This is the name of their new petition and campaign to make the so-called "superdelegates" follow the will of grassroots Democrats and primary voters.

Sign Now!

From their online petition:

Thirty-seven states and U.S. territories have already voted and we don't have a clear nominee. Senators Clinton and Obama are in a delegate race to the nomination.

There are a lot of ways that delegates get assigned to a specific candidate, but almost all of the allocated delegates are directly tied and bound by the actual votes in each primary or caucus - all of them that is, except super-delegates.

Super-delegates are a contingent of almost 900 elected officials, party insiders, and current DNC members and they aren't required to follow the voters. In fact, after every Democrat has voted and the last allocated delegates are assigned, super-delegates have the power to overturn the popular vote and crown a different winner.

That's right, if super-delegates don't like who you choose to be our nominee, they can overturn your vote. We can't let that happen. Our nominee must be chosen by Democratic voters not by back room deals of the party elite.

Why should Democrats who voted in primaries and showed up for caucuses vote for a nominee that was chosen against the will of the people in a series of disreputable backroom deals?

 

"Nature says women are human beings, men have made religions to deny it. Nature says women are human beings, men cry out NO!"
- Taslima Nasreen

Great News from Rationalist International:

Dear friends:

We are pleased to inform that the Government of India has formally announced that they extend the visa of Taslima Nasreen. We express gratitude for your timely support of our appeal to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Till now we have received copies of more than 3800 letters requesting him to extend Taslima's visa.

The official statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, some minutes ago, is given below.

Sanal Edamaruku
President,
Rationalist International & Indian Rationalist Association

Statement by Official Spokesperson on extension of visa of Ms. Taslima Nasreen
14/02/2008

The Government of India have decided to extend the visa of Ms. Taslima Nasreen. Throughout its history, India has a tradition of offering hospitality to those who seek it. It has also afforded protection to those who have come as our guests. Ms. Taslima Nasreen is our guest and, in keeping with our traditions, we have offered her the same privileges.

It is incumbent on those who are welcomed as guests in India that they remain sensitive to India’s traditions and do not conduct themselves in a manner that either affects our relations with other countries or cause hurt to our secular ethos. We expect that they do not undertake actions that could hurt the sentiments of the many communities that make up our multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation. These are the same restraints which we in India follow. We expect nothing less from our guests.

New Delhi
February 14, 2008

Background on Taslima Nasreen follows. (Note: her name is in a language with a different alphabet than English, so the spellings vary depending on how it is transformed into English.)

Taslima Nasreen's Website
2004 Free Inquiry Interview
BBC Bio
 

These are some scary quotes from Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson. It looks like the Clinton campaign will try to steal the nomination with "superdelegates" if they lose with legitimate delegates from primaries and caucuses.

From the February 13 Boston Globe:

"I want to be clear about the fact that neither campaign is in a position to win this nomination without the support of the votes of the superdelegates,'' Wolfson told reporters in a conference call.

"We don't make distinctions between delegates chosen by million of voters in a primary and those chosen between tens of thousands in caucuses,'' Wolfson said. "And we don't make distinctions when it comes to elected officials'' who vote as superdelegates at the convention.

"We are interested in acquiring delegates, period,'' he added.

If the Clinton Smear Campaign and the party insiders steal the nomination by using illegitimate "superdelegates," they will have sent a message of utter hatred and contempt for Democratic voters and grassroots Democrats.

Also, if the Democratic Party steals the nomination to keep a man who is half African American off of the ballot, the Democratic Party will openly proclaim itself as racist as the Clintons and the rest of the GOP.

If Clinton actually gets away with this vicious attack on democracy and civil rights, the following will happen.

1) Many Democrats will stay home.

2) Many other Democrats will vote Green.

3) Many Democratic-leaning independents and pro-Obama Republicans will vote for John "Keating Five" McCain.

4) Clinton will lose at least 40 states.

 

Learn More About Freethought Heroine Taslima Nasreen from her web site.

From Rationalist International 2/10/08:

An Urgent Appeal from Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International

Help to prevent Taslima Nasreen’s expulsion from India!

“All I want to do is live peacefully in this country. I have nowhere else to go!"

I request you to react immediately and support our appeal to the Government of India to grant residence permit to renowned writer Taslima Nasreen, who is an Honorary Associate of Rationalist International.

Taslima Nasreen is in a desperate situation. I am in regular contact with her and talked to her over telephone yesterday and today.

