More Hilary doublespeak

Courtesy of the John Edwards campaign:

Obama campaign doorknocking

The Obama for President campaign was doorknocking through West Concord today, looking for votes. This is the second or third time they have been through the neighborhood, with Edwards coming by three or four times and Hillary twice [Interestingly, the Hillary guy had me down as a supporter ... NOT!]. That doesn't include the phone calls.

Dodd's jump ...

Following up the earlier post about Dodd's jump, it looks like I was off a bit. From the September poll, it looks like Dodd is pulling away votes from Edwards (8), Obama (5), and Clinton (2), and not Richardson. Richardson went up from 1 to 2 percent, from a high of 6 to 13 percent over the summer. The larger point is that a good chunk of the 13,000 people who voted online today gave Dodd a huge boost.

Is Dodd making his move?

... or are firefighters starting to blog at Daily Kos?
I thought I would take a quick spin around the Web to look at some headlines and get my mind out of work for a few minutes.
Over at Daily Kos, there is a new preference poll up. With almost 11,000 voting, CT Sen. Chris Dodd has broken out of single digits for the first time and leaped into second place: Edwards 31, Dodd 22, Obama 16, Clinton 9, Other 6, Kucinich 5, No freakin' clue 5, Richardson 2, Biden 2, and Gravel 1.
I don't have all the previous results in front of me but it looks like Dodd is sucking up a lot of Richardson and Clinton support. I don't know if the IAFF all started becoming Daily Kos members or maybe they are Freepin' the poll. Who knows. However, this is a huge jump for Dodd and it will be interesting to see if this burst will last.

NH radio news
According to NERW, Libertarian talker Gardner Goldsmith, who does the lunchtime show on WTPL, will now be syndicated on the company's sister station, WMXR, 93.9, in Woodstock. They will also have on the putrid Glenn Beck and news simulcast from WMUR-TV, Channel 9.

Quote of the night

I didn't see the GOP debate on FoxNews but I have seen some of the press reports, including this one: ["Cat Fight Hisses in Republican Presidential Primary Debate"].
It is hilarious to read about the frontfunners attacking one another, trying to one up each other. And there is Mike Huckabee, kinda moseying along, trying to get some traction by being civil and focusing on the bigger picture:

"[I'm] content to let you let them fight all they want tonight, shed each other's blood and then I'll be ready to run for president because I'm not interested in fighting these guys. What I'm interested in is fighting for the American people, and I think they're looking for a presidential candidate who's not so interested in a demolition derby against the other people in his own party."

Does that sound presidential or what? Compare that to the bickering between the frontrunners and you really have to wonder about GOP voters.

Veterans deserve better than party politics

Guest Perspective/Shawn Girard

A year ago today, my father passed away.

An uneducated, unskilled man who loved people, he complained about, but never lost faith in the country he had served with pride in the U.S. Navy. He was well liked, active in his community and in service to the disabled and elderly.

He died in a VA hospital, the same hospital system he had visited many times during the years of his declining health. There was a wonderful hospital a few miles from his home, but he had to ask friends and relatives to drive him, time and time again, an hour to Boston.

You see, elderly veterans in America who require care and are scraping by on a fixed and inadequate income cannot afford long-term treatment in a real hospital.

We didn’t know until a week before he died what was actually wrong with him. Years of treatment by different doctors investigated one problem after another, but never discovered the fatal lung disease which took his life. Overburdened case workers never had the time to advocate for better treatment.

I will never forget his last days: The empty corridors, darkened and unused spaces and unstaffed reception desks of a dingy hospital long past its prime. My terminally ill father waited in one of those empty halls for an hour, on a stretcher, outside over-crowded rooms. We searched in vain to locate someone, anyone, to take responsibility for his care. Our requests, and later, our days of phone calls led only to conflicting reports of his health and treatment, ever-shifting cycles of blame, voicemail or silence.

Later, among his belongings, we would find hundreds of pages of documents related to his health which he had requested. Perhaps he hoped to understand his illness or to be better equipped to communicate his problems to new specialists who seemed oblivious to his history. Maybe he was just hoping one of his friends or family members could help him write the correct person to expedite his case. We will never know. The documents arrived only a few days before his last hospitalization.

