LANNY DAVIS, CLINTON APOLOGIST, BAKED AND FILLETED
Posted by leftofdayton on May 28, 2008
Burned out by the Clinton-Obama primary battle ? I have to admit to feeling more than a bit fatigued, and I think of myself as a political junkie, type AAA. Regular readers will note an absence of posts over the last few weeks, mostly due to the above mentioned campaign fatigue,
I am just as suspicious of Barack Obama’s connections to the power elite as I am Ms Clinton, and have re-posted several well written articles regarding those connections on this blog. However, as time wear on , Ms Clinton’s rhetoric, and that of her husband, has grown increasingly shrill, and most regrettably, seemingly coming out of a Karl Rove Republican playbook. Maybe individually the remarks can be parsed and explained, but the low road, once taken, is hard to get off of.You can only bring up “white voters”, parrot bogus gas tax relief schemes [in agreement with McCain...] and imply entitlement so many times before the veneer of respectability wears off. If he wins, I sincerely hope Obama does not give into sharing his presidency with the Clinton’s…
One of the most obstinate and tenacious defenders of Clinton has been one Lanny Davis, who, armed with more “facts” than any three other interviewees, ardently believes that Clinton can make no mistakes . Nothing she says could possibly be interpreted as anything but righteous She is the perfect, entitled Democratic party nominee.
My opinion of this pugnacious and rude huckster….very low.
The article posted below is somewhat long and detailed, but it clearly lays out the fallacies in Davis’s wishful fantasies.
Adventures in Lannyland
Lanny Davis, annotated:
Here are two important neutral principles that should guide the Democratic National Committee’s Rules Committee when it meets May 31 to decide whether to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations — and, if so, how to allocate them between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
One principle is based in law, the second in pragmatic politics. Both principles result in the same solution: in some rough approximation, honoring the results expressed by almost 600,000 Michigan Democrats and more than 1.7 million Florida Democrats, who turned out in record numbers though they were told their votes didn’t count, were not responsible for the rules violations, and don’t want to be disenfranchised.
Record numbers? Not in Michigan. According to the Michigan Bureau of Elections, the record for participation in a Democratic Presidential Primary came in 1972, when 1,588,073 Michigan Democrats cast ballots. That is nearly one million more ballots than were cast this year. (On the other hand, had Michigan held an “official” primary, and had the voters had behaved approximately as they did in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio, about 2,000,000 voters would have cast ballots, easily breaking the record).
The legal principle supporting that solution is pretty simple. In U.S. contract law, the party breaching a contract usually has the right to “cure” the violation during the term of the contract. But if the other party stands in the way of that cure, the breaching party cannot be further sanctioned — and certainly, as a matter of fairness, the party preventing the cure should not stand to benefit.
If the breach in question is Michigan’s decision to advance the date of its primary beyond what the DNC permitted, it would seem that the parties to that dispute are (i) the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP), and (ii) the DNC. Therefore, if the MDP sought to cure the breach (that is, hold a do-over election), the principle that Davis articulates would suggest that the “breaching party” — a.k.a. the MDP — could not be further sanctioned.
It is unclear, however, what any of this has to do with the Clinton and Obama campaigns. At best it is an argument for seating Michigan’s delegates. It isn’t an argument about how to seat them. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 1, BARAK OBAMA, Democratic Party, HILLARY CLINTON, MSM/Main Stream Media, PRESIDENTIAL RACE | No Comments »
IS THE WAR IN IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN OFF THE RADAR?? Where is the Outrage??
Posted by leftofdayton on April 8, 2008
The Polls say we Americans overwhelmingly think that we never should have gone into Iraq and that nearly half of us say we need to get out within a year.
That’s the polls.
Visble manifestations of that oppostion seem to be far and few between.
CBS News/New York Times Poll. March 28-April 2, 2008. N=1,368 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (for all adults).
Looking back, do you think the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, or should the U.S. have stayed out?”
.
