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Friday, February 29, 2008

AS ONLY KEITH OLBERMANN CAN MAKE US LAUGH AT GEORGE W


NEWS CONFERENCE WITH GEORGE W BUSH

The price of gas is news to George W Bush.

Keith Olbermann made my day today. He helps me feel better with the insanity of our President ~ just by the fact that he also sees through George.

I know it isn't funny that our President has broken the law, has bad judgment and lies. I still can't understand why our Congress is more concerned about a baseball pitcher lying than our President lying, breaking laws, disregarding the United States Constitution. But sometimes, I laugh at Keith's take on Bush.

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PETE SEEGER on PBS' AMERICAN MASTERS


"...We got to learn how to talk with people we disagree with." Pete Seeger

I saw the American Masters episode on Pete Seger today. I love PBS for shows like this one. It will reair Friday and Monday. Social change with the help of music has happened in the past ~ Pete is an example. The FBI felt threatened by his songs. Fear as a tool of our government was used against Pete Seeger. Check the schedule.

Watch a preview.

Additional Clips from the Pete Seeger Documentary

Here you can see and hear the filmmaker Jim Brown at
Fimmaker talks about documentary on Pete Seeger


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Thursday, February 28, 2008

BECAUSE OF MY DAD I KNOW I HAVE KNOWN WHAT LOVE FEELS LIKE ~ DAD'S MY ANGEL

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The Last Rose of Summer

Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem.
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them.
'Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow
When friendships decay,
And from love's shining circle
The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?

This is the note I sent recently to the nurse who was with my father when I talked to him on the telephone when he moved from mortal life to immortal life…

I cried today. I have my regret that I wasn’t there in body to be with Dad and watch him take his last breath, to hold his hand. But you were. I am grateful for you. Thank you.

I didn’t know how my note would be received because my family is broken and people knew it where dad lived his last year of his life in an institution. They didn’t know the weird inside story, but we had to appear in ways to draw judgments. I was never told by my mother that dad was near death and she knew he was. So I was in Rhode Island the day he died. I sent my note to Marcia anyway because I am sincerely grateful for what she did for me and for my father. I really only knew Marcia from a couple exchanges. So I took a chance that she would receive me in the spirit that I sent my sentiments.

Today, I received a reply from my note that I sent to Marcia ~ who sat with my father in Indiana, May 10, 2007 the morning he died. I have been so moved. It has helped me grieve, finally, for losing my father.

This is the note sent to me.

Dear Sandra,

I felt privileged and honored to act in your behalf at your Father’s Death.

I admire your courage and strength born of the great faith that you shared with your Father.

I think back at that unforgettable moment in time when Mark took his final breath precisely at the final word of your song. I was in awe at the peace and stillness in his presence.

I have no doubt that Mark was very proud of you ~ and had great love for you ~

Sandra ~ thank you for sharing those final ~ precious moments with me ~ PEACE

The song that I sang to him was “The Old Rugged Cross”.

Today, I don’t feel like sharing my deep feelings or talk more of the story. I did write about it complete with pictures at posts
Though My Dad Died He Lives On
and
I Sang for My Father ~ Precious Memories

From my childhood through today, I love the old hymns we sang as I was growing up. And Dad and I shared this love together.

This is in honor of my beloved Father:
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I Surrender All

Thank you, Dad.
Photobucket

Mahalia Jackson ~ Just A Closer Walk With Thee

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FIVE YEARS OF GENOCIDE AND "NEVER AGAIN" MUST MEAN WHEN THIS ONE IS OVER WE'LL MEAN IT

DARFUR . . .
The world just doesn't care. We would care if it was us, but it is them. And it is happening on a continent most of us really "know" nothing about. Did you study the continents of Africa or South America in your educational experience. Did you learn about Asia? I didn't. What I have learned has been learned after my school days.
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Stand Up Speak Out Stop the Genocide in Sudan.

Take Action for Darfur:
www.savedarfur.org

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OBAMA IS NOT A MUSLIM ~ COVERT AND IGNORANT RACISM IS LIKE TERMITES IN THE WOODWORK

My state is only out-smalled by Hawaii. We are Rhode Island. Born and raised in the state of Indiana, my adult life has been in New England, Massachusetts for one year, then finding Rhode Island, a place to nest. I have never volunteered in a campaign before. I am older than I can imagine being. I am white, female and was supposed to be the Republican, the type of "Christian by numbers" that was to believe as I was told to believe when I was five, for the rest of my life. It didn't turn out the way my parents dreamed. But it turned out better than I could have scripted it ~ if I had written it out before the life-so-far has actually happened for me.

I taught music in the public schools for 29 years and one additional year in a private school. Never had a child, but taught tens of thousands. Destiny brought me my son when he was a student in one of my second grade music classes.

Now, here I am campaigning for Barack Obama. I spent a week in New Hampshire, phone banked online to New Jersey citizens and now I am campaigning in Rhode Island. I hate doing it, but I do it because I very much want Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America. I'm one of those "delusional" people that Hillary says thinks the sky opens up for Barack...

I don't like to canvas ~ going door-to-door. I don't like to phone bank ~ calling up Democrats and Independents and gingerly asking people if they plan to vote March 4th and ask if they have decided on a candidate....

Well, I spent a few hours calling people tonight. And even though I dread every call, tonight I found the people much more pleasant than those in New Hampshire that probably were tired of all the phone calls and door-to-door volunteers imposing upon their lives. But they do "ask" for it in the way that they insist on being the first Primary state, which warrants all the media and attention.

I shared my story. I asked if they had the time to hear my story....

I believe our country needs to come together. We need to heal. We need to improve our standing in the world if only for our own security's sake. We need the cooperation of other countries to help with gathering information about terrorists, etc. And even though it is outside of my comfort zone, I volunteer for Barack Obama because I believe he is the best candidate. I have seen how he has run his campaign. (I tell them my age.) The people running the canvassing in New Hampshire were 21 and 18 respectively. One postponed graduate school to work on this campaign and the other postponed undergraduate school to do it. I witness that Barack has already shown he can bring together people of different generations, ethnicities, and I was raised in a Republican family. My brother who is 61 years old has never voted for a Presidential candidate who isn't a Republican, but he just caucused for Barack Obama in his state of Hawaii. So Barack has brought together Democrats, Republicans and Independents too. Poor people, middle class and ....all being energized to come together to work toward having Senator Obama as the Democrat nonimated candidate for President.

Barack knows that to successfully get the things through Congress he not only needs to bring together our elected legislators, but he needs We the People to support the bills and direction we want our country to go. He knows if the people want these things, we can leverage our elected politicians and they will be more willing to vote the way we want them to. Barack Obama wants us to keep our elected politicians accountable. He wants us to be a part of our democracy. An active part.

I just received a letter from him thanking me for helping out in New Hampshire. In part, it reads " When I began this improbable journey a year ago, many pundits and campaign professionals were skeptical. But what I asked myself then was whether individual Americans would respond to the call for a grassroots effort to change their country. That was the question that mattered to me, because I knew that if the people rejected the conventional politics and demanded real change, everything else would follow.

You answered that question with a resounding "YES," and because of that commitment, we've done better than anyone thought we could when we began. We've shown that a new kind of politics is possible and opened the door to change this country...."

Barack knows that we can only change the trajectory of our government with the empowerment given by the people, then that will move the legislators to begin to be more reflective of our desires and values as individuals in a free nation of thoughtful people. We must be more involved in our government, better overseers and better informed.

Watching how Barack has run his campaign is an indication how he will run his administration if he becomes President. It has been a grass roots organization. It has been paid for by people like me who have donated for the first time to a candidate in $25 increments up to my personal total of $125. He is not going to be beholding to large contributors but to us ~ The People. It has been well-organized in one year by people of all generations. One precinct captain I read was 12 years old!

This is the story I shared tonight. I asked if they had questions. And only two did. One had me on the phone for 45 minutes mostly about Barack’s bio. Mostly about his middle name. And where he has lived and the Muslim question. (He never has been Muslim.) After all this time, I finished with my story I told you above and she told me I was a very good advocate for Barack and I feel sure she was going to vote for him next Tuesday.

