Gopher Football Spring Practice #3

Shells and thud
Posted on April 1st, 2008 - 7:09 PM
By Chip Scoggins The Gophers practiced in helmet and shoulder pads (shells) on Tuesday in what coach Tim Brewster calls "thud" tempo - hitting but no tackling.

Here are some notes and Brewster's thoughts from practice No. 3:

- The defense forced a few sacks against an offensive line that is relatively young and inexperienced. Brewster said there is good competition at center between Jeff Tow-Arnett, Ryan Wynn and Trey Davis. "All those three guys have a great opportunity to win that job," Brewster said. "It will be interesting to see how that plays out."

- Brewster said he likes what he sees from Otis Hudson at right guard. He said Hudson told him that he feels more confident now than at any point in his career.

- Brewster said the offense might line up Adam Weber and David Pittman in the backfield together and then motion one out and throw it to him. "There is no limit to the things that we can do," Brewster said.

- Brewster said he likes what he sees from Steve Davis so far this spring. He admitted the transition to linebacker was hard for Davis last season but he felt Davis looked more comfortable in the final few games.

- Brewster said the defensive line will have some good depth once everyone arrives in the fall. He said right now the staff is counting on juco transfers Tim McGee and Cedric McKinley and freshman Jewhan Edwards playing right away.

- Brewster is particularly impressed with McKinley. "Big Ced comes in June. He is a physical specimen. He plays with a motor. He's a little bit rough around the edges, but he's going to be a really good player."

- Another day, more high praise for safety Tramaine Brock. Brewster: "He's a vicious player on the field. I love his temperament. He absolutely plays the game the way I see the game being played, with tremendous toughness and passion. He is an absolute joy to coach."

- Eden Prairie coach Mike Grant and son Ryan attended practice.

- Brewster said juco transfer Simoni Lawrence can play linebacker or safety. With so many teams running the spread, Brewster said the SAM linebacker walks out on slot receiver. "The SAM linebacker is basically a strong safety," Brewster said. "He's not a box player. He's a space player."

- I ran into former safety Brandon Owens at the facility. Owens, whose career was cut short by a devastating shoulder injury, said he would like to get into coaching. Brewster said he would help Owens pursue that career but he said Owens needs to commit himself to getting his degree.

U.S. Government Threatens El Salvador Solidarity Movement

An Interview with Cherrene Horazuk

In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' - specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.

CISPES works to build solidarity in the U.S. with the Salvadoran popular movement and with the FMLN. CISPES has done this work since 1980, when it was formed at the start of the civil war in El Salvador, during which the FMLN led an armed struggle for liberation against the brutal U.S.-backed right wing Salvadoran military dictatorship.

The following is an interview with Cherrene Horazuk, who was Executive Director of CISPES from 1993 to 2003. She talks about the current government attack on CISPES, the history of such attacks, and some thoughts on why this is happening now.

Fight Back!: What is going on now with the U.S. Department of Justice harassing CISPES?

Cherrene Horazuk: The U.S. Department of Justice sent threatening communications to CISPES in January saying that they thought that CISPES was contracted by the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) to run the FMLN's electoral campaign and to fundraise for the FMLN presidential campaign in the U.S. There are presidential elections in March 2009 in El Salvador and the FMLN slate of Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren has a good chance to win. The Department of Justice said they read in the Washington Post and on web pages that the FMLN had contracted CISPES to do this, so they insisted that CISPES turn in all documents relating to a contract with the FMLN or presidential candidate Mauricio Funes. They wanted documentation because they said CISPES would be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938.

Of course there is no such documentation because CISPES hasn't signed any contractual agreements or taken orders to do the solidarity work that CISPES does. CISPES organizes solidarity in the U.S. based on shared values with the Salvadoran social justice movement and the FMLN. It's a relationship of solidarity.

Fight Back!: What is the history of FBI and U.S. government harassment of CISPES and of the Latin America solidarity movement? Tell us about what happened with CISPES in the 1980s.

Horazuk: From 1981 to 1987 the FBI carried out one of the largest domestic spying endeavors in recent U.S. history. They investigated more than 100,000 individuals and more than 3000 groups. That included CISPES committees, Central America solidarity groups, church groups, student groups, social justice organizations and anyone that in any way shape or form was speaking out against human rights abuses in El Salvador and Central America. Anyone speaking out in support of grassroots progressive human rights groups and revolutionary organizations was investigated.

