Reform Dem Challenges The Proletariat!

UPDATE: Henry has responded! Check the comments for the latest.

Henry Dubb (a pseudonym), on his blog The Proletariat, has been spouting a lot of wild and crazy stuff about Obama and the Democratic Party. He's certainly entitled to his opinions, uninformed though they may be, but now he's crossed the line, forcing me to bring out the heavy artillery. Henry is predicting that:

"Obama will lose big come November."

Well, I'm not going to take that lying down! Since we can't seem to discuss the error of his ways, mainly because Henry is still deleting most of the comments I leave on his blog, I issued him the following challenge:

Henry, I'll bet you a case of beer, or $50 to a charity of the winner's choice, that Obama wins this fall. Since you're so sure how things are going to turn out, this should be a no-brainer. My only condition is that both of us announce the bet, and the settlement, in posts on our blogs. No backing out when the going gets tough.

Talk is cheap. Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is? Email me: russwallac@aol.com.

And you're still dumping my comments. Why do I scare you so much? If you can't go toe to toe with people who don't agree with you then maybe you should find a hobby that doesn't involve expressing your opinions quite so publicly.

Pwned!!!

So what will it be, Henry? I've thrown down the gauntlet. Is what you write just hysterical anti-Obama propaganda, or do you actually believe it?

I'll be waiting...



(That's me with the blue lightsaber, and Henry with the red. I don't think his horns are visible under normal circumstances.)

Why Obama Matters: Young Voters

"Get 'em while they're young" is the key to making real political change in America. People tend to form their political identities based on the first couple of elections they participate in. Take a look at the chart below, it shows the big reason Obama has so much potential to move this country in the right direction.

Howard Dean to Remain as DNC Chair

Just noticed this, and I'm a bit relieved. From The Fix blog at the Washington Post:

Dean Stays at DNC, Tewes Joins

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) is moving quickly to put his imprint on the Democratic National Committee, offering a vote of confidence in current chairman Howard Dean while also installing one of his most senior political deputies in a leadership role at the party committee.

In the days since Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday night, there had been speculation that Dean might be removed in favor of a party chairman of Obama's choosing.

Obama put that speculation to rest this morning.

"Senator Obama appreciates the hard work that Chairman Dean has done to grow our party at the grassroots level and looks forward to working with him as the chairman of the Democratic Party as we go forward," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton in a statement.

Although Obama is keeping Dean, he is also ensuring that one of the main pillars of his campaign is installed at the DNC. Paul Tewes, a longtime party operative who managed Obama's Iowa caucus effort, will take over the general-election strategy at the DNC, according to several officials briefed on the decision.

Dean will announce Tewes to the DNC staff this afternoon. No title for the nomadic political operative, who served as political director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2004 cycle, has been chosen.

Those close to the DNC's operations insist that no wholesale changes will occur at the party committee. Instead, the current staff will stay intact while a number of Obama loyalists are added to bolster the committee's general election operation.

Who's the Star?

A couple of months back, when Hillary Clinton praised John McCain as a way to attack Barak Obama, who could have possibly guessed that her words would come back to haunt Democrats in the general election?

Shocking as it may seem, Clinton is the star of the brand new anti-Obama RNC ad below. There are good reasons why a lot of Democrats, myself included, didn't like the way Clinton ran her primary campaign. This rather graphically illustrates one of them:

US to Iraq: We Own You!

UPDATE: Some good historical background related to this issue here.

Somebody leaked the proposed status of forces agreement that Bush is trying to ram through the Iraqi parliament, and it's astonishing. As in we get to do any damn thing we want, and there's nothing you stupid Iraqis can do about it!

Fifty permanent US military bases, full control over Iraqi airspace, blanket immunity for US troops and contractors, complete US military freedom of action, right to arrest and hold anybody, for any reason, for as long as we want.

The pretense that one of our goals in Iraq was to establish a democracy is now gone. It isn't democracy when there's a permanent occupying force in your country that's above your laws and beyond your control.

Bush wants to get this agreement signed quickly so it will be binding on the next administration. Can't take a chance on Obama undoing all the fine work he and Cheney have done in Iraq. The sad thing is that the Iraqi government will probably go along, despite overwhelming and likely violent opposition from the Iraqi people. Why? Because everyone in the government knows that their livelihoods, and their lives, depend on staying in Bush's good graces. When the time comes most will decide it's better to be a live coward than a dead hero.

The Obama Haters

I find it ironic that the the far-left and the far-right hate Obama for the same reason. They worry that if Obama is elected president he'll move the country to the left. And he will.

While it's easy to see why this bothers the right, you might think that the far-left would be pleased with the prospect. But many are not because they believe in revolution, not evolution. In their world anybody who makes things better, short of the true revolution, is a threat. A threat because revolution can only occur when the people are made to suffer.

Perhaps the oddest manifestation of this logic is the bizarre love affair some on the far-left suddenly have with Hillary Clinton. You can see this quite clearly on The Proletariat, a Madison area Green/Socialist blog. If you check it out don't bother leaving any critical comments; they'll probably just be deleted.

The Proletariat is a guy who would never vote for Clinton, yet he waxes poetic about what he sees as the unfair way she's been treated by Obama, the media, and the DNC. His real goal, of course, is simply to damage the Democratic nominee, whoever it may be, and Clinton is just a convenient club with which to whack Obama.

Intellectually honest? Not so much. But I guess anything goes in support of the revolution!