What do you do when you've been eliminated from the possibility of winning? Change the rules, of course!
Early on in the game - the first quarter, if you will - Obama lead Hillary in pledged delegates, so we were told that those really don't matter. The "poobahs of the party," as Senator Obama had referred to them, should be the deciding factor...when Hillary had a commanding super delegate lead.
Then came the second quarter, and Hillary's Super Delegate Theory began to leak...like a sieve. Well, guess what? No more super delegates. Now, we need to look at Michigan and Florida. Surely we can't "disenfranchise" all of those people, right? (I won't get into the hypocrisy of asking hundreds of super delegates whose states voted beforehand to disregard THEIR constituents' votes...that's another story)
The fight began to seat the delegates that Hillary, herself agreed to disregard.
Despite the upcoming revelation that Hillary Clinton has lost most (if not all) of a 20+ point lead she held just weeks ago, you can be assured that her campaign will be declaring victory tonight - regardless of the margin.
As the Clinton campaign watched their numbers fall in Pennsylvania over the past several weeks, they have repeatedly lowered the bar of what margin would constitute a true victory in the state.
Six weeks ago, anything less than a blowout would have been deemed a failure. Then the goal dropped to 15, 10, 9, and now a meager 4-6% margin of victory. Regardless of whether or not Clinton meets one or any of those goals, she will have the nerve to stand on a stage and claim that Obama is losing ground among voters, and that the party's super delegates should steal the nomination he has earned to bestow it upon her.
Hopefully, the media will have the nerve to call her on that bogus claim. Unfortunately, judging from recent media coverage of the Primary process, that would be far less likely a scenario than most would like to believe.
In a hotly contested state primary where the Governor and major-city-mayors just so happen to support Hillary Clinton, it must just be coincidence that Senator Obama's name is missing from the ballot, right?
Remind me never to put anything past the Clintons and their slime machine...
I remember a point, back when John Edwards was still in the current primary race, when he had said to America something to the effect of, "If you don't want to vote for Senator Obama because of the fact that he's black, I don't want your vote."
I remember thinking of that as being a pretty classy thing to say. For those who don't want to vote for Barack due to racial prejudice, John Edwards didn't want your vote...Hillary Clinton, however, will take it with a smile.
In true Hillary fashion, Mrs. Clinton has pounced on whatever slight opportunity to bash a fellow Democrat she was given. This time, she is saying that we don't need a candidate who "cheers for John McCain." This coming after Senator Obama's statement that any of the current 3 candidates would be a better president than George W Bush.
Now, let's step back a few weeks. Who was the one endorsing McCain?
When I think about the recent media "coverage" of this primary season, I have to say that I have been continually amazed by the lengths the media has sunk in order to manufacture a story and grab readers' attention. In fact, an episode of Saturday Night Live comes to mind. The exchange goes as follows:
Trebek: Whatever. Let's move on to "Current U.S. Presidents", for $400. And the answer is: "He is the current U.S. President." [ no responses, so more clue is revealed ] "He has white hair, and you've probably seen him in the news.." "..His first name is 'Bill'.." [ no responses ] "..Mr. Goldblum, I know for a fact you had dinner with him recently.." "..His last name is Clinton!.." "..His name is Bill Clinton, please someone simply say, 'Who is Bill Clinton?'." [ still no responses ] Someone just say it! Anyone. [ timer sounds ] ..And the show has reached a new low.
At a time when our nation faces a multitude of crucial issues, the press has seemed content to focus on quick, attention-grabbing trivial matters instead of reporting on the problems that are affecting our everyday lives as Americans. Today, I'm afraid, is no different.
It seems that today, it is not the unnecessary, everlasting war in Iraq - which is killing several of our fighting men and women every day - nor the impending health care or mortgage crises, nor our crumbling economy that is taking the headlines. Instead, the "breaking news," according to the LA Times and USA Today at least, is whether Barack Obama was scratching his face or giving Hillary the Single-Finger Salute.
I understand that these outlets need to make money, and that's just what trivial stories like this do - make mountains out of molehills to grab your attention. The more readers, the more ads get shown on their site, the more money the Times makes. My linking to the story only takes that cause further, but I'll digress.
In the words of comedian Katt Williams, "by all means, make your paper, boo boo." However, don't sit there and proclaim yourself to be a legitimate news source when your pages are filled with nothing but tabloid sensationalism.
I think the only thing they missed was diligently brought up by the poster, mumbojumbo, when he/she states, "That's right, if you play it backwards Obama curses Clinton too - you should try it."