I think 52 out of the 59 FBI bureau offices in the U.S. were involved in the investigation. They started the investigation within months of CISPES's founding in 1980. It included surveillance, harassment, intimidation, break-ins to offices and houses. Some people lost their jobs as a result. The worst impact is that some Salvadorans were investigated that were then deported back to El Salvador, and the U.S. government turned their names over to the brutal Salvadoran military and those people were never heard from again.

In 1987 CISPES filed a lawsuit against the FBI because we got some files under the Freedom of Information Act. Congressional hearings were held, and ultimately the FBI was found to have carried out a completely illegal investigation, in which they found no proof of any wrongdoing on CISPES's part. All the wrongdoing was by the FBI in their illegal spying and harassment. As a result the FBI was ordered to cease and desist. That case also led to some law changes that curtailed domestic surveillance, made it harder for the FBI to do spying. Of course that was then later reversed under the Patriot Act. At the end of the lawsuit the FBI actually had to issue a statement saying they were wrong.

Fight Back!: Why was CISPES specifically targeted?

Horazuk: We were the largest solidarity organization in the U.S. We took a clear position against the U.S. government support for the right-wing death squad regime in El Salvador and we stood strongly in solidarity with the people of El Salvador fighting back against that regime. We were supportive not just of the grassroots movement, but also the revolutionary movement and the FMLN. The FMLN was fighting against a brutal right-wing death squad government that was propped up by millions of dollars of U.S. military aid. The right-wing government was shown to be responsible for countless massacres and torture and for the vast majority of the 75,000 deaths during the Salvadoran civil war.

CISPES stands up for the Salvadoran people's right to self-determination, and I think because of that the U.S. government saw the solidarity movement and CISPES particularly as a threat to U.S. policy in Latin America. This was in the early 1980s in the context of newly-elected President Reagan saying he was going to 'draw the line' in El Salvador to prevent a revolution there, after the left-wing Sandinistas had just overthrown the pro-U.S. military dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration thought El Salvador would be next and were providing millions of dollars a day in military aid to stop a progressive victory in El Salvador.

CISPES organized delegations to El Salvador throughout the war for people from the U.S. to go see for themselves what our government was doing there. Thousands of people from the U.S. went with CISPES to El Salvador during the war and saw what was really going on. President Reagan was saying there were no massacres, no bombings, but people went and talked to survivors of bombings and massacres. People saw that our government was lying, it was a huge learning experience for a whole generation of activists.

In addition, people who went on CISPES delegations also saw that there was a resistance movement fighting back, an alternative. People traveled to the FMLN's liberated territories and saw a different vision of a better society. People came back to the U.S. and rededicated themselves to the fight against injustice and oppression, to the fight for fundamental change in El Salvador and here at home.

This is some of the context of the FBI's harassment of CISPES in the 1980s.

Fight Back!: Why do you think this harassment is happening again now? There's not an armed struggle or a war going on in El Salvador now - why do you think they're interested in CISPES again all the sudden?

Horazuk: I think what the Department of Justice is doing is a clear attempt to intimidate El Salvador and Latin America solidarity activists, who know very well the history of the FBI investigation into CISPES in the 1980s.

There's not an armed struggle in El Salvador right now, but there's a growing wave of left-wing governments in Latin America and a growing wave of support for leftist policies in the region by the people.

The Salvadoran presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the FMLN has a good chance of winning. The U.S. did a lot to try to manipulate the last Salvadoran elections in 2004, using scare tactics and misinformation. The U.S. told Salvadoran voters that if the FMLN won then the U.S. would cut off Salvadorans living in the U.S. from sending money back to their families in El Salvador. These 'remittances' that Salvadorans in the U.S. send to their families in El Salvador are the only thing keeping many Salvadoran families from starvation and keep the Salvadoran economy from total collapse. I think this harassment of CISPES is part of the U.S. government trying again to prevent support and visibility in the U.S. for the people's movement in El Salvador.

It's important to understand that the right wing ARENA government in El Salvador isn't just any old government. It is one of the U.S. government's closest allies in Latin America, and does whatever the U.S. government tells it to do. El Salvador is the only country in Latin America that still has troops in Iraq as part of the U.S. occupation forces, even though over 70% of the Salvadoran people oppose their troops being there. El Salvador is used as an experiment for U.S. foreign policy. The implementation of free trade, privatization, dollarization, all these policy initiatives, they use El Salvador as a testing ground.

