(07-22) 21:27 PDT  -- Barack Obama is betraying his promise of change and is in danger of becoming just another political hack.

Yes, just like former maverick John McCain, who has refashioned himself as a mindless rubber stamp for the most inane policies of the miserably failed Bush administration. Both candidates are embracing, rather than challenging, the fundamental irrationality of Bush's "war on terror," which substitutes hysteria for rational analysis in appraising the dangers the country faces.

Terrorism is a social pathology that needs to be excised with the surgical precision of detective work, inspired by a high level of international cooperation, the very opposite of the unilateral war metaphor that recruits new generations of terrorists in the wake of the massive armies we dispatch. At a time when we desperately need a president to remind us we have nothing to fear but fear itself, we are increasingly being treated to a presidential campaign driven by fear.

He has a good point about how terrorism should be treated. But is anyone else really confused and upset how he is now blaming BHO for it all?

Cross posted on
The Economic Populist -
A Community Site for Economics Freaks and Geeks

Failure in war can be a bad thing.  Failure in business can be a personal loss, and in some instances a detriment to the economy.  With the recent calamity hitting the two largest mortgage lenders, not to mention other large American business concerns, it seems to a select few that failure is indeed a viable and good option.

A gamble with very high stakes is being openly promoted by adherents to a free-market orthodoxy.  These individuals, gaming on anger and the perceived loss of utility of these given enterprises, are pushing the public onto this wager.

So as the presidential campaign heats up and Barry Obama continues to receive the star treatment, I gotta believe OLLLLLLDDDDDD Rodham-Clinton has a serious case of post-election blues.

Every time that old bat sees Barry O on the tube I can only imagine what she's thinking:  THAT SHOULD BE ME!!!!!!!!!  HE'S STEALING MY THUNDER!!!!!! IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!WAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!I WANT TO BE  PREZ-EEE-DENT!!!!!!!!!I SHOULD NEVER HAVE ENDED MY CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!......................... HAHAHAHA.........HEHEHEHEHEHE........... ...HOHOHOHOHO

Recently some news show asked -- in a serious tone -- whether OLLLDDD Rodham-Clinton was still in the running for VP.  And this purportedly was a serious newscast?

Serious question:  can any of you loonie lefties give me a single solitary reason why Barry O at this stage would choose ORC?

Seriously, outline any/all reasons why Rodham-Clinton should consider herself still in the running

Earlier today, I happened to catch John McCain on a news show. He was making the claim that oil prices had fallen because of President George W. Bush lifted the Executive Ban on drilling for oil in ANWR and off-shore areas in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Pacific Ocean.

I didn't really pay much attention to his claim until I received an email from a conservative mailing list I signed up for that made the same claim. It looks like this is going to be a new line of attack from the Right, so I decided to investigate the claim. There should be enough information in this diary and the linked articles to help any of you win a discussion on this issue.

A search for a video or an online article with McCain's quote in it wasn't available. However, here is a quote from the conservative mailer I received. It contains another quote from a columnist in the Toledo Blade who is making the same claim.

More after the jump...

(cross-posted at Kickin it with CG and Clintonistas for Obama)

Today, in a CNN article titled, "Could an Obama Presidency Hurt Black Americans?" John Blake warns that "an Obama victory could be twisted to suppress the push for racial equality" and cites several commentators -- including African-Americans, whites, Latinos, and conservatives.

One such source is Steve Sailer.  

For those of you that are not familiar with Mr. Sailer - he is a columnist for the American Conservative magazine. Last year he wrote that some whites who support Obama aren't driven primarily by a desire for change. [...]

"So many whites want to be able to say, `I'm not one of them, those bad whites. ... Hey, I voted for a black guy for president"

"They hope that when a black finally moves into the White House, it will prove to African-Americans, once and for all, that white animus isn't the cause of their troubles. All blacks have to do is to act like President Obama - and their problems will be over."

A sampling of some of Sailer's beauties:

- African-Americans: "tend to possess poorer native judgment than members of better-educated groups. Thus they need stricter moral guidance from society"

- Obama's 'Blackness': "the brutal truth: Obama is a 'wigger'. He's a remarkably exotic variety of the faux African-American, but a wigger nonetheless."

- Michelle Obama: "sounds like she's got a log-sized chip on her shoulder from lucking into Princeton due to affirmative action."

- Katrina Victims: "Nor is it surprising that the black refugees at the Superdome and the convention center failed to get themselves organized to make conditions more livable. Poor black people seldom cooperate well with each other because they don't trust other blacks much, for the perfectly rational reason that they commit large numbers of crimes against each other."

Several of Sailer's comments appeared on the site VDARE, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a white nationalist hate group.

How the hell could CNN use Sailer as a source when he has a history of repeatedly made racially insensitive remarks? Shame on you CNN.

Oh and if you want to send good old Steve a message - here is his blog.

Barack Obama.

Yep. The Obama campiagn is purchasing a 5 million dollar Olympic package.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=1298 53

OK.  All day, canadian gal had a diary up about a letter that Don Fowler and Alice Germond sent to intransigent Hillary supporters admonishing them to get behind Obama.  It was candian gal's contention that the letter was ineffective.  A long debate on the subject ensued.

Here's canadian gal's diary:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/7/23/1493 4/0576

And here's the letter:

Wanted to bring back to your notice an Afghan Women Organization who had been doing yeomen service for the oppressed women in Afghanistan and former Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. It is called RAWA or Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan. RAWA was founded in Kabul in 1977 as an independent organization to fight for political, social and human rights of Afghan women. Unfortunately their leader Meena was assassinated in 1987 by Afghan KGB agents acting with help from Afghan Islamic fundamentalist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Be it under the Soviet occupation, the era of mujaheddin/warlord continuous bombardment or under the repressive rule of medieval Taliban, RAWA had steadfastly worked to uphold the ideals that it was built upon by its founders.

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . RAWA's objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women's human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation.

Before the Moscow-directed coup d'état of April 1978 in Afghanistan, RAWA's activities were confined to agitation for women's rights and democracy, but after the coup and particularly after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance. In contradistinction to the absolute majority of the vaunted Islamic fundamentalist "freedom fighters" of the anti-Soviet war of resistance, RAWA from the outset advocated democracy and secularism. Despite the horrors and the political oppression, RAWA's appeal and influence grew in the years of the Soviet occupation and a growing number of RAWA activists were sent to work among refugee women in Pakistan. For the purpose of addressing the immediate needs of refugee women and children, RAWA established schools with hostels for boys and girls, a hospital for refugee Afghan women and children in Quetta, Pakistan with mobile teams. In addition, it conducted nursing courses, literacy courses and vocational training courses for women.

Find more at http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html

One can see the brutalities of religious fundamentalism and oppression of women and children and suffering of Afghans in general. Please browse through the photo gallery and the mediaclips on the RAWA website.

http://www.rawa.org/gallery.html

http://www.rawa.org/women.php

RAWA is still working for establishment of a free democratic and secular Afghanistan. It is a rather uphill task.

Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved. Today RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and we have to work hard for establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.

Let us spare a moment of thought for a progressive organization working in a rather difficult part of the World. For more about RAWA

http://www.rawa.org