August 13th, 2008 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
Some say protesters, such as Code Pink and Recreate 68 and others, including small church groups and other groups no one has ever heard much about, are being denied their constitutional rights of freedom to assemble, and freedom of speech. Many protest groups have sued to gain access to convention gathering sites in Denver so they can be ’seen’ and ‘heard’ by conventioneers, pols, and newsmedia. Up close.
Like abortion protesters, kind of. That close.
But the big D doesn’t want that kind of closeness.
Thus, it seems, some in the city of Denver and DNCC seem to think the protesters ought be marginalized– a word usually anathema to Dems– and instead be kept to outlying portions of Denver…. out of sight of the old stadium where Obama will formally ‘accept’ the nomination, and away from conventioneers…. and away from the Capitol building (which is in downtown Denver) and away from the Convention building. Just generally, away from , instead of “fish-eye lens” up close.
The Denver Manager of Safety says it’s for safety’s sake. Some say Denver can’t handle the crush. One wonders at the wisdom of bringing in a huge convention where people are worried about ‘the crush’ of humanity. Denver is a small city laid out on a grid with skyscrapers on both sides of the downtown streets. These create tall, close-walled canyons with no easy ingress or egress…for gathering together, for marching—for hurrying toward or away from, if need be.
Freedoms of speech and assembly motivated Martin to cross the bridge even though there were NO concerns for the safety the marchers via the City government of Selma. I wonder if anyone reads history any more, learning form previous fatally chosen trajectories by ‘those in charge.’
The protesters have filed for and been granted all the proper permits months ago. It appears the protesters have attempted to follow the letter of the laws of Denver County in negotiating their presences.
But,
Last week The Mayor decreed that the protesters, some 50k expected, would not be allowed to sleep in the park.
The protesters said, Really? Watch this. We’re sleeping in the park.
Mayor Hickenlooper, said, Really? Watch this… we’ll turn all the sprinklers on.
The protesters said, Really? Watch this… we’ll overturn the dumpsters over the sprinkler heads to let them drown the grass underneath them
and so it goes. Or doesn’t. Love.
Denver is a small town in many ways. Good people. Often, laid back. Most of us have at least two pair of cowboy boots in the closet even though we no longer run cows.
But something else is at play here. Profound scripting by and of the DNCC in many ways I’ll be detailing more about as the week goes on. Certainly what has been built up here in Denver by the DNCC and the Mayor’s office makes it seem that the Democratic Convention is no longer a “people’s event,” but rather a petrified diorama that people are invited to come “look at.” But only up close…IF they promise to behave in a certain codified way. And then only a coveted few. A lottery of sorts for public attendance.
Those of us who live in the Rockies have listened to these back-and-forth arguments about protesters going on and on and ON for months now… for instance: Yes you can march, but only to the corner of ‘walk and don’t walk’ a quarter mile shy of the convention center, completely out of range of the crowd. Then you have to stop right there and turn around and go back the way you came.
I recognize the need for safety. And order. I’ve many friends in both PD and FD who are stalwart souls. I want them and the conventioneers and the protesters, all to be safe too. But, there’s something odd about the Demmies seeming to be so concerned that they begin treating valid protesters as sort of a “pre-criminal” element, if not some kind of ‘repeat offender’ organism.
Maybe it’s a clang because the generation of Demmies who are now in their late 40s, 50s and early 60s enjoined thousands of protests for the last many years, beginning with civil rights workers ‘rights, and coming straight through to war protests in this time. Those Dems’ fathers and mothers often marched on strikes with unions, or while attempting to gain the right to have or keep a union.
Protesting is in the Demmies’ blood.
Surely political evolution isn’t based on ‘I got mine, but I will impede yours.’ Vox populi re Constitutional rights, that is.
August 13th, 2008 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
They’re trying to empty the Denver jails in anticipation of all the protesters the Denver police may need to round up. But, the Denver County jails are overflowing with prisoners nonetheless.
So, Denver Mayor Hickenlooper has authorized a unique way to contain protesters: cages. Inside a warehouse. Far from Denver central where all the action will be.
