If the stories that Bill Clinton is being given a speaking spot at the convention are true, i just want to register my outrage.

The media and even many here are bashing the hell of out John Edwards, saying there is no way he can speak at the convention, for having an affair when he was a private citizen. Yet Bill Clinton, the jerk bastard that got blow jobs in the freaking OVAL OFFICE, doing untold damage to the Democratic party and perhaps killing Al Gore's hopes to be president, is going to get a major spot. Total bullshit.

Bill Clinton has been a womanizing scumbag for his whole life apparently, even while in the oval office, and this year he's also revealed himself to be a racist piece of crap. Yet the Dems are going to kiss his ass while shunning John Edwards.

FUCKING RIDICULOUS.

Edward's sins were as a private citizen, Clinton's were as POTUS. see the difference?

PLEASE  write the Democratic National Convention committee and tell them Bill Clinton doesn't belong anywhere near the stage in Denver!

I hope everyone else here is as shocked and angry at NBC's latest "reality" show, "The Baby Borrowers." NBC has gone right past taking advantage of unfortunate adults for entertainment purposes and directly into child abuse by taking children who are far too young to understand what's happening away from their parents for 3 days.

If you have any shred of doubt that this is actual child abuse, below the fold is a letter from people who know about child abuse first-hand, those dedicated to taking care of children.

Please contact NBC, and especially it's sponsors, and tell them how outrageous it is for a national TV network to engage in child abuse. List of sponsors and contact info is below the fold.
NBC makes it difficult to just e-mail them. you go to this page:
http://www.nbc.com/...

All over the country, pundits, politicians, and probably even Barack Obama himself are asking the same question:
what do Hillary Clinton supporters want?

Now is the time to contact the Obama campaign or surogates directly and give them the answer to that question.

Of course the Clinton supporters will have to decide how to answer that question, and for many the only answer will have to do with giving Clinton the veep spot or another high level post. but i would respectfully suggest that it is time to move beyond support for a single candidate and ask Obama to address ALL feminist issues.

And there will NEVER be a better time to do it than right now.

UPDATE in response to comments: catchaz is a pro-womanist Obama supporter who believes Obama was most feminist candidate in race.

As a supporter of Barack Obama i would like to suggest it is WAY past time that Obama supporters took the lead in addressing the blatant sexism coming from both SOME OF our fellow Obama supporters and the Main Stream Media. (i say "fellow" because i haven't seen much sexism from female Obama suporters, and "some of" because i know lots of Obama supporters are already fighting sexism.)

Fighting sexism is a DEMOCRATIC issue, not just a Clinton issue. if we don't fight sexism we don't deserve to be called Democrats.

It Is Time to join together to fight the sexist media, and the woman-hating ReThugs.

(crossposted at Mydd)

An investigation by the Texas Attorney general into voter fraud has revealed alot of useful information, none of it related to voter fraud. The revealing information has to do with the partisan and racist nature of the Texas Attorney General's Office (surprise!)

http://www.dallasnews.com/...

After a two-year campaign to "clean up rampant voter fraud" the AG found and prosecuted 26 minor violations, no major fraud was uncovered. (or, none was prosecuted.) But more troubling was the breakdown of prosecutions.

The number of Democrats prosecuted out of the 26 cases:
Twenty-six. 100%

The number of cases dealing with Black and Hispanic voters:
"Almost all of them" (Dallas Morning News)

(And the article mentions one high profile case in a GOP district during an election concerning gay marriage that was ignored.)

My tax dollars at work, supporting the GOP in Texas and racists everywhere!

Right now the speed at which SOME of Clinton's and Obama's more suicidal supporters are rushing to lead our party to defeat in November is just staggering.

Whether it is outright denial of the existence of and damage caused by racism or sexism, or the parroting of the hideous ReThug line that anyone who mentions racism/sexism is "playing the race/gender card," these insane Democrats are TOTALLY CEDING THESE ISSUES TO THE GOP. this will KILL us in November.

If we concede that the GOP is right, that the real problem with racism and sexism is not the actual racism and sexism, not the damage it does to real people in their real lives, but instead the problem is the mere MENTION of racism and sexism, then we cannot possibly get back to fighting these bigotries when the primary is over. and a Democratic party that doesn't fight racism and sexism is DOOMED.

what in the fuck is going on here?

I am so angry and dissappointed i can't see straight. I am a supporter of Barack Obama, and i came to my favorite web site today to be greeted by one of the great pieces of misogyny in liberal political history. I am currently in shock after reading a diary from DHinMi.
http://www.dailykos.com/...

It is just too vile for words. and the worst part is that some people LIKED the post. they should be as ashamed as he is.

