Friday, March 21, 2008

Video - Bill Richardson Endorses Obama

Once in a Lifetime Candidate! That's the Spirit Bill!!!!! This is a big blow to the Clinton's!

Maura Harty Clinton Connection to Obama Passport Breach

Let's truly hope that the Clinton Campaign had nothing to do this with Passport Security Breach.

After the news broke Thursday that two employees of the State Department had been fired and a third disciplined for accessing passport records of Sen. Barack Obama, MSNBC noted a Clinton connection to the story. The network reported that Maura Harty, the State Department official in charge of the Bureau Of Consular Affairs during the first two breaches of Obama's passport, had served as an ambassador under Bill Clinton.

"Harty was a consular affairs chief until the end of last month when she retired from foreign service work. Before her stint as the assistant secretary of state of consular affairs, Hardy was an ambassador to Paraguay under President Bill Clinton," MSNBC reported.

And what about this article: Is Maura Harty Endangering National Security?

Obama Passport Security Breach

This is pretty messy and quite terrible.

via Huffington Post - News broke Thursday evening that two employees of the State Department had been fired and a third disciplined for accessing passport records of Sen. Barack Obama.

The three individuals who breached Obama's files were contractors hired by the department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. The unauthorized activity first occurred in January. (And most recently as Friday)

The Obama Campaign learned of the breach from a reporter. WOW!

Explaining why the contractors had access to the files, the official said: "The State Department uses cleared contractors to design, build and maintain our systems and cleared contract employees provide support to government employees and several steps of passport processing including data entry, file searches, customer service and quality control.

Senior State officials said on a conference call on Thursday evening that they were informed about the breach by a reporter making an inquiry, not from the lower-level department officials who first discovered the breaches.

More Information

Obama's Final Four Picks - UNC Tarheels Win

Barack Obama picks North Carolina, Kansas, Pitt and UCLA to make it to the NCAA Final Four. The finals will include North Carolina and UCLA with North Carolina winning the championship. Sounds good to me considering I live in North Carolina and a good PR move for him, considering he is campaigning in the state for the upcoming primary election. Click on image for Obama's full bracket pics.

Bill Richardson will Endorse Obama Friday












Si Se Puede! Bill Richardson Endorses Obama! Maybe Edwards is Next!

(CNN) -- Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico plans to endorse Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic race for president Friday, an Obama campaign spokesperson told CNN.

Richardson plans to join Obama at a rally in Portland, Oregon, at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

In an e-mail to supporters, Richardson said Obama will be a "historic and a great President, who can bring us the change we so desperately need by bringing us together as a nation here at home and with our allies abroad."

Richardson also said in the e-mail that he was touched by Obama's recent speech on race in America, saying he "understands clearly that only by bringing people together, only by bridging our differences can we all succeed together as Americans."

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Anti-Obama Video Outrage



Info on the video here

McCain Aide Suspended for Pushing the video

5 Year Iraq War Speech Fort Bragg, NC

Obama Blames Bad Economy on Iraq War after giving this Speech yesterday in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The 5 Year Anniversary of the War.

Obama Got a White Mama

This guy......geez....more of him here.

Obama YouTube President

Maybe YOU-S-A is next!

A 38-minute clip of Barack Obama's speech on race has more than 2 million views on YouTube (GOOG) since it went up two days ago. How'd that happen? Well, Obama has an inherent appeal for YouTube nation, and the speech is in the news, so that helps too. But we're guessing it may have gotten a professional push or two as well.

In a self-congratulatory piece in Ad Age, "video view optimizer" Josh Warner explains how his outfit, Feed Co., helped promote an earlier Obama video on YouTube, at the behest of ad agency Deutsch. There's no special sauce here, at least based on what Josh is saying. Just lots of spam.

Read more here.

Barack Obama is the New Black












Well, now that the race speech has garnered lots of attention and praise, I guess it's time to write this entry.

Over a month ago, I spoke with a couple of friends/writers on this blog about whether or not Obama is the New Black or Barack is the New Black or Barack Obama is the New Black was at all racist. I was slightly concerned, being a white male that it would be considered such, but my friends were less hesitation (both white women). The statement is so layered in my opinion and I think with Obama's race speech, the boundaries have been broken.

Low and behold, two weeks after I had the discussion and checked to see if the domain names were taken (all of which were on that date, Feb 15), a girl from NYC and The Upright Citizen's Brigade has snatched up Obama is the New Black. The problem is that her blog isn't very thorough and only thrives on the phrase, rather than Obama as a presidential candidate.

Maybe we could join forces?


Luckily, we have secured Barack is the New Black and Barack Obama is the New Black with hopes of paralleling these with All Things Obama 2008. The blogs are set up and feed back would be fantastic on what these should include.

