They keep pounding on him, and he keeps on ticking.

First Barack Obama was not black enough,no experience, a Muslim taught in madrasa schools (a chain letter to prove it), pictures of him not placing his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, when it actually was the national anthem. Hysteria broke out at and a local blogger cut and pasted it into his blog. Barack Obama had to dispel  the rumors in a national debate. He denounced and rejected the teachings of Louis Farrakhan in another national debate.  Imagine that in a sophisticated country, such as ours.

Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly take credit for exposing the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. ABC also takes the credit but I will let them sort that out. Two snippets, of  controversial statements made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright were found and used to discredit Barack Obama’s thought process for remaining a member in that church. Gloom and doom was predicted, but Obama gave the best speech, I have ever heard on race. The speech had over a million hits on YouTube. Recent daily Gallup polls show Barack Obama moving ahead of Hillary Clinton, so for now, the controversy is behind him. Since John McCain is using the swiftboaters and other Rove hit machines ,I am sure this will resurface.The Democrats will probably counter with that George Bush hug and title it “Vote John McCain and get a third George Bush term”

Hillary Clinton gave an interview to the far right conservative newspaper Pittsburgh Tribunal Review ,where she told them ,that if her pastor had made those remarks,while she was in attendance, she would have left that church that very day. Well, Obama was in Miami that time.  Of course Hillary was trying to deflect the bad press coverage of her Bosnia trip lies. Must most of the pundits saw it this way.  Why was Hillary Clinton giving an interview to the paper that accused her of murdering Vince Foster?

One of the latest right-wing attacks was made by columnist George Putman titled “One Reporters opinion-Obama has a racist agenda.”  Of course this was taken for fact.

The author quotes Dr. Thomas Sowell writing that Barack Obama had  friends that included Marxist professors, structural feminists, punk rock performance poets, as well as more politically active black students. And according to his book, Obama later visited a former member of the Weathermen Terrorists who endorsed him when he ran for state senator in Illinois.  A good part of the article quotes Pat Buchanan as a source.  Oh, that’s one man I would pick for racial harmony.

<http://www.newsmax.com/putn...>

Still early, because the Democrats have not pick their nominee,but  . Barack Obama has a half a percentage point lead over John McCain. if you average the 6 leading polls.

  It’s early now and these polls do not mean a lot, but it seems to me a Barack Obama just keeps on ticking.

No, it was not the Republicans or the 527s that leveled these charges against the Democratic candidates. Retired general Merrill (Tony) McPeak of the Obama camp accused Bill Clinton of using the remarks “I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.” to imply that of the three candidates Barack Obama was the least patriotic. I wouldn't go that far, but knowing Bill Clinton, it was a subliminal message.  The Judas remark was made by the Ragin' Cajun James Carville; directed at Bill Richardson for supporting Barack Obama. I'm sure, because of the closeness of Bill Richardson to the Clintons ,it felt like a betrayal, but Judas, and the 30 pieces of silver was a little too much, even for James Carville.

Hillary Clinton's camp is using a new ploy to try to get the attention of the super delegates. Since Obama will win most states (with only 9 to go), her camp is calling the states she won, the Electoral College states putting her ahead 219-209.  That's a big reach. Now, if Hillary wins Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Indiana, I have no doubt that the delegates would take that  into consideration as having momentum and that the Jeremiah Wright incident did some lasting damage.  On the other hand, if Obama wins North Carolina, Indiana and Oregon, Hillary will have to concede.  Hillary will probably win Pennsylvania by double digits, because its demographics are similar to Ohio.

The economy is in the tank right now, and John McCain is relatively silent on the issue,giving the Democrats, the stage to make a lasting impression instead of this constant bickering back and forth. The Iraq war had its 4000^th casualty, it is time to remind the American people, that the Democrats are seeking a sensible resolution,  instead of staying the course.

I'm in uncharted waters, watching two candidates I admire, going after each other,and leaving their opponent escape  the watchful eye of the media ,and enabling him to just collect contributions and enjoy the countryside. 

