Barack's money problems

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE   BARACK OBAMA WAS HOPING TO GET A BIG LIFT OUT OF MY TRAVELS IN LIP GLOSS OVERSEAS; HOWEVER, MOST WERE NOT INTERETED AND TODAY HE WAS PEPPERED WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW HE COULD BE SUCH A CHEAP FATHER AFTER IT WAS REVEALED MR. TIGHT WAD GIVES HIS TWO DAUGHTERS ONE DOLLAR EACH FOR A WEEKLY ALLOWANCE.   "THEY CAN BUY WHATEVER THEY WANT WITH THEIR DOLLAR," SENATOR BAMBI INSISTED.   WHEN PRESSED FURTHER, HE STATED, "THEY'RE GIRLS, THEY DON'T NEED MONEY.  IF I HAD SONS, I'D BE GIVING THEM TEN DOLLARS A WEEK!"   REALIZING HIS FAUX PAS, BARACK IMMEDIATELY STARTED INSISTING REPORTERS FOLLOW UP ON THE REPORTS ABOUT JOHN EDWARDS.   FROM THE TCI WIRE:     Starting with war resistance.  In June 2006, Lt Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to the illegal war.  Since Judge Benjamin Settle ruled last November that the US military could not attempt a second (kanagroo) court-martial of Watada while the double-jeopardy issue remains, he has been in limbo.  In a grab-bag column about a number of topics, Christina Clark (Nebraksa's Gateway) mentions Watada while discussing how the Iraq War is illegal: "Bush did not receive permission from the United Nations to invade Iraq.  In September 2004, then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that the war was 'not in conformity with the U.N. Charter, from our point of view and from the Charter point of view, it was illegal.' A number of military personnel, most notably 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, have refused to serve in the war because they consider it 'illegal' and have been court marshaled as a result."  As Rebecca noted of Watada last Friday, "the contract expired in 2006. it's time for the military to release him.  instead they keep him in the military and he has to report for duty on the base every day."   Meanwhile Chris Vanderveen (9 News Denver) reports that the War Resisters Support Campaign's Lee Zaslofsky has gone to Colorado to show his support for US war resister Robin Long who was extradited from Canada last Tuesday and states of Robin being expelled, "(Canadians) are very distressed by this.  This is going against the tradition we have in our country."  Meanwhile Angela Giles (The Chronicle Herald) argues for war resisters' right to remain in Canada and notes, "They have a higher obligation to international law than their 'duty' to just follow orders. . . . We now know soldiers are systematically ordered to violate international humanitarian law in Iraq -- from torture to intentionally targeting civilians -- and there are more revelations of war crimes emerging every day. . . .  The U.S. soldiers seeking refuge in Canada signed up to defend their country, not to commit war crimes."   To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca").  Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote.  Now they've started a new letter you can use online here.  The War Resisters Support Campaign's petition can be found here.  Long expulsion does not change the need for action and the War Resisters Support Campaign explains: "The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on supporters across Canada to urgently continue to put pressure on the minority conservative government to immediately cease deportation proceedings against other US war resisters and to respect the will of Canadians and their elected representatives by implementing the motion adopted by Parliament on June 3rd. Please see the take action page for what you can do."   There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Andrei Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).   [. . .]     Turning to the US presidential race.  MediaChannel -- for some unknown reason -- is pushing a stupid study by "Media Tenor."  "Media Tenor" is not a media watchdog, it's part of Democracy In Action -- yet another front group funded with blood money. Go to MediaChannel if you're interested in reading it.  (My comments are not about MediaChannel, they are about "Media Tenor").  It's an 'analysis' that is both factually 'free' and non-content based.  It's a 'study' in the way your eight-year-old brother or sister might write a book 'report.'  It's also insulting.  Barack Obama and John McCain are not candidates for president.  They are 'presumptive' candidates.   Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are actual candidates and they're shut out of the 'analysis.'  It's superficial crap that wants credit for finger-pointing at . . .  super-ficial crap.  As Phoebe famously said on Friends, "Hello Monica, this is kettle, you're black."  Media Tenor's garbage doesn't need to be circulated, it needs to be put in the trash.  MediaChannel got a link, but no link to the trash of "Democracy" In Action or "Media Tenor" or all the other partisan outlets staffed with dimwits paid in blood money.  Shame on you all.  (If need be, Ava says we can revisit the garbage being offered by Media Tenor at Third in our TV commentary Sunday but, if we do, we'll be doing a 'greatest hits' and not offering anything on any program airing this week.)   Paul Street takes on the myth of Saint Barack here (Black Agenda Report).  Kenneth J. Theisen (World Can't Wait) calls out the War Hawk Barack here.  Sally Soriano of Team Nader notes:   Yes, indeed. You read that right. You can win the grand prize -- a dinner with our main man -- Ralph Nader (at a mutually agreed time and place.) How? We're looking to build our e-mail list, to expand our grassroots support, and to spread the bedrock Nader/Gonzalez campaign message -- shift the power from the corporate controlled political parties back into the hands of the people. So, we're having a contest. The person who brings in the most e-mail sign-ups by August 7 at midnight to votenader.org wins. Open to legal U.S. residents, 18 years or older at time of entry. You invite your friends, family, neighbors and anyone else to sign up for Nader/Gonzalez updates. The person who brings us the most e-mails wins the grand prize -- dinner with Ralph Nader. (Check out our privacy policy here.) During the course of the contest, you can keep track of how you are doing on our "Win Dinner With Ralph E-mail Contest Leaderboard." It's sort of like kicking back on a Sunday afternoon and watching the PGA leaderboard. Except that this isn't golf. It's democracy. And even if you don't grab the grand prize, there are a whole bunch of other prizes too. Second prize is dinner with Ralph's VP running mate Matt Gonzalez (also at a mutually agreed time and place.) Third prize is an invitation to our election night party in Washington, D.C. Then the next seventeen people get an autographed copy of Unsafe at Any Speed and an autographed copy of the DVD An Unreasonable Man Everyone who brings in at least 25 email sign-ups will receive a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Are you ready to play? You are? Okay. Get out your address book. Start your e-mail engine. And let 'er rip. Click here to get started. Remember, you can keep track of who's winning on our leaderboard. (For the complete set of rules, click here.) May the person who brings in the most e-mails to votenader.org win.   RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot" "Robin Long" "Provincial elections?" "naomi wolf, fool and borrower" "The New Yorker, the debates" "Kevin Zeese" "McCain, Barack, et al" "Short post" "Isaiah, Nader and more" "The racists of MoveOn and Color of Change" "THIS JUST IN! MOVEON HAS NO STANDARDS!"