Barack in Hawaii: "Welcome home"

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported on Barack's return to Hawaii today, where he was greeted by a crowd of over 3,000 people. Mayor Mufi Hannemann introduced Barack by announcing to the crowd, "Today is the day that we say 'welcome home' to Barack Obama."

Hawaii-born Sen. Barack Obama was welcomed home this afternoon by a sweltering but adoring crowd of thousands of supporters at Keehi Lagoon Park.

Obama greeted the cheering crowd with a loud "Aloha! How's everybody doing today? Howzit!"

Obama, and his wife Michelle, were joined at the rally by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Hawaii Democrat Party Chairman Brian Schatz.

He praised Hawaii and told how he explains to people how the state has affected his character and politics.

"I try to explain to them something about the aloha spirit. I try to explain to them this basic idea that we all have obligations to each other, that we're not alone, that if we see somebody who's in need we should help," he said.

Obama said "most importantly, that when you come from Hawaii, you start understanding that what's on the surface, what people look like, that doesn't determine who they are.

"And that the power and strength of diversity, the ability of people from everywhere, whether they're black or white, whether they're Japanese-American or Korean-American or Filipino-American or whatever they are, they are just Americans, that all of us can work together and all of us can join together to create a better country.

"It's that spirit, that I'm absolutely convinced, is what America is looking for right now."

... He told the crowd that his trip to Oahu is mostly for vacation, to visit his tutu, relax, adding that he plans to get a plate lunch. "I might go to Zippy's. I might go to Rainbow Drive-in. I haven't decided yet.

"I'm going to get some shave ice. I'm going to go body surfing at an undisclosed location," he said, adding that he plans to spend a lot of time watching his daughters play on the beach.

He ended his roughly 15-minute speech by saying, "I'll see you on the beach."

... Obama's plane landed at about 2:30 p.m. at Honolulu Airport. The Illinois senator answered questions for local media for about 15 minutes and then headed by motorcade to Keehi park near the airport for the rally.

Obama supporters began arriving early today and waited in the blistering sunshine for hours to hear the presidential hopeful.

... Obama and his family are here for a week-long vacation on Oahu, where he was born and spent much of his childhood and where his grandmother who helped raise him still lives.

After the speech, Obama's motorcade took him to the Beretania Street apartment building where his 85-year-old grandmother Madelyn Dunham lives.

Obama, who graduated from Punahou in 1979, is also expected to visit with his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a teacher at La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls.

Obama is vacationing with Michelle, and their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. This is Obama first trip back to Hawaii since December 2006, before he started his run for the presidency.

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On the Ground: Canvassing in Colorado

Greg Hauenstein is on the ground in Colorado, where on Monday supporters throughout the state marked a special occasion . . .

August 4th was Barack Obama's 47th birthday. In Colorado Springs, volunteers gave the gift of canvassing. People were in and out of the office all afternoon and into the evening getting their assignments and taking the campaign's message to their neighbors.

We followed two volunteers, Alex and Robert, as they traversed the trail.

Both live in Colorado Springs, a city with a reputation for being a Republican stronghold. But as Robert sees it, things are changing this year:

Colorado Springs is a beautiful place to live. This year it's a battleground for Mr. Obama. I remember watching the '92 election, the '96 election, the 2000 and 2004 elections, and now this one. I'm basically following in my parents' footsteps by campaigning. They campaigned hard for Clinton twice, and they did what they could for Gore and Kerry. This election means more to me than any of the other campaigns I've been a part of.

It's the drive and passion that makes this campaign different from the past. Here's a video of Alex and Robert canvassing in Colorado Springs, and the birthday celebration at the office afterwards:

You can check out more pictures from the canvass and the party on our Flickr page. Visit CO.BarackObama.com for more news and info from Colorado.

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Mark Strama, TX State Representative, Speaking on
"Energy Policy", Mon., Aug. 11th, 6PM

TX State Legislator Mark Strama speaking on "Energy Policy" , Aug. 11th, 6pm-8pm, Travis County Democratic Issues/Policy Forum!!

