Slashdot Mirror

Don't know about Dodd, but here's Obama on Countrywide:

"We saw this again today when we learned that two executives at Countrywide, the nationâ(TM)s top subprime lender, are set to walk away with nearly $20 million in payouts. This is an outrage. Top mortgage lenders spent $185 million in recent years lobbying Washington to look the other way, while they tricked families into buying homes they couldnâ(TM)t afford, forcing millions of Americans to face foreclosure and pushing our economy toward recession."

-- Barack Obama, March 2008

Sounds like a fishy operation, and I'd be suspicious of anyone who might be connected with it.

Some URLs are getting yanked/deleted.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/michaelpugliese/gG5Gyt

That Obama is the anti-christ, so I'm sure there are a few books out there.

(blogs on the obama site are moderated, so Obama at least passively agrees with these blogs)

(note that stuff there tends to disappear faster than Obama's campaign promises* once media link to it)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/MarxistsSocialistsCommunistsforObama
This group is for self-proclaimed Marxists/Communists/Socialists for the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. By no means is he a true Marxist, but under Karl Marx's writings we are to support the party with the best interests of the mobilization of the proletariat ...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/adamroberts/C2Qm/commentary
The Neo-proleatarian is now the bearer of the Revolution. Thats why I support Obama. He helps destroy the paradigm of bourgeoisie government, which is best for the Proletariat. In the end, this will only hasten the Revolution even if the Revolution must come as a massive goverment reform...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/jemaahislamiyahforobama
Jemaah Islamiyah For Obama

We are a group that supports social justice for our oppressed Muslim brothers all over the world. We support Barack Obama for President because he is sympathetic to the plight of Muslims. He is a man of integrity, who will not be bullied by the neo-cons and the zionists. He will stand up for our oppressed palestinian brothers and sisters, whose land is being illegally occupied by that evil zionist entity whose name I just hate to even write.

Who is Jemaah Islamaya you ask ? Well :

Self-proclaimed killers of 202 people for "being infidels"

* using military force for an undivided Israeli Jerusalem for example, but obviously Obama "didn't know what he was saying". What sort of an excuse is that if you want to become president ?

But don't worry ... that this sort of stuff appears on MODERATED blogs on Obama's site obviously means that (I'm not kidding) :

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/michaelpugliese/gG5Gyt/commentary
It's all planted by fascist right wingers

It's democrats that currently control the laws, in case anyone's forgotten. This is therefore, their fault. And by extention, Obama's. Obama is a demagogue : he hates government power, EXCEPT WHEN HE'S THE GOVERNMENT

How can anyone seriously be stupid enough to fall for this guy ?

That Obama is the anti-christ, so I'm sure there are a few books out there.

(blogs on the obama site are moderated, so Obama at least passively agrees with these blogs)

(note that stuff there tends to disappear faster than Obama's campaign promises* once media link to it)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/MarxistsSocialistsCommunistsforObama
This group is for self-proclaimed Marxists/Communists/Socialists for the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. By no means is he a true Marxist, but under Karl Marx's writings we are to support the party with the best interests of the mobilization of the proletariat ...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/adamroberts/C2Qm/commentary
The Neo-proleatarian is now the bearer of the Revolution. Thats why I support Obama. He helps destroy the paradigm of bourgeoisie government, which is best for the Proletariat. In the end, this will only hasten the Revolution even if the Revolution must come as a massive goverment reform...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/jemaahislamiyahforobama
Jemaah Islamiyah For Obama

We are a group that supports social justice for our oppressed Muslim brothers all over the world. We support Barack Obama for President because he is sympathetic to the plight of Muslims. He is a man of integrity, who will not be bullied by the neo-cons and the zionists. He will stand up for our oppressed palestinian brothers and sisters, whose land is being illegally occupied by that evil zionist entity whose name I just hate to even write.

