Voting Race: How the Republicans can or will beat Obama.

In the past few weeks I have seen lifelong Democrats reluctant to vote for Barack Obama. In my neighborhood (which is Democratic by a large margin) most people supported Hillary Clinton (as I did). I have seen cars parked who used to have Hillary stickers now have McCain stickers. Why? I asked some people about it and they think Obama would be the presidential version of the former NYC African American mayor David Dinkins, who was not popular even among the black community.

Polls show Barack Obama winning by a razor thin margin. There is always the possibility that people are donating money and telling pollsters that they will vote for Obama to sound politically correct, and by the election they will vote for McCain or not vote at all.

I asked that question to Professor KC Johnson (BA and PhD. from Harvard University, MA from University of Chicago) who a few weeks ago predicted Obama would win in a landslide with well over 300 electoral votes.

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Mon. July 28th Live Podcast: Episode 25: A Reunion?

Dan Solis, Jeff Pritchard, Koko Chassid, and Johnny Camacho reunite to host an accidental special edition of the Think Youth Live Podcast. We discuss our non-existent guest, Obama and McCain VP choices, and the Michael Savage remarks.

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A quick hello to everyone at Think Youth

Hello there Think Youth readers and staff! I’d like to take a minute to introduce myself. I’m Stephanie, the newest member of the Think Youth writing staff. I live in the greater DC area (Maryland side) and I’m currently 13 years old. I’ve considered myself a liberal until recently, when I was alerted by my delegate friend from Marin County that we now call ourselves progressives, so I guess I’m a progressive then.  I currently support Barack Obama, although I originally was a supporter of Kucinich, and while I (obviously) cannot vote, I’m doing all I can to support both of them in their respective campaigns (Obama for president, Kucinich for congressional reelection).

I do have a political blog, although it is relatively new, called My Liberal Agenda- feel free to check it out and/or comment on it. Besides politics, my hobbies include reading, writing, art,  philosophy, and debate. You’re most likely to find me either glued to the computer, watching The Daily Show or The Colbert Report (I’m slightly addicted to fake news), arguing with Faux News even though I know they can’t hear me, or reading whatever book I can get my hands on.

Anyways, I’m very happy to join Think Youth, and I hope to be seeing (er…reading) all of you around soon.

Autism is real; Why Savage is wrong, and the need for free speech on the air waves.

On his July 17th broadcast, talk show host Michael Savage (who is not shy of controversy) claimed that autism is a “fraud” and the kids who have it are just “brats”. Immediately after his comments ,the Autism Society of America issued the following statement.

This week, talk show host Michael Savage made inaccurate and derogatory comments about autism on his radio show, calling the condition “a fraud” and the result of a lack of parental discipline. Mr. Savage’s unsubstantiated comments reflect the misconceptions of over 50 years ago that autism was caused by “refrigerator mothers” or unemotional parenting, which have been completely disproven by the scientific community. Autism is a neuro-developmental medical condition that requires early identification and lifelong treatment. For over 40 years, the Autism Society of America has worked tirelessly to educate people on the nature of autism spectrum disorders, the services and support families need, and the tremendous potential of people on the autism spectrum.  We are dismayed that these grossly inaccurate remarks would be aired in any platform, much less on a nationally syndicated show. We will continue to work with families, people with autism and the broader public to raise awareness of autism spectrum disorders.

I would rate this comment as his most inflammatory ever. More than his comment on protesting students who went on a hunger strike, and the one about Islam.

But nevertheless the efforts by Congressman Maurice Hinchey of Woodstock, NY are absolutely overbearing and wrong. He is attempting to bring the back the unconstitutional “fairness doctrine.” And now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, now too supports this horrible bill.

Michael Savage on Autism

We here at Think Youth have always been outspoken critics of Micheal Savage, but his most recent comments, on autism of all things, has crossed a line that I couldn’t imagine even him crossing. (Comments below the fold). Read more

Maryland Police Spied on Peace Protesters

When Republican governor Robert Ehrlich governed Maryland, police infiltrated anti war and anti death penalty groups with undercover officers. The police found no illegal activity occurring, but invested over 200 hours of surveillance of various groups reports the Washington Post:

Detailed intelligence reports logged by at least two agents in the police department’s Homeland Security and Intelligence Division reveal close monitoring of the movements as the Iraq war and capital punishment were heatedly debated in 2005 and 2006.

Organizational meetings, public forums, prison vigils, rallies outside the State House in Annapolis and e-mail group lists were infiltrated by police posing as peace activists and death penalty opponents, the records show. The surveillance continued even though the logs contained no reports of illegal activity and consistently indicated that the activists were not planning violent protests.

While attending a meeting as undercover officers isn’t technically illegal, it still does raise some flags. But then we found out that various participants were described as “anarchist and socialist” and one was entered into a criminal database:

A well-known antiwar activist from Baltimore, Max Obuszewski, 63, was singled out by the undercover agents and entered into a “Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” database. His entry indicates a “Primary Crime” of “Terrorism-anti-government” and a “Secondary Crime” of “Terrorism-Anti-War Protesters,” according to the documents.