What:  We'll network and present the issues and policies important to Travis County, important to TX, including Barack Obama's policy.  We'll share, learn, frame, and market the issues.  Mark Strama will speak from 6:15pm to 7:00pm on Energy Policy.  7:00pm-8:00pm is "Democratic Citizen Communication" where you present your issues important to you as a Democrat!  

When:  Mon., Aug. 11th, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Where: Travis County Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign Headquarters, 1107 N. I 35, Austin, TX (next door to CVS, in old Safeway Building at 12th and I-35)

Who: Anyone interested in networking with fun, cool, energizing, like-minded Democrats, and learning about the policies and issues important to our city, our state, and our nation heading into the November TX elections. 2nd hour is a "Democratic Party Town Hall Meeting".

Cost: FREE

You're welcome to bring food/drinks to share and bring your laptop (Laptop not mandatory).

Best,
David Kobierowski
Travis County Democratic Party Issues Committee Chair
512-413-0286
Cleanair999@yahoo.com  


Read The Full Article:
http://blog.texansforobama.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1277

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Speak Out

With the campaign setting up offices in all 50 states, our supporters are not sitting on the sidelines. They are calling volunteers, creating events, registering voters and speaking out about the issues that are important to them.
 
Our supporters are using the power of their voices to tell their community about Barack by writing letters to the editor of their local newspapers.
 
In Maine, supporters are spreading their voice about Barack's new energy policy. Melinda, a resident of Brewer, Maine wrote to her local newspaper earlier this week.

...I feel it's important for us to look at the long term environmental effects of our continuing reliance on carbon based fuels. Barack Obama's plan of investing in alternative energy sources like wind, solar and biofuels will do so much more for our homeland security, independence, and environmental integrity. Let's vote to stop lining the pockets of Big Oil, and start looking towards a cleaner, sustainable future.

In Ohio, supporters are talking about energy, healthcare and the economy. Keith in Cleveland wrote a letter to the editor saying, in part:

I strongly believe that the plan that Barack Obama has presented to the American people will turn our country back in the right direction. I work as a machinist in the Solon area and I believe if we follow through with his ... plan it could completely revive manufacturing in our area.

Letter to the editor campaigns are going on across the country in such states as Alaska, North Dakota, Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Start making your voice heard today.

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Debate topics

So Misty was kind enough to point out to us the schedule for the presidential debates:

read more

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John Edwards Extramarital Affair

Breaking news, John Edwards accused of affair in 2006, he tells ABC News, but the baby ain't mine he says. Tell me it ain't so....tell me it ain't so.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.republicansforobama.org/?q=node/1601

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Hayden to Denver: Avoid FBI, Rightwing Hype

Photo: Hayden with P4O Webmaster, Carl Davidson, at Antiwar Conference

Tom Hayden on
Protest Prospects
for Denver DNC

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer
Rocky mountain News

August 8, 2008, CULVER CITY, Calif. ? On a steamy spring day, in a cramped office that hot air can't escape, the archetypal child of the '60s does something truly radical.

He wears a necktie.

This is not the hairy, scary leader of the New Left who had Chicago locking up its daughters for the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

It's a clean-cut Tom Hayden, retired California state senator, prolific writer, blogger and sage to a whole new generation of street activists.


Still, he knows most people still picture him as a sort of cartoon version of himself: shirtless, shouting down authority or scuffling with cops on the streets.

"I can't get past that," he says of the stereotypes. "I can't help them with their problem. They can't see me. I can be, like, 68 years old and I'm still trouble, because they're thinking about something in Vietnam or they're thinking about Jane Fonda. Or they think I slept with their daughter. They think I burned my draft card. It's like a big Rorschach of things that I did or did not do."

If speaking out still means "trouble," then maybe Hayden really hasn't changed that much.

