McCain's Tax Plan Benefits the Rich

John McCain's tax plan is aimed at increasing wealth among the wealthiest one percent of the population, while Obama's helps the rest of us.

From Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Obama’s plan helps those at the bottom of the wealth ladder while Mr. McCain’s plan helps those at the top. What’s most striking, however, is the divergence in incomes for the truly wealthy — the top 1% and the top tenth of 1%.

Under Mr. Obama’s plan, the income for the top 1% would decline by an average of 9%. The incomes of the top tenth of 1% would shrink by more than 10%. Under Mr. McCain, incomes for the top 1% would grow by 3%. The top tenth of 1% do best — with more than 4% growth in incomes.

Read more here

What this story doesn't tell us about Barack's tax cuts for those at the "bottom of the wealth ladder" is that those include senior citizens, who are among the most economically vulnerable. Obama's tax plan calls for a tax cut for senior citizens making less than $50K a year.

Also, Barack has received an A+ for his congressional record on middle class economic issues, while McCain has received an F.

Waterboarding Is Torture

Vanity Fair reporter Christopher Hitchens found out what it was like to be "aggessively interrogated." The headline says it all, "Believe Me, It's Torture."

How sad that John McCain, a man who was tortured as a POW in Vietnam, chose to cave to George Bush by not wanting to appear to be soft on terror, and instead flipflopped against his previous anti-torture statements and voted against making torture, waterboarding, and sexual humiliation of prisoners illegal.

From Vanity Fair:

Here is the most chilling way I can find of stating the matter. Until recently, “waterboarding” was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions. But it was something that Americans were being trained to resist, not to inflict.

Exploring this narrow but deep distinction, on a gorgeous day last May I found myself deep in the hill country of western North Carolina, preparing to be surprised by a team of extremely hardened veterans who had confronted their country’s enemies in highly arduous terrain all over the world. They knew about everything from unarmed combat to enhanced interrogation and, in exchange for anonymity, were going to show me as nearly as possible what real waterboarding might be like.

Read more here

Here is the video of Hitchens being waterboarded.

Back in February, Navy veteran Richard Mezo wrote in the Washington Post about his own experience being waterboarded:

Last week, much to my dismay, government officials testified before Congress that the United States has used the interrogation technique known as waterboarding and would like to hold out the option of using it in the future. As someone who has experienced waterboarding, albeit in a controlled setting, I know that the act is indeed torture. I was waterboarded during my training to become a Navy flight crew member. As has been noted in The Post and other media outlets, waterboarding is "real drowning that simulates death." It's an experience our country should not subject people to.

Read more here

Military Giving More Donations to Obama

Makes sense. Give your money to the guy who wants to bring you home, rather than the one who wants to keep you there 100 years.

From Huffington Post:

[D]isatisfaction with the course of the war under President Bush and with the treatment of veterans returning home has given Obama, who did not serve in the armed forces, an opening with military voters and veterans. So does his appeal to younger people.

That Obama attracts support from some in the military is evident in dollars and cents: Among people who have donated at least $200 to a presidential campaign this election cycle, Obama has collected more than $327,000 from those identifying themselves as military personnel, while McCain has collected $224,000, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The Associated Press.

Read more here.

Guantanamo Interrogations Inspired by Chinese Techniques

From the International Herald Tribune:

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of "coercive management techniques" for possible use on prisoners, including "sleep deprivation," "prolonged constraint," and "exposure."

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Read more here.

Obama Has No "Hispanic Problem"

What with all the demonization of illegal immigrants, I don't see how the GOP can expect to court the Latino vote in any real way in this election.



From The Politico:

There's still zero evidence that Obama has a problem, or that McCain has an edge, among Hispanics. Indeed, Galllup finds the Democrat strong, and steady, across demographics.

Read more here:

Obama Would Collect on Idle Oil Leases

From Wall Street Journal:

Sen. Barack Obama said rather than opening more federal land to drilling, he would dun oil companies for the leased lands they aren't using and would use the money for sustainable-energy projects. In a town-hall event outside Las Vegas Tuesday, the Democratic presidential candidate aimed twin arrows at Big Oil and his rival, Sen. John McCain, blasting the Arizona Republican for saying he would support more U.S. offshore drilling

Read more here.

AP Campaign Minute

From the Associated Press:

"Dignity" TV Ad

This ad is airing in 18 states. It highlights Barack's record of working hard to move people from welfare to work, passing tax cuts to workers and providing healthcare for children.

Barack Obama's Speech on Patriotism

Given on June 30, 2008, from Independence, Missouri:

CNN Report Debunking Obama Muslim Hoax

Now that we know that the original "Muslim smear" email can be traced to a fellow named Andy Martin, who was running for Senate, I thought it appropriate to resurrect this from the Wayback Machine.

Here is the CNN news piece debunking the "Obama attended a madrassa" email smear.

The Origin of the Muslim Smear Email

The seamy underworld of those who are responsible for starting the Muslim smear email.

Danielle Allen traced the first Muslim email to Andy Martin. Martin wanted to run for the senate, and admitted he has no reason for his accusations except to try to score political points. "There's nothing sinister here. I was thinking of running for Senate and was looking for a story to put some sizzle on the plate."