The Diarest should, IMO, be banned from the site, or at least suspended. he certainly should be removed from the front pages, if he appears there. this human jerk off is HURTING the Obama campaign, he's hurting this website, and he's hurting the reputation of progressive men everywhere.

If this gets me banned, this site is not worth staying.

Since it's Tax day, i thought it was a good time to get away from the horserace and back to issues. And combatting the lies that Haters like Lou Dobbs tell is one of the most important issues to me. Of course Dobbs isn't the only one out there fighting to make the lives of some of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters even worse, he's just the poster boy.

One of the most easily seen-through lies of the Haters is the bullshit notion that "illegal immigrants don't pay taxes!" that is freaking ridiculous. obviously, they pay sales taxes on each and every taxable item they buy. but another huge problem with that lie is in the area of social security and payroll taxes. Illegal immigrants pay into these funds, but rarely recieve anything back for their contribution.

of course many of us know that one day, at present rates, the Social Security Fund will run out. But did you know that if we stopped illegal immigration, the fund will would run out sooner? it's a fact. so, yes, you got it right, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS SAVING SOCIAL SECURITY! tell that to next bastard like Lou Dobbs when they start spouting their nazi propagnada about illegal immigrants breaking our bank.

http://www.chron.com/...

The ReThugs have won alot of elections lately with their divide and conquer style of politics. convince the American people that the problem is not that their government has utterly failed them, but that the real enemies are our brothers and sisters in our midst. pitting one group against another has yeilded great results for the ReThugs. we will NEVER win if we can't adequately fight these bogus charges.

The 2 Democratic nominees have both lived thru a time in their political careers when, because of poorly phrased remarks the ReThugs have attacked them mercilessly as being the enemy of the everyday American.
For Clinton it was "cookie-gate" where she was slimed by the ReThugs machine as an elitist that hated stay at home moms.
For Obama it is "bitter-gate" where he is being slimed by the ReThug machine as an elistist who hates small town America.

Both charges are hateful and inaccurate, and if we as Democrats don't join together to fight ReThug crap like this, we LOSE.

Presidentital candidate Barack Obama made a statement that many commentators, especially Fox news commentators, think will cost him the election. based on what's been reported THUS FAR, it seems all Obama did was attempt to empathize with people in small town Pennslyvania by noting that he understood the large scale economic and political conditions that led to their fear and disillusionment:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not."

There's obviously nothing wrong with that, it's sympathetic and very understanding. Another example of Obama's ability to empathize with people who are different from him. However, it could be problematic in that it is certainly way more honest than the American people are used to after 16 years of Bill Clinton and George W Bush telling open lies from the White House podium.

But there must be another shoe to drop, right? right.

(crossposted at MyDD)

I am an Obama supporter writing a short plea to my fellow and sister Obama supporters to stop the unfair attacks on Clinton and her supporters, some of which have crossed over into open sexism or denial of sexism, and even homophobia.

When we mouth GOP Talking Points about either sexism or racism WE LOSE. it makes it harder, no change that, it makes it IMPOSSIBLE for us to get back on track and fight misogyny if we deny it exists now just because a Clinton supporter like Elton John is the one that brings it up.

As an Obama supporter i am thoroughly pissed at the remarks people who claim to support him are making on this site and others. today we saw open homophobia as well as the usual mixture of misguided remarks that dismiss the obvious fact that America is a misogynist country, and that sexism as well as racism marr our existence.

PLEASE STOP IF YOU REALLY SUPPORT OBAMA!

i am a Barack Obama supporter and i strongly disapprove of these messages of ignorance and intolance.

I have been a Hillary Clinton supporter since the first time i ever heard of her, when Bill Clinton was running for the Democratic nomination in 1992. like so many of us, i immediately wished it were her, not Bill, who we were trying to get elected.

Still, the day Bill Clinton was elected president was the best day of my life, politically. i was born in 1961 and had lived thru some of the worst times imaginable for a liberal. while i wanted a more liberal Dem, and the DLC scared the crap out of me, i still rejoiced at the end of the Raygun-Bush era. and i told myself that no matter how moderate he was, we liberals had a secret weapon in the Kitchen Cabinet, Hillary Rodham (Clinton)!

(more after fold)
crossposted at MyDD

It is very rare that the veep pick makes much of a difference in general elections. (ask Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle.) But every once in a while, there is an JFK-LBJ moment, that does make the difference of who becomes president.

the purpose of this diary is to emphasize how important it is to COME TOGETHER AS PARTY behind our eventual nominee.

If John McCain is brave enough, there are 3 candidates who could open up this divide if we don't heal it, and give the GOP new inroads into groups that usually provide the winning margin to Dems. these candidates are Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Kay Bailey Hutchison. all of these candidates can help the GOP no matter who our nominee is.

in short, any of these three would give the GOP an answer to the Democrats historic ticket. granted, the GOP choice would be at the bottom the ticket, but McCain's age and the idea that he might only serve one term makes the historic implications very real.

