Obama denounces Wright's statements:
On Friday, Mr. Obama called a grab bag of statements by his longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., "inflammatory and appalling."
"I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue," he wrote in a campaign statement that was his strongest in a series of public disavowals of his pastor’s views over the past year.
Earlier in the week, several television stations played clips in which Mr. Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, referred to the United States as the "U.S. of K.K.K. A." and said the Sept. 11 attacks were a result of corrupt American foreign policy.
Obama on video:
And Clinton's people are taking Obama at his word:
There was no formal reaction from the Clinton campaign, but Lanny Davis, a senior adviser, said he took Obama at his word.
"I give Senator Obama completely — completely — the benefit of the doubt that he has nothing to do with this bigotry that’s being spewed forth by this man," Davis said on MSNBC’s "Tucker." "For me, that’s all he has to say.
"I think we should stop this guilt-by-association thing, because some of our supporters say stupid things," Davis said.
So, hopefully, the tensions between the two sides will begin to ratchet down. People have to remember that we are on the same side; that for all the bad things I have said about Hillary during the course of this campaign, we still have a lot more in common with Hillary than we do McCain, and that John McCain is simply too radical for this country. He supports 100 more years of warfare in Iraq, a military attack on Iran, the abolition of the minimum wage, and the appointment of radical right-wing judges in the mold of John Roberts and Anthony Scalia.
But not only is the real enemy John McCain, the real enemy is the media as well. The media has not learned their lesson from the Judith Miller fiasco and has engaged in a systematic pattern of unfairly attacking both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. You can't believe everything the media tells you about anything; people have to quit blindly believing everything they say and think for themselves. In many cases, the lies of the media can easily be debunked. The whole purpose of this series of blogs is to get out accurate information about the Obama campaign and bypass the corrupt media establishment. Of course there are still plenty of responsible journalists out there. Each reporter and outlet should be judged individually. But the lies and the distortions that the media perpetrates happen too frequently for there not to be a pattern.
For example, from Media Matters, let me give six lies and distortions from media figures who spout Republican propaganda disguised as "objective" news that happened just yesterday; three for each candidate:
Wall Street Journal reporter lies about Obama's views of Wright:
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Newsmax's Ronald Kessler truncated Sen. Barack Obama's response to a controversial statement by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., about 9-11, repeating a statement from a New York Times interview in which Obama said "it sounds like [Wright] was trying to be provocative." But Kessler omitted Obama's statement, reported in the same article, disagreeing with Wright's 9-11 comments: "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification."
ABC smears Obama, ignores John McCain's associations with radical right-wing extremist pastors:
During recent editions of Good Morning America and World News, ABC discussed and aired reports on the "explosive statements" of Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, but ABC has yet to report on controversial comments by two "allies" of Sen. John McCain. For example, evangelist John Hagee has said that "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans," and pastor Rod Parsley reportedly wrote that "America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [of Islam] destroyed."
If this is not hate speech, then I want to know what is.
Bill O'Reilly compares Wright to Willie Horton:
After airing portions of a controversial sermon by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Sen. Barack Obama's church, Bill O'Reilly -- who described Wright's comments as "anti-American, to say the least" -- asked Dick Morris, "If you were [Sen. John] McCain, do you use this against Obama?" Morris replied, "He doesn't have to. You just did. And the talk radio people around the country" will. Morris continued: "[T]he other media, the other conservative media can make a big deal of it."
Sean Hannity lets John McCain's lies on Hillary's healthcare plan go unchallenged:
On Fox News, Sean Hannity said to Sen. John McCain, "You've said three times in the last week or week and a half that you promised no new taxes. You mean none." In response, McCain said, "None." However, in a Wall Street Journal interview, McCain did not rule out raising taxes. Later in the Fox News interview, Hannity suggested that Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care proposal would "nationalize health care," and McCain replied, "We tried this. We've seen this movie before back in 1993, OK? And it is a government takeover." In fact, Clinton's proposal would not "nationalize health care" or seek a "government takeover" of it.