Forty years after he helped lead the anti-war protests that ended in violent confrontations outside the '68 convention, he just put out a new book, Voices of the Chicago Eight, about the circus-like conspiracy trial for protest organizers and the consequences of attempts to come down hard on dissent.

He offers regular takes to Huffington Post readers and was an early member of the group Progressives for Obama. He lectures on college campuses and offers an updated version of the Port Huron Statement ? the 1962 manifesto of the Students for a Democratic Society that challenged young people to boldly venture into "participatory democracy."

And behind the scenes, Hayden closely monitors protest plans for the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions, advises organizers and warns that authorities appear to be falling into a predictable pattern of hype and overreaction.

"I think that Denver officials would be well-advised not to believe everything that the FBI warns them about," Hayden says. "That's how things can get out of hand, due to fabricated, exaggerated projections about violence or protest."

As the convention approaches, federal dollars pour into the security effort and law enforcement agencies flex muscle with high-profile exercises.

"They don't learn," Hayden laments. "What you saw in 2000 was the claim that 75,000 anarchists were descending, the secret funding of permanent police equipment, the denial of permits for protesters. You saw the same thing in 2004. You will see the same thing in 2008."

He thinks Big Brother posturing helps scare away peaceful protesters, gives the community a false sense of security and can, in some cases, provoke confrontations at demonstrations that would otherwise be routine and mostly peaceful.

"So they have their view," Hayden says of security planners. "They've learned nothing from 1968."

Nation, party were both divided

As demonstrators get ready for Denver 2008, 40-year-old memories are front and center. One coalition operates under the "Re-create 68" banner, conjuring images of the street clashes that overshadowed the Democratic Convention itself, galvanizing the anti-Vietnam War effort and undermining Democrats' hopes in that long-ago fall.

But Hayden was there in 1968. And there's really no comparison to 2008, he says.

True, there was a war then and there is a war now.

But back in 1968, the country ? and the Democratic Party ? were more starkly divided over the battle waging overseas.

The Tet offensive by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces at the end of January obscured the light at the end of the tunnel in the war. Hundreds of young U.S. troops were dying every week. Facing a rising voter backlash, wartime President Lyndon B. Johnson was forced to prematurely end his re-election bid at the end of March.

Within days, the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. caused rage to explode into riots, arson and looting in 75 cities. Robert F. Kennedy calmed a shocked crowd in Indianapolis, telling them his brother, too, had been killed by a white man. But weeks later, the younger brother, too, was shot dead, fraying emotions even further. The nation was on edge heading into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Until then, some protest organizers held out hope of getting the needed permits to avoid confrontations at marches and park demonstrations. But Hayden says he knew trouble was inevitable.

"I planned for multiple scenarios, not knowing which one would play out," he says, sitting in the cramped office while his research assistant continues working nearby. "But certainly, after the murder of Kennedy, coming on the murder of King, to me it was in the air that we were going to be busted and face serious harm unless we surrendered and left the city and simply went along with the plan . . . just go along with our own disappearance."

They didn't, even though they knew ? from personal contacts ? that the FBI was tracking their every move, around the clock.

One declassified FBI memo included in Hayden's new book expresses anger that bureau officials were unaware of his involvement in a student occupation of buildings at Columbia University until after his picture appeared in Life magazine.

"In evaluating this case, you should bear in mind that your prime objectives should be to neutralize him in the new left movement," the memo states.

Clashes played out on TV

Other organizers still held out hope of getting permits for access to streets and parks for demonstrations. But Hayden says he was pessimistic ? and in the end proven correct.

The city rejected permits for the Youth International Party ? the so-called "Yippies" led by the late Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman ? to hold a massive "Festival of Life" concert.

Some thought permits would come through at the last minute ? a way of giving a nod to free expression only after turnout had been dampened. But that didn't happen, either.

Hayden says Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was "hoodwinked" into believing that "thousands of hairy Yippies were going to have sex in public while drinking from the LSD-laden waters of Lake Michigan. They actually believed that. And this sex in the parks on acid would occur at roughly the same moment that black revolutionaries would storm the convention with guns."