From The Washington Post:

The e-mail landed in Danielle Allen's queue one winter morning as she was studying in her office at the Institute for Advanced Study, the renowned haven for some of the nation's most brilliant minds. The missive began: "THIS DEFINITELY WARRANTS LOOKING INTO."

Laid out before Allen, a razor-sharp, 36-year-old political theorist, was what purported to be a biographical sketch of Barack Obama that has become one of the most effective -- and baseless -- Internet attacks of the 2008 presidential season. The anonymous chain e-mail makes the false claim that Obama is concealing a radical Islamic background. By the time it reached Allen on Jan. 11, 2008, it had spread with viral efficiency for more than a year.

During that time, polls show the number of voters who mistakenly believe Obama is a Muslim rose -- from 8 percent to 13 percent between November 2007 and March 2008. And some cited this religious mis-affiliation when explaining their primary votes against him.

As the general-election campaign against Sen. John McCain has gotten underway, Obama's aides have made the smears a top target. They recently launched FightTheSmears.com to "aggressively push back with the truth," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, and go viral with it. The Web site urges supporters to upload their address books and send e-mails to all of their friends. "

But long before this, Allen had been obsessing about the origins of her e-mail at the institute, which is most famous for having been the research home of Albert Einstein. Allen studies the way voters in a democracy gather their information and act on what they learn. She was familiar, of course, with the false rumors of a secret love child that helped sink McCain's White House bid in 2000, and the Swift boat attacks that did the same to Democrat John Kerry in 2004. But the Obama e-mail was on another plane: The use of the Internet made it possible to launch anonymous attacks that could reach millions of voters in weeks or even days.

As an Obama supporter -- she had met the senator while she worked as a dean at the University of Chicago -- it made her angry. And curious.

"I started thinking, 'How does one stop it?' "

Allen set her sights on dissecting the modern version of a whisper campaign, even though experts told her it would be impossible to trace the chain e-mail to its origin. Along the way, even as her hunt grew cold, she gained valuable insight into the way political information circulates, mutates and sometimes devastates in the digital age.

read more here | digg story

The Whole World Loves Obama

My father just came back from a trip to Brazil.

He was on a group tour of Sugarloaf Mountain. There were a lot of Brazilian schoolkids there, dressed in their school uniforms, lined up waiting to take the tour.

The kids heard my father speaking English and in broken English asked him where he was from..."America?" they said.

My father responded, "Si, America." Then he added, "Obama! America!"

"Obama! Obama!" The children started shouting into the crowd, which broke out in smiles and cries of approval. Then kids started dancing, "Obama, Obama!"

Donate Before Monday... Get a T-Shirt!

Let's keep those numbers up!

On Monday, everyone will be watching our fundraising totals to see if we can compete with the McCain campaign.

This month is the first test of our grassroots fundraising strategy since we declared our independence from the broken campaign finance system.

You can help build our organization and show that a movement of ordinary people giving only what they can afford is changing the way presidential campaigns are funded.

Your support has gotten us this far, but if you make another donation today, you'll receive a special gift.

Make a donation of $30 or more by midnight on Monday, June 30th, and show off your support with an Obama logo T-shirt:

Donate Before the June 30th Deadline

https://donate.barackobama.com/logotshirt

Thanks to the support of people like you, this is the first presidential campaign in a generation to build an organization in all 50 states.

This campaign is committed to changing the political map and competing in every part of the country, not just in traditionally Democratic areas.

It's going to require unprecedented resources to take on John McCain in states like Virginia, Alaska, North Carolina, Montana, Georgia, North Dakota, Indiana, and Colorado.

And right now, we're opening offices and adding staff in these states and many more. That's why your contribution now is so crucial to our success in November.

Make a donation of $30 or more before Monday's financial reporting deadline. Not only will you help build our 50-state strategy, but you will be able to show your support with an Obama logo T-shirt that's not available anywhere else:

https://donate.barackobama.com/logotshirt

Thank you for everything you're doing,

Obama for America

Campaign Minute

A (very) quick rundown for folks in a hurry.

Join HuffPo "Special Ops"

Huffington Post's "Off the Bus" section is looking for citizen journalists to cover the action in your local communities for the general election.

Click here to join the team.

It's the electoral race of the century. Political maps are being redrawn, and rules are getting rewritten across the board. Fundraising records have been broken. The candidates are even comparing the size of their email lists.

The mainstream media is tripping over itself to report on every last press release and campaign announcement. But do any of us REALLY know what's going on?

With your help from the frontlines, HuffPost's OffTheBus can change campaign coverage.

CAN YOU HELP US? Join OffTheBus' Special Ops team, and report back to us on what's happening in your town and state.

No traditional media organization can afford to dispatch reporters all over the country, and certainly not this "early" in the general election. But that's exactly what HuffPost's OffTheBus, with 2500 members, can do.

Monday Sen. McCain opened a campaign office in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tuesday Sen. Obama set up shop in Orlando, Florida. Friday McCain and the GOP will cut the ribbons on their new HQ in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. By next week scores of new volunteers and campaign staffers will be crawling all over the battleground states in search of votes.

