Thursday, January 31, 2008

Obama Rally in Phoenix: Grijalva, Kennedy, Napolitano and of course, Obama

Just got back from Phoenix where Barack Obama was well received by a political crowd different from any I'd seen before. Hard to describe, but this was not your standard all gung ho backers with a few shills thrown in to yell hateful oppositional things. The air was filled with what I can only describe as sincerity, belief, and hope. It didn't feel staged. But I'm ahead of myself.

First stop today before leaving for Phoenix was a quick stop in a fast food place where this lovely woman, who told us she was a retired nun, was delighted to have her handmade and from the heart Obama tag photographed. Isn't she lovely?



The first speaker was Raul Grijalva. Interesting that when speaking in Phoenix you have to bring in a Tucson /Yuma Congressional Representative.



And Caroline Kennedy and Janet Napolitano.



The arena (State Fair Grounds) was packed -- of course the section behind the podium (what the media cameras would see) was filled first and the sections they'd readied for attendees (about 3/4 of the arena) filled and they had to open the rest of the area. I take it that was a good showing. It seemed that way.


I have to admit that a few weeks ago I was undecided as to how vote in the primaries. Edwards or Obama? The situation changed. And you know what? I don't feel like I have to hold my nose to vote. Oh, we have to push as hard as ever, and apply as much pressure as it takes to convince our leaders that our troops must come home now, and it doesn't mean we don't have to change our government so that our Republic once again reflects the democratic principles upon which it was founded.


Given the choice between Obama and Clinton, there is no choice. Obama it is!




I think this pic will be the one I associate with the Rally. It is her life that we are fighting to make tolerable in the near future and improve dramatically for her children,


and hers,



and theirs.





Tuesday, January 29, 2008

AZ Liz found NOT Guilty!!!!

Liz Hourican of CODEPINK Phoenix -and for much of this past year a PINKer based in D.C. bringing Arizona peace messages to our elected officials in D.C. - was found NOT GUILTY today in a D.C. Court.

In Liz's own words from an email sent earlier today:

"The case stemming from the Condi Rice Bloody hands False arrest 10.24.08

after 2 hours of trial i was found not guilty!!!
desiree's case was continued april 2nd 2008"

Read Liz's blog post on the CODEPINK DC site.

Liz is the person who was arrested after being dragged by opposite arm and leg while being pulled from the chair in which she was quietly seated waiting for Condi the War Criminal to speak. She had her face smashed into chairs and door jams breaking her glasses and injuring her. This all stemmed from when Desiree (of Arlington, TX) seized a wide open opportunity to confront Rice with symbolic bloody hands (it was red paint.)

Arizona Liz is an amazing woman!

Now lets focus on sending rational thoughts and energies in the direction of the D.C. court that Desiree (of TX) will appear in on April 2nd.

There must be something about Western women! Woot. Woot.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Conundrums, Quandaries, and Feb 5th

What's a progressive girl to do? Feb 5th approaches and I'm facing a question that hundreds of thousands (I'd like to say millions, but I don't think there are that many thinking people actually involved AZ Democrats) of other Arizonans are facing , do cast my initial approval, my primary vote in the AZ Democratic Primary for the woman, the black man, or the white man? Crass way to look at it I know, but at first pass that is what it seems like. It isn't a horrible situation to be in compared to what we've had in the past. White man, white man, white man... ad infinitum. It isn't a great situation to be in either.

Can't get real information on the candidate via the media, just talking heads flapping their jaws about polls and such. As has been the case for far to long, the media is making the news and not reporting information to be interpreted by the masses. I do not care much for Tim Russert, he gives the impression that he isn't framing issues and asks hard questions, but he misses the big glaring issues about corporatism, fascism, voting fraud and the farce elections have become in this country. His interview with Hillary Clinton this past weekend allowed me to remember why I think Hillary is a very bad choice for President.

Time after time yesterday when I watched Meet the Press I was absolutely floored by the false impressions she created when she spoke.

Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama, "He gave a very impassioned speech against it and consistently said that he was against the war, he would vote against the funding for the war. By 2003, that speech was off his Web site. By 2004, he was saying that he didn't really disagree with the way George Bush was conducting the war. And by 2005, '6 and '7, he was voting for $300 billion in funding for the war."

Via omission of the political climate of 2003 she misdirects people into assuming he pulled the speech from the website because he no longer believed in it. In 2003 there was near hysteria in this country about "you are either for us or against us." and the absolute cut and dried false picture that the administration and the media painted and piped into peoples homes 24 hours a day was that any criticism of the the invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq was akin to treason. It would have been political suicide to leave that speech up on the website at that time.

She goes on to say a bit later in the interview, "I have been working on behalf of civil rights, women's rights, human rights for years and I know how challenging it is to change our political system and I have the highest regard for those who have put themselves on the line."

That is utter poppycock! Unless those people who are putting themselves on the line this time happen to disagree with you, as she has repeatedly shown in her disdain for the women of CODEPINK. Rather than answer questions about her support of the war in 2003 and stay and discuss the concept of the pink slip Jodie Evans attempted to present to her, she marched out of the room, and when she authorized her staff to call for the arrest of women engaged in demonstration in her outer office rather than meeting with them to answer hard questions they posed she showed no respect for those on the front lines of protest and change.

I can go on and on with statements she made yesterday that paint a completely false picture. Most times it can't be said that she lies in an outright fashion, but she is deceptive and judiciously picks through contradictory snippets to create depictions that lie. She is a consummate politician just as is her husband.

"Look, this is up to the voters of our country to determine. But I want them to have accurate information about our respective records, what we've accomplished, the working that each of us have done when given a chance to serve." she later stated. With election integrity being a missing component in the last several elections, anyone who speaks about voters determining anything without addressing the need for clean and fair elections conducted via paper ballots, then what they are saying is just balderdash. For AZ election integrity info check out Blog for Arizona

Can't support her -- she is all about what she can do for the country --- and changes her depiction of herself as necessary per shifting understanding about that for which the country may be looking. She plays old school politics with the big boys where the game is all about getting elected and not about having a vision that you support and strive to make real.

That brings us to Barack Obama. Geesh, he has a good presence and his diction and polished demeanor are everything that the top schools, colleges and universities promise to their well heeled clients, the parents of their students. He epitomizes a new diverse elite class that is coming into existence in the U.S. White men will not rule for much longer. Shifting demographics alone tells us that. I have been in the same room with him and he is , from my gut assessment which I trust most of the time, a sincere, intellectually sharp, and artfully well spoken. It does worry me that he has not been a successful leader in getting the war stopped.

Edwards. I really like him because of his wife. I won't vote for someone just because of a spouse. I heard her speak at the BlogHer conference in Chicago this past summer and was awed by the direct uncensored manner in which she spoke. Stage IV cancer had not up to that point diminished her presence, drive, or the courage to speak her mind. She said that her blog is uncensored much to the occasional chagrin of her husband's campaign coordinating publicity staff. I think I could relate to a man who has such a life partner. Now about him. I suspect that having a mill worker as a father gave him a very different life from Obama and Clinton. He was the first in his family to attend college. He started out in a private college, Clemson, and transferred to a state school, North Carolina State where he got a Textile Technology degree. When I transferred from private to state it was because of money. I suspect the same sort of thing played some role his transfer. Eventually he became a trial attorney and fought for individuals against corporations. So far so good. Blue collar. Worked for his education. Married an intelligent woman. Self made wealth. Knows what it is to lose a child; and understands health care concerns and adversity. I'm leaning in his direction -- the only real concern I have about him is his cushy cosiness with the banking industry -- the bad guys.

However, there’s one highly significant chapter in his Senate career omitted from Edwards’ campaign Web site. Edwards, who comes from a state where banking is big business, played a critical role in brokering legislation to allow banks to sell mutual funds and insurance, and to engage in other speculative ventures. This law, worth hundreds of billions to the banks, blasted a gigantic hole in the Glass-Steagal banking law’s firewall of protections designed to prevent the kinds of bank collapses that marked the Great Depression of the ’30s — meaning that it put the money of Joe Six-Pack depositors at risk. Such a gigantic boon to the banking lobby can hardly be classed as a populist victory. - LA Weekly 1/29/04

So what is a girl to do. Guess I will wear a clothes pin on my nose when I go to vote in the February 5th AZ Democratic Primary. I'm serious, I'm wearing a pink clothespin on my nose when I vote... even while I show my ID, and restate as I have the last few times I have voted, that requiring me to show an ID is unconstitutional.






Friday, January 04, 2008

Time to Shut Down the State Level Democratic Parties and Illegal Voter Coercion

It isn't time to dance in the streets just yet. Yes a man with dark skin won the Iowa Democratic Caucus. I'm terribly pleased that the front running war monger Hilary Clinton did not take the state. But it is one state. Two parties do not a Democracy make. Look at what Kucinich currently must deal.

Kucinich Files Lawsuit After Party Denies Him Place on Ballot
The Associated Press

Wednesday 02 January 2008

Austin - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, along with supporter Willie Nelson, have filed a lawsuit to get Kucinich on the ballot in Texas after they say the Texas Democratic Party rejected his application.

The civil lawsuit was delivered late Wednesday afternoon to U.S. District Court for the Western District of the United States, Kucinich spokesman Andy Juniewicz said late Wednesday evening.

The lawsuit says that Kucinich was informed by the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday that his application was "defective" because he crossed out a loyalty oath in the application that said he would swear to support whoever the Democratic nominee for president might be.

The lawsuit asks that a temporary restraining order be issued to stop the Texas Democratic Party from certifying to the Texas Secretary of State a list of candidates and to restrict the secretary of state from accepting any list that doesn't include the name of a qualified candidate who refuses the loyalty oath.

Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, also wants the court to declare that the oath requirement violates the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment in the Constitution.

"He's right to challenge a blind loyalty oath to the Democratic Party because it's un-American," Willie Nelson said in a news release from the Kucinich campaign.

Calls for comment made to the Texas Democratic Party and the secretary of state's office after business hours on Wednesday were not immediately returned.

As long as two bought and paid for parties run everything all the way from local races to national elections and break the law doing so, there is no democracy. (Last time I checked, it was a crime to attempt to purchase or coerce a vote.) And don't get me started on national level interference in House elections such as Rahm Emmanuel and the DLC financially infusing Gabby Giffords campaign to the point where true grassroots, superbly qualified candidates are unable to compete financially and thus unable to compete in visual media and all other mediums.

Gabby kicks off her re-election campaign on Jan. 13th. Maybe there should be some stooges in the crowd who can ask her some hard questions about her support for the war, her allegience to the DLC and corporate interests over her constituents. She is a Hillary clone and as such is nothing more than Republican lite supported by special interests albeit slightly different ones than support the Bush Regime.

Neither Dennis Kucinich nor I will ever simply give our vote to an "approved" candidate.


Thursday, January 03, 2008

Register to vote by Jan. 7th!


Voter Registration...

Monday, January 7th, is the last day to register to vote if you want to vote in the Primary.

In order to vote in the primary, you must be registered as a Democrat or a Republican. No third parties are allowed in AZ primaries (that sucks by the way!) You can then change to Green or whatever later. The officialese from the Recorders web site states:
If someone who is currently registered to vote as an Independent or Party Not Designated wants to participate in the upcoming February 5, 2008 Presidential Preference Election, that voter will have to re-register for the political party affiliation of the candidate that they wish to vote for. They need to change their registration not later than midnight on Monday, January 7, 2008.


Register downtown @ Registrar's Office in the Old Pink Dome building.
That is:
Pima County Recorder's Office 115 N Church Ave

You can find all the info at: http://www.recorder.pima.gov/regvote.html



Thanks to Susan T. for reminding me all about this! My daughter turns 18 tomorrow and she is raring to vote so tomorrow she will be downtown bright and early to register. In order to vote in the Feb 5th primary you have to be 18 by that date, so even if you are 17 now -- go downtown and register tomorrow. If you can't do that, register online.

And while I'm at it.... I might as well list the forms of ID that you have to have with you at the polling place in order to vote. (This is @#$$&* unconstitutional! but right now if you want to vote you have to comply.)

From http://www.co.pima.az.us/elections/ID%20polls.htm

Every eligible registered voter is required to show proof of identity at the polling place before receiving a ballot. The voter shall announce his/her name and place of residence to the election official and present one form of identification from LIST #1 that bears the name, address, and photograph of the voter OR two different forms of identification from LIST #2 that bear the name and address of the voter.

A voter who does not provide one form of identification from LIST #1 OR two different forms of identification from LIST #2 shall not be issued a regular ballot, but shall receive a conditional provisional ballot and will have five (5) business days after a General Election and three (3) business days after any other Election to provide sufficient ID to the County Recorder in order for their conditional provisional ballot to count.

List #1 – Sufficient Photo ID (including name and address):

  • Valid Arizona driver license or non-operating identification

  • Tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification

  • Valid U.S. federal, state or local government issued identification

List #2 – Sufficient ID without photo bearing the name and address (two required):

  • Utility bill of the voter that is dated within 90 days of the date of election. A utility bill may be for electric, gas, water, solid waste, sewer, telephone, cellular phone or cable television.

  • Bank or Credit Union statement that is dated within 90 days of the date of the election

  • Valid Arizona Vehicle Registration

  • Indian Census Card

  • Property tax statement of the voter’s residence

  • Tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification

  • Vehicle Insurance Card

  • Valid U.S. federal, state, or local government issued identification

  • Voter Registration Card / Recorder’s Certificate

  • Any “Official Election Material” mailing bearing your name and address