This is an open letter to the progressive blogosphere...
I’ve been posting at DailyKos for nearly 4 years now and started writing diaries in support of Hillary Clinton back in June of last year. Over the past few months I’ve noticed that things have become progressively more abusive toward my candidate and her supporters.
I’ve put up with the abuse and anger because I’ve always believed in what our on-line community has tried to accomplish in this world. No more. DailyKos is not the site it once was thanks to the abusive nature of certain members of our community.
I’ve decided to go on "strike" and will refrain from posting here as long as the administrators allow the more disruptive members of our community to trash Hillary Clinton and distort her record without any fear of consequence or retribution. I will not be posting at DailyKos effective immediately. I will not help drive up traffic or page-hits as long as my candidate – a good and fine DEMOCRAT - is attacked in such a horrid and sexist manner not only by other diarists, but by several of those posting to the front page.
There's more
OK, that's enough comments for this diary. Someone go start another one for discussion. -ct
I heard Obama's wondering why Hillary was offering him the VP spot when he's the front-runner. My first thought was – well why isn’t he acting like the front-runner then?
He's whining about things like her tax returns (when there are already 20 years worth of disclosures out there), intimating that White Water’s still alive and well in the world of scandals, and making silly mistakes like offering up the 5th explanation of NAFTA-Gate. This after a week where his top foreign policy advisor called Hillary a monster & told the BBC that his plan to get us out of Iraq was just a best case scenario, and another top advisor (Susan Rice) admitted that he’s not ready to take that 3 am call.
And when Rice was asked about Obama’s foreign policy experience, she pointed to his work on ethics reform
Hmmm... with all that bad news out there I wonder if it’s time for them to manufacture some more of that outrage he’s oh so good at. Oh wait – he is!
I’ve seen a lot of posts challenging some of what I and others have written about Hillary’s vast experience when it comes to foreign policy. So I thought I’d post some facts about what she’s done to help those caught in two areas of the world that have seen conflict and misery – Kosovo and Northern Ireland.
For anyone who might doubt Hillary's connection to Northern Ireland, take a look at this recent picture of her with two of the particpants in those peace talks in the mid-90s, (Big) Ian (blood & thunder) Paisley (DUP), and Martin McGuinnes(Sinn Fein). They used to hate each other (hell maybe they still do) but are now serviing as the top two members of the Belfast government. They came over to DC on a trip to promote investment in Northern Ireland and stopped by to visit their old friend, Hillary.
I’ve got to give Sen. Obama credit for firing Samantha Power for what she said about Hillary in her interview with the Scotsman last week. Her verbal attacks were inexcusable and he did the right thing.
Hillary was campaigning in Mississippi Friday and the Chicago Tribune quoted Hillary as saying this regarding Power’s resignation ...
Well I think sen. Obama did the right thing, but I think it’s important to look at what she and his other advisors say behind closed doors, particularly when they’re talking to foreign governments and foreign press. It raises disturbing questions about what the real planning and policy positions inside the Obama campaign happen to be.
Today is International Women’s Day and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than by recognizing one of the most well known and respected women of our time, Senator Hillary Clinton. I was just going to post Hillary’s statement regarding this important day, but as I started looking at all she’s done on behalf of women over the years I realized that simply posting her statement wouldn’t do justice to her lifetime of dedicated work on many of the issues that I’m passionate about and have worked to promote in my own life.
Now this video was put up by the campaign this time last year in honor of Women’s History Month, but (sadly) much of what she talks about is still true today and we still have a lot of work to do. Take a look...
NAFTA-Gate first broke about a week ago and since that time we’ve seen flat out denials from Hillary’s team regarding allegations that they discussed NAFTA with Canadian officials. Today, the Canadian Press ran a story which confirms those denials...
OTTAWA — Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton never gave Canada any secret assurances about the future of NAFTA such as those allegedly offered by Barack Obama's campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office said Friday.
