Turnwhipple! (A Blog)

“While both candidates are members of the same U.S. Senate, Sen. Obama is the one who has distinguished himself as the better agent for changing Washington. Remember, on the issues, the differences between the Obama and Clinton platforms are thin or non-existent. He has set himself apart by enunciating a vision of a different America, one that people recognize as resting on the nation’s founding principles. His vision calls upon ”the better angels of our nature” just as Abraham Lincoln did in 1861.”

The Obama I Know: (Chicago Tribune) This is an insightful read. “Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Obama was my colleague at the University of Chicago Law School.”

Barack Obama Tells Crowd that Homophobia is Not Christian (Video) ‘Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday,’ he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers. ‘I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian,’ he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.”

Washington Post gave Obama’s economic plan an A- and gave Hillary’s a C

“A-minus. I criticized his previous tax plan, but Obama is at the head of the class with an intelligently designed, $120 billion stimulus plan.”

Wall Street Journal preferred Obama’s healthcare plan over Hillary Clinton’s

“Yet if Mrs. Clinton’s plan is better because it has a mandate, how does it work in the real world, where some people still won’t be able to afford insurance, or would decline to acquire it? At a recent debate, the Illinois Senator drove the point home, asking Mrs. Clinton, “You can mandate it but there will still be people who can’t afford it. And if they can’t afford it, what are you going to fine them? Are you going to garnish their wages?” And in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton conceded that “we will have an enforcement mechanism” that might include “you know, going after people’s wages.”

Well, well. In other words, HillaryCare II isn’t all about “choice,” but would require financial penalties for people to pay attention, including garnishing wages. To put it more accurately, the individual mandate is really a government mandate that requires brute force plus huge subsidies to get anywhere near its goal of universal coverage.”

Judge him by his laws (Washington Post) Obama’s legislative achievements

People who complain that Barack Obama lacks experience must be unaware of his legislative achievements. One reason these accomplishments are unfamiliar is that the media have not devoted enough attention to Obama’s bills and the effort required to pass them, ignoring impressive, hard evidence of his character and ability.

I found the BEEF - Obama’s Senate Record: Next time someone asks you “where’s the beef” in Senator Obama’s Senate record, please send them this link.

Obama Didn’t Want My Money! The Obama campaign returned a $100.00 donation check to a donor with a letter explaining why. The letter left the individual even more committed to Obama.

Obama Returns $50,000 in Lobbyists’ Money Obama takes a stand and returns the lobbyists’ money. I can only wish the rest of the candidates had the guts to refuse to be influenced by special interest groups and lobbyists’ like Obama appears to be doing.

Obama’s Secret Weapon - The Truth: (The Telegraph) Barack Obama is ready to be America’s first black president because he is prepared to tell uncomfortable truths. According to his half sister the frankness of his words is typical of his honest approach to life, “even when it wasn’t convenient or when it would generate discomfort with family, friends, or co-workers”

McCain: Obama ‘Absolutely’ Qualified to Be President Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said recently that the leader for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, would be “absolutely” qualified to be president, should the voters elect him.

Richardson Endorses Obama: “Once-In-A-Lifetime Leader” Bill Richardson, the nation’s only Hispanic governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a “once-in-a- lifetime leader” who can unite the nation and restore America’s international leadership.

Obama is the change that America has tried to hide (The Guardian [UK]) “If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. ”

Obama’s vision is reason to nominate him (PA) The Morning Call recommends that Sen. Barack Obama be nominated.

…In fact, while both candidates are members of the same U.S. Senate, Sen. Obama is the one who has distinguished himself as the better agent for changing Washington. Remember, on the issues, the differences between the Obama and Clinton platforms are thin or non-existent. He has set himself apart by enunciating a vision of a different America, one that people recognize as resting on the nation’s founding principles…

Obama Wins Backing of 9/11 Commission Chairman Lee Hamilton Considered his party’s top foreign policy figure, Hamilton said he was impressed by Obama’s approach to national security and foreign policy. “I read his national security and foreign policy speeches, and he comes across to me as pragmatic, visionary and tough.” He also sided with Obama’s foreign policy stances that have been criticized by rivals.

The Obama Feminists: Why Young Women Are Supporting Obama “The epic struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama reveals strong fault lines between some older and younger women, first underscored by no less than Gloria Steinem who scorned those of us supporting a male over a female.” written by Ariel Garfinkel

Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama “Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.”

Russ Feingold: “I Voted for Barack Obama” Senator Russ Feingold, a progressive icon who was the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001, proposed the first timeline for bringing the troops home from Iraq and sought to censure Bush over warrantless wiretapping, said he voted in Wisconsin primary for Barack Obama.