Who is Jemaah Islamaya you ask ? Well :

Self-proclaimed killers of 202 people for "being infidels"

* using military force for an undivided Israeli Jerusalem for example, but obviously Obama "didn't know what he was saying". What sort of an excuse is that if you want to become president ?

But don't worry ... that this sort of stuff appears on MODERATED blogs on Obama's site obviously means that (I'm not kidding) :

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/michaelpugliese/gG5Gyt/commentary
It's all planted by fascist right wingers

It's democrats that currently control the laws, in case anyone's forgotten. This is therefore, their fault. And by extention, Obama's. Obama is a demagogue : he hates government power, EXCEPT WHEN HE'S THE GOVERNMENT

How can anyone seriously be stupid enough to fall for this guy ?

That Obama is the anti-christ, so I'm sure there are a few books out there.

(blogs on the obama site are moderated, so Obama at least passively agrees with these blogs)

(note that stuff there tends to disappear faster than Obama's campaign promises* once media link to it)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/MarxistsSocialistsCommunistsforObama
This group is for self-proclaimed Marxists/Communists/Socialists for the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. By no means is he a true Marxist, but under Karl Marx's writings we are to support the party with the best interests of the mobilization of the proletariat ...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/adamroberts/C2Qm/commentary
The Neo-proleatarian is now the bearer of the Revolution. Thats why I support Obama. He helps destroy the paradigm of bourgeoisie government, which is best for the Proletariat. In the end, this will only hasten the Revolution even if the Revolution must come as a massive goverment reform...

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/jemaahislamiyahforobama
Jemaah Islamiyah For Obama

We are a group that supports social justice for our oppressed Muslim brothers all over the world. We support Barack Obama for President because he is sympathetic to the plight of Muslims. He is a man of integrity, who will not be bullied by the neo-cons and the zionists. He will stand up for our oppressed palestinian brothers and sisters, whose land is being illegally occupied by that evil zionist entity whose name I just hate to even write.

Who is Jemaah Islamaya you ask ? Well :

Self-proclaimed killers of 202 people for "being infidels"

* using military force for an undivided Israeli Jerusalem for example, but obviously Obama "didn't know what he was saying". What sort of an excuse is that if you want to become president ?

But don't worry ... that this sort of stuff appears on MODERATED blogs on Obama's site obviously means that (I'm not kidding) :

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/michaelpugliese/gG5Gyt/commentary
It's all planted by fascist right wingers

It's democrats that currently control the laws, in case anyone's forgotten. This is therefore, their fault. And by extention, Obama's. Obama is a demagogue : he hates government power, EXCEPT WHEN HE'S THE GOVERNMENT

How can anyone seriously be stupid enough to fall for this guy ?

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/ - you can check yourself for magic pixies, but they are notoriously hard to find if they don't want to be found.

But what you are getting at I think is peak oil - a lot of green/environmentalist people have known this for years - as does the far right wing here in the UK - the fact that what was introduced around the world as the main power source, transport fuel and fertilizer source after the 2 world wars, is now dangerously low in supplies and that this will mean a huge change in our lifestyles in the next few decades, as we revert back. - Except that now we have lots of other energy sources, there are women working too, lots of stuff is sitting in rubbish dumps rather than at the bottom of mountains, we have telecommunications, and generally it's a positive thought when you consider that this gap in fuel is also a natural limit to the amount of change we can give to the climate...

What this means for power plants is microgeneration -small varied local power sources - if you have lots of wind, sun or water around, use that. If you don't, there is bio fuel(the kind that doesn't help food crises!) and other new technologies, but half the power is lost transporting the fuel or power around - so it has to be generated and used locally too.

But the hope/change thing will really come in to play if society needs to change dramatically - as we transition to low fossil energy and varied alternates, we'll all need practical skills, strong local business and social connections and an open mind.

Drilling for more oil resources (as is the situation, I believe, with building more nuclear plants on diminishing uranium) will only buy you a few more years of this historical blip. The cheap oil is being extracted fast, and the stuff at the bottom and in the small oil fields left to find, is much more expensive to get. Oh and they're not just YOURS as you say - they also belong to future generations. And who knows how efficient they could be with extracting and using it?