Right Thing Stayed Out Unsure % % % ALL adults
34 62 4 Republicans
68 26 6 Democrats
13 85 2 Independents
32 62 6
|
||||||
|
. |
||||||
| Less Than A Year |
One to Two Years |
Two to Five Years |
Longer Than Five Years |
Other/ Unsure |
||
| % | % | % | % | % | ||
| 46 | 22 | 14 | 6 | 12 | ||
How is it that we can have such opposition to the Bush Administration’s war policies and yet not be able to get a dozen people to join an anti-war protest here in Dayton? Where is the outrage?? Bush comes to the Air Force Museum and 35 people show up to a demonstration called by the Montgomery County Democratic Party, including just Two Union reps [in a supposedly Union town], ONE party Chairman and NO ELECTED OFFICIALS.
Over the five years this vigil has been held I have personally invited Democratic office holders Nan Whaley, Dean Lovelace, Mayor McLin, Joey Williams, Debbie Lieberman and Dan Foley MULTIPLE TIMES to join the anti war vigils at the Dayton Dragon’s games, and not one of them has shown up yet.
I ask again, Where is the Outrage? and, perhaps as important, Where is the”leadership” of the local Democratic party on this critical issue??? and, please, don’t respond with that lame crap about how “we are LOCAL elected officials and anti-war issues are not our thing…” I’m not buying it, and you should be ashamed to offer it as an excuse for your inactivity.
If the opposition is there on paper and the physical manifestation is not, we have to ask why? There are indeed answers, including the fact that for much of the US mainstream media the war is simply something that they are not given very much attention to, excepting the parroting of the McCain-Bush bullshit about how well the “surge” is working …[though today's NY Times reports that insurgent attacks in Baghdad more than doubled in March over February's numbers...]
By way of example, the author Eric Boehlert, from the website Media Matters, notes in an April 2 column:
Last November, I noted that ABC’s Nightline, its long-running signature news program, had essentially boycotted Iraq as a news story. I found that over an 18-week span, from mid-July through late November, Nightline aired approximately 230 separate news segments, only one of which was about events on the ground in Iraq. In the 17 weeks since then, Nightline has continued to look the other way, which means that over a nearly nine-month span, during which time more than 300 reports aired, Nightline has effectively ignored the war in Iraq as a news event.–
Excerpetd from his excllent article
Myth: the American Public Tuned out Iraq Fact: The press tuned out Iraq
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200804020003?lid=214108&rid=6438606
It sems that the unfortunate reality is that most people, despite their poll answers, are simply disconnected to the war in their daily lives. The images we are NOT seeing is the reality of this evil war.
How’s this for complicity?? In March 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. “There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops,” the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains.
The answer from our “elected representatives, our “leaders”??
Senate Backs Ban on Photos of G.I. Coffins: June 21, 2004.
And the money?? The Billions and Billions [and trillions] of dollars BORROWED from China, Japan and other countries? Off the “books” and payable by our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren [and theirs...]
The money that could be used to pay for comprehensive medical care far beyond any of the presidential candidates offerings..The money that could be used to repair our falling apart infrastructure of bridges, roads and waterways. The money that could be used to provide a college education for every person who had the gumption to go to school and improve themselves and our nation?? And so much much more.
The War goes on, and the American public, having been lulled into complacency, appears comatose in the face of impending disaster, unable or unwilling to take the time to do the right thing, get up off their asses & confront our “leadership” and demand an end to this evil war.
Wake up America . It’s way past time for the wake up call.
Posted in Afghansitan, Dayton City Commission, George Bush, Iraq War, MSM/Main Stream Media, Montgomery County Commission, Montgomery County Democratic Party, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, US Government | No Comments »
GEORGE BUSH VISITS THE AF MUSEUM, AND GETS AWAY WITH IT…Nixon didn’t!
Posted by leftofdayton on April 2, 2008
DEDICATION OF THE AIR FORCE MUSEUM, SEPTEMBER 3, 1971
ANTI WAR GROUPS SPOIL THE PARTY, PART 1.
The deja vu was almost too much for me on Thursday as I, and other anti war/anti-bush activists stood outside the gates to the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB. Riverside police patrolled incessantly up and down Harshman as we stood shivering in a light rain, holding our signs, waiting for the the Decider to show up. Nothing like Sept 3, 1971.
