My father taught me many things about appreciating a new book. He told me that each book was like an adventurous journey and opened an opportunity for your mind to expand. He taught me how to play games with a book: to read the first sentence in it and the last sentence and see if there was something really profound that the writer was trying to communicate to the outside world.
So in Barack Obama’s book titled: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, the first sentence is: “On most days, I enter the Capitol through the basement” and the last sentence is: “My heart is filled with love for this country.” So that I think of a half Black man entering our nation’s Legislative headquarters as a very humble and honorable thing. Quiet contrary to the criticism of this man as a latte-drinking arugula-eating elitist. A man who uses fancy words and is eloquent and intelligent and somehow threatens the average Joe—the Joe sixpack and Joe the Plumber.
Then that last sentence in his book goes to the heart of the criticism of this man as an: unpatriotic, Muslim and someone who “pals” around with terrorists. Discussions by Palin talk about the Real America and how Obama is someone not like us, a guy who would threaten our way of life. Be it gun-toting, Bible-thumping, abortion clinic-bombing culture warriors.
These are the despicable Lee Atwater-Karl Rove tactics to attack the very strengths of a candidate and then lie about them to achieve just some doubt in the minds of the voters. Then spring on them the “October Surprise.” It is a sad type of politics but it worked for George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Senator McCain is surrounded by former Bush handlers, Karl Rove disciplines and then last month even Karl Rove himself.
“Spreading the wealth around” in their minds is ‘socialism and worse yet ‘communism.’ Senator Mel Martinez compares Obama to Castro in another desperate Florida fight for the minds and even souls of Hispanics. Yet, this year they are not buying it. We are not buying it. We are snakebit from the last few times anyone went with a Republican. Yes, even going back to Ronald W. Reagan and our foundations for this economic turndown and recession.
Dear Reader:
The attached Press Release is for a statewide effort by the NAACP and Voter Services Coalition in conjunction with Jeremy Friedman (jfriedman@lawyerscommittee.org) of the "Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law" (http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/2005website/home/home.html) to encourage people to vote early and check the status of their voter registration so no one is 'left out in the cold' on Election Day. Recently MSNBC starting running public service announcements on this topic, because they felt it was timely and needed.
Thanks.
William
PRESS RELEASE - Count My Vote FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Each reader of this Press Release must realize that voting is not done in a vacuum, it is not a one step action and then it is over; you need to be a part of the greater civic community and be proactive and engaged to make sure your vote is counted.
Check with the County Clerk and make sure you are on the Voter Registration rolls today, don’t wait. Vote early and as soon as possible so that if there is a problem with your registration it can be straighten out by the County Clerk. If you are so inclined, work at a polling site. Assuming that you can come out once every four years and vote for President is frankly irresponsible. You have a responsibility to know the issues and participate in all elections.
Your right to vote is given to you by your birthright, but it must be safeguarded by your own proactive action. True, your American Citizenship guarantees your right to vote, but whether that vote is counted is dependent on working with your local election officials to make sure they are ready to have your vote recorded once it is cast.
New Mexico is listed as a battleground state in this Presidential Election and will have the highest number of registered voters ever coming out to the polls. The February 2008 Democratic Party Caucus was our first trial run with these increased numbers and at the Caucus 17,000 or 12% of the vote was done on provisional ballots because of the inadequacy of the voter registration lists certified by the Secretary of State. Provisional ballots were not counted in the 2004 Caucus, and are always subject to challenges by the candidates for the slightest of errors. By Early Voting in person at the County Clerk’s Office you can often avoid voting on a provisional ballot on Election Day.
Unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud are a nationwide problem designed to undermine the average citizen’s confidence in our election system. The goal is often to discourage people from voting ---lower voter turnouts favor candidates who are not populists. The mantra: “the sky is falling” goes far and wide and the Henny-Penny’s of the world feed into the myth of rampant voter fraud. We need to be vigilant but also must not trample on a voter’s right to vote. Election Protection Coalition is a nationwide effort to count every vote. It is being coordinated through the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights Under Law and includes groups like the: National Bar Association, ACLU Voter Rights Project, NAACP National Voter Fund, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), Asian American LDEF, and over 100 other Partners.