Four months later, when the story of the failures at Walter Reed Army Medical Center became news, I was disgusted. The inadequacies of our Veteran’s Health Care System were no secret to anyone in Washington and to have the liars come forward, the President and Congress alike, to speak out about the grave injustice done to those who have served us, was the height of hypocrisy and the final straw for me.

These men and women, who we trusted to represent us, had robbed our nation’s coffers for years, of the funds needed to support our veterans. They had stolen that money and funneled it to special interest projects in their states to shore up support for reelection and line the pockets of their large donors. Few among them were innocent of this abuse and none of them were ignorant.

Nearly a year later, the tragic story of the VA has passed into memory for most. General Weightman has been fired, Francis Harvey has stepped down, but nothing has changed. These men were not responsible for the failures of Walter Reed or the hospital in which my father died. When you go to the polls in 2008, I hope you will think about who was.

Whether we elect a Democrat or a Republican as president, whether we send one, or the other, to Congress, we all lose if we continue to support the system, and the parties, that lie to us with a smile and protect the liars from accountability and justice.

Right now, hundreds of soldiers are returning from abroad with life altering injuries, trauma and a promise from a nation to repay their bravery and patriotism with our support. This obligation will cost billions upon billions of dollars and will not be a priority for Washington except during election cycles, or times of crisis.

I do not pretend to understand fully the reasons for our current unconstitutionally waged war. If anyone besides the President and his close advisors claim to understand, they are fools or liars. What I do understand is the enormous cost and obligation we have undertaken on behalf of hundreds of thousands of military personnel and their families.

Their children, their grandchildren will inherit these obligations. It won’t be the multinational corporations, defense contractors or politicians who pay. I hope history judges the reward equal to the expense of our foolish war.

Shawn Girard is a Loudon resident running as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. For more information about his campaign, go to www.shawngirard.com.

From the mouths of babes ...

Rudy Giuliani gets asked what is probably the most important question of the 2008 presidential cycle: What will you do if we get attacked by aliens from another planet!:

NH Primary Day should be set for Saturday, Dec. 28, 2007

With all the talk about shifting primary dates, I urge Secretary of State Bill Gardner to make two bold moves: Set the date in 2007 and make Election Day a Saturday. There really are not many options. So, let's go with this one: Saturday, Dec. 28, 2007. This way, the voters can think about things right after the holiday and the campaigns can crash all the great holiday parties. What a way to celebrate. Also, most folks have Saturdays off. So it will be a great opportunity to build community and increase turnout. While we don't want to upset Iowa, the choice is clear. If they want to be before us, let them have their caucus before Christmas, either on Dec. 15 or 22.

Ron Paul: The $5M Man

Updated
GOP Texas Rep. Ron Paul is the story tonight. In third quarter fund-raising, he raised more than $5 million - double what he did last quarter and more than the more "serious" candidates. Paul is getting a lot of respectful press today. But there is still some of the disrespect directed at him, despite the fact that he is raising pretty big money: ["Too many talkers"].

Here are some fund-raising numbers:

Dems
Clinton: $22 million
Obama: $19 million
Edwards: $7 million
Richardson: $5.2 million
Biden: $2 million
Dodd: $1.5 million
Kucinich:
Gravel:

GOP
Giuliani: $11 million
Romney: $10 million [est.]
Thompson: $9.3 million
McCain: $6 million
Paul: $5.1 million
Huckabee: $1 million
Tancredo:
Hunter:
Brownback:
Keyes:
Cox:

Romney also kicked another $8.5 million in personal funds into his coffers. He now has $9 million on hand, which means he is blowing through almost as much money as he is raising.

Yeah, but I had it first!!

The Web was all abuzz yesterday and today about Duncan Hunter's Web site being hacked. Apparently, the hacker is a big deal in Turkey, since I've seen a burst of traffic from that country during the past 24 hours. As I previously reported, I had it on the Web first so hah, hah. :-) Some bloggers got it around 10 a.m. and ABC News had something up at 11 a.m. Yeah, I know. I just happened to be up at that hour looking at sites. But still - I got the news on the Web first. Yeah baby!

