Best speech ever to celebrate July 4th

NoQ pulled it up and posted it today. I posted it a few months back and found it amazing. Definitely worth repeating.

Florida and Michigan Delegates - A Mess Setup to Screw Over Hillary

Garry Shay, Chair of the California Democratic Party Rules Committee and a member of the Democratic National Committee Rules Committee, talking with fellow Superdelegate and DNC Member who also sits on the DNC Rules Committee, Alice Huffman, at California Democratic Council Dinner Before remarks-

By Frank D. Russo

Yesterday evening, I moderated an after dinner panel discussion amongst eight California Superdelegates, including two who are uncommitted, at the annual California Democratic Council Convention in Fresno. Despite being in session for a dozen or so hours before the dinner event kicked off, the room was packed with CDC delegates who did not tire and stayed for an hour and a half to ask questions and hear from those on the dais. I’ll have a fuller report later on the many interesting comments of these grassroots Democrats, all of whom were elected to their positions, and are not going to the Denver Convention because of appointment or their position.
What caught my ear were the comments made by Garry Shay, a well versed and insightful California Democratic Party Rules Chair and a member of the important Democratic National Committee Rules Committee, who said he anticipates the May 31, 2008 meeting of this body to be important and for it to resolve questions surrounding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan.
Shay is known as a straight shooter who is well versed in rules and chooses his words carefully. He announced around the time of the California primary that he was supporting Hillary Clinton. He, as well as the other seven superdelegates on the panel--and another who had to leave early but spoke to the crowd--had some interesting things to say about what this means. But Shay’s analysis of the Florida and Michigan situation was very interesting.
He was more predictive of the Florida delegation, which he said, based on putting bits and pieces of information together, would be seated, each with a one-half vote. He said the resolution of the Michigan delegates, where all Democratic candidates except Hillary Clinton, took their names off the ballot at the request of the Democratic National Party, was “anybody’s guess.” But being told to arrive a day early and to schedule plane flights coming home a day after the meeting, he said that there will be a big push to resolve these issues before the convention. The Rules and Bylaws Committee has jurisdiction on this issue until June 29. If it goes to the convention, it will then be handled by the credentials committee.
Here is what Shay had to say, verbatim:
Question: Are any of the superdelegates on the credentials committee and do you have any idea what will happen with Florida and Michigan?
[Crowd laughter with someone shouting out “touché!]
Shay: Well actually the gentleman is correct. The question is the credentials committee if you are going down to the convention to determine this. But both Alice (Huffman) and I sit on the Rules Committee and we have jurisdiction over this matter until June 29th. And on May 31st, there’s a meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee in Washington, D.C.
I anticipate that this matter is going to be fleshed out there between all the parties concerned. I think the party is looking at this as being a very important meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, because this is the first time that I can ever recall getting a memo from them saying that we want you to fly in the night before and not making your plans for leaving until the day after. So they intend to resolve the matter at that time.
Currently, the Rules and Bylaws Committee position on this is that both states are stripped of both of their pledged delegates and their superdelegates. Challenges were filed by both Florida and Michigan members, challenging that decision on two different grounds. One of them was whether or not the superdelegates should be seated from those states because the charter of the Democratic Party says that the superdelegates shall be delegates to the convention. The other was whether or not it should be a 100% penalty or a 50% penalty.
So those are issues that are going to be coming before the Rules and Bylaws Committee once again. And also complicating the matter with regard to Michigan is the fact that not all candidates’ names were on the ballot.
What I anticipate will happen is that—and I have not received any communications from anybody, this is just my own thoughts on the matter—that the superdelegates will likely be seated from both states. That Florida will be seated with a half delegate for each pledged delegate based upon the January results. The concept there being that there must be some punishment for violating the rules, and at the same time, excluding those two states is very difficult, and as far as Michigan is concerned, that’s anybody’s guess. I have no idea what is going to happen with them.
[Fellow panel member says to Shay “Explain why.”]
Well, there are a lot of things that happened with Michigan. First of all, the primary law was challenged as to its constitutionality and it was thrown out. So, there’s no law supporting the Michigan primary.
There’s the fact that Hillary Clinton’s name and the uncommitted slate was the only thing that was on the ballot in Michigan because the Democratic National Committee asked the other candidates to withdraw their names from the ballot. So, here you have the institution itself asking people to pull their names off the ballot.
[Fellow panel member says: “Not the other ones; they asked all of them.]
All of them, yes. That’s what--I don’t know what I just said-But, OK, that’s what I thought I said.
In any event, and you also have the uncommitted slate on the ballot—you have an uncommitted slate on the ballot and, you know, one of the proposals that came forward that I’ve seen is: Why not give half of the delegation to Clinton and half of it to Obama and that way it won’t make any difference and people can be seated. Well, what do you do with the fact that there was an uncommitted delegation that got votes and is entitled to delegates? I think that one is a whole big mess.

Super Bowl then Super Tuesday

NPR- Is America ready for a black president in 2008? Listen to the discussion

The race for Super Tuesday, February 5th just couldn't be any tighter. It is the first time in 24 years (some say 36 ), that California will have a say in the choice of a presidential candidate. One in five Democratic voters are Latinos and they are being wooed by both campaigns. Hillary seems to have a strong hold in this area and let's hope it holds.

