I guess I am in, then

York Poquoson Democratic Committee News and Notes
April 17, 2008
Greetings from the Chair:

Saturday Delegate Caucus needed only for Poquoson delegates

Only 14 people have signed up for the York County delegate race by the deadline. There were 9 Obama applicants and 5 Clinton applicants. Since we are allotted 10 Obama delegates and five Clinton delegates from York, I am cancelling the York County portion of Saturday’s caucus, and declaring all the York applicants as the winners. I still could use up to 8 more alternates for the York portion of the delegation (5 for Obama and 3 for Clinton). Let me know if you are a resident of York and wish to participate as an alternate for either candidate or if you wish to fill in our last remaining Obama delegate slot.

Please show up to the caucus only if you are a resident of Poquoson and wish to vote for Poquoson delegates. We had three people sign up as Poquoson delegates : 1 for Clinton and 1 for Obama. We are allocated 1 Clinton delegate and 1 Obama delegate. We are also allotted 1 Obama alternate. The Clinton applicant from Poquoson is hereby declared the winner. So the only purpose of showing up to vote is to pick which of the 2 Obama applicants you favor. The winner will be selected as the delegate and the loser, as the alternate. If no one shows up, I will flip a coin.

The unassembled caucus will be held on Saturday, April 19, 2000 from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm. We will meet at the at the York County Public Library, George Washington Memorial Highway, Yorktown, Virginia.

* * * * *

I submitted my application to be a Democratic Party delegate to the Virginia State Democratic Convention. The Convention will be held on June 13 - 15, 2008 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virginia. The convention elects At-Large, Party Leaders and Elected Officials, and Unpledged Add-On National Delegates and Alternates. It also elects two representatives to the Electoral College, Virginia's four members of the Democratic National Committee, and generally adopts a Platform.

When I retired from the military last year I longed to find a place for myself in the democratic process that determines how this country governs itself. I guess I am about to slide down that slippery slope in what seems to me to be a fairly big way. I have no idea about what I am about to begin, but I trust I will find out.

At least, I hope so.

God bless America

Got to love it

"Yahoo Poll Shows McCain winning back unhappy Republicans" - AP

He had the Republican yahoo vote from the beginning.

Tempted to be ashamed and bitter

"But there is no news anymore. We defy anyone to watch the performance of Gibson and Stephanopoulos last night...and then, turn over to C-SPAN for coverage of Cheney at the Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner. Watch the press pissing themselves with laughter over inane quips from a blood-drenched torturer...and tell us this country isn't fucked."

- Jerry and Joe Long
Huffington Post

"Hillary Clinton has much good in her abilities. She has qualities that could make her an excellent president. But we are watching a person disintegrate before our eyes, throwing out the quality of her past and risking her future. But this isn't about Hillary Clinton. This is about Charles Gibson, George Stephanopoulos and ABC "News." They were given a high responsibility to broadcast in the public interest. Instead, they spent the time in the empty gutter."

- Robert J. Elisberg
Huffinton Post

"Obama might have said that, thanks to Stephanopoulos' question, the effort to convince voters that he poses a potential violent threat to America has taken on a third dimension. ... He might then have said that Stephanopoulos' question introduced a third level in this violent branding of his campaign: a level whereby Obama--by virtue of the past political affiliations of one of his constituents--might potentially be a domestic terrorist, too. ... Having said that, he could have paused and emphasized that all of it, of course, is lies. But worse than lies, he might have told the American people, the attempt to frame him in violent terms is a sort of politics so ugly and so sickening that Americans with good hearts and open minds are loathe to even think about it. ... The choice we face in this election, Obama might have said, is between that politics of violent rhetoric and fearful smears, and the productive, pragmatic, truly American politics of working together, solving the problems we face, and achieving our future."

- Jeffrey Feldman

Huffington PostFormer Clinton White House paid shill and

supposed objective ABC "debate" moderator.

(Watch for hidden finger!)

A spade a spade

"Yes, I've had my own problem with Obama's cool demeanor in the past but I see it now for what it is; the careful manner of a man who occasionally puts up a protective shield between himself and the world. And well he should. Let's cut to the chase, as they used to say in Hollywood. What the elite-mongers are actually doing is calling Obama an uppity nigger and he knows it. What they are saying is "How dare this black man who was raised by a single mother on food stamps and managed to make his way through Harvard pass judgment on those poor whites who didn't have his good fortune in being born black and poor?" Why can't he be more like that decent Colin Powell who took his orders from Bush and spread his lies before the United Nations and then went home to choke on them? Or more like Condi who does a little tap dance with the truth every time she is called before Congress to testify about her egregious failures of judgment? That's the way decent black folks are supposed to behave in government these days."

- Sherman Yellen
Huffington Post

Same old same old

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Heaven forbid we should suggest that bitterness might exist in this country of such optimism or that this emotion might be an appropriate and effective reaction to current circumstances. Hillary Clinton countered with this statement. "Well, that is not my experience," she said. "As I travel around Pennsylvania I meet people who are resilient, optimistic, positive...If we start acting like Americans," she said, "and role up our sleeves, we can make sure that America's best years are ahead of us." McCain's spokesman chimed in. "It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking...It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."

Are you kidding me? Pulling the curtain back on a very effective political trick, the old bait and switch, is far from elitist. Americans are working harder than ever. Two job families are the norm. Yet the poor and middle class are falling further behind. What is breathtakingly condescending is watching two candidates stroke this group with platitudes about their being tough and resilient. What exactly has that gotten them? Nada. The real stereotype Clinton and McCain are playing on is that blue collar workers are easily manipulated and will 'stay down' if you just tell them they are hardworking, patriotic, value-driven Americans.

- Huffington Post

Oh, and Hillary is now a gun lover ... kill'd ducks 'n ever'thing ...

Update: "She's running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment, she's talking like she's Annie Oakley!” Obama said at a stop in Pennsylvania. “Hillary Clinton's out there like she's on the duck blind every Sunday, she's packin' a six shooter! C'mon! She knows better. That's some politics being played by Hillary Clinton. I want to see that picture of her out there in the duck blinds.”













“Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough. They'll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer,” Obama said, stirring laughter from an audience of steelworkers and steel industry executives. “But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and the lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?”

The choice is pretty clear if you are a Democrat ...

You can vote for a boob with two nuts---or a nut with two boobs.

nyuk-nyuk

I HAVE SEEN THE PROMISED LAND

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."


[Postscript - The next day, April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was struck down by an assassin's bullet. He did not get to the promised land with his brothers and sisters. But he did do God's will. And now, he is free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty he is free at last.]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was just 39 years old and already a Nobel Peace Prize recipient when he was struck down. His presence was the high water mark of liberalism in this country, which gave us civil rights and voting rights, the Job Corps, Medicare and Medicaid among other blessings of society. His death opened the door to the Nixonian "law and order" era of fascism which crested with the reign of Bush and Cheney.

An exhaustive TIME magazine article on Dr. King's death and that fateful Summer of 1968.