Barack, The Fundamentals: Money, Message, Organization

Technology now makes possible DirectConnect. But the fundamentals do not change. And the fundamentals are money-message-organization. The particulars of each fundamentally change, but the fundamentals do not change.

Money

The first quarter was great. Keep beating the drum. And conserve the money. The month and a quarter to February 5, 2008 will be like one of those countries like India where that one month is where all the action is. You will need the money.

To raise more money than Hillary in the first quarter is a strong message to those who buy into this myth of a Clinton Machine. There is no Clinton Machine. There are voters, and there is you.

How many people donate to you matters. The more the better. Do you manage the money well? That is key. If you can't manage tens of millions, you sure can't manage trillions. That is what this is about. Show you can manage. Raise and conserve for now.

Message

Policy wonkiness can dazzle voters, but that does not always bring them along. And you seem to understand that more than anyone else. But that is no argument against policy wonkiness. Assemble the smartest people on all policy issues. Let them bang heads among each other off camera. You have to have ready access to the very best ideas, the very best arguments. They don't have to come from you, but they do have to come to you.

There's the stump speech. And there it is about connecting with voters, and bringing them along. And there is the speech you go give to a think tank, like this one above in Chicago. There you want to exude sheer substance. You don't have to worry about sounding too wonky. Both matter.

Debates matter. Hillary won two in a row. Poll numbers reflect that. Get on it. Prepare. Deliver.

One National Primary, Monthly National Debates, Videoblogged
Debates Matter: The Election Is On
Barack Lost The South Carolina Debate

Obama Economic Plan
Health Care As A Spectrum
Muscular Gender Agenda

7 Point Agenda For New York City

Obama Gameplan: Stable, Democratic Iraq

Organization

Voulnteers will lead. You just have to provide broad guidelines, and empower them. They will do the work. They have been. The new technology makes it possible for people to self-organize. And they have been doing that. Look at Facebook, look at MySpace. People are thronging to you like to noone else. I mean, I have more MySpace friends than some Republicans running for president.

By the way, you have the best website of any candidate. That speaks volumes.

Long Walk To Freedom
Bad MySpace Move By Barack Obama

In The News

Obama is the poor man among the top tier contenders Chicago Tribune, USA Obama family income of $991,000 ..... Obama reported his family's net worth as between $456,000 and $1.14 million, not including the equity in the Kenwood home he bought two years ago for $1.65 million. ..... Giuliani, a Republican, earned more than $16.8 million last year from an array of firms he owns, including financial, business and security consulting companies, and from speeches. Giuliani received as much as $300,000 for his speaking appearances. ....... Giuliani is worth between $13 million and $45 million ...... Edwards .. reported income of more than $7.1 million, most of it investment returns on a fortune of $29.5 million ....... Bill Clinton earned about $10 million in speaking fees last year and collected nearly $40 million for appearances since leaving office. McCain previously has reported a $15 million family fortune, mostly through his wife, who is the daughter of an Arizona beer magnate. ........ Romney .... will report between $190 million and $250 million in assets. ...... Republican candidate Mike Huckabee earned considerably less from his $74,000-per-year day job as governor of Arkansas last year than from outside activities. He earned $162,000 in speaking fees and book royalties, another $40,000 as an officer of 12 Stops, Inc., a company set up to handle those royalties and fees, and $40,000 for consulting work for the National Association of Music Manufacturers.

Hillary Clinton Widens Her Lead Over Barack Obama PR Newswire (press release), USA In April, he trailed Clinton by only 5 percentage points with 32 percent, compared to her 37 percent. However, a new Harris Poll finds Senator Clinton has since strengthened her position and that Senator Obama has slipped. She now leads Obama by fully 13 points -- 40 percent to 27 percent. ....... Obama leads Clinton among Independents (by 39% to 34%) and among Republicans (by 14% to 7%). ....... 71 percent would consider voting for one of the Democrats and 58 percent would consider voting for one of the Republican leaders

For the first time, nation's minority population tops 100 million Sun-Sentinel.com
Nepal's Appa Sherpa Climbs Mount Everest For 17th Time AHN
Fair is lovely in Bihar's heart of darkness Times of India There are dozens of cases in Bihar of marriage negotiations failing because the girl is dark.
First trains cross Korean Cold War border since 1951 Malaysia Star
Big Google search upgrade San Francisco Chronicle Google Inc. has added videos, book excerpts and local store information on its main results page, eliminating the need for users to visit the company's separate, specialized sites. ...... Google has spent billions of dollars on new infrastructure, and plans to open several data centers in the next few years. ...... Google has proven to be a more-nimble competitor by releasing products at a much faster pace. ..... generates virtually all of its revenue from advertising. ...... Google has expanded into selling banner and video ads, but currently only distributes them to partner Web sites.
Steve Jobs Highest Paid CEO of 2006 Gadgetell, MT He made the $647 million through total compensation thanks to vested restricted stock. ...... Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum ($322 million), Barry Diller of IAC/Interactive Corp ($295 million), William P. Foley of Fidelity National Financial ($180 million), and Terry Semel of Yahoo! ($174 million).