We've got a real competitive advantage over traditional media, but that may not last long.

As an OffTheBus Special Ops recruit you'll receive a reporting assignment each week. We'll equip you with special reporting guidelines for each assignment.

The information you relay to us -- contact information for local grassroots leaders, event locations and details, and more -- will be stored in our database, and then made available as a resource to our members and writers.

Last October OffTheBus members dropped in on Sen. Barack Obama's Nationwide Canvassing Day from more than two dozen locations. Hours later every observer independently relayed to us that the economy, not the war, was THE voting issue. Twenty-four hours later we reported on the significance of the economy, beating the mainstream media to the punch by several weeks ("Reporting the Obama Campaign Coast-to-Coast: Democrats More Undecided Than Polls Suggest").

As our numbers grow, the same collaborative reporting model that got us the scoop on the economy may tell us a lot more about what's happening nationwide.

Join the team, and get your first assignment!

AFL-CIO Endorses Obama

This is great news for the campaign. Large labor unions, like this one, can provide the (wo)man power and volunteers needed to help lick the stamps, knock on the doors, make the phone calls for the general election.

“In so many ways―on jobs, health care, gas prices and the war in Iraq―our country is headed in the wrong direction,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “Barack Obama has proven from his days as an organizer, to his time in the Senate and his historic run for the presidency, that he’s leading the fight to turn around America. He’s a champion for working families who knows what it’s going to take to create an economy that works for everyone, not just Big Oil, Big Pharma, the insurance companies, the giant mortgage lenders, speculators and the very wealthy. We’re proud to stand with Sen. Obama to help our nation chart a course that will improve life for generations of working people and our children.

In its endorsement statement, the AFL-CIO General Board cited Obama’s strong support of working families on issues such as health care reform, fair trade that will lift up workers here and around the world, retirement security and the freedom to form unions and bargain for middle-class living standards. Obama has a 98 percent voting record on working families’ issues, compared to just 16 percent for Sen. John McCain.

“Senator Barack Obama has secured the nomination of his party in a campaign that has energized millions of Americans and spoken to the hopes and dreams of people from every corner of our nation,” read the AFL-CIO General Board’s statement to endorse Obama. “His leadership can re-engage disenfranchised Americans and bring our country together.” The General Board, which includes presidents of all 56 unions in the federation as well as Executive Council members and representatives of state and local federations, trade departments and constituency groups, votes by per capita membership.

“Senator Obama has advocated a change of direction for our nation that mirrors the priorities of the labor movement,” the statement continued.

The endorsement is not only a stamp of approval; it marks the beginning of a huge, united political mobilization among working class voters. The AFL-CIO will focus on mobilizing more than 13 million union voters―including union members, families of members, retirees and members of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America―in 24 priority states, working to elect U.S. senators and representatives, as well as state and local candidates.

“We’ll work our hearts out for Barack Obama,” said AFSCME President and AFL-CIO Political Committee Chair Gerald McEntee. “Our program is going to be worker to worker and neighbor to neighbor. We’re ready to mobilize. We’re ready to rock and roll. This country and our people are ready for change

If you're a member of a labor union, join Labor for Obama to get involved.

Obama vs. McCain Energy Plans

The campaign website has a section called "New Energy for America," comparing Obama's and McCain's energy plans.

In 2000, countries like Germany made a major commitment to increase the use of renewable energy and begin to get off oil. We elected George Bush and Dick Cheney -- who gave us a secret energy task force, a war in Iraq and the same old energy policies.

Eight years later, gas prices are soaring above $4 a gallon and the nation stands at a crossroads.

We can either “go big” and follow Barack Obama’s 2007 blueprint to create a new energy economy -- or we can rely on John McCain’s sudden 2008 urge to drill for offshore oil -- a distracting idea which won’t reduce gas prices but will boost oil company profits.

The facts are clear. Only one candidate has a detailed plan that is at Apollo moon-mission scale, using technologies that work right now -- Barack Obama. Clean energy isn’t pie in the sky -- the Germans created 250,000 jobs in less time than it will take for John McCain and Big Oil to drill for oil offshore -- and bring it to market. Failing to invest in new energy means we will continue to fall behind in the competitive race for new jobs and manufacturing. That’s not the road to smart energy independence; it’s a backwards formula for more Exxon dependence.

Read more here


Here is a speech Obama recently gave in Las Vegas on his plan for our energy future.



After you note the stark differences between Obama and McCain, join Environmentalists for Obama, and help take back our government from the oil interests and energy speculators.

Obama Helps Relieve Clinton Campaign Debt

McCain and Madonna

Stephen Colbert has asked to his viewers to help make McCain more exciting with his Green Screen Challenge.

Here is one of the winners from last night's show...McDonna:

Obama to Crackdown on Energy Speculators

From Associated Press:

Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday said as president he would strengthen government oversight of energy traders he blames in large part for the skyrocketing price of oil.

The Democratic candidate's campaign singled out the so-called "Enron loophole" for allowing speculators to run up the cost of fuel by operating outside federal regulation. Oil closed near $135 a barrel on Friday - almost double the price a year ago.

Read more here