Susan Eisenhower: Why I’m Backing Obama “It is in this great tradition of crossover voters that I support Barack Obama for president. If the Democratic Party chooses Obama as its candidate, this lifelong Republican will work to get him elected and encourage him to seek strategic solutions to meet America’s greatest challenges. To be successful, our president will need bipartisan help.”

On Gay Marriage

Obama on Arts in Education

Why vote for Obama over Clinton?
In his own words…

On Net Neutrality

The “Bitter” Controversy

When a friend first mentioned this incident to me, he had said that Obama had been caught characterizing Pennsylvania voters as “bitter hicks”. However, he never uttered such a phrase.

Here is the actual statement. Please read on to understand the context which prompted his answer, since Hillary’s camp and much of the mainstream media did not present the entire picture.

“But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Read the full transcript here.

I Was There: What Obama Really Said About Pennsylvania Clinton, McCain, and media pundits have parsed a blogger’s audio tape of Obama’s remarks and criticized a sentence or two characterizing some parts of Pennsylvania and the attitudes of some Pennsylvanians. In context and in person, Senator Obama’s remarks about Pennsylvania voters left an impression diametrically opposed to that being trumpeted by his competitor’s campaigns.

“Obama Got It Exactly Right” Says, Mike Krauss, native of Levittown, Pennsylvania, former executive director of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, protégé of former Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh. “Many are [bitter], and have been for a long time.”

Fordham Prof: Obama’s Words about “Bitter” Workers are True Fordham Univ. Prof Paul Levinson: “Why should working families having trouble making ends meet take offense at a Presidential candidate recognizing that they may be feeling bitter? That’s a normal human reaction, and ignoring or denying it - as Clinton and McCain are doing - is plain hypocrisy

Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: “Screw ‘Em” After losing congress in the 1994 elections, the then-first lady gave a less than inclusive answer to the question of how to win white southerners back to the Democratic Party. “Screw ‘em,” she told her husband. “You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.”

The statement — which author Benjamin Barber witnessed and wrote about in his book, “The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House” — was prompted by another speaker raising the difficulties of reaching “Reagan Democrats.” It stands in stark contrast to the attitude the New York Democrat has recently taken on the campaign trail, in which she has presented herself as the one candidate who understands the working-class needs.

“I don’t think [Obama] really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you,” she said this week.

Audience groans as Hillary tries to exploit Obama remark Hillary Clinton spoke to a union in Pennsylvania, and they didn’t seem to be buying her latest assault on Obama. As she went on to say, “Well, you know, I know that many of you, like me, were disappointed by recent remarks that he made,” scattered boos and calls of “No” could clearly be heard from the audience.

Gallup poll: Obama unaffected by the “bitter” controversy Barack Obama, who has come under attack by his presidential rivals for describing small-town voters as “bitter,” seems to be weathering the storm to this point as far as voters are concerned. He maintains a 10 percentage point lead over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, 50% to 40%, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking.

Obama’s ‘bitter’ comments paraphrase … Bill Clinton! Bill Clinton wrote in 2004 almost exactly what Obama said the other day — that if Republicans cut funding to the things the middle class cares about, the middle class would embrace the Republican “strategy of waging campaigns on divisive social and cultural issues like abortion, gay rights, and guns.” Hillary’s attacks on Barack? Hypocrisy.

Scranton Pennsylvania’s Times-Tribune Endorses Barack Obama “All of the myriad issues facing the next president of the United States coalesce into a single question: Who can best lead? For Pennsylvania Democrats, the best answer in the April 22 primary is Barack Obama.”

Two hundred-millionaires attack Obama for being out of touch The irony about all the “outrage” that’s being manufactured over Barack Obama’s small-town Pennsylvania statement is that it’s coming exclusively from out-of-touch rich people like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, who are making the assumption that this is something small-town Pennsylvanians should be offended by.

And a final, albeit amusing moment of candor…

Did you inhale?

I decided to have some fun with footage from three previous takes I shot with Justin for his karaoke video contest entry.

We shot several continuous takes of Justin performing the song live on mic. The vocal track you hear was taken from the last (and best) take, and since Justin’s singing was consistent between takes it allowed me to edit these alternate angles together into this short music video.

I would have done something more elaborate had I known I would be editing it all together like this, but nonetheless I was still pretty happy with how it turned out.

You can also see the original, unedited video from Justin’s contest entry here.
myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.contest&contest=234&entry=267

Don’t forget to vote for him!

At the start of this race, I was fairly lackadaisical about who I wanted to win the Democratic nomination. Both Clinton and Obama seemed to be a refreshing a change and a vast improvement over the status quo. I felt that either would have made great Democratic nominees. But as the campaign wore on I began discovering more and more about the type of tactics Clinton has employed in her campaign — I realized it was more than just politics as usual. Something truly dirty was afoot. If you are a Hillary supporter, I do urge you to explore this collection of news items and opinion pieces, some from devout Hillary supporters who express reasons behind switching to Obama. A universal theme hinges on Hillary’s rocky relationship with the truth, as well as ethics.

To my friends who are Hillary supporters: Please comment and let me know why you support her, and if I’m completely missing something here. Given all I’ve read in the past few months I find it hard to fathom that anyone in good conscience can put their support behind someone of her character. I feel that anything she may have promised amidst her campaign is undermined and essentially undone by the pathological lying that has been documented time and time again. I feel her stated stance on issues have become irrelevant because of this. She will do or say anything to win.

Click the links to access the original source articles

Hillary Clinton Fired For Lies, Unethical Behavior: The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

“…When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career. Why? “Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

Senator Clinton’s Latest Judgement Call - Hire Sandy Berger. He who stole highly classified terrorism documents from the National Archives, destroyed them and lied to investigators, is now an adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. This is raising eyebrows even among Clinton’s admirers. “It shows poor judgment and a lack of regard for Berger’s serious misdeeds,” said Jonathan Alder.

… On several occasions, Berger stuffed highly classified documents into his pants and socks before spiriting them out of the Archives building in Washington, according to investigators. On one occasion, upon reaching the street, he hid documents under a construction trailer after checking the windows of the Archives and Justice Department buildings to make sure he was not being watched. Berger came back later and retrieved the documents, taking them home and cutting them up with scissors. Two days later, he was informed by Archive employees that his removal of documents had been detected…

Hillary Caught Lying About Ohio Hospital Denying Healthcare: (New York Times) Over the last five weeks, Hillary Clinton has featured in her speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee. Turns out, she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured. Also, as reported by ABC News “The hospital, which was never named in Clinton’s speeches, objected this weekend, saying it wasn’t true and demanded that Clinton stop telling it.”

CBS News Expose’s Lies Behind Hillary’s Bosnia trip (Video): Clinton: “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was no greeting ceremony, and we were basically told to run to our cars.” The problem is, that’s not what happened. CBS News accompanied Hillary and Chelsea on that trip and reveals footage from their arrival, and the rather friendly greeting which apparently never happened.

Also: Bosnia poem reader, now 20, stunned by Hillary’s Tall Tale: The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked - and her countrymen infuriated - that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Hillary claims she simply misspoke about her Bosnia trip. However, Time magazine recounts four instances where Hillary Clinton misremembers sniper fire upon her arrival in Bosnia. (With some video of her reading her remarks.) How many times does it take for a “misspeak” to become a lie? You decide.

Senator Clinton Found Fibbing on War Support (ABC News) Senator Hillary Clinton tells an Oregon audience that, if you start measuring war opposition in 2005 instead of 2003, then she actually opposed the Iraq war first. ABC News argues this is not only weird, but not actually true.

Poll show majority finds Clinton Untrustworthy (The Washington Post) Lost in the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign’s aggressive attacks on Barack Obama in recent days is a deep and enduring problem that threatens to undercut any inroads Clinton has made in her struggle to overtake him in the Democratic presidential race: She has lost trust among voters, a majority of whom now view her as dishonest.

Hillary Is “Misleading The American Public” Craig Gregg, former counsel to Bill Clinton and now Obama supporter, sat down for an interview with National Journal. His comments reflected more strongly a memo he had penned last week, suggesting that Hillary’s claims of experience were overblown.

Carl Bernstein: Hillary’s difficult relationship with truth: Distinguished historian and journalist Carl Bernstein outlines compelling evidence that Hillary Clinton has trouble sticking to the truth. In his past book about her, he expressed hope that this might change. But he notes that current facts about her Bosnia narrative provide definitive evidence she still lies about important things.

Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: “Screw ‘Em” After losing congress in the 1994 elections, the then-first lady gave a less than inclusive answer to the question of how to win white southerners back to the Democratic Party. “Screw ‘em,” she told her husband. “You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.”

The statement — which author Benjamin Barber witnessed and wrote about in his book, “The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House” — was prompted by another speaker raising the difficulties of reaching “Reagan Democrats.” It stands in stark contrast to the attitude the New York Democrat has recently taken on the campaign trail, in which she has presented herself as the one candidate who understands the working-class needs.

“I don’t think [Obama] really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you,” she said this week.