Never in my lifetime have we, as Americans, been offered the privilege to be a part of such history as we are during this election. Unfortunately, it seems that many are happy to waste said opportunity.
As Senator Obama so eloquently put it during his monumental speech yesterday:
"...we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle...or in the wake of tragedy...or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change"
We have a choice, ladies and gentlemen, and we have been presented with a historic opportunity.
We are being given the opportunity to take a stand against fear-mongering, against smear campaigns, against corporate greed, and against, not a lobby-dominated Washington, but a lobby-owned Washington. We are being given the opportunity to sow the seeds of a new American politics - and a new America.
However, there are people - even within our own party - who continue to fight against this opportunity. They want to continue the exploitation and spread of fear, and they want to feed the growth of the politics which is only willing to present the issues that stand entirely aside of the true problems that face our beloved country.
Chances like this come few and far between, and we may not get another like it within our lifetimes. I, for one, want to be able to someday look back upon this time and not only say that I was a part of something great, but to say that I was a part of something great that changed our lives, our country, and our world for the better.
We Have a Choice, ladies and gentlemen, that could change everything. Let us not look back on this time and say that we tried; let us look back on this time and say that we did.
There are plenty of old adages that basically boil down to "do not speak ill of the dead". Fuck. That.
For those who are not yet aware, evangelist and founder of the so-called "Moral Majority" founder Jerry Falwell was pronounced dead earlier today after collapsing in his office.
Falwell has made a career of making hate and bigotry "okay" by somehow leading people to believe that his loathsome words came not from him, but from God. That, somehow, what we had read about God and Jesus loving all of their creations was just a crock, or some sort of misinterpretation of the Bible. He was one of the first to bring these crackpot ideas to the national stage, by way of televangelism.
Throughout his life, Falwell became a master of picking and choosing which biblical verses were "real" by aligning them with his own personal views - still a staple of evangelists and right-wing sideshows alike.
Some of his more famous narrow-minded explanations include his 9/11 theory ("I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"), his take on AIDS ("AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals"), Civil Rights ("The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews"), and gays ("Homosexuality is Satan's diabolical attack upon the family that will not only have a corrupting influence upon our next generation, but it will also bring down the wrath of God upon America.").
How can a person who openly flaunts such repugnant views be revered by so many people, you ask? Because he made it OK to hate - as long as you hide behind the guise of God. He tapped into the hatred of millions of people in America (and the rest of the world) and made them feel that, not only is it okay to be a bigot, it's what God wants them to do.
I know I've said it before, but the next time you try to pull the "abomination" card on gays, be sure to read on a few verses. You know...the parts where it says that eating shellfish is also an abomination, that you may stone to death your disobedient daughter, or that women are inherently evil and serve only to tempt man to sin?
I can only imagine the look on Falwell's face when Jesus shows up to the gates in his pink hot-pants and boa to let him know just how wrong he really was...Man I wish I could be there.
I have to tell you folks, I'm pumped! Kinetiq.org, the people who are developing eXlinks have announced that a public beta will be launched on May 1, 2007! Remember, those who register during the pre-launch will get a special surprise when they go live...
Like many others, I spend a good amount of time browsing throughout traffic exchanges such as BlogMad to bring traffic to my own site(s) and also to see and interact with everything that is going on in the smaller, "private sector"-type area of the blogosphere.
Many people see such communities as an opportunity to bring wonderful amounts of traffic to their blog, which they certainly are. Free traffic to your site that requires nothing more than you looking at someone else's blog is, for sure, a great deal. While it is true that BlogMad and other blog traffic communities are a great way to bring traffic into your blog, many mistake this as the sole purpose of these services.
A community usually refers to a group of people who interact and share certain things as a group
Interaction. That is the true key. When people fail to realize this, they are doing themselves a great disservice by not allowing the "system" to work for them at its full potential.
"How do I get the most out of BlogMad/my traffic exchange community," you ask? The answers are more simple than you think:
1. Actually read the blogs that you surf
Surfing and just waiting for the timer to hit zero doesn't help anyone. In doing so, you learn nothing about what the writer is trying to get across, and you simply waste the credits they've earned.
2. Don't be just another lurker. Comment!
If you have a relevant opinion toward what somoene has posted, voice it! One of the greatest things about the blogosphere is that everyone has an opinion, and has an opportunity to let that opinion be known. Bloggers want your feedback!
