I'm asking nicely. By the time you're done with DKos today, I want you to click that link.
If you're on this site today, the chances are good that you have some free time. You'd like to use it to chat with others about politics and policy, about what Democrats should be doing and are (or aren't.)
That's great. I enjoy that as well -- love it, even. But that's not why we're really here.
This isn't, at root, a debate society. It's a community that exists to facilitate action.
We're here to elect more and better Democrats.
I want to ask for thirty minutes of your time -- time that you can leaven with rest breaks while you chat on Daily Kos. Maybe it'll take an hour. If you get hooked on it, you might want to spend more time.
I'm asking you to make twenty calls to NY-20 today. If you want to, consider it paying your DKos dues.
Twenty calls.
That doesn't mean talking to twenty people. There will be wrong numbers, people not home, no-answers, maybe even some quaint busy signals. You will probably be leaving a lot of answering machine messages. Then again, some of the time, you may reach some living human beings who are trying to decide whether they will support Democrat Scott Murphy for now-Senator Kirstin Gillibrand's old seat in NY-20 or whether they'll vote for the name they've more likely heard, carpetbagging Republican leader Jimmy "Disco" Tedisco.
Or they may, like many people, be inclined to support the Democrats but don't even realize that there's a special election coming up on March 31.
Tedisco has more money. The Republican Party was very generous to him. But Murphy -- if people like us do what we can -- has more people. They have to hire people to do what people like us -- if "us" includes you -- will do for free.
The difference in this race -- just like the difference could have been in the LA-04 race last December that we lost by a mere 357 votes (!) -- is virtual phonebanking. People from all over the country decide that, why yes, they would like Senator Gillibrands seat to go to another Democrat, they would like to drive one more nail into the coffin of modern crazy conservatism.
Talk is cheap. Phonebanking is pretty cheap too -- if the people who talk about needing more and better Democrats in Congress act on their professed beliefs.
Once again, I quote mindoca's comment from two days ago:
I'd like folks to know that this district is huge and scattered all over the place (can you say gerrymandered?) and large swaths of it are rural, so...phonebanking is absolutely critical to our success. In other words, it is not easily canvassed territory, and wouldn't be even if we had months instead of weeks, so please get on the phone!
I'd like folks to know that this district is huge and scattered all over the place (can you say gerrymandered?) and large swaths of it are rural, so...
phonebanking is absolutely critical to our success. In other words, it is not easily canvassed territory, and wouldn't be even if we had months instead of weeks, so please get on the phone!
Get it? This district is too much to reach in a short time by canvassing. If we're going to win, it's going to be by phonebanking.
If you're willing to sign up and phonebank, let us all know in a comment below. We can trade stories and encouragement and by our examples encourage others to join us. If you're willing to pledge a certain number of calls, we'll encourage you to get there.
If you want some more reasons why you should phonebank, please read my diary from yesterday.
Here, once again, is the link you need to make calls. Ready ... aim ... dial!
If John McCain is as serious as he says about running a "respectful" campaign against an opponent he considers "a decent person," word hasn't yet trickled down to his newly opened storefront field office in Gainesville, Virginia.
No Democratic presidential candidate has carried Virginia since 1964, and most election years both campaigns pretty much ignore the state. This time, however, McCain is running behind Barack Obama in statewide polls, thanks in large part to the head start he got on the ground there. "We haven't seen a race like this in Virginia — ever," said state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick. "The last time was 40 years ago, and they didn't run races like this."
Indeed, Frederick, a 33-year-old state legislator, hadn't even been born yet. But earlier this year Frederick unseated a moderate 71-year-old former lieutenant governor (who also happens to be Jenna Bush's father-in-law) to become head of the Virginia GOP, promising "bold new leadership" for a state party recently on the decline.
The McCain campaign invited me to visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County, Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.
Ground operations — the doughnut-fueled armies of volunteers who knock on doors and man the phone banks — are the trench warfare of political campaigns. These are the people charged with finding and persuading voters who might support their candidate, and then making sure they actually show up at the polls. A good ground operation might mean just an additional percentage point or two on Election Day, but in a close race, that margin could easily be the difference between winning and losing. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe calls his ground operation the "field goal unit," and it was one of the big reasons the Illinois Senator bested Hillary Clinton in the primaries. But Obama's team has yet to be tested against a Republican operation that was built and perfected over decades, culminating in the astonishing ground game that put George W. Bush over the top in 2004.