Now that New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson has endorsed Barack Obama, it is now time for Democrats to accept Mr. Obama  as the inevitable Democratic nominee.  Hillary Clinton's cannot win the delegate or popular vote, so Bill Richardson's endorsement will likely sway most of the superdelegates to accept the winner of the popular and delegate vote.  Remember he is a great negotiator.

I am puzzled as to why the right wing did not use Rev. Jeremiah Wright's trip to Tripoli with Farrakhan to visit Muammar Qaddafi, to denounce the reverend for un-American activities. Well it did happen in 1984, before Barack Obama joined Trinity United ,so they could not use it  to try to hurt Mr. Obama chances in the presidential race. So Rev Wright is not the real target.

The Rev Jeremiah Wright's YouTube clip is like a Christmas present in March, to the right wing. Note the Obama thread is only updated by right wingers trying to make a case that most black people are bigots(well it was that way, the last time I looked).  They do seem to think they now have a license to post racist statements , that they been holding back for years.  The thread will now be used for Obama bashing.  Fox news is the biggest benefactor, Bill O'Reilly devoted a full hour to it,and I am sure Hannity and Colmes will top that.  The disappointed Chris Wallace called into Fox and Friends to voice his displeasure over the two hour Obama bashing. In full disclosure, some of the left say that was a ploy to get Obama to go on Fox news Sunday(the Obama camp did acknowledge Wallace).Other networks have devoted time to this issue, but not with the passion of Fox.

Barack Obama has legitimate issues like his association with real estate developer Mr. Rezko,but the right wing wants to concentrate only on the white voters, they desperately need to win this election. This issue will not go away and current polls show  Obama's being hurt by this. Last week's Hillary Clinton and John McCain gaffes were ignored by the media because of this issue. If Hillary were to concede ,the Democratic Party could rally behind Barack Obama ;making this issue less important to the Democratic and independent voters.

Chris Matthews asked Obama supporters Republican Susan Eisenhower (Ike's great granddaughter) and conservative(former GOP) Lincoln  Chaffe ,if the fact that Obama went to that church for 20 years changed their minds. They said absolutely not.

As I was waiting on my routine doctor’s appointment ,I had a chance to read about 12 pages of the status in Iraq.  The stories were about to surge and the remaking of the U.S. Army.

The article describes a gung ho Army Captain named Tim Wright, going from leading an army whose door kicking and guns blazing tactics really just fueled the already angry insurgents.  Although the U.S. Army had superior technology and firepower they were quickly bogged down, baffled, injured and killed by the $24 Radio Shack IEDs.

Along came General David Petraueus, changing the old overwhelming force and firepower tactics, to moving troops out the large bases ino small outposts amongst the general population.  The counterinsurgency tactics transformed a harden combat Captain Tim Wright into a nation builder and negotiator.  Under this plan, the army became the mayors,cops and the civil engineers.  The tactic requires the soldiers to leave the armored vehicles behind , and become a walking patrol stopping  and talking to people along the way. The objective changed from taking a hill or storming a village, to winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

Our new allies are our former enemies at a cost of $10 per day per insurgent. An insurgent wishing to be part of this probation program has to turn in his weapon ,be fingerprinted ,tell-all, what they knew about the insurgency and stay clean for eight months.  Those who have killed civilians are not eligible.  What is all this costing us? Well with all the commanders doling out money to help revive the neighborhoods about $767 million has been allocated so far, but a request of $450 million more is pending.  The money well spent ,if it will keep the casualties down until someone figures a way out.  Hard to convince the young soldiers who have fought in Iraq and seeing their best buddies die or severely wounded,that this is the best option.

Some say, we need to add about more 800,000 troops at a cost of 125,000 per soldier.We also need about $300 billion for vehicles.  Check and see if  a presidential candidate brings this up in the debate. I doubt it.

The media have pretty well dropped its coverage of the war and I can’t depend on this administration for the truth,  so I’m left with weekly news magazines and the five dollar Sunday New York Times.

