The Will Rhodes Portmanteau

Barack Obama has said goodbye to the church he has been a member of for more than 20 years, which we know is a good call on his part.

While he will be demolishing what John McCain has to say he certainly doesn’t need some other numpty saying something that will take away the focus on hand - and the way the media is all over Obama and the church at the moment, he needed to do it.

“We don’t want to have to answer for everything that’s stated in the church,” the Democratic front-runner said. “We also don’t want the church subjected to the scrutiny that a presidential campaign legitimately undergoes.”

Obama said he was resigning “with some sadness.”

“This is not a decision I come to lightly,” he said.

The resignation comes days after the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a visiting Catholic priest, mocked Obama’s Democratic rival during a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.

Even though I said about Rev. Michael Pfleger is a good comic, I am not running for president so I can say these things.

Good judgement call, Mr Obama!

She gets the things she wants - all the delegates seated, albeit with half a vote, and still wants more? She has reserved her right to go to the convention to see if she can get the nomination.

It is all over barring the shouting - but it was a while ago, so why carry this on further? OK - get the last few primaries over, say thank you and get behind Obama.

But will she?

For such a long time I have been saying that police targets are, to say the absolute least, stupid!

Targets do nothing for policing - only to say that someone should be arrested for spitting on the pavement as should someone who is an axe murderer. Police officers are quite capable at telling someone off for spitting, a disgusting thing to do, and getting in the way of an axe being wielded by some madman.

Four police forces are to abandon government targets and allow officers to decide whether to make arrests.

The “common-sense approach” being tried by the Surrey, Leicestershire, West Midlands and Staffordshire forces has been welcomed by the Home Office.

But why hasn’t the home office changed the rules and argued for this in parliament?

By cutting red tape at least five million man hours - or 2,500 officers - could be saved, he said.

About time!

It seems that the French are getting ready to invade Iraq.

Not with troops, of course, but with diplomats. They want to open up a certain part of their Embassy. A French minister, Kouchner, arrived in Iraq to have talks and to begin the process of helping all Iraqi communities come together in peace and unity.

This was on the back of Shiite and Sunni’s coming together in their wish that the US leaves Iraq, and not leaving any residual troops there after the war is over.

Some Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders in Iraq — able to agree on little else — are united in their opposition to a prospective long-term security agreement between their country’s government and the United States.

Many Iraqis suspect it could lead to the establishment of bases, a long-term presence of American troops, and a weakening of Iraqi government control of foreign troops.

Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has said any such agreement should be put to a popular referendum.

Street demonstrations Friday in several Shiite Baghdad neighborhoods reflected his position.

Time to leave Iraq yet?

Well done, Alison!

If you don’t know she is my wife and passed her driving test today.

Didn’t Clinton agree and say that Florida and Michigan wouldn’t matter? Didn’t all the others who were running take their names off the ballot - except Hillary Clinton?

This was, of course, at the time when she thought she would be crowned as Democratic nominee and that there wouldn’t be any others to take her place. But it seems playing fair is OK if it doesn’t involve Hillary Clinton.

A day before the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is set to determine how to seat the delegations of Florida and Michigan, the Clinton campaign’s chief lawyer said the committee is compelled to seat both delegations fully and not award Sen. Barack Obama any delegates from Michigan.

Now, as far as I know, the delegates are divided up proportionality so even IF the vote was to stand as it was Obama MUST get some of the delegates - so Clintons lawyer wants her to completely go against what she said and what are the party rules - seems about right with this debarcle!

Actually - that priest should have his own comedy show, he was hilarious - and spot on!

Barack Obama says that come next week the general election will be on - but no say, as yet, from Hillary Clinton. Are both Obama and McCain ignoring her now? And if they are is that a good thing?

The republican have been on Obama’s heels for a while now - using, stupidly, the same arguments that Clinton used when she was offing Obama.

Shows that they really do think the American people will be behind McCain and Bush’s policy of not caring what the Americans think.

“After Tuesday, we will [have a clear idea]. I think Saturday will be important, put the Michigan-Florida issue behind us,” Obama told reporters Wednesday on a flight from Denver, Colorado, to Chicago, Illinois.

