"Barack Obama opened the final phase of the 2008 presidential election by unveiling an unabashedly populist, progressive agenda to renew America's promise in the 21st century."

Really ? ... From where I sit Obama looks DLC to the core.

Name one really Progressive position Obama has taken. Sure isn't on Health Care, Defense spending, Telecom accountability, Trade, Iraq, or Afghanistan. His Tax Plans don't even take us back to the Clinton years. Didn't hear a thing about regulating the banks.

His positions on energy are a mixed bag at best, with lots of promises and pledges to ideas like ethanol and "clean coal".

Glenn Greenwald is taking on the entire Dem Party for walking away from the criminal investigations we need to find what went on for the last 8 years.

Business as usual ... With what Obama has, he needs to attack McCain because Obama's policies are largely the last 8 years with a smiley face and only one war instead of the three McCain will have us in.

I hope he proves me wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Does he feel like the Presidency is owed to him, somehow? He's never really checked out of the Hanoi Hilton, but that angle makes it seem like he's got an undiagnosed emotional problem. Campaigning as therapy? Not fucking likely, pal. Still got something to prove? Give it a rest, already. Don't announce a veep, introduce the successor to your campaign. Go home, take a nap. We all need a break from this pissing match, you know you can't take much more being this running joke. Cut your losses before you become a verb as well as that joke.

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"We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage,…"

"We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business,…"

These quotes from Obama center around “the economy” as our central mission in life, as if the economy were working right then all would be well in our country. However, I think we are all familiar with the old adage, “money can not buy happiness.” We are a better nation than this…

Many of Obama’s platforms on the various issues may very well move us closer towards the direction of achieving more economic security, but what we really need is an even more fundamental plan based on a sentiment we all know is true for each and every one of us – the pursuit of sustainable happiness.

Economic and political decisions should be made/designed to support the fundamental needs that individuals and communities have in order to experience sustainable happiness or in other words, humane lifestyles. After all, I would confidently assume everyone who has ever lived has wanted to live humanely no matter what race, religion, political preference, gender or cultural experience they have had.

It’s time we start to define the fundamentals of what it means to, “live humanely”, and begin to understand how to develop and transition to a new era of economic, political, environmental and legal etc. systems that support the goals of living humanely. This should be at the roots of our society.

As both Michelle and Barak Obama have reminded us, we need to see the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be, then take action to make it so. “…we need a plan that brings us together along the thread that connects us…”

When Obama said, "America, now is not the time for small plans," I interpreted this as an invitation extended to us all to help define the world as it should be. In that spirit, here is a project called the, “Universal Humane Needs Assessment,” which I am developing to address:

Phase 1 - What elements/experiences can verifiably constitute a humane lifestyle for each of us as individuals and which of these elements/experiences are common to us all? Can a mass conscious awareness of this idea provide an intuitively understandable motive for human behavioral evolution?

Phase 2 – How can we as individuals and communities understand and assess our relative balance of elements/experiences that determine how humanely we are living?

Phase 3 – What will it take to connect people to the resources they need to self-determinately bring themselves into a more humanely balanced state?

Any thoughtful comments, contributions or donations are indescribably critical and are deeply appreciated towards the continued implementation of this initiative. We can make it happen if we try...

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....Truth is always painful, but that is not a reason to ban someone. Well, there goes freedom of speech on a "supposedly" progressive internet alternative news site. We are going down hill pretty damn fast, huh?

I am not crazy about Scotty because he acts like a blind faith follower, but that doesn't mean I don't want to read what he has to say.... I do.

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Suppose Shame on You, Josh is unacceptable because I posted a comment at Six am and they moderated and did not print it. This site is two bit anyway, Mother Jones, afterdowningstreet.org, CommonDreams are much more Progressive sites. After all what site does anyone but a teen use that allows persons to grade posts? It's moronic. I will post his link everywhere, get my Vets groups to happily post it on a National email blast, so no worries Alternet is cheese. Serious Politicos go elsewhere for Truth, including Scotts now yet he used to allow email, albeit he never replied not even to a sister Vet.
Thanks for the update ergo AlterNOT is permanantly deleted so Thanks Tom
Semper-Fi!(no need for Marine I think the Semper-Fi gave it away)

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In fact, anyone who has the conceit to appoint his or her self leader ought to have his or her feet held to the fire--these people have ulterior motives, just like just about everyone else.

