McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare (Shocking!)

McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

Obama plans election kick-off at GOP convention site

Ahahahahahah Obama rocks.

Brilliant stick it to them

Senior political officials tell Politico's Mike Allen that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).is likely to hold a huge rally Tuesday night in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the site of the Republican National Convention from Sept. 1 to 4.

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McCain fundraiser sued by partner in lucrative contract with U.S. military

A little-noticed civil lawsuit in Florida is shining a light on an unusual but hugely profitable Pentagon contract to ship millions of gallons of aviation fuel to U.S. bases in Iraq through the kingdom of Jordan.
The deal involves a cast of influential characters, including the king of Jordan's brother-in-law, who is suing Harry Sargeant III, a top Florida-based fundraiser for Sen. John McCain's presidential bid.

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Obama Email: "It's You Vs. George W. Bush"

The Obama press team is sending around their latest email to their list of supporters, a direct, confrontational hit on President Bush:
Dear [supporter] --
Defeat the Bush-McCain Fundraising Machine Right now you have a unique opportunity to go head-to-head with George W. Bush.
This week, John McCain and George Bush gathered behind closed doors, away from the cameras, to raise money for McCain's campaign.
McCain used Bush to raise a reported $3.5 million from a group of about 500 Republican contributors.
That's a lot of money that will undoubtedly be used to attack us and make the case to continue George Bush's failed policies.
But I have an idea about how we can match it. And we don't need George Bush.
Right now, someone who has already given once to the campaign is ready to give again -- but only if you make your first donation right now.
If you take the next step and decide to own a piece of this campaign, that supporter will double your gift.
You'll see the name and hometown of the person who matched your donation. And you can even choose to exchange a personal note about why you've decided to support a different kind of politics.
Double your impact -- your donation of $25 will equal $50 for our cause.
Now is the perfect time to make your first donation:
https://donate.barackobama.com/match
As the presumptive nominee of his party, John McCain has had a three-month head start to build his campaign. In that time, he's made his fundraising strategy clear.
In the words of one reporter, the gala fundraiser with Bush was "part of McCain's delicate effort to find the balance between embracing an unpopular president and taking advantage of his huge continuing draw with well-heeled Republicans."
We'll see more of this dance in the weeks and months ahead, but we already know the steps.
As we prepare to take on John McCain, now is our first chance to show that a grassroots movement of people giving only what they can afford can go toe-to-toe with the Bush-McCain fundraising machine.
And with the last three contests of the Democratic primary coming up in the next five days, the resources we're building right now are an urgent necessity.
Help build our movement by making a matching donation today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/match
John McCain can run from the cameras, but he can't hide from the fact that he's aiming to continue George Bush's policies for a disastrous third term.
Let's show that we're ready to take him on.
Thank you,
Barack

Ex-Bush Aide: McClellan Getting Ripped For Telling The Truth

Joseph Lieberman To Headline Upcoming Pastor Hagee Summit

How extreme is Hagee? And how cozy are he and Lieberman?

Watch this video by Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action.org to find out.

Hagee: God Sent Hitler. Lieberman: Hagee's Like Moses!

AP: Is John Kerry Angling For Secretary Of State?

NANTUCKET, Mass. — The airplane came to a stop, the door opened and out popped Tony Blair. At the bottom of the stairs to greet the former British prime minister on Saturday was Sen. John Kerry, looking every part the diplomat.
Four years after a failed presidential bid and amid a race for a fifth Senate term this fall, Kerry's moves have prompted some questions:
_Is the Massachusetts Democrat positioning himself to be secretary of state in a potential Barack Obama administration?
_Could a Kerry appointment create not one but two Senate openings in Massachusetts, assuming Sen. Edward Kennedy cannot complete his term after being diagnosed last week with brain cancer?
Kerry aides insist he's not angling for the job and point to his long involvement in foreign affairs. It started with his famous testimony as a 27-year-old veteran questioning the Vietnam War before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It continues today, at age 64, as the No. 3 Democrat on the same panel.
But envisioning him in the post would hardly be a stretch given Obama's chances at securing the Democratic nomination, a general election shaping up as a "change" campaign and Kerry's relationship with the Illinois senator.
Kerry would likely face competition from Sen. Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a former Peace Corps volunteer who also sits on the panel, and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a top Obama adviser.
Over the weekend, Kerry wrote a Washington Post op-ed column chastising President Bush and John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, for criticizing Obama after he said that, as president, he would be willing to negotiate with U.S. opponents such as Iran.
In recent weeks, the Senate has also passed Kerry-sponsored resolutions seeking humanitarian aid for Burma and Robert Mugabe to step aside as president of Zimbabwe, while Kerry has filed legislation to remove South African President Nelson Mandela from U.S. terrorist watch lists.
The senator invited Blair to this island getaway last weekend so they could discuss the Middle East and climate change.
"John Kerry would love to end his career as secretary of state. It would be a capstone to a life that has always been devoted to public service, but in particular has been focused on foreign affairs," said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University.