World Bank Directors Continue to Debate Wolfowitz's Future Voice of America
Dell denies New York Att. Cuomo's fraud charges The Money Times
Dell 'defrauded' PC buyers claim US authorities ComputerworldUK
Hewlett-Packard 2Q Profit Falls 7 Pct. International Business Times
Hewlett-Packard's focus on design gives its PCs an edge International Herald Tribune
Apple is most trusted US brand Macworld UK
AMD Barcelona can potentially smash Intel ZDNet
Cisco to Create Virtual Classrooms at Bapatla Engineering College ... NDTV.com
Cisco Among China’s 25 Most Respected Companies TechWhack
Bride search success for Google co-founder Sydney Morning Herald
Google billionaire ties knotFinance24
Yahoo Names New CFO SDA India Magazine
Yahoo Overhauls Mapping Service SDA India Magazine
The data was lost en route from one IBM location to another DailyTech
Sun Microsystems Announces $3 Billion Share Repurchase Authorization PressZoom (press release)
Sun Microsystems chairman to meet Indian govt for education initiative Forbes
Wal-Mart goes back to "low prices" to boost sales Blogging Stocks
Wal-Mart: Time For Lee Scott To Go Seeking Alpha
Wireless Broadband Utopia: Are We There Yet? Knowledge@Wharton (subscription)
QuickLook: Verizon Wireless Broadband AirCard 595 pocketnow.com

Hillary's Beijing Speech

Muscular Gender Agenda

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
The UN Fourth World Conference On Women
Beijing, China

September 5, 1995

Mrs. Mongella, distinguished delegates and guests:

I would like to thank the Secretary General of the United Nations for inviting me to be part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a celebration -- a celebration on the contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in their communities, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens and leaders.

It is also a coming together, much the way women come together every day in every country.

We come together in fields and in factories. In village markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and board rooms.

Whether it is while playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concerns. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families.

However different we may be, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future. And we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world - - and in so doing, bring new strength and stability to families as well.

By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in the lives of women and their families: access to education, health care, jobs, and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and participate fully in the political life of their countries.

There are some who question the reason for this conference. Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. . . Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou. . . the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, policymakers, and women who run their own businesses.

It is conferences like this that compel governments and peoples everywhere to listen, look and face the world's most pressing problems.

Wasn't it after the women's conference in Nairobi ten years ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of domestic violence?

Earlier today, I participated in a World Health Organization forum, where government officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working on ways to address the health problems of women and girls.

Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. There, the discussion will focus on local - - and highly successful -- programs that give hard-working women access to credit so they can improve their lives and the lives of their families.

What we are learning around the world is that, if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish.

And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish.

That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in the discussion that takes place here.

Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children and families. Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my country and around the world.

I have met new mothers in Jojakarta, Indonesia, who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care.

I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for in creative, safe, and nurturing after-school centers.

I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid and are now helping build a new democracy.

I have met with the leading women of the Western Hemisphere who are working every day to promote literacy and better health care for the children of their countries.

I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out small loans to buy milk cows, rickshaws, thread and other materials to create a livelihood for themselves and their families.

I have met doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl.

The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard.

Women comprise more than half the world's population. Women are 70% percent of the world's poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write.

Women are the primary caretakers for most of the world's children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued - - not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.

At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries.

Women are also dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated; they are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation; they are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers; they are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the ballot box and the bank lending office.

Those of us with the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to speak for those who could not.

As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own country -- women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can't afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes.

I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves . . . for older women, some of them widows, who have raised their families and now find that their skills and life experiences are not valued in the workplace . . . for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their kids . . . and for women everywhere who simply don't have enough time to do everything they are called upon to do each day.

Speaking to you today, I speak for them, just as each of us speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives, simply because they are women.

The truth is that most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity.

We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential.

We must also recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected.

Our goals for this conference, to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies, cannot be fully achieved unless all governments - here and around the world - accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights.

The international community has long acknowledged - - and recently affirmed at Vienna - - that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear.

No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture.

Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world's refugees. And when women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.

I believe that, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break our silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights.

These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words.

The voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must be heard loud and clear.

It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are girls.

It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution.

It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.

It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.

It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes.

It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.

It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women's rights . . . And women's rights are human rights.

Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely. And the right to be heard.

Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure.

It is indefensible that many women in non-governmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend - - or have been prohibited from fully taking part.

Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.

In my country, we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of women's suffrage. It took 150 years after the signing of our Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to vote. It took 72 years of organized struggle on the part of many courageous women and men.

It was one of America's most divisive philosophical wars. But it was also a bloodless war. Suffrage was achieved without a shot fired.

We have also have been reminded, in V-J Day observances last weekend, of the good that comes when men and women join together to combat the forces of tyranny and build a better world.

We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half century. We have avoided another world war.

But we have not solved older, deeply rooted problems that continue to diminish the potential of half the world's population.

Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere.

If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.

As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world - - as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes - - the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.

Let this conference be our - - and the world's - - call to action.

And let us heed the call so that we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future.

Thank you very much.

God's blessings on you, your work and all who benefit from it.

A Song For Hillary

My vote goes to U2.











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