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Hugh.. are you serious.. you need to do a better job of disguising yourself that this..How about a wig and a beard.. maybe a fake nose and sunglasses!

BTW, you're web site is still nothing more than smear..

Oh, I still doubt your military credentials BTW.

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Obama's voting record, dirty deals for 9/11 "war on terror" and choice of NeoCon Biden nailed his token "Change you Can Believe In" to the wall for even the gullible to see.

If he'd chosen Kucinich, he might have had an outside chance. As it stands, he has none with anyone that possesses a clue.

But thanks to a sellout corporate monopoly MSM -- in America the clueless are the majority. So we get a Hollywood style poodle on the one hand and an obviously corrupt old puppet on the other. Both absolutely owned and operated by the corporate crime ruling class.

God help us.

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and may even get through to the majority of those Americans who are undereducated, deliberately misled and have little to console them.

That said, progressives must continue to expose the historical root of all problems except those caused by nature: the "entitled" few--aristocrats on both sides of the Atlantic and their corporate supporters--who have been using law for criminal purposes. The Norman-English monarchy never gave up its claim to our country, it has just used means other than war.

Deception, concealment, theft and murder to amass wealth is just plain wrong. We could suggest amnesty and at the same time make the enablers--our elected representitives--worry about being sent to those great big prisons.

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There is one dominant reason why Americans are so involved in this election. We all want to know if we have finally reached the point at which a majority of the voters have figured out what's the matter with Kansas? We want to know if the reign of terror controlled by Wall Street and voted into power by the Christian evangelicals has finally ended and we can get back to being one country, one nation, called Americans. John Edwards had the answer. Hillary had the answer. Obama has the answer.

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Kucinich has been my choice for President since before 2004. But his campaigns have been torpedoed by the MSM and their corporate owners.

Dennis knows Obama a lot better than I do, and he's endorsing him. McCain is not even a consideration, and no one outside of those two has any chance at all of occupying the White House.

In an ideal world, we'd have more and better choices. We don't live in an ideal world. Elect Obama now, and then work for real campaign finance reform til we get it.

I know, given the current state of affairs, it's difficult to believe that America has actually made progress toward the fulfillment of it's constitutional promises, but it has. Rather than wallow in bitterness over the failures we see, we need to work to create even more progress for succeeding generations, and inspire them to do the same in turn.

We have an opportunity to close the book on the regressive "me generation" politics of Ronald Reagan and the right wing, and return to the progressive course that has always been our imperative. An Obama Presidency will not take us to the promised land, but it will get us back on a better course. It's our best alternative right now. And I'm convinced that Obama himself understands that reality.

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Just read inbetween the lines in what Obama is saying and it is clear that he is being all things to all people . He will pick up the reins in the biggest downturn America has seen since the great depression. As a pro free market liberal he will turn the guns on the working classes, just as Clinton did . If America is to "compete" then workers must accept wages akin to those in the 3rd world ....for the "free market" to work.

If America is to transform itself for the overall good of the mass of people( to say nothing of the rest of the world) then it will do it not because or through Obama but with him actually trying to put the breaks on , as events overtake him .
What we are really seeing is the deathnell of the "free" market ....and he will be its last stooge .
...having said all that ..I sort of like the guy ...but its not about his personality its about forces above and beyond his control and there inexerable logic .
The problem is I think the American voter is suspending its sense of reality and looking for another Camelot ....it doesnt exist ...its only in the movies

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I expected to see a lot more support for Obama from the users on Alternet, but it appears that is not the case. Apparently, despite liberal leanings, people here prefer to carry on with 4 more years of Bush policies or worse.