Jack Kemp lies about Hillary's stance on trade:
On Hannity & Colmes, Jack Kemp falsely claimed that Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have "call[ed] for a halt to trade with Canada and Mexico." In fact, both have spoken of "opt[ing] out" of NAFTA if the agreement is not renegotiated.
MSNBC distorts Hillary Clinton's reaction to Barack Obama and Islam:
While discussing Sen. Barack Obama, The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan said, "Remember that thing Mrs. Clinton said where she was asked, 'Do you think he's a Christian?' And she said one of those formulations like 'Oh, as far as I know, look into it.' " MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski replied, "Wink-wink, yeah." In fact, during an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes, Clinton was not asked, "Do you think he's a Christian?" -- when asked, "You don't believe that Senator Obama is a Muslim?" she immediately responded, "Of course not." Moreover, she compared "ridiculous rumors" circulating about her to rumors about Obama, making clear that the Obama rumors are false.
These lies by the media were all told in one day; there were plenty of others. And there are blatant conflicts of interest as well; for instance, Brzezinski's brother is an advisor to John McCain, something that she conveniently forgets to mention.
And after 25 years, crap is still king.
I end this segment with a challenge -- are you willing to do more for the truth than the right is willing to do for a lie? That is what will win this election for us this time around.
Combatting sexually transmitted diseases:
Women's e-news email:
A March study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 4 U.S. female teens have a sexually transmitted disease. The 2008 study evaluated 838 teens. Of those who admitted to having sex 40 percent had an STD.
The teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of teens studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and genital herpes, 2 percent. Doctors attribute these results to abstinence-only sex education and teenage insecurity.
Black female teens were hit the hardest. Nearly half who were tested had at least one STD compared to 20 percent of white and Mexican American teens. Health experts believe that the emphasis on abstinence-only sex education in America is contributing to the growing STD rates and that simple messages encouraging teens to use condoms can help with prevention.
Teens need to hear the dual message that STDs can be prevented by abstinence and condoms, said Dr. Ellen Kruger, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. She told NPR "you've got to hammer at them" with appropriate information at each stage of teen development to make sure it sinks in.
Barack Obama has met with students who want to reverse this trend and has introduced legislation aimed at making contraceptives cheaper:
The U.S. House of Representatives addressed the issue last week, when Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., introduced legislation that would allow pharmaceutical companies to sell birth control at discounted rates to college clinics and low-income health care providers.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is expected to introduce that same bill in the U.S. Senate sometime this week, which Harkin plans to co-sponsor, aides in both offices said Friday.
Thirty-eight percent of college students reported in data released in spring of 2006 that they or a partner used oral contraceptives to prevent pregnancy the last time they had sex, according to the American College Health Association.
Approximately six university health centers nationwide have discontinued selling contraceptives as a result of the legislation that has made it difficult for manufacturers to offer discounts to campuses, said Mary Hoban of the college health association.
Many campus health centers purchased discounted birth control in bulk before the legislation went into effect, but three-quarters of the association's 141 members have run out of the bulk supplies, she said.
The University of Iowa is the only public university that so far has run out of supplies of Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, the oral contraceptive popular among college women. The price at the U of I increased in the spring of 2007 from $15 per month to $53 per month, pharmacists said.
The Obama I know -- Law Professor Cass Sunstein endorses Barack Obama
In about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the president's power as commander in chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more.
Obama wanted to consider the best possible defense of what Bush had done. To every argument I made, he listened and offered a counterargument. After the issue had been exhausted, Obama said he thought the program was illegal, but now had a better understanding of both sides. He thanked me for my time.
This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama's mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side.
Update on Tibet unrest:
e-mail from Buddhist Peack Fellowship:
As hundreds of Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens take to the streets of Lhasa protesting Chinese occupation of Tibet, like their brothers & sisters in Burma last September, they have been met with beatings and bullets. Lhasa's Drepung, Sera, and Ganden monasteries have been closed and surrounded by troops for the last three days. Yet the monks are undeterred, and continue to protest in Tibet's cities wherever possible.