Ale

For all your insistence that Obama's slogan is vapid, you seem to derive a lot of information from it. If you are actually interested in his positions, take a look at the issues section of Obama's site.

While it does look a bit like astroturfing, the AC's right - Obama does plan (p15) to significantly cut NASA's funding to get money for his education plan.

It's stupid and shortsighted, and probably my biggest objection to Obama, but since McCain also wants to cut NASA's funding, and he's a social conservative, I'll still probably vote for Obama. Anyway, quasi-offtopic, I know, but it is relevant to whether we'll be out there in the future, looking for the sources of things like this.

I think I can get behind the program detailed here. Yes, there are a couple of minor points there that I don't endorse, but on net neutrality, patent reform, and a host of other issues, he's a whole lot better (and far more knowledgeable) than McCain.

This post is misleading and, I suspect, factually incorrect.

Barack Obama explicitly supports Net Neutrality ("I will take a back seat to no one when it comes to Network Neutrality"), media decentralization, and universal broadband access. He supports universal file/data formats ("we will put government data online in universally accessible formats"); and he understands the inherent risks to privacy created by our new technology ("Dramatic increases in computing power, decreases in storage costs and huge flows of information that characterize the digital age bring enormous benefits, but also create risk of abuse."). And if Obama advocates reducing the NASA budget (and I have no specific information about this, it would be nice if tjstork would provide a reference), such defunding would be a re-prioritization of spending only, as he "supports doubling federal funding for basic [scientific] research."

Furthermore, Barack Obama's policy regarding technology reflects a thorough and deep understanding of the underlying issues pertinent to technology and information. John McCain will never have any personal involvement in creating a technology policy promulgated by his administration; instead he will rely on his staff, who will inevitably rely on lobbyists. The fact is that John McCain knows very very little about these issues, and that he has also shown consistently that he has no problem giving industry lobbyists free reign in his campaign. Barack Obama understands technology, and won't compromise on the central issues.

Barack Obama's technology policy is located here on barackobama.com.

Another relevant link is a talk Obama gave at Googe, where he touches on many of these issues, here.

Finally, to conclude from the fact that Barack Obama has accepted money from the most consistently-Democratic industrial block in the US that he will necessarily back its most outrageous demands is logically spurious. tjstork writes that "he is a strong proponent of doing everything with IP that many slashdotters would virulently oppose." I do not have any information supporting such a claim, and I would ask tjstork to provide a reference. The fact is that slashdotters are very willing to balance the interests of IP "owners" against the interests of the general public and the interests of innovation. As long as Obama recognizes that there is a balance to be struck, and is willing to *act* knowing that things are currently out of balance, I am happy to support his positions on IP. If there is anything that Barack Obama is about, it is about creating a fair and informed balance between competing interests.

It seems to me that Barack Obama is almost, if not quite, the ideal candidate for the /. crowd.

On tech issues, he's entirely wrong? ... Do the people on slashdot who support him actually read his "Issues" section on his web site, or do they just stop at "Yes we can."

Yes we can read his website, and for my money he's right on more issues than he is wrong on, and most importantly he's right on the issues that are actually up in the air. He's for net neutrality and against telcom immunity, while McCain is the opposite. He's for IP protection, and McCain... is against? Yeah right.

Intellectual Property isn't going away any time soon. Sorry, it sucks I know, but it's true. However, the fundamental nature of the internet may be going away, and winning that fight is more important.

Go ahead and disagree with his stance on some particular issues; I know I do. But "entirely wrong" is wrong, excepting of course the possibility that I would think you are wrong on many tech issues.