The Republicans wouldn't allow me to tag along with their volunteers, so I drove 30 minutes across the county to the Obama field office. Where the Gainesville GOP office that opened last week was still furnished only with a few folding tables and chairs (workers were hanging the McCain/Palin sign out front as I drove away), Obama's in Woodbridge has been up and running since July, and has the dingy, cluttered, lived-in feel that every campaign office eventually acquires. The campaign's "Votebuilder" software — with house-by-house data on every registered voter in the area — dominated a bank of computer screens, and the walls were covered with cartoons, volunteer signatures and lists of "star phonebankers." Young volunteers bustled in and out with stacks of clipboards and canvassing materials to hand to the volunteers who were showing up by the carful in the parking lot. Word had gotten out that a new load of yard signs had arrived, so they were handing those out to Obama supporters who had shown up asking for them.
The campaign handed me a packet of addresses and sent me out to meet Brian Varrieur. He's a 34-year-old lawyer who lives in Washington, D.C. and looks barely old enough to vote himself. This was the fifth weekend he returned to his parents' home in the neighborhood where he grew up to knock on doors for Obama. Brian is soft-spoken — not exactly a natural personality for this kind of work; back when his elementary school would hold candy-sale drives, "I was one of those kids who would get their next-door neighbor and their mom to buy some, and that was it," he told me. "But this [presidential election] really matters to me."
It must. Saturdays in the suburbs aren't the ideal time to find people at home. I followed Brian to 13 houses on his list, and no one answered at 10 of them. (He left an Obama brochure in the door of each.) At one, the woman at the door told him she was "leaning" toward McCain, though I thought she seemed more settled in her decision than that. At another, a teen-aged girl told him: "My dad is a super-strong Republican. You're probably at the wrong house." (He duly marked that down, to save future canvassers the trouble.) Still, the yard signs we saw suggested that this was in fact a neighborhood divided. We discovered that was true when we approached another house on the list and found a father and son raking the front yard. "I'm voting for McCain," the father told us. But his 19-year-old son, a college student home for the weekend, told us he plans to send in his absentee ballot for Obama. His reason? "Palin's a retard," he said. As for the lady of the house? McCain, the man said. "She has to live here. The kids I can kick out."
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1849422,00.html?iid=digg_share
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith.
Good stories about Obama abound; from his personal relationship with his Secret Service agents (he invites them into his home to watch sports, and shoots hoops with them) to the story about how, more than twenty years ago, while standing in the check-in line at an airport, Obama paid a $100 baggage surcharge for a stranger who was broke and stuck. (Obama was virtually penniless himself in those days.) Years later after he became a senator, that stranger recognized Obama's picture and wrote to him to thank him. She received a kindly note back from the senator. (The story only surfaced because the person, who lives in Norway, told a local newspaper after Obama ran for the presidency. The paper published a photograph of this lady proudly displaying Senator Obama's letter.)
Where many leaders are two-faced; publicly kindly but privately feared and/or hated by people closest to them, Obama is consistent in the way he treats people, consistently kind and personally humble. He lives by the code that those who lead must serve. He believes that. He lives it. He lived it long before he was in the public eye.
Obama puts service ahead of ideology. He also knows that to win politically you need to be tough. He can be. He has been. This is a man who does what works, rather than scoring ideological points. In other words he is the quintessential non-ideological pragmatic American. He will (thank God!) disappoint ideologues and purists of the left and the right.
Obama has a reservoir of personal physical courage that is unmatched in presidential history. Why unmatched? Because as the first black contender for the presidency who will win, Obama, and all the rest of us, know that he is in great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant hatred, that swirls in the bowels of our wounded and sinful country. By stepping forward to lead, Obama has literally put his life on the line for all of us in a way no white candidate ever has had to do. (And we all know how dangerous the presidency has been even for white presidents.)
Nice stories or even unparalleled courage isn't the only point. The greater point about Obama is that the midst of our worldwide financial meltdown, an expanding (and losing) war in Afghanistan, trying to extricate our country from a wrong and stupidly mistaken ruinously expensive war in Iraq, our mounting and crushing national debt, awaiting the next (and inevitable) al Qaeda attack on our homeland, watching our schools decline to Third World levels of incompetence, facing a general loss of confidence in the government that has been exacerbated by the Republicans doing all they can to undermine our government's capabilities and programs... President Obama will take on the leadership of our country at a make or break time of historic proportions. He faces not one but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any presidency in better times.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it (depending on one's personal theology) Obama is blessedly, dare I say uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstances. Obama is a person with hands-on community service experience, deep connections to top economic advisers from the renowned University of Chicago where he taught law, and a middle-class background that gives him an abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of a single mother, who has worked his way up with merit and brains, recipient of top-notch academic scholarships, the peer-selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and, in three giant political steps to state office, national office and now the presidency, Obama clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Obama is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also new enough to the political process so that he doesn't suffer from the terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting most politicians in Washington. In that regard we Americans lucked out. It's as if having despaired of our political process we picked a name from the phone book to lead us and that person turned out to be a very man we needed.