One of the guys who does investigative reporting for the local TV channel, Rick Sallinger, says the lockup at a warehouse owned by Denver has dozens are metal cages. They are made out of chain link fence material and topped by rolls of barbed wire.
The plans were to keep this lockup a secret, at least for now. The sheriff’s department said late Tuesday the mayor’s office would be releasing a statement about it early next week.
The sheriff will not discuss the game plan.
But, so much for “secret” lockup.
The ACLU is riding in with all flags burning.
I’d say the mayor ought not wait til next week to make his “statement” about the cages. Around town, pundits and protesters are already calling Hickenloopers newest ‘urban solution’ “GITMO on the Platte.”
Chain link cages without means for toilets, first aid, places to meet with counsel… no phones, no running water…. Bad, bad image for the Dems who have often been outspoken about the caging of human beings at Gitmo I.
Not to mention that the cages look like 4 people people making a human chain can go right over the top, if not topple the structures by sheer force of weight during a bum’s rush.
But the city is said to be considering using/ buying/ renting_
–a ray gun— that sounds like science fiction, I know– but it is mounted on an armored vehicle and gives off an intense blast of heat that disperses crowds…
–an auditory crowd disperser that makes ear-drum splitting sounds
–and tasers that fire long range, twenty blasts at a time to disable indiduals
The DNCC and City of Denver measures, with regard to other people’s rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, are beginning to sound like 15th century Spain. Under Torquemada.
___________________
*Platte River flows through Denver
August 13th, 2008 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
Rick Sallinger reports from the CBS Denver affiliate
Less than two weeks before the Democratic National Convention a man has been found dead in a Denver hotel room with a container of what authorities initially suspect to be the deadly poison cyanide.
…the dead man, Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, appears to be from outside the U.S. No passport was found on Dirie, who is believed to have entered the country from Canada.
A large container of a white powdery substance was found in the man’s room on the fourth floor of The Burnsley Hotel at 10th Avenue and Grant Street.
That particular hotel was the work of the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley, and has since been a boutique hotel in downtown Denver.
Tests are now being done by the Denver Police Crime Lab to determine exactly what the substance is.
It’s believed Dirie died from something other than the substance that was in the container.
The FBI and other governmental agencies, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force, are assisting in the probe. Hazardous materials assistance has included the Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado National Guard.
“Our Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved in this simply because the victim here is from another country and it just kind of makes sense that our terrorism guys would take a look a look at this,” FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis said…
“I don’t see how anybody could do anything but look into the possibility that this is a potential terrorist attack,” said Dr. Andrew Ternay, a Department of Defense contractor.
Ternay has worked with the Pentagon for 25 years. He’s published text books and written “The Language of Nightmares” which is a glossary of all things deadly, including cyanide.
We are now through 40 states with 10 more to go. If you haven’t taken a look at the state-by-state summaries, please check the blog for each one.
President: So far Senator Obama retains his lead over Senator McCain. The numbers from the first 40 states give him 269 Electoral Votes to 171 for Senator McCain. He is now just 1 state shy of victory.
This is a net Democratic Gain of 41 over the 2004 vote.
Senate: The Democrats are currently up three seats which would give them 54 seats (including ’Independent’ Senator Sanders of Vermont) to the Republicans 45. Senator Lieberman’s status is unclear.
At this point he votes with the Democrats, but there is talk they may kick him out of the party in 2009. If so, he would probably side with the GOP.
So the numbers will probably be 53 Dems, 1 Ind Dem (54 total) to 45 Republicans and 1 unclear Independent.
At least so far.
House: So far the Democrats lead 207-150 which is a net gain of seven seats from the current 233-202 majority which would give them 240-195 edge in 2009. But we still need to review enough states to give then the final 11 seats for control.
Governor: No changes other than Missouri gain for the Democrats which would give them a net edge of 29-21.
The economy has now become a campaign issue almost as big as the two presumptive Presidential candidates’ flip flops. Here are some links to websites of varying viewpoints. Links do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice or its writers.