Barack is coming to Rhode Island on Saturday. And this will be a huge help to move people.

Most people are not informed. It is our duty to be informed.

We get the governmental officials we deserve. When we don’t hold them accountable, they are apt to go astray. George W Bush has led us all astray.

We need to find our way back.

We Could Use Your Proactive Help:
If you can't canvas or phone bank Rhode Islanders in one of our offices in our state, you can still help Get Out The Vote in Rhode Island by calling voters from your own home with our online phonebanking tool.

You can start making calls (training is right online):
http://ri.barackobama.com/CallRI

SPECIAL NOTE: I called Rhode Islanders today and Independents said they didn't know they could be allowed to vote in the Primary ~ which they can. They simply ask for a Democrat ballot and after they vote, they may immediately disaffiliate by filling out a simple form right at the polling location ~ otherwise, they will remain a Democrat on the rolls. They are encouraged to find their polling location because it could be different than they are accustomed to. They can find it at sec.state.ri.us or at www.ri.BarackObama.com

Learn about Barack Obama
Presidential Campaign Website:
barackobama.com/learn
Senate Obama's Website:
obama.senate.gov


Barack Obama and John Lewis

Obama Gains
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.
Despite his earlier support for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Lewis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "When I am, as a superdelegate, I plan to cast my vote at the convention for Barack Obama." Here the two men are pictured at a tribute to Lewis celebrating his 65th birthday in Feb. 2005.

We are counting: Barack Obama has over one million donors like me. And 200 Super Delegates.

The results so far:

Results Center

Know the Facts:
Fact Check


The New York Times

February 24, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

The Audacity of Hopelessness

WHEN people one day look back at the remarkable implosion of the Hillary Clinton campaign, they may notice that it both began and ended in the long dark shadow of Iraq.

It’s not just that her candidacy’s central premise — the priceless value of “experience” — was fatally poisoned from the start by her still ill-explained vote to authorize the fiasco. Senator Clinton then compounded that 2002 misjudgment by pursuing a 2008 campaign strategy that uncannily mimicked the disastrous Bush Iraq war plan. After promising a cakewalk to the nomination — “It will be me,” Mrs. Clinton told Katie Couric in November — she was routed by an insurgency.

The Clinton camp was certain that its moneyed arsenal of political shock-and-awe would take out Barack Hussein Obama in a flash. The race would “be over by Feb. 5,” Mrs. Clinton assured George Stephanopoulos just before New Year’s. But once the Obama forces outwitted her, leaving her mission unaccomplished on Super Tuesday, there was no contingency plan. She had neither the boots on the ground nor the money to recoup.

That’s why she has been losing battle after battle by double digits in every corner of the country ever since. And no matter how much bad stuff happened, she kept to the Bush playbook, stubbornly clinging to her own Rumsfeld, her chief strategist, Mark Penn. Like his prototype, Mr. Penn is bigger on loyalty and arrogance than strategic brilliance. But he’s actually not even all that loyal. Mr. Penn, whose operation has billed several million dollars in fees to the Clinton campaign so far, has never given up his day job as chief executive of the public relations behemoth Burson-Marsteller. His top client there, Microsoft, is simultaneously engaged in a demanding campaign of its own to acquire Yahoo.

Clinton fans don’t see their standard-bearer’s troubles this way. In their view, their highly substantive candidate was unfairly undone by a lightweight showboat who got a free ride from an often misogynist press and from naïve young people who lap up messianic language as if it were Jim Jones’s Kool-Aid. Or as Mrs. Clinton frames it, Senator Obama is all about empty words while she is all about action and hard work.

But it’s the Clinton strategists, not the Obama voters, who drank the Kool-Aid. The Obama campaign is not a vaporous cult; it’s a lean and mean political machine that gets the job done. The Clinton camp has been the slacker in this race, more words than action, and its candidate’s message, for all its purported high-mindedness, was and is self-immolating.

The gap in hard work between the two campaigns was clear well before Feb. 5. Mrs. Clinton threw as much as $25 million at the Iowa caucuses without ever matching Mr. Obama’s organizational strength. In South Carolina, where last fall she was up 20 percentage points in the polls, she relied on top-down endorsements and the patina of inevitability, while the Obama campaign built a landslide-winning organization from scratch at the grass roots. In Kansas, three paid Obama organizers had the field to themselves for three months; ultimately Obama staff members outnumbered Clinton staff members there 18 to 3.

In the last battleground, Wisconsin, the Clinton campaign was six days behind Mr. Obama in putting up ads and had only four campaign offices to his 11. Even as Mrs. Clinton clings to her latest firewall — the March 4 contests — she is still being outhustled. Last week she told reporters that she “had no idea” that the Texas primary system was “so bizarre” (it’s a primary-caucus hybrid), adding that she had “people trying to understand it as we speak.” Perhaps her people can borrow the road map from Obama’s people. In Vermont, another March 4 contest, The Burlington Free Press reported that there were four Obama offices and no Clinton offices as of five days ago. For what will no doubt be the next firewall after March 4, Pennsylvania on April 22, the Clinton campaign is sufficiently disorganized that it couldn’t file a complete slate of delegates by even an extended ballot deadline.

This is the candidate who keeps telling us she’s so competent that she’ll be ready to govern from Day 1. Mrs. Clinton may be right that Mr. Obama has a thin résumé, but her disheveled campaign keeps reminding us that the biggest item on her thicker résumé is the health care task force that was as botched as her presidential bid.

Given that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama offer marginally different policy prescriptions — laid out in voluminous detail by both, by the way, on their Web sites — it’s not clear what her added-value message is. The “experience” mantra has been compromised not only by her failure on the signal issue of Iraq but also by the deadening lingua franca of her particular experience, Washingtonese. No matter what the problem, she keeps rolling out another commission to solve it: a commission for infrastructure, a Financial Product Safety Commission, a Corporate Subsidy Commission, a Katrina/Rita Commission and, to deal with drought, a water summit.

As for countering what she sees as the empty Obama brand of hope, she offers only a chilly void: Abandon hope all ye who enter here. This must be the first presidential candidate in history to devote so much energy to preaching against optimism, against inspiring language and — talk about bizarre — against democracy itself. No sooner does Mrs. Clinton lose a state than her campaign belittles its voters as unrepresentative of the country.

Bill Clinton knocked states that hold caucuses instead of primaries because “they disproportionately favor upper-income voters” who “don’t really need a president but feel like they need a change.” After the Potomac primary wipeout, Mr. Penn declared that Mr. Obama hadn’t won in “any of the significant states” outside of his home state of Illinois. This might come as news to Virginia, Maryland, Washington and Iowa, among the other insignificant sites of Obama victories. The blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga has hilariously labeled this Penn spin the “insult 40 states” strategy.

The insults continued on Tuesday night when a surrogate preceding Mrs. Clinton onstage at an Ohio rally, Tom Buffenbarger of the machinists’ union, derided Obama supporters as “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust-fund babies.” Even as he ranted, exit polls in Wisconsin were showing that Mr. Obama had in fact won that day among voters with the least education and the lowest incomes. Less than 24 hours later, Mr. Obama received the endorsement of the latte-drinking Teamsters.

If the press were as prejudiced against Mrs. Clinton as her campaign constantly whines, debate moderators would have pushed for the Clinton tax returns and the full list of Clinton foundation donors to be made public with the same vigor it devoted to Mr. Obama’s “plagiarism.” And it would have showered her with the same ridicule that Rudy Giuliani received in his endgame. With 11 straight losses in nominating contests, Mrs. Clinton has now nearly doubled the Giuliani losing streak (six) by the time he reached his Florida graveyard. But we gamely pay lip service to the illusion that she can erect one more firewall.