“We’ve got three contests in succession. And at that point, all the information will be in,” Obama said, referring to Sunday’s vote in Puerto Rico and Tuesday’s primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

“I suspect that you know whatever remaining superdelegates will make their decisions pretty quickly after that.”

By most tangible measures, the general election fight between Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, already has begun. The two men and their campaigns tangle almost daily over issues of policy, politics and character in which Sen. Hillary Clinton does not rate a mention.

Will Obama supporters be able to claim victory on Saturday?

I will be watching and waiting for the breaking news - then the fun can really start!

I always give credit where credit is due and with this story I have to give that credit to Glenn Beck of CNN.

He is one who will speak his mind and, personally, I don’t think that he is as much a cynic as I - but I could be wrong. I literally said “Bingo” when I read:

The unspoken truth is that these businesses don’t hire illegal aliens because they can’t find American workers, they hire illegal aliens because they don’t want American workers. And it has nothing to do with wages.

Illegal aliens mean no workers’ comp claims, no age, race or sex discrimination lawsuits, no healthcare premiums, no unions, and no demands for raises, vacations or bigger offices. In fact, illegal immigrants are the perfect employees because they’re not employees at all; they’re corporate slaves.

I watch Dear Lou Dobbs and Lou has a real problem with the state of illegals in the US - he wants them deporting en masse - but how do you fill those jobs which will be left vacant? You won’t do it with American workers because, as Beck says, that would mean that employers would have to employ people legitimately and that isn’t what they want to do.

No employer likes paying wages - it is a bug bare to them, it always has been. As long as we have the capitalist system that is how it is going to stay.

In the UK the minimum wage was brought in to a fanfare of, not welcoming that people would be able to pay for what they do in life, but employers trying to scare the country to death about how many people would be laid-off because they wouldn’t be able to afford the wages. Which wasn’t and isn’t true.

From Glenn Beck’s story:

Many Americans believe that cracking down on the businesses that hire illegal aliens (the current maximum federal fine was recently raised to a laughable $16,000) would hurt these hardworking people too much. A bad job is better than no job, we tell ourselves. But that’s catalogue compassion. If you want to understand the real impact of these decisions you’ve got to get off the couch and go see it for yourself.

Back in 2005, Newsday did an investigation of the living conditions of immigrants in the New York area. In the city of Westbury (median income: $83,000/year) officials found twelve immigrants living in a basement flooded with sewage.

In Southampton (median income: $64,000/year) officials found immigrants living in sheds with no plumbing or heat.

In New Cassel (median income: $62,000/year) officials estimated there were dozens of “shift-bed houses” where immigrants literally rent mattresses for a few hours a day to catch some sleep.

So, is slavery still rampant in the US? When you look at stories like this, get off your ass and go into society and actually look - you see that it is.

Will someone please tell me who John McCain is trying to kid - barring the staunch republicans that is.

He now comes out and tried to put one over on Barack Obama for not going to Iraq to visit the General out there. Wha!?

Why should he? Even a joint trip. If you are commander-in-Chief doesn’t the general come to you? What would Obama learn from going out there?

“Sen. Obama has been to Iraq once — a little over two years ago he went and he has never seized the opportunity except in a hearing to meet with Gen. [David] Petraeus,” McCain said at a campaign event in Reno, Nevada. “My friends, this is about leadership and learning.”

John McCain is trying and succeeding to keep his campaign on track speaking about the war in Iraq - I don’t think anyone would be happier! As long as he keep on that he forgets that over 70% of the public in the US is against the war and troops staying there. And someone should inform the dear Mr McCain that he is not gaining any support by spouting how his foreign policy is better than Obama’s. McCain’s is all about ‘victory’ in Iraq - and of course no surrender. But, surrendering to whom?

“The only question now is do we continue George Bush’s failed policy in Iraq or do we change it? John McCain is promising four more years of the exact same policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave troops and nothing of the Iraqi government, while Barack Obama wants to begin a phased withdrawal of our troops and refocus our efforts on going after al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

And that was supposed to be what the war on terror was all about, no? Getting Al-Qaeda?

You have yet to debate with Obama, John - and I feel sorry for you when you do.