Bent Corner

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From the AP:

Bowing to President Bush’s demands, the Senate approved and sent the White House a bill Wednesday to overhaul bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.

The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a lengthy and heated debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president’s warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The House passed the same bill last month, and Bush said he would sign it soon.

Barack Obama was one of the many Democratic Senators to bow to Bush’s demands. Hillary Clinton was not. She voted “Nay“.

Remember Ron Paul? Back when the House voted on the matter, Ron Paul was no where to be found. He didn’t vote.

Tags: Barack Obama, FISA, Fourth Amendment, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, Telecommunications, Warrantless Wiretapping

Finally there is justice in the world. Jesse Helms, that racist old coot from North Carolina is finally not breathing the same air as the rest of us.

His hometown newspaper, The News & Observer, published a joke of an obituary that failed to truly capture the level of absolute racism this man practiced. They described him as “cantankerous” and wrote that “Helms could be the picture of the courtly Southern gentleman“. As if there is anything cantankerous or gentlemanly about hating folks because of the color of their skin.

Not that they failed to mention the Helms’ racism. They wrote:

Although Helms denied he was a racist, his work in the Senate often seemed at odds with the interests of blacks.

Well now, isn’t that putting it rather nicely. Helms was one of two senators for the state of North Carolina, Helms represented many black people. So when his work in the Senate was “at odds with the interests of blacks”, it was at odds with a good many of his own electorate. The very people he should have been representing.

That’s not democracy.

Tags: Dead People, Jesse Helms, North Carolina, Racism, Republicans, The News & Observer, U.S. Senate

Gen. Wesley Clark, working now for the Obama campaign was on CBS’ Face the Nation were he proceeded to demean and disparage Senator John McCain’s military service.  From Politico:

“He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron,” Clark said.

“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

Let’s call it Swift Boating 2.0.  When John Kerry was running for President, the Republicans belittled his service in Vietnam.  I remember even seeing photos of women wearing purple band-aids on their faces at the GOP National Convention.  The message was that Kerry wasn’t a war hero.  He did really deserve any of his military citations including the Silver Star and those Purple Hearts.

It was disgusting then and it disgusting now.  The difference of course is that it’s the Democrats that are now belittling the military service of a Republican. The Swift Boating of 2004 did not actually come from anyone working in the Bush campaign.

Is this what Obama means when he says that he is all about Change™?

Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, Face the Nation, John Kerry, John McCain, Republicans, Silver Star, Swift Boating, Vietnam, Wesley Clark

The folks over at MoveOn.org are now spending money not to counter the lies and smears coming from the right wing, but to put pressure on presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama to actually keep his word and filibuster any legislation that gives immunity to telecoms that spied on Americans. Being that he has already come out and said he will vote for the legislation, the chances of him participating in a filibuster seem quite remote.

Tags: Barack Obama, Filibuster, MoveOn.org, Spying on Americans, Telecoms

The Democratically controlled “Say One Thing, Do Another” congress is at it again. They have agreed to cave on giving telecos blanket immunity:

The agreement announced earlier Thursday resolves a long-running dispute over whether companies like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. could be sued for agreeing to let the government tap the phones and read the emails of customers in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

They are facing nearly 40 lawsuits from people who claim their civil liberties were violated and from groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The terms of the deal state that a district court would review the written authorizations to participate in the program granted to the companies by the the Bush administration. Once the existence of these authorizations is determined, the court cases could not proceed.

Section 222 of the 1934 Communications Act forbids phone companies from giving out data on the calling patterns of their customers. It’s a law. We either live in a country governed by the rule of law or we don’t. It should be simple, but obviously it’s not. Instead of the Congress passing a bill that gives telecoms immunity for breaking the law, they should change the actual law.

Instead, they took the lazy way out.

And how did the presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama respond to this issue? He announced that he is now supporting it.  Granted, he said he was against it back in February, but that was then and this is now.

It’s not like he was under oath when he said he was against giving the telecoms blanket immunity. For all we know, he might have had his fingers crossed when he said it.  More importantly, he is now in full general election mode and he doesn’t want to look like a pussy when it comes to fighting terrorism.

