Concerning Ms. Ferraro's Comments...

This is a post from someone on CNN.com. It speaks exactly to the double standard, and blatent dismissal of Mr. Obama's hard work and accomplishments. Just because he's black? Condemn those comments Hillary. By not repudiating it, you are condoning it.

Lare Mcafee of Spring, Texas
It is so sad when others, including recently Ms. Ferraro, can not accept the accomplishments of someone who has defied odds. They call it lucky? I guess Sen. Obama's election by his peers to head the Harvard Law Review, his election four times by the people of Illinois and his lead in the current race are "lucky." In this thinking, I guess he has had a lucky life. These accomplishments were not due to race; they were due to skill. This is a double standard dealt by the competition. Would Sen. Clinton be a senator from New York or running for president if she were not married to an ex-president?

Video: Obama Endorsed by Flag Officers from Army, Navy and Air Force

The following is from the BarackObama.com website:




Admirals and generals from the United States Army, Navy and Air Force that together have served under the last nine Commanders-in-Chief today announced their endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for president. Watch the video...

Stand up and be "Presidential", Hillary!

When all is said and done, the only things both Senators Clinton and Obama have had managerial experience in is their campaigns. Hillary has come close to losing control of hers many times. She wasn't good with it's budget either. She had to loan her campaign 5million dollars. Then there was her lack of presidential fortitude when it came to being strong in the face of allegations about Sentator Obama's race and religion. She is NOT ready to be commander in chief.


Senator Obama's campaign reflects what his tenure in the White House would be like. It is filled with fresh ideas, new ideologies, the idea of healing, uniting and forging ahead with tough decisions. It's no coincidence that young people who were typically apathetic about politics are now getting so involved in his campaign. It is a very good sign that his coffers are FILLED with small donations from millions of "little" people. The Obama campaign strategized and raised and budgeted funds better than anyone else running this year. Now HE definitely knows how to be CEO in chief.

True Leadership is about telling the TRUTH

Teachers making the Case...

The Creativity of the American Spirit

A friend pointed me to this great blog entry about arts in education, a specific passion of mine, and how its is needed to nourish the creative spirit and innovation that we've slowly stripped away from education in our country in the name of "saving funds," and focusing on "important" subjects. Barack understands the complexity of every issue I've heard him speak to!!!

Also, check out this blog post talking about the San Antonio art scene getting behind Senator Obama.

For my fellow teachers....

Clinton race-baiting again?

This story is found on MSNBC's First Read with regards to an answer Senator Clinton gave about whether she thought Senator Obama was a Muslim, which he is NOT and has denied many times. (You need to scroll down quite a bit.) The Clinton campaign has had staff members sending out false email to people suggesting that he is a Muslim trying to take over the country. LIES. Most recently a photo of Senator Obama trying on a gift from Kenyan tribal leaders (part of which was a turban) was supposedly circulated by her campaign on the internet. I really hope she isn't doing something this deceptive. That was would be a very sad day for American politics.

*** “As far as I know”? Speaking of CBS, we imagine a qualifier Clinton gave on 60 Minutes last night is going to generate plenty of discussion today. In response to a bizarre question by Steve Kroft -- “You don’t believe that Sen. Obama is a Muslim,” following a discussion about that photo of Obama in Somali garb -- Clinton gave a bizarre answer: “Of course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.” Kroft followed: “You said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not…a Muslim. You don't believe that he's…” Clinton interjected: “No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know.” As far as she knows? For a lawyer who has demanded precise language (example: the Farrakhan discussion at last week’s debate), Clinton’s dangling qualifier was a very odd statement. No doubt if she had that question to do over again, she would have said things clearer because this is how conspiracy theories start.

Distortion and Glass Houses, Hillary....

This is from a great article from MotherJones.com that tears down Clinton's newest negative attack about Barack Obama's subcommittee. You can read the article in it's entirety for yourself here.

It's true that Obama has convened no meetings of the subcommittee, but his camp counters that he became chair of the subcommittee early last year, just as he was starting his presidential campaign. Clinton is technically correct that Obama could have used the subcommittee to conduct oversight of actions and policies related to Afghanistan. But the full foreign relations committee, under the guidance of Senator Joe Biden, has held several hearings on Afghanistan that covered NATO's role there. It's not as if the foreign relations committee did nothing on Afghanistan because Obama did not take on the mission. Also, as happens with many committees, the chair of the full committee reserves the right to handle the big issues him- or herself, and Afghanistan counts as a big issue.