I wish there every one , a Happy Easter weekend

Credits to March 24,2008 edition of Newsweek

Babak Dehghanpisheh,Evan Thomas,Fareed Zakaria and John Barry.

Even Houston Rocket Shane Battier said it was the worst team to ever go 21-0.

Well, perhaps he's right but 22-0 is something to be proud of.

Since I cannot buy a Houston Chronicle in Victoria, anymore, I have to rely on Houston Chronicle.com for more Rocket news.  Can you imagine city of 70,000 and the Sunday Houston Chronicle is nowhere to be found?

Sunday's win against the Lakers was awesome, but the ABC announcers kept pointing to the Lakers not being at full strength….. Yao Ming is more of a loss to the Houston Rockets than the players the Lakers were missing. How many times did they say about Houston's upcoming schedule, and they are just three loses from being out of the playoffs?

I tuned in to ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the morning”,but they led off with Denver scoring 168 points, finally saying, " We must give some credit to the Houston Rockets win over the LA Lakers extending their winning streak" in fact, one of the Mikes said.  "If it was San Antonio, LA.Utah or Phoenix, we will be talking about them being the team to beat for the championship."

Just keep winning Houston Rockets.

What do we have to show for a five year occupation of Iraq?

Why are we even there,since our own pentagon just debunked the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection?

We have lost nearly 4000 American lives.

Our military readiness is at an all-time low, with the sacrifice of our troops,some making their third or fourth tour.

We are pouring in $12 billion a month into Iraq just to try to curb the violence and instability, that has jumped the price of oil to all-time highs.

We have the world’s largest embassy, built by a corrupt company from Kuwait..at a cost of $600 million.

We have KBR getting a no-bid contract; then moving their corporate headquarters to the Cayman Islands to avoid paying employee payroll taxes, and corporate taxes.

What’s the solution?  It is certainly not Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John McCain assuring the Iraqis that we will be there for long haul. Now the Iraqis will not be in any hurry for political reconciliation or strengthening their police and military.  They can continue to squander their oil revenues, while we use our money to repair their infrastructures, repair the utilities, and sacrifice the blood of our troops for their security.

I am for a safe and timely withdrawal (up to a year) even though some military leaders are saying we are just around the corner from success.  How long have they  been telling us this?

John McCain says a withdraw will certainly bring on a bloody massacre; however , that is not a truth certain. We cannot afford to remain there forever, and leaving 10 years from now, is not an assurance that Iraq would not erupt after our troops left.

Barack Obama was supposed to win Wyoming and Mississippi ,so we are left with five weeks of the childish bickering between the camps until the Pennsylvania primary.

First, who is Geraldine Ferraro, to be talking?  Who knew anything about this person before Mondale chose her to be his running mate?  Match up Barack Obama's resume to hers.She had to know her remarks were provocative and out of  line. Why hasn't Hillary fired her?

Who do I want to answer the phone at three in the morning? I want an competent and intelligent person that will seek the advice of his /hers military and security advisers, and make a decision based on the facts.

Democrats should be celebrating Bill Foster's victory in the 14th Congressional District of Illinois.  This was Dennis Hastert old seat. This district has voted Republicans since the 1970s.  Democrats should take advantage of the change, people are begging for. They don't want politics as usual.

A poster tried to tie the Governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal to hypocritical Liberal Democrats. The Democratic Party has never called itself the party of family values.I feel sorry for Spitzer's wife and girls. They're the ones that are really suffering. The govenor should be penalized to the full extent of the law.

The House last night voted and passed a bill allowing an outside panel to review ethics complaints over very strenuous objections from some quarters. Use this one quote to explain the difference between the parties in the upcoming election….. Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS): "If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you'll vote no."

Super delegates, committed delegates, reseating delegates for Florida and Michigan and a do over for Florida and Michigan.  I can imagine John McCain and the Republican’s enjoying this fiasco. On the plus side,it  keeps the Democrats in the limelight.

