Obama maintains an overall 7-8 point lead in the national trackers.

Obama maintains an overall 7-8 point lead in the national trackers.

The required swing states are all falling into Obama's column
Fivethirtheight now gives McCain a mere 3.3% chance of wining
and predicts over 350 Electoral Votes for Obama with at least 52% of the popular vote.

Today's Polls, 10/26

While there are a few surprises here and there, once again the theme of today's polls is stability in the race for the White House.

John McCain narrowed his gap significantly in today's , drawing from 9.5 points behind to 5.3. As you probably know, I have a signifiacnt critique of Zogby's weighting mechanism, which assumes that the partisan identification breakdown will be roughly equal to 2004, when about the same number of Democrats and Republicans turned out for the election. Neverthless, McCain also improved slightly in the Research 2000, IBD/TIPP, and ABC/Post polls. On the other hand, Barack Obama gained a point in Hotline and the Gallup "Likely Voters II" model (though not Gallup's "traditional" likely voter model), and remains at his high-water mark in Rasmussen.



If the balance of today's national polls contain better news for McCain, the balance of the state polls show Obama continuing to perform very well in several swing states. Obama now has 15-point lead in New Hampshire according to the Boston Globe / UNH poll, which had generally contained good news for McCain earlier in this cycle. PPP puts Obama up by 9 in Virginia, while two new polls also show him with significant leads in Iowa.

Meanwhile, an Arizona poll for the Democratic strategy firm Project New West shows John McCain ahead by just 4 points there, and a couple of other polls showing a close race in McCain's home state are apparently on the way. In terms of our model, the principal effect of the Arizona polls is really on the Grand Canyon State, where our model remains skeptical of an Obama upset, but rather in terms of its neighbor New Mexico, where our it is now (even) more optimistic about Obama's chances.

Counteracting the Obama trend sightly are new polls in Wisconsin and Missouri, which show somewhat better numbers for McCain than other recent polls of those states. However, that is not enough to prevent McCain's win percentage from drifting downward to 3.3 percent.

Below are the Swing State polls (most recent in yellow highlights) and the news is not good for the McCain campaign for any of their scenarios.

McCain is losing in the states he has to win.

McCain has claimed that Pennsylvania is the key to his chances and claims he has a good chance to shift PA to Red. The polls are all Obama with a double digit lead.

Obama is winning in Colorado, Virginia, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wisconsin. Any combination of all of the Kerry states plus Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia will carry the race for Obama and it seems that is almost certain at this point.

In addition Obama now leads in Florida and Ohio

As of today Obama also shows leads in Georgia, Indiana, Montana and North Dakota

CARVILLE'S ADVICE TO OBAMA - GET MAD

Regardless of my personal feelings about the guy, James Carville proved to be a pretty savvy political operative during the campaigns of Bill Clinton and he hits a resonate note with me in his latest CNN piece of advice for Barack Obama

Maybe it's because I am a pissed off liberal/progressive but trying to set that aside I think it makes sense. Barack seems to come off like a detached intellectual who has this rather touchy feely message of "HOPE" and "CHANGE" in an environment where showing some toughness is necessary

There is no question that Obama has the superior chops on the economy but the McSame campaign is currently running an ad that is so absurd and just plain wrong it should really inspire outrage and anger.


This ad is so totally wrong and stupid it deserves anger and outrage in response. Obama will lower taxes on the folks who are suffering because of higher food and fuel costs - those in McSame's tax bracket feel no pain over these increased costs. It's McSame who is out of touch with Americans because he is the one with the 7,8, ... 11 houses and the $273,000 yearly housekeeping expense. Barack should show some anger and outrage on our behalf if not his own. Get mad for the average Americans who are being misled by the total bullshit represented by this ad. Get mad because this ad means McSame thinks American's are idiots who can't see through the utter banality of the lies this ad represents.

Carville lays out the Obama advantage on the Economy.

Quite simply, he needs to create a more compelling narrative on change, use history as a context for the economy, and get mad about something.

First and foremost, Obama must bring a narrative to his position as a change agent. You can't simply seek change for change's sake.

The argument must be made that this is an election with two choices: the change-seeking good guys or the status quo-clinging bad guys. The campaign needs to brand every negative attack by the Republicans as just another desperate attempt of the status quo clinging to power.[...]

McCain keeps trying to claim he's a "change Republican." I don't really know what that means, but Obama and his team must continue to highlight the "McSame" that he offers: more of the same failed Iraq policy, more of the same tax breaks for oil and drug companies, more of the same Swift-boat-style tactics, more of the same on education and healthcare. And he certainly offers more of the same failed Bush economic policy.

McSame has said

"Even if the economy is the, quote, number one issue, the real issue will remain America's security," [McCain] said. "If it's not the most important issue in the minds of many voters, America's security will remain the number one issue with me. And if they choose to say, 'Look, I do not need this guy because he's not as good on home loan mortgages,' or whatever it is, I understand that. I will accept that verdict. I am running because of the transcendent challenge of the twenty-first century, which is radical Islamic extremism, as you know."

That's why he has a liar and fool named Phil Gramm as his economic advisor. The same guy who calls us average Americans in danger of losing our modest single houses a nation of whiners. All of us can't make millions deregulating the mortgage industry and lobbying for the thieves who wrecked FannieMae and FreddieMac. Why shouldn't we be outraged and angry about the train wreck we've experienced with this Republican administration that made Gramm and his Republican buddies filthy rich at our expense?

Obama has an economic plan that will work for our near future but he also has the historical advantage of Democratic administrations that have done vastly better than the Republicans.

Use history as a guideline. He should start by reading "Unequal Democracy," by Princeton academic Larry Bartels. The non-partisan and non-political Bartels points out devastatingly after an exhaustive study of Democratic and Republican presidents that the Democrats built a better economy and a more just society.

The campaign needs to say that, since 1900, Democratic presidents have not only "won" but dominated on every economic front: GDP growth, employment, deficit and income equality. Need more? How about a better performing stock market and a more fiscally-responsible spending. [...] historically Democratic presidencies have produced better economies. And with the economy still in the forefront, it's a no-brainer for Obama to talk about the historical supremacy of economies under Democratic presidents.

Barack and the rest of us Democrats should be outraged that Republican's seem to get away with murder saying that the Democrats are bad for business and the economy. IT IS A HUGE LIE and the evidence is graphic
Republicans are fiscally irresponsible and anything but Conservative. Barack will lower taxes for all of us who have paid an unfair share while corporations and the ultra rich got all the breaks. We have been saddled with a huge debt while the oil companies and the super rich have made record profits and the gap between the ultra rich top 5% and the rest of us has grown.

Our candidate needs to articulate our rage

And my last piece of advice to Obama and his team is to just get mad about something. Obama's campaign seems so intent on branding him as a "cool and calm" leader.

Voters want to see a sense of urgency and outrage in their president: Outrage over our dependence on foreign oil; our increased cost of living, health care and education; declining incomes; outrage over an endless war and an idiotic foreign policy; and our country's loss of prestige over the last 7½ years. To put it bluntly, Obama needs to get outraged over something other than "attacks on his patriotism."

Barack has shown that he can be cool and restrained in the face of outrageous behavior but can he summon up some righteous indignation and serious toughness on our behalf? We've been treated like crap by the Republican party of Bush =McSame for 8 long years and we have every right to be angry about the damage done to our country and our lives and our children's future. Barack Obama offered to fight this campaign on the high ground leaving the outrage in the box and debating the merits of his ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect. John McSame has shown that he and his party are incapable of civil respect and rational honest debate. This isn't the way we wanted it. But now the situation is clear to everyone and it's time to take off the gloves and deck these lying scumbags with some serious punches thrown in righteous anger and contempt.