EXCLUSIVE: Duncan Hunter Web site hacked?!

While perusing presidential campaign Web sites this morning, looking for end of third quarter financing statements, I came upon Rep. Duncan Hunter's Web site and it looks like it has been hacked. The following came up on the screen, below the site's masthead:

"HACKED BY ADANALI f0r TurkStorm[dot]Org" and then below that it stated "No WAR!" Below that, there pictures of two Middle Eastern children with what looked like war wounds, stating "Savasa Hayr! no war!"

I tried to figure out how to save the page but I couldn't make it work. I will have to teach myself how to do this in the future. It is doubtful that this was approved of by the Hunter campaign considering his gung-ho support for the alleged War on Terror.

Update: I'm putting "EXCLUSIVE" in the headline because it looks like I'm the only one who has spotted this, according to a number of searches I've attempted.

More than $1M in seven days

Rep. Ron Paul's campaign raised about $1.2 million in the last seven days before the third quarter fundraising deadline, according to the candidate's Web site.
As of 3 p.m. this afternoon, Edwards was close to raising $1 million over 10 days. The candidate reportedly has about $9 million on hand and has also enrolled in the public financing program.
Tonight, Bill Richardson reported raising $5.2 million.
Biden's Web site doesn't have fundraising information on it and press reports stated over the weekend that he was pulling staff out of every state but Iowa. The site is still targeting voters in three states - Iowa, New Hampshire, an South Carolina.
Dodd has no information about his numbers but his site does add Nevada to his list of "Around the States" and also has a link for Connecticut, his home state. Is that a future sign there?
Gravel sent out two mailers over the last week asking for small donations from key states in order to receive about $200,000 in public financing. According to the email, he is seven states from reaching the goal. He needs four $250 donations from people in Arizona, Connecticut, DC, and Maryland, eight from people in Michigan, five from Wisconsin and three from NH. After being in the race for about 15 months, Gravel finally has a somewhat irregular [instead of nonexistent] communication response to media and voters.

Quick links: The Rush Limbaugh hates the troops edition

Here are some things I've saved over the past couple of weeks which are worth looking at:
First, here is that idiot Rush Limbaugh going off on the troops again: ["Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are 'phony soldiers'"]. I guess the only "real" soldiers are the ones who take joy in killing, right Rush? Some Christian you are. And more evidence and reasoning for why we need a fairness doctrine for all licensed media organizations.
Here is the response from a veteran's group:

Here is another vet responding, with photos, of him, as a "phony "soldier": ["The Real Deal"].
Here is an AP story about vets coming home to face financial problems: ["Wounded vets also suffer financial woes"].
I don't like the fact that this article kinda laughs at people who are worried about meteorites: ["Meteorite Crash Breeds Mass Hysteria"]
The Boston Herald has an update on the status of Howie Carr's contract dilemma: ["Stalled Carr urges judge to rethink radio ruling"].
Boston news hottie Bianca de la Garza has landed at Channel 5: ["Bianca de la Garza"]. I was wondering where she went to because there were rumors she was leaving FOX25. And then, poof, she was back on TV, co-anchoring the 11 p.m. WCVB-TV newscast. While Googling for some news about Bianca, I came across this site, which is pretty amusing: ["Ogle Boston's Hottest News Woman, Feel Creepy"].
For all you Halo 3 junkies out there, here are some tips: ["Halo 3: First Tips"].
I was wondering when this was going to happen: ["FCC proposes 'fake news' fine"].
They're at it again!: ["Clinton campaign kills negative story"].

Guess where Rudy was?

Well, well, well ... now we know why Rudy wasn't at the All-American Forum: He was hanging out at a fundraiser in California, getting the endorsement of former Gov. Pete Wilson. Via video from Robert Greenwald:

Gringrich is definitely out

AP has the story here: ["Gingrich Says No to White House Bid"]. I guess the money was too important to him than some of his ideas. Interesting.