SO WHO WOULD OBAMA NOMINATE TO THE SUPREME COURT? Orin Kerr has a list…
YESTERDAY WAS THE DAY OF DUELING MCCAIN OBAMA ECONOMIC PLANS and partisans on both sides were shooting out helpful emails and infolinks (and some sent out recriminations to blogs that did not dare run their candidate’s ideas). So how did the candidates fare? MSNBC’s First Read reports:
The day after McCain and Obama spoke on the economy, the big papers — not surprisingly — have fact-checked their economic plans and budget numbers. And neither is passing the smell test.
McCain’s assertion that he will balance the budget after his first term is getting the most scrutiny. The reason: Accomplishing that feat is difficult, especially when fighting a war and advocating big tax cuts. “It would be very difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances, and even more difficult under the policies that Senator McCain has proposed,” Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition told the New York Times. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times adds up Obama’s spending proposals and notes that it’s unlikely he will be able to pay for them as he asserts.
Read it in its entirety.
It stands to reason that neither candidate is receiving hosannas. The economic mess is a tough nut to crack and both are hamstrung by some of their parties’ political constraints in offering solutions to dig the U.S. out of this mess (one that can’t be passed off by the Bush administration again as the “Clinton recession” as was done in the early 2000s…). Among other things, McCain has promised to clean up entitlement programs. McCain got one vote…
ANOTHER AREA WHERE THE CANDIDATES GREATLY DIFFER is Social Security.
To Democrats now giddy about what appears to be a huge campaign funding advantage enjoyed by presumptive Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, you might control your giddiness: the RNC has out-raised the DNC five times over and is expected to use its money to level the campaign funding playing field for Republican presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain.
Led by chairman Mike Duncan, the Republican National Committee ended May with 13 times more money in the bank than its Democratic counterpart, and raised five times as much money in the same time frame.
As The Times’ campaign finance guru Dan Morain points out, the sums are significant as presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain squares off against the far more richly-funded Sen. Barack Obama for the last 136 days of the general election campaign.
Based on the numbers so far, the Republican Party appears poised to act as the financial equalizer in the fall campaign. The RNC disclosed that it ended May with $53.5 million in the bank, compared to $3.9 million for the Democratic National Committee, which is headed by Howard Dean.
McCain, an Arizona senator, had $31.6 million as of May 31, compared with $33.3 million for Obama, Federal Election Commission records show. The RNC had $53.5 million to just under $4 million for the Democrats. The party committees act as shadow campaigns, concentrating their efforts on backing the presidential candidates.
Obama, 46, and Democratic fundraisers have turned their attention to filling the DNC’s coffers now that the Illinois senator has secured the party’s nomination. A fundraiser at Ethel Kennedy’s Hickory Hill estate in Virginia earlier this week netted close to $6 million, and a May 31 event in New York City headlined by former Vice President Al Gore brought in around $1 million more.
The visions some analysts have seemingly suggested of a broke McCain being to a point where he might have to scream on a street corner while Obama ads run coast to are a bit overblown. In fact, Bloomberg’s report suggests that if you add it all together at this point McCain has more money than Obama:
Right. There are none so blind as those who will not see. According to The New York Times, a substantial number of media critics, commentators, pundits, and outlets — not to mention many well known so-called ‘progresssive’ bloggers — still aren’t prepared to acknowledge the offensively biased coverage of Senator Clinton throughout the primary. People, even my 80 year old "I am not now, nor have I ever been a feminist" Republican mom noticed it.
The blatant sexism of the media campaign against Hillary Clinton didn’t bother the people who were doing it or the people who benefited from it, but it bothered the hell out of a lot of women, including me. It was quite clear to me early on that a large number of media figures had decided that Obama should be the presumptive nominee — and never mind waiting to find out what Democratic voters wanted.
Now it seems that the scales have fallen from Howard Dean’s eyes.
So are we now close to the endgame in the seemingly-endless Democratic primaries? Or will it go all the way to the Denver convention in August, with supporters on each side of the nearly evenly divided Democratic Party continuing to be increasingly irritated and frustrated with the other side as Republicans watch the spectacle with bigger and bigger smiles?