We need someone who will fight for us when all efforts at diplomatic reasoned honest debate have been ignored. That's what Mr. Carville thinks and he actually has to live with Mary Matalin without murdering her in her sleep. I'm not sure how he does it. Maybe she chains him to a bed in another room at night so his subconscious doesn't sleepwalk in a dream of destruction. As much as I hate to admit it I think he has a point.

This is one reason I love the idea of a Biden on the ticket because I think Biden is capable of delivering clear righteous blows that expose the total lack of integrity in Republican politics.

I'm mad as hell and I don't want Obama to take it anymore.
How about you?

← Is Barack Obama’s real name Barry Soetoro? No Quarter Blog says the Republican machine is about to unload on Obama nee Soetoro Huffington Post edits Barack Obama Hawaii vacation pic photo of Barry Checking out Bikini Clad Woman →
No Bad Photo Ops of Barack Obama in Hawaii Yet, Just Barry Checking out Bikini clad Women
August 13th, 2008 · No Comments

Barack Obama checking out woman in Hawaii.

Barack Obama checks out bikini clad woman while relaxing in Hawaii.
Picture via Yahoo Pics
Barack Obama is seated at the far right with hat and sunglasses.


Barack Obama cooly checks out bikini clad woman

Barack Obama cooly checks out another bikini clad woman in Hawaii. Obama is on vacation, preparing for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.


Ah Ha but the story doesn't end here - It seems that LIBERAL MEDIA is at it again in outrageous fashion

Huffington Post edits Barack Obama Hawaii vacation pic photo of Barry Checking out Bikini Clad Woman

Looks like the Huffington Post doesn’t want you to see the Messiah looking at women.



THE SAVAGE WEENY WILL HAVE A CATACLYSM

Michael Savage Warns of Cataclysmic Events That Will be Announced on His Website over the next six to fourteen days

Very strange, Michael Savage opened his Thursday radio show with the message that cataclysmic events will be announced on his website over the next six to fourteen days. I wonder what Michael Savage is up to:

Michael Savage:

“The phone number here is 1-800-449-8255. I would like to suggest that people throughout America who listen to this show on a regular basis
please put Michael Savage dot com into your browser and be sure to go there everyday to see the stories that I talk about on this show and also
to follow the developments of this program because in the next two weeks there are going to be shocking statements that I’m going to put up
on the website that may not appear on this radio show. You may not be able to hear it on your local station because I may not say it on your local station but things are going to happen in the next 7 to 14 days that will be somewhat cataclysmic.”

AND THERE IS MUCH MUCH MORE

Picture via daylife.com:

This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro into the Catholic school made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. The document lists Barry Soetoro as a Indonesian citizen, born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, and shows his Muslim step-father listed the boy’s religion as Islam.

But “Obama” told the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois that he had never had another name:

MAKING DICK CHENEY SEEM LIKE GANDI

WE CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION

When is a "conservative" not a Conservative?

Who can we trust with our money?
Seems to me that the Obama campaign could make some progress with older 65 and over voters with a clear and simple line of attack.

WE SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION
They cannot be trusted with your money.

Since 1980 the National debt has increased by 10 Trillion Dollars
1.5 Trillion during the Democratic administration of Clinton/Gore vs 8.5 Trillion during the Republican Administrations of Reagan Bush and Bush
Clinton/Gore slowed the growth of debt to zero during their second term and had Al Gore taken the office to which he was elected it is reasonable to assume that he could have lowered the debt by refusing to give massive tax breaks to the corporations and the very wealthy. DO THE MATH and elect fiscally responsible Democrats who understand that a strong dollar and balanced budget puts the interests of the country above the personal financial gain of the very wealthy.

After several weeks of futility I have finally found an effective way to appeal to my parents and their friends and I have secured their votes for Barack Obama. This was amazingly simple and effective.

Democrats are known as the "Tax and Spend" liberals. You know those irresponsible big spenders who never saw an expensive big government program they did not like. Aren't the Republicans the Conservatives who cut taxes and pinch those pennies by reducing federal spending and the size of government? Isn't that what we've been told all our lives?

Then what is wrong with this picture?
THE INCREDIBLE ESCALATION OF OUR RECORD SETTING NATIONAL DEBT





If you're a Democrat trying to convince an older voter to support Democrats this fall there is nothing wrong with this picture. It has a profound effect on older voters who grew up knowing the effects of the great depression learning to make ends meet while never going into debt.

Do you know where the cost of carrying this obscene dept ranks in the Federal Budget?

It costs more to service the debt than the combined cost of every department and agency except Defense and Health and Human Services.

It's not that people are unaware that we have a rapidly increasing national debt - that is known on some level by most folks. It's just that the relative scope and size of that debt hasn't been imprinted on the consciousness of the electorate - neither has the relative culpability of the parties or the cost of debt service.

When older voters see these graphics they experience an epiphany. The graphic evidence is mind blowing because so many have been brainwashed or programmed to think that the Democrats are the big spenders and the Republicans are the fiscal conservatives. Most older voters hate and fear debt and the Republicans are the epitome of debt inducing big spenders.

If your older friends, parents, relatives, or church going acquaintances are anything like mine they will be shocked and amazed to see these graphs. My 90 year old father was so shocked he took a printed version to his Sertoma and Shriner's meetings this past week and really shook up a crowd of Republicans with this evidence.

Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush ran up more debt in 12 years than all of the previous Presidents combined. Bill Clinton and Al Gore flattened out that line in their second term and ended the growth in debt with the opportunity to reduce the debt and slash the cost until George W. "big spender" Bush out did both Reagan and his father by more than double in just over 7 years.

*WARNING - Make certain that older voters are sitting down before they view these graphs. Visual representation of the debt incurred by George W. Bush can cause dizziness and heart palpitations in some older fiscal conservatives.

Clinton and Gore actually shrunk the size of the federal government during their term but George W. Bush has created the third largest Department in the Federal Government with the massive, corrupt, and totally ineffective Gestapo of Homeland Security. DHS runs a second prison system at maximum inefficiency out spending the Department of InJustice that adds 1000 prisoners a month to the 2.3 million incarcerated Americans at a cost of $25,000 a year per prisoner. Homeland Security spend 1.5 million a year on personnel and maintenance plus 2.5 million on transportation, per diem and security to house 265 bin Laden drivers at Guantanamo for approx $40,000 each per year. I shudder to think what the cost of RENDITION and private midnight flights to torture chambers across the globe add to the bottom line.

Add to these outrageous costs the "savings" generated by Cheney's privatization of the quartermaster functions of the armed services with the fraud of Halliburtion/KBR and the cost of Blackwater and it's easy to see how W could actually run up a debt like this while electrocuting some of our brave fighting men and maiming thousands in under-armored HumVee's.
A Trillion here and a Trillion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money to turn American into a police state where nobody is safe from dog shooting laptop seizing storm troopers and SWAT teams. Reagan and Bush 1 took us from less than a trillion to 4.3 Trillion in 12 years. Clinton/Gore cut the rate of increase to only 1.4 Trillion in their 8 years and had flattened the curve from 1995 through 1998. W however is amazing. He has added over 5 trillion to the debt in less than 7 years with a Republican Congress while trashing the economy at the same time. It takes real talent to run up that kind of debt without inducing economic growth. Dick Cheney is a huge asset to W in his quest to break the national bank. He wrote the bill that privatized the quartermaster function of the armed services and then went on to preside over Halliburton proving that a private company could actually cost far more than a government run agency. Of course the government couldn't move their offices off shore to tax havens in the Caymans or run their operations from Dubai to avoid paying taxes on the profits from their no bid contracts. The devious genius of this rape and robbery of the national treasury while in office is astounding. No wonder he spends his life in an undisclosed location - deep underground in a fortified bunker filled with $68.00 cases of canned soda and $100 a bag laundry with electrified shower stalls.

