Who Knew that Catholic Priests Cussed in Church?

I would have turned Catholic long ago if I would have known that they cuss and get you out of church in 20 minutes! I'm just playing, but seriously, Rev. Michael Pfleger delivered a sermon at Barack Obama's church (Trinity United Church of Christ) in Chicago on Sunday and boy, did he have a lot on his mind! They must have some "make you act a fool" mist that they spray on that microphone.

Pfleger is a Catholic priest at predominately black St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church on Chicago's southwest side. Commenting on the campaign, Pfleger very candidly spoke on the subject of 'white entitlement', using Sen. Hillary Clinton as his example. He said Clinton's eyes welled with tears before the New Hampshire primary because she felt "entitled" to the Democratic nomination and because "there's a black man stealing my show." He then went on to parody Clinton, sobbing and wiping his face with a handkerchief.

"She wasn't the only one crying," he said. "There was a whole lot of white people crying." (source)

What will be interesting is to see how the media handles this as opposed to the handling of Rev. Wright. Why? Because Pfleger is white and Wright is black. They referred to Wright in headlines as a 'preacher', never as Dr. Wright. I wonder if they will take the same tone of belittling and disrespect with Father Pfleger and if they will set out to personally attack him like they did Wright. Just watch and listen.

Watch the video below for yourself.


Of course, you know the rest - Clinton denounced. Obama condemned. Pfleger apologized.

I predict Obama will make his exodus from Trinity in 5...4...3...2...

Obama '08 Monkey T-Shirt - UPDATE

In Marietta, Ga, the owner of Mulligan's Bar and Grill is selling an Obama '08 t-shirt with the likeness of Curious George, the monkey, on it. The owner claims that the shirt was not meant to be seen as a racial reference. He said he did it because he saw a resemblance between Barack Obama and Curious George.

According to AJC.com,
Rick Blake, a spokesman for publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which owns the Curious George image, said Wednesday that the company didn't authorize the use of the character's image, but hasn't been in touch with anybody selling or manufacturing the shirts.

"We find it offensive and obviously utterly out of keeping with the value Curious George represents," Blake said. "We're monitoring the situation and weighing our options with respect to legal action."

Marietta bar owner Mike Norman has said he got the T-shirts from someone in Arkansas. He started selling them at his bar -- known for the provocative, ultra-conservative political slogans often posted on signs out front -- in April but said he has no plans to mass market them.

Norman acknowledged the imagery's Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey. "We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears -- he looks just like Curious George."

You make the call. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Superdelegates are Getting Off the Fence

Just as I predicted last night, the superdelegate hornets' nest is stirring. Already today, three supers have pledged support for Obama and one for Clinton.

Obama is ahead of Clinton in total delegates: 1,842 to 1,686. Only 217 pledged delegates are up for grabs in the remaining six contests: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota. Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Clinton is expected to win the 2,025 delegates needed to capture the nomination during the remaining contests. That means the superdelegates -- party and elected officials who are allowed to vote during the national convention -- will probably decide who becomes the nominee.


Here are some of the SD's perspectives: (source)


Former North Dakota Sen. George McGovern -- who had supported Clinton -- called on her to drop out of the race. He said he's supporting Obama. "I think mathematically the race is all but won by Barack Obama and the time has come for all of us to unite and get ready for the general election in the fall."


Rep John Lewis, D-Georgia, who originally supported Clinton but later threw his support to Obama, said "there are quite a few people who are having what I call an 'executive session' with themselves. People see the end is near."


Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California and a superdelegate, said she wants to talk to Clinton to "see what her view is on the rest of the race. What the strategy is."


Several SDs are still sitting on the fence:


Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, said he wants to "wait a little more time" before announcing his endorsement


Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colorado, has remained undecided "I think if we get this thing settled in the first 10 days of June we'll be fine," he added.


Rep. Brad Miller, who represents the 13th Congressional District in North Carolina, said he will announce who he's supporting soon. "I'm going to let the dust settle for a few days," he said.


This will get more interesting over the next few days. It's time to make a decision and the SDs know it. As the old folks say "Pee or get off the pot."