The U.S. is opening up an international 'police training school' called ILEA in El Salvador. ILEA is just like the School of the Americas but for training police forces instead of military forces. The ARENA government maintains El Salvador as a subservient U.S. puppet in the region. The U.S. administration doesn't want to lose that. So they are trying to create a situation where they can guarantee that El Salvador will remain a U.S. ally. They really don't want to see a grassroots popular opposition to that, and they don't want to see a government elected in El Salvador that will put people before profits.

The FMLN is committed to creating a different society. It's a society that does not say that there should be a race to the bottom. Instead it's about making sure people have adequate food, health care, education, housing, that people in the countryside have land to grow crops on, that labor policy would not be to just open more free trade zones and pay people pennies to manufacture good to ship to the U.S. The U.S. government considers it a huge threat for people to see there's an alternative. And people in El Salvador want that alternative.

Fight Back!: What can people do?

Horazuk: I think people should follow closely what's happening in El Salvador. Presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the right forces are likely to commit fraud and possible violence to try to hold on to power. The ARENA party is run by the richest people in El Salvador and has been in power 19 years now. The founder of the ARENA party, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is the founder of the death squads in El Salvador and was the mastermind of the assassination in 1980 of Archbishop Romero, which sparked 12 years of civil war. ARENA is not likely to give up power willingly. And unfortunately until now they have been able to count on the full support of the U.S. government.

But the Salvadoran people are ready for a change. In the election itself there will be a need for people to be aware of right-wing fraud and violence and to denounce that. There will be a call for international election observers before and during the elections.

People should do what you can to support CISPES and to support progressive movements in El Salvador. The CISPES website, www.cispes.org, has the latest campaigns and action alerts that you can help with.
Throughout Latin America the people are showing that another model is possible besides the U.S.-imposed model. Those of us here in the U.S. have a responsibility to oppose the oppressive things our government does in our name with our tax dollars in Latin America. And we should also learn from and support those that are fighting back.

Rapper DMX interview in XXL magazine on Barack Obama (hilarious!)

Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

Gopher Football Spring Practice Report #2

From GopherSports.com:

With nearly 200 of the state’s top high school coaches looking on, the Minnesota football team worked through its second of 15 spring practices at the indoor practice facility of the Gibson-Nagurski football complex Saturday afternoon.

The coaches on hand at practice were just a portion of the over 700 who attended the annual Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association clinic that featured a number of the Golden Gophers’ coaches as speakers, including head coach Tim Brewster.

The Gophers put on a good show for those in attendance, drilling for roughly two hours in helmets and shorts. Afterward Brewster said he was please with the spirit and tempo the team exhibited throughout the workout.

“I really like the way the team came out and responded to our challenge to have another great practice,” Brewster said. “Right now we are two-for-two this spring as far as our practices are concerned and our effort is concerned. Our attention to detail was excellent again today, which was nice to see because a lot of our players were practicing in front of their former coaches and that’s really special.”

Minnesota spent the majority of the practice working on fundamentals before ending the workout with a spirited 20 minutes 11-on-11 session.

Adam Weber took the brunt of the snaps under center at quarterback, with Tony Mortensen, Clint Brewster and David Pittman also getting in the mix.

Pittman was especially impressive in the quarterback run game and showcased his speed on a 30-yard burst of the right sideline that featured a nifty move at the line of scrimmage that had several defenders grasping at air.

“David does a lot of different things very well,” Brewster said. “He’s a very smart kid and he has learned the offense very quickly. He can really do some things with his feet that are exciting.”

The Minnesota defense also had another strong practice and produced a number of negative-yardage plays during the team session.

“I’m really excited about what we’re doing defensively under Ted Roof,” said Brewster. “There’s a tremendous attitude and effort developing. Swarm, attack and tackle is what we are emphasizing with the defense. And if we play with great effort and passion every snap we have a chance.”

Brewster noted that the veterans on defense continue to catch his eye. Defensive ends Willie VanDeSteeg and Lee Campbell along with linebacker Steve Davis sustained their solid play Saturday. Brewster also said he was impressed with the efforts of redshirt freshman Anthony Jacobs.

