First, I want to wish you all a Happy 4th of July. I've been thinking about the meaning of Independence Day, a day on which we as a people publicly declared our desire to be masters of our own destiny, to chart our own course as a free and independent society no longer under the control of others. For 232 years we Americans have done just that. We have governed ourselves, and I'd say that our record is one in which we can justly take a great deal of pride.

On this 4th of July, I've also been thinking about another kind of independence, namely energy independence. We are a strong country with our best days yet ahead of us. Right now, however, we face tremendous problems because we are deeply dependent on foreign oil. And we're not just importing oil from friendly democracies like Canada, but from places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, countries who have very different values and interests from our own.

More after the jump.

Barack Obama announced today that in honor of the July 4 celebration of America's revolt "against taxation without respresentation" he will join the Pray at the Pump Movement.

The PAPM, founded by Rocky Twyman, a member of the Seventh Day Adventists, has been holding prayer vigils at Exxon and Shell stations across the country. Smiling and obviously excited Obama told the impromptu presser:

I was a community organizer and I know what this involves. This is one man making a difference. It is faith based and it is spiritual. It is a man of God doing God's work. Who can be against God?

Obama refused to disclose which gas station he will turn up at in the next few days. His press corps immediately launched into a flurry of speculation. So far Pray at  the Pumpers have hit Exxon and Shell stations. But Wednesday they turned their prayers on the Embassy  of Saudi Arabia in Washington D.C.

Obama announced in response to a question about the Embassy pray-in.

"No. No. No.  I don't think praying at the Saudi Embassy, is a good idea The Saudis understand our concerns well enough. We don't need to seem to attack them directly. Besides they are Muslims. They could care less about a bunch of Jesus freaks.

He then told one of the women in the press throng:

I don't understand your question, sweetie, No one said Jesus freaks. You misheard me. Easy to do out here in the wind.   I am a devout man of faith. I take my religion and my preacher seriously. That would be contrary to everything I believe.

On the issue of his beliefs, another reporter questioned the presumed Democratic nominee about his stand on Iraq. Obama has been reported as saying recently that based on his upcoming visit there, his view of when the troops might come home, could be adjusted.  He explained:

One simply cannot  know in advance what sort of expedient position the President will be required to take. But I am sure all of my supporters and the American people can rest easy in the knowledge that I have no qualms changing my position to suit whatever situation arises.

Obama then blew the woman reporter a kiss and turned away from the impromptu presser. As he stepped into the waiting limousine and the reporters melted away, one bystander was seen picking a paper off the ground. It was headed:

Senator Obama's Impromptus Remarks on Pray at the Pumpers. Staff note: Remember, this should appear to be spontaneous.

Twyman, who prompted the first national campaign aimed at getting African Americans to become bone marrow donors, who still did not know of Obama's support, was reported later as saying:

I think we have just entered a new phase. We were in the prayerful phase, but now we're going into a more activist phase, because we feel that whole faith without works is dead.

John Neurohr from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has a different approach to managing the high gas prices.

There is little, if anything, the average person can do to reduce gas prices generally. What they can do is reduce their personal dependence on gasoline by carpooling and utilizing public transportation.

Obama rejected the riding the bus idea. Not prayerful and faith-based enough. He wants to win evangelicals to his side, and praying at the pump is by far the best publicity op.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Pa ge=/Nation/archive/200807/NAT20080703a.h tml

***Disclaimer. Senator Obama has held no such press conference and his views on Pray at the Pump are unknown at this time. However, while I support him because he is the Democratic Party nominee, I can readily imagine this happening.

Today's NYT editorial is just brutal on Obama's depressing flip flops.

Senator Barack Obama stirred his legions of supporters, and raised our hopes, promising to change the old order of things. He spoke with passion about breaking out of the partisan mold of bickering and catering to special pleaders, promised to end President Bush's abuses of power and subverting of the Constitution and disowned the big-money power brokers who have corrupted Washington politics.

Now there seems to be a new Barack Obama on the hustings. First, he broke his promise to try to keep both major parties within public-financing limits for the general election. His team explained that, saying he had a grass-roots-based model and that while he was forgoing public money, he also was eschewing gold-plated fund-raisers. These days he's on a high-roller hunt.

Even his own chief money collector, Penny Pritzker, suggests that the magic of $20 donations from the Web was less a matter of principle than of scheduling. "We have not been able to have much of the senator's time during the primaries, so we have had to rely more on the Internet," she explained as she and her team busily scheduled more than a dozen big-ticket events over the next few weeks at which the target price for quality time with the candidate is more than $30,000 per person.

The new Barack Obama has abandoned his vow to filibuster an electronic wiretapping bill if it includes an immunity clause for telecommunications companies that amounts to a sanctioned cover-up of Mr. Bush's unlawful eavesdropping after 9/11.

