THE OBAMA NATIONAL SECURITY WORKING GROUP.

post from Ezra Klein on 18 June 2008 11:59:00 AM. © Ezra Klein

The Obama campaign released the lineup of their "National Security Working Group" today, and it's not an incredibly exciting group of people. The participants are:Secretary of State Madeleine AlbrightSenator David Boren, former Chairman of the Senate[...]

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http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=06&year=2008&base_name
=the_obama_national_security_wo

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The Removal of Clothing Does Not Lead to Nudity

post from Firedoglake on 18 June 2008 11:50:53 AM. © Firedoglake

That's a claim that Jim "Chevron" Haynes made yesterday in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on torture yesterday. In a pathetic attempt to claim that his own 2-page (with zero footnotes) recommendation and Rummy's subsequent authorization of a[...]

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http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/18/the-removal-of-clothing-does-not-lea
d-to-nudity/

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Sen. Reed castigates William Haynes: ‘You
denigrated the integrity of the U.S. military.’

post from Think Progress on 18 June 2008 11:50:00 AM. © Think Progress

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, former Pentagon counsel William Haynes tried to absolve himself of blame for detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. ?As the lawyer, I was not the decision maker. I was the adviser,? he said. With anger in his voice, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) told Haynes that his advice had led American soldiers drastically astray:

You did a disservice to the soldiers of this nation. You empowered them to violate basic conditions which every soldier respects — the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the Geneva Convention. ? Don?t go around with this attitude of you?re protecting the integrity of the military. You degraded the integrity of the United States military.

Watch it:

Haynes was part of five-person team of high-level administration lawyers, dubbed the ?War Council,? who hatched out the legal framework for torture in secret meetings. McClatchy reports, ?The quintet did more than condone harsh treatment, however. It created an environment in which it was nearly impossible to prosecute soldiers or officials for alleged crimes committed in U.S. detention facilities.?

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/18/sen-reed-castigates-william-haynes-you-denigr
ated-the-integrity-of-the-us-military/

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Sen. Reed castigates William Haynes: ‘You
degrated the integrity of the U.S. military.’

post from Think Progress on 18 June 2008 11:50:00 AM. © Think Progress

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, former Pentagon counsel William Haynes tried to absolve himself of blame for detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. ?As the lawyer, I was not the decision maker. I was the adviser,? he said. With anger in his voice, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) told Haynes that his advice had led American soldiers drastically astray:

You did a disservice to the soldiers of this nation. You empowered them to violate basic conditions which every soldier respects — the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the Geneva Convention. ? Don?t go around with this attitude of you?re protecting the integrity of the military. You degraded the integrity of the United States military.

Watch it:

Haynes was part of five-person team of high-level administration lawyers, dubbed the ?War Council,? who hatched out the legal framework for torture in secret meetings. McClatchy reports, ?The quintet did more than condone harsh treatment, however. It created an environment in which it was nearly impossible to prosecute soldiers or officials for alleged crimes committed in U.S. detention facilities.?

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/18/sen-reed-castigates-william-haynes-you-denigr
ated-the-integrity-of-the-us-military/

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Sen. Reed castigates William Haynes: ‘You
degraded the integrity of the U.S. military.’

post from Think Progress on 18 June 2008 11:50:00 AM. © Think Progress

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, former Pentagon counsel William Haynes tried to absolve himself of blame for detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. ?As the lawyer, I was not the decision maker. I was the adviser,? he said. With anger in his voice, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) told Haynes that his advice had led American soldiers drastically astray:

You did a disservice to the soldiers of this nation. You empowered them to violate basic conditions which every soldier respects — the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the Geneva Convention. ? Don?t go around with this attitude of you?re protecting the integrity of the military. You degraded the integrity of the United States military.

Watch it:

Haynes was part of five-person team of high-level administration lawyers, dubbed the ?War Council,? who hatched out the legal framework for torture in secret meetings. McClatchy reports, ?The quintet did more than condone harsh treatment, however. It created an environment in which it was nearly impossible to prosecute soldiers or officials for alleged crimes committed in U.S. detention facilities.?

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/18/sen-reed-castigates-william-haynes-you-denigr
ated-the-integrity-of-the-us-military/

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Michelle Obama Channels Betty Ford

post from Connecting.the.Dots on 18 June 2008 11:48:00 AM. © Connecting.the.Dots

But in the era of gender and racial correctness, not quite...

On "The View" today, according to the Times' Jodi Kantor, "She got to explain her 'proud' comment at length, in a friendly setting; she talked about her husband and children in approachable terms; she stressed her humble roots (she just said her mother has a slight gambling habit, and has won $17,000 with what sound like quarter slots). That said, it looks like Mrs. Obama is having the appearance of fun, rather than actual fun. This is not the loosest I?ve seen her, and she is surely watching every word."

No wonder. "Unlike her husband, who wrote in his memoir that he had learned at a young age to smile and charm and disarm whites of the notion that he might be a bristly black militant," Maureen Dowd observes, "Michelle has not always hidden her jangly opinions so well."

Over three decades ago, Americans fell in love with an outspoken First Lady, who didn't hesitate to talk about birth control, her addiction to alcohol or anything else she was asked. But Betty Ford came to the White House without running an election campaign gauntlet--behaving naturally unlike others who could pass for inflatable life-sized dolls permanently positioned to stare adoringly at their husbands.

Michelle Obama has a lot of that outspokenness in her, but in this election year, a rare combination of racism and sexism will be waiting to twist everything she says. It will take a delicate balance to channel her inner Betty Ford while preventing haters from picturing her, in Dowd's words, as "a female version of Jeremiah Wright, an angry black woman."