Bottom line: a vote for a 3rd party candidate is a wasted vote. I can't say that I disagree with guys like Nader or Barr. I really prefer the Libertarian platform. However, aside from feeling good about myself for "voting my conscience", a vote for any of those guys is the same as not participating in this election. I think it is far too important to do that. IMHO

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As if there is little to no distinction between the 2. Please...
Consider this: As many as 3 Supreme Court Justices will retire within the next President's first term; who would you like to see on the SC? Another Alito , Scalia, Roberts or Thomas? Then vote McCaine or if you are in a toss up state then salve your conscious with a 3rd party vote; the effect will be the same as a vote for McCaine; but if you truly care about Roe vs. Wade, Habeus Corpus, the unitary executive theory and the rule of law ( to name just a few ) then there is no other choice: Obama.
I will vote Obama and I will do so with a song in my heart and a smile on my face. Enough is enough. This is where we as a nation need to halt the slide into fascism with that first small , even imperfect step and vote out those SOBs who have shredded our constitution, trashed our economy and gutted the moral compass that guides our policies.
Obama can not be all things to all people and I am sore disappointed by his vote on telecom immunity but he is clearly and stratospherically way above any other viable alternative.

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We have been left with the equivalent of a "fixer upper". Thanks to some jerk whose claim to fame was that he stopped drinkg and God talkd to him. Remeber that? Obama knows what's wrong and is willing to take on the job of restoring the dilapidated house before it collapses in a pile of rubble. McCain thinks everything is coming up roses. Like Bush he has created his own reality. Fact is, neither of them ever had to live in the real world. Thanks, ANNA

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Obama is not a progressive. Keep saying it over and over and you may eventually come to your senses. Progressives are Nader, Kucinich and the Green Party. Making sense now. Obama is a warmongering, centrist, corporatist Zionist. Stop the lies. This site is supposed to be about truth. I thought I had type in Amren or something.

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My take is very different from the general reception of what was a historic moment.

I think the speech was a masterpiece - delivery was excellent. I wish my parents could have been here to witness it. I wish my parents had been here to hear it. It was a moment they would have savored.

That said, I think he offered little which will resolve what Col. Bacevich called our triple crisis: military, political, and economic.

I see little in it that recognizes the deadly threat posed to average American family of our trade deficit, since the 1970s; our fiscal deficit, since the 1980s; and, our personal savings deficits, since the 1990s.

Most of all, our absolute dependence on the willingness of the other nations on this planet to continue subsidize our standard of living.

A litany of marginal policy proposals at this time, in that place, by that man, before a rapt nation, underscores Washington's complete failure, complete incompetence, complete paralysis and lack of vision, and only serves to heighten my sense of dread.

We are poised very close to a major upheaval in our American Dream, yet from his speech, I fear he seems to be sleep-walking along with his colleagues in Washington - earnestly trying to weed his garden as hurricane Katrina is approaching.

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Obama and McCain are both owned by the elite. McCain is destroying the Republican Party by acting like some dumb retard who is not in touch with the reality of some situation while Obama is offering all the Public wants to hear, with his rhetoric but in 4 years time the public will be disappointed.

VOTE BOB BARR, The Libertarian Ticket, Smaller Government and the Return to our civil liberties and the removal of this monetary policy to reinstate money backed by Gold and Silver (AKA SOUND MONEY not MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR).

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For real change, the Dem ticket should have been Kucinich-Nader. That said, I did not get much hope from Obama's speech, not because he did not say a lot of hopeful things, to elated cheers, but because of how the cheers from the crowd of adorers were in essence supporting the scary "work for a safe nuclear" energy (no such thing as safe nuclear power) and keeping us at war by shifting the killing fields to the people of Afghanistan. The crowd cheered when he said he would get us out of Iraq and the war that was dragging us down (reality check: we will be there in some form for several more years) and the crowd cheered as he continued by saying he would take us into yet another conflict thus insuring many more years of war, war, war. Our peace candidate is a war hawk, with Biden at his side to play the bagpipes. Kucinich, who I knew from the start had the better ideas, was dissed by late night comedians who presented him as a joke, and by the corporate controlled mainstream media. Not because of what he said but because he was a threat to their comfort zone. Obama has betrayed the anti-war people who rallied behind him (instead of Hillary) based on his promises, so now he has shown that he can lie as well as the next politician, and as well as the last. I'm tired of 8 years of Bush lies. Dems are booing those Bush lies while cheering Obama's lies. I think (and this is only a think) that Kucinich would rather be supporting Ralph Nader but feels he has to go with flow, which is Obama.