The Indian Government is keeping her - allegedly for security reasons - in complete isolation at an undisclosed location. Guarded by officials, she is not allowed to meet anybody. Her only connections to the world are mobile phone and laptop. Her health is deteriorating under stress and lack of competent medical care.

In this situation, the government of India tries to force her to leave the country. This is clearly to appease Muslim fundamentalists. It seems they think that the fundamentalists have influence on the Muslim 'vote bank'.

After fleeing from Bangladesh in 1994 to escape fatwa and death threats by Muslim fanatics, Taslima lived in Sweden, Germany, USA and France. In 2000 she moved to India and found in West Bengal, an Indian state, her adoptive home. She has been living there since then. "I am a Bengali within and without; I live, breathe, and dream in Bengali."- Taslima wrote about her stay in West Bengal.

The communist led state government of West Bengal, in a move to please the Muslim fanatics (whom they try to please since years by banning her book), forcefully deported Taslima in November 2007 to Rajastan, an Indian state ruled by the Hindu nationalist party BJP. The next day Rajastan state government sent her to Delhi, the capital of India. Shunt off by two state governments, the central government took her away to an undisclosed place in Delhi claiming to protect her.

“You can decide, when you want to leave, but before 16th February, when ‘they’ [fanatic Muslims] will start shouting to throw you out”, Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee told her. Since she was not ready to vanish secretly and silently on her own, a show-down over her visa started. The visa is expiring on Sunday, 17th February. Contrary to misguiding public statements of ministers and false press reports, her visa has not been extended yet. If the Indian government does not grant her visa extension or any other form of residence permit in time, she may be forced to leave India - with nothing in her hands but a mobile phone and a laptop.

Please write to the Indian Prime Minister today!

Request him to grant Taslima Nasreen residence permit with immediate effect and to make security arrangements that allow her to leave her "prison"!

Send an email appeal to Dr Man Mohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India.

His email address is given below.
manmohan@sansad.nic.in

Write your full address, and official position also.

Please mark a copy of your appeal to taslima@rationalistinternational.net

Taslima Nasreen writes about her situation..

Where am I? I am certain no one will believe me if I say I have no answer to this apparently straightforward question, but the truth is I just do not know. And if I were to be asked how I am, I would again answer: I don’t know. I am like the living dead: benumbed; robbed of the pleasure of existence and experience; unable to move beyond the claustrophobic confines of my room. Day and night, night and day. Yes, this is how I have been surviving.

This nightmare did not begin when I was suddenly bundled out of Calcutta – it has been going on for a while. It is like a slow and lingering death, like sipping delicately from a cupful of slow-acting poison that is gradually killing all my faculties. This is a conspiracy to murder my essence, my being, once so courageous, so brave, so dynamic, so playful. I realize what is going on around me but am utterly helpless, despite my best efforts, to wage a battle on my own behalf. I am merely a disembodied
voice. Those who once stood by me have disappeared into the darkness.

I ask myself: what heinous crime have I committed? What sort of life is this where I can neither cross my own threshold nor know the joys of human company? What crime have I committed that I have to spend my life hidden away, relegated to the shadows? For what crimes am I being punished by this society, this land? I wrote of my beliefs and my convictions. I used words, not violence, to express my ideas. I did not take recourse to pelting stones or bloodshed to make my point. Yet, I am considered a
criminal. I am being persecuted because it was felt that the right of others to express their opinions was more legitimate than mine.

Does India not realise how immense the suffering must be for an individual to renounce her most deeply-held beliefs? How humiliated, frightened, and insecure I must have been to allow my words to be censored. If I had not agreed to the grotesque bowdlerisation of my writings by those who insisted on it, I would have been hounded and pursued till I dropped dead. Their politics, their faith, their barbarism, and their diabolical purposes are all intent on sucking the lifeblood out of me, because the truths I write are so difficult for them to stomach. How can I—a powerless and unprotected individual—battle brute force? But come what may, I cannot take recourse to untruth.

What have I to offer but love and compassion? In the way that they used hatred to rip out my words, I would like to use compassion and love to rip the hatred out of them. Certainly, I am enough of a realist to acknowledge that strife, hatred, cruelty and barbarism are integral elements of the human condition. This will not change; and how can an insignificant creature like me change all this? If I were to be eradicated or
exterminated, it would not matter one whit to the world at large. I know all this. Yet, I had imagined Bengal would be different. I had thought the madness of her people was temporary. I had thought that the Bengal I loved so passionately would never forsake me. She did.

