The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

Turns out, the NYPost, Washington Times and Dallas Morning News weren’t banned – just bumped.

From Ben Smith’s Blog on Politico:

Burton said the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times had returned to the plane, and confirmed that Ebony and Jet magazines have seats on the plane. (The Tribune has had a reporter on the plane for most of the cycle, but recently added a photographer.)

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd said in an email that, contrary to Drudge’s suggestion, she won’t be on Obama’s plane.

“I’ll be at Saturday Night Live covering Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin and possibly the real John McCain,” she said.

Burton said the campaign was making space for the dropped outlets on the campaign bus where possible, and that they were encouraged to travel with Senator Joe Biden. He also noted that Fox News, whose schedule includes perhaps the most openly hostile programming to Obama, has a seat on the plane.

Well… That’s quite a different take, now isn’t it?

QT

According to the Drudge report, these three papers, all of whom endorsed Senator McCain, were ousted from the campaign plane to make room for “more sympathetic” reporters, including Maureen Dowd of the NY Times (my girl! ) and reporters from Ebony and Jet magazines – two of the most prominant black publications in the country.

I say – good. Maureen Dowd, for her acerbic opinions on McCain and Palin, was ousted from the McCain campaign about a month ago – while the campaign was still in the thick of it. Meanwhile, the Post, Times and Morning News – two of whom I KNOW were harsh, maybe even hostile to Obama, got to stay on for the entire campaign. The difference in when to reward reporters for being sympathetic and/or kind couldn’t be more stark. In the one case – we have outright censorship, and in the other – a snub at the dance. Honestly – in these last 4 days before the election, isn’t it fair that the reporters who are going to be read by supporters of a campaign get preferential treatment, while the reporters who are going to be read by detractors from the campaign have to make other arrangements?

Here is a rightwing (I guess) group celebrating Maureen Dowd’s ousting: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/10/02/nyt-maureen-dowd-kicked-mccains-campaign-plane-hes-dismissive-1s

Rather amusingly, she was dumped in the middle of Pennsylvania, too. After an August 30 rally in Washington, PA, she was told she could not get back on the plane. The rest of the press corps loaded up and off they flew leaving poor Mo standing there in shock.

Naturally, instead of seeing this as just deserts, Dowd goes on to blame everyone else.

“It was disappointing because I didn’t think John McCain would ever be as dismissive of the First Amendment as Dick Cheney.”

Sorry, Mo, but you shouldn’t expect to be welcomed with open arms while you constantly have your knife out, stabbing wildly like you do. McCain is NOT president yet, so he really doesn’t have to suffer your odious presence if he doesn’t want to.

I actually didn’t know they stranded her in PA – I don’t find that amusing… I find that coldhearted. But whatever. I hope that Obama’s team didn’t strand the NY Post, Washington Times and Dallas Morning News reporters in such manner.

Also – the Newsbusters argue that Dowd was fairly dropped because she’s an Op-Ed writer, not a reporter. OK – I’ll go with that. But I still find it reasonable for Obama to make room for reporters who will report for his supporters, over reporters who will report for his opposition. Especially in the final four days. And as the Newsbusters say – no one’s 1st Amendment rights have been abused, because there is no first amendment right to travel on a campaign airplane.

Editing to add – nope. They are very dejected, and see this as portend of bad things to come.

I, as I’ve already stated, disagree.

QT

I don’t celebrate Halloween, but this is a treat for those who do:

Be safe. Be wise. Contact Voters!

h/t Jason Linkins on HuffPost
QT

This is the headline at the Drudge Report, and it has Obama in a messianic pose – with an unlikely halo around his hand and a sparkle coming out from his hand as well.

Well. 144 hours from now, I’m hopeful that we have a President-Elect Obama, and I’m hoping that we as a nation join our hands with his to make this nation even better, to work together to overcome the obstacles the nation is facing, and to join hands with the world in bringing about changes that are so necessary. I hope for this, and nevermind what Drudge’s motives are.

You inspired me, sir, to carry this exact message to others. Thank you. Let’s make appeals to bigotry a recipe for failure henceforth and forever.

http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?s=&showtopic=55136&view=findpost&p=1160892
More on Sarah Palin
Read Bob Cesca’s Article at HuffingtonPost

http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/liberalism_bomaye.php

I don’t even want to quote it. It’s brilliant. Click the link and read it.