These anti-violence groups never did anything violent (I know, shocking) to advance their interests. The police eventually concluded that their might be “tensions” but nothing particularly dangerous about their protests. What’s not clear is if the now Democratic governor, Martin O’Malley has continued these surveillance programs.

Update

Current Democratic governor Martin O’Malley has commented on this matter, as the Post writes in a follow up article:

Governor Martin O’Malley says state police are obligated to investigate threats to public safety, but his administration will not use public resources to monitor the peaceful exercise of free speech.

The governor noted Friday that state police must investigate threats to public safety. But if there is no evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing, all intelligence gathering must stop.

July 28th at 7PM EST:Think Youth Live Podcast with guest David Sirota

A month in the making…

Monday July 28th at 7 PM Eastern Time (4pm PT), David Sirota will be coming on the Think Youth Live Podcast to discuss his book “The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington.”

David Sirota is a successful author and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. He has appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” and has been profiled in “Newsweek”.  Sirota’s most recent book “The Uprising” has received positive reviews from the Washington Post and Publishers Weekly.

From Sirota’s Web Site:

The Uprising is all new, firsthand investigative reporting from across the country, showing how populism has become a dominant political force in both national and local politics.

Our Podcast will return to it’s classic Blog Talk Radio format, so you can listen HERE

And call in at: (646) 478-4931

Obama Campaign: Ready to fight

Today the Washington Post reported that Barack Obama’s campaign for president will open 20 new offices in the state of Virginia.  Some of these offices are located in areas where he didn’t do well in the Virginia Primary, and where Senator McCain is favored greatly.  The Obama campaign is putting resources into areas where the pundits would have you believe he doesn’t stand a chance.  This campaign, however, is not going to concede any state without a fight. Read more

Think Youth invited to “The Big Tent.”

In May, the Think Youth staff received word that the site had been granted credentials to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. Today, we are pleased to announce another development. It has just come to our attention that Think Youth has also been granted passes to “The Big Tent.” This is very exciting news. For those who have not yet heard of The Big Tent, here is some information about it from the website:

The Big Tent will be the place to be for new media journalists, bloggers, reporters, and non-profit leaders covering the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.

We’re creating a 9,000 square foot, two-story structure that will house the work space for journalists, bloggers and new media, a Digg Stage with prominent national leaders, as well as a Google Retreat with a YouTube kiosk where you can make your own YouTube videos. The Big Tent will be open throughout the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 25- 28.

In the New Media Lounge, your pass will be a ticket to to enjoy all the benefits of the blogger / new media lounge, including free WiFi, work space, television-coverage… And you get to hang out with some of the top bloggers, new media journalists, and non-profit leaders in the country.

The Big Tent is being made possible by a number of sponsors including Digg, Google, New Belgium Brewing, and The Wright Group. We would also like to recognize the hosts of The Big Tent: ProgressNow, Daily Kos, and The Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado.

On a personal note, we couldn’t be more thrilled or grateful that Think Youth has been given this opportunity. There is no doubt in our minds that having access to The Big Tent facilities for the duration of the Democratic National Convention will greatly increase our ability to provide readers of Think Youth with coverage of the highest quality.

- The Think Youth Staff

69 People I Will Not Have Dinner With

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has passed the Senate. For those who did not read my post yesterday, this bill grants the telecom companies immunity for helping the NSA spy on phone conversations so that we may never know the extent of the NSA’s warrentless wiretapping program, and grants the president even more warrentless wiretapping powers. What follows is a list of all the senators that voted in favor of the FISA bill. Hopefully, I never have to meet any of these people (again), because I do not want to shake their slimy hands. Read more

Obama’s FISA Reversal and Imminent Vote

Well, Obama has finally made a proper statement about his disgraceful flip-flop on the FISA Ammendments Act. Mr. Charisma now supports the bill (though with only about with as much enthusiasm as I support him) after saying for the last few months that he would filibuster it as long as it had immunity for the telecom industry (which it does). More over at The Swamp.

As it stands, the bill is the results of apathetically lackluster “compromising” and “negotiations” between Democrats and Republicans in Congress which gave the Republicans more than they could have ever hoped for if there had been a competent negotiator on the Democrats’ side. The bill grants retroactive immunity to the telecom industry for helping the NSA with their warrentless wiretapping, meaning that we may never know for sure the extent of the spying (unless you listen to this man). And, all of this is happening before the results of a report by the Inspector General on the warrentless wiretap program.

To learn more about the FISA bill, check out this video at Four Hour Work Week. It is well worth watching, and makes includes a great argument that even though you may not be doing anything wrong, you still do not want the government spying on just anybody without a warrent. Daniel Ellsberg says that warrentless wiretapping means that government officials and activists can be spied on by the ruling party in an effort to stop plans that may be against what the ruling party wishes (Watergate anyone?).