Exiled from Bangladesh, I wandered around the world for many years like a lost orphan. The moment I was given shelter in West Bengal, it felt as though all those years of numbing tiredness just melted away. I was able to resume a normal life in a beloved and familiar land. So long as I survive, I will carry within me the vistas of Bengal, her sunshine, her wet earth, her very essence. The same Bengal whose sanctuary I once walked many blood-soaked miles to reach has now turned its back upon me. I am a Bengali within and without; I live, breathe, and dream in Bengali. I find it hard to believe that I am no longer wanted in Bengal.

I am a guest in this land, I must be careful of what I say. I must do nothing that violates the code of hospitality. I did not come here to hurt anyone’s sentiments or feelings. Wounded and hurt in my own country, I suffered slights and injuries in many lands before I reached India, where I knew I would be hurt yet again. For this is, after all, a democratic and secular land where the politics of the votebank imply that being secularis equated with being pro-Muslim fundamentalist. I do not wish to believe all this. I do not wish to hear all this. Yet, all around me I read, hear, and see evidence of this. I sometimes wish I could be like those mythical monkeys, oblivious to all the evil that is going on around me. Death who visits me in many forms now feels like a friend. I feel like talking to him, unburdening myself to him. I have no one else to speak to, no one else to whom I can unburden myself.

I have lost my beloved Bengal. No child torn from its mother’s breast could have suffered as much as I did during that painful parting. Once again, I have lost the mother from whose womb I was born. The pain is no less than the day I lost my biological mother. My mother had always wanted me to return home. That was something I could not do. After settling down in Calcutta, I was able to tell my mother, who by then was a memory within me, that I had indeed returned home. How did it matter which side of an artificial divide I was on? Now, I do not have the courage to tell my mother that I have been unceremoniously expelled by those who had once given me shelter, that my life now is that of a nomad. My sensitive mother would be shattered if I were to tell her all this. Instead, I have now taken to convincing myself that I must have transgressed somewhere, committed some grievous error. Why else would I be in such a situation? Is daring to utter the truth a terrible sin in this era of falsehood and deceit? Is it because I am a woman?

I know I have not been condemned by the masses. If their opinion had been sought, I am certain the majority would have wanted me to stay on in Bengal. But when has a democracy reflected the voice of the masses? A democracy is run by those who hold the reins of power, who do exactly what they think fit. An insignificant individual, I must now live life on my own terms and write about what I believe in and hold dear. It is not my desire to harm, malign, or deceive. I do not lie. I try not to be offensive. I am but a simple writer who neither knows nor understands the dynamics of politics. The way in which I was turned into a political pawn, however, and treated at the hands of base politicians, beggars belief. For what end, you may well ask. A few measly votes. The force of fundamentalism, which I have opposed and fought for many years, has only been strengthened by my defeat.

This is my beloved India, where I have been living and writing on secular humanism, human rights and emancipation of women. This is also the land where I have had to suffer and pay the price for my most deeply held and fundamental convictions, where not a single political party of any persuasion has spoken out in my favour, where no non-governmental organisation, women’s rights or human rights group has stood by me or condemned the vicious attacks launched upon me. This is an India I have never before known. Yes, it is true that individuals in a scattered, unorganised manner are fighting for my cause, and journalists, writers, and intellectuals have spoken out in my favour, even if they have never read a word I have written. Yet, I am grateful for their opinions and support.

Wherever individuals gather in groups, they seem to lose their power to speak out. Frankly, this facet of the new India terrifies me. Then again, is this a new India, or is it the true face of the nation? I do not know.

Since my earliest childhood I have regarded India as a great land and a fearless nation. The land of my dreams: enlightened, strong, progressive, and tolerant. I want to be proud of that India. I will die a happy person the day I know India has forsaken darkness for light, bigotry for tolerance. I await that day. I do not know whether I will survive, but India and what she stands for has to survive.

No More Victims is putting human faces on a war in Iraq that the pundits describe with floating abstractions. Here is what else they do:

No More Victims works to obtain medical sponsorships for war-injured Iraqi children and to forge ties between the children, their families and communities in the United States. We believe one of the most effective means of combating militarism is to focus on direct relief to its victims.

The reality of what is being done to Iraq is staggering. We cannot turn our heads away and ignore it.

Obama's wins in the Washington and Nebraska caucuses appear to be repeated with a victory in the Louisiana primary, if early returns hold up.

There are other signs of the Clinton campaign's difficulties. Ms. Clinton's personal loan to her campaign reflected finance problems due to her reliance on super rich donors who had already reached their legal limit in campaign contributions.