Clinton ought to be careful about hurling stones in this area. As she always tells campaign crowds, she is a member of the Senate armed services committee. In February the committee held two hearings on Afghanistan. On February 8, it focused on appropriations for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was a witness. Eight days later, the committee zeroed in on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, holding a two-part hearing examining recent reports on Afghanistan. Key witnesses included senior officials from the State Department and the Pentagon responsible for the administration's Afghanistan policy.

Clinton attended neither of these hearings. She was on the campaign trail.

Great breakdown of What Senator Obama's Legislative Experience and Sucess

Obama

During the first - 8 - eight years of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced

233 regarding healthcare reform

125 on poverty and public assistance

112 crime fighting bills

97 economic bills

60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills

21 ethics reform bills

15 gun control

6 veterans affairs and many othersïÂ&iq uest;½

His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427.

These included

**The Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 - became law,

**The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, - became law,

**The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate,

**The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, - became law,

**The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, In committee, and many more.

Since entering the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored another 1096.

An impressive record, for someone who supposedly has no record according to some who would prefer that this comparison not be made public. He's not just a talker. He does.

Truely working towards a Coalition of All Americans

Here's a great article about Obama's plans for his cabinet.

It's 3am and you're children are in grave danger... who should you vote for?

In the Clintons' newest tv ad in Texas, the fear of harm coming to your children if Hillary is not elected, tries to scare you to vote for her. Bill had it right a while back though....

Ethridge and other LGBT Leaders Switch to OBAMA

Original article posted below can be found here. Of particular importance and a major difference between the two candidates is in the section discussing Mr. Obama's call to completely repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Gay Clinton Backers Defect to Obama, Eroding Her Base

Kim Chipman Fri Feb 29, 1:45 PM ET

Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton cemented years of goodwill with gays in 2000, when she walked in New York's Pride Parade.

``Having the first lady march was enormously powerful,'' said Representative Barney Frank, one of two openly gay members of Congress, both of whom are backing Clinton. ``I've never seen such a strong emotional outpouring.''

Now some gay voters, who have been among Clinton's most stalwart supporters and helped her defeat Barack Obama in Democratic presidential primaries earlier this month, may be drifting toward the Illinois senator, according to political activists and campaign officials.

``Clinton probably is still a little bit ahead of Obama among leadership in the community,'' said Steve Elmendorf, a Clinton supporter and lobbyist with ties to the gay and lesbian communities. ``They have a longer and deeper relationship with her than Obama, but he has a good record,'' said Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for Democrat John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid.

``Obama has presented more detailed position papers on gay and lesbian issues than Clinton,'' said David Mixner, 61, a writer and activist who helped longtime friend Bill Clinton win over the gay and lesbian vote during the 1992 presidential race and who supported both of Hillary Clinton's successful Senate races in New York.

`The Young Reformer'

This time, Mixner is backing Obama. The Clintons have become ``a machine, and Obama's the young reformer,'' said Mixner, who joined Obama's campaign after initially supporting former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, 54, who dropped out of the Democratic race last month.

Musician Melissa Etheridge, who came out as a lesbian in 1993 at President Bill Clinton's Triangle Ball, the first ever inaugural event for gay men and lesbians, said earlier this month that she is backing Obama.

Hollywood mogul David Geffen, a one-time supporter of Bill Clinton, also is backing Obama. The openly gay Geffen, co-founder of the DreamWorks SKG movie studio, held a $1.3 million fundraiser for Obama last year.

Star Backers

Clinton backers include professional tennis player Billie Jean King; Eileen Chaiken, producer and creator of the ``L Word,'' a Showtime television series about lesbians; and Bruce Cohen, producer of movies including Oscar-winning ``American Beauty.''

Clinton's support among gay voters helped her hold her own against Obama, 46, in the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests. In California, the most populous state, 63 percent of people identifying themselves as a gay man or lesbian voted for Clinton, according to exit polls. In New York, she drew gay support of 59 percent.

Since then, Clinton has lost 11 consecutive contests to Obama, who according to exit polls has cut into her base of support among single women, Latinos and blue-collar workers. To keep her candidacy afloat, she needs victories March 4 in Texas - - and particularly in the large gay communities in Houston and Dallas -- and Ohio, which has the sixth-largest gay and lesbian population in the U.S.