Yesterday’s decision at the DNC, which gave the Clinton campaign some of what it wanted in terms of Michigan and Florida delegates but not its actual demands, ended up being the decision that many on the DNC reportedly actually wanted.
And now the predictions and questions have started. Will Clinton start to ease her campaign to a close or suspend it this week? Will she withdraw? Will she fight on in Denver? Will Obama make a big victory speech this week if, as expected, he’s within a hair of the nomination or over the top by the end of the week in pledged delegates and more superdelegates come out for him? Or will he make a more modest pitch?
The Telegraph reports that there’s an Obama effort behind the scenes to offer Clinton a “graceful” exit — one that notably avoids asking her to run as Obama’s Veep:
Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama’s cabinet under plans for a “negotiated surrender” of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama’s aides.
The former First Lady would get the chance to pilot Mr Obama’s reforms of the American healthcare system if she agrees to clear the path to his nomination as Democratic presidential candidate.
Senior figures in the Obama camp have told Democrat colleagues that the offer to Mrs Clinton of a cabinet post as health secretary or to steer new legislation through the Senate will be a central element of their peace overtures to the New York senator.
Not inviting her to be his running mate is not an oversight:
Make no mistake about it. The decision rendered today by the Democratic National Committee’s rules panel showed that Barack Obama has displaced Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as boss of the party.
…..Losing what they needed today proves that for the first time in 16 years the Clintons are no longer in charge of the Democratic Party. There is a new boss in town.
In watching the debate at the DNC rules committee I am starting to wonder if the Obama campaign is making something of a tactical mistake of being so aggressive in pursuing its position regarding Michigan and Florida.
To begin with, I think they could have chosen a better spokesman from Florida. Perhaps it is just me but Congressman Wexler comes off as quite arrogant and seemingly unable to conceive that any fair minded person could disagree with him. Given the problems Obama has had on this topic recently I might have chosen a different spokesperson.
Further, I’m not sure that they need to fight so hard to ‘win’ this fight considering where the math is. Right now Obama has a lead of about 180 delegates and about 500,000 popular votes (not counting Michigan and Florida). Polls suggest Clinton will win Puerto Rico and Obama will win Montana and South Dakota. Just to be generous to Clinton, lets assume she wins PR by a 2-1 margin and ties Obama in Montana and South Dakota. This moves the delegate count to around 140 vote lead for Obama and the popular vote would be around 400,000 or so.
If you go with the Clinton plan to fully seat the delegations and split the delegates based on her share of the popular vote, there really would not be much of a change. In Florida she won 50% while Obama and Edwards split the rest. Since Edwards has endorsed Obama, it is likely his delegates would go with Obama, so there would basically be no delegate shift. In Michigan lets give Obama 40% for the undecided voters and Clinton 60% (she actually won 55% there). This gives her a gain of about 25 delegates, so Obama ends with a lead of more than 100 delegates.
In the popular vote, Clinton beat Obama by 100,000 votes in Michigan and about 250,000 in Florida, so Obama would also retain the lead in the popular vote, especially if you tie seating Florida and Michigan in full to also counting the votes from the various caucus states. So Obama could come in and offer to basically give Clinton what she wants and he’d sill be ahead plus he’d have taken away her major argument in terms of staying in the race.
I’m not one to give the Obama campaign advice, but it seems like they could have taken a smarter road.
The Drudge Report has just put up a link to a You Tube of an audio of a fundraiser last month where ex-President Bill Clinton said in private on April 29, 2008 at the Westglow Spa in Blowing Rock, NC that solution is to seat half a delegate for each delegate in the disputed primary states. VIDEO IS BELOW.
Also listen to what Clinton said about Democratic party rules. Apparently the participants had a tape recorder and this was not supposed to be an official public pronouncement.
FOOTNOTE: Nothing official has been announced yet, but The Huffington Post political reporter Sam Stein reports that two sources have told him that a compromise has been reached over Florida that will entail the awarding of half-delegates to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — but Michigan remains possibly unsolvable and could go all the way to the convention.