The Golden Gopher will get their first taste of contact next Tuesday, when Minnesota dons pads for the first time this spring.

The Race Chasm

This analysis is taken from electoral-vote.com.
Progressive author David Sirota has an interesting observation about where Barack Obama has done well and where he has done poorly. He constructed the graph below, which shows how well Obama did as a function of the percentage of the population that is black.

What it shows is that in states with few blacks (like Wyoming and Idaho) Obama does well. In states with many blacks (like Georgia and Mississippi) he also does well. However, in states with a medium concentration of blacks (like Ohio and Tennessee) Clinton does well. What's the explanation? Sirota says it is race. In places like Wyoming and Idaho, race simply isn't an issue. There are so few blacks in these states that many people don't even know a black person, so race is simply not part of anyone's daily life. In contrast, in George and Mississippi, it is a huge part of everyone's life, but since most whites are Republicans, blacks make up a very large percentage of the Democratic voters (often approaching 50%) and their overwhelming preference for Obama has carried him to victory.

The problem for him comes in the states with enough blacks that race is definitely an issue but not enough to affect the election much. This theory would predict Clinton victories in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky and Obama victories in North Carolina, South Dakota, and Montana.

Blake Hoffarber- The Shot

I never got a chance to post this after it happened, so we'll step back in time a couple of weeks and relive "the shot" that beat hated Indiana in the Big Ten tournament.

North Dakota Cheap Shots vs, Gophers

In honor of the NCAA hockey tournament starting today I thought I'd post this video of the scum at North Dakota in the closing minutes of a Gopher game earlier this season.

North Dakota is a #1 seed in the tournament, the Gophers a #3.

The Red Flag - Billy Bragg

Gopher Football Spring Practice: Day 1

The University of Minnesota football team opened preparations for the 2008 season Thursday afternoon at the indoor practice facility at the Gibson-Nagurski football complex with the first of 15 spring workouts.

The Golden Gophers practices for 2 ½ hours in shells and will work in helmets and shorts again on Saturday afternoon before moving into full pads next week.

Head coach Tim Brewster addressed the media following Thursday afternoon’s first spring practice and indicated that he was pleased with the initial workout.

“I think (today’s first practice) was exactly as I expected it to be,” said Brewster, who leading the Gophers through the second spring practice regimen of his tenure at Minnesota. “There was tremendous attention to detail, tremendous energy and focus. There were a lot of good things going on with our football team in there.”

Brewster said that it’s clear that the Gophers were much more comfortable on the field compared to last spring, resulting in very productive first practice.

“Obviously we’re so far ahead of where we were last year at this time,” Brewster said. “The challenge is that you only have 15 opportunities to get better as a football team during the spring. We’ve got to make certain that on Saturday we have the same focus, the same attention to detail and the same energy we had today.”

Minnesota spent the majority of the practice working on individual fundamentals among position groups and in tandem with other units.

The last 20 minutes of the workout were devoted 11-on-11 team drills, with the Gophers offense even running a no-huddle concept at times.

The Minnesota defense wasn’t phased, however, and more than held its own during the team session as the coaching staff drilled ones-versus-ones and twos-versus-twos.

Sophomore safety Scott Jilek came up with the lone turnover of the team session, intercepting a Tony Mortensen pass over the middle.

Defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg was also impressive throughout the team segment, registering a tackle for loss and a sack of quarterback Adam Weber as the practice wound down.

“I was really excited by the way our defense flew around today,” Brewster said. “We have a ton of work to do, but it was a good first day.”

In addition to the defense, Brewster also noted the play of Weber, who smashed virtually every Minnesota passing and total offense record during a very productive freshman campaign.

“Adam (Weber) really had a good first day,” said Brewster. “You can see that he’s poised and confident. The biggest challenge for him is to become a leader and I was pleased with how he took charge in the huddle today.”

Minnesota returns to the practice field on Saturday at noon for its second of 15 spring workouts.

“We’ve got to make great strides this spring,” Brewster said. “To do that we’ve got to utilize each one of these practices to the fullest.”

Students, Workers Rally at U of M to mark 5 year Anniversary of Iraq War

Rally in Front of Coffman Union, march through campus.
Members of Macalester SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) chain themselves to Army and Navy recruiting centers on Washington Ave., shutting them down for the day.
Activists sit in at National Guard recruiting center, are arrested.
Protesters shut down Washington Ave. in the heart of U of M Minneapolis campus for over 30 minutes.