The other persistent gripe among some Clinton supporters is that a hard-working older woman has been unjustly usurped by a cool young guy intrinsically favored by a sexist culture. Slate posted a devilish video mash-up of the classic 1999 movie “Election”: Mrs. Clinton is reduced to a stand-in for Tracy Flick, the diligent candidate for high school president played by Reese Witherspoon, and Mr. Obama is implicitly cast as the mindless jock who upsets her by dint of his sheer, unearned popularity.

There is undoubtedly some truth to this, however demeaning it may be to both candidates, but in reality, the more consequential ur-text for the Clinton 2008 campaign may be another Hollywood classic, the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy “Pat and Mike” of 1952. In that movie, the proto-feminist Hepburn plays a professional athlete who loses a tennis or golf championship every time her self-regarding fiancé turns up in the crowd, pulling her focus and undermining her confidence with his grandstanding presence.

In the 2008 real-life remake of “Pat and Mike,” it’s not the fiancé, of course, but the husband who has sabotaged the heroine. The single biggest factor in Hillary Clinton’s collapse is less sexism in general than one man in particular — the man who began the campaign as her biggest political asset. The moment Bill Clinton started trash-talking about Mr. Obama and raising the specter of a co-presidency, even to the point of giving his own televised speech ahead of his wife’s on the night she lost South Carolina, her candidacy started spiraling downward.

What’s next? Despite Mrs. Clinton’s valedictory tone at Thursday’s debate, there remains the fear in some quarters that whether through sleights of hand involving superdelegates or bogus delegates from Michigan or Florida, the Clintons might yet game or even steal the nomination. I’m starting to wonder. An operation that has waged political war as incompetently as the Bush administration waged war in Iraq is unlikely to suddenly become smart enough to pull off that duplicitous a “victory.” Besides, after spending $1,200 on Dunkin’ Donuts in January alone, this campaign simply may not have the cash on hand to mount a surge.

Source: nytimes

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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

BARACK OBAMA ~ BRINGING US TOGETHER ALREADY

RACISM IS COMING OUT OF THE PROVERBIAL WOODWORK

"IF YOU WERE OFFENDED...."
IS NOT AN APOLOGY.


Bill O'Reilly talks about lynching Michelle Obama
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and "no legs" were really given to that news story. Bill Cunningham
blatantly said racist things about Barack (but apparently doesn't see himself as a bigot), when introducing John McCain. And people are so mixed up about the picture trotted out at this convenient time for Hillary Clinton with Barack in Somalia ~not Kenya, like a blogger and many commenters are claiming is the case.

Hillary gave no clear "rejection" of this picture being used to perpetuate people's unbased fears. However, Hillary demanded Barack "reject" at the debate in Ohio over Louis Farrakhan saying positive things about himself as a candidate. Hillary was evasive about one of her campaign members being behind the circulation of the picture. She does have the history in this campaign of using such tactics to use people's biases to gain ground on Senator Obama. How come she hasn't REJECTED all the statements said by her surrogates about Barack that are bigoted and perpetuating racism? There were soft answers, when she had to answer, but no "rejections" were demanded of her. She didn't get angry over her representatives using fear to rake up votes. Barack has been tolerant of the issue of attacking from the place of playing with people's prejudice, residual, covert and overt racism. Shame on YOU, Hillary Clinton. This is why I believe Hillary demonstates her leaning toward divisiveness and not unifying us.

Richard Cohen of the Washington Post writes about the Farrakhan issue:
"It's important to state right off that nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan. Instead, as Obama's top campaign aide, David Axelrod, points out, Obama often has said that he and his minister sometimes disagree. Farrakhan, Axelrod told me, is one of those instances."

Fact: Lynching is not an acceptable concept and should be REJECTED by all candidates.

Fact: Barack Obama is NOT MUSLIM.

Barack's middle name is a name. Nothing more.

King Hussein of Jordan is admired ~ so it only proves how ignorant we Americans can be if we hold against Barack the middle name that he was given.

Barack has brought together volunteers in his campaign across ages, generations, ethnicities, political parties, gender and energized those who have never "dropped in" the political life of our country, has brought back those who have dropped out because they lost faith in our government and how it deals. And the young people are stepping up big time for the Obama campaign. And I believer the record shows that Barack Obama is the primary one to bring out 3 times the voters in this primary and caucus season over those in the past.

Here is an example of the diversity of women that have unified behind the Presidential candidacy of Barack Obama.
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Women for Obama
Many women from all parts of the US submitted photos
over the course of a few days to be included in a film
montage representing the panoply of faces, sizes,
shapes, and colors working together in support of a
common pursuit - effecting major change in Washington
and electing Barack Obama President.

En Espanol

Obama for President


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Saturday, February 23, 2008

"IF HE WAS ALIVE HE'D BE A SICK MAN" DICK GREGORY ON PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH

NOTE: YouTubes added to this post February 26, 2008

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have a stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Fear and God do not occupy the same space. "Dick Gregory
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"I'm tired of people talking about these elections from the standpoint of fear..."
Dick Gregory from the Black State of Union 2008


We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
Martin Luther King, Jr.


I had C-Span on all day today and listened as I did the wash and carried on my day. It was the live airing of The State of the Black Union from New Orleans, Lousiana. It can be seen online now as the morning session, Part 1 and the afternoon session, Part 2. It will reair on C-Span, Friday February 29 at 8:00 p.m. Tavis has a forum to talk the issues of being black in America.

As much as I really got a lot from this and I appreciate the discussion of "blacks", "browns", "yellows" and "whites" ~ I am disappointed the "reds" are almost always completely left out. I hate the use of color to identify human beings. None of us are those colors anyway. No Asian is yellow and the indigenous people we call Indians are not red... Very, very rarely do we ever include the first American, the Indians in any discussion. This is WRONG.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I hate it when I am dismissed. And we as a country are dismissive of the First Americans, indigenous people to this land ~ like they don't count, like they don't exist. And they do exist. And they will be the LAST to be recognized. Let us start including them in the dialog.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
The Measure of a Man, 1958
Martin Luther King, Jr.

We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Link that will allow you to see the whole day, February 23, 2008 in New Orleans

C-Span complete coverage of the State of the Black Union


See Tavis Smiley "State of the Black Union" ~ Morning Session

See Tavis Smiley "State of the Black Union" ~ Afternoon Session

NOTE: This link of the entire morning and afternoon sessions worked for me February 23, but every time I have tried it after the first successful loading, it has not worked. Keep checking youtube, because it will eventually show up there most likely ~ too good not to... I just checked today, February 26 and that is when the Youtube embeds on this post were found with portions of Dick Gregory's sharing and I added them to this post for my readers.

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Dick Gregory "apologizing" to Bill Clinton
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"...How in the world can a nine year old child find a heroin man, but the FBI can't find it...."
Dick Gregory

Highlights were Donna Brazile at the 1 hour 2o minute mark, hurricane Katrina survivor Herreast Harrison at 2 hours, 29 minutes, and Dick Gregory really gets everyone going at the 56 minute mark, then again at 3 hours, 2 minutes. He zeroes in on Bill Clinton being a black man at 3 hours, 9 minutes.

DON'T MISS DICK GREGORY!

I particularly liked Eddie Glaude, Princeton University Professor of Religion's about "What is the prize?" at the 3:28 mark, that is the 3rd hour, 28 minute mark. But he is also good at the 50 minute mark.

I missed the bru-ha-ha between Tavis and the fact that Barack Obama was invited to come and participate and made the choice of campaigning for President in Ohio and Texas instead. But he did tell Tavis that Michelle Obama could come to represent the black perspective. But Tavis said no. This next link I think spells out quite well why Barack's decision was the correct one.
Why Obama should skip Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union
Roland S Martin

Here is the letter Senator Barack Obama sent to Tavis Smiley:

The following letter dated February 13, was sent to Tavis Smiley asking him to reconsider his decision not to let Michelle Obama stand in for her husband at the 2008 State of the Black Union forum in New Orleans.