Clinton Wins Indiana in Triple Overtime

Talk about coming down to the wire. I have literally been on the phone with one of my friends for the past 3 and 1/2 hours watching and waiting for the Indiana results to come in. We're watching the numbers change and calculating votes and listening to the analysts like it's the NBA playoffs! You know it's serious when you get cut off from telling a story so that you can be updated on the latest precinct numbers...LOL! I love this game!

Anyway, in a hard fought battle Clinton has come away in a nail biter as the victor in my former state of residence, Indiana (I lived in Kokomo off and on over the course of 3 years). Indiana held 72 delegates of which Obama and Clinton will almost split down the middle, so basically Senator Clinton will only net 3 or 4 delegates (Obama netted 8 delegates with a win in NC, so overall he profits about 4 additional delegates...[gotta love that fuzzy math]). Clinton won with a 2% margin of victory. You can't get much closer than that (read more on CNN.com)

The hilariously frustrating part was listening to the dialogue between Wolf Blitzer, the mayor of Hammond, IN and the mayor of Gary, IN. Everybody was tired and mad because it was taking so long to count the votes in Gary. The Gary mayor kept saying over and over that it was taking a long time because they had just gotten 11,000 absentee ballots in on Monday and regular voting was Tuesday and that they wanted to take their time and count all of the votes properly, so as not to disenfranchise the voters. (Whatever dude. Ya'll took way too long with that.) The Hammond mayor made very overt suggestions that impropriety must have been taking place in Gary to cause such a delay. Now let me point out that the mayor of Gary is black and an Obama supporter and the mayor of Hammond is white and a Hillary supporter. After the results came in, the Hammond mayor hurried up and shut up about 'hanky panky' after CNN called Clinton the winner.

Anyway, Obama currently leads in pledged delegates and in states won, and he is ahead in the popular vote, if Florida and Michigan are not factored into the equation. Those states are being penalized for moving their primaries up in violation of party rules.

With neither candidate expected to win the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination by June 3, the end of the primary season, the final decision will most likely fall to the 796 superdelegates: Democratic governors, members of Congress and party officials.

I predict that super delegates will start to take sides now. Everybody's getting tired of this race. It's time to move on to something more productive.

....and North Carolina goes to (the envelope please)...

Barack Obama wins North Carolina and nets about 8 delegates.

He's baaack! After a much maligned few weeks, filled with questions regarding flag pins, pastors, and gas tax - Barack Obama is once again walking tall and carrying a big stick. At a time where polls suggested that he was losing support and popularity among voters due to the media's weapons of mass distraction, the supporters of the Obama campaign have shown up en masse to prove that they are interested in issues, not all that other foolishness.

Obama has claimed a huge victory in North Carolina. It was the last big state left with 115 delegates up for grabs. Of course the naysayers would love to make the point that he only won North Carolina because of the black vote (as if the black vote is somehow insignificant and blacks are not capable of making rational, well-thought out decisions. Did anyone question the judgement of black voters when the candidate was Bill Clinton?) ...but, i digress.

Turnout in the North Carolina Democratic primary was expected to reach 50 percent, according to Gary Bartlett, executive director for the North Carolina Board of Elections. That figure would far exceed the 15 percent to 30 percent that usually turn out for a primary, he said.

Now, here's the problem (see CNN.com for in depth coverage):

According to early exit polls, half of Clinton's supporters in Indiana would not vote for Obama in a general election match up with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

A third of Clinton voters said they would pick McCain over Obama, while 17 percent said they would not vote at all. Forty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama in November.

Obama got even less support from Clinton backers in North Carolina where 45
percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for him over McCain. Thirty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for McCain while 12 percent said they would not vote. Obama voters appear to be more willing to support Clinton in November. In Indiana, 59 percent of Obama backers said they'd vote for Clinton, and 70 percent of Obama backers in North Carolina said vote for her against McCain.

Okay, I've been hanging around for the past hour and a half waiting for them to call Indiana. This is better than watching game 7 of the playoffs. I'll get back to you when the updates are in.