Obama brings a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear. For eight years we've been ruled by a stunted fear-filled mediocrity of a little liar who has expanded his power on the basis of creating fear in others. Fearless Obama is the cure. He speaks a litany of hope rather than a litany of terror.
As we have watched Obama respond in a quiet reasoned manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after being attacked and lied about in the 2008 campaign season, to his reasoned response to our multiplying national crises, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor with a great bedside manner. Obama is perfectly suited to hold our hand and lead us through some very tough times. The word panic is not in the Obama dictionary.
America is fighting its "Armageddon" in one fearful heart at a time. A brilliant leader with the mild manner of an old-time matter-of-fact country doctor soothing a frightened child is just what we need. The fact that our "doctor" is a black man leading a hitherto white-ruled nation out of the mess of its own making is all the sweeter and raises the Obama story to that of moral allegory.
Obama brings a moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who have had to work for everything they've gotten and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because of the color of their skin. His experience of succeeding in spite of his color, social background and prejudice could have been embittering or one that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness and enlightenment. Obama radiates the calm inner peace of the spirit of forgiveness.
Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy. The biblical metaphors abound. The stone the builder rejected is become the cornerstone... the last shall be first... he that would gain his life must first lose it... the meek shall inherit the earth...
For my secular friends I'll allow that we may have just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way America wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kindly family doctor can lead us now. We are afraid, out of ideas, and worst of all out of hope. Obama is the cure. And we Americans have it in us to rise to the occasion. We will. We're about to enter one of the most frightening periods of American history. Our country has rarely faced more uncertainty. This is the time for greatness. We have a great leader. We must be a great people backing him, fighting for him, sacrificing for a cause greater than ourselves.
A hundred years from now Obama's portrait will be placed next to that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Long before that we'll be telling our children and grandchildren that we stepped out in faith and voted for a young black man who stood up and led our country back from the brink of an abyss. We'll tell them about the power of love, faith and hope. We'll tell them about the power of creativity combined with humility and intellectual brilliance. We'll tell them that President Obama gave us the gift of regaining our faith in our country. We'll tell them that we all stood up and pitched in and won the day. We'll tell them that President Obama restored our standing in the world. We'll tell them that by the time he left office our schools were on the mend, our economy booming, that we'd become a nation filled with green energy alternatives and were leading the world away from dependence on carbon-based destruction. We'll tell them that because of President Obama's example and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, divorce rates went down, more fathers took responsibility for their children, and abortion rates fell dramatically as women, families and children were cared for through compassionate social programs that worked. We'll tell them about how the gap closed between the middle class and the super rich, how we won health care for all, how crime rates fell, how bad wars were brought to an honorable conclusion. We'll tell them that when we were attacked again by al Qaeda, how reason prevailed and the response was smart, tough, measured and effective, and our civil rights were protected even in times of crisis...
We'll tell them that we were part of the inexplicably blessed miracle that happened to our country those many years ago in 2008 when a young black man was sent by God, fate or luck to save our country. We'll tell them that it's good to live in America where anything is possible. Yes we will.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. Now in paperback.
I know I very vividly remember and some of you on this list do as well........and although things have changed somewhat on the surface.....there is still more work to be done. It's YOUR CHOICE, but get out and cast a vote....otherwise these people have died in vain.
. (See below file: VOTEINNOVEMBER.pps)
VOTEINNOVEMBER.pps
Montini's Columns & Blog
McCain, like Obama, has ties to an anti-war '60s radical
John McCain's vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, is out on the stump saying the Sen. Barack Obama has been "palling around" with terrorists.She's referring to William Ayers, a founder of the radical Weatherman during the 1960s, and now a college professor. By palling around, Palin apparently means that Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group called the Woods Fund of Chicago between 1999 and 2002.News reports also indicate that Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001, and that the two men lived within a few blocks of each other in Chicago.Some people might refer to that as both guilty by association and stretching the truth.I wonder if it will lead the Obama camp to point out McCain's friendship with the 1960s radical David Ifshin.
In 1970, Ifshin was president of the National Student Association. That year he actually traveled to Hanoi and urged American troops to rebel against the Vietnam War. Radio Hanoi broadcast his remarks. He even made the cover of Life magazine, standing behind Jane Fonda. People called him a traitor. They said that he may have cost American lives.
And yet, McCain was the guy's pal.
A clever advertising man could point out that when Ifshin died of cancer a few years back, McCain attended the funeral and spoke of how Ifshin "always felt passionate about his country." Adding, ''I learned a lot about courage from David."
It's all true. And a campaign operative could end it there.