February 13, 2008
Mr. Tavis Smiley
President and CEO
The Smiley Group

Dear Tavis,

Thank you for the invitation to participate in the 2008 State of the Black Union forum in New Orleans, Louisiana February 21-23. The exchange of ideas raised at this annual symposium are invaluable as our nation strives to address the critical issues facing not just African Americans, but Americans of every race, background and political party.

I especially commend you for hosting this dialogue in New Orleans. On the eve of the Louisiana primary, I visited this great city for the fifth time since declaring my candidacy to share policy proposals for rebuilding the Gulf Coast so that we never experience another Hurricane Katrina. On February 9, I was deeply humbled to win the Louisiana primary with 86 percent of the African American vote and a 14 point lead among all voters who said they were adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Uniting our country and creating a national constituency for fundamental change is why I am running for President of the United States. We have come a long way in this race, but we still have a long road ahead. In the final stretch, I will be on the campaign trail everyday in states like Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin talking directly with voters about the causes that are at the heart of my campaign and the State of the Black Union forum such as affordable healthcare, housing, economic opportunity, civil rights and foreign policy. I am committed to touching every voter, and working to earn their vote.

That is why with regret, I am not able to attend the forum. I understand that you have declined the campaign’s request to have Michelle Obama speak on my behalf. I ask that you reconsider. Michelle is a powerful voice for the type of real change America is hungry for. No one knows my record or my passion for leading America in a new direction more than Michelle Obama.

Tavis, this is our movement and our time. I look forward to working closely with you throughout this election. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Source: The Black Political Review Tavis Smiley Feeling Blowback of Obama

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Tavis Smiley's Covenant with Black America

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”Martin Luther King, Jr.


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Friday, February 22, 2008

MICHELLE OBAMA COMES TO RHODE ISLAND



My brother, the Obamacan, voting in his first Caucus, Tuesday night on the island of Maui changed his party for this one time from Republican to Democrat so that he could vote for Barack. As you may know, Hawaii went for Barack with a spread of 52% points.

This week, I've had to limit my time blogging. You know, I've had to live a life : ) I am getting the house ready for an Obama House Party here in Rhode Island, that I am having next Monday. We have our Primary March 4 ~ the same day as Texas, Ohio, Vermont and us, the little state of Rhode Island. Wednesday, this week, Michelle Obama came and spoke in Warwick, RI. The advance press was almost non-existent, but still we had a good turn-out. I would say over 2,000 welcoming people attended. Our RI Attorney General Lynch followed the singing of our National Anthem, followed with Craig Robinson, the brother of Michelle Obama and the head boys basketball coach at Brown University. Then Michelle gave us a speech.

I volunteered to help out, which amounted to getting attendees to sign in and getting people to sign up to volunteer leading up to the Primary. Edward Mutanguha came and was so excited. Edward is from Kigali, Rwanda and is the sweetest young man. He says that the people back home in Rwanda (Africa) are so excited and watching Barack Obama's journey very closely.

I briefly talked to our past U.S. RI Senator Lincoln Chafee. Lincoln Chafee, Republican lost his reelection to the Freshman Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in 2004. Barack Obama came to Rhode Island to campaign for Sheldon Whitehouse and now Sheldon has endorsed and is campaigning for Hillary Clinton. And Lincoln Chafee has endorsed Barack Obama!

Barack Obama Espanol TV

Conozca a Barack Obama

While there, I met Hector Racine, a Spanish political journalist, who writes for a Spanish weekly newspaper with readers in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. His newspaper is New England Expreso. Hector said he would teach me Spanish and I could teach him English. We traded contact information.

Pictures I took didn't turn out well. But here are a few....




Michelle Obama speaking February 20, 2008 in Warwick, Rhode Island



This article ~ Younger set gets excited by election ~ was in our local paper ~ The Newport Daily News, Wednesday. On the same day, my little press release about my Obama House Party was also in the paper ~ surrounded by a bigger article mostly about Hillary Clinton. That night, I received a couple of phone calls. One call was from an 87 year old man who loves Barack and met him when Barack came to RI to campaign for Sheldon Whitehouse in '04. He wants an Obama bumper sticker for his car. And I received a call from a Republican who is a solid supporter of Barack Obama and volunteered to canvas for him here in RI.

Just because I feel like it ~ a song . . . .

DO YOU WANNA DANCE?
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BETTE MIDLER

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Sunday, February 17, 2008

WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF OUR GOVERNMENT ~ WE MUST PARTICIPATE IN IT and BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTIONS



We the People have been dismissed and counted out of our government. Barack Obama not only tells us what he will do to lead us, but he asks us to be part of the solution...to join the government and step up and participate in our government. I like this about his campaign. I want We the People to be accepted as the most important part of our democratic government. We have seen a movement picking up energy across the USA. But we still have to get the nomination. Please, get on board and help us elect Barack Obama.

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I'm for Barack Obama for President

Barack Obama TV

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Saturday, February 16, 2008

NIGHT OUT IN PORTSMOUTH RHODE ISLAND TO HEAR CHERYL WHEELER

I just came home from a concert held in my town, Portsmouth, Rhode Island in a very modest hall, where we can bring picnic baskets. People bring table cloths and set up on long tables their food and wine. The performers were Bertrand Lawrence, followed by Cheryl Wheeler.

Cheryl is a song writer, singer, guitarist and comedienne. Many of the songs were the same ones I heard last year along with the same stories. But the laughs were "this year". After checking out Cheryl Wheeler at You Tube, I found some songs to include here that I heard tonight. The stories are even the same as what I heard tonight, although she did much better with her "Your God" and "Ghandhi Buddha" stories tonight.

Cheryl lives in nearby Swansea, Massachusetts and married her partner, Kathleen, 3 years ago when Massachusetts legalized gay marriage. She tells the story about how surprised she was at the reactions of everyone when they went for their marriage license, required blood tests and to Fall River, Massachusetts for their ceremony. Although she was expecting it ~ not one person gave them a bad reaction. Each person was happy for them. Cheryl also explains that she never worked for the legalization of gay marriage and never really was bothered that they couldn't get married ~ but when it became legal she and her partner immediately made plans. And she said it was interesting how it did make a positive difference in her relationship.
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Ghandhi Buddha
From: jjpoutwest

Counter Version of Ghandhi Buddha
This is exactly how Cheryl looked tonight.
From: ezragear

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Dubya Dubya to the tune of Louie Louie
From: ezragear

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Your God
From: TonyGottlieb
She had to sing "New England" in place of "Chicago" tonight.

Cheryl Wheeler's Website

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ONE MOMENT OF THE SOUL'S BIRTH IS WORTH A LIFETIME OF MOVING TOWARD IT


Just One Moment of Real is Worth a Lifetime of Pretending


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Geraldine Page in A Trip to Bountiful
Uploaded by videomix22

I love the scene where she is riding on the bus and admitting to Thelma, that the boy that she loved is not the one she married. It is so poignant. And Geraldine Page is beyond-words-wonderful in this movie. It was just aired on Cable TV recently.


The theatrical
trailer for the 1985 film of "The Trip to Bountiful" starring Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn and Rebecca De Mornay. Geraldine Page FINALLY won a Best Actress Oscar after 8 previous nominations. Co-nominees Anne Bancroft, Whoopi Goldberg, Jessica Lange and Meryl Streep stood up and cheered while Geraldine tried to find her shoes that she had taken off earlier in the evening at the Academy Awards ceremony. Written by two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Horton Foote ("To Kill a Mockingbird", "Tender Mercies"). Directed by Peter Masterson.

- Mrs. Watts
- Ludie Watts
- Jessie Mae
- Sheriff
- Thelma

A Trip to Bountiful
credits roll over the song of the movie, Softly and Tenderly sung by Cynthia Clawson.

Here is Geraldine Page in her first movie role in
the 1961 film of Tennessee Williams' drama "Summer and Smoke"
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Waly, Waly Sung by Eva Cassidy
Uploaded b
y CasaLucita


Beauty in any form is reason to stand or sit taller and feel a warm glow in the heart. The universe exists only for those who breathe beauty into our experience.

