The commenter gave the name “Diane Pearce Votes for Obama Again” and linked to my.barackobama.com. I thought it was slightly weird, but not weird enough to merit further investigation.

Then, three hours later, another comment came in on a different blog posting, this time from “Diane Pearce Loves Barack Obama”: “All I know is that I work at a large Pharmaceutical corporation in Clayton NC and I endroce Barack Obama with all my being. I would love for all my friends and colleagues to re-elect Obama in 2012!! I LOVE YOU OBAMA.”

That exceeded my weirdness threshold, so I looked into it a bit further.

The two comments gave two different email addresses, Reitter@gmail.com and Lipovsky@gmail.com, both of which appear to be based on people’s names and neither of which is related to the full name given by the commenter.

One of the comments was posted from an IP address in the United Arab Emirates. The other was posted from Indonesia.

I Googled for pages matching “Diane Pearce” and Obama, and there were 264 matches, many of which were similar comments. I did the same Google search a half hour later, and the count was up to 270.

Someone is clearly astroturfing here. The motives for this, and whether the people doing it are in reality trying to help or hurt Obama, are left as an exercise to the reader.

Diane Pearce Votes for Obama Again my.barackobama.com Reitter@gmail.com 86.96.226.22

Many people are disappointed in Barack Obama for not standing up to his opponents. The previous administration had spent eight years ignoring the will and desires of half the population, and now it was time to turn the tables and give the other half a taste of their own medicine. If only Obama had turned the thumbscrews a little tighter on a few recalcitrant moderates, he could have gotten any legislation he wanted through Congress, the opposition be damned. Obama was not liberal enough / strong enough / smart enough to do the right thing.

In fact, Obama has been doing exactly the right thing. He knows that what most threatens us now is not economics, war, or terrorism. Obama has seen the enemy, and it is us.

What would Obama gain by forcing his policies through Congress without regard for the opposition? He’d gain four, or if he’s very lucky eight, years of those policies. Then out he’d go, supplanted by a wave of anti-incumbent anger, and the cycle would start all over again, with even worse divisiveness and partisanship, and with his successor forcing his policies through Congress and undoing everything Obama had accomplished.

What makes our country strong is in our very name. We are the United States of America. As Abraham Lincoln reminded us in 1858, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Now, 150 years later, we’re in danger of proving Lincoln right.

Someone has to be the first to reach across the aisle not because he has to, but because he wants to. Someone has to be the first to break the cycle of anger, hostility, and segregation which is weakening the very bedrock of our nation.

Barack Obama’s election in 2008 was revolutionary. His reelection in 2012 will be revolutionary as well, because he will be reelected not for what he accomplished despite the opposition, but rather what he accomplished with them.

I am proud to have supported Barack Obama in 2008, and I am proud to continue supporting him now. Barack Obama is still my president, because no matter what kind of American you are, he’s your president too.

[Simulblogged on The Daily Kos.]

To the editor:

One cannot help but wonder if those who profess outrage at the Obamas’ date in New York were similarly offended by the nearly 80 trips George W. Bush took to his Texas ranch at taxpayer expense.

While our nation’s economy and stature crumbled, Bush went on vacation for over 400 days, and it cost us far more than the price of the foreign oil he burned to get there.

Proportionally, Obama has taken ten times fewer days off and four times fewer vacation trips than Bush.

The feigned outrage is much more than much ado about nothing. It is astoundingly offensive, egregiously partisan sniping at the leader of our country at a time when he is burning the candle at both ends cleaning up the mess left by his predecessor. To say that Obama and his family deserve a little time off would be a monumental understatement.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

I was up before 5am — couldn’t sleep.  Got the kids up at 6:15.  Got breakfast and lunches made and packed up and out the door by 6:45am.  Got to the polls before 7:00; there was already a line.  My wife and I were the 22nd and 23rd ballots through the machine, and the line was longer when we left than when we went in.

One of the poll workers made me zip up my jacket to cover my Obama-Biden shirt, “Yes we can!” pin, and “JewsForObama.com” pin.  Go figure.

Reports are coming in from all over the place that turnout at the polls is like no one has ever seen before.  Finally, the fine citizens of the United States of America are going to reject the politics of hate and divisiveness that have ruled for far too long, and elect a president who can bring this country together and start fixing all the things that the demagogues have broken.

Yesterday was my son’s first birthday, and today is his grandfather’s birthday.  What a great birthday present this will be!