I want to do All Things Obama 2008 shirts or possibly Barack is the New Black shirts (or a combo of the two) but would love input. The above design was a quick 10 minute thing using the same logo as the blog, but not a final design at all. I have some ideas, but again the race line is hard to cross, or not cross. Luckily, our country is moving forward with Obama this close to the presidency.

conversation from Feb 15:

me: i like that barack is pointing at them

4:35 PM ha
so i have this idea
them: I like ideas
me: i can't decide if it's racist of not
or
i think it might be racist
them: phonetically I like the first one better
me: or people may see it as such
4:36 PM yeah me too
them: I don't really think it is
me: maybe i should just grab it
and keep asking
them: the only problem I see with it is that you are not black
me: exactly

All Things Obama Writer Smoozes with Barack in Charlotte













Hayley went to a dinner with Obama last night and hopefully lived past the excitement to tell about it soon!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Obama Miracle Toast on Ebay















Buy it Here

This is the wierdest thing.
Yesterday morning my wife asked me if I wanted toast for breakfast. I said "sure." Now I wish that I had never said that. Because what appeared on my slice of toast was the strangest image that has the uncanny likeness of Barack Obama. What could this possibly mean? Its not my imagination either, just LOOK at the photograph! ITS OBAMA. I checked my toaster. Its Just a regular old toaster that has never produced anything like this before! But it doesn't end there. I e-mailed a picture of the weird toast to a friend of mine, asking him for his opinion. He forwarded it to some Hillary Clinton campaign person and by 4pm I heard a knock at my door. "We'll give you $20 bucks for the Obama Toast." produced a roll of cash. Peeling of a crisp $20, he handed it to me. I almost took it, but then something didn't make sense. "Who are you and why do you want my toast?" I queried. "Let's just say that we're with the Clinton campaign and this toast with the Obama apparition on it is something that is a little inconvenient right now." "I see." I said as I slowly closed and locked the screen door. "I think I can get a better offer on Ebay." The men made one more offer of $25, but left unhappily when I suggested they check out my Ebay auction page. So there you have it. If the Clinton campaign wants this toast, they'll have to bid on it like everyone else. I'm starting it out at $1, just to make them mad.

Winning bidder will pay $4 for shipping and

I promise, VERY careful handling.

Black Guy Asks Nation For Change

CHICAGO—According to witnesses, a loud black man approached a crowd of some 4,000 strangers in downtown Chicago Tuesday and made repeated demands for change.

"The time for change is now," said the black guy, yelling at everyone within earshot for 20 straight minutes, practically begging America for change. "The need for change is stronger and more urgent than ever before. And only you—the people standing here today, and indeed all the people of this great nation—only you can deliver this change."

Only the Onion could do it this well

Barack Obama-sistable - Robert Palmer Called

Elected Senate-sistable
Born in Hawaii-sistable
Moved to Chicago-sistable

Al Sharpton Supports Obama but Stays Quiet














"'I won't either endorse you or not endorse you,'" Sharpton said he told the Illinois senator as the two made their way to a Nov. 29 dinner at Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem. "'But I will tell you I can be freer not endorsing you to help you and everybody else.'"

More

Progressive Activists Prefer Obama











Barack Obama is the overwhelming favorite for president among progressive activists, according to a Politico.com straw poll conducted at the Take Back America conference held in Washington this week.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Seventy-two percent of those polled preferred to see Obama nominated as the Democratic party’s presidential candidate, with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton claiming a scant 16 percent of support and 12 percent of respondents saying either would be fine in the general election against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain. The poll, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, surveyed 413 respondents from March 17 to 19.

Obama is also viewed as the Democrat most likely to defeat McCain, with 69 percent of respondents believing he has the best chance of beating the Arizona Republican, compared to just 15 percent who believe Clinton can defeat McCain.

MORE

PPP Poll: Clinton Catches Obama in North Carolina

NOT GOOD!

The latest Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina shows Sen. Barack Obama barely edging Sen. Hillary Clinton, 44% to 43%.

Clinton actually leads among Democrats in the poll, 44% to 43%. But Obama has the overall lead based on a very strong performance with unaffiliated voters, with whom he has a 53% to 35% advantage.

Key observation: "The rules for voting in the North Carolina primary probably work to Clinton's advantage. Obama has done very well in states with open primaries because of his strong support from Republican and independent voters. But North Carolina has a closed primary with the exception of unaffiliated voters, who may choose which party's ballot they want to cast. Right now they're only making up 12% of the Democratic primary electorate."

More Daily Show on Obama's Race Speech

Colbert Report on Obama Race Speech - Don't Fear the Preacher

A lady from Obama's headquarters called me today to ask me who I was voting for..OBAMA! She also told me about the three videos below! Thanks lady on the phone that I don't think I got your name.