What it DOESN'T tell you is that Ifshin changed, becoming much more respectable in later life. (Sort of like Ayers.) And that he and McCain reconciled about Vietnam.
McCain said that their relationship proved how futile it was to look back in anger.
Unless, it turns out, you have an opportunity to use such an association, no matter how tenuous, against a political opponent.
Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.
By David Talbot
Read more: Republican Party, David Talbot, Alaska, John McCain, Opinion, Barack Obama, 2008 election, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin
Todd Heisler/The New York Times/Redux
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, at a rally in Vienna, Ohio, on Sept. 16, 2008.
Oct. 7, 2008 | "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."
This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.
Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")
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AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."
So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin' around with?
Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."
This quote is from "Coming Into the Country," by John McPhee, who traipsed around Alaska's remote gold mining country with Vogler for his 1991 book. The violent-tempered secessionist vowed to McPhee that if any federal official tried to stop him from polluting Alaska's rivers with his earth-moving equipment, he would "run over him with a Cat and turn mosquitoes loose on him while he dies."
Vogler wasn't just a blowhard either. He put his secessionist ideas into action, working to build AIP membership to 20,000 -- an impressive figure by Alaska standards -- and to elect party member Walter Hickel as governor in 1990.
Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.
AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S. before he could reach his U.N. platform. "The United States government would have been deeply embarrassed," by Vogler's U.N. speech, darkly suggests Clark. "And we can't have that, can we?"
The Republican ticket is working hard this week to make Barack Obama's tenuous connection to graying, '60s revolutionary Bill Ayers a major campaign issue. But the Palins' connection to anti-American extremism is much more central to their political biographies.
Imagine the uproar if Michelle Obama was revealed to have joined a black nationalist party whose founder preached armed secession from the United States and who enlisted the government of Iran in his cause? The Obama campaign would probably not have survived such an explosive revelation. Particularly if Barack Obama himself was videotaped giving the anti-American secessionists his wholehearted support just months ago.
Where's the outrage, Sarah Palin has been asking this week, in her attacks on Obama's fuzzy ties to Ayers? The question is more appropriate when applied to her own disturbing associations.
Casey Gane-McCalla, Featured Blogger
Talkin The Truth
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Gane-McCalla is a writer, editor, rapper, producer and actor. He is a Columbia University Graduate and previously worked in the non-profit sector.
Sarah Palin recently accused Obama of palling around with terrorists. This is funny because she has her own radical extremist connections that could be construed as terrorists as well. Palin accused Obama of seeing America as so imperfect, that he was pallin around with a terrorist. Funny enough Palin for years was pallin around with a group of Alaskan radicals that saw America as imperfect enough that they wanted to secede from the union.
While Obama knew Ayers years after he had reformed and began making an honest contribution to society, Palin was a member and or strongly affiliated with a radical Alaskan secessionist party whose founder died in plastic explosives deal gone bad. Her husband was definitly a member from 1995-2002 according to voting records. While is is questionable to call them terrorists, they were definitely radical secessionists who did not fall in line with the Republican credo of ‘loving America’ or McCain’s slogan ‘Country First’.
The picture above shows Palin with a document saying Con-Con Call. This is short for the Constituitional Convention, an AKIP event. I believe the man in the picture is Joe Vogler, the founder of the AKIP. According to the New York Times, Vogler was killed in a plastic explosives deal gone wrong. Why did he want plastic explosives?
Here are a few quotes from the founder of the party, Joe Vogler:
‘The fires of hell are frozen glaciers (or cool breezes, per the Chairman of the Party, Lynette Clark) compared to my hatred for the American government.’
‘I’m an Alaskan first. Not an American. I have no use for America and her damned institutions.’
Here’s Video Evidence that Palin Was Sympthetic to if not a Member of AKIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmt0rLtgmK0
Former head of the AKIP, Mark Chryson had kind words to say about Palin ‘I have known her for over 15 years, been in her house and have had numerous conversations with her, in person, on the phone both for personal issues as well as political issues.’
A while back, I noticed that the AKIP had changed their website to say that Sarah Palin was never a member. This struck me as curious because I had earlier seen a video in which Vice Chairman, Dexter Clark, had proudly said that Sarah Palin was a member who switched over to the GOP to be viable. When I saw the website edited , claiming Sarah Palin was not, in fact, a member and that Todd Palin was but participated little, it stank of a cover up. I decided to call the AKIP and see what was up.
They seemed very uneasy and said they had received death threats and threatening letters regarding the situation. When I asked if Sarah Palin was a member, they said they thought she was until someone told them she wasn’t. When I asked who told them she wasn’t a member, they said they couldn’t reveal their source. When I asked if Sarah Palin was ever ‘sympathetic’ to their cause, they said, ‘no comment’. They clearly seemed too afraid to speak and seemed, clearly, to be hiding something. If she was not member of the AKIP, she was definitly pallin around with them.