The Super Tuesday results were a disaster for the Clinton campaign. Over 20 primaries, of which four were in the huge states of California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey, was an ideal situation for Clinton. This situation made grassroots campaigning and campaign rallies less influential, and it made name recognition the largest factor. Analysts are debating over whether Clinton or Obama got the most delegates, but the close delegate results eliminated the Clinton camp's best chance to win the nomination.

There is nothing comparable to Super Tuesday left, and that is resulting in desperate tactics by Clinton and her supporters. They are trying to create fear over a deadlocked convention, which is close to impossible given that there are only two candidates with significant numbers of delegates. Clintonites are even talking about a "dream ticket" (nightmare ticket for liberals) which would have Obama be Clinton's VP.

Obama would be a fool to fall for this one. In 2016, Chelsea Clinton will be 36, old enough to run for the White House. The Clinton dynasty would be break any deal to continue its hold on power.

There are two main reasons why Clinton is going to lose the nomination.

1) She voted to get us into the war in Iraq rather than leading opposition to it.

2) Her campaign used their version of the GOP's "Southern Strategy," using surrogates to attack Obama for being the "black candidate." This really infuriated Democratic primary voters of all races.

 

Hat tip to BlueCoffee for this one. From the Lambert, Edwards and Associates prospectus on Church-Construction Financing Futures (2005-2010) issued on April 1, 2006.

We believe the annual financing opportunity for the church construction market currently stands at $28 billion annually. We anticipate this market will grow at a rate in excess of 40% over the next five years to $40 billion by 2010, according to our proprietary church finance market (CFM)™ model.

Our forecast is driven by three primary factors: Exponential growth in church attendance within specific segments of the non-denominational and evangelical church population; the trend toward non-traditionalist, unconventional forums of worship, highlighted by the rise of the modern “mega-church” and; the marked growth in financial contributions to churches, specifically within certain non-denominational sects characterized by a younger, upwardly-mobile demographic commonly found in suburban or newly developed localities. [...]

Non-denominational membership doubled between 1990 and 2001, according to our analysis. We believe the growth in attendance at non-denominational churches marks the emergence of a broader trend in which denominational affiliation is perceived as an unnecessary limiting factor in attracting new members. We believe the notable success of non-denominational mega-churches throughout the country is supporting evidence of this trend. While church attendance at the average American church increased by 12% between 2000 and 2005, average church attendance at mega-churches across the country increased by an astounding 57.3%.

Read more

Most atheists have realized what a racket religion can be. Just the construction of megalomaniacal megachurches is a billion dollar business. Christians try to justify their faith by saying how much churches help the poor, but look where so much of the money is going. It reminds me of the Middle Ages where the Catholic Church built enormous, ornate cathedrals while most people were in miserable poverty.

 

Today, Democracy Now covered the rightist lunacy that erupted from John McCain's mouth when he was trying to appeal to the fascist fringe of the GOP. Read it and gag.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I will start by making the Bush tax cuts permanent. I will cut corporate tax rates from 35 to 25 percent to keep industries and jobs in this country. I will end—I will end the alternate minimum tax, and I won’t let a Democratic Congress raise your taxes and choke the growth of our economy.

They will offer a big government solution to healthcare insurance coverage. I intend to address the problem with free market solutions and with respect for the freedom of individuals to make important choices for themselves.

They will—they will appoint to the federal bench judges who are intent on achieving political changes that the American people cannot be convinced to accept through the election of their representatives. I intend to nominate judges who have proven themselves worthy of our trust, that they take as their sole responsibility the enforcement of laws made by the people’s elected representatives, judges of the character and quality of Justices Roberts and Alito, justices who can be relied upon to respect the values of the peoples whose rights, laws and property they are sworn to defend.

Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will withdraw our forces from Iraq based on an arbitrary timetable designed for the sake of political expediency and which recklessly ignores the profound human calamity and dire threats to our security that would ensue. I intend to win the war and trust in the proven judgment of our commanders there and the courage and selflessness of the Americans they have the honor to command.

In other words, McCain is completely bought and paid for by corporate interests, the country and our troops be damned in his sick mind.

 

As of March 19, the Iraq War will have gone on for five years.

Can you believe it? Five years?

It is nuts. To make things worse, the corporate media largely ignore the war, and give us deceptive propaganda when they do mention the war. We need to get the war back in peoples' minds and in peoples' faces. One way to do this is to blogswarm a passionate reminder of how our troops and the Iraqi people are getting injured and killed in an illegal war.

http://march19-blogswarm.blogspot.com/

Please join in and make your voice heard against this senseless war on March 19.