In his webchat with readers yesterday, Washington Post Congressional reporter Paul Kane had two juicy political tidbits: (1) undecided superdelegates have actually concluded the race is over and are just waiting for Senator Hillary Clinton to drop out, and (2) supporters of front-runner Senator Barack Obama shouldn’t lose sight of just how narrow a victory (if it occurs) their candidate has over Clinton.
Here are the parts of the chat:
Washington: Looking at the most recent Rasmussen daily polls, I see that Hillary manages a tie today against McCain, but Barack is down by five points to McCain. What piqued my interest was that while Hillary had a “highly unfavorable” rating of 32 percent (i.e., as I see it, people who never will vote for her) Barack was at 35 percent. On Jan. 30, as we entered primary season’s main show, Barack’s “highly unfavorables” were 20 percent and Clinton’s were 35 percent. Is this something superdelegates may be watching?
Paul Kane: I’ve spent the past several months talking to as many super-delegates as any reporter in America, I’d guess, since I cover on a day-to-day basis about 280 of them here on Capitol Hill.
I hate saying this, because all the Clinton people are going to flip out and say, You’re biased, you’re biased, you’re biased. So go ahead and flip out if you want, but the simple basic truth is that the super-delegates stopped paying attention to the Clinton-Obama race about a couple days after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.
They’ve stopped paying attention to the primary, and instead they’re focused on an Obama-McCain matchup in November. That’s the basic, simple, definitive reality that has happened in this race. The “undecided” super-delegates at this moment are not going to “decide” any time soon, because to them the race is over, they’re just waiting for Clinton to drop out.
AND:
Centreville, Va.: I was surprised and disappointed that The Post did not seem to address the Gallup poll yesterday which seemed to say Hillary Clinton had somewhat of an advantage over Barack Obama in the so-called swing states. The news of that poll was bandied about all day on the political blogs, and I have to say the Obama supporters seemed to be getting the worst of it. (Or is it “worse” with only two candidates in the poll?)
Paul Kane: Again, don’t yell at me because I’m only the messenger here. But the super-delegates have moved on, they’re no longer looking at how Hillary Clinton fares in battleground states against McCain. This is very hard for Clinton supporters to hear, I’m sorry, but the super-delegates are not paying attention to your candidate anymore. These head-to-head matchup polls (Clinton v. McCain, Obama v. McCain) are not having the impact on people’s thinking anymore.
AND then this comment about how Obama supporters should not lose sight of the narrowness of this contest:
Lashing out?: Why? I know that there are many out there who vastly prefer Sen. Clinton to Sen. Obama. I know they think that she’s more qualified and better-equipped to beat John McCain in the general election. I know they think that Clinton has been unfairly treated by the media and that the primary system is all screwed up. I’ve heard all their arguments. And I don’t doubt that they genuinely believe all of these things. My question, though, is this: What realistic outcome are they still holding out for?
Paul Kane: They want their candidate to win. I’m not sure they know how that outcome would occur, but they want Clinton to win, it’s that simple. If Obama was losing this campaign by just as narrow a margin, his supporters would be just as upset. It’s important for Obama supporters to realize just how narrow a victory he appears to have pulled off, rather than running around the country acting like they blew out Clinton. If she had been semi-competitive in the post-Super Tuesday states in February — rather than losing them all 60-40 or worse — it’s highly possible she would be the nominee.
This provides some of the context for today’s big showdown over the Michigan and Florida delegations. If party bigwigs feel they’ve come up with a compromise that is legally sound, they’ll do it. And if superdelegates have all but formally decided the race is over, then maneuvers the Clinton camp does will be fruitless unless there is some huge development or revelation about Obama before the convention.
And, as we’ve noted here before, if some revelation about Obama or someone close to him surfaces on the Drudge Report before the convention, many will correctly or incorrectly attribute the sourcing to the Clinton campaign due to reports about the Clinton campaign’s symbiotic relationship with Drudge.
It sounds like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s patience is wearing thin as she watches the the increasingly divisive battle between Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination unfold: she has issued a pointed warning to Clinton supporters about the need for unity ASAP:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday warned supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are threatening to take the delegate fight as far as the Democratic National Convention, that they are pursuing “a scorched earth philosophy” that would seriously damage the chances of electing a Democratic president in November.