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BBC ASKS QUESTIONS THAT USA JOURNALISTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS

I'll be voting for Barack Obama March 4, 2008

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BBC Exclusive George W. Bush Interview Part 1
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BBC Exclusive George W. Bush Interview Part 2

"It's hard work..." I'd like a dollar for every time President Bush has said those words.
>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:

I have spoken about my Republican brother who is going to vote for Barack Obama next Tuesday in Hawaii ~ he admits Barack is the first Democratic Presidential candidate that he has ever voted for in his 61 years. He wanted me to give him some help in how to respond to those who believe the lies and rumors about Barack, so he can be ready the next time someone claims these things as truth and used to be against Barack Obama as President. I will include just one of many sources that I sent to him tonight about Barack NOT EVER BEING A MUSLIM ~ Not that all Muslims are bad.


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Thursday, February 14, 2008

Barack Obama IS SPECIFIC ~ DO WE HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN TO READ THE SPECIFICS?


BARACK OBAMA ~ OPEN GOVERNMENT
ALREADY, BY EXAMPLE

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Barack took a question about foreclosures and the home mortgage crisis at a town hall meeting in
Waukesha, Wisconsin on February 13, 2008.

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After sweeping the Virginia, Maryland, and DC Democratic primaries, Barack Obama spoke to an arena of cheering supporters in Madison, Wisconsin.


One point people who need to find something to say against Barack Obama, you hear the comment that he speaks, but he doesn't say specifics. Go to his issues page at Barack Obama's website. A speech can't spell out specifics like the written page can. The issues link has been there for a long, LONG time. But it is sport to complain that Barack has no plans or substance. It is easy. Reading the issues' pages takes time, understanding and commitment. In our sound bite climate ~ "we the people" have contributed to candidates who have to find a balance when giving speeches to crowds of thousands in arenas ~ not a place for specifics.

When I taught school, I knew that to really teach ~ class SIZE "decided" for me what substance I could actually get across. You pick your "lesson plan" to fit the occasion. No "debate" that we pretend is a "debate", really is a place for real substance. No stump speech to the sizes of crowds that Barack Obama attracts is the place either. Some of the work is up to us to learn a candidate's plans on various issues. In this case, we have to go to his website or we have to find a supporter of his to talk to us about his plans on issues.
I lobby my own state's U.S. Representatives and Senators and go to their websites. One of my Representatives has a terrible website. The others are better. The one I don't like makes it nearly impossible to find a way to email him on his website. The link is no where to be found. The others have a link. Some are easier to locate and some are somewhat hidden. It is like some don't want to hear from you.

When I went to Hillary Clinton's yesterday to see if she indeed really didn't go to the Senate to vote on the FISA ~ Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ~ I found her website was pretty, but this information was impossible to find. Hillary loves to tell everyone that Barack voted "Present" in the Illinois state senate, to say that he was irresponsible. Wrong. Voting "Present" was an acceptable method that was used on purpose as I have learned. Hillary did NOT show up to vote February 12 for or against FISA. So how can you take what she says about Barack seriously when it comes from her?

When I went to Barack Obama's United States Senate website
http://obama.senate.gov/
I found it set up with links on the left and conveniently there is a direct link to "Voting Record" and there it is ~ easily found ~ Barack's open government in action. Here is the
link you get when you go to his Senate page. Even my state's elected officials don't have their pages set up so well for we constituents. I like this about Barack Obama. I'm so ready for OPEN government.

OBAMA FOR AMERICA

Make a Difference ~ BECOME Part of the Solution


VOTE OBAMA
HAWAII, OHIO,
PENNSYLVANIA,

RHODE ISLAND, TEXAS,
VERMONT, WISCONSIN
and WYOMING




VOTE FOR OPEN GOVERNMEMT

LIKE HOPE, TRUTH NEVER DIES

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EN ESPANOL ~ BARACK OBAMA ~ ¿No son la justicia, la paz y el amor?











Barack Obama Espanol TV

Barack Obama English Captions TV
OBAMA FOR AMERICA










SAM RODRIGUEZ ENTREVISTADOS POR BILL MOYERS

8 de febrero de 2008

BILL MOYERS: Bienvenidos a la REVISTA.

Mike Huckabee salió de super Martes llevar puesto el brillante hebilla de cinturón de la Biblia. En la fuerza de nacidos de nuevo cristianos evangélicos llevó West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, y su estado natal de Arkansas.

COBERTURA DE NOTICIAS HUCKABEE: Presidente de los Estados Unidos de América. Gracias! Dios los bendiga! Gracias!

BILL MOYERS: Pero en otras partes no hacen también. Las encuestas de salida muestran que recibió sólo una tercera parte de cristianos nacidos de nuevo los votos en todo el país - aproximadamente a la misma como John McCain y Mitt Romney. Un fuerte recordatorio de que los evangélicos están mucho más diverso grupo de creyentes de lo que usted podría pensar, de poco viendo Huckabee y su homogénea Bautistas del Sur.

Hispanos evangélicos, por ejemplo. No sólo los hispanos son el grupo de crecimiento más rápido de los votantes, que son el grupo de más rápido crecimiento de los cristianos evangélicos. Al menos 8 millones de hispanos se identifican como evangélicos. En 2004 dos de cada tres de ellos apoyaron el Presidente Bush - casi el doble del número a partir del año 2000. Pero este año, sus votos están en juego, y es la razón por la que el reverendo Samuel Rodríguez fue identificado recientemente por la revista NEWSWEEK como nuevo líder de ver.

Reverendo Rodríguez es Presidente de la National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, que pretende 18000 iglesias como miembros. No es de extrañar que está siendo cortejado por ambos republicanos y demócratas. Él está aquí conmigo ahora en el estudio. Bueno tener usted.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Gracias por haber me

BILL MOYERS: ¿Qué te estimula más este año?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: La elección 2008 es la convergencia - es el nexo dinámico de los hilos de la experiencia política americana. Está sobre el sexo, el género, Hillary Clinton. Es la carrera, el Senador Obama. Es la fe, Mike Huckabee, evangelicalism. Y es el ejército. Es dinámico de los cuatro hilos de la política norteamericana del paisaje y la cultura popular de América, todos juntos en un próximo ciclo electoral. Se trata de una emocionante temporada.

BILL MOYERS: Así que muchos latinos evangélicos apoyaron a George W. Bush en 2004, que es realmente duro para mí pensar que usted es un "wild card", que el voto latino está en juego. Pero en este emocionante año, que es el caso?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: El voto latino decidirá que el próximo Presidente de los Estados Unidos será.

BILL MOYERS: Usted dijo hace un año - de abril, creo que fue - que si el proyecto de ley de inmigración que era entonces el Congreso no pasa, puede ser que los latinos votará Democrática en los próximos tres o cuatro ciclos electorales.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: El Partido Republicano de verdad había que pasa. Quiero decir, realmente logrado importantes avances. Cuarenta y cuatro por ciento de los latinos votó por George W. Bush en las elecciones de 2004. Quiero decir, - históricamente, la comunidad afroamericana ha votado Democrática desde 1960, ya que Coretta Scott King, y el llamamiento -, y es de 1960, los afro-americanos. La población latina, el 44 por ciento, Bush 2004 - de repente, el Partido Republicano es secuestrado de facto, por la Sensenbrenner y Tancredos. En una nativistic…

BILL MOYERS: congresistas que fueron muy fuertemente en contra de la reforma de inmigración?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Derecho. Y todos los que estamos a favor de la protección de las fronteras y la obtención de las fronteras, por supuesto. Pero sin embargo, lo que en realidad hizo ver en el Partido Republicano es el surgimiento de algo sutil que en el Partido Republicano, la xenofobia, el nativismo de América con el pretexto de la protección de las fronteras y la seguridad de las fronteras. Y la suma de polarización - Soy de una generación X'er, nacido en la gran república de Nueva Jersey - Yo nunca habría imágenes en mi vida que yo tendría que demostrar mi ciudadanía con el fin de aplicar para un apartamento en Oklahoma, Texas o Arizona. Hay un anti-Latino, el nativismo, xenófobos espíritu que salen fuera del Partido Republicano. Como resultado de ello, el Partido Republicano tendrá dificultades para entablar cualquier cosa cerca de 25 por ciento en las elecciones de 2008. Y se puede perder el voto latino para dos o tres generaciones.