I agree that McCain is not for the most part McBush. I will call you on Obama being vague, though I agree he makes a lot of vague statements in his stump speeches. In terms of actual policy statements, Obama's been the most precise, broad, and detailed of the entire bunch from the beginning. For example, check out McCain's "Issues" page. He only talks about 14 issues, and in political rhetoric for the masses. Compare that to Obama's issues page. He talks about 21. In his book, "The Audacity of Hope", Obama talks in more depth about real policy than I've ever read from a politician. Name an issue, and I'll go look up his position in the book.

Across the spectrum of issues, Obama is mostly avoiding politics as usual, and is being straight-up with us, unlike McCain. For example, how will McCain save Social Security? No one knows. It's not one of his issues. How will Obama do it? He'll raise taxes and increase the age for receiving benefits. It's not a warm fuzzy answer, but a rare honest one.

Better spend the money now before the government takes it away.

• Redefine "broadband:" The Federal Communications Commission today defines "broadband" as an astonishingly low 200 kbps. This distorts federal policy and hamstrings efforts to broaden broadband access. Obama will define "broadband" for purposes of national policy at speeds demanded by 21st century business and communications.
• Universal Service Reform: Obama will establish a multi-year plan with a date certain to change the Universal Service Fund program from one that supports voice communications to one that supports affordable broadband, with a specific focus on reaching previously un-served communities.
• Unleashing the Wireless Spectrum: Obama will confront the entrenched Washington interests that have kept our public airwaves from being maximized for the public's interest. Obama will demand a review of existing uses of our wireless spectrum. He will create incentives for smarter, more efficient and more imaginative use of government spectrum and new standards for commercial spectrum to bring affordable broadband to rural communities that previously lacked it. He will ensure that we have enough spectrum for police, ambulances and other public safety purposes.
• Bringing Broadband to our Schools, Libraries, Households and Hospitals: Obama will recommit America to ensuring that our schools, libraries, households and hospitals have access to next generation broadband networks. He will also make sure that there are adequate training and other supplementary resources to allow every school, library and hospital to take full advantage of the broadband connectivity.
• Encourage Public/Private Partnerships: Obama will encourage innovation at the local level through federal support of public/private partnerships that deliver real broadband to communities that currently lack it.

This may come as a shock to you, but if you actually care (which I doubt you do), you could just go to his web site and read about it. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ Read up on his issues. How does he have time to debate issues when he's running around madly trying to secure the nomination?

Obama supports updating surveillance laws and ensuring that law enforcement investigations and intelligence-gathering relating to U.S. citizens are done only under the rule of law.

For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and "wiretaps without warrants," he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.)

It's hardly a new stance for Obama, who has made similar statements in previous campaign speeches, but mention of the issue in a stump speech, alongside more frequently discussed topics like Iraq and education, may give some clue to his priorities.

Can someone PLEASE mod the above as "lazy"?

Mod ALL posts or comments in the media like this as "lazy", please?

Do I have to be the person to come and post "RTFM" ?

For everything that's holy you're on the fracking INTERNET! USE IT!

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

There you go. There are, in detail, his stances on the issues. Do you honestly think he has time to go over policy during a 5 minute campaign speech?

If this was too harsh, please mod me down, but I am really sick of people making that comment and I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Thank you and goodnight.

He's going to change our strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our foreign policy philosophy. He's going to actually attempt to use diplomacy instead of just talking shit to nations that we don't agree with. He's going to close down Guantanamo and bring back a little thing called habeas corpus. He's going to try to reform our healthcare system to make it more affordable and more accessible to people who have trouble getting coverage. He's going to push harder for alternative energy sources by funding R&D projects with money earned from a cap-and-trade system. He's going to bring about a government that actually attempts to be transparent instead of relying on executive privilege any time someone comes looking for information. You could actually go to his website to find this out yourself, or you could just keep waiting for him to personally show up at your house and tell you all about it.

Should not reply to AC's, but although my puny site is also hosted by Go Daddy, and gets like no hits except for me, it has been rock steady. I am certain that if you buy a premium level account such as one that could handle the traffic seen on http://barackobama.com/ on single day that they get better service by far than I would get. The hacking happened shortly after a web redesign. I have a feeling the hacker(s) noticed the new site design, and poked around for known loopholes. It'd be cool if someone from /. offered their services to the campaign to trace the sob's, but I'm sure it would be difficult. Anybody want to find the ghost in the machine?