With the NAFTA affair swirling over the U.S. election and Canadian officials skittish about saying anything else that might influence the race, it took the PMO two days to deliver the information.
After being asked whether Canadian officials asked for - or received - any briefings from a Clinton campaign representative outlining her plans on NAFTA, a spokeswoman for the prime minister offered a response Friday.
<bold>"The answer is no, they did not," </bold> said Harper spokeswoman Sandra Buckler.
Right – it looks like the calf-skin gloves have come off at camp Obama. You guys can’t ever accuse me or anyone from Hillary’s camp of going negative or trashing Obama beyond repair for the general after this latest horrid, despicable and desperate attack by one of Obama’s inner circle of advisors.
Samantha Power – one of Obama’s top advisors has been quoted by the Scotsman newspaper of calling Hillary Clinton – a United States Senator and our first viable woman candidate for the highest office of the land – of all things, a MONSTER.
I’m used to hearing that kind of garbage on discussion boards and the blogs, (I’ve developed a thick skin over the past year and have learned to shrug it off as the inane ranting of immature jerks). But this woman – this top advisor to Barack Obama has crossed a serious line here.
This woman needs to get her ass fired over this. BO needs to offer up an apology to Hillary. And he needs to do it now.
...according to his senior foreign policy advisor, Susan Rice, when she appeared earlier today on MSNBC.
Sen. Obama’s top foreign policy advisor came right out and said that he’s not ready to take that call – take a look...
Transcript:
RICE: "Clinton hasn't had to answer the phone at three o'clock in the morning and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They're both not ready to have that 3AM phone call.
Ok I’m going to keep this one short & sweet because I’ve just spent 12 hours on the phone banks at campaign headquarters and I’m zonked. I went through both batteries on my Treo by 5pm and haven’t checked my email so I haven’t a clue as to what’s happening with the results. I hope all those phone calls paid off – I’ll have to wait until Wednesday morning to find out.
I just wanted to fire up a brief post tonight to talk a little bit about the phone bank today, and the unsung heroes of any campaign – the folks staffing the phone banks.
As many of you know, Tony Rezko’s trial got under way today and I wanted to toss something out there that may indeed be possible if he’s our party’s nominee. From what I’ve heard, this friend of Sen. Obama’s for the past 17 years may well call him as a witness in this trial.
This video is just the start of what this trial will set in motion guys...
Here’s what was said in that video...
MORAN: If Tony Rezko called you as a witness in the trial would you testify for him?
OBAMA: Well, I don't know what my legal obligations would be. And so yeah, I would leave that up to lawyers.
I was on a conference call today with some of Hillary’s supporters – all flag officers and high-ranking generals who’re backing her in her run for the White House. What impressed me the most in listening to these men and women, is how confident they are that Hillary will look after them and won’t deploy them needlessly. I’d imagine that’s of main concern to two of the men on today’s call – one has a son currently serving in Iraq, and the other has a son in Afghanistan. Many have served under many presidents (one said he’s served under 8) and to a person – they’ve said that Hillary is the most qualified and the most ready to lead our nation, and do right by our troops – both active and veterans.
Take a look at what Hillary had to say on Friday, on a stage with a lot of these top generals and flag officers in Texas regarding her readiness to lead.
I know I know, there’ve been a lot of -Gates over the years but it appears that this story may still have some legs under it. Now some of you may have heard about reports on a Canadian news network (CTV) in which they discuss a phone call from one of Sen. Obama’s top advisors to the office of the Canadian Ambassador, Michael Wilson.
There’ve been well-parsed denials thrown about by a Canadian Consulate and by BO’s camp saying there was never any such phone call. The thing is – CTV is a reputable news source in Canada (unlike many here in the States), there was contact made, CTV’s updated their reports with a new video, they are standing by their earlier story and they are even naming names.