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I have not felt this strong about a candidate since Ross Perot ran for office. I honestly believe that Obama cares about the Sheeple and America as a whole which clearly Dictator Bush and his little "mini-me" McBush could care less about. No doubt about it, it is time for change, and we need change before its just too late.

Whistler
Is your ISP watching you?

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I heard 84,000 people go completely quiet when the senator mentioned "clean coal". Clean coal is a big sop to the coal industry. Then Obama said "nuclear". The candidate got stares. This can't be happening, 84,000 people were thinking. Cognitive dissonance. He moved on to "a new generation for alternative fuels" and he started to get a bit of clapping again, and in another two minutes he won back the crowd.

Nuclear energy causes thyroid cancer, just as cigarettes cause lung cancer. No one can match each thyroid cancer to their local nuclear power plant, but large studies offer statistical proof. I recently read that the Three Mile Island partial meltdown caused roughly 5,000 extra deaths, mostly in Pennsylvania. Chernobyl is hard to gauge, due to the compulsive need of the Soviet/Russian regimes to hide every single death. In vast numbers of Soviet classrooms, kids' classmates went on "vacation" one by one and never came back.

Nuclear energy takes oil to build power stations, oil to mine uranium, oil to guard, oil to decommission and bury. Nuclear reportedly breaks even, does maybe a little better than breaking even, but does next to nothing to get us off of foreign oil dependency. Moreover capital-intensive nuclear precludes investment in the solar and wind options that work now!

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The democratic convention was about exposure, unity,and enthusiasm. Did a nice job with all three. The debates will decide the election. McCain (have you heard he was a POW?) will defend the indefensible and will come across as either out of touch or angry or both. He will run on the fear ticket over the next months, but side by side with Obama he won't have his surrogates to say the things he knows are not true.

To all the Naderites: Are you really proud of what your vote did for the country and world over the last eight years? You allowed a buffoon to be elected over an intelligent and decent man. The cost of your purity of vision is rather like Pilot washing his hands.

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When you people are done cheering for the nominee, take a look at Mccain and Obama's voting records and you'll find very little difference. And I for one am sick and tired of people lecturing the need to just "shut up and get behind the candidate" election after election after election , etc ... And every time true progressives, liberals, civil libertarians, etc ... are fed up with getting their issues kicked to the curb year after year, the only empty "promise" they'll get is "we'll look into it next year kid. just elect this democrat and it'll be done." So instead of long term building, all you people can do is be a bunch of DUMB PAVLOV DOGS and bow down to the corporate media ?!?!? ENOUGH ALREADY ! This party has had it GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKING CHANCES ALREADY and THEY FUCKING BLEW IT !! How many more years of ABUSE do you people want from these two parties? It's high time we DEMOLISHED the DemoGAGic party that enables the ruthless GOP and then we the people can actually be WINNERS and not LOSERS. Now, who's ready to be a WINNER ?!?!?

VOTENADER.ORG !!

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Besides, 3rd parties have no conventions !

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What are you people afraid of? That the two party duopoly and the corporate media will face public embarassment and outrage ?!?!? I say BRING IT ON !!!!

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It's pretty laughable to see people so vehemently arguing between the 2 corporate candidates for president and their minuscule differences.

I'd go on about how they're both pro-war and won't change the decades of tyranny and aggression that make up US foreign policy, about how neither will revoke the Patriot Act nor restore the Bill of Rights, but why bother?

Let's look at the last presidential elections. We know from Greg Palast and others that the 2000 election was stolen -- there's absolutely no doubt about that. We also know from Palast and others that the 2004 election was stolen.

In Europe, an election with a margin of error of more than two-tenths of a percentage point is deemed questionable and subject to a mandatory recount. In 2004 in the US the margin of "error" was over 5%.

And in every state where this "anomaly" appeared, it (a) worked to the benefit of the Cheney-Bush ticket, and (b) was reported by computerized systems.

This very month Diebold (now reincorporated as "Premier Election Solutions, Inc.") admitted that their machines do not count votes correctly -- yet those machines will still be used in the upcoming elections.