In solidarity with the people of Tibet, our brothers and sisters in dharma, we condemn the Chinese government's suppression of peaceful demonstrations, the closing of monasteries, and the broad imposition of martial law. The violent response Chinese security forces only adds fuel to fires that they set many years ago.
The Chinese occupation, in place since 1951, continues throughout Tibet, amounting to de facto ethnic cleansing, destroying indigenous Tibetan culture by a massive Chinese population transfer and economic infiltration, backed up by the barrel of a gun. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), "In Tibet's cities and fertile valleys, particularly in eastern Tibet, Chinese outnumber Tibetans by two and sometimes three to one."
We agree with John Ackerly, President of ICT, who says:
The recent events in Tibet and reported deaths of Tibetans are a tragic consequence of decades of Chinese misrule in Tibet. The only lasting solution for the Tibetan problem is for the Chinese government to react positively to the Dalai Lama's call for a negotiated solution for Tibet.
A statement from His Holiness the Dalai Lama appeals "to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people...I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."
We second the Dalai Lama's appeal, and condemn the violent repression of natural and proper protest of China's longstanding repression of Tibet. We ask all friends of Tibet - people and governments - to do the same. We call on the government of the People's Republic of China to release all Tibetans held on political charges. Finally we encourage the brave and patient people of Tibet to stay strong, and to uphold the Buddha's teachings of nonviolence.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Tibet; 30 are now reported dead. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the people of Atlanta, who took a direct hit from a tornado last night.
Obama phonebankers are reporting voter backlash against the media:
I've just finished my first 20 calls to PA. Here is how it went:
7 voicemails
1 wrong number
2 HRC supporters, both of whom were very kind, both of whom unprovoked said that although they were supporting Clinton, they think what the media has drudged up about Barack is hurtful and wrong. They were both very kind and in both cases actually said they were sorry we were going through this! Wow!
10 independents, for Barack Obama. 4 of which needed help in where to go register.
Calling does help!
Barack Obama in Plainfield, IN:
Some of you were alive when this speech was given... He was in a crowd mostly of African Americans. And he delivered the news that Dr. King had been shot and killed. And he said, at that moment of anguish, he said, we've got a choice... in taking the rage and bitterness and disappointment and letting it fester and dividing us further, so that we no longer see each other as Americans, but we see each other as separate and apart and at odds with each other. Or we can take a different path that says we have different stories, but we have common dreams and common hopes. And we can decide to walk down this road together. And remake America once again. And, you know, I think about those words often, especially in the last several weeks - because this campaign started on the basis that we are one America. As I said in my speech at the convention in 2004, there is no black America, or white America, or Asian America, or Latino America. There is the United States of America.
But I noticed over the last several weeks that the forces of division have started to raise their ugly heads again. And I’m not here to cast blame or point fingers because everybody, you know, senses that there's been this shift...
We’ve got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. But what I continue to believe in is that this country wants to move beyond these kinds of divisions. That this country wants something different. And so –
How Obama delivered Illinois for Bill Clinton in 1992:
At the head of this effort was a little-known 31-year-old African-American lawyer, community organizer, and writer: Barack Obama. The son of a black Kenyan political activist and a white American anthropologist, Obama was born in Hawaii, received a degree in political science and English literature from Columbia University, and, in 1990, became the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. In 1984, after Columbia but before Harvard, Obama moved to Chicago. "I came because of Harold Washington," he says. "I wanted to do community organizing, and I couldn't think of a better city than one as energized and hopeful as Chicago was then." He went to work for a South Side church-affiliated development group and "was heartened by the enthusiasm." But barely three years later, Washington died, and Obama, convinced he needed additional skills, enrolled at Harvard Law School. The African-American community he left, rent by political divisions and without a clear leader, went into a steep decline. By 1991, when Obama, law degree in hand, returned to Chicago to work on a book about race relations-having turned his back on the Supreme Court clerkship that is almost a given for the law review's top editor-black voter registration and turnout in the city were at their lowest points since record keeping began.
Six months after he took the helm of Chicago's Project Vote!, those conditions had been reversed.