Obama’s defense of his flip-flop is laughable. For one thing, he says that he will fight to remove immunity from the bill, but then admits that even if immunity is not removed, he is still voting yes on the bill. What kind of commitment is that? He continues on by saying all the reasons that the bill is “imperfect” (see: dangerously unconstitutional), but then brushes it all aside in favor of the “well counter-terrorism is important” defense. Clearly just playing towards the center during an election instead of sticking to his convictions. Obama claims that once he is in office he will have the Attorney General review survelence programs like this one, but not only is he making the assumption that he will win in November, but anybody who believes him is forgetting that power corrupts, and once in office he will have no reason to have that review. McCain is going to vote for the bill, so all Obama is doing by voting for it as well is playing politics for the election, and it is not right. The American people deserve better from a possible commander-in-chief. At least McCain seems to believe in his vote (however wrong it may be).

And please, call your senators. The vote is tomorrow. The EFF has a great script to read to them.

White House Sex Offenders

AlterNet has a disturbing and saddening news article on the tortures at Guantanamo. By now everyone knows that torture occurred there, including even sex abuse, but the author here maintains it wasn’t sex torture just to gain information. She claims that those in the White House and in Gitmo where enjoying the torture:

Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

I had a sense of deja vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration was spinning the notion that the torture of prisoners was the work of “a few bad apples” low in the military hierarchy, I knew that we were seeing evidence of a systemic policy set at the top. It’s not that I am a genius. It’s simply that, having worked at a rape crisis center and been trained in the basics of sex crime, I have learned that all sex predators go about things in certain recognizable ways.

We now know that the torture of prisoners was the result of a policy set in the White House by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rice — who actually chaired the torture meetings. The Pentagon has also acknowledged that it had authorized sexualized abuse of detainees as part of interrogation practices to be performed by female operatives. And documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union have Rumsfeld, in his own words, checking in on the sexualized humiliation of prisoners.

The sexualization of torture from the top basically turned Abu Ghraib and Guantnamo Bay into an organized sex-crime ring in which the trafficked sex slaves were US-held prisoners. Looking at the classic S and M nature of some of this torture, it is hard not to speculate that someone setting policy was aroused by all of this. And Phillipe Sands’ impeccably documented Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, now proves that sex crime was authorized and, at least one source reports, eroticized: Diane Beaver, the Staff Judge Advocate at Guantanamo who signed off on many torture techniques, told Sands about brainstorming sessions that included the use of sexual tension, which was “culturally taboo, disrespectful, humiliating and potentially unexpected.”

The full story is at AlerNet.

The Fourth of July

The sounds of fireworks, exploding and popping like gunfire in the American Revolution centuries ago, reach my ears—going off in the distance, and near at hand, the sounds of a raucus celebration. Each year, on the fourth of July, we imitate the celebrations that took place on the first day of independence, 232 years ago. Each year, we celebrate our independence anew. It was on a warm July day in 1776 that our forefathers first gave us this gift—and, in addition to renewing the celebrations, we must also honor their sacrifices in the name of independence and liberty by making our own sacrifices in the name of independence and liberty. More than celebrating, each year we must renew our commitment to our collective liberty as a nation. Each successive generation has committed themselves to, forwarded the cause and progress of, and defended—from forces within and without—this nation’s independence and freedom.

But, I am fearful that, for many, the 4th has become a mere opportunity to celebrate—or just another day—rather than anything close to reaffirming our commitment to the priniciples and goals of our founding fathers. The day is made great and beautiful and symbolic and celebratory due to the principles behind it. It is those principles which we celebrate and commit to—the principles that state that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It is on this fine occassion, the anniversary of our independence, upon which we, as a nation, “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” in the pursuit of these great principles and ideals.

Have a happy fourth of July.

Republican Congressman Turns into Arms Dealer

That headline isn’t a crime in itself, plenty of politicians go to work for large defense contractors, who are basically arms dealers. The problem here is that a former Republican congressman, Curt Weldon (PA) is brokering arms deals with blacklisted countries like Iran and Russia:

Former congressman Curt Weldon is helping broker deals between Russian and Ukranian weapons suppliers and the Iraqi and Libyan governments as part of his new job with a private American defense consulting firm, Wired.com has learned.

Weldon, who is currently being investigated by the FBI over alleged corruption during his time in office, visited Libya in March to discuss a possible military deal, according to a letter describing the trip from Weldon to Defense Solutions CEO Timothy Ringgold. In May, Weldon, together with Ringgold and another company representative, traveled to Moscow to discuss working with Russia’s weapons-export agency on arms sales to the Middle East.

Both trips were part of the company’s effort to tap into the growing — and often legally murky — market for selling weapons from former Eastern Bloc countries to the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The reason this is described as legaly murky, is because he is operating as a middle man to supply countries with Soviet weapons they already have, and that were never manufactured in the US. While it may legally okay, it certainly is morally and politically dubious.

But doesn’t it seem like the party (Republicans) that likes to falsely flaunt a strong security record would have ties to selling weapons to former enemies, and other countries that regularly export anti-Americanism and terrorism? This reminds me of the situation last year when another Republican senator was charged with laundering money Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

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