Minnesota Daily story

Terrible Video story from Star Tribune

WCCO story

KSTP story

KARE 11 story

FOX 9 story

Security guards stage protest at IDS; 9 arrested

Star Tribune story

Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden Interview with Chicago Sun-Times

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/books/856394,SHO-Books-chilit23.article

If a novelist set out to rewrite Franz Kafka's The Trial as a modern-day horror tale, it might read much like Abraham Bolden's The Echo From Dealey Plaza.

Kafka's character Josef K. is tried by some faceless bureaucracy but never learns why he is on trial. He maintains his innocence.

Bolden, the first African-American Secret Service agent assigned to the presidential detail, at the request of John F. Kennedy, was tried twice for bribery and convicted. He has always maintained his innocence, and now he meticulously backs up his claim with a blow-by-blow chronology of his legal ordeal.

The Chicago lawman forfeited a promising career, spending three years and nine months in prison. He felt the crushing weight of a bureaucracy fighting to save itself after JFK's assassination.

Just 28 years old when Kennedy was killed in 1963, Bolden is now telling his story at age 73. Speaking by phone from his South Side home, Bolden shows no bitterness or disillusionment. That's a testament to his unbending faith and indomitable spirit.

"I've always had faith in the American system of justice," he explains. "I spent a great deal of time in police work, where I came to believe if a person sticks to the truth and continues to seek justice, somewhere along the line that justice is going to prevail."

Bolden's problems began the day he arrived in Washington in 1961 for his White House assignment. He describes a month of harassment and bigotry at the hands of the good old boys on Kennedy's detail, some of whom he says drank heavily, chased women and were lax in following procedures. Although JFK showed him special kindness, he couldn't wait to get back to Chicago and his family, and turned down any permanent Washington post.

Later, when Kennedy was assassinated, Bolden's warnings to his superiors became a threat to the agency. He doesn't believe his presence in Dallas would have prevented the slaying. But the Secret Service dropped the ball after learning of assassination plots in Chicago and Miami that might have led to beefed-up security in Dallas, he says.

"If I had stayed there [with Kennedy], my very life would have been in danger," he says. "After my run-in with [senior agent] Harvey Henderson where he denigrated my race . . . we all carried guns, and accidents do happen -- and yes, you could put 'accidents' in quotes."

When the agency brought charges against Bolden, he was in Washington on a training assignment and was flown back to Chicago, where he says he was forced to take a Secret Service-administered polygraph exam. His superiors questioned him about a phone call he had placed to the White House switchboard in which he had asked about giving information to Warren Commission general counsel J. Lee Rankin.

The Bolden case made front-page news, and the next day he went public with his criticism of the agency's Kennedy detail. That led to a more vigorous prosecution, he says, admitting he should have handled things differently.

"I would have done it in a different venue," he says. "What I should have done was resign my position as a Secret Service agent. That would have been difficult to do because I was a family man and had no other job to go to. The best avenue would have been to resign and come to people like . . . newspaper reporters. Going to the chief and so-called bad-mouthing them at meetings was not the best way to do it. I became known as not a team player."

If there's a villain in Bolden's story, it's U.S. District Judge Joseph Sam Perry, who presided over both trials. Perry, Bolden writes, browbeat the holdout juror in an 11-1 vote for conviction at the first trial, telling her that Bolden was guilty. During the retrial, Perry seated an all-white jury, then closed the courtroom to the defense and media while he charged the jury. After Bolden was convicted, one of his two accusers admitted at his own counterfeiting trial, also before Perry, that the prosecutor had told him to lie at Bolden's trial. Instead of causing a mistrial or a reversed verdict when the prosecutor took the Fifth Amendment about suborning perjury, higher courts ruled there was insufficient cause to retry Bolden. Still, the former agent lets Perry off the hook.

"What he was doing was making sure that the mandates from the higher-ups were carried out," he explains. "He was influenced by people who were far above him who said, 'Bolden's got to go.' The conspiracy was formulated in Washington, D.C., itself. After Oswald was assassinated, the sole purpose of the Secret Service was to save itself."