It might help to keep in mind that Mrs. Ford deflected criticism by keeping her sense of humor. Telling a reporter that the media was asking all kinds of personal questions, except how often she slept with her husband, she volunteered to answer that, too.

"As often as I can," Betty Ford said.

Read The Full Article:
http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2008/06/michelle-obama-channels-betty-ford.html

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FLOHPA!!! Bitches!!!

post from American Street on 18 June 2008 11:43:00 AM. © American Street

Yesterday the PPP Poll looked at Ohio and put Obama up significantly. Today, McClatchy reports Quinnipiac University has OH! Bama up in Ohio too, but not by as much, but he’s also leading in Florida which all the punditry says he’ll have trouble winning, and up by 12 points in Pennsylvania, where they’re “clinging” [...]

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http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2008/06/18/flohpa-bitches/

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OBAMA RUMORS.

post from Ezra Klein on 18 June 2008 11:40:00 AM. © Ezra Klein

Chris Beam has a fun piece at Slate arguing that the Obama campaign needs to stop whining about rumors spread through e-mail forwards and begin disseminating a couple of their own. he's even got suggestions:A tape exists of Michelle Obama saying the[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=06&year=2008&base_name
=obama_rumors

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REPUBLICANS BLAMING McCAIN HIMSELF FOR THE
VICIOUS AND RACIST CAMPAIGN AGAINST MICHELLE OBAMA

Filmmaker Frank Schaeffer blogs at HuffPo but he's a lifelong conservative. (He recently re-registered as an independent.) Like longtime GOP operative Mark McKinnon, who quit the McCain campaign after he saw the vicious attack plans drawn up to destroy Obama and his family, Schaeffer is sickened by the demonization McCain partisans are using against Obama and his wife. (Today McCain said he was deeply disappointed that McCain is sitting by while his supports make up the most vicious and psychotic stories about Michelle Obama.

Michelle Obama is the most attractive aspect of Senator Obama's presidential race. She is the jewel in the crown of a beautiful and exemplary family, the kind of family that "family values" Republicans such as myself are supposed to revere. The fact Michelle Obama is Senator Obama's wife is one very good reason amongst many to vote for him... Today the Republicans unleashing a series of vile and stupid lie-based attacks on Michelle Obama have eschewed and/or forgotten, both the traditional lessons of gentlemanly behavior and any code of honor let alone a post-feminist achievement-based respect for women.

Conservative columnists accuse Michelle Obama of being "unpatriotic." They say "she simmers with undigested racial anger." A blogger circulated unfounded claims that Michelle Obama gave a speech about "whitey." FOX News called her "Obama's baby mama," a derogatory term for a black unwed mother. The National Review called her "Mrs. Grievance." From Rush Limbaugh to the most obscure local right wing talk radio host, Michelle Obama is mocked and often in none too subtle racist tones.

Today's Republicans are neither gentlemen (in the old Bill Buckley or George Herbert Walker Bush mold) or enlightened. Their presidential candidate-- McCain-- is a perfect match for the cads lying about Michelle Obama. Having abandoned the mother of his children in her hour of need because she was disfigured in a car accident, having run around on her after he came back from Vietnam, and then, finally, having chased down and acquired both a $100 million fortune and a young blond along with it, McCain is hardly a poster boy for the traditional values the Republican Party used to at least say it represented.

Now McCain's allies, from the National Review, to the morons at FOX News let alone the hosts of talk radio shows, are lining up to throw mud on Michelle Obama. They are a perfect match with the misogynist cad McCain.

This whole crew would be a much better fit in the woman-baiting beer halls of fascist prewar Spain or Italy than in either the old politics of the Republican Party (William F. Buckley are you spinning in your grave?) or the kind of conservatism (with all its imperialist and patriarchal flaws notwithstanding) that I grew up with in the old school of both evangelical belief and my British school.

In the attacks on Michelle Obama the glaring reality of the utter hate-filled moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party and its supporters is apparent. These liars and bullies are all about seeking power through any means. Having failed miserably to govern for the last eight years, having gotten us into a war-of-choice-- in which, by the way, my honorable Marine son fought bravely-- they now turn to character assassination of an outstanding mother, woman, executive and yes I dare use the term, Lady.

Earlier today Mike Huckabee said this strategy is so offbase that it could doom whatever slim chance McCain has to win the presidency. At the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo Huckabee called Obama's nomination "a landmark achievement and, alluding to the disastrous stewardship of the economy by Bush-- a stewardship that the record shows has been fully rubber stamped by McCain-- he said "When people are really hurting-- and they are right now-- they're not looking at a person's race... Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonizing Barack Obama."

But with new polling showing McCain sinking further and further in the public's eyes-- as though the more they see of him, the surer they are they don't want to see him in the White House-- the lobbyists running the campaign are growing increasingly desperate and willing to use the most vile and divisive tactics to cut Obama down. Here's what they saw when they woke up this morning:

? Florida: Obama edges McCain 47 - 43 percent;
? Ohio: Obama tops McCain 48 - 42 percent;
? Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain 52 - 40 percent.

Read The Full Article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/06/republicans-blaming-mccain-himself-fo
r.html

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FOX's Brit Hume gets story wrong about Obama

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 18 June 2008 11:34:00 AM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

Now there's a headline you don't read every day. Oh, I'm sorry, yes you do, because FOX is always getting their facts wrong. This time, FOX "quoted" Obama's brother as supposedly saying (he didn't) that Obama is a Muslim (he isn't). Yeah, the thing is, Obama's brother never said any such thing, as the audio of the actual interview shows. But hey, never put it beyond FOX News to get a story wrong in the interests of furthering the Republican party's far right agenda.