Below is a transcript from my interview with the Chairman of the AKIP, Lynette Clark(LC)CG: Why did you change the website?
LC: I am telling you that as chairman of this party, when this all blew, and I realized that it was incorrect information, I submitted a press release. I made the changes to the site.CG: Did she attend the convention? Did Sarah Palin attend any conventions?
LC: She was (sigh) — you guys muckrake all over the place.
CG: I’m just curious. I’m investigating…
Anon: She attended the 2006 Convention which was held in Wassilla, and it was a state-wide convention which is a bi-annual function.CG: Okay.
LC: She took up the invitation that was given to all gubernatorial candidates which we have done for many years to have them come and speak to our memberships. It’s so we can have an idea of who these candidates are and what they stand for.CG: In 2008, she had a video address. Correct?
LC: In 2008 she sent the convention — which was held here in Fairbanks, and you cannot attribute Dexter’s comment to that convention because that’s not when she was there…CG: Have you had any contact with Sarah Palin or John McCain?
LC: I’ve had no contact from the McCain camp……. I apologized too for my misspeaking and I’ve been getting slammed with everything, including threats.CG: That’s horrible.
LC: That is bad. And since our first chairman was kidnapped and murdered, I don’t take threats lightly.CG: No I know. I heard about the Joseph Vogler thing and it’s another thing I’d like to ask about. NY Times did say he was killed in a plastic explosives deal gone bad. I know NY Times.
LC: NY Times don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
CG: Okay, that’s why I’m contacting you guys.
LC: He was shot in the back of the head with a bullet lodged in the left side of his jaw.
CG: Could you give me some background on that?
LC: Ask the Alaska state troopers about that.
CG: So what was the motivation for you taking it off? Just because of …you didn’t like seeing Sarah Palin being slandered?
LC: The motivation of taking what off? All I did was add to that page, and what I added to that page was factual. What’s factual is “Welcome to the home of the Alaskan Independence Party. Update September 3rd, 2008.” And it has been brought to our attention that there is a counterfeit site.
CG: In terms of your philosophy…I’d like to run some quotes by you. Vogler? Is that correct? I believe he said something to the effect of “the fires of hell are glaciers of ice compared to my hatred of the U.S.”
LC: That is an absolutely incorrect quote from Mr. Vogler.
CG: So why is it on your website?
LC: “The fires of hell would be COOL BREEZES…”
CG: Cool breezes, I’m sorry.
LC: Cool breezes — it was a video — cool breezes compared to what the founding fathers tried to build of this country. Listen to it a little closer. And that hatred for the American government is about fascism.CG: And this is a quote I have from your website, it says: “I am an Alaskan first, not an American. I have no use for America or her damned institutions.”
LC: Yup. Yup. That’s true. Because those institutions are corporate partnerships that the government — and that is the finite definition of fascism.CG: So Dexter believed he heard from friends that she was a member?
LC: Both of us did. Over a year ago.
CG: You heard it as well that she used to be a member?
LC: Both of us over a year ago were told.
CG: Were told that she was a member…
LC: By an individual that we knew and trusted.CG: When did you find out that she wasn’t a member?
LC: I am not involved in that because there’s enough sewer laying around that.CG: So no one can divulge who told she wasn’t a member?
LC: I know who it was. I’m not going to divulge it myself.CG: But you could say who DID say she was a member. Can I talk to that person?
LC: No I’m not going to tell you who said that.
CG: But Todd Palin was a member from 1995-2002?Anon: That’s what was on T.V. That’s what the Division of Elections says.
CG: Right.
LC: Because that’s where we get our information.
CG: So they say that Todd Palin was a member but Sarah Palin…
LC: Was not.
LC: Because she didn’t vote but did you feel like she was sympathetic to any of your views?
LC: I’m not going to comment on that.
CG: Why not?
LC: Because it turns into a bunch of garbage again.
CG: Okay. I’m just curious. I’m trying to get objective things. I actually don’t have any problem with you guys wanting to secede from the Union.
LC: We don’t wanna secede from the Union. What we want is what we were entitled to and that is a plebiscite, which is an archaic word for a vote. As Alaska came into the Union we were classified by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory. And within that classification, there was a criterion of the United Nations that said that once these territories — and this was at attempt to end colonialism throughout the world and not just the United States but other major countries like France, Britain etc. who had colonies –but when those territories had reached a level within the criteria of self-government, we were required to be given a ballot that didn’t just say statehood up or down. It said that we were supposed to have four choices and that’s on the website.CG: I’ve researched you guys and I don’t think you’re a bad organization.