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Graduates: End the War and Help Get America Back on Track

Rep. Charles Rangel,
05.27.2008
You will be the leaders in making certain that never again in your lifetime would you allow this great country to enter into a war that is so unjust, so immoral, or to allow a Congress to allow a president to do that.

Obama: "McCain Doesn't Want To Be Seen, Hat-In-Hand, With The President"

Ex-Bush press sec. in 'scathing' tell-all

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.
Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):
• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.
• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.
• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”
• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.
• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

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BAN CLUSTER BOMBS NOW!

In the next 72 hours, 109 countries are negotiating to ban cluster munitions -- weapons that, like land mines, kill children long after wars have ended.

BAN CLUSTER BOMBS

U.S. Charged With War Crimes
The Evidence File

The use of cluster bombs
Why cluster bombs are so harmfull

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No more killing and wounding except for the defense of our country and our freedoms."

Memorial Day

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, writing for Truthout, say: "We honor our war dead this Memorial Day weekend. The greatest respect we could pay them would be to pledge no more wars for erroneous and misleading reasons; no more killing and wounding except for the defense of our country and our freedoms."
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Foreclosures in Military Towns Surge at Four Times U.S. Rate

Source: Bloomberg
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Jeffrey VerSteegh, who repairs F-16 jets for the 132nd Fighter Wing, departed Des Moines, Iowa, in April for his third tour in Iraq. The father of four may lose his home when he returns.
The four-bedroom farmhouse he and his wife, Kathleen, own near the Iowa State Fairgrounds went into default in December after their monthly mortgage costs doubled to $1,100. Kathleen missed work because of breast cancer and they struggled to keep up the house payment, falling behind on other bills. Their bankruptcy was approved by the court a week after VerSteegh left for Iraq.
In the midst of the worst surge in mortgage defaults in seven decades, foreclosures in U.S. towns where soldiers live are increasing at a pace almost four times the national average, according to data compiled by research firm RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine, California. As military families like the VerSteeghs signed up for the initial lower rates and easier terms of subprime mortgages, the number of people taking out Veterans Administration loans fell to the lowest in at least 12 years. ``We've never faced a situation like this, not in the Vietnam War, World War II, or the Korean War, where so many military are in danger of losing their homes,'' said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a Washington-based advocacy group started in 2002 by Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. ``No one asked them for their credit score when we asked them to fight for us.''

Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act

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Siegelman On Rove: Probably The Most Devious, Evil Political Operative In History

Recently released from prison, Don Siegelman refuses to drift away quietly. The former Alabama governor, whose corruption charge reeked of political motivation, accused former Bush strategist Karl Rove of outright lying for claiming non-involvement in the prosecution.
"Karl Rove saying he's had nothing to do with firing U.S. Attorneys and nothing to do with my case is like President Bush saying he's had nothing to do with the war in Iraq because he hasn't pulled a trigger," said Siegelman.
The comments came just one day after Rove said his involvement in le affaire Siegelman consisted of learning about the investigations in a newspaper article. The former governor, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in 2006, wasn't exactly sold on the line.
"I think Rove is probably the most devious and evil political operative who has been trained to come on to the political scene in certainly the last fifty years," he said. "I can't think of anybody in the annals of history who could even rival this man's pernicious thoughts. It is a lifetime's work for him... I think he learned two things from Watergate: you don't need to establish a secret plumbers union at a mid level office in the White House when you can take over Department of Justice and have them do your dirty work for you, and secondly, you don't leave tapes behind, you destroy evidence."
Last week, the political world moved closer to unraveling the political malfeasance that surrounded Siegelman's prosecution when Rove was issued a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Siegelman had recently been released from jail after, among other developments, a Republican campaign volunteer said she overheard a phone conversation suggesting Rove was linked to his case. The former governor heralded the subpoena -- which came after Rove refused to appear voluntarily -- as a late-in-coming but still important development.
"I think the objective from my point is not my case or my vindication or proving any one particular egregious act, but to expose a pattern and practice of political wrongdoing, of abuse of power, of misusing the Department of Justice as a political tool," he said. "I do think that my case offers the best route to prove that, and it is the easiest and fastest way to get at abuse from Karl Rove."
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Another 8 years of Bush

John McSame

Study: McCain Sided With Bush In 100% Of 2008 Votes

Is the Secret Service Investigating Liz Trotta and Fox News?