BILL MOYERS: Mike Huckabee llama usted, según tengo entendido, y pidió a la configuración de una conferencia telefónica con él para pastores y teólogos latinos. ¿Lo hacemos?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Lo hicimos. Mike Huckabee habló a los dirigentes nacionales del equipo de nuestra organización. Y realmente Huckabee presentó - Huckabee es considerado por muchos como un cuasi, usted sabe, este moderado, tal vez liberal en cuestiones de justicia social. Huckabee abordar con éxito las cuestiones de alivio de la pobreza. Darfur, el SIDA - Huckabee de abordar estas cuestiones.

BILL MOYERS: Y él habla en Arkansas, habló de la inmigración, ¿no?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Absolutamente. Huckabee no es la personificación de la derecha cristiana.

BILL MOYERS: Está bien. Así que cuando dice esto, ¿qué piensa usted? Cita: he oponentes en esta carrera que no quieren cambiar la Constitución. Pero creo que es mucho más fácil cambiar la Constitución que sería cambiar la palabra del Dios viviente. Y eso es lo que tenemos que hacer. Para modificar la Constitución por lo que es de Dios sobre las normas, en lugar de tratar de cambiar las normas de Dios por lo que se alinea con algunos contemporáneos vista de la forma en que tratamos a los demás y la forma en que tratamos a la familia. Ahora, ¿qué decir sobre eso?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Tengo una gran cantidad de afinidad hacia el Gobernador Huckabee. Sin embargo, estoy más de un fan de pluralismo religioso en América. La idea de que América es una nación cristiana - América es una nación que nos permita realmente servir a Dios, el culto a Dios, y en el ejercicio de nuestra creencia religiosa con libertad. Es el pluralismo religioso que nos hace fuertes. La cuestión de -

BILL MOYERS: Entonces usted no quiere cambiar la Constitución - para reflejar la tradición bíblico -

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Bueno, que reflejan el Dios bíblico. O que la definición bíblica de Dios? O bien, usted sabe, ¿qué denominación? Que entra en una miríada de otros temas. Creo que lo que tenemos que analizar es la cuestión de nuestra vida a nivel mundial, es el totalitarismo religioso, o el pluralismo religioso. Y realmente las necesidades de América para presentar el pluralismo religioso como una alternativa viable, no la excepcionalidad.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Cuántos latinos hay como tú? Es decir, nacer de nuevo los creyentes?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Cerca de 10 millones. Si añade en el grupo católico carismático, el que se identifican a sí mismos como un grupo cristiano nacido de nuevo, es cerca de 15 millones. Y estas voces que están surgiendo en todas las comunidades. Hay tantos problemas en nuestra sociedad que es necesario abordar. No de un derecho o de un cristiano izquierda cristiana, sino de un centro cristiano. Y yo creo - y no se trata de un mesiánico presumptuousness - es de más, creo que vamos a conciliar realmente la plataforma blanca evangélica históricamente, ha sido sobre cuestiones de la vida y el matrimonio.

BILL MOYERS: Usted quiere decir que el aborto y -

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Aborto y matrimonio tradicional. La preservación del matrimonio tradicional.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Cómo se diferencian de ellos? Quiero decir, ¿está usted de una - en contra de parejas del mismo sexo el matrimonio?

SAM RODRIGUEZ:-Estamos comprometidos con la santidad de la vida, pero es más que es desde el útero hasta la tumba. Quiero decir, la plataforma de la vida no pueden:

BILL MOYERS: Estás en contra de la pena de muerte?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Personalmente, me gustaría. Y tenemos un problema cuando es sólo una cuestión de derecho, cuando la vida no está en el útero. Pero la atención de la salud y la educación ya no se incluyen en la plataforma de un programa de vida Y tienen que ser. Que la atención a la bebé mientras el bebé está en el - en el útero. Pero después de que el bebé nació, de alguna manera es que está por su cuenta. Eso no es realmente parte de lo que interpretamos como el bíblico la palabra. Y sobre el tema del matrimonio, los latinos tendría dificultades para ser esta nueva voz, una voz homofóbicas, o de una voz que es anti nada con respecto a las uniones civiles o de los derechos de la comunidad homosexual.

La comunidad latina considera que la preservación del matrimonio tradicional como el antídoto a la proliferación de la violencia de las pandillas en nuestras comunidades. Sabemos a ciencia cierta que si mamá y papá están en la casa, que estos jóvenes, hombres y mujeres van a ser forzados a participar en pandillas. Más bien no - que se quedaría en casa, que están académicamente - la - el contexto social, económico y educativo está directamente relacionado con mamá y papá están en el hogar. Por tanto, para nosotros, no es una cuestión de ser anti nada. Es una cuestión de ser - la supervivencia de nuestra comunidad.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Qué pasa con la fiscalidad progresiva, la tortura, todas estas otras cuestiones que estamos discutiendo ahora, en términos de conjunto, bajo el paraguas, la justicia social? ¿Le difieren de los blancos evangélicos sobre esto?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Sí, queremos. Porque no blancos evangélicos en general - no ve estas cuestiones como cuestiones importantes. En realidad, verán como ellos -

BILL MOYERS: El blanco religiosos evangélicos - hay progresiva ...

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Religiosos blancos evangélicos, evangélicos, tal como se define históricamente en los últimos 20 años por la derecha cristiana. Es la vida, es decir, el aborto, y es el matrimonio tradicional. ¿Qué pasa con la atención de la salud, la educación? ¿Qué pasa con el alivio de la pobreza? ¿Qué pasa con el SIDA? ¿Qué hay de Darfur? ¿Qué pasa con el cambio climático?

BILL MOYERS: Todos estos son en su orden del día?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Todos estos son parte de la agenda hispana evangélica. Esa es la razón por la que creo que realmente vamos a tomar la justicia evangélica plataforma Blanco, la justicia y la African-American plataforma, y vamos a conciliar en el centro, y marrón evangelicalism contextualizar que se narrativo, la historia lo dirá De un equilibrado evangelio descripción en la que no se ciñe a las - a falta de un término mejor, ¿sabe usted - apóstol y profeta Limbaugh y Hannity Obispo Dobs, pero se ve en Mateo, Marcos, Lucas y Juan, y decir, esto es lo que la Biblia en realidad expresa en el respeto a las cuestiones de nuestro tiempo.

BILL MOYERS: Para mis lectores que no tienen una concordancia - Hannity, Sean Hannity, el talk show host. Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, y Dobson, hermano Dobson, como usted dice, que ahora es suya Mike Huckabee, porque piensa que es demasiado moderado McCain.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Una vez más, usted sabe, la pregunta es, ¿a quién escuchar a los evangélicos blancos en lo que respecta a la aplicación de su fe? Veamos la cuestión de la reforma de inmigración. El grupo más comprometido con la deportación de 12 millones de personas en Estados Unidos son blancos evangélicos. Ahora, tenemos que - me ayuda a cabo por un segundo aquí. Estos son -

BILL MOYERS: Religiosos derecho?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Religiosos blancos evangélicos. Pero la salida de los colegios electorales y los sondeos indican los datos de todos los grupos más firmemente se opuso a la reforma de inmigración, evangélicos blancos son la derecha - en la parte superior derecha existe.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Cómo explica eso? Ellos son cristianos.

SAM RODRIGUEZ:-Ellos son nuestros hermanos y hermanas.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Cómo se pueden explicar esto?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: That's - que - son yuxtapuestos entre este tema del estado de derecho, de los romanos XIII, y por supuesto, el Levítico diecinueve principio, el tratamiento de un extraño entre ustedes como uno de ustedes. Sin embargo, la cuestión es que son americanos. Y - Soy cristiano primero. Soy un pentecostal. Soy un creyente nacido de nuevo. Soy un seguidor de las enseñanzas de Cristo.