Hillary Has Not Passed All That Legislation She Touts (Boston Globe) Hillary Clinton, who has frequently described herself on the campaign trail as playing a pivotal role in forging a children’s health insurance plan, had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress, according to several lawmakers, staffers, and healthcare advocates involved in the issue

Hillary Clinton’s Biggest Coverups A 2003 report published by Accuracy in the Media.

[Hillary Clinton Biographer] Barbara Olson’s important 1999 book, Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1999), remains the best account of Hillary’s communist connections and emergence as a “budding Leninist” who “understood the Leninist concept of acquiring, accumulating and maintaining political power at any cost.”

Former Irish Minister: Clinton Irish Peace Claims ‘Silly’: (The Telegraph) Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a “wee bit silly” for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province

Clinton Gets Caught AGAIN on NAFTA: I want to remind folks who claim Hillary Clinton never praised NAFTA that, in fact, she did praise NAFTA - repeatedly.

The Clintons are lying about Obama’s remarks on Reagan: Eric Zorn, in the Chicago Tribune: “I see no reason to stop short. Bill and Hillary Clinton have lied brazenly about Obama’s recent statement about Ronald Reagan.”

Hillary’s List of Lies (including admitted lies) As Bill Clinton’s public-relations mastermind Dick Morris has now documented, Hillary has the equivalent of a doctorate in not telling the truth.

Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions (ABC News) In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers. Clinton has been endorsed for president by more than a dozen unions.

Clinton Asks Obama Delegates In North Dakota To Switch Sen. Hillary Clinton made a blunt appeal to North Dakota delegates to switch their support to her, despite the fact that Sen. Barack Obama handily defeated her in the state’s caucus in February.

Hillary caught trying to steal Obama’s elected delegates Despite campaign claims that she would never try to steal the legally elected delegates of her opponent, an elected Obama delegate from Texas explains how they received a robo-call from Hillary attempting to convince them to vote for her instead of Obama at the Bexar County delegate convention. Cheat to win. Clinton/Rove 2008.

The New Republic: Hillary Clinton’s Continued Run Is Damaging The Democrats’ Chances: “…Clinton’s path to the nomination, then, involves the following steps: kneecap an eloquent, inspiring, reform-minded young leader who happens to be the first serious African American presidential candidate (meanwhile cementing her own reputation for Nixonian ruthlessness) and then win a contested convention by persuading party elites to override the results at the polls…”

Financial Times: Why Democrats Must Choose Obama: “Hillary is tied to the past. She is the paradigm of business as usual, with the taint of dynastic succession thrown in.”

DNC Official: Clinton Pursuing ‘The Tonya Harding Option’ “Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the ‘Tonya Harding option.’” a DNC official said. It implies that Clinton is so set on ensuring that Obama doesn’t get the nomination, not only is she willing to take extra-ruthless steps, but in the end neither she nor Obama win the gold.

Hillary’s Unpaid Campaign Debt: Schools & Small Business Hit the Hardest: (ABC News) The $8.7 million in debt are staggering for their breadth and range. Seemingly every facet of human existence is represented in Clinton’s unpaid bills. The debts date back to last Fall, to states long ago decided. An Orchestra for an October event in New Hampshire. Iowa supermarkets, Texas Portapotties, Atlanta Catering. Clinton has made her plan for universal health care a centerpiece of her agenda. However, Among the debts reported this month by Hillary Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, the $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff stands out.

A strong Hillary supporter loses faith: (DailyKos) A previously strong Hillary supporter describes the issues that have driven them to question their faith in Hillary.

Another strong Hillary supporter switches: electability “..the only logical explanation I see as to why Obama is performing so much better than Hillary when matched against McCain … is that he is indeed a lot more popular than she is among independents and other swing voters who will decide this election.” and “Electability has always been the top issue for me in whom I support

TIME Magazine - 14 reasons why Hillary should quit: Mark Halperin of TIME lists the 14 reasons why Hillary Clinton should quit. It is impossible for Hillary to beat Obama in the number of delegates or the popular vote, and her “kitchen sink” strategy is angering top Democrats and superdelegates like Nancy Pelosi.

Why I switched from Clinton to Obama (Video): Former President of Chicago NOW, Lorna Brett Howard, tells the story of why she switched from supporting Hillary Clinton to supporting Barack Obama.

My Fellow Clintonnites, It’s Time for Obama: (The Boston Globe): “Those of us who have supported Clinton and continue to believe that she would be an excellent president can play an important part in moving our nation forward by supporting Obama”

Finally, her own words, and her own lies and contradiction
Footage compiled from 1992 to 2008

Follow-up post: Why Obama?