LC: It’s our own political destiny that we should as Americans, period, have a right to. I’m trying to end the conversation, only because I have some place to go to.CG:. I just want to know who told you she wasn’t a member.
LC: I’m not going to tell you that.
CG: You’re not going to tell me? Why not?
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gestures during a campaign speech on Oct. 6, 2008 in Clearwater, Fla. (Chris O'Meara/Associated Press)
By Dana MilbankCLEARWATER, Fla. -- "Okay, so Florida, you know that you're going to have to hang onto your hats," Sarah Palin told a rally of a few thousand here this morning, "because from now until Election Day it may get kind of rough."
You betcha. And the person dishing out the roughest stuff at the moment is Sarah Palin.
"I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day," she said.
"Booooo!" replied the crowd.
"I knew you guys would react that way, okay," she continued. "So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago."
It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.
"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.
"Boooo!" said the crowd.
"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.
"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.
"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.
Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago." Here, Palin began to connect the dots. "These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes -- remember that's what Joe Biden had said. "And" -- she paused and sighed -- "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.""Boooo!" said the audience.
Posted at 11:57 AM ET on Oct 6, 2008 | Category: Battlegrounds Share This: Technorati | Tag in Del.icio.us | Digg This Previous: McCain Spot Asks: 'Who Is Barack Obama?' | Next: FEC Queries McCain Campaign on 'Excessive Contributions'
Who woulda thunk. Why do I keep on smelling despair and desperation? BFCE.
Obama apparently had today's Charles Keating attack in the can, ready to deploy against an attempt to revive Bill Ayers, and it seems to be working.A glance at Google Trends finds "keating economics" the second-most-popular search term right now. Numbers 8, 11, 12, and 21 are terms like "keating five" and "charles keating."Bill Ayers shows up at 36, just after "mccain keating."The first term is Neal Kashkari, newly tapped to head the bailout. Voter registration terms also rank high.
Obama apparently had today's Charles Keating attack in the can, ready to deploy against an attempt to revive Bill Ayers, and it seems to be working.
A glance at Google Trends finds "keating economics" the second-most-popular search term right now. Numbers 8, 11, 12, and 21 are terms like "keating five" and "charles keating."
Bill Ayers shows up at 36, just after "mccain keating."
The first term is Neal Kashkari, newly tapped to head the bailout. Voter registration terms also rank high.
see here
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/keating_inquiry_appears_differ.html
John McCainKeating Inquiry Appears Different, 17 Years Later
Updated 2:56 p.m.By Michael D. ShearSometimes in politics, memories fail.
In a conference call with reporters, attorney John Dowd was asked about a specific part of the Keating Five inquiry, the fact that Cindy McCain and her father had invested in a Keating strip mall.
"It was part of the inquiry, but it did not -- John was unconnected to that and unaware of it at the time, and did not participate in it," Dowd said.
But thanks to the quick research skills of Democratic partisans, here's John McCain's answer to an attorney who asked him about that very investment during the ethics committee hearings in 1991.
"Sometime in 1986, I was told by Mr. Delgado, who was Executive Vice President of my father-in-law's company, that they were going to invest in a shopping center and that the investment -- the project -- was being put together by a subsidiary of American Continental," McCain said. "He later told me that they -- that that had happened. And I had no interest in it and just noted in passing that this investment took place."
The attorney asking the question during the hearing? John Dowd.
Posted at 2:29 PM ET on Oct 6, 2008 | Category: John McCain Share This: Technorati | Tag in Del.icio.us | Digg This Previous: McCain Lawyers Push Back on Obama Keating Five Charges | Next: Sharp Words from McCain for Obama in N.M.
As McCain's Lead Among White Virginians Shrinks, So Too His Chances of Holding The State's 13 Electoral Votes: 29 days until votes are counted in Virginia, Democrat Barack Obama is ahead 53% to 43%, according to this SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, WJLA-TV in Washington DC, WTVR-TV in Richmond, and WJHL-TV in the Tri-Cities. In 4 tracking polls conducted since the Republican Convention, McCain has gone from up by 2 to down by 10.
There is movement among men, where immediately after the GOP convention, McCain led by 10, and where today Obama leads by 11.There is movement among whites, where McCain's once 22-point lead is today reduced to single digits.There is movement among the well-to-do, where today for the first time Obama leads.There is movement among pro-choice voters, where Obama's lead has doubled since August.
McCain no longer leads in any region of the state. In Northeastern VA, which includes the DC suburbs, Obama leads by 24 points. In Central Virginia, home of the Confederate White House, the Museum of the Confederacy and Appomattox, Obama today leads by 8. In Southeastern Virginia, Obama leads by 11. In the Shenandoah, where John McCain led by 24 points one month ago, Obama and McCain today tie.