“There is too much at stake in our country for us to be thinking that we can afford the luxury of intra-party battles eight weeks before the election,” said Pelosi, in her strongest words yet on the battle over seating delegates from Florida and Michigan. “We’ve had many months to have a debate, to come to a conclusion. And one way or another … we have to come together.”
Tomorrow is The Big Showdown when the Democratic Party’s rules committee meets in Washington to decide the fate of the Michigan and Florida delegations. Pelosi told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier in this week that if the Obama-Clinton battle isn’t resolved by then, she will “step in.”
“The American people have to know the Democratic Party can run its own delegate selection process … if they want to govern America,” Pelosi said Friday. “The rules are what the rules are.”
“Instead of talking about process,” Democrats now need to “talk about how we have a progressive economic agenda. … That’s what the American people want to hear about,” she said. “That’s how we can take America in a new direction.”
Pelosi responded to Clinton supporters who have vowed to take the New York Senator’s fight all the way to the floor of the convention - chaired by the Speaker.
“I admire the enthusiasm of those who want to take this to the limit,” Pelosi said. “But it will harm our party’s chances to win in November. Their enthusiasm is wonderful … but it’s a luxury I can’t afford.”
Pelosi stressed again that “a June timetable is one that we (party leaders) all share” to resolve the issue of seating delegates from Florida and Michigan.
USA TODAY’s Fredreka Schouten spoke today with Allida Black, a professor at George Washington University and co-founder of the WomenCount PAC, which wants Clinton to get the nomination.
“I thought it was undemocratic,” Black said about what Pelosi told The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday. Never in the history of our party have we precluded any candidate from going to the convention floor. … I’m an elected delegate from the state of Virginia. … She has no right as a leader of this party to say the party has to make a decision before the convention. That’s what the convention was created to do. … I don’t want Nancy Pelosi telling me who my nominee is.”
On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine Clinton’s camp completely ignoring Pelosi who will have a bit of influence at the Democratic convention in Denver: Pelosi will chair the convention and is in touch with many superdelegates. Meanwhile, both Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have asked superdelegates to make up their minds and commit by next week. So if the Clinton campaign wants to take it to the convention, it’ll be doing so as the party’s top Congressional leaders try to get a unified party show immediately on the road.
AP photo by Steven Senne
This is the big weekend when the Democratic party apparatus has to decide on what to do about Michigan and Florida and Hillary Clinton is scrambling. Barack Obama is scrambling, too…away from another pastor. And John McCain is scrambling….away from George Bush (unless he needs to be with him to raise money). Here’s our linkfest/roadmap taking you to sites with varying viewpoints.
WILL THERE BE CLINTON DEFECTIONS AT THIS WEEKEND’S DNC MEETING? A top Clinton official suggests there could be — which means the Clinton camp will lose (and likely appeal). The Clinton strategy is to keep the candidacy alive no matter what in case something explosive comes out on Obama. DETAILS HERE. (Will we see something suddenly and conveniently pop up on the Drudge Report right before the convention?…)
THE CLINTON CAMP IS NOT DISCOURAGING A MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION TO PRESSURE THE DNC (and as we noted yesterday there are reports the Clinton ranks are happily accepting McCain and Huckabee supporters who have found a strange, sudden and compelling interest in how the DNC rules and being part of the crowd). Some such as Michelle Malkin think it’ll be a circus. She looks at it here and writes: “Get more popcorn ready. Who needs Indiana Jones?”
May 30th, 2008 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
Between now and the end of the first week of June, this one word, STOP, and its many meanings will be weighed by many of the high members of the Democratic party.
It’s odd isn’t it, some meanings of the word STOP, actually mean GO. And some meanings of the words STOP really do mean cease now, the time has come. The work is done.
TO PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS, means one would, in a project, a war, in love, in politics, in family life, in rage, in celebration, tear out or ignore all normal signals indicating that cessation ought be at hand; that one must bring all locomotion to a halt, that reason ought rule.