SCOTUS, K. Harris, Jeb and W really stuck it to us when they combined to deny Al Gore the office to which he was duly elected. Many folks have no true idea what that means in the historical fiscal sense. But now it seems I've stumbled upon a way to reach my parents and their older friends and I'm passing it along to you interested to know if you will find it useful as I did.

Bill Clinton and Al Gore did a very good job of informing the nation about the high cost of debt and the benefit to all of reducing that debt and strengthening the dollar. A stronger dollar would lower the cost of imported oil for instance. But that case is not being made effectively at this time and it could be key to swinging older more conservative voters who are staunch supporters of fiscal responsibility. The Obama camp should not cede the high ground on balancing the budget given the record of recent history.

I don't know how the Obama campaign can make use of this graphic data with the older voters who seem to be leaning toward McCain. The programming of the Rightwing meme-machine has them thinking that "Tax and Spend" is the Democrat disease. Older fiscal conservatives think spending without the income to pay for it is irresponsible. They understand the cost of carrying debt and most refused to do that in their personal finances. They reject the idea of it in public financing as well. It's an old fashioned idea that resonates with older voters.

All I can say is that I'm amazed how well it worked with my elder parents and their circle of conservative friends here in East Tennessee. I have the feeling that most older voters are only vaguely aware of the recent history of the national debt and the impact it has on the budget. When they saw this graphic information it had a surprisingly strong impact. McCain=Bush=Hoover and an impending fiscal disaster of epic "great depression" proportions. These older voters started life with depression fresh in their minds. They don't want anything to do with it a second time and the possibility is all too real. See if this will work for you as well as it did for me.

It is quite simple and clear for responsible senior citizens. Debts must be paid and the cost of carrying debt is unacceptable. That makes the Republicans unacceptable. Debt is not an abstract thing to survivors of the great depression.

BREAKING NEWS:
Chinese Commu-capitalists took over control of the USA without firing a single shot. W and his neocon friends made it possible by allowing them to beat us at our own game. No need to bomb us when all they had to do was own us. How strange it is to realize that we may end up nationalizing everything the Chinese own on our soil. W took us from being the strongest most powerful nation on earth to our current status as greatest debtors in the world in 8 short years. It seems that proud older voters of the greatest generation may be vulnerable to the fiscal responsibility line of approach from the Democrats.

LIMBAUGH: Well, it's -- I mean, at some point, at some point, you gotta exhibit maturity and restraint. You know, and I do that constantly. But -- well, I don't -- look, let me see if I can run you through this and get you to think what I'm thinking without my actually saying it. That might be a pretty big talent if I could do that -- make you think what I'm going to say without my having to say it, therefore if anybody gets in trouble for saying it, you say it.

We know -- we've been told that Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards. That's part of the puff pieces on them that we've seen. Ergo, if Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards, is it likely that she thinks she knows better than he does what his speeches ought to contain and what kind of things he ought to be doing strategy-wise in the campaign? If she is smarter than he is, could it have been her decision to keep going with the campaign? In other words, could it be that she doesn't shut up? Now, that's as far as I'm going to go.

Well, you're -- Snerdley says he's missing something. If you're missing it, you're going to have to provide it. What are you missing? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

I can't close the loop on it. I can't close the loop on it. I'm on -- you know, I'm in a little quicksand already today talking about how the chicks are giving us boring pictures of the female athletes from the Olympics. Because I know -- you -- the diversity crowd's going to be upset. They're going to -- "Ooh, do you mean the Olympics are just so you guys can ogle wom--" Yes, because we do not care to watch 'em compete. But back to Elizabeth and the Breck Girl.

I'm sorry, my friends, I just -- I can't. It just seems to me that Edwards might be attracted to a woman whose mouth did something other than talk.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: OK, we're back. Ladies and gentleman, my theory that I just explained to you about why -- you know, what could have John Edwards' motivations been to have the affair with Rielle Hunter, given his wife is smarter than he is and probably nagging him a lot about doing this, and he found somebody that did something with her mouth other than talk. I think I can back this up from her.

We have a sound bite. This is February 2007. She was on the tabloid show Extra. And this is what she said. Listen very carefully.

HUNTER [audio clip]: The whole experience was life-altering for me. One of the great things about John Edwards is that he's so open and willing to try new things and do things in new ways.

LIMBAUGH: "Open to new things." Folks, it is what it is. You get mad at me for bringing the truth to you, but it is what it is.

VIRAL EMAIL - ARE DEMOCRATS DIFFERENT?

Today I received yet another viral McSame E-mail from an old high school friend - it is included after the jump - and it got me to thinking after my reply. (also included)

It got me to thinking about the large number of anti-Obama emails I receive through my brother - who does not reply and stays on the list. I've seen at least a dozen in the past month.

Why don't we see viral emails from the left? Are we incapable of a retort or is something deeper at work?

I think Democrats and liberal/progressives are reticent to pass on lies by email. I believe we recoil at the idea of negative smear campaigns. I wonder if we are wired differently and I'm not unhappy about that possibility.

Maybe I'm just out of the loop of anti-McSame viral email. I do live in Republican Knoxville,TN. where people get killed for being Liberal so I may not be privy to some campaign by liberals who send attacks on McCain by email.

On the one hand I applaud Obama's desire to stay positive and talk about the problems we face and solutions to those problems. On the other I see the points of those who think we need to see Obama attack McCain like he is being attacked.

But it's part of why I am proud to be a liberal/progressive Democrat even when we lose doing things the right way. I just wonder why some of you who think Obama should go on the attack aren't composing attack email against McSame and send them out. Or do you? Here's an email address to send them
revolver44 at comcast dot net.

Here's the email

America, does not need this leader......
Obama Explains National Anthem Stance -

Hot on the heels of his explanation for why he no longer wears a flag pin, presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama was forced to explain why he doesn't follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.

According to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171, During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.

'As I've said about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides,' Obama said. 'There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it.'

WHAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!

and this was my reply

Karen and friends,

It's pretty amazing that people who want to see John McCain elected to continue 4 more years of the same economic and foreign policy that put us in the shape we currently "enjoy" have to lie - baldfaced outright lie - by sending on email like this.

I realize it's difficult to come up with any reason to vote for John McCain. And I realize he has based his campaign on smears and lies. But it seems you would have something better to do than email an outright lie - a quote that never happened - to indicate your support for the party that has given us endless war, an unbelievable debt, and serious problems for homeowners and those who have trouble paying for healthcare not to mention the plunging stock market and hideous balance of trade.

The Republican Party has controlled both houses of Congress for 14 of the past 16 years and the Presidency for the past 8 and everything that is happening now is laid at their feet as a result of their policies. So it's clear if you're a Republican all you can do to keep your party in power is to lie about the Democrat. That may be important to you if you're employed by the defense or oil industries or if you are among the 5% richest Americans. We have seen the greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of the country from the hands of middle class to the elite.

These are serious times that require serious changes to the way things have been operated for the past 8 years.
8 years ago we enjoyed a balanced budget and people of all economic situations below the richest 5% were doing far better than they are today. Now we have record profits by Bush and Cheney oil buddies and the weapons manufactureres and folks like Halliburton/KBR and Blackwater but most middle class and lower income Americans are living on the edge squeezed like never before.

So get serious Karen and stop sending me this crap. That quote never happened and it's not about what's important to people who are in trouble after 8 years of the worst presidency in history. I don't care who you support - have the decency to send something that gives us hope that there will be a change from what we've seen destroyed by the Bush/Cheney administration. This kind of viral crap from Freepers who think people will believe any crap they post should be beneath you.

