Murdoch voting for Obama?

Stranger things have happened..

Murdoch’s not-quite-but-almost endorsement of Barack Obama for president.

The founder -- and defender -- of Fox News said he expected Obama to win in a landslide, citing widespread unhappiness with the current administration and his disenchantment with Republican contender John McCain. Murdoch added that after a long career in the Senate, McCain had been forced to compromise too much and doesn’t stand for much. Murdoch even nonchalantly owned up to influencing the New York Post to back Obama in the New York primary.

Murdoch -- a new U.S. citizen -- said he was leaning toward actually voting for Obama in November, and would know in the next six months.

McCain May Be Old, but He's Still a Threat

McCain May Be Old, but He's Still a Threat


Old white men love their old white men. This is why young people need to get out and vote. Really do we want this 70 something year old running our country? Apparently, some say, "well, it's better than a man with dark skin or a man with a Vajajay."

McCain's Pastor says Hitler was doing God's Work

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/21/mccain-backer-hagee-said_n_102892.html
And everyone wants to focus on Obama's drama but this is second page news. Frankly I don't think this effects my opinion of McCain but why do ppl care about Obama's pastor- I don't think that matters either. Clearly, both Obama and McCain don't beleive what this religious wackos say. And they say Islamic extremists are bad.. what about the Christian extremists?

If I were a terrorist

Makes you think...

If I were a terrorist

McCain Pedia

http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Main_Page

I see ...

Stimulus Checks

With Greatest Affection, Signed the IRS

by Vera H-C Chan

May 15, 2008 05:15:00 PM

Usually a missive with an Internal Revenue Service return address is about as welcome as a dusting of poison ivy.

Offer a little stimulus, however, and taxpayers can't wait. So, understandably, initial reports that 15,000 taxpayers would not be getting an IRS love letter sent the Buzz into a tizzy. Fortunately, that number turned out to be much smaller: Only 1,500 checks have been inadvertently wired to the wrong accounts. (Don't even think of keeping it!) Out of 30 million bits of ... um ... stimuli, that's an error rate of just .005%, give or take a decimal point. At least the IRS didn't toy with taxpayer affections like the agency did back in 2001.

Except there's another small snafu: The IRS also 'fessed up to forgetting to send out 300-dollar child refunds to as many as 350,000 households. Before you ask: The IRS will mail another letter copping to the error, and the checks will follow in July. The upside: The U.S. Post Office must be raking it in from its repeat customer.

By the way, if you did get a check but not your full share, SavvySugar points out that the IRS has kindly deducted back taxes or other debts in advance.

Despite all this, the government agency should feel swamped with affection. How have people loved the IRS in the past month? Let us count a few of the searches: "2008 tax rebate checks tax return" (+14,579%), "government rebate checks 2008" (+13,085%), "tax stimulus checks" (+5,798%), "federal tax rebate" (+652%), "600 dollar tax refund 2008" (+566%), "bush tax refund 2008" (+300%), and "2008 federal kicker checks rebate checks" (off the charts). The most frequent query? "When will I get my tax rebate check."

The lovefest may not stop. SavvySugar notes that a rebate repeat may be possible next year, in this IRS article found under the section "Not eligible at the current time?" Who says you can't buy love?

Starbucks International

Star and Bucks Cafe in Ramullah, Palestine

Edwards backs Obama

Edwards gives long-awaited endorsement to Obama

We cannot blame the white people.

By Bill Cosby

Here is the guy that should really be the first black president of the USA. Excerpt of a speech from May 2004... shortly thereafter Cosby visited UCI and spoke to deaf, masochistic ears. Dedicated to the Cross-Cultural Center, incompetent faculty, and all the other poor, self-victimizing souls at UCI. Maybe Chancellor Drake can take some anti-pussy pills off the Cosby train.

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' — or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.

Bush Stimulus Package..

I only got $300. Wasn't supposed to be between $600 to $1,200? Once again the Gov jipped me on a stupid plan that will be ineffective. I heard someone say that it is like taking water from the deep end of the pool and putting it in the shallow end. Haha good analogy. Not so funny situation.

The Empire Strikes Barack

Operation Chaos

Rush Limbaugh has been encouraging his radio program listeners to vote for whomever is behind in the Democratic primary, to instate "chaos and disunity" among Democrats during a divisive primary battle. Limbaugh then began to advocate that his Republican listeners vote for Clinton, something the rules of the Texas primary permitted.