An article in the current issue of The Nation discusses comments from a senior foreign policy advisor to Sen. Obama, in which they make clear BO’s refusal to rule out continued use of private security forces such as Blackwater.
I think we all know that "private security forces" actually means mercenaries – hired guns – private armies - folks who do the exact same job as our troops, get paid a shitload more money and operate outside the laws of Iraq and those here at home.
In other words – they can literally get away with murder (and they have) and BO is keeping open his options when it comes to using them on the ground in Iraq. Maybe that’s why he says he’ll bring our combat troops home but he refuses to declare he will end the occupation entirely.
Sen. Obama's got a history of skipping votes and blaming others. Or excusing his absence or a "present" vote by saying the vote didn't matter. Take the MoveOn vote - Hillary refused to slam MoveOn over their ad re Gen. Petraeus (sp?). BO said the vote didn't matter - his campaigning was more important.
Then there's his failure to show up for the vote on Kyl/Lieberman resolution. BO loves to slam Hillary with her vote, failing to mention she played a key role in declawing that resolution, or that he skipped that vote - choosing instead to campaign in New Hampshire that morning. When anyone challenges him on this, he claims he never knew about the vote and lays the blame squarely at the feet of Sen. Reid.
Now in last night's debate, when he was asked why he never held a substantive meeting or hearing of his Sen. subcommittee, he said he'd only been chair since this campaign began - meaning he was too busy running for his next job to do the job he's currently getting paid to do. And I have to wonder how he'll pin this one on someone else - his target or scapegoat most likely being Hillary.
Before we get to the fun stuff re tonight's debate, I thought we'd clear a few things up...
First of all, let’s clear one thing up right now... these claims of Sen. Obama’s regarding Hillary’s supposed support of NAFTA are nothing more than a campaign’s attack tactics – spreading lies and distortions (even after he’s been set straight) in the hopes of cutting in to her support in a blue collar, rust belt state that’s been screwed over by this crap economy.
Check out this video clip of David Gergen, a man who worked in the White House when NAFTA was being hammered out should set the record straight once and for all...
There’s been a lot of talk on the net and in the MSM about some picture that Matt Drudge posted on his site today of Sen. Obama in traditional Somali clothing during a visit to northern Kenya two years ago. Now I don’t know about you but I’m starting to notice a pattern over at Camp Obama on things like this.
First he goes after Hillary over an unconfirmed report from Robert Novak about something Hillary’s campaign may or may not say about him, and now he’s having a hissy-fit over something dug up by Drudge.
Unless BO’s got proof I think it’s safe to say these two facts are in evidence...
There's no proof that such an email even exists. There’s no proof that such an email came from Hillary's camp.
If they want to keep whining about this then they’d better put up or shut up. In other words...
It’s one thing when someone’s repeating things that he may or may not know is inaccurate when it comes to Hillary’s record on NAFTA. I refrained from posting on all this before because I gave Senator Obama the benefit of the doubt - maybe he just didn’t know he’d gotten it wrong.
But folks have been pointing out the error if his ways for a week or more now and he’s still making false claims about Hillary’s record – in fact he did it again today. It’s no longer a mis-read or a mistake – now he’s just flat out lying and I’m calling bullshit on his lies.
This isn’t change we can rely on – it’s more of the same bullshit and Chicago smack-down politics.
There’s a new economic plan out on Hillary’s website, and given the state of the economy in rust belt states like my home state of Michigan, and in Ohio, I thought it was worth passing along here. A recession’s already hit the rust belt – and Hillary’s working 24/7 to find solutions to our problems.
Hillary Clinton: Addressing the Needs of Families In Today’s Economy
Today, Hillary Clinton outlined her agenda to provide tangible benefits for Ohio families, too many of whom are struggling to stay afloat in an economy that is sliding towards recession. Hillary’s plans will help Ohio’s parents manage the responsibilities of caring for their children and caring for their aging parents, afford quality health care, and enable their children to attend college, which opens the door to more job opportunities.