Let me know if John comes up with anything to beat Obama's plans for converting us from a dependency on fossil fuels or how he's going to end the insanity that cause us to waste a trillion dollars in Iraq on a war based on lies and I will be glad to see it. But if this is the best you've got then keep it to yourself.

Barack Obama is already restoring some hope in the rest of the world that America will return to it's senses. Our friends overseas have no problem seeing hope in his candidacy. Attacking him as Un-American is about as low as anybody can go and I mean that sincerely

This stuff is garbage and you should be ashamed to pass it on. It demeans our democracy and insults our intelligence.

I guess John McCain forgot that Brittany Spears is a Bush supporter



When he decided to use her image in his new attack ad on Barack Obama

Worst of the Worst - Individual Edition

Got a couple of minutes - and a bone or two to pick?
How about we make an All Time Worst Persons in the World List
Just for fun and a little illumination

Can you help me establish an all time top 20 Worst Person's in the World?
(from a liberal progressive Democrat in the USA point of view)
We will limit this to American Politics for this exercise.
Help decide who has done the most damage to Democracy, decency, and The United States of America in the last 50 years.

Anyone know the Gilbert and Sullivan song from The Mikado
I've Got a Little List?
As someday it may happen that a victim must be found
I've got a little list, I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground
And who never would be missed, They never would be missed

This list will be for individuals followed later by a list for corporations and organizations.

Pop on those thinking caps and meet below the fold.
Intro
You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.

Got a couple of minutes - and a bone or two to pick? How about we make an All Time Worst Persons in the World List Just for fun and a little illumination Can you help me establish an all time top 20 Worst Person's in the World? (from a liberal progressive Democrat in the USA point of view) We will limit this to American Politics for this exercise. Help decide who has done the most damage to Democracy, decency, and The United States of America in the last 50 years. Anyone know the Gilbert and Sullivan song from The Mikado I've Got a Little List? As someday it may happen that a victim must be found I've got a little list, I've got a little list Of society offenders who might well be underground And who never would be missed, They never would be missed This list will be for individuals followed later by a list for corporations and organizations. Pop on those thinking caps and meet below the fold.

Here's a starting point list of some of my favorite candidates including
Pseudo-Christian Rightwing Religious Wingnuts
Reactionary Robotic Republican RightWingNuts
Putrid Polemic Polarizing Pundits
and
Republican Robbers and Corporate Creeps

It's too tough to limit any list to a Top Ten maybe even a Top Twenty but give it a try. Anything you want to say to make your case as to why someone belongs would be very welcome. I plan to come back in time one day and I want to know who to eliminate first to make the world a better place.

REACTIONARY ROBOTIC RIGHTWINGNUT REPUBLICANS

Jesse Helms br 21 VP Capitol Broadcasting Raleigh City Council Senate 72
Strom Thurmond br 02 US Senate 60’s
Dick Cheney br 41 2 DWI’s 62/63 Yale flunk out U of Wisconsin BA & Masters
Don Rumsfeld br 32 Investment banker A.G. Becker 60-62 Congress 64
Phil Gramm br 42 PhD UGA 67 taught Econ at Texas A & M
Tom Delay br 47 BS from Houston 70
John Ashcroft br 42 Yale 64 JD from Chicago 67
George W Bush br 46 Yale 65 Harvard MBA 75
George H. W. Bush br 24 Zapata Oil Co thru 64
Jeb Bush br 53 Univ Texas 75
Katherine Harris br 57 Agnes Scott College GA 79
Lawrence Eagleburger br 30 State Dept in Belgrade 60
Karl Rove br 50 Moved to Utah 65
Grover Norquist br 56 Harvard BA and MBA Dir National Taxpayer Union
Lester Maddox br 15 sold Ga Tech restaurant 65 to keep from serving blacks
George C Wallace br 19 Bama Gov 62
Alfonse D’Amato br 37 Syracuse Law – Town supervisor in Hempsted NY
Wayne LaPierre br 49 HS Roanoke VA 67 Sienna College, Boston Col Masters
Charlton Heston br 23 original liberal Dem turned RRR
John Cornyn US Senate Texas
Ted Stevens US Senate Alaska
Newt Gingrich Contract on America
Scooter Libby br 50 Yale Law grad 72
Jack Abramoff br 59 JD Georgetown Law 86 Brandies 81
Joe LIEberman - turncoat and tool of the right

Lamar Alexander br 40 NYU law 65
Bill Frist br 52 Princeton 72
Rick Santorum br 58 Penn State Univ 80
Bob Barr br 48 USC grad 70
Pat Toomey br 61 Harvard – head of Club for Growth
Richard M. Nixon
Henry Kissinger
Spiro T Agnew
Ronald Reagan
Oliver North

PUTRID POLARIZING POLEMIC PUNDITS

Bill O’Reilly br 49 Marist 71 Boston U MA broadcasting 76
Rush Limbaugh br 51 Cape Girardeau Missoui
Ann Coulter br 61 Cornell 84 Michigan JD 88
Sean Hannity br 72 HS Uniondale, NY. 89 radio show Santa Barbara,
Liz Trotta NBC NYC in early 60’s
Bill Kristol br 53 Harvard grad 73 PhD 79
Richard Mellon Sciafe br 32 Pittsburg newspapers
Michelle Malkin br 70 Oberlein College 92
Charles Johnson - Little Green Footballs
Glenn Reynolds - Instapundit
Michael Winer Savage br 42 gatekeeper at Millbrook PhD UC Berkeley 78
Roger Ailes br 41 Mike Douglas Show 67 Ohio Univ.
Joseph Farrah started WorldNetDaily 99
Jonah Goldberg br 69 Goucher Col 91 taught English in Prague
Hugh Hewitt br 58 Harvard 78 Michigan JD 83
David Limbaugh br 52 Cape Girardeau MO JD U of Mo
Glenn Beck br 64 Mount Vernon WA. Drug addict/drunk grad Sehome HS
Peggy Noonan br 50 Brooklyn grad Farleigh Dickinson Univ.
Laura Ingram br 64 Glastonbury CT Dartmouth 85 UVA JD 91
David Broder br 29 Washington Post 66
David Brooks br 61 U of Chicago 83
Pat Buchanan br 38 Columbia masters journalism 62
Mona Charen ? Barnard, Columbia, JD Geo Washington, Townhall.com
Lou Dobbs br 45 Harvard 67 CNN 80
Matt Drudge br 66 Maryland LA CBS gift shop 89
Larry Elder br 52 Brown 74 Michigan JD 77
Dick Morris br 58 Columbia 67
Bob Novak br 31 WSJ Congressional Correspondant 61
Rex Reed br 38
Phyllis Schafly br 24 The Eagle Forum
Joseph Sobran br 46 MI E MICH U 71 National Review in 72
Thomas Sowell br 30 The Black Conservative – use for drug war destruction
Andrew Sullivan br 63 British Harvard PhD in 80’s
George Will br 41 Trinity Col Ct. Oxford, Princeton PhD 68
Robert W. Welch Jr br 99 John Birch Society Indianapolis 58
Revilio P Oliver br 08 John Birch Soc – Nat Alliance white supremacist
Paul Weyrich br 41 U Wisc 61-63 Newsmax - founder Heritage Foundation
Christopher W. Ruddy br 65 St John’s 87 NewMax
James C Robinson – founder Free Republic
William F Buckley - the National Review
L. Brent Bozell III br 55 ba Dallas Univ – founder Media Research Center
Brit Hume - Faux Nooze

PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS RIGHTWINGNUTS

Pat Robertson br 30 Yale Law 55 New York Theological 59 CBN in 61 Va Beach
Jerry Falwell br 37 Thomas Roads Baptist in 56, Liberty U in 71
Richard Dortch imprisoned as aide to Bakker
Robert Grant – Glendale CA. br 36 Leader of Christian Right in America
John Hagee br 40 BA Trinity San Antonio 64 MSc N. Texas in 66
Paul Crouch br 31 in 61 ran Assemblies of God broadcasting in Burbank
Rod Parsley br 57 – Harvest Church and Sunset Chapel Canal Winchester OH
Robert Tilton br 46 Success in Life ministry in 71
Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker br 40 married 61 Minneapolis N.Central Univ
Jimmy Swaggert br 35
Ted Haggard br 56 Oral Roberts Univ
James Dobson br 36 Shreveport LA Focus on the Family
Ralph Reed br 61 UGA in 85
Joel Osteen br 63 took over Lakewood Church from father
Benny Hinn br 52
Rex Humbard br 19
Jack Van Impe br 30

REPUBLICAN ROBBERS AND CORPORATE CREEPS

Kenneth Lay Enron
Charles Keating Lincoln Savings and Loan
Sheldon Adelson Las Vegas Casinos
David Rubenstein the Carlyle Group
Daniel D'Aniello the Carlyle Group
William Conway the Carlyle Group
Robert B Willumstad AIG, Citigroup
Martin J Sullivan AIG
Miles D White CEO Abbot Labs
Andrew Liviris CEO Dow Chemical
Bernard Ebbers - World Com MCI
Scott Sullivan (CFO) World Com
David Myers (Controller) World Com
Buford "Buddy" Yates World Com
Rich DeVos - Amway
Rupert Murdock - Newscorp Aussie bent on screwing America
Roger Smith - General Motors
Eric Prince –br 69 Blackwater CEO

READY?
AIM and FIRE AWAY
Name your picks for the WORST OF THE WORST.

VICTORY and THE TIME HORIZON

Keith Olberman just NAILED it after the New York Times demanded it.

John McCain sees "Victory" as perpetual unending "Winning" with extra innings or periods always out there on 'The TIME HORIZON".

The Iraqi people want US out
The Iraqi leadership wants US out
The American people want US out
The Europeans want US out
but
for the Republicans Winning = Staying

Today is a landmark day for Obama and us Democrats
We finally have a clear and easily articulated argument for Barack Obama in the area of McSame's ostensible strength. Obama and we Democrats are safely on the side of the Iraqis, the American people and the world on leaving Iraq.

Although many of us have known that Republicans are for endless war up until now it has been difficult to prove something that seemed so preposterous.

The events of the past 72 hours have made it perfectly clear and impossible to refute.

Obama started this with his 16 month plan for withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Despite the attempts to make it seem as if he vacillated or wavered his policy has been steadfast from the beginning.

Malaki in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine then came out solidly in favor of Obama's plan despite the desperate attempts of the Republican's to claim a mistranslation and to make Malaki retract his statement.

Bush then fell into the trap of trying to change name with yet another malapropism - The Time Horizon - thinking that gullible Americans would be confused by the transparent of the Chimp in Chief once again.

McCain then tried to foist off another clueless political spiel as an OP ED to the New York Times who to their credit asked only one thing - "Tell us what VICTORY in Iraq means".

And poor John McCain was left exposed as the fatuous wind bag and water boy for the Neocons and their military industrial complex - you know - the men in the shadows who want nothing more than PERPETUAL WAR.

This is an historic day for us. The situation that we have know in our hearts has existed for a very long time is now in the open in no uncertain terms.

For Republicans VICTORY = STAYING in PERPETUAL WAR.
For Obama and us Democrats - it is the will of the people of America, Iraq , and the World. - an end to the occupation of IRAQ.

Everyone of us should take this beautifully simple and devastatingly clear picture of the difference in US and THEM and post our version of it everywhere we have access.

They cannot drill their way out of this box.
They have put themselves in the spotlight and we need to amp up the illumination.

The Time Horizon is NOW
The PERPETUAL WAR MACHINE is fully exposed
Like Barack's shot from downtown Kuwait city that hit nothing but net this is a winner for Democrats that should be on full repeat from now until November. We now have all the ammunition we need to expose the war machine for what it is in every conversation on every forum in every chat room and in every comment section of every newspaper.

Hammer McCain with his inability to articulate what Victory means
Show the Time Horizon for what it is - Perpetual War.
Obama is scoring big this week and we need to have his back.
Today is a very good day to start this week.

PERSONAL STORIES - WEIRD SCENES OF FEAR & LOATHING

A Personal Diary on potential regret

This is a true diary. It’s a personal story and to set it to music I offer the following background music for those who can play a tune or two while you read I recommend Jackson Browne's Casino Nation and "Lives in the Balance" Jackson Browne has always been a voice I could say sang the songs I would write and sing if I had his insight and talent. My political education started for real in the summer of 61 when Al Gore Sr made me a Senate Page. I spent the summer on the steps of the stage in the Senate Chamber watching Humphrey, Dirksen, Keefauver, Gore, Goldwater, Javits, and the rest like the pages we see today on C-Span. VP LBJ actually knew my name and those of other pages who he greeted when he came. How did you arrive here at this point in time with your state of mind and your political point of view? Here's a glimpse at my path.

At 62 I’ve had some time to reflect on the vicissitudes and vagaries that shaped my life and political viewpoint. I am willing to share this with anyone who might be interested. If you have a little time and the inclination to read a personal history it won’t take as long to read as it took to write. It’s a story about conversion, direction, and regret that I didn’t do more when I could have in 1968 to see that Nixon was never elected. It's my cautionary tale.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey lost California, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Missouri by fairly narrow margins where support from thousands of progressive/liberal/anti-war voters was denied him because we dropped out and stayed home. Hubert was a great liberal all of his life and would have been a far better President for all of us than Nixon.

Here’s my story – I hope it won’t be yours.

A JULY FOURTH STORY
"DID YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU JUST WANT TO DIE?"

(Names changed to protect identities in some cases)