What’s that date got to do with anything? It was the dedication of the Air Force {war} Museum and Tricky Dick, otherwise known as President Richard Nixon [war criminal] was on board and, unlike Thursday, hundreds of protesters showed up to [un]welcome him to Dayton and before the day was done 154 of them had been arrested . Scooped up indiscriminately off the streets, packed into semi trailers & buses without even a nod to formal arrest procedures, some driven off the Air Base and held without charges for hours… the whole scene was one of mass chaos, the kind of action one would expect to occur in some South American dictatorship. But it was happening right here in Fairborn, Ohio.
What, you say you never heard about this?
Not surprising at all. The sanitized version of the dedication enshrined at the Museum bears NO resemblance to what actually occurred that day. It has always really bugged me ever since that this history got re-written and super sanitized. Thirty seven years later events still stands out in my memory.
The rows upon rows of Ohio Highway Patrol and County Sheriff’s cars lined up in a field next to AFLC headquarters. The Base side of Route 444 sealed off with barbed wire fencing and concertina wire, stretching from the old Museum at gate 1-c near Fairborn all the way to AFLC hdqts and beyond. The AF Security trucks stationed all along the way, Cops standing at the ready with their M-16 unslung. The helicopters whirling overhead, and, everywhere you looked there were hundreds [thousands??] of people. Loud slogan chanting people, people with anti-war signs marching down the highway to the new Museum site. Vietnam vets carrying a symbolic coffin and engaging bystanders with guerrilla street theater.
By August of 1971 major events associated with the war had brought anti war fervor in the Miami valley to a new pitch.
- In March Lt Wm Calley was convicted for the MY LAI massacre.
- In April Vietnam Veterans Against the War held Operation Dewey Canyon in Washington DC, an event that culminates with the Vets symbolically returning their combat medals in a ceremony on the steps to the US Capitol.
- A major demonstration the following week saw hundred of thousands of antiwar protesters in DC and in San Francisco as well as other cities.
- In May it was MayDay’s in Washington, with thousands of well organized activists in running street conflict with authorities, trying to shut down the government, resulting in the arrests of thousands more.
- In June Daniel Elsberg got the Pentagon Papers published in the NY Times and Washington Post, resulting in charges of treason by the Nixon administration.
- And American deaths surpassed 45,000 while the Senate passed a “non-binding” resolution urging withdrawal of American forces by years end.
Same Museum, different war, very different response.
Aware that dedication of the new AF Museum was going to be a major event, a loose coalition of local anti-war groups had begun planning efforts to stage a demonstration at the Museum’s dedication early in the summer. News that Nixon was going to be the keynote speaker galvanized anti war force and raised the energy to a higher level: we were determined to spoil the party. And we did.
The anti-war demonstration at the dedication of the AF Museum involved not just Daytonian’s, but engaged people from all over the region. There were people from Cincinnati, Columbus and other parts of Ohio. There were, especially, students from Antioch College. The Yellow Springs students were also equipped with a radio station, WYSO-fm. And the campus was already awash with anti-war activities. Confronting Nixon fit right in to what was already in motion on campus.
{As I am writing this it’s impossible not to think about that role vis a vis the current crisis gripping Antioch. Without belaboring a point, it IS relevant, AND critical, to a “free” society that intellectual freedom is a cornerstone principle. Students have historically been at the forefront of social change, and when an atmosphere exist that not only encourages but nurtures intellectual freedom amazing can things happen. And did. That’s what I remember.}
An excerpt from the Yellow Springs News notes
In 1971, when President Richard Nixon appeared at the Air Force Museum’s opening, a number of people from Antioch and Yellow Springs who tried to attend were detained by authorities. A group of Yellow Springs residents and Antioch students and workers also demonstrated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on April 20, 1972. Many local residents subsequently lent money to cover the bail of the 154 who were arrested there.
[The next installment of this post will add more details about the arrests that took place and the controversy that was created as a result. Links to a NY Time article and the YS News are given below. There is also a link to the text of Nixon's speech. I encourage others who were at the demo to please, send me your commentary, pictures or printed material, your memories of what happened at the base that day to help memorialize a very important event in Miami Valley anti-war history. Perhaps we can even get the AF Museum to acknowledge the REAL history of the dedication!!]
http://www.ysnews.com/stories/2003/october/history.html
ny-times-af-museum-article.pdf
Nixon’s speech: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=3135
Posted in Anti-war Veterans, Antioch College, MSM/Main Stream Media, News Media, POLITICAL ANALYSIS, US MILITARY | No Comments »
Stunning New Report on Domestic NSA Dragnet Spying Confirms ACLU Surveillance Warnings
Posted by leftofdayton on March 19, 2008
(3/12/200 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union responded today to a stunning new report that the NSA has effectively revived the Orwellian “Total Information Awareness” domestic-spying program that was banned by Congress in 2003. In response, the ACLU said that it was filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for more information about the spying. And, the group announced that it was moving its “Surveillance Clock” one minute closer to midnight.