(And my son took his first unassisted steps on Sunday, one day before the deadline set by his demanding father. )

This moving pro-Obama video testimonial is by Janette Hillis-Jaffe, an Orthodox Jew living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hillis-Jaffe was so offended by the anti-Obama smears being circulated in the Jewish community, that she felt compelled to respond by making this video.  Some excerpts:

I’m a Jewish Mother… so I worry! There was a time when I had a lot to worry about. You see, we lived in Jerusalem for four years during the peak of the Second Intifada…

I don’t want any Israeli to have to live like that anymore…

So because I love America, and because I pray for Israel’s security and peace every day, I’m going to vote for Barack Obama in November. I hope you will too!

Watch the video, then forward it to all your friends, especially those who still have doubts about Obama!

She responded and said that we could do it as long as we didn’t distribute any campaign literature.  She claimed that allowing us to distribute campaign literature would threaten her organization’s 501c3 status.

That didn’t sound right to me.  I was under the impression that the Allston-Brighton Parade was also organized by a 501c3, and the parade clearly has lots of politicians marching and handing out campaign literature.  However, I didn’t want to question Ms. Pasquale without first verifying my facts.  Therefore, I called the office of Rep. Michael Moran, which was organizing the parade, to confirm that the parade committee wa a 501c3.  I also contacted a lawyer I know who is an expert on this type of thing and asked him for his opinion.

He said that 501c3′s are allowed to have politics at their events as long as they do so in a non-partisan manner.  In this particular case, he said what that means is that if the street fair were to allow us to hand out Obama literature, they would also have to extend an invitation to the McCain campaign to participate as well.

Now that I had confirmation that PCBG could allow us to distribute campaign literature at the fair without threatening their 501c3 status, I wrote back to Ms. Pasquale as follows:

Thank you for your quick response.

I spoke about this with our lawyer, who is a nationally recognized expert on campaign finance law.  He says, “A 501 c 3 cannot engage in partisan politics. However, such a group can invite all candidates or parties to participate in events, and non-partisan voter registration is a major project of many civic oriented 501 c 3s.  If Jews for Obama sponsors voter reg, the fair organizers should also invite the Republicans. If the Republicans say they are not interested, the Dems can go ahead regardless.” He also suggested that I direct you to http://www.jcrcny.org/pdf/election/english.pdf.

Also, I just spoke with Rep. Moran’s office about the Allston-Brighton Parade.  He says that donations to the parade go through the parade committee, which is a 501(c)3.  Candidates for office appear in the parade and hand out literature every year, with no threat to the committee’s non-profit status.

In short, as long as a 501(c)3 is non-partisan and gives all major candidates’ supporters the opportunity to participate in its events, its 501(c)3 status is not in any way compromised by those supporters distributing campaign literature at those events.

Following through on our lawyer’s advice, you can contact the Massachusetts coordinator for John McCain’s campaign at Massachusetts@JohnMcCain.com.  If you would like, I can email them and let them know what we are planning on doing and carbon copy you.  Although frankly, I don’t think this is necessary — the parade and street fair are public knowledge, so if the McCain folks want to participate, they can find out about it and contact you just as I did.

Please let me know whether this addresses your concerns.

Ms. Pasquale responded and clarified that PCBG has made a conscious choice to be apolitical and doesn’t want any political campaigning at any of their events.  She also threatened to have my group removed from the fair if we showed up and tried to campaign for Obama.

I responded as follows:

Thank you for clarifying your policy.  I had misunderstood and thought you were saying that it would be illegal for any 501(c)3 to allow campaign literature to be distributed at one of its events.  It appears that what you meant was that your particular organization has chosen to restrict itself from such activities.  I can certainly understand why you would do that, and I appreciate that you took the time to explain it.

You have mentioned that we cannot distribute campaign materials from a voter registration booth.  Please clarify whether we would be permitted to have Obama signage and/or have our volunteers wearing Obama T shirts and/or pins.  Please also clarify whether we would be permitted to talk freely with people who approach us and initiate conversations, or whether you would expect us to actively decline to engage in political discussion.

We have no intention of attempting to violate your rules.  If we find them unacceptable, then we simply won’t participate in the fair.

Ms. Pasquale did not respond, so I resent my message six days later and asked for her to respond.

Ms. Pasquale sent a response in which she (a) declined to answer the questions I had asked about what we would be permitted to do at the fair, claiming that the “policy was clearly stated and re-addressed in previous correspondence” (when in fact her previous emails to me said nothing about the specific questions I had asked); (b) informed me, “your Politcal [sic] Group is Not Welcome to participate in the Allston Village Street Fair”; and (c) requested, “Please do not contact us again regarding this matter.”