So the stage was set for constant confrontations, games of cat and mouse between police and protesters, and then bloody clashes on television, just as Democrats also were struggling to show they could maintain order among squabbling delegates inside the convention hall.

It culminated on Aug. 28, when Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota was to accept the presidential nomination. That afternoon, while delegates waged a contentious debate over Vietnam War planks in the party's platform, police allowed a "legal" anti-war rally at Grant Park.

Things broke loose after a shirtless teenager climbed a flagpole, ostensibly to turn the flag upside down as a distress symbol. Police swooped in to make an arrest, the crowd surged and some threw stones or dirt clods at a police car, and the scene quickly deteriorated. Thousands of police, soldiers and National Guardsmen surrounded the area. Calm was restored, but by twilight, many protesters were more determined to make unsanctioned parades to reach the convention site or the Hilton hotel, where delegates were staying.

That night, after moving through the city disguised with a fake beard, Hayden ended up in a police skirmish at the hotel's Haymarket Lounge ? "named, strangely enough, in memory of Chicago police killed by an anarchist's bomb during a violent confrontation between police and protesters in 1886," Hayden writes.

By the time the week's convention ended, 668 people had been arrested, 101 people were treated at local hospitals for their injuries, and hundreds more reportedly received first aid or treatment by protest medics.

And the Democratic Party's hopes of retaining the White House were the ultimate casualty. Republican Richard Nixon was elected with more than 100 electoral vote margin.

"It simply didn't have to happen," Hayden says of the Chicago chaos, 40 years later. "It takes two for a riot to occur. And if it wasn't for the FBI advisers, Chicago '68 would not have happened ? repeat, would not have happened."

City's posture sparks concern

Despite the "Re-create 68" sentiment of some Denver protest organizers, Hayden saw little chance of a chaotic rerun when he sat down in April in his Culver City office to discuss the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Back then, when the battle between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton still raged and there was talk of superdelegates throwing the nomination to Clinton, Hayden imagined there could be some sort of drama on the streets if people thought the election had been stolen. But it never came to that.

More likely, he predicted, were smaller demonstrations to keep up the pressure for Democrats in Denver to take tougher anti-war stands, with more fierce protests against the "war-makers" at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota.

By early July, however, Hayden said he was growing concerned about the city's posture toward protesters and the worst-case scenario security exercises, with black helicopters roaring through the downtown skyline.

The ACLU and protest organizers went to court challenging the location of a so-called free-speech zone on the far edge of a parking lot. Planners of "Tent State University," who hoped to use City Park to house tens of thousands of anti-war activists, were told they would have to clear the park at 11 each night. The ban on camping and curfew enforcement raises the specter of the nightly crackdowns at Lincoln and Grant parks in Chicago '68.

"I do think they are playing around unnecessarily with the rights of protesters to protest," Hayden said in a follow-up interview. "I don't know how the negotiations will come out, but you know, naming something a protest zone but then not allowing it to be heard or seen, it's a mockery of the First Amendment. Most importantly, it's not necessary.

"It does seem to me there's a legitimate right to protest at stake," he said. "I don't think the protests will be very large if Obama is the nominee. I don't see the point in interfering with them . . . It's particularly crazy because most of the delegates at the Democratic convention have been in many demonstrations themselves."

The security exercises, with helicopters buzzing the city, reminded Hayden of something out of the movie Dr. Strangelove.

"The implication is very unsettling," he said. "The message was that the people coming to protest deserve this kind of repression if they get out of hand . . . They're just trying to scare the public into justifying more tax dollars for a false sense of security ? more gadgets for the police department."

He said people don't realize that in Chicago, the initial protests were rather lightly attended, with about 1,500 people in the parks. But the numbers swelled to an estimated 10,000, in part as a reaction to the police crackdowns, Hayden says.

"If they had given us permits . . . I doubt there would have been much confrontation at all," he says. "What caused the rioting in the streets was the lack of permits and the lack of a place to stay. Too much order creates disorder is the way I've always put it."