“Congress shut down TIA because it represented a massive and unjustified governmental intrusion into the personal lives of Americans,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU. “Now we find out that the security agencies are pushing ahead with the program anyway, despite that clear congressional prohibition. The program described by current and former intelligence officials in Monday’s Wall Street Journal could be modeled on Orwell’s Big Brother.”
The ACLU said the new report confirmed its past warnings that the NSA was engaging in extremely broad-based data mining that was violating the privacy of vast numbers of Americans. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Constitution, MSM/Main Stream Media, US Government, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, freedom of speech | No Comments »
Senator Sherrod Brown Supports Dayton Newspaper Guild
Posted by leftofdayton on March 18, 2008
Dayton:
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown gave a rousing endorsement of the efforts of workers at the Dayton Daily News in their struggle to gain ratification of a Union contract with the Cox empire after a 21 year struggle for recognition.
Speaking to a noontime gathering of local Union representatives, including Wes Wells from the AFL-CIO, DDN employees, local elected officials Mark Owens and Nan Whaley and community activists from the Miami Valley Full Employment Council, Brown cited the union movement as a major force in creating a better life for millions of workers.
Utilizing his patented canary in a coal mine analogy, Brown talked about how miners would take one of the birds into the mine shaft and, if it got sick or died, they knew it was time to get out. “Journalists”, he said, “play that role in a democracy” alerting the citizenry to dangerous action by the governing class.
Noting that his spouse, Connie Schultz, is a member of the Newspaper Guild at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Brown spoke to that importance of journalists in protecting democracy and freedom by bringing transparency to government actions. “We need journalists to provide that check and balance between government and citizen,” he said.
Brown is a co-sponsor of the The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, which would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class. It would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union by:
- Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
- Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
- Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation
The Bill has passed the House of Representatives, but sponsors were unable to beat back Republican led filibustering in the Senate.
2nd and 3rd Ohio District Democratic candidates Virginia Wolfsun and Jane Mitakides made short speeches endorsing the Guild’s efforts and promising to be part of a” larger, more Democratic majority” after respectively beating “Mean Jean” Schmidt and “No Taxes for the Rich” Mike Turner in the fall elections.
Following the speeches, the group, about 75 people strong , took to the street with hand held signs in front of the DDN headquarters on South Main for a spirited moving picket line. Calling on the Cox company to negotiate now, sign the contract, demanding health care benefits for part time workers, the picketers marched back and forth for about 20 minutes, enduring a light drizzle of rain for their efforts.
Posted in Dayton Daily News, Democratic Party, MSM/Main Stream Media, News Media, Newspaper Reporter, SHERROD BROWN | No Comments »
Obama’s Money Cartel:How he’s fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street
Posted by leftofdayton on March 16, 2008
In viewing the “race” for president this year I have been astounded by the lack of depth in the coverage given by our so called free press, the “main stream Media”.Reading for content in the local rag, the Dayton Dumb News, is a five minute blitz, leaving the reader to wonder, “where’s the Beef”?
As an equal opportunity Presidential race cynic my focus has been on countering the mythology of “free and open elections” by looking for and posting and reposting articles that define the CLASS nature of the “selection” process.
To think that we are choosing from anyone outside the ruling cabal in Washington, regardless of the smoke and mirrors and the hifalutin rhetoric, is to ignore the underlying forces that actually shape and direct the “process of democracy” in the US of A.
By Pam Martens
Source: CounterPunch
Walk into any of the largest Wall Street brokerage firms today and you’ll see a self-portrait of upper management racism and sexism: women sitting at secretarial desks outside fancy offices occupied by predominantly white males. According to the EEOC as well as the recent racial discrimination class actions filed against UBS and Merrill Lynch, blacks make up between 1 per cent to 3.5 per cent of stockbrokers - and this after 30 years of litigation, settlements and empty promises to do better by the largest Wall Street firms.