And yet people in the US still believe we have fair elections. Talk about Pollyanna!

The wealthy elites and corporations who control our elections, mass media, and country may allow Obama to win. Hell, he sold out long ago so they know he's no threat to the status quo. And the "skinny black kid with the funny name" makes great headlines and will cause many to "believe" in our corrupt, immoral government.

But if you see the problems of the US, there are only 3 things any honest person of integrity can do:

1. Boycott voting for the parties of tweedledum and tweedledee

2. Vote for a third party candidate

3. And most importantly, work your ass off building new political parties that will break the two-party plutocracy and actually represent the people

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hahahahahaha the photo of Obama hovering over the Earth like a cheesy picture of Jesus on a catholic flier is cracking me up! The man is half black and we're acting like he's the second coming. If I were him, I'd take a good look at whether this country shoving him into that position is good or bad. Afterall, he has an awful lot to live up to...saving humanity, walking on water, parting the red seas...things of that nature. We are also a warlike culture remember, the higher they soar the harder they fall.

If he didn't go back on FISA, he would have had my vote. If he didn't piss all over Hillary's voters, I'd have voted for him. What a lion in sheep's clothing people wake up. He's a puppet.

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Reading the comments here, we have a candidate for the first time in a long while dared America to dream. He set out a visions, some may disagree with parts, but there is no perfect candidate. Nader, McKinney and Barr would, outside of progressive land, these candidates would never attract more then a few votes. As a whole America is a centrist nation. We believe not in one political vision but many. Obama sort to draw from the broadest range of these visions, not stay within one.

He did not back away from the tough issues that in the past have been the repbulican blackjack used to beat other candidates. He challeneged republicans, he defanged talk radio, by defining what patroits are, by reminding the American population, that it was Democrates that defended america during WWII and where the first to face down the Russian Bear.

For those who will still vote for Nader, McKinney and BArr, you are not aloud to whin if McCain wins, you for your own selfish reasons turned your back on the nation. In a fit of narcissism, filled with a holier then thou rage, laugh at those of us who are pragmatic, who know that real change, change that doesn't surpress the rights of others and change that all can agree to takes time and patience. NAder is not offering anything new, he is a fool, who doesn;t realize he is a tool of the republicans to distract democrates. McKinney runs not for some greater purpose but for herself.

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Obama has already told you quite clearly he is a centrist Democrat. That means corporatism.

He has told you without hesitation he loves the free market and that he holds the market to be the hallmark of America's greatness.

Perhaps this writer and many others simply don't know what a populist agenda would look like. It's either that or these Obama fans wish to patch their illusions on the next-great "hope" either out of desperation or insanity.

Lemme see here... as a short term, transitional program I would suggest the following:

1) Immediate passage of a reinforced version of FDR's "Economic Bill of Rights" - the unconditional right to food, shelter, health care, education, and security in old age or infirmity (for continuity with "Democrats" - you know, FDR).

2) The universal right and obligation to work, at a reasonable standard of wages.

3) The evacuation of all U.S. Overseas military bases and territories, the elimination of that greater part of the defense establishment devoted to anything but national defense, and the immediate dismantling of all "intelligence agencies, foreign and domestic.

4) The immediate nationalization of all defense related industries.

5) The immediate nationalization of all banks and financial institutions, all energy related companies, all power generation and transport, and all other industries of strategic significance.

6) The confiscation of the property of all speculators, lobbyists, corporate criminals, and those who have let industrial, agricultural, and commercial properties fall into disuse and disrepair. The immediate confiscation of the property of those who have transferred commercial ventures or capital overseas.

7) The dismantling of the judicial and penal systems, the nationalization of all private aspects of those systems, the immediate review of all laws and criminal penalties, and the reduction of the prison population by 80% within 2 years. The immediate elimination of capital punishment.

8) The creation of the organs of "peoples power" with full plenary rights at every level of the society at each job site and important jurisdiction, the replacement of municipal authority by such and the rapid creation of a single system of laws, obligations, and responsibilities.

9) The creation of a peoples militia which will consist of the entire people armed and the transition of all extra police and para military functions to that body.

After that we can catch our breath and decide what we really want to do next...