Thanks so much to Rick from Ten Percent for all the work he has done on this.

From an American Humanist Association email:

Please vote in your primary and help raise your Humanist voice in the public square! This is important even though we Humanists don't always have a chance to vote our values. Often we're presented with less-than-ideal options. But such civic participation is critical if we are to develop the influence we need to make a difference in the public debate on the issues that matter most.

And in a time like this, when we see violations of church-state separation sweeping through every level of government, this election offers us an opportunity to make a difference. In particular, we're asking you to pay special attention to your local polling place.

If you are one of many Humanists whose polling place is in a church, synagogue or temple, please take notes on your experience and e-mail them to our Appignani Humanist Legal Center coordinator Bob Ritter at britter@americanhumanist.org.

When houses of worship are used as polling places, obvious religious symbols within the voting area are supposed to be covered up so that no voter feels intimidated or that she or he is an outsider. Also, church leaders and members are forbidden to proselytize at the polls. Yet we have reason to believe that these rules aren't always being followed.

Let's make sure everyone has the right to vote their own conscience, free from religious coercion. Share with the AHA your observations, any religious statements that you heard by poll workers or any one affiliated with the church, and any pictures you may have taken of outside or inside the polling area (pictures inside the polling room probably have to be taken the day before or after the election). Send them to Bob Ritter at britter@americanhumanist.org. We would also suggest that you call your supervisor of elections to request that any religious signs and/or icons be covered up.

On 2/1/08, The Advocate reported that many Edwards supporters have switched to Obama now that Edwards has dropped out of the race.

A critical mass of John Edwards’s LGBT steering committee is going public with support for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Twenty-two members of the Edwards campaign’s original 59-person gay and lesbian committee will now be working for Obama victories next Tuesday and throughout the rest of the primary season.

The article mentioned a lot of insider stuff, but it left out the obvious subtext. LGBT activists who were involved in the queer community at the time of the beginning of the Clinton administration remember how the Clintons broke important promises on lifting the miltary ban and on a "Manhattan Project" to cure AIDS.

The Clinton Administration never even tried to implement that "Manhattan Project." On the military ban, they created a fraudulently labeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which was designed to increase the number of military witchhunts and discharges. DADT did just that and even resulted in undercover MPs in gay bars in Washington, DC.

When Melissa Etheridge mentioned during the Logo/HRC debates that Bill Clinton was guilty of "throwing us under the bus," she was speaking for a huge constituency of queers who recognize how we were screwed over by the Clintons in the past and know not to trust any Clinton in the future.

Here is the list of former queer Edwards supporters now siding with the Obama campaign.

Below is the full List of former Edwards supporters who are now publicly supporting Obama as provided by Eric Stern:

Eric Stern, former political adviser to the John Edwards for President campaign, former National Stonewall Democrats executive director, former director of LGBT outreach for the Democratic National Committee (California)

David Mixner, writer, Democratic Party activist (New York)

Linda Elliott, member of the board of directors for the Human Rights Campaign (Arizona)

Evan Low, council member for the city of Campbell, Calif.

David Garrity, vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party

Andy Szekeres, former Colorado Stonewall Democrats cochair, former Wisconsin LGBT field director, Kerry-Edwards (Colorado)

Kyle Bailey, former board member, National Stonewall Democrats, LGBT Caucus vice chair of Young Democrats of America, Chair of Atlanta Stonewall Democrats (Georgia)

Pam Cooke, National Stonewall Democrats board member; past president, Stonewall Democratic Club of Los Angeles (California)

Bill Hedrick, president of Central Ohio Stonewall Democrats

David Mariner, former Out for Howard Dean cochair (Maryland)

Jason Lansdale, past president of Central Ohio Stonewall Democrats

Daniel Hinkley, Nevada Stonewall Democratic Caucus president

Misty York, communications director for the Kentucky Fairness Alliance

Christopher Prevatt, chair of Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club (Orange County, Calif.)

Jim Maynard, president of Memphis Stonewall Democrats (Tennessee)

Daniel Graney, past president of Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio (Texas)

Arthur Nunn, former Missouri for Edwards volunteer organizer and founder of LGBT for Edwards MySpace Group

Brad Reichard, public pelations executive (Massachusetts)

Michael Shannon, national security expert (D.C.)

Les Krambeal, board member for the National Stonewall Democrats, cochair, Southern Arizona Stonewall Democrats

Robert D. Horvath Jr., member of the board of directors for the Mautner Project (D.C.)

Patrick J. Lyden, LGBT community activist (D.C.)

All organizations listed for identification purposes only.