Check out what his positions on the issue of transparency are. He's on a much better track than we're on right now.

Obama on CCW:

None of that, and I imagine other examples are available, sound like he wants to "let local governments enact". That sounds like federal action to me. And comparing RP's view on abortion to Obama's view on the various "gun" issues doesn't work. No matter how one stands on abortion, there is no "abortion" amendment. One can make an argument that that particular issue is best solved at the local level. On the other hand, there is a right to bear arms amendment. Local governments don't get to stomp on that anymore than the federal one. So even if he was "only" in favor of local governments taking such actions, that still doesn't make it right. And as far as needing an amendment to nationally prohibit CCW or a new AWB, why? All it would take is a congress willing to go along with it and a Supreme Court willing to as well. No amendment was needed to pass the first AWB.

You are correct though, there are no strict Constitutionalists left. Much to all our loss. However, just because there aren't any in the current field, doesn't given those who are in the field a free pass. And that includes GWB's violations of the 4th amendment and McCain's possible future violations. No one gets a free pass.

Well, if we were putting together an engine or a rifle, I'd choose McCain. I don't think he's stupid, I just don't think he knows computers.

And I'm not basing this on them or their surrogates, I'm basing this on what I've read from their tech plans. McCain's plan is "do nothing" except for giving the telecoms amnesty for warrantless wiretapping. We've been falling behind in broadband for at least the last 8 years. Al Gore did not invent the internet, but he did a hell of a lot to keep us near the top of the pack, most of which we're only appreciating now.

Obama has a lengthy plan involving things like patent reform, net neutrality and open access. He has, by far, the best internet campaign yet that is out-organizing even established political machines like the Clinton campaign on every level.

So I can't even begin to compare the two, because it's absolutely, unambiguously clear that Obama is doing better with respect to technology than McCain. McCain has Steve Ballmer and Carly Fiorina as advisors, for crying out loud. He got the PHBs and lobbyists instead of the actual techies! And that's not all

Is "Obama is a lawyer!" the only crack you can give in reply? Well, NYCL is a lawyer, too. SOME of them actually fight the good fight, you know...

Here, you can read his stance on the issues directly. I disagree on some points, but Obama is still head & shoulders above the rest.

Barack has an amusing statement on the importance of preserving the open nature of the internet. Among other things, he states that "users must be free to access content."

Ironically, you need Flash to access all the content on this page.

If you have time there are some interesting points here:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

Dude what are you talking about!? The MESSIAH himself, Obama peace be upon his name, is all-knowing and can at the bat of an eyelash bring about such a transformative change that the whole intellectual property system will be at peak efficiency!

Kidding aside, Obama does speak about reforming the whole intellectual property system (especially patents, which I do realize are different from copyrights and trade marks), albeit with sort of vague language. It's hard to quantify what exactly he means when he talks about reform, but hey at least he realizes something is wrong with the way we're going. Don't take my word for it, though.

I've looked at the other two candidates statements and again find nothing definitive. So I see it breaking down like this. Obama talks about rewriting intellectual property, writes some dream bill, only to have it obliterated in Congress due equally to his lack of commitment and Congress's general distaste for effective legislation. McCain and Clinton would probably be open to reform, but would jump at the chance to think of the children and gravitate towards anything that hurts filing sharing due to the whole child pornography thing.

In the end, there just aren't enough people that care. Now if we could find some way to relate copyright reform to gasoline prices, we might have a shot. People don't realize how important competent legislation is when it comes to an economy that becomes more dependent on the rapid share of information every day. The legal morass doesn't end with the MPAA and RIAA. We have patent trolls and perpetual litigators making things worse for everyone.

Oops, your plan fails. Obama voted to reauthorize the PATRIOT act. It's right there on his own website, though he tried to justify it with some spin.