I responded as follows:

If your policy had been clearly stated, I would not have felt the need to ask additional questions.

As I told you before, it would not even have crossed my mind to violate your rules.  If you had simply answered my questions politely, just as I was polite to you in all my correspondence, we could have reached a mutual understanding that participation in the fair by my group would not be appropriate.

Instead, you were peremptory and rude, and I will be letting the mayor, the city council, and the CDC know about your disrespectful and inappropriate manner.  While I’m at it, I might just write a letter about it to the Globe, the Herald and the TAB.

Why you felt the need to treat me with such disrespect, when the outcome would have been the same had you been polite, is beyond me.

Ms. Pasquale sent me another message in which she claimed that my group was the first that had ever been refused participation in the fair (a claim which I suspect is not true, and in any case not terribly significant since as far as I know this is only the second event that her group has ever organized, the first being last year’s fair), and that we were refused participation, “based on your correspondence statements, tone, and what was determined as unprofessional behavior.”

In other words, Joan Pasquale decided that my group couldn’t participate in her fair because she doesn’t like me (and, by the way, the claim that my behavior was in any was unprofessional is completely and utterly specious).

Subsequent research has revealed that Ms. Pasquale has a history of trying to steam-roll over people with whom she disagrees.

In the end, I decided it wasn’t worth writing to the papers about, but I did send a letter to the mayor and a number of other individuals and organizations whom I thought were relevant:

Dear Mayor Menino,

I am writing to complain about the conduct of Ms. Joan Pasquale, co-chair of the Allston Village Street Fair.

I contacted Ms. Pasquale to arrange for a group of volunteers to operate a voter registration table at the fair. Ms. Pasquale initially agreed. However, after an exchange of several email messages in which I attempted to obtain clarification of the rules Ms. Pasquale wished for us to follow, she reversed her initial approval and declared that we would not be allowed to participate.

During our exchange, I stated explicitly that I had every intention of following Ms. Pasquale’s rules. There was no legitimate reason for our group to be excluded.

Throughout our exchange, I was unfailingly polite; in response, Ms. Pasquale treated me with rudeness. For example, in the message in which she informed me that we were being barred from the fair, she demanded that I not contact her again. This is simply unacceptable.

My family has lived in Brighton for over a decade. We are blessed to be raising our five children in a wonderful community. We have been civically active throughout our time here, supporting local organizations with both our time and our money, and we have always been impressed with the warmth, openness, and selflessness of the volunteers and non-profit organizers who help to make Boston a great place to live. Through her conduct, Joan Pasquale has shown herself to fall far below that gold standard. I ask you to think twice before allowing her in the future to exercise control over a public event, held on public property, intended to showcase the best of what our city has to offer.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

CC: Councilor Mark S. Ciommo
Councilor John R. Connolly
Councilor Michael F. Flaherty
Councilor Stephen J. Murphy
Councilor Sam Yoon
Representative Michael J. Moran
Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation
Friends of Ringer Park
Allston Brighton Family Network

Read or link to it here:
http://njdc.typepad.com/njdcs_blog/2008/07/senator-mccain.html

Digg it here:
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/McCain_flip_flop_fact_sheet

This is powerful stuff!

Make no mistake, Belman and his ilk are scared. The smear tactics which worked so well against John Kerry in 2004 just don’t seem to be working on Obama. So, what’ an ideologue to do? The answer, apparently, is to take a gaggle of absurd accusations against Obama, combine them into a hastily written hodgepodge of rumor and innuendo, and throw them out into the blogosphere in the hope that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Here’s what the smear-mongers want you to believe:

Read more…

Dear Hillary,

When it comes right down to it, there’s only one thing that could save your chances of winning the nomination. For you to defeat Barack Obama, something colossally bad needs to happen to his campaign. We’re not talking “bad” like tenuous links to a corrupt entrepeneur — Tony Rezko hasn’t even blipped Obama’s poll numbers. We’re not talking “bad” like offensive sound bites from his pastor — Obama overcame Wright-gate in a week. We’re talking really bad, a Big Scandal, like dead bodies buried in his basement or thousands in unmarked bills stashed in his freezer.

You’re certainly smart enough to realize this, so I’m sure you’ve got your people digging, digging, digging to find the Big Scandal. But the odds of finding one are low, and you’re smart enough to realize this as well. I hope you won’t mind if I offer you some advice for what to do while waiting for it to turn up?

More…