QT

In Obama’s “closing argument” speech today he said:

I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale. Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Her insurance company refused to pay, and their family just didn’t have that kind of money.

In her email, Robyn wrote, “I ask only this of you – on the days where you feel so tired you can’t think of uttering another word to the people, think of us. When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder.”

Ohio, that’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting around the bend; that insists there are better days ahead. If we’re willing to work for it. If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts. If we’re willing to reach deep down inside ourselves when we’re tired and come back fighting harder.

It’s a powerful sentiment, and I want to pause here to celebrate some unsung – even unnamed heros and heroines who pushed back, dug deep, and took a stand for change:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/dozens_of_call_center_workers.php

Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama
By Greg Sargent – October 27, 2008, 5:18PM

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

and

Williams’ daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it’s located in Hobart, IN.

“They walked out,” Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren’t fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. “They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you’re not gonna get paid for the rest of the day.”

I don’t know if these were McCain or Obama supporters. I don’t care. What I care about is the principled stand – at cost to themselves. I don’t know their names, but I’m proud of them.

Pass it on.

QT

When you have a history of killing people for not being white or for attempting to assert their equal rights while being different from the majority – every instance of it is an act of terrorism, and every hint of it, feels like a terrorist threat. I used to work in 1 WTC – the first building hit and the 2nd one to fall on 9/11. Indeed, I was trapped on Manhattan Island on that day (funny how you don’t really think of Manhattan as an Island until you can’t get off of it). I know the feeling of terrorism – I know the post traumatic stress disorder of looking over your shoulder long after the threat is passed.

And – it is that same sense of terror that haunts me whenever I hear news like this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/27/obama-assassination-plot_n_138297.html

Obama Assassination Plot Disrupted By ATF

LARA JAKES JORDAN | October 27, 2008 05:12 PM EST | AP

WASHINGTON — Federal agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Yeah. Times like this it takes all you’ve got to stand against fear. I’ll be standing against fear with Barack this week, next Tuesday, and for as long as it takes.

From Barack Obama’s Canton, Ohio Closing Argument:

I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale. Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Her insurance company refused to pay, and their family just didn’t have that kind of money.

In her email, Robyn wrote, “I ask only this of you – on the days where you feel so tired you can’t think of uttering another word to the people, think of us. When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder.”

Ohio, that’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting around the bend; that insists there are better days ahead. If we’re willing to work for it. If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts. If we’re willing to reach deep down inside ourselves when we’re tired and come back fighting harder.

Hope! That’s what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough. What led them to say, “Maybe I can’t go to college, but if I save a little bit each week my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but if I work really hard my child can open one of her own.” It’s what led immigrants from distant lands to come to these shores against great odds and carve a new life for their families in America; what led those who couldn’t vote to march and organize and stand for freedom; that led them to cry out, “It may look dark tonight, but if I hold on to hope, tomorrow will be brighter.”

That’s what this election is about. That is the choice we face right now.

Don’t believe for a second this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.

In one week, we can choose an economy that rewards work and creates new jobs and fuels prosperity from the bottom-up.

In one week, we can choose to invest in health care for our families, and education for our kids, and renewable energy for our future.

In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo.

In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history.

That’s what’s at stake. That’s what we’re fighting for. And if in this last week, you will knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me, and talk to your neighbors, and convince your friends; if you will stand with me, and fight with me, and give me your vote, then I promise you this – we will not just win Ohio, we will not just win this election, but together, we will change this country and we will change the world. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America.

Change/Hope ‘08

If you look to the left at my blogroll, you’ll find a very curious entry – Bob Cesca’s G*dd*m Awesome Blog. It’s out of character for me – I don’t generally use language like that, and I rarely use blasphemous language. The blog in question doesn’t have asterisks in its name, just to be clear.

But I’ve become a fan of Bob Cesca, largely because of how completely forthright, and upright he is. I characterized him as “over-the-top,” which he can be, but that’s almost missing the point. It isn’t just that he expresses his opinions with emotional honesty – its that in his expression, both by word and by tone, he demonstrates a thorough and absolute rejection of the politics of hate, division, and fear.

I’m sure that Mr. Bob Cesca and I disagree on a number of points, not limited to his colorful language. But I find him a kindred spirit just the same, and am very much looking forward to receiving my copy of his new book:

One Nation Under Fear: Scaredy Cats and Fear-Mongers in the Home of the Brave (And What You Can Do About It)

Congratulations on the new book, Bob!

QT