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Obama gave a great speech in which he finally started going after McCain and pointed out with deftness and toughness the idiocy of traditional Republican attack tactics disguised as salt-of-the-earthism and actual policies.

that said. Progressive? Populist? i am genuinely curious as to how many readers literally spat out their coffee in astonishment when they read your headline.

you have produced a series of articles in which you do nothing more than string together a series of excerpts, either from a stump speech or from Obama's homepage itself. not only is this irresponsible, it's also ineffective. look at the response you're getting: people are smarter than you on these boards, and you are insulting our intelligence. instead of riling up the audience, (which was Obama's job, not yours,) you're deflating the emotional enthusiasm conjured by a brilliant spectacle by calling it something that it clearly is not. in the words of Obama: ENOUGH.

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I'm going to make a very general statement here: I always come here to read about the way i'd like to see this country and the world. I would love it if we could take a collective pill and become a nation of people who all that care about the welfare and progess of everyone on this planet... I'm about as liberal as they come. But this country in particular, is a place with a ridiculously giant cross-section of people. And the reality is, this country is never going to wake up one morning and swing all the way over to the left. It's not going to happen. And while I would have to call those with a conseravtive agenda as inherantly selfish, we have to work with them. We have to deal with them. There's no chance for complete satisfaction. We must make sure Obama is elected. He can make changes domestically that we need. Yes, he might have a tough time ending war in the middle east... but I believe he'd like to improve the situation and not lead us into a war with Iran. This guy will be able to unite a broad range of people in this country and we need it. I think it's ridiculous to imply that this guy doesn't care about "the people." He has to play the game so he is. I agree with so much of what is said around here re/ Nader and a thrid party. But it's just not something that is at all reasonable to the other side. We are desperate to get back to something reasonable. The Right is wrong... plain and simple. But they're not going anywhere. Don't kid yourselves and get all self-righteous. A thrid party vote is a vote for McSame and a vote for the wrong side of reasonable.

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Notwithstanding the right-wing trolls who seem to be infesting these fora (head-lice-like) more and more of late, or the perpetually-bitter arm-chair "progressive" navel gazers with their petulant dog-in-the-manger demands for ideological purity at any cost, let me just say that Obama's speech, considered solely as political rhetoric, was superb, and will go down as one of the most effective in modern American politics.

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In reading all the comments I felt that so many people are depending on Obama to be one thing: the representative of their own interests. If he wanders from this agenda, the personal agenda, then they are going to be pissy about it.

Obama is a politician. He wants to win this election. He will try to appeal to as many people as he can in order to reach that goal. I don't doubt that he is more centrist than I am, but I am willing to support him even then because I know that nothing will be accomplished in this country unless he does work his political magic more toward the center. That just makes sense; it is where the most votes and cooperation are likely to be.

I hope someday activists in this country will take us beyond a two-party system, beyond corporatism, beyond the encroaching fascism, but until that happens we are stuck with what is. I see Obama not as America's savior, but as an intelligent human being who can LEAD us in the right direction. It is a beginning. He does not have all the answers, nor do we. It will be our responsibility to speak; it will be Obama's responsibility to listen. Together, we will craft solutions.

The really big difference I see between Obama and McCain is that Obama will listen (and therefore we will have a say in creating our future), and McCain will not hear us well, or at all, if we seek to interfere with the ideological agenda he seems bent on pursuing.

I wish Obama/Biden well. We all, including these two, have a lot of growing up to do.

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A clue people, NADER AND OTHER 3RD PARTY CANDIDATES CANNOT WIN!!!

Anyone confused by this? It's making me sick listening to some of you whining about Obama. Go vote Nader and McBush or whatever, as though that isn't the same thing. Makes me want to dig out the napkins to wipe your noses.

As for the "everything is staged and you're all fools" crowd, either dig out your guns and start the revolution or pick a new topic. Obviously you are stuck with the loser 3rd party crowd and get what you deserve in government.

Right up there with the loop job crowd saying the towers were destroyed by our own government! Flakier than a box of Ritz crackers.