Tags: 1934 Communications Act, American Civil Liberties Union, AT&T, Barack Obama, Electronic Frontier Foundation, FISA, Immunity, Verizon

I guess there is a rumor floating around the Internets that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Some have been demanding to see a copy of his birth certificate. Why people have been saying that he was born somewhere other then the United States is unknown. The fact is that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. Technically, that is in fact part of the United States.

Markos Moulitsas over at Daily Kos posted a copy of something he claims is Obama’s birth certificate. He writes:

In any case, here is Obama’s birth certificate. Click on it for a bigger version. Note, I have trimmed the edges of the scan, so before someone tries to inevitably “debunk” this based on the dimensions of a Hawaiian birth certificate, that should be noted.

Whatever this is, it’s not a birth certificate. It’s something called a Certification of Live Birth. A birth certificate is something issued at the time of birth. I don’t think even Dan Rather would think this form was issued in 1961. It looks too modern. It’s printed on anti-tamper paper and the bottom left corner states OHSM 1.1 (Rev. 11/01) LASER.

Normally something like that would mean that it’s a form last revised in November, 2001 and it’s printed with a laser printer.

A birth certificate normally has a signature from the attending physician. It also usually includes things such as weight and length. It normally also includes the name of the hospital where the child was born. More importantly, it has a raised stamp showing that the birth certificate is legit.

This doesn’t have any of those things.

I think it’s silly to argue that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. I also think it’s kind of silly to present this document as an actual birth certificate. Personally, I think we’ve had enough silly in this presidential campaign.

Update: It’s not just Kos that is claiming this is a birth certificate. The Obama campaign is also claiming this is the birth certificate.

Tags: Barack Obama, Birth Certificate, Certification of Live Birth, Daily Kos, Dan Rather, Hawaii, OHSM 1.1 (Rev. 11/01) LASER

It should be no surprise to anyone at this point that it’s delegates — not votes — that decide each political party’s nominee for President.

What is a delegate?

Each state or territory is allotted a certain amount of pledged delegates. Currently there are 3,253 pledged delegates. Large states have a lot of pledged delegates. Small states have fewer delegates. How many voters does each pledged delegates represent?

That depends. Take a state like California. It has the most Democratic pledged delegates at 370. A total of 4,794,846 Democrats voted in the California Primary. That means that each California pledged delegate represents 12,959.04 California Democratic voters.

On the other end of the spectrum is Wyoming. It has a total of 12 Democratic pledged delegates. A total of 8,689 Democrats cast their votes in March for the Presidential nominee. That means that each Wyoming pledged delegate represents 724.08 Wyoming Democratic voters.

Why are the Democrats in Wyoming more important then Democrats in California?

They aren’t more important. We just have a really stupid and archaic method of choosing our President. In 2000 we elected a President that received less votes then his opponent. Now we Democrats are about to select a nominee for President that received less votes then his opponent. Why doesn’t this fact bother anyone?

Tags: California, Democratic Primaries, Pledged Delegates, Wyoming

The numbers from yesterday’s West Virgina primary are in and Hillary beat Barack by 41 points. Haven’t these people heard that Tim Russert already declared Barack Obama the Democratic nominee?

We of course don’t really have a Democratic nominee yet. Neither candidate has the required 2,025 delegates needed for the nomination. There are still 5 primaries left to go. There are still a good many people left who haven’t voted yet.

The only thing clear at this point is that neither Hillary or Barack will have the required 2,025 delegates when the remaining primaries are completed. That means the superdelegates — not Tim Russert — at the Democratic National Convention will be deciding which one of these two candidates will be the Democratic nominee.

It’s important to stress the point that these superdelegates wont be deciding till the convention. It doesn’t who they favor now, next week, next month, or even three days before the convention. The only thing that matters is how they will actually vote in August. From Talk Left:

Superdelegates can make up their mind any time before the convention. They can switch, as many have done, from one candidate to another.

My only hope is that in August, these superdelegates look at both candidates and decide which one of the two is truly the most electable. In my opinion, it wont be the one that lost West Virgina by 41 points.

Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton, Superdelegates, West Virgina

llen R. Malcolm writes over on the Washington Post:

Why on earth should one candidate quit before the contest is finished? Democrats need not be so fainthearted. Both of the party’s remaining candidates have raised tens of millions of dollars. Both have the respect of Democrats nationwide. Each has a progressive agenda that stands in stark contrast to Sen. John McCain and his adherence to Bush administration policies.

Yeah, what she said.

I get irritated listening to the rhetoric coming from Obama supports and/or the mainstream news media calling for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race. I’m not a big fan of quitters. I never have been. What’s the harm in Hillary staying in the race while there are still a few remaining primaries left?

I realize Barack Obama has a lot more money. I realize Barack Obama has a lot more support in the mainstream news media. I realize Barack Obama has the support of the entrenched, inside the beltway Democratic power base, men like Kennedy and Kerry. I also realize Barack Obama has a slight advantage in the number of pledged delegates — 1,592 to Hillary’s 1,424 — along with a slight lead in the popular vote.

Pledged delegates are not going to decide this race. It’s mathematically impossible for either candidate — Obama or Hillary — to pick up enough pledged delegates in the remaining primaries to reach the magic number of 2,025. Even if Hillary quits and lets Obama run unapposed in the remaining contests, he still can’t reach 2,025.

So why the pressure on Hillary to quit?

I think it’s because Obama supporters and/or the mainstream news media don’t want her to take back her lead in the popular vote. That’s something she has a very good chance of doing after West Virgina and Kentucky hold their primaries. Recent polls in West Virgina show Hillary with over a 40 point advantage.

Eight years ago when the Presidential election was finally over and Gore won the popular vote, but lost the electoral college vote to Bush, many of my fellow Democrats were quite perturbed at the situation and rightfully so. Though technically it was correct and legal to pick the president by counting the electoral college votes, many felt it went against the spirit of a true democracy to choose a president in a way other then by a popular vote. The idea was that the President should be chosen by whoever gets the most votes.

I think many Obama supports and/or the mainstream news media fear a Democratic Convention in August where Obama has a slight lead in the pledged delegate count while Hillary has a slight lead in the popular vote. It would put the superdelegates in the uncomfortable situation of following the will of party leadership and selecting Barack Obama as the 2008 Democratic nominee while shunning the candidate with the most overall votes.

If that mean lady would just quit and let that man run unopposed, it would make their job a lot easier.

Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, llen R. Malcolm, Washington Post

Bob Herbert writes an Op-Ed over that the New York Times about the recent coverage on the whole Reverend Wright controversy. He begins by writing:

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is no doubt (and regrettably) a big issue in the presidential campaign. But what we’ve seen over the past week is major media overkill — Jeremiah Wright all day and all night. It’s like watching the clips of a car wreck again and again.

Except I think we’ve all seen car wrecks before. Most of us have even been involved in car wrecks. I personally have been in three different car wreaks in my life time. Car wrecks unfortunately are part of life.

The Reverend Wright controversy is different. It’s not common to have a serious Presidential candidate with a man as his self described spiritual adviser who thinks that the United States government created the AIDS virus to wreak havoc on the third-world. It’s rare to discover someone who may be our next President that chose to attended a church for close to 20 years where the paster referred to the United States of America as the United States of KKK-America.

It’s not only rare, It’s never happened before and it will most definitely not happen again.

And lets not forget just why Jeremiah Wright has appeared in the media all day and all night. It’s because he put himself there. Jeremiah Wright is the one that chose to appear on PBS in an interview with Bill Moyers. If he had been content with making that his only media appearence, he might have made the contravery go away. No, instead he chose to speak at the Detroit chapter of the NAACP followed with an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Why is it even important where Barack Obama chose to attend church? Why is it even important who Barack Obama chose to be his spiritual adviser? Because of the fact that he doesn’t have a lot of experience, his judgment deserves more scrutiny.

Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Moyers, Bob Herbert, Jeremiah Wright, NAACP, National Press Club, New York Times