RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Barack Hussein Obama in '08?

BTW. The AP sites archives are shit. I've checked several other AP stories from a few years ago even under advanced search with precise dates and info, they don't show up.

Wal-Mart Endorses Obama


Faten Saad knew she wasn't in a typical Wal-Mart when she saw an end-of-the-aisle display featuring Mamool.

Boxes of the date-filled, whole wheat cookie from the Middle East welcomed the 21-year-old Lebanon native into the international aisle of the new Wal-Mart store in this Detroit suburb known as the capital of Arab America. Aisle 3, which also features Eastern European and Hispanic food, represents many of the 550 items geared toward Arab-American shoppers in the store that opened last week.

It might be statistically tiny in a store with more than 150,000 items, but it's symbolically huge for the world's largest retailer as it seeks to change from a cost-is-everything monolith to one that customizes its stores to meet neighborhood needs.

Managers say they seek peace with the neighborhood's merchants — and vow not to undercut them on Middle Eastern specialties. But some experts and observers say Wal-Mart's well-planned launch in Dearborn is bound to shake up the buying and selling in a community that has long supported its own. Southeastern Michigan is home to an estimated 300,000 people who trace their roots to the Middle East.

"I have not heard of anything this tailored. It's inspiring to me as a shareholder," said Patricia Edwards, portfolio manager and retail analyst in the Seattle office of San Francisco-based investment manager Wentworth, Hauser & Violich, which has 537,000 shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. stock.

The Dearborn store also sells Arabic music and plans to offer Muslim greeting cards. But the modifications go beyond merchandise: It has 35 employees who speak Arabic — noted in Arabic script on their badges. The store also has hired a local Arab-American educator to teach the staff cultural sensitivity.

It's clear as soon as shoppers walk in that this isn't a typical Wal-Mart. Inside the grocery entrance are 22 produce tables filled with squash, beans and cucumbers common in Middle Eastern dishes. The section also features grains and vegetables popular among blacks and Hispanics, two other demographics with sizable populations living nearby.

"It's like a farmers' market," said Bill Bartell, the store manager who developed the international aisle with Tut's International Export & Import Co., the Dearborn-based distributor that handles the sourcing for many of the store's Middle-Eastern items.

"Because we did all this due diligence prior to moving into this area, we came to realize our clients really kind of liked this atmosphere, and they liked the variety that we can give them."

More than a year of studying the market and meeting with community groups was put to the test last fall, when Bartell and a Tut's executive began to work on what would become aisle 3. They set up an 80-foot-long counter in an empty warehouse and hauled out products — date-filled cookies, grape leaves, vacuum-packed olives, chick peas and a 97-ounce jar of olive oil imported from the Middle East. The men spent two weeks working on a way to present a new line of products.

As he recalled their effort, a few women in hijabs — traditional Muslim head scarves — inspected produce. One spoke in Arabic to Mohamad Atwi, the developmental store manager.

Bartell said the store aims to offer convenience — not a comprehensive selection of specialty products.

"It's very important that we have the variety of the Muslim, Hispanic items, local items, at a comparable price," he said. "If you go over to Warren (Avenue) where there's other ... small retailers, they have a variety that goes on and on and on."

At the Super Greenland Market, which Wal-Mart studied to come up with its new store, customers can find one whole side of an aisle with more than 20 different varieties of chick peas and fava beans.

"We have vendors that extend from here to the end of the planet," said Jamal Koussan, owner of Super Greenland. "We import directly. That puts us at a big advantage."

He said Wal-Mart doesn't concern him, but he is watching it. He tracked his store's sales on Wal-Mart's opening day and saw no dip.

"I'm not saying they will have no effect on our business but nothing that will threaten us, that will threaten our existence or threaten our bottom line," he said.

Still, the lure of everything under one roof could prove stronger than product depth for some who frequent Middle Eastern shops.

Saad, the college student who emigrated from Lebanon in 1990, marveled while shopping at Wal-Mart and plans to return.

"I don't think I would come all the way here just to get those things, but I'd pick them up on the way if I was already here doing my shopping," she said.