Speeches and an award ceremony in Texas honoring Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his years of service to America, the church, and the Black community were cancelled due to threats of violence by virulent Hate-mongers. Wright was first scheduled to recieve the award from the acclaimed Brite Divinity School in Ft. Worth. While Brite issued a heroic staement standing by Wright and reiterating the reasons he deserved the award
http://www.brite.tcu.edu/...
they announced the meetings would be moved off campus because of security concerns. A huge Baptist church in Dallas was then scheduled to host the events. However, Wright himself decided to cancel his appearances after the threats kept coming in.

The people who's violent threats forced the cancelation of the events are nothing more than racist terrorists, using the threat of violence to squelch the voices of those who would help the African American Community. All Americans should stand up and speak out on this dark time in our political history.

And on the same day Wright was forced to cancel his talk, Hillary Clinton did weigh in. She chose that day to announce to the world that she would have never stayed in a church where Wright was preaching.

This nomination has seen the worst case scenario for Democrats, internal fighting that has pitted the two most important Democratic constituencies, women and African Americans, against each other. This hideous game of "my oppression is worse than yours" has only one possible winner, and two losers. the winner is the Republican party, and the people with the most to lose are women and African Americans.

But all progressives, and indeed all Americans, lose if the Democratic party doesn't stand for fighting sexism and racism. these problems still affect the daily lives of millions of Americans. and the GOP is dedicated to benefitting from both, and thus make both of them worse. right now, the spectre of white racism and of male sexism are threatening to tear the party apart. and if Dems choose to ignore racism and only address sexism, or address sexism and ignore racism, it will deserve to be torn apart.

And if either candidate wins by making a racist or sexist appeal, they will DESERVE to lose.

(crossposted at My DD)

This dairy is actually a plea for help from the YouTube savvy Kosiacs out there. i think i have a good idea on getting more perspective on the great work and great words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. but i don't have the internet skills to pull it off myself, so i'm asking for qualified volunteers, to do the following:

Since the Haters are posting short clips of incendiary words from Wright on YouTube, can people here post longer excerpts, or even full sermons from some of Wright's beautiful moving sermons, on YouTube?
with my sneaky mind, i thought it might even be a good idea to give them titles that make the Haters think they're getting more ammo. post something under the title "Obama's radical preacher" and then show a long clip of Wright saying some of the very beautiful things he has said. if we can post alot of these clips with deceptive titles, we'll have all these right-wingers watching his clips, and then scratching their heads.

Just an idea. let me know what you think.

in other Wright news, as i posted before, Brite Divinity School in my hometown of Ft. Worth, Texas, is going ahead with a plan to honor Wright, despite threats of violence. their statement on why is below the fold, it is very beautiful.

submitted in support of the NOLA-Gulf States diary-athon

"Why didn't they just leave?"

That was the response heard too often when our televisions were showing us the images of so many people in New Orleans waiting for help, that for some never came, in the aftermath of Katrina. Of course there were many reasons, the most prominent among them the fact that so many of them had no way to leave. But regardless, many in the media and even the government and public blamed those left behind after Katrina for not leaving. While most Americans had the sense to be outraged at the government's lack of help, there was also a "it's their own fault" mentality at work.

So when Hurricane Rita threatened the Texas coast just weeks later, the people in it's path were not going to stay there. They had seen what horrors waited for those left behind after a natural disaster, had seen they'd get no help, and hell, they'd even get no sympathy if they stayed behind. Unfortunately, even with the time between Katrina and Rita to prepare, the Texas government did not prepare. And so another disaster ensued. This one had even less to do with the original storm than did the Katrina disaster. And it shattered the idea that all you have to do to be safe from is storm is to leave.  

Barack Obama is set to give what could be one of the most important speeches in American history on Tuesday. Obama, who has been seen by many as the messenger who can bring this country together above the divisions such as race that divide us, is expected to address those divisions explicitly. this may the time when we find out if Obama is indeed the person who can motivate Americans to come together and create needed change, on a variety of issues.

Obama has shown he sees clearly the problems that we must address to fulfill the dream of America as the land of freedom. he has certainly shown the abilty to move people with his passion and his intellect. and he's shown the willingness to speak difficult truths to audiences that may not be prepared to hear it. i believe that the generation that Obama represents, and those younger, are ready to hear it. i hope some of those who are older are also moved, and act accordingly.

Contrary to the claims of our those who resist Obama's campaign, speeches are not useless exercises in "hopemongering." a democracy is a battle of ideas. you cannot hope to change a democracy without changing people's minds, and hearts. the "bully pulpit" may be the most vital aspect of the presidency, Obama will have a big pulpit Tuesday, for some sacred work.