When the prison bars slammed shut, Bolden's real nightmare began. He landed in a psychiatric ward, kept in isolation and heavily drugged. Then he experienced two vivid, prophetic visions for which he has no explanation.

"I think about it even today," he says. "It was not something I expected or conjured up by doing anything special. They just seemed to come. When I had the first one in [the psych ward], I thought I was going nuts. I became afraid that something had happened to me mentally. I was doing everything I could to maintain my mental balance while I was near those psychiatric patients who were screaming and being beaten. Had not that event of the fire [in an adjoining cell] freed me the next morning, I probably would have ignored it as a dream or something."

He finally left prison in September 1969 as an unemployed parolee, then rebuilt his life. He worked for 15 years in quality control consulting with machining companies.

Now retired and widowed from Barbara, his tower of strength through the darkest hours, Bolden says he's telling his story out of obligation to Kennedy -- and because it's what Barbara wanted.

"Right now today, I tell you, sometimes it's difficult to relive the chapters in that book. They're very emotional to me. It affects my life in that in taking my case to the public, I feel somewhat relieved. I've carried out my charge and my duty to President Kennedy, who entrusted me with his life. I owed that to President Kennedy to bring forth the facts I have surrounding his death. It helps to pay that debt.

"The American people deserve to know the truth about the tragic day of Nov. 22, 1963. I know it's a very optimistic statement, but I really believe the truth is going to come out."

New JFK Assassination Books in March

March has brought a new crop of books, including Jefferson Morley's biography of CIA Station Chief Win Scott, entitled Our Man in Mexico. David Kaiser, historian and author of book on the Vietnam War called American Tragedy, has a new book entitled The Road to Dallas, which focuses on the evidence of an assassination plot involving organized crime and Cuban exiles. Another new book, entitled The Echo from Dealey Plaza, is written by Abraham Bolden, the first black presidential Secret Service agent. Bolden was arrested in May 1964 on counterfeit charges, but protested that he was being framed to keep him from telling the Warren Commission about lax Secret Service behavior. Bolden also told the HSCA about a 4-man team planning to kill JFK in Chicago. See an article by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann for more on Bolden's story.

My take on the Democratic Primary

I haven't actually written a blog post in a while, so I thought I'd give a little update on the state of the Democratic primary.

Since the supposed disaster of March 4th, when Obama actually ended up winning more delegates in Texas than Clinton, and Clinton picked up only around 10 delegates on Obama...........Obama has now one Wyoming and Mississippi decisively.

61-38 in Wyoming
61-37 in Mississippi

Apparently though, if you watch the mainstream media, those 2 states don't really matter. Only the white racist states that Hillary can win "really" count.

However, if you look at the number....ah, those damn numbers bringing you back to reality....Hillary can't win the nomination....she just can't. She'd have to win 80-20 or 90-10 in all the remaining states in order to catch Obama. And if Obama can just keep the superdelegates that are already pledged to him, he will have enough delegates (2025) to clinch the nomination.

Here's the latest polls in the 2 big upcoming states:

North Carolina
Obama - 49
Clinton - 41

Pennsylvania
Clinton - 55
Obama - 36

Clinton - 45
Obama - 31

Shocking! Hillary is going to win Pennsylvania, probably fairly comfortably, but not by as much as is shown in these polls. And Obama is going to win North Carolina, although not by a huge margin.

SO.......after saying all this, what I'm really saying is.....IT'S OVER! I'm calling it! MarxistGopher is officially calling this race for Barack Obama. The math shows that Hillary can't catch him. she'd need a mass defection of the superdelgates, some strange unfair scenario in FL and MI, and she'd probably need to steal some of Obama's pledged delegates at the convention. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!

Barack Obama will be the Democratic Presidential nominee!

Hilarious Tirade Against the Media (oldie but goodie)

University of Minnesota orders up 108- by 48-foot HD scoreboard from Daktronics

The University of Minnesota has finally found a way to one-up OSU and the other U of M's football squads by ordering up the first Daktronics HD-16 scoreboard in the Big Ten (Will you be able to watch the Big Ten Network on it?). Second-largest in college football to Texas' Godzillatron, the 108- by 48-foot display takes advantage of all the company's latest technologies, and should be ready for Minnesota's home opener against Air Force in 2009. Some fans may wonder how the big screen will make the football team better, but if top-notch facilities help recruit the next Marion Barber III-Laurence Maroney connection then it should be well worth it.