I cannot recall his name for sure ‘Buzz’ or ‘Bunky’ or something I thought was dumb like that. He brought me closer to death than anyone in my life up to that time.
His car was a fairly new silver colored Ford Falcon two door with a fancy black trim, chrome wheels, and a Hurst stick shift in the floor. He was a pudgy rude little jerk with few social skills and a bad attitude about life. I met him in a whitewashed POW barracks building behind a tall fence in back of the cannery owned by Del Monte in Dekalb, Illinois in the summer of 1966. Back in the 40’s German prisoner’s of war were used to harvest and can the peas and corn grown in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin and these long narrow barracks, about 16 of them were built around a central bathhouse to house them in America’s Midwest. Each of the barracks had a central walkway with single bunk beds much like you see in any army barracks. The only difference was the 20-foot high chain length fence topped with barbed wire that surrounded them.
I arrived at these bleak surroundings in June of 66 having traveled from Estes Park, Colorado. The Estes Park trip had been arranged by Sing Out 66. As a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, I had been President of my Freshman Class and a Senator in the Student Senate and was President elect of Phi Sigma Kappa. Just the kind of ‘student leader’ being sought by the Sing Out people to populate the casts of their super patriotic Sing Out America shows set to tour Europe and America that Summer. I could carry a tune and had the right credentials so I signed up that Spring thinking that earning some money to attend school the following year by traveling in Europe with a mixed cast would be a fun thing to do. I found out something quite different in the Rocky Mountains during my 6-day stay.
The "Up With People" Sing Out leaders were a bunch of right wing pseudo-Christians worse than anything Disney ever imagined. Rigorous adherence to a program of "Moral Rearmament" indoctrination unlike anything I had ever seen in my 20 years as a three time a week church going Southern Baptist. First Baptist Church regular attendance and being an Eagle in the Boy Scouts of America never prepared me for their "moral rearmament" programming. I had a mildly Beatles style hair cut that proved to be too much for them and given the choice of a hair cut or hitting the road I took the latter.
I cannot recall if I took the bus across Nebraska and Iowa to the DeKalb area or if I caught a ride, but I do remember being the first to arrive at the Del Monte plant that summer and being shown the barracks by one of the crew who was a full time employee. It was the practice of Del Monte and Green Giant to hire college students during the Summer to work as reaper or combine drivers on a field crew or to man the pressure hoses that cleaned the machinery in the cannery late at night. I was assigned to clean up, issued a bright yellow rain suit and told that we would be starting in about a week. I had a book, no TV, and no transportation. I considered myself lucky when Buzz or Bunky showed up 36 hours later. I wasn’t that lucky.
DeKalb was a nice little college town in the summer of 66. Northern Illinois University was a minor state school in one of the richest counties in America. The main street in town, Lincoln Highway, was dotted with bars. The place was quiet in the summer with school out and it was well policed. Both Buzz/Bunky and I had the required fake ID at 20 to fool the bartenders so we experimented trying to find some alcoholic drink we might actually enjoy. It seemed harmless enough since we didn’t seem to find anything pleasant enough the first two nights out to cause us to get drunk or disorderly.
On the third night we met a couple of local kids our same age and were invited out to their apartment to share some beer and play hearts. I was a pretty good hearts player at the time having made much of my spending money playing quarter a point to 100 with double the winnings for ending the game in the negative with minus points. I loved to shoot the moon as it is called when you gain all the points in a hand. The Queen of Spades is 13 points and each heart is one point so if you capture all of these in a hand you are awarded –26 points for the round. A game going out at double – say –20 to 100 points for the biggest loser will net .50 cents times 120 or $60.00. I managed to score that amount in one 100-point game from Buzz/Bunky that night. Maybe I should have let him win.
That summer in DeKalb working for Del Monte turned out to be one of the most memorable in my life. I met a young man from the University of Arkansas who was to be the ranking student officer in their ROTC in the coming year named Donald, and there were Ginny and Patricia, two local girls who were home from college at Harvard and Michigan State. Ginny was a beautiful small blond woman studying Russian at Harvard and Pat was a brilliant taller Midwesterner with a great sense of humor in pre-law at MSU. Donald and Ginny fell for each other hard that summer and eventually married and moved to Calgary Alberta when Don decided to become Canadian rather than go to Vietnam. I visited with them some 8 years later while on tour with Jesse Winchester in Canada just prior to their departure to the Yukon where they intended to remove themselves further from the rest of the world. Pat became a lawyer and has a practice in New York doing a lot of pro-bono work for the indigent I was told.
The summer of 66 was the beginning for me of a radical change from who I was to who I became. Don, Ginny, Pat and I spent our free time listening to the Beatles Rubber Soul and in August the new Revolver while hanging out in the corn fields with a six pack or two of Hamm’s Beer and perhaps a joint or two of the local weed of pathetic quality. We talked of things personal and political –Don talked about politics and the prospect of his going to war in Vietnam. He made up his mind that summer to move to Canada instead. I owe a lot to Don and his decision.
Late in the summer the four of us decided to spend a week together at a small fishing cabin on a Lake north of Rhinelander, Wisconsin as a farewell party. We piled into Don’s Volvo and drove north when the plant closed down. Pat and I shared the large bed on the screened in porch while Don and Ginny took the bedroom. We fished during the day and cooked our catch with beer batter in the evening and played cards or read and talked. We sometimes drove to one of the roadside bars that seemed to outnumber the visible houses and drank Stormy Mondays – vodka with ginger beer (a spicy ginger ale) still my favorite drink today. It was my wonderful introduction to an extended trip with a member of the opposite sex. Pat and I were great friends that summer put together more by Don and Ginny than any enduring attraction between the two of us. Pat and I were comfortable together but not in love.
I often wonder how someone can be raised in the bosom of the Baptist Church and as an Eagle Scout and Senate Page for Albert Gore Sr. in 1961 with his appointment to the US Air Force Academy (I was first alternate in 1964 and would have gone if anyone dropped out), and turn out with a life like I have led. Twenty years of life spent on one straight and narrow patriotic Christian path followed by twenty years as an outlaw and ex-patriot and outcast radical.
Maybe the events of the summer of 1966 had something to do with it.
Buzz/Bunky and I left the apartment in Dekalb where we had played hearts in the wee hours of the morning and got into his car. I asked him if I could drive because he appeared to be slightly inebriated but he flatly refused. I was miles from the Del Monte plant with no way of getting there so I reluctantly got into the car. He was pissed about losing $100 to me and said he wasn’t going to pay. I said "OK no problem, just take it easy."
I immediately knew I was in trouble as he pealed out to the apartment parking lot and burned rubber in every gear headed up the street toward town. I begged him to slow down. He laughed. I screamed at him to stop the car and let me out. He turned to me and said, "Do you ever feel like you just want to die?"
The road inclined toward a rather sharp left hand turn at the top of a hill and dropped off to the left at an intersection with a gravel road coming in from the right. There was loose gravel in the turn and we were traveling in excess of 90 miles an hour. Buzz/Bunky didn’t even attempt to break or slow down as the car slid to the right on the gravel, hit a curb or bump and flipped onto it’s roof. The passenger door next to me swung open and I could see a concrete post headed straight toward me. It tore the passenger door from its hinges as we spun and careened toward a telephone pole. The glancing blow with the pole sent us sliding down the shoulder of the road toward the bottom of the hill on the roof as glass and gravel chewed at my arm. Then miraculously we came to rest with the wheels spinning and the dust swirling around us.
I managed to climb out of the space where the door had been and to drag Buzz/Bunky from the mangled Ford. Miraculously neither of us was hurt so badly that we could not stand. Other than several deep cuts and a broken wrist I was still in one piece but badly shaken and scared sober. Buzz/Bunky screamed, "tell them you were driving" as he ran into the nearby cornfield and disappeared. The Ford then burst into flames. Had we still been trapped inside we would have been toast.
The driver of a car coming from the opposite direction stopped and scolded me for my recklessness. Eventually the police arrived and took me to the local jail where I was charged with accepting alcohol as a minor and fined some minor amount. I don’t recall seeing Buzz/Bunky again.
Everything seemed to change for me after that summer in Illinois. The following summer I was selected as a National Field Secretary for my fraternity and spent the fall at Berkeley and Stanford and other Universities in the west where my views on the war, religion and politics were greatly expanded and changed. At Berkeley the Phi Sig chapter had gone from over 150 members to 9 for the rush of 67 in the wake of the Free Speech movement. The entire fraternity system at Berkeley was on the verge of collapse. At Stanford the house was divided between the heads and the juicers and they fought each other along political lines and held separate meetings. By 69/70 that was happening across the country but it was new to me that fall in the west. In 64/65 at Tennessee I couldn’t tell Republican from Democrat at our house in Tennessee but by 68/69 everyone was clearly divided.
I went from arranging a "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" rally on the steps of the Student Center at Tennessee as Freshman Class President in 1965 to running for President of the Student Body in 1969 as the far left Student Coalition for a Radical Union (SCRU) candidate. I spent so much time driving from Knoxville to Washington DC for anti-war rallies I knew the road by heart. Keith Stroup from NORML incorporated my first company. I tasted the sting of tear gas at the base of the Washington Monument and I even made it to Woodstock from Tennessee.
Garry Wills wrote an article for Esquire Magazine in September of 1971 titled "How Nixon Used Billy Graham to Rap to the Students at Tennessee U." subtitled "Jesus Wept" about the arrest of some 400 students I led to rally against the appearance of Nixon at Neyland Stadium on the last day of finals in the Spring of 1970 shortly after the Kent State Shootings. Dr. Charles Trentham of the First Baptist Church of Knoxville, my church, played golf with Graham that morning before Nixon and the entire Republican contingent of Tennessee Congressional candidates took the stage with Graham in front of busloads of East Tennesseans from area churches. We were arrested for "disrupting a religious service" – the Republican Religious service as campaign rally for Nixonland. Dr. Charles Reynolds the head of the Theology Department was arrested with us as an organizer. Interestingly he is the father of Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit who obviously went another way. I did become one of The Knoxville 22
Given the fact that my father was the thrice elected County Judge of Knox County one could argue that I threw away a promising political future by opposing the war and helping to organize that anti-Nixon rally at a Graham Crusade. I arranged the printing of 500 "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" signs that we were to hold up in silent protest of Nixon’s appearance on campus. When Nixon was reelected in Nov of 72 I packed my car and drove to Montreal. I had scored a very high draft number in the lottery of December 1, 1969 – March 24th was 258 well out of the range of possible draftees, but I could not live in a country that would elect Nixon president twice.
In Canada I lived with 30 other ex-patriots in a commune-like arrangement north of Montreal in Morin Heights. We rented a small 20room hotel "le Chatelet " with a huge kitchen and dining room overlooking a lake and we opened "The Belladonna Ballroom" in the hotel bar introducing the locals to Harvey Wallbangers and country-rock music. Jesse Winchester, a Memphis TN native joined our house band on the weekends and we had an amazing time for a couple of years.
I did not return to the US until Carter was in office after helping to arrange a modification of his decision to pardon draft resistors to include those who had become Canadian citizens like Jesse Winchester. I moved with my daughter and wife to Vermont north of Burlington and continued to manage bands, book concerts, and own a large touring sound company.
I had worked hard for RFK and failed to support Humphrey in 68 – and young Democrats who failed to help Humphrey after Bobby’s death should be ashamed. I worked even harder for George McGovern in 72 driving all the way to California to volunteer. By 76 I was part owner in the sound company that provided toursound for Charlie Daniels and the Marshall Tucker Band and we helped raise half a million for Jimmy Carter.
Being an antiwar Democrat in Tennessee doomed Al Gore Sr in 72 and his son Al Gore Jr. in 2000 (He lost Tennessee you will recall) and it ended any hope I had for a political future in my home state. I owe all of that to the events of June and July of 1966 when I went from Sing Out 66 to pick peas in Illinois and almost died in a fiery crash as a result. Events that shape our lives seem so random and haphazard. Without the catalyst of Vietnam I could have been someone quite different. But I am not someone different. I am a progressive liberal Democrat and I knew it by June of 66 in Estes Park when I could have become a right wing pseudo-Christian super-patriot but I chose a different path that summer and I’ve been on that path ever since.