FOX News political pundit Liz Trotta jokingly suggested this weekend that someone should assassinate an American presidential candidate. She had first "mistakenly" referred to Obama as "Osama" while discussing theories that Hillary Clinton's recent comments about the RFK assassination was in fact a suggestion that someone "knock off Osama." When she was corrected and reminded that she meant "Obama," she then said, "Well, both if we could."
The United States Secret Service is charged with the protection of all presidential candidates and famously takes all threats seriously, so it's important to ask the question whether they will be investigating Liz Trotta's comment, FOX News' response to that comment, and any collateral threats that may have been generated by the comment.
Assassins throughout our history have repeatedly claimed to find their motivations in the media. John Hinckley claimed his attempted assassination of Reagan was because of his obsession with Jodie Foster, Mark David Chapman cited The Catcher in the Rye and the film Ordinary People as inspirations for his assassination of John Lennon, and Charles Manson claims his murders were a result of his twisted interpretation of The Beatles' "Helter Skelter."
While these so-called motivations are inexplicable to a healthy mind, it is foolish and naive not to accept as a terrifying fact that psychotics can and will be triggered by almost anything, which is why it's not only vulgar but completely reckless, irresponsible and bordering on criminal for those who comment on politics and political figures to say the kind of disgusting thing that Liz Trotta said. It's also, not incidentally, why the world pounced so quickly and decisively on Hillary Clinton's comments about the RFK assassination.
This from the Secret Service website: "The Secret Service is interested in legitimate information relating to threats, plans or attempts by individuals, groups or organizations to harm Secret Service protectees. However, the agency does not desire or solicit information pertaining to individuals or groups expressing legitimate criticism of, or political opposition to, the policies and decisions of the government or government officials."
The questions the Secret Service should be asking are: Were Liz Trotta and FOX News criminally negligent in using the public airwaves to suggest the assassination of a presidential candidate; Is the suggestion of political assassination an example of legitimate criticism; and, If the First Amendment doesn't allow one to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater or "Bomb!" on an airplane, how could it allow a public "joke" about assassinating a political candidate?
And what is the question the rest of us should be asking? How about, what kind of world are we creating for ourselves and our children where we allow our political divisions to become so deep that the suggestion or even the joke about a political assassination is in any way acceptable?
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Rape Hobbles Bush Administration Policies

Ann Wright, for Truthout: "One would hope that behavior that requires the 'regrets' of the president of the United States and the secretary of state and the stand-down of United States military forces for 'reflection' and retraining in ethics and leadership would be punished severely enough to send a clear signal that the behavior will not be tolerated. Yet the history of sexual assault and rape of women around US military bases, particularly in Okinawa, reveals a military institutional acceptance of this criminal behavior and a lack of enforcement of military regulations against such behavior by senior military officers."
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Defend the Constitution that Georgie and his band of thugs, have so deliberately set out to destroy.

Military Chief Warns Troops About Politics

“As the nation prepares to elect a new president,” Admiral Mullen wrote, “we would all do well to remember the promises we made: to obey civilian authority, to support and defend the Constitution and to do our duty at all times.”

Shepard Fairey's Obama Poster is Out of Print

(photo by DiAnne Grieser, taken at Seattle International Folklife Festival 25 May 2008)
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Shiite Cleric al-Sistani Forbids Iraqis From Selling Food To Americans

Dick Cheney infamously said in March of 2003 that when the U.S. invades Iraq, "we will be greeted as liberators." As the Iraq War enters its 6th year, Cheney's assertion has been shown to be clearly false, with the U.S. battling a largely homegrown, Sunni insurgency and Shiite militias. In a sign of just how opposed some Shiite groups are to the U.S.'s presence in Iraq, one of the country's most powerful Shiite clerics, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has issued a fatwa forbidding Iraqis from selling food to Americans (from Juan Cole):
Fars News reproduces in Persian on May 24, 2008, another anti-American fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf. It says that its correspondent in Najaf reports that an Iraqi Shiite submitted the following to Sistani:
'I sell foodstuffs. Sometimes the Occupying Powers or their associates come to my establishment. May I sell them foodstuffs?'
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani replied:
' Selling foodstuffs to the Occupying Powers is not permitted.'
Cole identifies another reason why this fatwa is important:
This fatwa is significant in light of the reports that Sistani has been orally permitting attacks on US troops by Shiite militiamen loyal to the Shiite religious authorities in Najaf.
Think Progress notes that McCain also made predictions that the Iraq War would be "easy."
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Just imagine if this woman said this about Bush, or Hilliary for that matter

Fox commentator jokes about 'knocking off' Obama

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

Vincent Bugliosi, 05.19.2008
To discuss anything less than the death penalty for someone responsible for over 100,000 deaths would on its face seem ludicrous. But we are dealing with the president of the United States here.