One might think that Hayden, one of the pre-eminent social activists of the '60s, would be disappointed with the anti-war efforts and the other movements of today.

He isn't.

"I think it's a remarkable peace movement," he says. "You don't have the draft. You have one-fifteenth of the American casualties now that you had at this point during Vietnam. The establishment is doing everything it can to keep this war from impacting the American people. And yet, people have seen through it."

The public at large turned against the Iraq war by the end of 2004, he says, "which I think means the ghosts of '68 are still with us. People know a quagmire when they see one."

sprengelmeyerm@shns.com



http://progressivesforobama.blogspot.com

Read The Full Article:
http://progressivesforobama.blogspot.com/2008/08/hayden-to-denver-avoid-fbi-right
wing.html

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On the Ground: "Pay attention to Obama's voter
registration drive"

The Vote for Change voter registration drive launched almost three months ago, before the primary had even ended. As the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder said back in May, "Pay attention to Obama's voter registration drive..." This program is part of the foundation of our general election strategy, and voter registration events have been taking place non-stop ever since. Xavier Lopez-Ayala is on the ground in Minnesota. . . 

Last Monday, the Campaign for Change gave Barack Obama a very special birthday present: thousands of newly registered Minnesotans.

The field organizers in the 4th Congressional District were able to collect 215 voter registration cards in just 24 hours, exceeding their goal of 188. This was in large part because of the hard work and dedication of Joe and Bonnie (who collected 18), Peter (36), David (who stayed out from 9AM to 6PM), and Harris (a 12 year old Barackstar who collected six).

The organizers wrapped the voter registration cards and delivered them to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office on Wednesday. They also sent in these pictures:

I also heard the story of Andy, a field organizer in Minneapolis, who managed to collect 44 voter registrations by the time he left a Birthday House Party for Barack. He was still shy of his goal of 47 for the day, and not wanting to give Barack anything but his best, Andy hit the pavement and scoured Minneapolis for unregistered voters. He phoned in just before 11pm to inform everyone that he had registered 50 new voters for Barack's birthday!

Andy emailed over this picture...

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Voices for Change: Joyce from Hollywood, Florida

Life was different for Joyce when she was growing up in the South. Then, she lived in a segregated community and attended segregated schools. Now living in Hollywood, Florida, she's one half of an interracial marriage, and her involvement with the campaign has given her a renewed sense of pride in her husband and her relationship.

It's the first time that she's ever made calls, registered voters, or networked with other supporters in her community, and it's paying off in the way she thinks about herself.

I've always felt a little...not uncomfortable, but maybe out of step. It's hard to put words around it. But Senator Obama makes me so proud of him and of my husband. It's changed the dynamics of the way I feel about it.

Despite the positive change that she sees Barack bringing, the current state of the economy has been tough on her and her family.

We're much more careful with the way we spend money because we still have to fill our gas tanks. And groceries - you spend $60 and you don't have anything in the bag.  And about every fourth house in my neighborhood has a "for sale" sign. Our neighbors are really suffering.  They have one of those upside down mortgage situations, and they never turn on the air condiditoning and it's 100 degrees or more outside.

Joyce has still found room in her strained budget to make regular contributions to the campaign.

This is the first time that I've given on a regular basis. I have it in my budget...usually I have instant regret when I buy something online, but I'm never sorry when I send money to the Obama campaign.

Joyce is part of our incredible grassroots network of small dollar donors. It's people like her who make our campaign possible at all. Join her and over 1.7 million others today.

Voices for Change is a series featuring profiles of Barack Obama's grassroots supporters from across the nation. The people who make up this movement come from all walks of life, but they share a common goal: to help bring about fundamental change in Washington.

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McCain Ad Links Obama to the Antichrist

Tactics aimed at the "low information voter" from the Party of Stupid. From the Wall Street Journal:An Internet ad launched last week by the McCain presidential campaign has attracted more than...

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