According to a county volunteer, one voter declared "Rush Limbaugh sent me", another "I am voting for Hillary Clinton but I want to see the Democrats implode," and a great many others mentioning Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh has stated that there is nothing wrong with Republicans voting in the Democratic primary, as Democrats voted for McCain in Vermont, New Hampshire, Florida and other states. "This is getting absurd. If it weren't for independents and Democrats crossing over, Senator McCain would not be our nominee!"

In Ohio, Limbaugh similarly encouraged his listeners to re-register as Democrats and vote for Clinton. Although Ohio does not use an open primary, voters who change their registration must attest that they support the principles of the party to which they switch. About sixteen thousand Ohio Republicans switched parties for the election. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections announced that, at the urging of Democrat Sandy McNair, the cross-overs would be investigated. Later, the Ohio Attorney General's office stated that it would be hard to prosecute anyone for falsifying a change of registration, because of the difficulty of proving a voter's fraudulent intent.

Limbaugh has said that "The dream end of this [of Operation Chaos] is that this keeps up to the Convention, and that we have a recreation of Chicago 1968 with burning cars, protests, fire, and literal riots and all of that, that is the objective here."

Great example of why we don't want a republican in the white house, thanks Rush. The Dem victory is going to be even sweeter.

Cuban blogger receives Spanish award

Yoani Sanchez, a 32 year old Cuban woman, won a Spanish journalism award for her blog that largely criticized the Cuban Communist government. She couldn't attend the award ceremony in Spain to accept the prize because the Cuban government refused her request to travel to Madrid for the ceremony.

In response to this, she said "Nothing of what I have written in these 13 months speaks as loudly as my absence from this ceremony," Sanchez said in a tape recording. She said the fact she had to address the group through a recording was "the clearest evidence of the defenselessness of the Cuban people with respect to the state."

She was awarded the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for creating the blog called "Generation Y," which gets more than 1 million hits a month, mostly from abroad.

She said the international recognition would not give her "immunity, because in Cuban society one is never immune from the State. But it does allow me to carry on more strongly with this small protective shield that the prize gives me."

Cuban authorities have made no sustained effort to shut down Sanchez's blog, although pro-government sites accuse her of accepting money from opposition groups.

Dean calls out Fox News

Howard Dean goes on Fox and talked about it's bias and the importance of his appearance on the channel after Obama got a lot of flack about it. Read about it in the Huffington Post.



Dean stated that the use of Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright in GOP ads in local races is "race baiting."


"When you start bringing up things that have nothing to do with the candidate and nothing to do with the issues, that's race baiting," Dean said on Fox News Sunday in response to a question whether the Wright issue and his ties to Obama hurt Democrats down ticket.

"There's a lot of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats on issues, but the biggest issue of all is we don't use this kind of stuff. We never have used this kind of stuff, and we're not going to start now," said the DNC chairman. "America is more important than the Republican Party, and that's the lesson that the voters are about to teach the Republicans."

Hugh Hewitt

Hugh Hewitt came into our blog class as a gust lecturer.

Conservative $%^&. I would link his name, but I don't want to encourage him. Not that he needs it.

Sorry... he will say I am a liberal.. bla bla bla... I just had to say, he is full of %^&*. I think a lot of people in the class agreed with me. His saving grace is that I think he is half kidding..half kidding. Not sure about that tho. maybe i just cant take people seriously who think the liberal media are to blame for everything.

Huckabees thoughts on the recent Clinton/Obama

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=7728170

Media

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=7728170

I thought this clip was interesting, but I also wanted to talk about how I am sitting in blog class right now and the guest speaker.

My Thoughts on Finklestein

Norman Finklestein came to UCI last night to discuss whether anti- Zionism was anti-semitism. I agree with him that it isn't. I criticize America but am not anti-American, although certainly some Republicans would disagree. I also thought his logic on why Israel an be blamed for the indiscriminate killings of civilians even though "they didn't mean to" made sense. And I was convinced that Israel has broken International laws. I loved that after his lecture he asked for questions but wanted to give priorities to dissenters first- those who had listened quietly and respectfully but disagreed wholly. I was very disappointed that the many Jew's in attendance didn't take this opportunity to rebut. Whether I agree on his full argument or not, I think what was more important is what his speech was doing to end the conflict? I concluded that whether he was right or wrong, he is part of the problem and not the solution.

Mike Gravel Trys to win over Obama Girl

NORMAN FINKLESTEIN “IS CRITICISM OF ISRAEL ANTI-SEMITISM?”