Supporting Civil Unions

Both Clinton, 60, and Obama oppose same-sex marriages while supporting civil unions. A major difference between the candidates is that Obama supports full repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a law signed by Bill Clinton -- under pressure from a Republican-dominated Congress -- that prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages and permits states to do the same. Hillary Clinton wants to roll back only part of the law.

``That's a big deal,'' said Eric Stern, who joined Obama's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender policy-advisory group after heading former candidate Edwards's gay steering committee. More than half of the members of that 49-member group are now backing Obama, Stern said.

While many gay and lesbian voters remain loyal Clinton supporters, Mixner said, others remain angry over her previous support of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Some also still tie her to the military's ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy instituted during her husband's presidency, which reversed a campaign pledge he made to allow gays to serve openly.

A Sin

Obama, meanwhile, prompted anger from gay-rights activists when he invited gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has called homosexuality a sin, to perform at a fundraiser last October. Obama later denounced McClurkin's views.

Tobias Wolff, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who heads Obama's national gay- policy committee, said inviting McClurkin was ``a mistake, but nothing more complicated than a mistake, and one that Obama responded to.''

On the eve of last month's Martin Luther King Day, Obama called on blacks to begin examining attitudes toward gays and lesbians. ``If we are honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community hasn't always been true to King's vision of a beloved community,'' he said Jan. 20 at King's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Mixner said he probably would have endorsed Obama anyway, ``but that speech made it easier.'' At a Beaumont, Texas, town- hall meeting yesterday, Obama said he has heard people in the black community and churches ``saying things that I don't think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian.''

Showdown States

Both campaigns are targeting gay voters in the showdown Texas and Ohio primaries. In Texas, Clinton support still runs strong, said Jesse Garcia, 36, head of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, the national gay and lesbian organization's biggest chapter in the state and the third-largest in the country.

``There's a real allegiance to Hillary,'' said Garcia, whose group endorsed Clinton last week.

In Ohio, meanwhile, Clinton's campaign formally launched a statewide committee this week to spearhead get-out-the-vote efforts in gay areas of Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.

Obama has countered with full-page advertisements in gay publications in Texas and Ohio. The message is being heard, said Patrick King, 44, a private nurse from Houston who cared for the late Lloyd Bentsen, the former senator and Bill Clinton's first Treasury secretary.

``I was with Hillary until I heard Obama speak on TV about a month ago,'' King said. ``I thought, `Wow, this guy is really sincere.'''

To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net .

Money Trumps Feminism for Clinton

Article below originally posted here.

Sen. Clinton accepts donations from troubled firm

Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 3:50 PM PT

Filed Under: Politics

By Lisa Myers and Jim Popkin, NBC News

Sen. Hillary Clinton has declined to return $170,000 in campaign contributions from individuals at a company accused of widespread sexual harassment, and whose CEO is a disbarred lawyer with a criminal record, federal campaign records show.

The federal government has accused the Illinois management consulting firm, International Profit Associates, or IPA, of a brazen pattern of sexual harassment including "sexual assaults,” “degrading anti-female language" and "obscene suggestions."

In a 2001 lawsuit full of lurid details, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that 103 women employees at IPA were victimized for years. The civil case is ongoing, and IPA vigorously denies the allegations.

"This is by far, hands down, the worst case I've ever experienced," said Diane Smason, one of the EEOC lawyers handling the lawsuit. "Every woman there experienced sex harassment, they were part of a hostile work environment of sex harassment. And this occurred from the top down."

Sen. Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson, told NBC News in a statement that the senator decided to keep the funds because the lawsuit is "ongoing" and because none of the sexual harassment allegations has been proven in court. "With regard to the pending harassment suit, as a general matter, the campaign assesses findings of fact in deciding whether to return contributions," Wolfson said.

Allegations:
Adrienne Slick, who worked at IPA for seven months in 2000 and 2001 as a business coordinator and is now part of the EEOC suit, told NBC News in an interview that the sexual harassment was oppressive. “I had multiple managers come at me, press themselves up against me ... ask me to go home with them, and to a hotel room so they could fulfill their fantasies," she said.

The EEOC lawyers say the man at the top of the firm - IPA founder and Managing Director John R. Burgess - was among the worst offenders. The EEOC lawsuit claims, “The harassment emanated from the top: the owner and Managing Director, John Burgess, is accused of sexual harassment by at least 10 different women.”

Burgess has a criminal record, too. The former lawyer pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny in 1987 and was disbarred in New York, court documents show. Burgess also pleaded guilty to “patronizing a prostitute” in 1984, according to Erie County, N.Y., court records.