BILL MOYERS: yo iba a preguntarle. Cómo - cuando usted dice, "Soy un cristiano evangélico," que es eso?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Yo soy un creyente nacido de nuevo.

BILL MOYERS: Que significa?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Para mí, significa nacer de nuevo evangelicalism creyente, que tiene una - ha experimentado un encuentro personal. Sus vidas han sido transformadas por su compromiso con un Cristo crucificado y resucitado.

BILL MOYERS: Dobson diría que de sí mismo.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Absolutamente.

BILL MOYERS: Mucha - hay un montón de gente del otro lado de la valla político.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Correcto.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Quién diría que, "Soy un nacido de nuevo, creyente comprometido".

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Absolutamente.

BILL MOYERS: Entonces, ¿dónde -, ¿dónde pasar la pista?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Soy un cristiano primero.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Soy un americano segundo.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Eso es cuando la pista cambia. Creo que muchos blancos evangélicos - y lo digo blanco, y - y no sólo para condescendiente - sólo para los descriptores más por falta de un término mejor - blancos evangélicos han colocado en el altar de culto de la cultura americana, americanismo. Y es allí, junto a la cruz. It's - y, a veces, se sustituye el poder de la cruz.

Veo la cruz como una fuerza unificadora, y no una fuerza que divide, no un símbolo que divide, sino que nos reúne. Es un símbolo de la tolerancia y no intolerancia, de compromiso y reconciliación. Y no de xenófobo, no de rechazo o denegación. Por tanto, creo que muchos blancos evangélicos realmente ven a sí mismos como cristianos americanos primero y segundo. Yo más se adhieran a la cultura un reino tipo de mentalidad, una nueva - viable bíblica visión del mundo que provocan cada uno en el mundo evangélico de ver las cosas a través del prisma de - de la década de 1990, es decir, todo el mundo llevaba un poco de pulsera - lo Jesús podría hacer? Es verdaderamente el corazón de Cristo. Es el amor de compasión, la misericordia y la justicia.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Quiénes son tus héroes?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Por supuesto. Y digo, por supuesto, porque es sólo una vida en el ministerio, ni siquiera de un académico, desde un punto de vista intelectual, que no sea un punto de vista religioso. Sólo la pasión de Cristo, su vida. Su narrativa. Cristo, Jesús.

BILL MOYERS: Derecho.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr

BILL MOYERS: Espera un minuto. Ronald Reagan?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Derecho.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Por qué?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Esperanza. Nací en el verano del'69. Y cuando - en toda mi adolescencia - fue justo después de Vietnam. Reagan realmente - incluso el senador Obama ha referido a ello y fue llevado de vuelta un poco por el Presidente Clinton. Pero en realidad, ¿sabe usted, - que realmente le dio a América este mensaje, o transmitió un mensaje de esperanza. Ciudad en una colina, un mejor día.

BILL MOYERS: Y Kennedy?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Vamos a agitar desactivarla.

BILL MOYERS: Ustedes nacieron después de Kennedy.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: John F. Kennedy --

BILL MOYERS: Cinco años después le dispararon.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: yo era un profesor de historia, y yo soy un estudiante de la historia. John F. Kennedy personificó realmente una experiencia de América transgeneracional de la esperanza, de la responsabilidad personal, de la participación cívica. De asegurarnos de que dejamos detrás de nosotros mucho más que nunca tener.

BILL MOYERS: Martin Luther King?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Los derechos civiles de la comunidad afroamericana, para todas las comunidades. El nexo de la experiencia religiosa con la justicia social. Acercamiento, la realidad en común de América, que cualquier movimiento viable en esta nación, ningún tipo de transformación en esta nación necesita incorporar una fe hilo. Sin la fe, nunca habría existido el movimiento abolicionista o el movimiento por los derechos civiles nunca han tenido éxito. Martin Luther King Jr realmente personifica a la convergencia de estas dos fuerzas poderosas.

¿Qué nos falta en la comunidad latina son - son guardianes y oráculos a lo largo de nuestro país.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Qué quiere decir guardianes --

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Gatekeepers, oráculos, que surjan voces que contextualizar la narrativa hispana.

BILL MOYERS: ¿O sea que usted necesita un Jesse Jackson? Usted necesita un Martin Luther King?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: yo - que necesitamos - lo que necesitamos no es un Martin Luther King, Jr Tenemos miles de Martin Luther King, Jrs. Necesitamos cada comunidad, en cada comunidad, en cada ciudad, en cada distrito, para que surjan voces de la comunidad hispana de América, y contextualizar la descripción de la experiencia hispanoamericana.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Qué quieres decir, contextualizar la descripción?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Cuenta la historia, la articulación de la historia.

BILL MOYERS: Ojos sobre el premio?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Ojos sobre el premio. Movilizar a la gente. Nunca hemos sido por este camino antes. Usted sabe, ¿legítimamente necesita un movimiento por los derechos civiles de la población hispana de América? Yo diría que necesitamos un movimiento de los derechos sociales.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Qué quiere decir?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: I - sería difícil de Samuel Rodríguez al afirmar que estamos experimentando la misma cantidad de racismo o la intolerancia de la comunidad afroamericana. Creo que el movimiento por los derechos civiles, con respecto a la comunidad afroamericana, fue una experiencia única.

Sin embargo, existe un llamamiento en favor de un movimiento de los derechos sociales. Este gran demográfica ahora, en vista de la cantidad de la xenofobia y el nativismo en contra de la comunidad latina en los Estados Unidos, necesita realmente a unirse, en torno a venir, se unen en torno a los principios. Nuestros principios son la fe y la familia, pero hay una fuerte ética de la justicia social a nuestra comunidad que nos impulsa. Pero lo que realmente me molesta es, en cierta medida, Obama realmente debería resonar. Senador Obama realmente debería resonar con la comunidad hispana de América.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Es él?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: No tanto. Como cuestión de hecho -

BILL MOYERS: ¿Por qué?

SAM RODRÍGUEZ: Creo que la comunidad latina es el wild card "en el proceso de nominación presidencial Democrática. Por supuesto, la senadora Clinton ha hecho históricamente muy bien con la comunidad latina.

BILL MOYERS: Ella hizo terrifically en Super Martes, de dos a uno en California entre su comunidad.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Eso es correcto. Ahora --

BILL MOYERS: ¿Cómo explica eso?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Bueno, el voto latino se ve a Clinton - Clinton, la marca Clinton les recuerda, se trata de la reforma de inmigración antes de la debacle.

BILL MOYERS: Pre George W. Bush?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Este es pre George W. Bush, la validez de inmigración, los latinos deportados anterior, la pre marchas. Esta es la edad de oro de la clase media latina. Latinos de clase media realmente surgió en el decenio de 1990. Economía, que su auge. Si la comunidad hispana no gravitan hacia Obama en estos últimos meses de la temporada de primarias, la senadora Clinton será el candidato de elección para el Partido Demócrata. Obama y debe resonar. La experiencia de las minorías étnicas. Su compromiso cristiano y de la incorporación de una plataforma de la justicia social. H Obama deben - hay un negro-marrón dividir.

BILL MOYERS: Existe realmente? Derecho.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Realmente hay.

BILL MOYERS: Explique que a mí.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: No se puede negar el hecho de que elementos racistas son evidentes en cada grupo étnico o cultura. Y no podemos negar el hecho de que existe racismo en el Latino - en la comunidad hispano-americana. Y esa es la vergüenza.

BILL MOYERS: ¿Cuál es la lucha?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Se va mucho más allá de la raza. Me parece que hay aquí una cuestión de luchar por los mismos derechos, que luchan por el mismo trozo de césped, a falta de un término mejor. Los mismos puestos de trabajo. La reforma de inmigración. Realmente - que, en el sentido de la comunidad hispano-estadounidense, que llegó a la comunidad afroamericana y dijo, marchar con nosotros. Quiero decir, por estar con nosotros aquí. Usted entiende la historia mejor que nosotros.