Warren David, a public relations and marketing specialist focusing on Arab-American and Islamic markets, called Wal-Mart's arrival bittersweet. He's happy for the steps it's taken, but "at the same time I can't help but think it's going to have some kind of impact on the local business community."

The Dearborn Wal-Mart is part of a two-year-old corporate effort to help sales by tailoring stores to local demographics, said spokeswoman Amy Wyatt-Moore at Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. It targeted six groups: Hispanics, blacks, empty-nesters/boomers, affluent, suburban and rural shoppers.

Dearborn's store is designed to reflect its neighborhood, not serve as a national template for Arab-American shoppers, she said.

"We realize there are more than those six broad demographic groups around the country. In some places the result will be a unique store," Wyatt-Moore said.

Edwards, the analyst, says the Dearborn store is a good move for a company that historically has been better at the science, rather than the art, of retail.

"Wal-Mart is a little kinder and gentler than they were 10 years ago. They are fierce competitors ... but I don't think they're trying to do a scorched earth policy," she said.

"The trick for these local merchants is ... they're going to have to change how they operate in the face of this changing competition."

Faten Saad knew she wasn't in a typical Wal-Mart when she saw an end-of-the-aisle display featuring Mamool.

So you think people trying to leave the death and water of New Orleans was a matter of jurisdictional buck passing??

Incredible.

And I'm not the "asshole" who politicized Katrina. The American people did that. And they pretty much finished finding who to blame, thank you very much. The fact that you don't get that is apparent and it probably explains why people like you scratch their heads and wonder why America left you guys.

US Government Troops Fire Mortars At Tibetan Protestors In Iowa

Swiss police say they fired tear gas at pro-Tibet demonstrators who tried to storm the Chinese consulate in Zurich.

Hundreds of people took part in the protest Saturday against a Chinese crackdown on riots protesting its rule of Tibet.

Swiss Police say tear gas was used when several protesters attempted to break into the consulate.

Tibetan groups want the Swiss government to press China on its human rights record.

Switzerland has condemned the violence in Tibet and urged China to safeguard people's right to free expression.

Chinese media are reporting that 10 people were killed on Friday when demonstrators clashed with security forces in Tibet's capital Lhasa. Exile group say the toll could be as high as 100.

Just What Did Obama Know About Wright's Past Sermons?
March 15, 2008 6:15 PM
In his Friday night cable mea culpas on the incendiary comments made by his spiritual adviser Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., repeatedly said, "I wasn't in church during the time that these statement were made. I did not hear such incendiary language myself, personally. Either in conversations with him or when I was in the pew, he always preached the social gospel. ... If I had heard them repeated, I would have quit. ... If I thought that was the repeated tenor of the church, then I wouldn’t feel comfortable there."
Obama told CNN that he "didn't know about all these statements. I knew about one or two of these statements that had been made. One or two statements would not lead me to distance myself from either my church or my pastor. ... If I had thought that was the tenor or tone on an ongoing basis, then yes, I don't think it would have been reflective of my values."
But according to a New York Times story from a year ago, the Obama campaign dis-invited Wright from delivering a public invocation at Obama's candidacy announcement.
“Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack,” Wright told the Times. “One of his members had talked him into uninviting me."
In  a phone call with Wright, Obama cited a Rolling Stone story, “The Radical Roots of Barack Obama," (the name of which has curiously been changed on the RS website) and told him, according to Wright, “You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.”
...

Obama ``ain't rich and he ain't privileged,'' Wright said. ``Hillary fits the mold.''

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080316/pl_bloomberg/aktqhpfjxzsm




After reading this I feel bad for whomod, and Wendsday, knowing how incensed they were about Geraldine Ferraro's remarks about Obama's race playing a role in the candidacy, I know it will pain them to see that Obama's spiritual leader said this. But knowing they are honest, and unbiased, I look forward to the same rhetoric they spilled at Hilary for her campaign staff member.

Not sure what the fall out is going to be for Obama on this one. He can still definitley win the nomination but I think it makes him unelectable for the general election.