-- SurveyUSA Election Poll
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/10/poll-barack-oba.html
Palin’s Unintelligible, Non-Answer On Nuclear
Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden historical timeline
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
I'm guessing the frothing and screeching will be starting up soon. October surprise?
Propelled by concerns over the financial crisis and a return of support from female voters, Barack Obama has opened a formidable 7-point lead over John McCain, reaching the 50% threshold among likely voters for the first time in the general campaign for President, according to a new TIME poll.Obama now leads McCain 50%-43% overall, up from 46%-41% before the parties' national conventions a month ago. Obama's support is not just broader, but sturdier too; 23% of McCain supporters say they might change their mind, while only 15% of Obama's say they could be persuaded to switch.Among the poll's most dramatic findings: McCain is losing female voters faster than Sarah Palin attracted them after the Republican convention. Obama leads McCain by 17 points with women, 55%-38%. Before the conventions, women preferred Obama by a margin of 10 points, 49%-39%. After McCain picked Palin as his running mate, the gap narrowed to a virtual tie, with Obama holding a one point margin, 48%-47%.
Sadly, I know tons of people just like her, people who couldn't be less curious about the world around them if you offered them money. I've tried to stay off the Palin bandwagon, mostly because she's not the main nominee, but this is ridiculous. Up to his last few days on earth, my dad walked down to the corner to get his paper, and when any of us traveled it was a mandate that we would bring him papers from wherever we went. In other words, my cranky, stubborn father was hugely more qualified to be Vice-President than this, this... you fill in the blank.
COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this - to stay informed and to understand the world?PALIN: I've read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media-COURIC: But what ones specifically? I'm curious.PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.COURIC: Can you name any of them?PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.
By GottaLaffHmm. Take a look at the future of Meet the Press, Brokaw and his "friendly" relationship with Gramm-pa McCain:
Sometime between Election Day and early December, NBC News will make a final decision about who will replace Tim Russert and his interim successor, Tom Brokaw, at the helm of “Meet the Press,” Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, said in an interview. [NBC] is leaning toward an ensemble of hosts that would be led by Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director, and include David Gregory, a correspondent and MSNBC anchor, according to a person who had been briefed on the proposal but was not authorized to comment, partly because the plans were not set. [...] But less widely known is that Mr. Brokaw has also played a pivotal role out of public view, both within NBC and in its dealings with the campaign of John McCain in particular. In an interview here after Sunday’s broadcast, Mr. Brokaw said that over the summer he had “advocated” within the executive suite of NBC News to modify the anchor duties of the MSNBC hosts Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews on election night and on nights when there were presidential debates. Their expressions of strong political opinions from the MSNBC anchor desk has run counter to the more traditional role Mr. Brokaw played on “NBC Nightly News” for more than two decades. [...] Mr. Brokaw said he had also conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure the candidate’s aides that — despite some negative on-air commentary by Mr. Olbermann in particular — Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide, whom he did not name, that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates — until his name was invoked. “One of the things I was told by this person was that they were so irritated, they said, ‘If it’s an NBC moderator, for any of these debates, we won’t go,’ ” Mr. Brokaw said. “My name came up, and they said, ‘Oh, hell, we have to do it, because it’s going to be Brokaw.’ ” [...] While Mr. Brokaw said he and the Republican nominee are not personal friends, he did say they are “friendly” and “always had a great relationship.” Of the prospects for a potential booking, Mr. Brokaw said: “We’re going to get him. I don’t know exactly where or when.” [...] Asked if time he had spent with Mr. McCain — as contrasted with Mr. Obama, whom he does not know socially — would be of any help to Mr. McCain in the debate, Mr. Brokaw promised it would not. Indeed, after Sunday’s broadcast he expressed frustration with both candidates, particularly when it came to their comments in Friday’s debate on the economic crisis.
[NBC] is leaning toward an ensemble of hosts that would be led by Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director, and include David Gregory, a correspondent and MSNBC anchor, according to a person who had been briefed on the proposal but was not authorized to comment, partly because the plans were not set. [...]
But less widely known is that Mr. Brokaw has also played a pivotal role out of public view, both within NBC and in its dealings with the campaign of John McCain in particular.
In an interview here after Sunday’s broadcast, Mr. Brokaw said that over the summer he had “advocated” within the executive suite of NBC News to modify the anchor duties of the MSNBC hosts Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews on election night and on nights when there were presidential debates. Their expressions of strong political opinions from the MSNBC anchor desk has run counter to the more traditional role Mr. Brokaw played on “NBC Nightly News” for more than two decades. [...]