Bullshit. Obama voted to reauthorize the PATRIOT act in 2006. It even says so on Obama's own website (though couched in spin): "Obama Voted For a PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Bill"

"Advocates copyright reform.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/"

Obama's copyright changes in the link you provided seem to be promises to increase protection for copyright holders at home and abroad. This is pretty much in line with the voting record of both major US political parties, who only ever change copyright laws in ways that benefit corporations.

This is one of the reasons I'm voting for Obama in Tuesday's PA primary,
-He's for net neutrality so that becomes assured for another 4 years at least and would give the internet time to become even more dependent on the concept. There's a certain threshold with internet where network neutrality needs to be maintained for a long enough period to which the public gets educated enough on the concept that they won't accept an un-neutral internet.
-Advocates copyright reform.
-Advocates patent reform.

among other things... http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

Also, Hillary wants to censor videogame sales further which screams "Nanny state" to me.

Generally speaking I don't really think the above issues are prime but I do think that it's about time with the Health care issues and voting for any Republican right now would most assuredly put the United States on a path towards losing our super power status. It won't really drive us down it's just that we're so stagnant that we're just gonna be watching the European Union and China pass us by and new emerging technologies.

A lot of people view the Democrats as simply instigators of a Socialist agenda but the idea is that the United States is so rich and so filled with money that it just makes sense to provide the ability to heal anyone in the country without them having to pay out of their pocket. It's a simple investment in the human capital of this country. Sure you'll be paying more taxes but the reward will come from the increased productivity of the population thereby driving up GDP.

Both Clinton and Obama have promised massive rail investments, and both also endorsed a big Pro-Amtrak bill in the senate last year.

Even though I'm not a Hillary supporter, her transportation plan is damn impressive, and a massive step in the right direction.

McCain made some vague promises in 2000, but has been carrying the party line of denying funding to public transport ever since.

Although public transport is starting to take off around city centers with great success, thanks to state funding (virtually all NYC commuters arrive via public transport today), Amtrak's intercity network remains pathetic.

Considering how staggeringly expensive the interstate highway system is to maintain, it's appalling and shocking that more thought hasn't been given to rail transport, especially when rail corridors could have very easily (and cheaply) been built alongside the highways.

Operating at peak capacity, a 2-track light railroad can carry as many passengers as a 16-lane freeway, without experiencing any of the bottlenecking associated with rush hour traffic seen on road networks. Heavy rail systems are even more efficient, assuming that the demand exists for one.

France is running trains along their new LGV Est line at 320km/h along nearly the entire length of the 300km track, and plans to turn the speed up to 350km/h once the system has been in operation for a few years.

The fastest train in the US, Amtrak's Acela has a top speed of 241km/h, which it is only able to attain on 18 miles of track. The rest of the Northeast Corridor is still running on equipment built during the Great Depression. The average speed of an Acela journey from DC to Boston is 129km/h (80mph). There are conventional rail systems that do better than that....

This service only exists between Boston and DC, and is extremely expensive to travel on. Most other routes are considerably worse.

Not to mention the potential for Obamasms by pointing out that Barrack Obama has a blog while W doesn't (well, not a real one anyway) or that Obama has a MySpace page, etc.

Why, I can just see people modding me up +5, Informative right now! ;)

Source seems to be:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/-/HQpress/112007%20education%20plan%201.pdf
barackobama.com, of course, being the official Barack Obama website.
This link then redirects to the 3cdn hosting site, where the PDF is located.

1.First think of something negative (but valid -and not incendiary or provocative- like lack of experience for Obama and openness for Hillary) about the two candidates.
2.Register on their websites so that you can post your comments.
Obama
Hillary
3.Post your comments in answer to any of their blog postings.
4.Check the blog to see if your postings appear or not. Give some time.
Having gone through all these, I have to say-a better candidate should not(and does not) censor anything which is a valid criticism.