Nah. It's eight months until the general election and this will be old news by then since Obama has disavowed and rejected the Reverend. It is only a problem if he keeps being seen with the guy.

Pelosi's remarks about the superdelegates echo similar comments she made last month during an appearance on Bloomberg's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt'' when she said it is important the leaders have ``respect for what has been said by the people.''

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080316/pl_bloomberg/adf5jjbbppxw





Oh wait she is just talking about Super Delegates, and not the commoners....

...and as much as I might like to think that conservative talk radio controls the outcomes of elections, it isn't going to affect the opinions of independents who don't listen to it, any more than it affected the outcome of the 2006 congressional elections.

a lot of blue collar people that work for me changed their votes the night before election when they found out Obama was double talking with Canada, i'm sure Monday there will be even more suspicious of how he attended that Church all those years and didn't hear the hatred being preached.

the more you find out about him, the more you see he's just another politician, of course i figured it out from the beggining but it's taking others a little longer to come around...

Tim Rutten:
Open mouth, insert cohorts' feet

Don't presidential candidates get tired of apologizing for remarks they didn't make?

March 15, 2008

It's in the nature of campaigns to careen from the totally unexpected to the utterly unthinkable, but recent events in the presidential contest probably ought to be filed under the heading: "With friends like these."

By Friday, all three candidates had been forced to apologize for the offensive views of a prominent supporter. John McCain was first, when one of the evangelical ministers whose approval he has so assiduously courted turns out to have some inconvenient views. John Hagee, a prominent Texas televangelist, also happens to teach that the Catholic Church is "the whore of Babylon" and a "cult."

McCain, who appeared with Hagee on television to accept his endorsement, at first tried to brush off the matter. Better judgment -- and perhaps, consideration of the Catholic vote's importance -- ultimately prevailed, and the Arizona senator told the Associated Press: "I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics."

Hillary Rodham Clinton was next up, when former congresswoman and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro told an interviewer: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." Clinton tried several apologies and, Wednesday -- after Ferraro had resigned from the campaign's finance committee -- finally got it right: "I certainly do repudiate it."

It was Obama's turn Thursday, when, after a network television report, video clips began circulating of sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the recently retired pastor of the senator's Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ. In one, Wright raves: " 'God bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America. ..." In another, he fumes that the 9/11 attacks were a consequence of using atomic weapons against Japan and for U.S. support of "state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans."

Obama, who in other contexts has tried to compare Wright to a loutishly eccentric old uncle, told an interviewer that the quotes were the result of "cherry picking" the pastor's many sermons. By Friday, though, the senator and his campaign had begun to understand that his association with Wright is problematic in ways neither Hagee nor Ferraro were for McCain and Clinton. For one thing, the video clips of Wright's inflammatory homilies are caught up in the new media loop. They're all over the Internet, the cable news shows and right-wing talk radio. They have "gone viral."

Moreover, because America is never more segregated than it is on Sundays, Wright's ranting is going to hit white Americans with particular force. Every big city has one or more black pastors like Wright who mix left-wing conspiracy theories, phony Afro-centricism, remnant black power rhetoric and a rag bag of vulgar Third World sympathies in an angry, frequently race-baiting social gospel. Preached in a style that leaves little room for understatement, it's alarming stuff when you hear it for the first time. And because the U.S. news media don't take anybody's religion very seriously or report on it in much depth, this will be many white Americans' first exposure to this inflammatory -- albeit tiny -- tendency within black churches.

Then there's the fact that, while Hagee and Ferraro were bit players in their campaigns, Wright hasn't been a tangential figure in Obama's life. The Illinois senator sought the church out and made a personal profession of faith in response to Wright's preaching. Obama has said he consults Wright before making important political decisions.

The Illinois senator is nothing if not an adroit campaigner, and he clearly understood that an Internet firestorm required an Internet backfire. So late Friday he published a blog on the Huffingtonpost that called Wright's remarks "inflammatory" and "appalling." He went on to write: "I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit." Obama also said he had decided to remain a member of Trinity because Wright has retired.