California emissions standards:
In December, a key Senate committee passed the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191), which would cut total U.S. global warming pollution up to 25 percent by 2020 and up to 66 percent by 2050. "Congress is finally getting the message that we need to dramatically reduce America's heat-trapping emissions before time runs out," said NRDC President Frances Beinecke.
The Nobel-Prize winning International Panel on Climate Change recently warned that unless the world makes deep cuts in global warming pollution, we will suffer the irreversible consequences: melting icecaps, rising oceans, stronger hurricanes, devastating floods and heat waves, and the extinction of species. As America's Climate Security Act moves to the Senate floor for a vote this year, our partner organization, the NRDC Action Fund, is mobilizing powerful public pressure to strengthen the bill's pollution reduction targets and stave off any weakening amendments.
News of the groundbreaking Senate vote reverberated around the world to Bali, Indonesia, where diplomats from nearly 190 countries agreed to negotiate, over the next two years, new international commitments to curb global warming pollution. During the summit, an eight-member NRDC delegation led by Frances Beinecke played a prominent public and behind-the-scenes role in helping to pressure Bush Administration officials to join, rather than block, these negotiations.
Meanwhile, in two major courtroom victories here at home, federal judges in Vermont and California sided with NRDC and upheld California's clean car standards -- designed to cut global warming pollution -- against challenges from the auto industry. But in spite of these landmark rulings, the Bush Administration denied California the normally routine permission it needs to implement its standards, and we (NRDC) have returned to court to overturn this outrageous decision. NRDC will continue fighting on every front to compel the Bush Administration and Congress to take comprehensive action against global warming.
Senators Obama and Boxer, among many other Senators, have introduced legislation to reverse this ruling:
Senator Boxer said, "Administrator Johnson's decision to deny the waiver was not supported by the facts, by the law, by the science, or by precedent. I will use every available tool to ensure that California and the nation are able to reduce the pollution that causes global warming. One of those tools is legislation that essentially overturns Mr. Johnson's actions."
Senator Obama said, "Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this Administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer. I commend Chairman Boxer for her leadership on this bill and on working to eliminate the damaging consequences of climate change around the world."
Robert Fuller of Open Left: Obama as a Dignitarian:
Barack Obama is a dignitarian. Not a libertarian, not an egalitarian, but a dignitarian. What's it mean-"dignitarian"?
It means adding the phrase "equal dignity" to the familiar formula of "liberty and justice for all"-and not just giving it lipservice, but turning it into the keystone of a new politics.
Obama does this instinctively through his inclusiveness, his style, and his manners. The dignity he offers is for blacks and whites, for men and women, for gays and straights, for young and old, for rich and poor, and for immigrants and the native-born. He also reaches out to both liberals and conservatives, and to other nations and their leaders. Americans, eager to move beyond the fractiousness of the last two decades are lining up in support. They are ready for a leader committed to building a world of dignity for all-even though the concept itself is more felt than expressed or understood.
Now Senator Obama is being urged by some to adopt the tactics of his opponent and go negative. Another faction within his staff is urging him to stay above the fray. In this context, Obama has a chance to secure his grip on the nomination and win the election to follow. But he needs to do more than remain positive. He needs to make explicit his reasoning for what has been, up till now, his instinct for adhering to the politics of dignity.
Dignitarian politics means not condescending to voters and not treating your political opponents with indignity. It also means extending dignity in concrete practical ways to all our citizens.
Obama seems to be following his advice, judging by his speech in Indiana today.
Iraq Quagmire -- the pain of death:
In my nightmares, the helicopters still come out of a dark sky, two black spots barely visible against the backdrop of night.
Their swirling blades grow louder until they finally touch down on earth and fall silent. They look like giant steel bugs from another planet, bulbous robots with eyes of glass coming to take away their prey: seven human beings who woke one day in Iraq not knowing they would be dead by noon.
Six American soldiers. One Russian photographer.
"Ever been a pall bearer before?" a soldier asks in the darkness.
"No," I say. "What do I need to do?"