1968 –
Please recall the travesty of the Nixon administration wrought when anti-war liberals failed to support Hubert Humphrey in 1968 because he wasn’t "pure enough". Perhaps if HHH had won in 1968 my life would have been very different. I would have remained in Tennessee and in law school or would have had more control of the sound company I helped to start located here in Knoxville and I could have saved it from the destruction of embezzlement by one shareholder.

2000 – if you recall
And Nader voters should recall Al Gore Jr. in 2000 for similar reasons.

Barack Obama must be the next President of the United States and we Kossacks need to be behind him 100%. The stakes are too high even for purists like me who put a lifetime on the line for progressive/liberal causes.

The point is that we will not know the depth of the ramifications of our decisions to back off on supporting the candidate who is clearly closer to our positions until it is far too late. I beg you not to make the same mistakes so many of us made back in 68 that gave Nixon the White House and gave us NIXONLAND and Bush the ability to put us where we are today.

Obama energized the younger voters during the primaries and every thing we do to undermine that energy brings us closer to the awful possibility of McSame and more misery and disaster. Some things many of us want cannot be attained today. No astute observer saw any chance that FISA with immunity would fail in this US Senate despite anything that Barack Obama might have done. You and I may love great lost causes – but do we really want to see Barack defeated because he didn’t throw himself into this particular lost cause?

I implore those of you who righteously assail certain stands taken by OUR candidate for President to consider the impact of your words and actions on the future of our country. Don’t wake up on a day in November to see that John McCain is elected President by the most narrow of electoral margins and know that you might have done something to keep that from happening. It is something that can forever change your life and the lives of millions.

I can applaud your sense of duty to the Constitution and comprehend your principal and idealism, but it isn’t just you that your words and deeds impact. What you say and do may influence those who read and hear to drop their enthusiasm just enough to stay in bed on Election Day or get out of a long line. It could stop someone young from volunteering the time to canvass or call that might in return fail to reach a very few that might make the difference. It could be just enough to shift the balance in Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or New Hampshire.

Will this election leave you in misery and pain as you see the inauguration of John McCain? Will you go to bed on Election Day night knowing you didn’t do enough to stop the McCain train?

Will you be writing this story in 40 years as a cautionary tale for a new crop of progressive liberals telling them how sorry you are that you didn’t do what you could have done to keep McCain’s hands off of the controls? Don’t do that to yourself – please.

Think about how you will feel on Election Day night when the results are in and how that may make you feel a few years down the road and act accordingly.

Sharing a personal story may not seem appropriate to you. For me it's a way of describing as much of who I am and where I am coming from as I can to give you some context for what I have to say or suggest. Now you know far more about me than I do about you. So you can make a decision about the validity of my contribution with a little evidence concerning this personal experience. I want us to be friends and fellow travelers in this progressive liberal political experience. I can only hope you understand the impulse and accept it as I intend - A window on one progressive liberal soul who knows what it is like to fail to support the right candidate and who regrets that decision for life.

Thanks for making it to the end of this personal diary. You have stamina that will serve you well.

A PRESIDENT for EVERYONE?

Our Country is in SERIOUS trouble.
And make no mistake it is OUR country. Not just the country of progressives and liberals but also the country of reactionaries and conservatives.

Barack Obama is running for President of All the People not just the liberals or progressives President and this is exactly as it should be. This is the change we can believe in.

The true divisions in our politics are far less liberal vs conservative than corporatist vs populist.
Intro
You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.

Our Country is in SERIOUS trouble. And make no mistake it is OUR country. Not just the country of progressives and liberals but also the country of reactionaries and conservatives. Barack Obama is running for President of All the People not just the liberals or progressives President and this is exactly as it should be. This is the change we can believe in. The true divisions in our politics are far less liberal vs conservative than corporatist vs populist.

Wouldn't that be something else? A President who does not polarize the nation.

Patriotic
In favor of service to the nation
In favor of a strong military
In favor of involving people of Faith
Sounds downright right wing or does it?

Can Barack Obama do what seems impossible?

Can a military supporter be liberal?
Can an evangelical Christian be liberal?

I was raised a Southern Baptist in Tennessee and I always believed the teachings of Jesus Christ were far more in line with the Liberals' point of view than the Conservatives. Don't Liberals favor mercy, feeding the poor, healing the sick, comforting the elderly and the hopeless, and suggesting that accumulation of vast personal wealth is an inhibition to entering into heaven?

Why should we Liberals concede the Christian Faith to the Conservatives and why have we? Can Barack Obama change that dynamic - a change we can believe in?

Pundits pout that the 'move to the center' is problematic in promoting the idea of change, but real change would be a non-polarizing President who truly represents all the people - not a polarizing left leaning President who changes from a polarizing right winger.