If you experience any voting irregularities or voting mis-information, call the number below:
1-866-0UR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) Election Protection Hotline.
For more information or an interview, please contact: Bob Moses, NAACP Political Action Director at (505) 471-6633 or William H. Mee, N.M. Voters Services Coalition at (505) 473-3160.
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campaigntrail@huffingtonpost.com
Latinos For Obama Meetings
Ms. Terry Rivera, a longtime Santa Fe County Democratic Party official, started a local chapter of the Latinos for Obama in June. She invited several people to the first meeting and had Democratic Activist Miguel Lucero talk to us about the political and social history of the Latino movement.
Miguel told us that, New Mexico’s Spanish-speaking population, was intrigued by the concepts of freedom, democracy and the “United States of America.” Under General Galven (namesake of Galveston, Texas) an army was raised to assist in the American Revolution of 1776.
Historically, New Mexico’s Spanish-speaking population, was guaranteed that elections and laws would be printed in BOTH Spanish and English by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 that ended the “War with Mexico.” Spanish-speakers didn’t vote or voted through a ‘Patron system’ whereby a village elder would tell you who to vote for. The voters were mature males who owned land or animals. The Patron would be the largest landowner or a ‘Mayordomo’ who controlled the water rights or church properties.
As a Territory of the United States, New Mexico was desperate to become a state and local legislators knew that having people vote more and be registered in the party in power in Washington, D.C. would give the best possible support for statehood. All the Spanish-speaking voters registered Republican because Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and the idea of treating all men equally was an intriguing thought to the natives who had been conquered by the White army of the United States in 1846.
During the Civil War, the Territory (which included Arizona at the time) was divided in half and the southern half was Confederate and the northern half stayed in the Union. Most Spanish speaking people enlisted in the Union Army. The Confederates were mainly from Texas and the cotton field owners near Mesilla joined with them and Lt. Colonel John R. Baylor, CSA, made Mesilla the Capitol of the southern territory of New Mexico. The Confederate plan was to drive the Union Army out of New Mexico and then seize the gold fields near Denver to finance the War Between the States. The Confederates had won three major battles already and were ready to lay seize to Santa Fe. The Union Army withdrew and just outside of Santa Fe at Glorieta Pass they ambushed the Confederates and drove the Texans all the way back to Albuquerque and eventually Mesilla were they stayed the rest of the war. The Battle of Glorieta is dubbed the Gettysburg of the West. New Mexicans remember it as the second time Texas invaded New Mexico.
During this time, all the Spanish-speaking voters registered Republican because it was the party of the martyr Abraham Lincoln. The Republican Party also had a good platform for farmers and large landowners. It was very independent-oriented and the “rugged individualism” of President Teddy Roosevelt was a popular theme. The Spanish-speaking population stayed registered as Republicans until the Republican-caused Great Depression and the 1932 Election of FDR.
New Mexico’s Spanish speaking population is composed of the original descendants of the Spanish Conquistadors, and much later Mexican immigrants. The identity of these peoples is hard to categorize with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ label. Northern New Mexicans have always just said they were Spanish-Americans and have vehemently refused the ‘Mexican-American’ label that the U.S. Census Bureau imposed. The term “Hispanics” fit the older generation while the young activists adopted the term “La Raza” (The Race) in the 1960-70’s; even “Brown Power” and later “Chicano.” The term “Latino” which arose in the political scene in the 1990’s bundled Hispanics from Latin America, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and South America; and could cover the following racial categories: White/Caucasian or Black/African, Asian, Native American, or Pacific Islander.