"Just carry him."
Just six more soldiers killed thanks to the war which Barack Obama had warned so much against. Bush lied. Hillary enabled. McCain wants to stay for the next 100 years.
The wrong way to deal with pregnant mothers on drugs:
Two worlds are colliding in this piney woods backcountry in southern Alabama: casual drug use and a local district attorney unsettled that children or fetuses might be affected by it. The result is an unusual burst of prosecutions in which young women using drugs are shocked to find themselves in the cross hairs for harming their children, even before giving birth.
Over an 18-month period, at least eight women have been prosecuted for using drugs while pregnant in this rural jurisdiction of barely 37,000, a tally without any recent parallel that women’s advocates have been able to find. The district attorney, Greg L. Gambril, acknowledges the number puts him at the "forefront," at least among Alabama prosecutors. Similar cases have come up elsewhere, usually with limited success. But Alabama, and in particular this hilly, remote terrain just above the Florida Panhandle, is pursuing these cases with special vigor.
In Maryland, the state’s highest court in 2006 threw out the convictions of two women whose babies were born with cocaine in their bloodstreams, ruling that punishment was not the right deterrent. Last year, the New Mexico Supreme Court rejected a woman’s child-abuse conviction in a similar case, declaring a fetus was not a child. Some doctors and advocacy groups maintain that the effects of drugs on pregnant women and their fetuses are not fully known; in Alabama, though, these arguments have yet to be officially made.
The right way: Provide more access to contraceptives:
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today was joined by Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to introduce the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, which would allow drug manufacturers to offer deeply discounted contraceptives to clinics serving low-income women and college students. The legislation is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
"We must do more to help low-income women and college students access affordable contraceptive drugs," Senator Obama said. "No woman should be turned away from university clinics and health centers because the cost of prescription drugs is out of reach. Access to contraceptives is essential to lowering the rate of unintended pregnancies in this country, and we need to make sure these drugs are affordable and accessible. I thank Planned Parenthood and this bill’s co-sponsors for supporting this common-sense and necessary legislation."
"Everyone wants to bring down the number of unintended pregnancies in this country. Part of the way we achieve that goal is to continue providing affordable contraceptives to low-income women and college students," Senator McCaskill said. "I applaud the drug companies for being willing to do the right thing by providing contraception at reduced prices."
"I applaud Senator Obama and Senator McCaskill for putting women's health first and introducing The Prevention Through Affordable Access Act," said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. "This bill is win-win. Access to affordable birth control is something Democrats and Republicans agree on. It is mainstream, pro-prevention, pro-women's health legislation. And it won't cost the taxpayers a dime."
The DRA went into effect January 1, 2007, and in just a matter of months the average price of birth control on college campuses has increased from $5 or $10 to $40 or $50. As a result, many college health clinics have stopped providing birth control because they can no longer afford to do so.
In Iraq, Bush administration throws out rules of engagement:
Garret Reppenhagen received integral training about the Geneva Conventions and the Rules of Engagement during his deployment in Kosovo. But in Iraq, "Much of this was thrown out the window," he says.
"The men I served with are professionals," Reppenhagen told the audience at a panel of U.S. veterans speaking of their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, "They went to Iraq to defend the U.S. But we found rapidly we were killing Iraqis in horrible ways. But we had to in order to remain safe ourselves. The war is the atrocity."
The event, which has drawn international media attention, was organised by Iraq Veterans Against the War. It aims to show that their stories of wrongdoing in both countries were not isolated incidents limited to a few "bad apples", as the Pentagon claims, but were everyday occurrences.
The panel on the "Rules of Engagement" (ROE) during the first full day of the gathering, named "Winter Soldier" to honour a similar gathering 30 years ago of veterans of the Vietnam War, was held in front of a visibly moved audience of several hundred, including veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Winter soldiers, according to U.S. founding father Thomas Paine, are the people who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours
And all done in God's name.
We need a new God.
I know.
No. I’m serious. We need a new God. The old God isn’t working anymore.
The old one never worked.