My hope for the nation under Barack Obama is that as President he will take back the country from the special interests and the corporations who seek to profit at the expense of our people. I want to see a fair tax code that makes the rich and the corporations pay their fair share of the costs of the wars from which they profit.

I want the jobs to come back to America for the people who support the corporations by purchasing their products and services. If we need to support more young people through paying for service in Americorps, the Peace Corps, or the Military in exchange for money to attend college I have no problem with that either.

Barack Obama's move to make Patriotism, Faith, and Service a part of the progressive liberal agenda is a good thing and it is a change we can believe in. When you hear these fool pundits opine that these moves are an indication of more of the same call them out for the fools they are.

There is nothing unpatriotic or unChristian about being progressive or liberal.

A President for all the people who seeks to bring the bulk of the nation together by showing the people of Faith and the people who are patriotic that there is no reason a Patriotic Military person of great Faith cannot be a progressive/liberal and a supporter of Barack Obama.

Is that not a change we can believe in?

A DAY IN COURT IN KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE

JUDGE ROSS of the Knoxville Municipal Court did not enter the courtroom until 10am on Wednesday July 2, 2008. I had a 9am summons for a Photo Red Light Violation.
One day in late May I received a summons to court for "running a red light" at the intersection of I-640 and Broadway. That intersection is less than 1/4 mile from my residence on Tazewell Pike. I pass through it on average a dozen times a week. The summons came with instructions on how to view the camera evidence at http://www.photonotice.com My personal video can be viewed by entering Notice Number KR00114009 PLATE NUMBER 950KHP and the city code KNXVIL.
When the video starts my Chevy Astro Van is at a complete stop second in line from a signal that says RIGHT TURN ON RED AFTER STOP.

READ THE KNOXVILLE CITY CODE HERE

KNOXVILLE CITY CODE
Sec. 17-506. Traffic control signals.
(3) Red alone or "stop."
a. Vehicular traffic facing the signal shall stop before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection or, if none, then before entering the intersection, and shall remain standing until green or "go" is shown alone; provided, however, that a right turn on a red signal shall be permitted at all intersections within the city provided that the prospective turning car comes to a full and complete stop before turning and that the turning car yields the right-of-way to pedestrians and cross traffic traveling in accordance with their traffic signal. However, such turn will not endanger other traffic lawfully using the intersection. A right turn on red shall be permitted at all intersections, except that clearly marked by a "no turns on red" sign, which may be erected by the city at intersections which the city decides require no right turns on red in the interest of traffic safety.

THIS IS MY VIEW DOWN BROADWAY FROM WHERE I CAME TO A COMPLETE STOP



AS you can clearly see the view down Broadway is unobstructed for at least a 1/4mile.

Now I could have sent the city $50
and I could have avoided 4 hours sitting in City Court waiting on Judge Ross to hear my case.
If I had I would not have know that there were at minimum 15 people in City Court that morning for photo violations at I-640 and Broadway. That's 15 people who chose to miss work and go to court rather than pay the $50 fine by mail. My guess is that only some 10 to 25% of those cited would pay the cost of driving to court and the hours of boredom sitting in court to challenge the validity of this photo theft of Knoxville drivers money.

In the end three of the 15 actually chose to sit it out and plead before Judge Ross.
None of us won. All of us ended up paying $118 for the fine plus court costs.
Even though the Judge said "I agree completely with your logic and the fact that you did nothing to endanger the public safety I have to find you guilty under the law." The Judge interpreted the law as meaning that a second stop would be required at the white line regardless of whether that second stop served any purpose or improve the public safety. He said his hands were tied by the law despite his agreement with my position and the positions of the other 2 gentlemen who stayed to plead their case.

Now I can appeal to the Criminal Court. The cost of making an appeal is $134 plus a $250 bond. So the truth is there is no appeal.

Here is my opinion.
This camera is legal thievery and a detriment to our community. At a full stop and a 1/4 mile view down Broadway it is a waste of expensive fuel and time for everyone in the line behind you to stop multiple times before moving onto Broadway from I-640 (this is the westbound exit to head North on Broadway). The right lane is on Broadway for about 150 yards before it turns into Tazewell Pike. Thousands of Knoxville residents are effected by the time spent at this intersection. Once a vehicle has come to a complete stop with a view down Broadway of a quarter mile there is NO PURPOSE served by stopping a second time.

If you've had the 'pleasure' of experiencing rush hour on the section of Tazewell Pike between Broadway and Jacksboro Pike you know what I mean. I see it every day because my residence in it that short section of road that urgently needs to be widened to 4 lanes. There is an accident in that section at least once a month.
See WIDE THE PIKE


This map shows the intersection of I-640 and Broadway.
I-640 is currently handling all of the traffic that used to flow down I-40 through downtown Knoxville so the delays and the cost of fuel have a significant impact on Knoxvillians.

Living Limbaugh: $400 Million Contract, Gulfstream, Scented Candles, And The "Business" Of Hating Liberals

The New York Times Magazine has a big cover story on Rush Limbaugh this week, almost 8,000 words about how Rush Limbaugh has built himself into one of the most influential voices in America. With an estimated 14 million listeners (Limbaugh claims it's more like 20 million), he's far and away the top-rated radio talk-show host in America. That's partisan radio talk-show host — and he has no intention of being left out of this election. He already created big waves, first by publicly dissing John McCain and then by encouraging Republicans to mix into the democratic primaries and vote for Hillary Clinton and keep the Democratic nomination battle in play, in what he called "Operation Chaos." Both Karl Rove and John Kerry gave it credit for having had an effect.

Now Limbaugh has extended his contract through 2016 — $38 million per year with a "nine-figure signing bonus." The total package is valued at "north of $400 million."

Author Zev Chafets got more access to Limbaugh than any other journalist, being the first from the "hated mainstream media" to gain access to his studio and home. Here are some excerpts from the story:

Limbaugh on why he will reluctantly support McCain: ''It's like the Super Bowl...you root for the team you hate less. That's McCain.''

Limbaugh on how he plans to take on Obama: ''I'll approach Obama with fearless honesty...He's a liberal. I oppose liberals. That's all that's involved here.''

Limbaugh's tactics for doing so: Chafets reports on Limbaugh's appointment of his associate, Bo Snerdly, as the "Official Obama Criticizer" of his show. "Snerdly introduced himself as an ''African-American-in-good-standing-and-certified-black-enough-to-criticize-Obama guy,'' and declared that he was speaking, ''on behalf of our E.I.B. brothers and sisters in the hood.'' The bit was typical Limbaugh -- confrontational, deliberately insensitive and funny. It was also a declaration of independence. Whatever special courtesies John McCain might plan to extend to Barack Obama, Limbaugh is going to conduct his air war, as he always has, by his own rules of engagement."

On Living Limbaugh: "There are five homes -- all of them his -- on the property. The big house is 24,000 square feet. Limbaugh lives there with a cat. He's been married three times but has no children."

Chafets on Limbaugh's domestic preferences: "His staff lights fragrant candles throughout the house to greet his arrival from work each day."

On the view from his private humidor: "The room opens onto a patio, a putting green and a beach. On the table was a brochure for Limbaugh's newest airplane, a Gulfstream G550. It cost him, he told me, $54 million."

Limbaugh on success: ''Do you know what bought me all this?...Conservatism didn't buy this house. First and foremost I'm a businessman."

Limbaugh on his substance abuse: ''You know, I've had a problem with substance abuse. I don't deal with the future anymore. I take things one day at a time.''

What you see when you walk into Limbaugh's nondescript studio headquarters: "An American flag stands in the corner. Only a small, framed picture of Limbaugh, bearing the caption ''America's Anchorman,'' reveals that this is the headquarters of one of the country's most admired and reviled figures."

The full story will be online here shortly.