Whine all you want to but the truth is this. Unless you want to start the revolution we have two choices this election, McBush or Obama. Face it, live it, and then do what you want. Just try not to push any of those defeatist wimpy ideas onto the rest of us.

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I've come to the conclusion that the problem with America isn't Bush, McCain or Obama for that matter. Anyone with an IQ approaching room temperature can determine that politicians and corporate types are crooks, liars and psychopaths. That's a no brainer.

No, the problem is the one hundred million or so idiots who walk into the voting booth every four years.

How else can you explain eight years of George W. Bush?

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Progressive Obama? He should have negotiated with the Denver Mayor and Police to stop the Police Brutality. He could have said that the people outside were better Democrats than the actors inside. He could have said: "If elected President, I will go back to the Constitution which guarantees free speech" He should have said "Fisa was a mistake I made and will undo if elected". He could have said: "I am a loyal friend and do not ditch my friends for telling the unpopular truth (The Rev. Jeremiah Wright for instance". He could have stood firm on Roe v. Wade . He could have asked better people than Madelyne Albright (this is change) to stand beside him on the Dais. And if he does not ditch Terry McAuliffe, he will have the same fate as Gore and Kerry. He should have told AIPAC that their reign is over. But I guess is did not fit into his neo-con leaning agenda. The Olympics were a scripted circus in an undemocratic country where dissent gets rewared with jail, but at least they had good athletes. The Democrats convention was scripted and stage managed in a "democratic Country" where dissenters get jailed, but there were not even good athletes to break the disgust. Sorry about that folks, better luck next time.

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Somewhere in all of our problems is the idea that we never came out of that "me generation" that Ronald Reagan ushered in. That was a reaction to Mr. Rogers (jimmy carter) who told us to put on a sweater and turn down the thermostat. Carter's whole persona was about modesty, integrity, and knowing when enough is enough. Like going 55 mph and carpooling. I guess we were to cool for that!
We all seem to have evolved into SUV's, McMansions, and a fast paced life. We buy lots of plastic at walmart to throw on the landfill, and we don't eat at home anymore. We just come home to sleep. The republicrats didn't "cause" this, but they sure were our accompalice(sp?). If we had more willpower we could have told our own president to go to hell, and assert our right to our own lifestyle. It ain't about who is our president, it is about who we are. Wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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“Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans?”

--Any quote where McCain says the middle class are those making under 5 million a year I’ll GUARNANTEE were taken out of context. Show me the quote. Tax breaks to oil companies help keep gas prices low for you and me-good thing, not a bad thing. Tax breaks for big corporations? Sure why not. We have the highest business tax rate in the so-called “industrialized” world. If you had a choice of 35% tax rate or 10% tax rate, which would YOU choose if you were a business? Ever occurred to Obama that high tax rates on businesses would be the cause for the “outsourcing” of American jobs?

“We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.”

Not true.
http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304643903414901


“Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.”

There is NO specific targeting of tax breaks for ONLY those companies that send jobs overseas. As if the Bush policy was you only get a tax break if you send your jobs overseas?? Does Obama (or anyone else) really believe that?


“I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.”

Oh how noble.. You mean as opposed to Bush, who cut taxes for 100% of all working families??

"I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.”

Ohhhhhh well lookie here! Did he steal this line from one of Bush’s speeches of 2000 or 2004?

“And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.”

Are you seroius?! The whole reason we’re in a position to negotiate at timetable in the 1st place is because of the surge, which Obama so adamantly opposed.. He has since removed language from his website criticizing the surge, but STILL hasn’t quite come around to saying it worked.


"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."
--Yeah sure you are, tough guy.. Just like you were ready to have town hall debates with John McCain "anytime, anywhere" and then pussied out and settled for only the 3 conventional debates.

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This is progressive? It's barbaric certainly. I guess "progressive" is one of those words you can use to mean anything and everthing.

Progressively more stupid?

Progressively more evil?

Progressively more tyrannical?

Progressively more Israel Firster?

Progressively more New World Order?

Progressively more Eugenics?

Progressively more like the Antichrist?

The Bible says the "man of sin" who will rule the world will get a deadly wound to the head and recover. Texe Marrs says Obama could be playing hte part of the reincarnation of Osirus, who all these Freemason devil worshippers are into all that Egyptian/Babylonian paganism. His recorded message this week is Obama the Black Pharaoh.