Mr. Brokaw said he had also conducted some shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between NBC and the McCain campaign. His mission, he said, was to assure the candidate’s aides that — despite some negative on-air commentary by Mr. Olbermann in particular — Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide, whom he did not name, that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates — until his name was invoked.
“One of the things I was told by this person was that they were so irritated, they said, ‘If it’s an NBC moderator, for any of these debates, we won’t go,’ ” Mr. Brokaw said. “My name came up, and they said, ‘Oh, hell, we have to do it, because it’s going to be Brokaw.’ ” [...]
While Mr. Brokaw said he and the Republican nominee are not personal friends, he did say they are “friendly” and “always had a great relationship.”
Of the prospects for a potential booking, Mr. Brokaw said: “We’re going to get him. I don’t know exactly where or when.” [...]
Asked if time he had spent with Mr. McCain — as contrasted with Mr. Obama, whom he does not know socially — would be of any help to Mr. McCain in the debate, Mr. Brokaw promised it would not. Indeed, after Sunday’s broadcast he expressed frustration with both candidates, particularly when it came to their comments in Friday’s debate on the economic crisis.
By GottaLaffObama gains, Gramm-pa McCain's dropped points in tight races:
SurveyUSA: Obama Gains in IndianaA new SurveyUSA poll in Indiana shows Sen. John McCain edges Sen. Barack Obama, 48% to 45%. Compared to an identical poll released six weeks ago, McCain is down 2 points; Obama is up 1.
Next:
SurveyUSA: Race Tightens in GeorgiaA new SurveyUSA poll in Georgia finds Sen. John McCain leading Sen. Barack Obama by just eight points, 52% to 44%.Just 13 days ago, McCain held a 16-point lead in the Peach State. Obama's share has increased 3 points and McCain's has dropped five points.
By GottaLaff
AP Reported this morning on the damage the failed bailout bill has done to John McCain's campaign:Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and has five weeks to find his way out.Last Wednesday, McCain suspended his presidential campaign to insert himself into a $700 billion effort to rescue America's crumbling financial structure. In so doing, he tied himself far more tightly to the bill than did his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.
Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and has five weeks to find his way out.Last Wednesday, McCain suspended his presidential campaign to insert himself into a $700 billion effort to rescue America's crumbling financial structure. In so doing, he tied himself far more tightly to the bill than did his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.
Barack Obama Rapidly Gaining Grounds in Polls
Barack Obama Maintains 8-Point LeadThe latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update, based on Sept. 26-28 polling, shows Barack Obama with a 50% to 42% lead over John McCain, unchanged from the prior report.
Other Poll Results:
Electoral College: Obama 200 McCain 174New state polling from Florida has moved that state from "Leans Republicant" to "Toss-up" in the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator. With this change, Obama leads in states with 200 Electoral College votes while McCain is ahead in states with 174 Electoral College votes. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 255, McCain 200.
Currently, states with 81 Electoral College votes are leaning slightly in one way or the other. Six states with a total of 83 votes -- Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Virginia -- are pure toss-ups.
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Obama Still Ahead in VirginiaThe latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Virginia finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 50% to 47%.
This is the second consecutive poll in which Obama has held the advantage in the toss-up state—he had a five percentage points advantage in a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted just four days ago. A week ago, McCain held a two-point edge in the previous Fox News/Rasmussen Reports poll. Other than Obama’s five point edge last week, neither candidate led by more than three points since March.
George W. Bush won Virginia by eight percentage points in 2000 and 2004, but Democrats have focused on Virginia this year as a red state they hope to peel away from Republicans.
Obama has a solid 52% to 41% lead among unaffiliated voters in Virginia. While Obama leads 56% to 40% among women in Virginia, McCain leads 55% to 42% among men.
Both candidates are viewed favorably by 55% and unfavorably by 44% in Virginia.
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McCain, Obama, Still Just a Point Apart in OhioIn Ohio, John McCain and Barack Obama are locked in a competitive race that can’t get much closer.
The latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Buckeye State finds McCain with 48% of the vote, Obama with 47%, and another 4% of voters undecided. Those results are similar to a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey from the middle of last week. One week ago, the previous Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found McCain enjoying a 50% to 46% advantage.
Over the past week, Obama gained ground in all five battleground states included in the Fox News/Rasmussen Reports polling this week. In Ohio, 55% have a favorable opinion of McCain while 52% say the same about Obama.
McCain leads by eleven among white voters in the state but trails 81% to 15% among all other voters. Obama leads among voters under 40 while McCain has the edge among older voters. Obama leads among those who earn less than $40,000 a year while McCain leads among those with higher incomes