In January, when he was battling for Super Tuesday votes, Mr. Obama said that the 1978 law requiring warrants for wiretapping, and the special court it created, worked. "We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend," he declared.

Now, he supports the immunity clause as part of what he calls a compromise but actually is a classic, cynical Washington deal that erodes the power of the special court, virtually eliminates "vigorous oversight" and allows more warrantless eavesdropping than ever.

The Barack Obama of the primary season used to brag that he would stand before interest groups and tell them tough truths. The new Mr. Obama tells evangelical Christians that he wants to expand President Bush's policy of funneling public money for social spending to religious-based organizations -- a policy that violates the separation of church and state and turns a government function into a charitable donation.

He says he would not allow those groups to discriminate in employment, as Mr. Bush did, which is nice. But the Constitution exists to protect democracy, no matter who is president and how good his intentions may be. ...

We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama's shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games.

I am sick to death of the forwarded ignorance of so many Americans!

       "I am sorry but after hearing they want to sing the National Anthem in Spanish - enough is enough. No where did they sing it in Italian, Japanese, Polish, Irish (Celtic), German, Portuguese, Greek, French, or any other language because of immigration. It was written by Francis Scott Key and should be sung word for word the way it was written. The news broadcasts even gave the translation -- not even close. Sorry if this offends anyone but this is MY COUNTRY -

       IF IT IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP ---- please pass this along~

   I am not against immigration -- just come through like everyone else. Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes, live by the rules AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past -- and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

       PART OF THE PROBLEM
        Think about this: If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone-----YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM !!!!

       Will we still be the Country of choice and still be America if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries that came to live in America because it is the Country of Choice??????

       Think about it!

       IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT.

       It is Time for America to Speak up If you agree -- pass

       this along; if you don't agree -- delete it."

A friendly reminder, one that came to me as I was lurking on other sites.  Hillary Clinton still has debt from the primary campaign that needs to be paid down.  Your assitance, in the form of a contribution, enables Hillary to spend time doing what you want her to do; campaign for Barack Obama for President.  If you're a Hillary supporter, if you're a Barack supporter, the end result is the same.

Here's the link:

Contribution Details
Date: July 04, 2008 11:23 AM EDT
Contact: Dennis XXXXXXXX
1455 N. XXXXXXXXXXX #2304
Chicago, IL 60610
312XXXXXXX
Amount: $20.08

Notice a pattern in the Rec List?

This diary is not about Hillary Clinton getting "cyber-lynched" by Obama supporters who want to "take away women's rights."  
This diary is not about Obama's "fundamental changes" or how he's advocating "taking away rights of women" on abortion or about how the "cultish" Obama supporters should get used to it.

If you don't want those types of diaries up there, please rec this up to push at least one off.  A blank diary would be better.

Why oh why does this man irritate me so?  Now don't get me wrong, John Stossel is probably a nice man.  But for a man who can garner audiences, he is "dangerous" (well not really, but the guy's on TV and he is on the ra-ra free market Right's side promulgating this crap) with his half ass grasp on our economy.   Recently, on MyDD's evil twin, he wrote up a piece on how the economy really isn't doing bad.  That it was all media hype.

There has been quite an uproar in the press that Sen. Obama has flip flopped on Iraq. I think there is deep rooted misunderstanding of Sen. Obama's position on the Iraq war. There is a false presumption on the part of the public and the media regarding the speech Sen. Obama made on Chicago lake front.

Let us go to the facts: Sen. Obama delivered his now famous "Iraq war speech" on October 2nd 2002. The Iraq war resolution was passed by the House of Representatives on October 10th and passed by the senate on October 11th. By October 2002 Obama had already made up his mind to run for the US Senate. He was well aware that the majority of the Illinois Democratic delegation was going to vote against the war resolution. In fact it is public record that 9 out of 12 Democrats in the Illinois delegation voted against the resolution. Here is the list:

Sen Dick Durbin- Rep Jerry Costello- Rep Danny Davis- Rep Lane Evans- Rep Luis Gutierrez Rep Jesse Jackson, Jr- Rep Bill Lipinski- Sen Bobby Rush- Rep Jan Schakowsky

Sen. Obama's run for the senate required the support of the congressional Democrats and it would have been unwise for him not to speak against the Iraq war. It was not necessarily his convictions that made him speak up against the war it was in fact a political necessity. So I can see why he might now want to "refine" his position.

I am glad we have a nominee that is politically vary savvy and a real winner.

http://usliberals.about.com/od/liberalle adership/a/IraqNayVote_3.htm

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Oba ma's_Iraq_Speech