Jon Stewart The Daily Show on Obama Race Speech Video

Preacher: Obama - The Long Legged MacDaddy Pimp

He's was born trash? Geezz... The Honorable James David Manning, PHD I don't think honorable fits



Barack Obama uses the Obama Girl's 54 Double "D" to start his campaign. This message was preached on 16 February 2008.

Obama in Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Obama spoke this morning in Fort Bragg, NC about National Security and the War on Terror (today is the 5 year anniversary of the Iraq War). He stated that the US is less safe now and continued telling the fact that he opposed the war from the start. More info here

Obama's war stance is great although this headline isn't flattering: Audience hand-picked for Obama's war speech

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Obama Race Speech and Oreo Ad Placement

Chocolate on the Outside - Not the best ad placement during his race speech (click for larger image)

Hillary Glad Obama Gave Speech

But didn't see or read it..yet....Why didn't she watch it live? Geez...

via TPM

"I did not have a chance to see or to read yet Sen. Obama's speech. But I'm very glad that he gave it. It's an important topic. Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign.

"There have been detours and pitfalls along the way. But we should remember that this is an historic moment for the Democratic Party, and for our country. We will be nominating the first African-American or woman for the Presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate."

Gwen Ifill Interviews Barack Obama on Newshour with Jim Lehrer

In an in-depth interview, Sen. Barack Obama weighs in on the current U.S. economic crisis, the war in Iraq, issues of race and gender and his run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama also looks ahead to next month's contest in Pennsylvania against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Gwen Ifill talked to the Illinois Democrat this afternoon at Beaver County Community College in Monaca, Pennsylvania.

GWEN IFILL: Senator Obama, welcome.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: Thank you.

GWEN IFILL: The president said today we are in challenging times. You said yourself that we are teetering on the edge of a potential crisis.

When you watched what the Fed had to do over the weekend, what do you think as president you would do in reaction to this kind of crisis?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, obviously, there are some short-term steps that we have to take. And what we have is a crisis of confidence in the credit markets, partly because people don't know where the bottom is, in terms of bad debt that's out there, not only from the subprime lending market, but also the credit card markets and the title loan markets. And all those potential bad debts are making people afraid to do ordinary business with companies that are very credible.


Full Text and Streaming Video/Audio

Download MP3

Obama Race Speech Video - A More Perfect Union

Obama Race Speech Video - 'A More Perfect Union'
Philadelphia, PA

White Men May Decide Obama's Fate

I'm a white man and know that I'm voting for Obama and all the white males I know are too.....are you?

Today in Philadelphia, Senator Barack Obama talked a lot about race and politics, but when you look at the numbers, it may be white men who decide the fate of his campaign.

Neither Obama nor Senator Hillary Clinton have been able to secure the white man’s vote, a voting block now considered to be swing voters.

More on white men and Obama

Presidential Race Comic















To go along with Obama's Speech today

Obama Race Speech Live Blog Recap
















VIDEO HERE

This was an amazing and historical speech and hopefully a turning point in this presidential campaign.

This is not complete and is only a play by play as much as I could get while listening -

Harris Wofford opening

Starts with “We the People” Declaration of Independence quote, how it started in Philadelphia (where he is speaking) and talk about “stain of the sin of slavery” Constitution promised liberty and justice. Words on parchment didn’t stop slavery and citizenship.

Son of a black man from Kenya, White woman from Kansas. Married to Black American with slave ancestors. Has went to some of the best schools and lived in one of the poorest nations. Commanding victories in high white populated states. Commentators have called me “Too Black or Not Black Enough”

Lately race has become a divisive term.

Jeremiah Wright used incendiary language. Condemned these statements. Has heard negative language and tones from Wright in the past. Strongly disagreed with his political views, as you have for your own priests and pastors. Problems that confront us all that are larger than race (health care, etc.) Acknowledges youtube likes it’s a cable network ….ha! Wright introduced him to his Christian faith. Not the same man now. Served his country as a Marine and has led the church for 30 years and doing “God’s work on Earth” Dreams from My Father, describes first service he heard Wright speak. Reads from the book. Stories of freedom, survival and hope. Church was a vessel.

Trinity Church embodies black community completely. Bitterness and biases of black America. “As imperfect as Wright is, he is family to me.” Never heard him speak ill of a group in personal conversation.

Can’t disown him or the black community or my white grandmother. “ These people are part of me and part of America, this country that I love.” Cannot ignore race/stereotypes as a country. Our Union has not perfected this issue and this is evident.