Teamster Reformers Struggle to Overcome Sabotage by Outgoing Officers

By staff

Chicago, IL - Five union reformers entered the offices of Teamsters Local 743 Dec. 31 to receive keys to the union hall from their opponents who had lost election in the fall. The old president Richard Lopez knew he was defeated and that he might be going to jail.

Since that day, Richard Berg, the new president of Local 743, and his staff have been working around the clock to repair a broken union.

"They said that there were two break-ins, one a couple of days after we won the election and one right before they had to hand over the keys," said Richard Berg, the new president. The walk-through that night told a different story: The old guard leaders had done their best to cover up their theft and wrongdoing.

Massive bags of shredded documents were found in the garbage. Most of the computers were gone. Bills were gone. The phone system was sabotaged. Trustee documents for the pension funds were gone, and the list goes on and on.

Members of the local have expressed excitement about the new leaders and the staff. "I was just happy someone returned my call," said one caller from Bagcraft, a local manufacturer of boxes. Hundreds of other members have joined in this sentiment.

"There were 175 messages on the phone at my new desk, the old desk of Michael Corrigan. They went all the way back to March of 2007. These guys were really vacationing on the members money," said Tony Caldera, union representative.

"We are committed to turning this local around and making it a fighting union once again," said Berg, "I put the union on notice that we are going to train and educate workers from bottom to top about effective union leadership and building a fighting movement of workers."

Berg continued, "We had over 50 people attend our first stewards and activist training with very little notice. Our members are hungry for change." The road ahead is going to be tough in the down-turned economy and the new leadership is asking all members to step up and play a role in re-building the union.

As staff and members try to unbury themselves from the years of neglect and theft left behind by the old officers - Walston and Lopez and the others - they are realizing a new thing lies underneath: The members have expressed hope and are now getting involved in the affairs of the union like they have not done since 30 years ago.

O'Reilly calls Arianna Huffington a Nazi!

Did the Hillary Campaign Darken Obama's Skin in an Ad?

Looks that way to me. See for yourself.

Organizers of RNC anti-war protest say, "Permits now! No police spying and Tasers"

From Fight Back News

St. Paul, MN - About 300 people demonstrated here, March 1, as part of the continuing fight to get permits for the massive anti-war protest scheduled for the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Organized by the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, protesters marched from the State Capitol to the Xcel Center.

Katrina Plotz of the Anti-war Committee and the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War told the crowd that organizations from all over the country are building for the Sept. 1 protests and slammed city officials for holding up the permits.

Says Plotz, "We're frustrated that the St. Paul police seem more concerned with spying on activists and intimidating protesters than with upholding our right to freedom of speech. We applied for permits over a year ago. Having a permit is crucial for our ability to organize a national anti-war demonstration that will draw tens of thousands. We have the right to protest the war within sight and sound of the Xcel Center during the RNC, and we expect a permit to guarantee that right."

The March 1 protest was the second in a series of recurring demonstrations to pressure the city of St. Paul to grant a permit for an anti-war march on Sept. 1.

A St. Paul city ordinance states that permits for a recurring event can be granted within 30 days of the request. As part of a new strategy first enacted in January, the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War applied for a recurring permit to rally in front of the State Capitol and march to the Xcel Center on the first of every other month culminating with the Sept. 1 protest at the RNC. So far, city officials have granted permits for the January and March demonstrations but continue to withhold a permit for Sept. 1.

St. Paul police have given no indication that they will grant permits in a timely manner, instead focusing on their capacity to repress protest activities. Last week St. Paul police documents revealed a framework to use when infiltrating and spying on activist groups. St. Paul police recently ordered 230 additional Taser weapons, enough for every officer on the force. They claim these policies are not related to the RNC.

"The protest on March 1 is important because it kicks off a month of protests against the war in Iraq," said Anh Pham, also a member of the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. "This is the fifth anniversary and anti-war activists still say no to war. As long as the Iraqi people suffer under occupation, progressive people will come to Saint Paul to say, 'no to the Republican agenda; no to wars for profit; money for human needs and not for war; troops out now!'"

Listen to Podcasts from March 1 protest

Katrina Plotz of the Anti-war Committee and the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War

Didi Frances of the Welfare Rights Committee and the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War