Hillary Clinton

By Dave Lindorff

It may not be obvious today, and certainly it’s not how the corporate media reported it, but future historians are likely to look back at March 13, 2009 as the day that American imperialism began it’s inexorable decline. That’s the day that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that his country was “worried” about its holdings of over $1 trillion in US treasury securities, and warned that he wanted the US to assure China that it would maintain its good credit and “honor its promises” and “maintain the safety of China’s assets.”

By Dave Lindorff

A new congressional report is belatedly confirming what many have
long known: that the White House and in particular then White House
Counsel Alberto Gonzales, lied to Congress in 2004 when he told them
the Bush administration was not repeatedly warned by the CIA not to
make the claim that Saddam had tried to buy uranium ore from Niger.

What is astonishing about this report,
which documents that the CIA at least four times tried to prevent Bush
and other top officials from presenting that lie to Congress and the
American public in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, is not that it
documents what has long been known, but that Congress and the corporate
media are still pretending that the claim itself was an acceptable
justification for launching a war.

As a lifelong New Yorker, I have mixed feelings about Caroline Kennedy's desire to represent me in the U.S. Senate.

On the positive side, obviously her father and her uncle gave their lives for our country, and I am a child of that era so that counts for me. She has lived her entire life in a fishbowl, yet became a person of principle and character, in both her public and private lives. She wrote two books on the Constitution and worked to improve New York City schools. At a time when virtually the entire American establishment - political, military, media, financial - is corrupt, she appears untainted.

New York State could soon be represented in the U.S. Senate by a woman with more respect for and understanding of democratic representation, the Constitution, and the rule of law than we've grown accustomed to finding in Washington, D.C., a woman who has done more to oppose the abuses of power of the Bush administration than have most current members of the House or Senate.

Elizabeth Holtzman has asked the Governor of New York, David Paterson, to consider appointing her to fill a seat that may be vacated by Senator Hillary Clinton, whom President elect Obama intends to nominate for Secretary of State. I encourage you to ask everyone you know in the state of New York to contact the Governor and ask him to choose Liz.

Hillary: "With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president. I move that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States."

And with that, Barack Obama became the first African American in American history to be chosen as the nominee of a major party. It's impossible to find the words to describe how amazing that is. Watch the video:

For weeks, we've heard endless lying pundits insist Hillary Clinton would undermine Barack Obama. Of course Clinton proved them wrong in June when she graciously ended her race and enthusiastically endorsed Obama. And she proved them wrong again tonight.

Hillary introduced the widow of Arkansas Democratic Chair Bill Gwatney, who was recently murdered in his office. And she introduced the son of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who recently died of an aneurysm. The two survivors sat next to Bill Clinton. What a classy family!

Then she turned to policy issues and ripped the Bush Administration to shreds while praising Obama to the rafters. The convention is loving every second.

You go, Hillary Clinton!

By Dave Lindorff

Laid-off American workers will be getting temporary extended
benefits as the nation sinks into recession, thanks to Congressional
Democrats, who cleverly tacked a funding provision onto a bill giving
the president all the money he asked for (and then some) to fund the
Iraq and Afghanistan wars on out through next June. Veterans of the
Iraq War will also be getting tuition benefits equal to the full cost
of in-state public college tuition plus $1000 a year for books and
supplies.

Thank you, Hillary!

Thank you for making history by nearly becoming the first woman President.

Thank you for inspiring 18 million women and men to vote for the first serious female candidate for President.

Thank you for putting 18 million cracks in the ultimate glass ceiling, so you or another outstanding woman can become President soon.

Thank you for proving to every girl and boy in America that a woman can be President or do anything she wants to do.

That you for proving to every woman and man in the world that an American woman can be President or do anything she wants to do.

As Hillary Clinton ends her campaign, I can't help but note that she came so incredibly close to being the first woman to be nominated by the Democratic Party, and the first woman President.

Hillary started as the frontrunner because of her fame, her dramatic personal story, her powerful organization and fundraising machine, her very popular husband, and her powerful charisma. So what happened?

As a candidate, she had just a few weaknesses: the Hillary-hate industry, her vote in favor of the Iraq War, and plain old-fashioned sexism.

There's a new group on the DNC website called Democrats Against Obama. Sometimes the loyalty of party loyalists escapes me.