The ancient king, Midas pulled out all stops. He was rich beyond belief, yet beyond all reason he began to wish that all he touched could turn to gold. This was granted to him by the gods, and he pranced about touching everything in sight, delighted that it instantly turned to gold. But, then he touched his own little daughter who turned into a beautiful golden trophy. But, she was then incapable of humanity, mirth or love.
STOP AT NOTHING, means crashing through all barriers, exploding through all obstacles, do whatever necessary to take the battlements,
as at Troy, where household after household of women and children were murdered by the staggering, death-maddened soldiers
STOP UP ONE’S EARS, do not listen; stay away from naysayers, set aside all advices so as to not to be swayed or lured…
as Odysseus stopped up the ears of his sailors with honeycomb so they could not hear the Sirens singing from their island Anthemoessa, attempting to lure the sailors to jump into the waters to try to swim to the Sirens—but in treacherous seas that would surely drown the sailors before they could reach the island.
DEAD STOP, as in fallen; as in a sudden physical death, wherein the plant, tree, engine, person suddenly loses all energy,
like the snake-haired Gorgon, Medusa who in classical Greek mythos is said to turn humans into stone should they gaze upon her face. But she is brought to a dead stop when she falls into a heap as Perseus beheads her.
ROLL TO A STOP, losing momentum, or slowing momentum, going from accelerating to coasting, stopping down, so to speak, coming to a more graceful stop,
as did Odysseus as the lone survivor of the Argonauts. He had to face the whirlpool of death, Charybdis, a monstrous mouth which swallowed huge amounts of water three times a day and then threw them back up creating an enormous whirlpool. Odysseus survived by grabbing hold of a small fig tree overhanging Charybds’ maw, but his raft was sucked down into the whirlpool. Yet, as the water was expelled from the maw, his raft surfaced. Though ragged and torn, Odysseys was set aright, and slowly made his way home again
So it goes. Between now and the end of the first week of June, this one word, STOP, and its many meanings will be weighed by many of the high members of the Democratic party…. Which version of STOP each will follow or urge others to follow, remains yet to be seen.
__________
CODA
“Lysis” is the last part of a dream or a drama, a word psychoanalysts use for the resolution phase of a dream; what the ending points toward, or how the story ends. For now.
The photo is of the new digital stop lights, which save enormous amounts of energy over the single bulb lights still used in most traffic lights.
If the latest Gallup Daily tracking poll indicates a trend, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton will stop pointing to Gallup when she makes her pitch this weekend to a Democratic party committee in Washington in an effort to get the Michigan and Florida delegations seated.
But the latest Gallup Daily tracking poll shows rival-for-the-Democratic nomination Senator Barack Obama now regaining his double-digit lead over her among Democrats and statistically tied with Clinton in the votes a Democrat would get against Republican presumptive nominee Senator John McCain.
Both Clinton and Obama would beat McCain.
Barack Obama has, for the moment, re-established a double-digit lead over Hillary Clinton in national Democratic voters’ nomination preferences in Gallup Poll Daily tracking, 52% to 42%.
And:
In a bit of a change from recent days, Obama and Clinton are both running similarly versus John McCain in the general election. Clinton had fared better in recent trial heats than Obama, but the latest update shows both races as statistical ties — Clinton 47%, McCain 45% and Obama 46%, McCain 45%.
Gallup notes that the context of this and the convergence of various political events are not good for Clinton: Read the rest of this entry »
It turns out some of the people swelling the ranks at what is expected to be a large pro-Clinton demonstration in Washington to pressure the DNC rules committee to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations as per Clinton’s demands won’t just be Clinton supporters — but some others (for instance, some McCain Republicans) as well.
All’s fair in love, war and politics — but this was probably not supposed to get out as widely as it will now that it’s on the Internet. If this report is correct it is sooooooooo “old politics.” And it’ll be interesting to see if some enterprising mainstream reporters at the scene interview some McCain and Huckabee supporters to ask them why they’re out demonstrating in a Democratic party rules controversy.
P.S. Have invitations gone out to supporters of Bob Barr and Ralph Nader yet?
