Sunday, February 10, 2008

Successful Washington Caucus


This was the first caucus experience for my wife and me. It was very hard to get to. Only because the snow banks were so high in many places that only one car could pass at a time especially with people parking on both sides of the snow and slush filled streets. We also couldn’t find the wheel chair ramp so we had to wobble up the stairs while our son brought our chairs up. The road conditions made it a little bit hard on everyone and the church where the meeting was held was packed solid. There was a record turnout (a little more than twice ‘04 which had its own record turnout). It was GREAT!!!

The room where our precinct met was packed. Every seat was filled all the way around the room with one person sitting on the floor. We were a little more than thirty people. Most people, including me, spoke up in favor of either Hillary or Barack. After a couple of hours of going through the various procedures we had 20 votes for Obama and 10 votes for Clinton. Obama received six delegates while Hillary received three from our group with an alternate for every delegate.

My wife and I are both alternates. So we will be attending the legislative district caucus. They didn’t have enough volunteers for the alternates so we jumped in. We didn’t plan for it or think something like that was even possible and it wouldn’t have had any chance of happening if we were just a primary state. Caucuses get more people involved in the party and the campaigns. So now we are alternate delegates, in an historic election, for the next president of the United States Senator Barack Obama.

Randi Rhodes mentioned that the primaries are a time for falling in love with your candidate while the time after that is for pulling together. I may be very critical of Hillary, mostly because of her own actions, but if she were to win the nomination I would be behind her. I would probably focus on areas of agreement and hope while being very critical of the, it looks like McCain, Republican nominee.

Anyone who refuses to work for the Democratic nominee or vote in the general election because they didn’t get the person of their choice is 'nuts' because they would be flirting with keeping the Whitehouse in the inept hands of the Republicans along with possibly allowing them more seats in Congress.
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Change We Can Believe In
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
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Virginia Jefferson-Jackson Dinner - Barack Obama


MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
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Hillary has willingly saddled herself up to her husbands’ legacy of NAFTA, permanent most favored trade status for China, welfare reform and the disastrous effect that Clintonian policy in Iraq had on the children there (thousands suffered & died).
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A nation sagging under the weight of sanctions
Thousands of infants are dying
By LARRY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FOREIGN DESK EDITOR

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/iraq/life1.shtml
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Squeezed to death
Saturday March 4, 2000
Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,232986,00.html
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Too Much Collateral Damage:'Smart Sanctions' Hurt Innocent Iraqis

It's time to dispense with the mirage of mitigation
by Hans von Sponeck
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0702-03.htm
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The Iraqi Church Cries Out
Images of 1990’s Operation Desert Storm linger, encouraging a less-than-friendly attitude toward Iraq. The indefatigable leader of that nation’s Catholics urges Americans to consider the children.
By Carol Ann Morrow
http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/Feb2000/feature2.asp

I always figured I would be a Hillary person. I always felt she was much more likely to actually be a liberal in comparison to her husband.

I always figured she would separate herself from his policies.

I had always hoped she would approach her misguided vote in Iraq in some manner similar to Senator Edwards. I was greatly disappointed when she embraced the terrorism vote on Iran while once again failing to realize it would be used in the march to war by the Bushies and their Neocons.

She boldly hid behind group ignorance on the WMD issue in Iraq without anyone in opposition that I’ve heard of, raising the point that that was no valid excuse for invasion. It was well known from the times of desert storm of the multiple problems that would emerge from an invasion of Iraq, as it was also well known that Al Qeada was not involved in Iraq. It was also evident that we would be turning our backs on, running away from, the people of Afghanistan, our very public promises to them, our duty to justice for the people who died on that dreadful day, the conservatives so love to repeat, to bring to justice those who really did attack us.

For me the most important problems, disasters would probably be a better word, facing our nation is;

The occupation of Iraq along with all the serious infrastructure, health and refugee (both external and internal) inflicting the people of the country we shocked and awed;
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A return to Constitutional order in the USA;


And our status in the world which affects us both diplomatically and economically.

I see Obama as dealing with all of the above much better than Hillary while being better to equal to the tasks involving domestic issues.

I also see Obama as being able to work the halls and aisles of Congress far better.



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Barack Obama for America