Some people think it did.
They were not looking at the world around them.
They weren’t?
Not honestly. Not comprehensively. They were seeing only what they wanted to see.
They were not seeing the cruelty and the fighting and the killing that was going on in God’s name. They were not seeing the separation and the oppression and the fear and the utter dysfunction. Or, worse yet, they were seeing it and they played into it. They used it as a means of controlling the people.
In truth the old God, Yesterday’s God, might have made individual lives work here and there—perhaps even many of them—but that God was never able to create a just society or a joyful, harmonious civilization, to say nothing of a peaceful world. And that God can’t do that even today.
Even today, with all your powers of instant communication and total connection and advanced comprehension and increased awareness and sophisticated technology and marvelous miracles, you can’t produce the simple, humble experience for which humanity has yearned from the beginning of time.
You can read more about the IVAW Conference here.
For the creative types among us, MoveOn is doing an Obama ad contest.
More info here.
The Internet Freedom Preservation Act:
Internet phenom OK Go swept through Washington earlier this week urging their fans and Congress to support Net Neutrality ��" the longstanding principle that protects our ability to go where we want, watch what we like and connect to whomever we choose on the Internet.
The band’s success is a testament to an open Internet. OK Go was propelled to national fame via the popularity of their YouTube videos. One, a treadmill dance along to the song "Here It Goes Again," has been viewed more than 31 million times.
OK Go Goes to Washington (Video 1:51)
"If people wonder whether the music industry will benefit from Net Neutrality they can look no further than us," said OK Go’s lead singer and guitarist Damian Kulash in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
"There really is some consensus here that Net Neutrality is good for music and good for musicians... I’m here to ask you today to preserve Net Neutrality and the openness of the Internet. I believe it’s critical to the future of music."
Barack Obama is a strong supporter of Net Neutrality:
Hello, this is Senator Barack Obama and today is Thursday, June 8th, 2006.
The topic today is net neutrality. The internet today is an open platform where the demand for websites and services dictates success. You've got barriers to entry that are low and equal for all comers. And it's because the internet is a neutral platform that I can put on this podcast and transmit it over the internet without having to go through some corporate media middleman. I can say what I want without censorship. I don't have to pay a special charge. But the big telephone and cable companies want to change the internet as we know it. They say they want to create high-speed lanes on the internet and strike exclusive contractual arrangements with internet content-providers for access to those high-speed lanes. Those of us who can't pony up the cash for these high-speed connections will be relegated to the slow lanes.
Allowing the Bells and cable companies to act as gatekeepers with control over internet access would make the internet like cable. A producer-driven market with barriers to entry for website creators and preferential treatment for specific sites based not on merit, the number of hits, but on relationships with the corporate gatekeeper. If there were four or more competitive providers of broadband service to every home, then cable and telephone companies would not be able to create a bidding war for access to the high-speed lanes. But here's the problem. More than 99 percent of households get their broadband services from either cable or a telephone company.
So here's my view. We can't have a situation in which the corporate duopoly dictates the future of the internet and that's why I'm supporting what is called net neutrality. In the House, the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee reached different conclusions on network neutrality. Judiciary Committee members voted to protect net neutrality and commerce voted with the Bells and cable. That debate is going to hit the House floor this Friday. In the Senate, Senators Snowe and Dorgan are leading the fight for net neutrality and I've joined in that effort. Senator Inouye, the ranking Democrat of the Commerce Committee, has joined us in this effort as well and he's working with Senator Stevens to put strong network neutrality into any Senate bill that comes before us. There is widespread support among consumer groups, leading academics and the most innovative internet companies, including Google and Yahoo, in favor of net neutrality. And part of the reason for that is companies like Google and Yahoo might never have gotten started had they not been in a position to easily access the internet and do so on the same terms as the big corporate companies that were interested in making money on the internet.
This is the real Barack Obama, the one that is not shown you by the media -- healing the wounds of the past and pressing forward with a strong progressive agenda. I have one simple question to ask each of you -- are you willing to do more for the truth than the right is willing to do for a lie?