From his website:

Open Up Government to its Citizens: The Bush Administration has been one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history.... Obama will integrate citizens into the actual business of government by:

• Making government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities....
• Requiring his appointees who lead Executive Branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can watch a live feed on the Internet as the agencies debate and deliberate the issues that affect American society....
• Lifting the veil from secret deals in Washington with a web site, a search engine, and other web tools that enable citizens easily to track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials.
• Giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation.
• Employing technologies, including blogs, wikis and social networking tools, to modernize internal, cross-agency, and public communication and information sharing to improve government decision-making.

In other words:

I'm assuming Barack is not interested in setting up a facebook group for just members of Congress.

No, that's exactly what he's going to do -- maybe not Congress, as he can't really control them, but at least the White House. Maybe not Facebook, but something at least as open and public.

yikes, sorry for the lack of sources (tired)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/03/18/2008-03-18_john_mccain_in_shiitesunni_snafu_during_.html
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_richardson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lieberman

When he says he stands for change, he's not talking about just the last 7 years.

If you can't find four (that's the size of the "group" I was referring to) like minded people willing to fight against an injustice in your hometown then I don't know what else to tell you.

Where did I say "wealthy"? It was a group of local business owners, hardly Donald Trump types.

One person can still make a difference. Do you have a phone? Make phone calls. Do you have a car? Drive people to the polls and/or knock on doors prior to election day. Do you have friends? Convince them that your cause is just and get them to help you out.

*sigh*, I love how the inflammatory comments of one person get warped into "racist church".

1. Obama has already condemned those comments. His only mistake was not condemning them in the first place and acting like a standard issue politician (deny/distance/disavow) instead of the eloquent intellectual that lots of us have come to know and support.
2. I don't believe Rev Wright is a racist. While I don't know him personally, I have known other African-American preachers before and I can understand the context of those remarks even if I vehemently disagree with them. You grow up under Jim Crow in the lynching era as an African-American and tell me that you wouldn't have a chip on your shoulder. You walk down the street and see people lock their car doors because of your skin color and tell me that you wouldn't be pissed off about it. You have people in the workplace dismiss your accomplishments because of affirmative-action and tell me it wouldn't grate on you. You get pulled over (repeatedly) for driving-while-black and tell me you wouldn't be bitter towards authority as a result.

I obviously can't make you listen to Senator Obama and I doubt I can even change your mind about him if you've drawn that conclusion. I do think that you are doing yourself a disservice by dismissing him and his message though. Did you happen to watch his speech on Tuesday? He speaks far more eloquently than I can on this issue and I can't recall a similar speech in my lifetime. Hell, I can't even recall many other politicians talking to us like adults instead of children -- and that goes for any issue (not just racism).

Go watch that speech if you want to know why I'm supporting him. Go watch his address at the Democratic National Convention from 2004. Obama appeals to our best instincts (hope, optimism, compassion). His opponents are running campaigns of FUD and trying to appeal to our worst inclinations.

Even if I accepted your opinion of Senator Obama's church, what does that have to do with the 'validity' of my 'thought processes' as it relates to the original discussion in this thread, i.e: getting people involved in local politics? Are you honestly going to walk away from a dialog with someone because they support someone who goes to a church which had an inflammatory Pastor (since retired)? Isn't that type of reaction part of the problem and not a solution?

Damn you rich! You already have your compensation.
Damn you who are well-fed!You will know hunger.
Damn you who laugh now! You will weep and grieve.
Damn you when everybody speaks well of you!

Actually I'm an Obama supported. It's way too late to run a none regulated government. It just has to be transparent which is why I support Obama. A wikified government is a government that can't be used against the people. "Employing technologies, including blogs, wikis and social networking tools, to modernize internal, cross-agency, and public communication and information sharing to improve government decision-making." See: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

Um, you could go to his website and read his freely downloadable PDF, his economic plan starts on page 10. Amazing what a little research will find.

check out this blog http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obbamhussein/gGgNff