Inferior education. Still haven’t fixed 50 years after Brown vs. Board of Education. Legalized discrimination throughout time. Welfare contributed to the erosion of the black family. “Violence, blight and neglect that still haunts us.”

Many didn’t make it because of discrimination. No hope or prospects for future. Questions of race define world view for many blacks. Anger and bitterness hasn’t gone away from early years of discrimination. Voice around the table, at the barber or beauty shop. Politicians find voice as do church heads against this segregation.

Most segregated hour of America is on Sunday Morning. (Lots of applause)

Many whites are anxious about their future as well. Jobs taken away.

Black anger is paralleled by white disdain.

Racial Stalemate that we have been stuck on for years. Working together we can move past some of our racial wounds. Must work to continue on the path of a “more perfect union”.

Society can change as well as self-help. American CAN change, what we have already achieved can bring us Hope, The Audacity of Hope. “Do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Be our brothers keeper. Be our sisters keeper. We have a choice in this country.”

All White Men vote for McCain despite his policies? If we don’t change, in the next election there will be another, different distraction.

War that shouldn’t have been authorized or waged.

“Union may never be perfect but… it can be perfected” Have already made history in this election.

Here is the Full Speech

VIDEO HERE

Hillary E-card

Geez....

Obama Speech Streaming Live on CNN.com












Sen. Barack Obama, who has mostly avoided focusing on race during his campaign, is delivering a major speech on the issue Tuesday after spending the weekend on the defensive over racially charged statements from his former minister.

The senator from Illinois' biggest challenge is the same as that faced by Republican Mitt Romney, who gave a major speech during his presidential run to reach voters unfamiliar with his Mormon faith: Obama will be looking to explain the Trinity United Church of Christ and its worldview to voters who are aware only of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's headline-grabbing comments.

Click here for more info and streaming link

CNN Poll: Majority of Democrats prefer Obama

A majority of Democrats would like to see Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton win their party's presidential nomination, according to a national poll out Monday.

Fifty-two percent of registered Democrats questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say the senator from Illinois is their choice for president, with 45 percent supporting Clinton.

The poll also suggests Democrats are more enthusiastic about an Obama victory (45 percent) than for a victory by the senator from New York (38 percent). More

Monday, March 17, 2008

Obama plans major race speech tomorrow

via Politico Barack Obama will give a major speech on "the larger issue of race in this campaign," he told reporters in Monaca, PA just now.

He was pressed there, as he has been at recent appearances, on statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

"I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright, but the larger issue of race in this campaign," he said.

He added that he would "talk about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church issue for example," he said.

He also briefly defended Wright from the image that has come through in a handful of repeatedly televised clips from recent Wright sermons.

"The caricature that’s being painted of him is not accurate," he said.

The speech could offer Obama an opportunity to move past the controversy over his pastor, and to turn the conversation to a topic he'd rather focus on: his Christian faith. But the speech also guarantees that the Wright story will continue to dominate political headlines.

Mitt Romney's attempt directly to address his Mormonism last year never decisively put the issue to rest for some voters.

Obama's schedule puts him in Philadelphia tomorrow.

Gallup: Obama Leads Hillary By Three Points Nationally

via Gallup Polls

Obama 49% (-1)
Clinton 46% (+2)

Obama (D) 45%, McCain (R) 45%
Clinton (D) 46%, McCain (R) 46%

Barack Obama - A Tribute to Hope

This is one wild tribute:

Fox News and The Obama Watch Video



NYTimes - Chris Wallace says Barack Obama committed to an interview 730 days ago. And Mr. Wallace, the host of the Sunday morning talk show “Fox News Sunday,” is determined to make the interview happen.

On Sunday’s broadcast Mr. Wallace introduced “The Obama Watch,” a countdown clock borrowed from the Fox show “24″ (complete with the tick-tock noise) that displayed the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds that have passed since Mr. Obama apparently promised to appear.

Citing e-mails from curious viewers, Mr. Wallace wondered why the Democratic presidential candidate won’t appear on the broadcast “and face tough questioning like every other candidate.” He indicated that the clock would become a weekly feature on the program.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Black is the New President Bitch T-Shirt




















Watch the Video Here

Buy the T-Shirt Here

"barack is qualified. personally i want to know what qualifies hillary clinton to be the next president. is it because she was married to the president? if that were the case robbin givens would be the heavy weight champion of the world. and in conclusion, 3 weeks ago my girl tina fey came on the show and she declared that bitch is the new black. And you know I love you tina, you know you�re my girl but I have something to say. Bitch may be the new black but black is the new president bitch. " TRACY MORGAN 3/16/08

Tracy Morgan SNL Black is the New President Bitch Video

Video of Tracy Morgan on the issue of race in the Presidential Election. "Bitch May Be the New Black, But Black is the New President Bitch"