusk, so the blue of the post-sunset sky served as a backdrop to the silhouetted trees and Egg Hill.

I went outside and heard it: "hoo h-hoo, hoo, hoo!" Great Horned Owl! Coming from the willow and oaks at the back of Neighbor Ed's property!

We listened to it for a little bit, and then I called back to it with my BirdJam, and it called back to me! "hoo h-hoo, hoo, hoo!"

I ran upstairs to get Em so she could hear, but when we got back the hooting had stopped. Repeated calls with the BirdJam were of no avail. Still, Gretchen said she didn't see the owl fly out of the trees, though he may have stayed low and flown farther into the marshland behind Neighbor Ed's.

This is not only a new yardbird for me; it's also the first time I've ever heard an owl--any owl!--in real life!

I'm so pumped!

UPDATE: This brings my yardbird total (counting the marsh birds I see and hear from the backyard) to 71!

Stop Taxpayer Funded School Vouchers

The federal government is considering whether or not to reauthorize taxpayer funded school vouchers in the District of Columbia. Vouchers are a bad idea because fundamentally they don't "fix" the underlying problem.

They allow some students the option to attend other schools, usually private religious schools, at taxpayer expense. In evaluating these programs over the years the research indicates the performance of "voucher students" isn't significantly better than that of their peers attending the public school. In other words, instead of actually fixing the problem the federal government would rather offer a "feel good solution" that in reality is no solution at all.

Here is what you can do:

Act NOW to Stop School Vouchers!

Urge Congress to End DC Voucher Program

On Tuesday, June 24, the House Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY2009 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, which could include $18 million for private and religious school vouchers. This bill could contain a continuation of a federally-funded school voucher program even though the program was supposed to end in September 2008.

In 2003, Congress authorized a pilot, private-school voucher program for the District of Columbia. Now, even though the program's five-year pilot period is ending, President Bush has proposed an increase in funding. Next Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee will mark-up the bill that funds the D.C. voucher program. If this Congress does not end this, the only nationally funded voucher program, more may come and your state could be next.

The D.C. public schools are in need of improvement, yet this program does nothing to help public schools provide high-quality education. In fact, congressionally mandated federal evaluations released in both 2007 and 2008 found no significant differences in academic achievement between voucher students and their peers in D.C. public schools. This program does not work and should not be funded by our tax dollars.

Furthermore, these vouchers have been funding religious education. Because sectarian schools integrate religion throughout their curricula, school vouchers allow the state to fund religious teaching as well as secular coursework.

In addition, despite receiving public money, the participating private schools are not subject to all federal civil rights laws, and do not face the same accountability standards that all public schools must face.

Please call the Majority Office of the House Appropriations Committee ASAP to urge the defeat of this misguided program! The number is (202) 225-2771.

If you cannot make a phone call, please e-mail your representative NOW to urge him or her to oppose this program. Your representative can help stop vouchers before they go any further.

Take action right now!

I believe ...

In Memoriam - Dody Goodman

Playbill reports:

Dody Goodman, whose ditzy comic persona was well known to patrons of theatre, film and television from the 1950s on, died June 22 at the Actors Fund Home in New Jersey, a spokesperson for the Fund confirmed. [...]

She first struck out in show business as a dancer, hoofing it through a series of 1940s Broadway musicals including Viva O'Brien, Something for the Boys, One Touch of Venus, Laffing Room Only and Miss Liberty (all as Dolores Goodman). The 1950s brought her Call Me Madam, Wonderful Town and My Darlin' Aida.. In 1955, she made a splash in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song called "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers" by Sheldon Harnick and David Baker.

Her airhead persona, buttressed by curly hair, wide childlike blue eyes and a long, loopy grin, attracted the attention of Jack Paar, then the host of "The Tonight Show." Beginning in 1957, he had Ms. Goodman on the show as a regular several times, in with she essentially played herself. She parlayed a distracted air, and a hesitant, befuddled delivery into laughter and soon became very popular with audiences. [...]

Fame and good fortune returned in the late '70s when she took on the role of Martha Shumway in the widely praised, if short-lived, mock soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," and made a much-commented-upon supporting turn in the film of "Grease." A semi-regular role on "Diff'rent Strokes" followed. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her performance in an 1984 revival of Ah, Wilderness!. She also spent a great deal of time in productions of Nunsense and its sequels.

Ms. Goodman was 92.

In Memoriam - George Carlin

The Associated Press reports:

Legendary Comedian George Carlin Dies

George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin's jokes constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" - all of which are taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Comedian Lenny Bruce was influential in changing the course of Carlin's comedy to something more socially relevant.

That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.

Carlin is survived by his wife Sally Wade, daughter Kelly Carlin McCall and son-in-law Bob McCall, his brother Patrick Carlin and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.

Which Superhero Are You?

You are Green Lantern

Hot-headed. You have strong will power
and a good imagination.

Green Lantern 70% Catwoman 65% Iron Man 65% Superman 60% The Flash 50% Spider-Man 45% Hulk 40% Supergirl 38% Robin 38% Wonder Woman 28% Batman 25%

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test


h/t to Melissa at Shakesville

Do These Women Look Angry?

Now that we have presumptive nominees for the two major parties, the media must now decide which one it intends to support -- because as we all know, the media does play favorites.

While he was certainly the favorite during the primary, the luster seems to be coming off Sen. Barack Obama as we head into the general election. And now that a sexist media no longer has Sen. Clinton to kick around, they have turned their focus on Michelle Obama.

Her fist bump becomes a terrorist symbol and her every word becomes representative of what a racist media calls "an angry Black woman."

Cal Thomas says that America only sees "angry Black women" on television.

Jane Hall: If they can’t prove he’s a Muslim, then let’s prove his wife is an angry black woman. I think it’s going to get ugly.

Cal Thomas: And who are the black women you see on the local news at night in cities all over the country. They’re usually angry about something. They’ve had a son who has been shot in a drive-by shooting. They are angry at Bush. So you don’t really have a profile of non-angry black women.

Gee, Cal thinks there isn't a "profile of non-angry black women" on television? I guess he's never seen any of these women -- who are terrific:











Cal ... you were saying?


.

Sunday Funnies