The first clue to an entrenched white male bastion seeking a black male occupant in the oval office (having placed only five blacks in the U.S. Senate in the last two centuries) appeared this month on a chart at the Center for Responsive Politics website. It was a list of the 20 top contributors to the Barack Obama campaign, and it looked like one of those comprehension tests where you match up things that go together and eliminate those that don’t. Of the 20 top contributors, I eliminated six that didn’t compute. I was now looking at a sight only slightly less frightening to democracy than a Diebold voting machine. It was a Wall Street cartel of financial firms, their registered lobbyists, ! and go-to law firms that have a death grip on our federal government.
Why is the “yes, we can” candidate in bed with this cartel? How can we, the people, make change if Obama’s money backers block our ability to be heard? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in BARAK OBAMA, Democratic Party, MSM/Main Stream Media, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, Political Corruption, Racism | No Comments »
ANTIOCH, THE US MILITARY AND THE DAYTON DEVELOPMENT COALITION, THE INSIDE STORY
Posted by leftofdayton on March 15, 2008
This is a stunningly well researched and insightful look at the role of the Dayton Development Coalition {DDC} in the proposed closing of Antioch College. The DDC appears to be acting as a “shadow” government, doing the bidding of the local ruling elites.Much credit goes to the authors of this remarkable document for exposing this dirty political laundry for all to see.
Visit theBlaze @Closing Antioch College: Cui Bono?
Closing Antioch College:Cui Bono?
By Laura Fathauer
While the country talks of recession, the Dayton region is preparing for a growth of high-paying, high-tech jobs. Along with this is a growth of construction and infrastructure development, some of which can already be seen around Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the Mall at Fairfield Commons.
Many of the jobs gained will need to be filled locally, and area organizations and educational institutions are already creating cooperative educational efforts to address these workforce needs. Almost all of this growth is related to the missions and contractors that will be moving on or near the base. It seems that nothing in the region is untouched by the results of the US Military’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process.
Including, quite possibly, a small liberal arts institution in Yellow Springs Ohio, called Antioch College. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Antioch College, Dayton Development Coalition, Employment Issues, MSM/Main Stream Media | 1 Comment »
Transcript:The Democratic Debate in Cleveland
Posted by leftofdayton on February 29, 2008
Posted in BARAK OBAMA, HILLARY CLINTON, MSM/Main Stream Media, PRESIDENTIAL RACE | No Comments »
Never Mind the Sex, It’s the Lobbying Connection That’s At Issue With McCain…
Posted by leftofdayton on February 23, 2008
The activist wing of the film making community is producing some incredible on point videos and Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films organization has one that is both on time and on point. See it in the context of the flap being generated by the NY Times article alleging improprieties by John McCain on a personal level with a female lobbyist. While the MSM focuses on innuendos about possible sexual “misconduct” it ignores the larger question of the lobbyist McCain is ACTUALLY “SLEEPING” WITH!
There are 59 current or former lobbyists on McCain’s payroll...
Posted in John McCain, MSM/Main Stream Media, PRESIDENTIAL RACE, Republican Party, U S Senate | No Comments »
The ‘08 Elections: How Far Will the Clintons Go?By Robert Parry
Posted by leftofdayton on February 15, 2008
Hillary Clinton, who has built her case for the presidency on her superior “ready on Day One” management skills, burned through almost $130 million of campaign money, had to kick in $5 million from her own murky family funds, and is now pressing her chief financial backers to find creative ways to raise more money.
Some of those financial schemes appear to skirt the law – as some backers consider putting money into “independent” entities that can spend unlimited sums but aren’t supposed to coordinate with the campaign – while other ideas are more traditional, like appealing to wealthy donors involved with the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby.
Sen. Clinton’s new scramble for money – as well as her campaign’s declaration that it is prepared to override the will of the elected Democratic delegates if necessary to secure the nomination – raise the question of just how far Bill and Hillary Clinton are willing to go to achieve their presidential restoration. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Democratic Party, MSM/Main Stream Media, Montgomery County Democratic Party, PRESIDENTIAL RACE | No Comments »