New York is also playing a role for the first time since 1984. Clinton has a strong lead there because she holds home field advantage, and in the adjoining states of New Jersey and Connecticut she looks strong, especially in New Jersey.

These states will now have a large say, but, ironically some other states which hung back – Ohio and Texas which vote March 4th, or even Pennsylvania on April 2nd, may deliver the final choice for the Democratic candidate.

This is AP's release, "20 minutes ago" of an ABC/WaPo Poll. You can click to enlarge. Then when enlarged, click it again!

Gallup has Hillary Clinton with a 7pt lead in their Daily National Tracking Polls

Don't forget to Click Here for state by state tracking of those that are available.

Oh, and GO GIANTS !

Democratic Delegate Watch for Super Tuesday

HIllary Clinton Delegates
Barack Obama Delegates

Alabama: Primary, 60 Delegates, 9 Electoral Votes
Alaska: 18 Delegates, Closed Caucus, 3 Electoral Votes
Arizona: 67 Delegates, Closed Primary, 10 Electoral Votes
Arkansas: 47 Delegates, Primary, 6 Electoral Votes

California: 441 Delegates, Primary, 55 Electoral Votes Delegates broken down here NY Times - California race

Colorado: 71 Delegates, Closed Caucus, 9 Electoral Votes
Connecticut: 60 Delegates, Closed Primary, 7 Electoral Votes
Delaware: 23 Delegates, Closed Primary, 3 Electoral Votes
Georgia: 103 Delegates, Primary, 15 Electoral Votes
Idaho (Dem Only): 23 Delegates, Caucus, 4 Electoral Votes
Illinois: 185 Delegates, Primary, 21 Electoral Votes
Kansas (Dem Only): 41 Delegates, Closed Caucus, 6 Electoral Votes
Massachusetts: 121 Delegates, Primary, 12 Electoral Votes
Minnesota: 88 Delegates, Caucus, 10 Electoral Votes
Missouri: 88 Delegates, Primary, 11 Electoral Votes
New Jersey: 127 Delegates, Primary, 15 Electoral Votes
New Mexico (Dem Only): 38 Delegates, Closed Caucus, 5 Electoral Votes
New York" 281 Delegates, Closed Primary, 31 Electoral Votes
North Dakota: 21 Delegates, Caucus, 3 Electoral Votes
Oklahoma: 47 Delegates, Closed Primary, 7 Electoral Votes
Tennessee: 85 Delegates, Primary, 11 Electoral Votes
Utah: 29 Delegates, Primary, 5 Electoral Votes

Why won't any of the media touch the real Obama details?

It doesn't matter if we are talking about his resume, drug use, voting record, avoidance of voting on critical issues, or voting "present" so many times instead of taking a stand voting up or down, even though it could hurt his political future.... Why won't the media analyze this arrogant man as to why he wrote so many books about himself at such a young age? Does this not speak volumes about this guy? How many people do that when they are still at the beginning of their adult years?

Where is the media coverage on Obama? Ok so we can't believe every video pronouncement like this on face value, fair enough.. but if this isn't true, why would this man show his face to make this video? Why hasn't Obama filed a complaint to remove it or sued the guy for defamation?



Obama Unmasked
Andrew Stephen
Published 10 January 2008

What's going wrong for the man who would be president? Our US editor Andrew Stephen reports from Washington. Plus Joe Treasure among California's Clinton lovers

We at the New Statesman must take some of the blame, I suppose. Barack Obama had been a senator for just ten months in 2005 when we devoted a cover to his face, anointing him as one of ten people likely to have an impact on the world. It was only during 2007, however, that the American media fell head-over-heels in love with Obama; when he trounced Hillary Clinton in the Democratic party caucuses in Iowa on 3 January, it seemed that the electorate was swooning in a headlong rush to the altar with Obama, too. By the end of the first week of the '08 presidential election year, the media had all but handed over the keys to the White House to him.
So it all came as a shock to the pundits and pollsters on the night of 8 January when, despite predictions of an overwhelming Obama triumph, it became clear that the voters of New Hampshire had given Hillary Clinton the victory over Obama she badly needed. The reason for the media's distortions, I believe, is that Obama's relationship with the press and the electorate is still at the stage of starry-eyed infatuation. Yes, he is a mesmerising political orator who offers a magic elixir that somehow contains both stimulants and sedatives: that we need not worry about the present or future, because we can look forward to a new dawn of hope and reassurance in the safe hands of President Obama. Exactly how and why this would happen is not clear, but it is heady and exciting stuff.
I suspect that the longer the relationship continues, however, the more Obama's many faults and shortcomings as a presidential candidate will emerge. In his speech admitting defeat in New Hampshire on Tuesday, for example, a hint of his bad-tempered haughtiness emerged. He is not the fresh-faced young idealist the media like to portray, but a hard-headed 46-year-old lawyer whose monumental drive and political calculations make the Clinton's seem like a pair of amateurs. The media and electorate may have fallen in love with him spontaneously, but Obama has been carefully plotting his strategy to seduce them for decades

Full article a must read here A little "blow"

Related- The NY Times has endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Note they didn't back home boy Rudy!

Jon Stewart shows the media for the idiots they are

Chris Matthews yells at guest Dee Dee Myers

I'm not sure Chris would use this tone with a male guest, but it speaks of why a woman president would bring some level of respect to woman that is sorely lacking now.