Obama, Take Away the Pain in My Stomach

An open letter to Obama, from an Israeli woman:

Wake Up America

Aside from the mistake from his mouth at 5:29, I <3 this man:



And in case you were wondering, "what a police state looks like":

Sen. Joe Biden on Apartheid Israel

Doesn't this just make the Obama ticket sound even more appealing?

Barack O'Bollywood

(Please do not misunderstand this blog post. This is by NO means a Barack Obama endorsement.)

Yay Nader!

We lost Kucinich, but Nader's coming to the rescue:

MR. RUSSERT: Will you run for president as an independent in 2008?

MR. NADER: Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. Twenty-four percent of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That's about the lowest ranking ever. Sixty-one percent think both major parties are failing. And, according to Frank Luntz's poll, a Republican, 80 percent would consider voting for a independent this year. Now, you take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine/Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through, and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the--all, all the candidates--McCain, Obama and Clinton--are against single payer Health insurance, full Medicare for all. I'm for it, as well as millions of Americans and 59 percent of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don't like Pentagon waste, a bloated military budget, all the reports in the press and in the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That's off the table to Obama and Clinton and McCain.

The issue of labor law reform, repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley Act that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests. Cracking down on corporate crime. The media--the mainstream media repeatedly indicating how trillions of dollars have been drained and fleeced and looted from millions of workers and investors who don't have many rights these days, and pensioners. You know, when you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington, D.C., be corporate-occupied territory, every department agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions, turning the government against its own people, you--one feels an obligation, Tim, to try to open the doorways, to try to get better ballot access, to respect dissent in America in the terms of third parties and, and independent candidates; to recognize historically that great is sues have come in our history against slavery and women rights to vote and worker and farmer progressives, through little parties that never ran--won any national election. Dissent is the mother of ascent. And in that context, I have decided to run for president.
MR. RUSSERT: How would you feel, however, if Ralph Nader's presence on the ballot tilted Florida or Ohio to John McCain and McCain became president, and Barack Obama, the first African-American who had been nominated by the Democratic Party--this is hypothetical--did not become a president and people turned to you and said, "Nader, you've done it again"?

MR. NADER: Not a chance. If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form. You think the American people are going to vote for a pro-war John McCain who almost gives an indication that he's the candidate of perpetual war, perpetual intervention overseas? You think they're going to vote for a Republican like McCain, who allies himself with the criminal, recidivistic regime of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the most multipliable impeachable presidency in American history? Many leading members of the bar, including the former head of the American Bar Association, Michael Greco, absolutely dismayed over the violations of the Constitution, our federal laws, the criminal, illegal war in Iraq and the occupation? There's no way. That's why we have to take this opportunity to have a much broader debate on the issues that relate to the American people, as, as, as a fellow in Long Island said recently, M . Sloane, he said, "These parties aren't speaking to me. They're not speaking to my problems, to my family's problems."

Full Meet the Press Transcript: Counter Punch

Get Involved: Nader for President 2008

If You're Going to Insist on Voting for Obama . . .

. . . as a responsible voter, you should at least attempt to hold him accountable.

ACTION ALERT:
Call the Obama Campaign: "Understand" [Apartheid]Israel's starvation

THE UN SAYS:

• Israel is allowing only 41% of Gaza's food requirements

• Israel grants only 1 in 7 patients access to urgent treatment outside Gaza

• Israel denies medication and hospital supplies to Gaza

• Israel is not allowing enough fuel to treat and pump clean water in Gaza

• Israel's cruelty has caused more than 70 deaths of untreated Gaza patients since June

BARACK OBAMA SAYS: "We have to understand why [apartheid] Israel is forced (sic) to do this"

PLEASE CALL THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN TO SAY YOU ARE OUTRAGED!
(866) 675-2008

TALKING POINTS:

• Denying food to 1.5 million civilians is a crime! It is irresponsible for Obama to encourage it.

• Denying medicine to sick and dying people is a crime. It is NOT self defense.

• [Apartheid] Israel's actions are collective punishment. Why does Obama not condemn it?

• Denying food, medicine and other essential supplies does nothing to harm fighters or the Hamas government in Gaza. It only harms civilians, one half of whom are children. Does Obama consider them disposable?

Obama's callous defense of [apartheid] Israel's cruelty deserves your action. Presidential candidates are sensitive to criticism. Your calls have the potential to make Palestinian rights an issue. Now is the time!

Following is the text of Obama's letter to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad. A photocopy of the signed letter is at Jewish Standard.

1.23.2008

Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,

I understand that today the U.N. Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.

I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condemn the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in Southern [apartheid] Israel for over two years.

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why [apartheid] Israel is forced to do this. Gaza is governed by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction, and Israeli civilians are being bombarded by rockets on an almost daily basis. That is unacceptable and [apartheid] Israel has a right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks against Israel, and should make clear that [apartheid] Israel has the right to defend itself against such actions. If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator