We are currently taking a much needed blogging break. It is time for some updates, upgrades, and new features, but first, we are taking care of some other things that need to be tended to.

We shall return in the near future. Thanks!

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For all of the GOP pundits out there that are continuning to call Obama just another “typical politician”, please continue to do so.

As long as you continue to call him “typical” then he can no longer be an elitist, a Muslim, a radical Islamist, and all of the other ridiculous things that you want him to be on any given day of the week. If he is a “typical politician” than he can’t possibly fall into the other 30 characterizations you have placed on him.

Political Insider has a great piece on this very subject today where they discuss how the GOP are trying to portray Obama as typical, based on some recent remarks and decisions that he has put forth.

Also, if Obama is just another “typical politician” wouldn’t that make him like the 50 or so percent of politicians in America that are Republican? This argument then basically says that those Republicans are just “typical politicians”. That is not a very good platform to try and run on if you ask me. This would then fall right back on McCain and immediately squash his “maverick” status that he loves to talk about.

As long as Obama is portrayed as “typical” then he immediately becomes a safe choice in the eyes of the average American voter. He is no longer radical, or arrogant, or elite, if he is “typical”. Suddenly, he falls right in line with exactly what most Americans are comfortable voting for, which makes him look even more appealing in the general election than he already is.

So please tell all your friends, and all of your family, and all of your colleagues that Sen. Barack Obama is just another “typical politician”. Make sure you drive this home each and every chance that you get because by doing that, you actually help Obama fight every attack that the right-wing nutcases can throw at him. They can’t have it both ways which they are clearly trying to do.

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A new SurveyUSA poll in Ohio finds Sen. Barack Obama edging Sen. John McCain in a presidential match up, 48% to 46%.

Ohio is going to be another important state to watch just as it was in 2004. I have been saying for a while now that Ohio will remain close throughout the election, but I do believe that Obama can certainly edge McCain out in the state with the right planning and mobilization.

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Well, so much for America being a safer nation than before 9/11 and the Iraq/Afghanistan war efforts.

The Pentagon released a disturbing report today noting that The Taliban has regrouped in Afghanistan and is likely to ramp up attacks in the near future.

According to the Pentagon report :

Noting that insurgent violence has climbed, the report said that despite U.S. and coalition efforts to capture and kill key leaders, the Taliban is likely to “maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008.”

You may remember a post that I wrote just a few days ago about this very subject, where I talk about the fact that Terrorism is an ideal and it will never be defeated. We continue to look at Terrorism as this sort of physical entity that we can seek out and destroy, but it is my honest belief that it just does not work that way.

The problem here is that we continue to hear from this administration and the right-wing agenda that we are “making progress” and “we are succeeding” in the war on terror. While all of that was already in question, it is reports like this that confirm to the American people that our strategy is not working and we need a new direction.

McCain has said on more than a few occasions that we are succeeding, so it makes me wonder how he comes to that conclusion. Is it real (likely false) evidence? Or, is it John McCain once again pandering to his base as he has done so many times in this election? Either way, it is false, which we have pretty much known all along anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, I want us to succeed in these efforts, but not at such a cost that succeeding would be a loss no matter how victorious we appear to be in the end.

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I absolutely cannot believe the way that the media and the blogosphere is hyping up the “Unity” event that is going on today. Live video going on at MSNBC, all the major networks have their staff embedded for the event, I mean come on people, it is just a campaign rally.

I wish the main stream media would put this much effort into holding John McCain accountable for his incessant flip-flopping on every issue that he comes across.

I wish the main stream media would put this much effort into holding this administration accountable for their failed war and their fear-mongering.

I wish the main stream media would put this much effort into making sure that voters understand that Barack Obama is not a Muslim, nor unpatriotic, nor secretly trying to destroy the world.

Just because this is the first event where Clinton and Obama are campaigning together, that doesn’t mean that it is the Holy Grail of politics like everyone is making out to be. Give it a rest already and let’s actually talk about and cover some issues, important ones.

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I was reading over a pretty good piece today by Robert Novak on the outlook of the 2008 election and I decided to breeze through the comments from the article. Normally, anything on the Human Events website is unreadable, simply because it is so idiotic, not sure how this one slipped through.

Now I understand why many people in this country are actually ashamed to claim the Republican party. Let’s just take a quick gander at some of the comments from the article….

It wont be long this dead heat will die , Mc Cain will be on top . Obama is’nt going to win , he is inexperience, leftist,racist, islamist , communist and the long list goes on and on .
Everyone needs to wake up , study what Obama is before we are put into kiosk world. Obama and his wife dont love America . He will tax everyone to death and support african country and he will stand and depend Muslims not Americans .

Be scared of what he will do for America. Our future at stake.

Wait, how can you be islamist and communist at the same time?

BHO will not win. All those crowds of mental midgets with their ‘just seen jesus’ looks on their faces will not be there for him on election day.

He will get the vote of the hate America crowd. But that won’t be enough.

It is not that we hold Obama up to be Jesus, we just simply hold him up to be a better politician that what we have now. Make no mistake about it, he is a politician and certainly not the next messiah.

does anyone know anything about the Global Poverty Act that both Bidden and Obama back? It would tie us to the UN and do away with the Constitution. New Change….How about NEW WORLD ORDER that they all have been trying to bind us to for the last 20 years…..

Yeah, Biden and Obama certainly have the power to just “do away with the Constitution.” Honestly, could this stuff even be made up if you tried?

Obama and his wife are anti white!! Wake up people.He’s already playing the race card!!

You are aware that he is part white, right??

So that is just a few of the wonderful comments out of the 10 pages that I went through.

Why can the Republicans not debate on real issues? Time and time again, I hear the same old right-wing attacks on Obama about his religion, patriotism, etc. How on earth can the Republicans think that this is actually going to work?

Maybe it is because for the last 7 years, their leader has destroyed this country in every way possible. Maybe they realize that substantive issues are not something that they can stand on, simply based on the last 7 years of a failed administration.

How can you possibly attack the left for wanting to “destroy the constitution” when President Bush has done nothing but that for the last 7 years?

The right-wing nutcase agenda in this country has some serious conflicts they need to kill. I actually laugh off the personal attacks against Obama simply because I understand that they have nothing else to attack him on.

I guess when you have a horse in the race with two broken legs, you do whatever you have to do to break the other horse’s legs, no matter how negative and personal you have to get.

It is quite comical, yet so deeply disturbing just listening to some of these people. The lies, the rumors, the attacks, it is all pretty sad actually.

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Whether you like it or not, Obama caved on his promise to support a filibuster of the FISA bill. This is very disappointing for several reasons, including the fact that Obama did not keep his word as he said he would.

“The bill has changed. So I don’t think the security threats have changed, I think the security threats are similar. My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people.”

Here is the video on Obama’s statement:

Sorry, but national security will never trump constitutional rights, and you will never convince me otherwise.

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Now that Politivine.com has been online for a few months and is steadily gaining traction around the blogosphere, I would like to send out an open invite to any bloggers out there that would like to guest blog here on Politivine.com.

If you are currently a blogger elsewhere, or even if you don’t currently have a blog, and you would like to write for Politivine.com, please let me know.

It is my belief that having different viewpoints on this blog from time to time would be a great thing and I encourage anyone that is interested to get in touch, as I would like to give it a go.

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Interesting piece in The New York Times today discussing the decline in ad revenue for newspapers, which has swiftly gone from bad to worse.

Ad revenue, which is a pivotal form of income for most of the nation’s newspapers has steadily declined over the last few years and looks be falling this year at an even more alarming rate. This decline is revenue is obviously due in large part to online advertising, which over the last few years, has really taken off and has actually grown for newspapers by some 20-30%.

With fewer people picking up print papers and instead moving to online sites for news, the decline is certainly understandable. Couple that with a weak economy and severe housing crisis and many papers across the nation are really feeling the hit in revenue decline. But online advertising pays less while also costing less for the advertiser, which is one reason that it has gained such steam over the last few years.

It would certainly be interesting to compare the decline in print revenue with the increase in online revenue and really take a look at the bottom dollar loss that these papers are facing. The difference is obviously something that worries papers across the country but the question is whether at some point the online market can make up for the decline in print revenue. I tend to believe that is totally possible, especially for the larger media markets.

Rarely do I ever pick up a print paper anymore, unless I am traveling and can’t get immediate access to the web. I haven’t graduated to a cool new smart phone just yet, so I still rely solely on my laptop for the web and when that is not available, I will pick up a paper and take it back to the old school.

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As I sit here and write this post, I am having a hard time figuring out what to say, because what else is there to say? It troubles me that as much as I oppose the war, I can’t sit here and give you fresh insight as to why I oppose the war. I oppose it for the same reasons that countless other Americans oppose it. What I can do is give you my personal opinion on how I feel about the war, our continued efforts in Iraq, and what I see it doing to America.

First, this war is ridiculous

Regardless of what you might think, regardless of what your political views are, and regardless of what may be at stake in this war for you, this war is ridiculous, period. Now, I totally agree that we needed to invade Afghanistan and confront the radical terrorism that caused this country harm on 9/11. It was the right thing to do and we should have went in quicker than we actually did.

What we did not have to do is invade Iraq, as part of some terrorist cleansing kick that we were on. We were lied to, we were mislead on intelligence, and we were used as sheep for the Bush administration to fulfill their desires to be “war lords”. In the last few months, we have seen information come out in droves that clearly does not support the arguments of Bush administration for invading Iraq.

There were no weapons, there were no Saddam/al-Qaeda links, there were no al-Qaeda terrorist camps receiving safe-haven support, and there was no link to 9/11 to Iraq. The government was wrong, the CIA was wrong, the NSA was wrong, all of it…..was wrong.

To Mr. Bush
Sir, you are an idiot. Your ideals, your values, your morals, and your decisions are both idiotic and downright criminal to those of us who have had to accept your ill-conceived notions of war and watch you carry out what will be without a doubt the worst situation this nation will ever be involved in.

The fact that you would take the American citizens and insult their intelligence as you have is appalling to me sir. The idea that you would clearly and carelessly lie to us and have us believe your nonsense is appalling to me sir. For 5+ years, you have told us how we are spreading liberty, we are creating a democratic nation in Iraq, and we are making the American people safer. Truth is, none of that has happened sir. Instead, you have cost us over 4,000 lives and in the end, you will have cost this country almost $1 trillion dollars, if not more.

The hard truth as I see it
The truth is, Terrorism cannot be defeated. The idea that this administration and it’s followers think so, is quite comical to me. It is much like the war on drugs, never will this country be able to combat and rid this nation of the drug epidemic.

Terrorism is not a tangible item that you simply seek out and destroy. Terrorism is an ideal and it is instilled in many people, religions, and societies throughout the world. To think that you can simply seek that out and remove it is insane. To think that physical force is going to root out terrorism is both dangerous and ignorant. Not only can you not root it out by physical force, the simple attempt to do so is only going to fuel the fire that keeps it burning in the souls of the very people you are trying to condemn. Just like your next super-star athlete, as one goes, there is always 5 more to take their place. These ideals have been burned into the minds, hearts, and souls of some of the most vile people in this world and as it is done so, it is instilled in them to carry it on to their families, friends, and comrades. You will never, under any circumstances or even with the greatest military force in the world, cleanse the world of such unthinkable ideals. To think that you can do so makes you just as foolish and vapid as the people that are trying to carry out such despicable acts of violence.

Where do we go from here?

It is clearly evident that we are bogged down in a catastrophe that we will never succeed in. Our military is stretched, our economy is drained, and our citizens have given up all hope that we can accomplish something worthy of recognition in Iraq.

What we have to do now is cut our losses, bring our troops home, and revitalize the nation that for decades, we have been known as being. It is time for the Iraqi government to stand up for themselves and take control of their country, without our help. We have let this conflict roll on for far too long, while not making the Iraqi government hold up to their end of the deal. Now is the time to put a deployment plan in progress and turn this conflict around to make the best situation out of it that we can.

It is time for Americans to stand up and denounce this war, hold this administration accountable, and participate in our political duty to elect the people that are competent enough to rationalize these situations and make the right decisions. We simply can’t allow this to continue as it stands, for ourselves, for our future generations, and for the world, we must stand up and right the wrong. Another 5 years of this conflict will take 40 years to undo. Don’t let that happen, as doing so would be just as foolish as the decisions that got us into this conflict.

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Bill Clinton, former President of The United States, has said that he is fully ready to help support Barack Obama in his bid for the White House, according to a Clinton spokesman.

So what is that Bill can do in order to ensure that Barack Obama is our next president?

Well, for starters he can not pull the race card any more, just as he did in the primary while in South Carolina. He can also keep his mouth shut when he gets asked open-ended questions by reporters and then gives a ridiculous answer that creates one of those awesome “sound bites” we all know and love.

But most importantly, he can do exactly what he did so well during the primary, which is criticize the media for their coverage, or lack there of.

During the primary, Bill Clinton attacked the media on several occasions for saying that Hillary should drop out, or when he blamed the “slanted media” for Obama’s delegate lead, or when he attacked Jessica Yellin from CNN for asking a legitimate question.

Now is the time for Bill Clinton to do just as he did then, but now he needs to criticize them on their lack of coverage of McCain. The media have let McCain slip on several issues without a word being said by anyone, except Dan Abrams of MSNBC, who has actually called the media out for it.

The constant flip-flops by McCain are almost becoming a daily occurrence and if it were not for the blogosphere, few if any, would ever even know about them. Thanks to our good friends at The Carpetbagger Report, we are able to see exactly what McCain is flip-flopping on. Have you seen any of those in the media lately?

So now is Bill Clinton’s chance to publicly come out and help Barack Obama in the easiest way possible. No rallies, no big speeches, no super cool fundraisers, just a simple nod to the main stream media that they need to do their job and call a spade a spade.

And, since McCain, who vowed that he would not run a negative campaign, likes to let all of his surrogates do the dirty work, maybe Clinton should do the same and get a few jabs in on the old timer while he is at it.

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According to CNBC, consumer confidence has hit a 16-year low in June.

The Conference Board’s monthly survey of consumers showed the overall index of consumers’ mood fell to 50.4 in June, the lowest since 47.3 in February 1992.

With gas prices at an all-time high, food prices souring, and the repeated talks of us heading straight into a recession, I can certainly see why confidence among the American people is quite low.

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Just a quick update on the latest Rasmussen Reports poll out of Pennsylvania.

Obama - 46%

McCain - 42%

Just a slight 4 point lead, with a 8% undecided tally.

In last month’s survey, Obama had a narrow 45% to 43% lead over his Republican rival, but this was before Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Two months ago, McCain held a statistically insignificant lead.

It looks like Obama really is getting a small bounce from the Democratic primary, not sure how significant that will be as we move closer to the general.

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From the same publisher that brought you the fantastic “Unfit for Command” book in 2004, which chronicled the Vietnam service of John Kerry and helped cost him a presidential election, we will be getting another wonderful treat from them soon, joyfully titled “The Case Against Barack Obama”.

“The Case Against Barack Obama” will offer “a comprehensive, factual look at Obama,” according to Regnery Publishing president and publisher Marjory Ross.

While the “factual” part of that statement I can almost guarantee you will be in question, one thing that won’t be in question is the clear intent of the book. Just as in 2004 with the Swift Boaters, this book is aimed at showing just who Barack Obama really is, ya know, since the American people are clearly too stupid to do any research on their own?!?

But wait, this story gets even better. You didn’t even get to read what the subtitle of the book is yet:

“The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate.”

For those of you not familiar with right-wing talking points and rhetoric, that subtitle basically means “Since you guys won’t examine this man, we will just make it all up and tell you what you should think about him right before the election, that way you will see how superior John McCain is, and will therefore throw a vote his way. Republican dominance once again achieved.”

What I really find odd is that for months we have been hearing about how “we really don’t know Barack Obama” or “Who is Barack Obama really?”, yet they found enough to write a “comprehensive, factual book” about him? No, of course I don’t see the irony there.

Now, I can only take this to mean that the right-wing agenda in this country take the American people as being far too illiterate, and far too docile, to ever figure out a web browser and Google, in order to do some basic research on a particular candidate. With that being said, Conservative journalist David Freddoso has been kind enough to write what I am sure will be an engaging piece of literary truth.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly can’t wait to hear all about Rev. Wright, William Ayers, and other “radical Chicago figures” all over again.

I have said before and I will say it again, when you can’t debate a candidate on the real substantive issues, you simply paint them as something that is so harsh, unpatriotic, and vile that no one would ever want to vote for them…..

The Republicans have doing it for years.

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On Fox News Sunday yesterday morning, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said that President Bush is more likely to attack Iran if he believes Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is going to be elected.

No really, you read that right, trust me.

WALLACE: So, you’re suggesting that he might in fact, if Obama’s going to win the election, either before or after the election, launch a military strike?

KRISTOL: I don’t know. I mean, I think he would worry about it. On the other hand, you can’t — it’s hard to make foreign policy based on guesses of election results. I think Israel is worried though. I mean, what is, what signal goes to Ahmadinejad if Obama wins on a platform of unconditional negotiations and with an obvious reluctance to even talk about using military force.

Where the right-wing agenda in this country come up with this kind of thought process, I will never know. To say that our president, no matter how incompetent he may be, would launch a military strike based on who the next president may be is grossly absurd, even for President Bush.

While I ultimately believe that war with Iran is not out of the question, it is this type of fear-mongering by Kristol and others that places false perception into the forefront, just as we saw leading up to the Iraq invasion.

But, here is the part that Kristol is failing to understand. After the invasion of Iraq, the American people wised up to this administration and saw exactly how the wool was pulled over everyone’s eyes. It won’t happen again, not this time, not for an unjust cause as was with Iraq.

We have now learned that everything this administration does, most certainly anything related to war or the idea of war, has to be questioned. With 9/11 still heavy in the American people’s hearts, Bush was able to slide the Iraq war past us with little to no objection. That sleight-of-hand magic trick worked then, but we will not be disillusioned twice.

Once everyone figures out the magic trick, it really becomes not so magical anymore.

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