Paul, Huckabee shine in debate

It's not like I have to say this again but I will: The GOP frontrunners missed a great opportunity to shine tonight in the All American Forums Debate. But, at the same time, it was nice to have fewer candidates on the stage. With only six candidates, they all got a chance to answer a bunch of questions. Many of the questions were similar to the ones asked of the Democrats at the previous debate. I'm also pretty shocked that some of the Republican answers were similar to the answers forwarded by the Democrats.
If audience response was a measure of who won the debate, Ron Paul would get the award. It was clearly his crowd but he didn't seem as sharp as in previous debates.
Mike Huckabee came across well, answering all the questions thoughtfully. And, frankly, he looked the most presidential of all of them on the stage. Huckabee shouldn't be so low in the polls.
Host Tavis Smiley did a fine job moderating. He had to keep telling Alan Keyes his time was up. No surprise there. Keyes is a great debater; but he is a Johnny one note. And he won't win. Duncan Hunter got the one reprimand of the debate, when Smiley interrupted him and told him to answer the question which he then did.
Lastly, the panelists and participants all asked quality questions about serious issues which are a concern of both white and black folks. It was a quality debate all around.

Pretty big men

I will be blogging about the Republican All-American Forums Debate tonight on PBS.
Right out of the box, I must say that I'm pretty proud of the six candidates who showed up: Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, Paul, and Tancredo. Nice job. When a candidate is invited to a forum which is broadcast nationally on television, they should show up, whether they think they will earn the votes of the attendees or not. You have an obligation - to all voters in America - to talk to them and to listen to them. Shame on those candidates who didn't show up.
I called into "Finneran's Forum" last week when he was complaining about Romney not going to this debate. I gave him two examples about why this was a stupid move, including the fact that blacks do vote for Republicans. Not in huge amounts. But they do vote for Republicans. I noted that during the 2002 campaign, I was shocked one night when I was walking down Centre Street in Jamaica Plain and I saw a bunch of black folks pounding the phones in a small storefront with Romney/Healey signs. Later, after the election, I went back and looked at the returns in Roxbury and was shocked to see how high the numbers were for Romney there. The point? Blacks don't just vote for Democrats. There are conservative blacks. In a tight race in Ohio, Florida, or Arkansas, how many of those votes are the difference between winning and losing? The frontrunners - Romney, Giuliani, McCain and Thompson - were stupid to not show up for this debate.
Second, during the introductions, Rep. Ron Paul got the loudest cheers, easily twice as loud as the other candidates. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee also received loud cheers. Rep. Tom Tancredo gets a jab in during the first question, noting that he was the only Republican to show up NAACP debate.

Update
Here is an update on the Daily Kos debate poll, with more than 8,600 votes cast: Edwards 31, Obama 20, Clinton 13, Kucinich 7, None of the above 6, Dodd 5, Biden 4, More than one of the above 4, Gravel 3, and Richardson 3.

Dodd clock!

Once again, here it is:

If this is accurate - and I have no reason to doubt it isn't - doesn't it say a lot? Russert, not unlike the other hosts, dominated a good chunk of time in the debate. Hillary, again, was given much more time than everyone else, almost twice as much as Dodd and almost three times as much as Biden and Kucinich. Gravel was limited, again, and didn't talk about his sales tax proposal, again!

Silly ending

A pretty good debate overall. But why, why must they ask those silly questions about baseball. What a waste of the last three minutes.

Who won?
OK, so who won. Well, I don't know. I think Biden, Dodd, Edwards, and Kucinich did the best. Clinton and Richardson did OK. No huge pitfalls but they weren't that impressive. Obama started slow and spotty but he improved later. Gravel was better than previous debates. I personally like the man but I'm sick of his yelling and screaming from the debate floor. There is no need for that. I can hardly wait for the Dodd time meter picture. I will have to go and find it and post it later.

Polls
Well, Drudge doesn't have one up but DailyKos does. Here are the results, with 295 votes: Edwards 30, Obama 16, Clinton 16, Kucinich 10, Dodd 8, None of the above 5, More than one of the above 5, Biden 4, Gravel 3, Richardson 2. MSNBC doesn't have a poll but they have a ratings survey. Interesting.

Another nurses ad!

Wow, two in a row. I wonder if they are only on NECN or also on MSNBC. Is it also paid for by Physicians for Social Responsibility or something. Interestingly, the California Nurses Association endorsed Ralph Nader in both 2000 and 2004.