This is some of my notes from the lecture this evening. I would like to say that this is not an exact transcript, I may have made some mistakes in my notes and by posting these notes I does not mean that I necessarily share all the views of Prof. Finkelstein just wanted to share what I heard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein

FINAL STAGE ISSUES-those issues that are so controversial that they have to be put off to the last stage of negotiations. If you begin with them the negotiations will break down. Start with confidence building measures.
• Questions of borders
• Settlements 460,000 settlers Israel has transferred to West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem
• Who doe East Jerusalem belong to
• Right of return of Palestinian refugees
• (Water)

80% of the Israeli wall is in the West Bank, if it were in Israeli land then it would be legal
• cuts through neighborhoods of E Jerusalem
o so who owns E Jerusalem
ICJ decided that
• West Bank and Gaza are said to be “disputed territories”
o “Under international law it is inadmissible to acquire land by war” –George Bush
o Israel acquired it during a war therefore Israel has no entitlement to the West Bank or Gaza- they are not “disputed territories”
SETTLEMENTS
• Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention: it is prohibited for an occupying power to transfer its occupation to an occupied territory.
• Therefore IJC deemed the settlers there as violating international law
EAST JERUSALEM
• How did Israel acquire it? During the war
• ICJ: therefore it is Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

Nov 1947 UN Assembly decided to partition Palestine between Arab and Jew nations
1949 Palestinians are removed from their homes
• “May 48 invading Arab armies transmitted radio broadcasts to Palestinians to leave their homes so that the Arab armies could clear the Jews from the land and they could return.”
o Deemed not true- instead ethnic cleansing
• See the book “1848”

“None of Israel’s wars were wars of necessity.”

Human rights orgs conclusions about the human rights records of Israel in the Palestine Territories.
• Most heavily monitored places in the world by human rights orgs.
• In 20 years of human rights reports by many human rights orgs, Finklestein found that all the reports agreed on their reports;
o Terrorism- the principle of application of terrorism: if it is only applied to one side it is hypocritical.
• http://www.btselem.org: 4:1 Palestinians killed: Israelis killed
• 60% of those Palestinians were civilians
• Doesn’t count those who died in hospitals due to lack of water
o Difference of intentional killing of Israeli’s by Palestinians vs accidental killing of Palestinians by Israelis?
• “Many occasions Israel deliberately targeted peaceful demonstrations including children.”
• Indiscriminant fire: “anyone who throws a lit match into a woods cannot say they didn’t mean to lit the woods on fire.” –Gideon Levy (not an exact quote)
• Israeli terrorism is 4x as lethal than Hamas terror.

TWO STATE SOLUTION
• Fully withdraw from Palestinian territories
• Every year the UN votes on a two state solution
o All but 7 states or less agree on a 2 state solution

Benny Morris
• Doesn’t deny Palestinians are ethnically cleansed but it was necessary
• Inhalation of Indians was a good thing bc it lead to the possibility of an American nation.
Dershawitz says that ethnic cleansing is 5th rate human rights issue
Chompsky: “Palestinians have the right to return but it isn’t feasible.”

“NEW ANTI-SEMITISM”
• Not new- people have been saying this send the 70’s
• Not anti-semitism
o Can’t be anti-anything these days
o On college campuses: Jewish studies programs, anti-semitism programs, etc.
o Articles from AIPAC and UCI Hillel Students article who said “it is a great time to be a Jewish student and Pro-Israel”

PURPOSE
• To turn the perpetrator into the victim.
• To discredit all criticism as anti-Semitism

1. Stick to the facts- do not exaggerate.
2. Show a little courage-
a. Sami Al-Arian

Asked for dissenters to ask questions first: (no one stood up, even though about 20 Jews attended to my knowledge) (sorry this part has gaps- I was getting tired)
Q: Do you think that the Israeli refusal to accept Palestine as ethnic cleansing?
A: “After the fact ethnic cleansing.”

Q: UN resolution; why the high degree of blindness which hurts the interests of the US.
A: The lobby applies a lot of pressure on the government which is not uncommon.
“Everyone knows that the war was constructed by Cheney and Rumsfeld; Bush was upstairs with his play station 3.”
• “Mass murderer, someone you wouldn’t want to be with in a dark alley, but not stupid or gullibly.”

sorry guys got tired. even though probably only 2 people are actually reading this..and they probably got tired..

Republicans Crossing Over to Vote in Democratic Contests

I just thought this was an interesting article. Talks about Republicans who can't line up with McCain. I am anxious to see how often this happens since many staunch Republicans can't see McCain as a suitable representative for them. Will they just not vote? I guess we will have to see.

Give it up already..

Hillary Clinton has vowed to continue her campaign despite losing ground in the latest primary contests and her financial problems. Clinton beat Obama by just two points in Indiana's primary, while he won by 14 in North Carolina.

Some speculate she will drop out before the next primaries.. about freakin time.. what is this doing to the party?