BILL MOYERS: Las grandes manifestaciones del año pasado, medio millón en Los Angeles.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Absolutamente.

BILL MOYERS: Derecho. Usted está diciendo que los afro-americanos -

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Que la comunidad afroamericana no es tan físicamente presente. Y usted sabe, los guardianes de la comunidad afroamericana no salimos a la calle y celebrar una conferencia de prensa, y decir, apoyamos a nuestros hermanos y hermanas latinos en esto. ¿Hay un problema? Absolutamente.

También entiendo que hay personas en el establecimiento, en el establecimiento de blancos, que gusta realmente concentrarse en la brecha entre negro y marrón. Estuve presente cuando un blanco político, en una mesa redonda que analizó los líderes evangélicos negro y dijo: "Ellos están tomando distancia de su trabajo." Ellos, los latinos. Estos inmigrantes se llevaron a su puestos de trabajo. Son llevarse sus subvenciones. Son realmente dañar a su familia. Están teniendo lejos de dólares que deberían ir a la educación de sus hijos. Ahora que he oído. Yo estaba allí, presente, que cuando se presentó la retórica. De manera que hay por ahí un intento de crear una cuña. Si el de los afroamericanos y la población latina que cada vez se reúnen y trabajan en nuestras ciudades, en nuestras zonas urbanas, queremos realmente lograr una transformación messiology, queremos transformar nuestras ciudades. Queremos transformar nuestra nación. Esos dos - que la asociación es increíblemente poderoso, en caso de que surja alguna vez. Y yo estoy comprometido con la aparición de esa asociación.

BILL MOYERS: Eso es tu programa? Eso es lo que quiere de la política?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Quiero que la comunidad latina y la comunidad afroamericana de caminar juntos. Y quiero que nosotros a caminar, como Pedro y Juan. Es posible que no hayamos -

BILL MOYERS: Pedro y Juan del Nuevo Testamento?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Desde el Nuevo - Absolutamente. Y puede que no tenga todos los recursos económicos. Yo decirle que. Pero no tenemos plata, no tienen oro. Pero tenemos números. Tenemos números increíbles.

BILL MOYERS: Entonces dime cómo te parece que el voto latino evangélica puede ser decisiva en la carrera Democrática Republicana y la raza.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: En la carrera de republicano, si el Partido Republicano designa a un candidato que se refiere a la cuestión de la reforma de inmigración, que realmente repudia la xenofobia y nativista amenaza, y que se disculpa.

BILL MOYERS: Bueno, McCain habla con usted. McCain ha sido - de hecho, la que ha criticado por los conservadores porque ha sido moderado sobre la inmigración, ¿no?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: La verdad sea dicha, McCain ha invertido más capital político que ningún otro candidato presidencial en la temporada 2008 en la cuestión de la reforma de inmigración.

BILL MOYERS: Así que es resuelto. Él va a ser el candidato republicano.

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Él es. La cuestión es si no será McCain - seguirá comprometida a una reforma migratoria plataforma. Quiero decir, hay una cantidad increíble de hacer retroceder de la conservadoras en el Partido Republicano. Y McCain o no se adhieren a sus armas y comprometerse a una reforma de inmigración plataforma.

Por otro lado, si el Partido Demócrata se presenta un candidato que se ocupa de las cuestiones de la fe y de la familia dentro de la historia de la participación de la comunidad latina y la comunidad evangélica latina, un atractivo candidato emerge. Senadora Clinton hizo algo maravilloso antes de la primaria de New Hampshire. Senadora Clinton se refirió a las cuestiones del aborto. Al abordar el aborto, la representante mencionó el hecho de que realmente necesitamos que se comprometan a reducir al mínimo el número de abortos y el tratamiento de la causa de los abortos. Que de verdad - que resonaba dentro de nuestra comunidad. Somos un grupo pro-vida, de manera innegable. Los latinos son más pro-vida que cualquier otro grupo étnico en los Estados Unidos. Creo que la revista TIME dio a las estadísticas de que el año pasado. Luego, en New Hampshire, el senador Clinton salió. Y en estos dos días antes de las primarias, se dirigió a las mujeres solteras blancas. Y defendió a sí misma como el guardián de los derechos al aborto. Que - que -

BILL MOYERS: Y usted oído hablar de eso?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: Se trabajó en New Hampshire. No. Se obtuvo su votación. Se trabajará en contra de su nacional con la comunidad latina.

BILL MOYERS: ¿No Martes -

SAM RODRIGUEZ: = Bueno, que - así, de nuevo. California, la de Clinton - es la inmigración y la economía. Ahora, si usted le pediría evangélicos latinos, lo número uno es su problema? ¿Es el aborto, que es el matrimonio? Se trata de la inmigración. Y es la economía. Se trata de la inmigración y la economía.

BILL MOYERS: He leído mucho sobre ti, que siguieron durante un tiempo. "Sé que estás tratando de escribir una nueva historia para este país. ¿Cuál es la iniciativa de esa historia?

SAM RODRIGUEZ: rectitud y la justicia. Es de justicia. Esta cuestión. América está comprometido a erradicar el terror y la erradicación de Al-Qaida? Yo diría que sí, sólo si somos como igualmente comprometidos con la erradicación del SIDA. Tenemos que ser equilibrados. No puede ser-o. Debe ser a la vez. Si estamos comprometidos con algún tipo de agenda política en el respeto a los derechos económicos - tenemos que estar comprometidos con el alivio de la pobreza. Debe haber un programa que lleva tanto y no deja absolutamente a nadie atrás. Realmente believeit.

Alguien dijo recientemente, Rodríguez, lo que usted necesita hacer es decirle a su pueblo, los latinos, para abrazar la cultura estadounidense, para llegar a ser de América. ¿Eso significa blanco América? ¿Qué significa ser un americano? Anglosajones, ser europeo? Para mí, un americano es cualquier persona que mira a los documentos de nuestros padres fundadores, en la Declaración de la Independencia, la Carta de Derechos, y la Constitución, y dice, "Yo me adoptar estos valores. Estos son mis valores. Adherirse a I Estos valores. Estas son las mías. " No es el color de su piel. No es el idioma. No es tu acento. No es su lengua vernácula. Es o no esos valores convertirse en sus valores. Eso es un americano. Yo lo llamo el pacto de América.

Mi objetivo es movilizar a la comunidad latina en los Estados Unidos para lograr un cambio en esta nación que incorpora la rectitud y la justicia, se casa a ambos, y trae un espíritu de reconciliación en el que ya no está polarizado entre el azul y el rojo, blanco y negro, Costa occidental, costa oriental, el mundo académico y la fe religiosa. Nos reunimos en la rectitud y la justicia.

BILL MOYERS: Sam Rodríguez, que ha sido un placer contar con usted. Y espero con interés hablar con usted de nuevo antes de este año. Gracias por haber mí.




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"Sí, Se Puede"
"Yes, We Can" - Barack Obama
From: octak21
"Video con subtitulos en español de la cancion Yes We Can - Si se puede."

Si se puede tener igualdad, Sí podemos tener una oportunidad para prosperar.
Si podemos sanar una nacion y reparar el mundo.
Cancion muy escuchada en la actualidad y que deja un gran mensaje en especial para una nacion que ha sufrido tanto los conflictos de la guerra y de la desigualdad.
Por Barack Obama

Translated:
Videos in Spanish with subtitles of the song Yes We Can - if you can.

If we can have equality, Yes, we can have an opportunity to flourish.
If a nation can heal and repair the world.
Cancion very heard in today and that makes a great message especially for a nation that has suffered so much conflict of the war and inequality.
By Barack Obama

No son la justicia, la paz y el amor
Agrupadas con un valor de?

Aren't justice, peace and love
worth coming together for?

VOTAR POR BARACK OBAMA




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