Still, none of that has stopped powerful politicians in both parties from being courted by Burgess and IPA. Since 2000, IPA officials and their family members have given Sen. Clinton at least $170,000 for her Senate and presidential campaigns, federal campaign records show. Senator Clinton also spoke at a company event and rode on an IPA jet in 2004.

In May 2006, the New York Times brought Burgess's criminal history, and the allegations against IPA, to Sen. Clinton's attention. The May 7, 2006, article was titled “Rubbing Shoulders with Trouble, and Presidents.” In the article, a spokeswoman for Sen. Clinton was quoted as saying the Senator was not aware of Burgess’s criminal past and "will be reviewing" the contributions.

Almost two years later, federal records indicate that Sen. Clinton still has not returned the IPA money. Howard Wolfson, her communications director, did not dispute the $170,000 figure in an email to NBC News. He said Senator Clinton was not aware of Burgess’s past legal problems when she first accepted the donations. "In 2000 and 2003 when Sen. Clinton's campaign accepted money from Burgess, it was not aware of his legal problems from the 1980s," he said.

However, there were public reports of allegations against Burgess as early as 2000. That’s the year that Inc. Magazine first reported that Burgess had patronized a prostitute and had pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny. And Senator Clinton’s campaign has accepted other contributions from other senior IPA officials as recently as last year, the campaign records show.

Many other politicians have been quick to distance themselves from IPA, and have returned donations. In 2002 in New York, Andrew Cuomo, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the time, returned $20,000 from Burgess. Cuomo’s office said the donations were returned after a New York newspaper reported on Burgess’s past legal problems and on the EEOC sexual-harassment allegations.

Other prominent Democrats also have returned IPA's donations including Sen. Ted Kennedy and then-Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. On the same day in 2006, Sen. Barack Obama received $4,000 in campaign donations from a senior IPA official and his wife. Obama quickly returned $2,000 from the senior IPA official, campaign records show. But the campaign has held onto the matching $2,000 donation from the IPA official’s wife, the Obama campaign confirms.

Some political analysts say it is surprising that the first viable female candidate for president would not be more sensitive to allegations of sexual harassment.

"The fact that Hillary Clinton at this point is holding onto money from a contributor who has been charged with sexual harassment can only be perceived as insensitive to women's issues and women," says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, Senior Scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. "I don't think that fits the definition of feminism, at least the last time I looked."

Adrienne Slick, the former IPA employee, says she's disappointed in any politician who would take or keep money from IPA. "This is not something that should be taken lightly, and to accept those funds makes a statement," she told NBC.

The EEOC lawyers would not comment on any aspect of the political donations, and confined their remarks solely to the lawsuit.

Clinton Campaign Response:
Wolfson dismissed the notion that keeping IPA money reflected a lack of concern about sexual harassment. "Sen. Clinton is proud of her long record of championing women's causes," he said. "When the EEOC rules on the allegations involving Burgess, we will consider that outcome in assessing if there is any reason to return his contribution." Of the $170,000 total in donations from all IPA officials and employees, Burgess and his family members personally contributed $16,000 to Sen. Clinton, campaign records show.

IPA Reaction:
For its part, IPA vigorously denies any wrongdoing and said it has been fighting the EEOC lawsuit for more than six years. "Since a lawsuit was filed in June 2001, IPA has continually and consistently denied the allegations," IPA spokeswoman Jennifer Cumbee wrote in an email to NBC News. "At IPA, we have zero tolerance approach when it comes to sexual harassment."

Cumbee added: "This involves primarily claims by persons who worked a short time in the mid- to late 90s (although there are some persons who worked after that). Immediately after the lawsuit was filed and by early 2001, IPA in an abundance of caution had its sexual harassment policy completely revised by competent outside professionals."

She says, "IPA has had no unresolved claim of harassment for several years now and any one of its 2,000 employees who violate the policy, after investigation, is dealt with swiftly." She would not comment directly on Slick’s claims, citing employee confidentiality. She said that the EEOC already has dropped some claimants from the suit. “All employee claims have been contested as many have no witnesses or records or current complaints,” Cumbee said.

The IPA spokeswoman did not dispute that Burgess had a criminal record from his days in New York. "All that you have asked, in regards to John Burgess, is a matter of public record," she wrote. “Mr. Burgess is not a felon and was never convicted or pled to a felony.” She said that it would be unfair to judge Burgess on two-decade-old crimes, and pointed out that Burgess and IPA are solid employers who donate generously to charities.