Public Opinion

According to a NYT article an overwhelming majority of surveyed voters said McCain and Clinton were calling for the temporary suspension of the federal gas tax this summer "were acting to help themselves politically," rather than the public. In the same poll, the majority of voters said that the drama over  Senator Barack Obama and pastor Write has had no affect their opinion of Obama. 

POLLS

Race again played a pivotal role in Tuesday's Democratic presidential clashes, as whites in Indiana and North Carolina leaned solidly toward Hillary Rodham Clinton and blacks voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, exit polls showed. Almost half said they were influenced by the focus on Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

EXIT POLLS polls show that the ultimate nominee will have to do some serious fence-mending. Many Democratic primary voters say they would abandon the party if their favored candidate does not win the nomination -- with a substantial number saying they would vote for Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.

Obama will maintain a triple-digit lead in pledged delegates after Tuesday's vote. He has less than 200 delegates to get to win the nomination.

SUPERDELEGATES WHO WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

They want your opinion. Check out their video. I think this is awesome!



Visit their facebook or email them; wolfel@collegedems.com; khaleela@collegedems.com

make your vote count a little more...

McCains Wack-job Pastor.

The All-White Elephant in the Room
YouTube What Rev. John Hagee. you will see the televangelist lecturing about the Great Whore,” that represents “the Roman Church."
On Feb. 27, Hagee stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race.

Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee’s views? This particular YouTube video — far from the only one — was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes.

Since then, Mr. McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements. Mr. Hagee also said that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled “homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.”

Obama reaches across the isle and Clinton defends herself... kinda

"We were with eight Republicans last night and six of them are voting for Obama," said retired firefighter Dan O'Neill, 63 in a Yahoo News article.
Exit polls show most Republicans who have crossed over to vote Democratic in this primary voted for Obama, responding to his message of reaching out to work across party lines.

In her Sunday-morning appearance on ABC, Clinton was asked to name a single economist who supports her plan for a summer gas-tax holiday.
"I'm not going to put in my lot with economists," Clinton said.
well, Clinton, I am afraid I am going to have to, since they know a hell of a lot more about the economy than I do, and clearly more than you know as well.

Come on, Hillary....

"Senator McCain has said take off the gas tax, don't pay for it, throw us further into deficit and debt. That is not what I've proposed," Clinton said, adding that she wants the oil companies to pay the gas tax instead of consumers this summer.

umm.. does any really think that the gas companies are going to pay this tax? they have so much leverage within the gov there is no way they would let this happen.

Media being used against us

Where we get our gas...

To help diminish our reliance of Mid East Oil, buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis. Then there is always finding alternatives to oil in general, but I can see how excited people are about that one.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell.......................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco..........144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil..............130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway..117,740,000 barrels
Amoco..........................62,231,000 barrels

Here are some large companies that
DO NOT import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco.............. 0 barrels
Conoco................ 0 barrels
Sinclair................ 0 barrels
BP/Phillips........... 0 barrels
Hess.................... 0 barrels
ARC0. ................. 0 barrels
Also: Pilot, Flying J, Love's, RaceTrac, Valero

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy
and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much
they are importing .

Black Gradaution

I got an email from the Cross Cultural Center at my school inviting me to participate in the "Black Graduation". Now I don't exactly look African American but both my Grandparents on my dad's side were half. I have to admit that this whole phenomenon bothered me, a Black only graduation? If someone had a White only graduation they would be shot! Then I thought about how I might like to participate because I am very proud of my African American heritage. But clearly I don't look the part, so I won't participate for fear of being looked at weird. I haven't even ever met a black person in my two years at UCI. This actually really upset me about the school which is very diverse but lacks black students. One day I was walking late on campus and saw the Afrikan Student Union meeting and there were so many people there! How did I miss them all? So my question is this, does this actually allow black students at UCI to segregate themselves. I would go ask my black classmates, but I don't have any. Jesus, I feel white.

'Mission Accomplished'

Five years ago today Bush made his dramatic landing in a jet on the aircraft carrier on which a banner was prominently displayed. This banner, of course, was the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner of which the Bush administration has made many a excuse about as the war still continues five years later. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush said at the time. later they claimed that the it referred to the carrier's crew completing its 10-month mission, not the end of the war. Then the White House claimed that they nothing to do with the banner- "it was like that when we got here." haha.. riiighht.. AP white house correspondent Terrence Hunt says that "the banner became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq." I think it also makes the government look deceiving and the American public look like dopes- possibly rightfully so...

On that note.. Lives Lost in Iraq: at least 135,614