Almost threw up my supper yesterday, as I was watching Florida’s governor Charlie Crist make his plea for a do over in Florida with the DNC paying. Republican governor Charlie Crist told Chris Matthews that he wanted his Democrats to have a voice in the process. Please, it gives the Republicans what they want ;the Democrats in disarray, and Hillary Clinton.  Of course, $28 million from the DNC would mean less money the Dem’s  have to spend on advertising or supporting other congressional seats.  It was the Republican dominated legislators (along with some willing Dem’s) that moved up date of their primary against the DNC’s wishes.

I think, Hillary Clinton crossed that proverbial line, by insinuating that Barack Obama is not ready to pick up that phone at 3 a.m. What if she gets the nomination and the DNC forces her to choose Barack Obama  as her running mate? The Republicans will have a field day, saying " If something happens to Hillary ,Obama cannot stand up to the plate." Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said the Obama camp was using Ken Starr tactics, asking for Hillary’s tax returns. Not sure it is wise to remind people of the Ken Starr investigations?

After the 11^th straight victories, it looks to me like  Barack Obama went into a rope a dope mode leaving the Clinton challenges unanswered.  In Ohio ,Hillary used the”I I feel your pain” and Barack Obama gave his usual hope speech.  I think Barack Obama will learn from this, and will do more substantive speeches from now on.

Will Hillary Clinton going negative weaken Barack Obama or make him stronger for the inevitable GOP smear machine?  Are the negative attacks by Hillary Clinton’s just a warm-up for the general election?Barack Obama has run a positive campaign, and it would be out of his character to go negative. Baraka Obama might lose his supporters,if  he changed his tactics, but if he could find a willing surrogate.

On the positive side, Hillary Clinton raised $5 million in 24 hours and 25 million for the month. Barack Obama raised a whopping $55 million last month. Compare that to John McCain’s $12 million last month. Enthusiasm and money is still with the Democrats,but a brokered convention just might turn all the new voters away.  What a waste that would be.

Barack Obama recently denounced and rejected the controversial Louis Farrakhan, but when John McCain was endorsed by the war mongering televangelist, San Antonio's pastor John Hagee, not much was said. Pastor Hagee continues to knock the Catholic Church, but John McCain neither denounced or rejected him

When right wing flamethrower, Bill Cunningham, made his one claim to fame by repeating the words Barack Hussein Obama several times, John McCain did denounce it but only to the press after he made his speech and his audience were nowhere in sight. The far right wing hacks say it's only Obama middle name known full well; It is an attempt to drive a wedge between the popular Democratic candidate and the Jewish community.

Skirting the issue is a well-known tactic in trying to get one point across without seeming to be bigoted or racist. Local posters will begin a sentence with, " I am not a racist, but…".. Are they asking for permission to post racist views? Do they actually think just because they insert "I am not a racist." at the start of their sentence, It gives them a license to continue? Of course, illegal immigration is a prime example. The poster will start with undocumented, one-sided, rants, then they will say, how can I be a racist? They go on say"My best friend is Mexican-American."

Several female posters have said that they would never vote for a presidential candidate, based solely on gender. Why not? When the males do, it's accepted practice. Several Republican posters have indicated Hillary does not have the qualifications to be a president. Democrats think so, actually, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein have the qualifications. Anyone who voted for George W. Bush two times certainly does not have the credibility to say, Hillary Clinton does not have the qualifications to be president. When will a woman be a Republican presidential nominee? Condi Rice is not that person, because her opposition would wrap the failures of the George W. Bush administration, around her. They would ask her, what you think." Bin Laden determined to attack the US." mean ,since you ignored that memo.?

Several have suggested that the choice for president; is like voting for the lesser of two evils. I understand how they feel, because I have not voted for any one in the 14th District congressional race in a long time. I will bypass the choice again this year. Not too much difference between the candidates.

Today's Houston Chronicles stated because of the large turnout expected Tuesday , they might have to revert to paper ballots, because they are running out of the voting machines. That myth that Americans do not vote can be put to rest.