Once again, Obama has demonstrated how well he understands that much of his campaign's appeal is built on an ability to speak about race and social solidarity in a new way, to make change and hope again coincidental in the American political psyche. He knows that nobody will follow you into a new era if they suspect you're carrying the reeking baggage of the old.

So how do you feel about McCain being endorsed by John Hagee? Or do only Democrats need to answer for the inflammatory remarks of pastors?

As this piece makes clear, ALL THREE CANDIDATES HAVE the same problem. If we want to run a dirty campaign of this sort, there is enough crap to sling around equally.

isn't it illegal for a tax exempt Church to politic from the pulpit?

Generation Obama? Perhaps Not.
By WILLIAM KRISTOL
Published: March 17, 2008

Sunday evening, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner held a “Generation Obama” fund-raiser at Boston’s Rumor Nightclub. In case you’re not up on the Boston club scene, I should tell you that Rumor “brings together the sexiest and hippest people from around the globe” and “has raised the bar in Boston’s night life” (if Rumor may say so itself). Presumably, Ben and Jennifer raised the bar a notch further on Sunday.

Which is fine. Obama supporters are allowed to have fun. And celebrities are entitled to headline fund-raisers. But one has the sense that elsewhere in this great land the bloom is coming off the Obama rose.

For one thing, it’s becoming clear that Obama has been less than candid in addressing his relationship to his pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. For example, Obama claimed Friday that “the statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity.”

It certainly could be the case that Obama personally didn’t hear Wright’s 2003 sermon when he proclaimed: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, not God bless America, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. ... God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human.”

But Ronald Kessler, a journalist who has written about Wright’s ministry, claims that Obama was in fact in the pews at Trinity last July 22. That’s when Wright blamed the “arrogance” of the “United States of White America” for much of the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks. In any case, given the apparent frequency of such statements in Wright’s preaching and their centrality to his worldview, the pretense that over all these years Obama had no idea that Wright was saying such things is hard to sustain.

This doesn’t mean that Obama agrees with Wright’s thoroughgoing and conspiracy-heavy anti-Americanism. Rather, Obama seems to have seen, early in his career, the utility of joining a prominent church that would help him establish political roots in the community in which he lives. Now he sees the utility of distancing himself from that church. Obama’s behavior in dealing with Wright is consistent with that of a politician who often voted “present” in the Illinois State Legislature for the sake of his future political viability.

The more you learn about him, the more Obama seems to be a conventionally opportunistic politician, impressively smart and disciplined, who has put together a good political career and a terrific presidential campaign. But there’s not much audacity of hope there. There’s the calculation of ambition, and the construction of artifice, mixed in with a dash of deceit — all covered over with the great conceit that this campaign, and this candidate, are different.

Which brings us back to the “Generation Obama” event. If you go to the Obama campaign Web site and click on “people,” you’ll see 14 categories of people you can choose to hook up with — women, labor, people of faith ... and “Generation Obama.”

What is Generation Obama? It’s a “grass-roots movement led by young activists with a simple goal: electing Barack Obama the next president of the United States of America,” the Web site says, adding that “you and other members can utilize the many talents of our country’s next great generation in support of the campaign in a variety of meaningful ways.”

So in fact, “Generation Obama” is just a fancy name for young activists for Obama. But the (remarkable) conceit is this: The “next great generation” of Americans can appropriately be called “Generation Obama.”

Now I’m actually a believer in the next generation, which one might call the 9/11 generation. Many of its members seem more serious and impressive than we baby boomers were when our elders were foolishly praising us, 40 years ago, as the best-educated, most idealistic generation ever. Many of the best of this young generation are serving their country — either in the military or otherwise. Some are in politics, working for various causes, liberal and conservative, and for various candidates, Democrats and Republicans. But surely there’s something creepy about a campaign claiming them as “Generation Obama.”

With no particular dog in the Democratic fight, many conservatives have tended to think it would be good for the country if Obama were to win the Democratic nomination, freeing us from the dreary prospect of the return of the House of Clinton. Now I wonder. Might the country be better off with the cynicism of the Clintons than the conceit of Obama?