Osirus was known to be black and green. Obama is definitely "green" the way he wants a global tax on breathing.

America wants a peacemaker, not a warmonger. We've been given a choice between two warmongers, both CFR, both Israel firsters. When do we get to vote for somebody that we want, somebody who is for peace, who will put America first, not Israel.

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Remember when we were told to just STFU and get behind the Dems so they could achieve control of the House and Senate? Was that before or after another 'historical', 'groundbreaking', 'smash the the glass ceiling into millions of pieces' politician by the name of Nancy Pelosi politely told us to fuck off and forget impeachment?

What is their approval rating right now? Just what the hell did they actually accomplish in two years and how many promises did they break along the way? How many of you were ranting and raving about the despicable Dems not 6 weeks ago?

And you wonder why some of us might be skeptical of Mr. Obama. Some pretty damn short memories 'round here. Oh, right, I forgot. Obama is a totally different breed of politician! He's the honest lawyer with the Ivy league pedigree kind of politician that refuses public campaign finance and votes yes on FISA and seems to have an affinity for the Patriot Act. What's that you say? Immunity for Telcos that spied on you? Now that's Hope and Change.

Hope and Change - Hope and Change - Hope and Change . . . repeat it after me.

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When are we going to hear any of these candidates mention the word "Constitution?" Like that document that's been trashed, all our rights taken, and now we are left with a dictatorship run by people who seem to care only for Israel and building a New World Order.

I think Ron Paul was a plant. Any serious third party run this year would have won. But Ron Paul quit in the middle of the race and allowed most of his votes to be stolen without a whimper of protest.

These guys are all Freemasons and this whole election is a big sham. I'm staying home this year, not voting for anybody. I refuse to participate in such a fraud and lend credibility to the people who are putting on this big charade for the benefit of we the serfs to make us think we have a choice (we don't) and that this is our country and that we are in control (we are not).

The "plan" that these vipers hatch in their secret meetings in places like Bohemian Grove include how to destroy America and America's people, to pretty much just get rid of us. What better way than to provoke nuclear war with Russia in as this phony "war on terror" proceeds.

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http://workingvillages.org

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... and it won't be to us little people Obama lies about bringing him all his money.

Attention, Starry-Eyed Idealist types! We all wanna believe, but the way it works is pay or die. Obama couldn't be a populist if he wanted too. He's more of a smoothie who'll tell us what we want to hear than anything else.

So yes, let's vote out the Republicans but THEN we have to be on Obama like a second skin and make him the president we need.

That's how it works: WE have to short-circuit the payback.

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Those who vote for Nader are as cynical and twisted as the most far right ditto head lovers of hate mongering, Ann Coulter loving barbarity.
You are irrelevant.

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Just wanted to say that 'surfreality' whoever you may be, hit the old nail right on the head. It appears to me that the only course left to us is to make sure Obama gets elected, then hold his feet to the fire until we get the changes we must have. We need to re-regulate the banking industry,the credit card co.s, the lobbying industry, and the health care industry. And most of all we need to stick a harpoon into Bush, reel him in, and see that he comes clean about every damned thing he's done over the last 8 years. If we are to be a Nation of Laws, we have to obey the law, and punish those who don't.
Thanks a lot Surfer, and what the hell were you doing up at 5:56 in the AM? I'm an early riser myself, but not that early.
And Thanks to Alternet, and all who pass this way.

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To the freedom and future of the people of the United States is:

S E C R E C Y &
T H E _ B L A C K _ B U D G E T

I hope the Obama's take this monster on, because the only one that has ever tried to clean out the massive, illegal national security structure was JFK. We need to finish the job or we'll have technology suppression, resource wars and dirty fund raisers like Iran-Contra untill we have eradicated ourselves from this beautyful blue planet.

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More for the military, not a word about the 2500 ton gorilla in the room (53 TRILLION debt), whinning about Iraq's paltry $ surplus after 0ne million have died in this crusade, ect. ect. ect. What we have here folks is the madison avenue political equivalent of 'New & Improved' Not much to get excited about in my book.

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