But this term “Latino” had its historical roots with Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico 1863-1867. He was placed on his throne by Napoleon III of France, the Austrian Hapsburgs and the Mexican Conservatives. The Mexican Liberals under Benito Juarez opposed him and revolution broke out. In an effort to bring all fractions together, Maximilian brought his allies from Brazil and what Napoleon III called “Latin America” and stated that all were “Latinos” including Mexicans since the Romance languages of Spanish, French and Portuguese linked them. It was a term that didn’t stick well with the locals and eventually the revolution deposed Maximilian and he was executed by President Juarez and the new democracy.
Latinos and Blacks have historically competed for jobs, housing and education; with the majority Whites pitting them against each other in this economic struggle to achieve political success.
Latinos complained about Mayor Tom Bradley’s election bid in Los Angeles in 1973, Mayor David Dinkens election bid in New York in 1989 and Mayor Willie Brown’s election bid in San Francisco in 1996; that for their voting support they were promised more economic support that never materialized.
Historically in New Mexico, we have not had a lot of Black people, but they have had generally good relations with the Latino population. In 1536, Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the coast of Texas with three others. One was Esteban (Estevan), a Moorish Servant. The four wandered through the Southwest in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola (the fabled cities of gold).
Esteban, came back with Coronado in 1540 to lead him to New Mexico and stayed in Zuni after Coronado left, welcomed as a Messiah. He eventually wore out his welcome and wreaked havoc amongst the tribal members and was put to death by them. The next Blacks in history were escaped and freed slaves that came in 1850’s out on the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri and through Texas. Then Blacks came as cowboys on the Goodnight-Loving Trail in 1866 and the Buffalo Soldiers stationed at Fort Selden from 1866 to the 1880’s. Blacks worked on the railroad in the 1880’s and 1890’s then in the Mesilla Valley cotton fields after the 1900’s. Blacks started working in the oil fields at Hobbs and at the military bases in the 1940’s at Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Clovis.
Hispano New Mexicans are very patriotic and have fought in many wars with distinction including the Indian Wars. This dates back to our quest for statehood. The Civil War required us to defend the Union to preserve our chance for statehood. Many joined the Roughriders and followed Teddy Roosevelt up San Juan Hill in 1898 hoping to win not just a war but also statehood; which was eventually won in 1912.
A few Hispanics went into World War One, but the National Guard had already been called into service to fight Pancho Villa after he attacked on American soil at Columbus, New Mexico in 1916. In World War Two, Latinos had the most casualties per capita. The New Mexico National Guard was rushed into the Philippines in 1942 to fight the Japanese and thousands died during the Bataan Death March. Korea and Vietnam also saw heavy Latino support. So that a John McCain as a war hero plays to the Latino community. It is important to educate people about his anti-veteran voting over the last 26 years.
John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was immensely popular in New Mexico in 1960. A powerful speaker who came on a train tour---he became the hope for the poverty stricken Hispanics. His assassination devastated both the Hispanic and Blacks communities that were unified behind him. In 1964, LBJ, a Texan, was on the ballot and it didn’t thrill New Mexicans. But in 1968, Bobby Kennedy electrified crowds with his speaking ability and his ties and compassion with Cesar Chaves and farm workers gave hope to New Mexican Hispanics. To some, including myself, Obama, reminds our community organizers of the Kennedy’s message.
In the 1980’s Albuquerque became a relocation center for the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. This included the Mariel Boatlift, the release of Cuban Prisoners by Castro, the relocation of San Salvadorian rebels, Vietnamese refugees (including Black Ameriasians children) and Haitian refugees. These relocations added different types of Spanish speakers and Blacks to the melting pot in New Mexico. Mexican and Guatemalan immigration in the 80’s, 90’s and today continue our diversity expansion.
In concluding, Mr. Lucero stated that although Northern New Mexico votes Democratic at a 60-80% rate it needs to be motivated by the Obama campaign to turn out. Instead of picking a unifying title for the organization that is better than Latinos for Obama, it is more important to be out in the local communities and be visible and use Spanish-language radio to educate people about Obama.
But why is this “unification” for Obama, the candidate, so foreign to us?
Many of the “Latinos for Obama” were in Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition. The symbol for the campaign was a rainbow of green (for environmentalists), red (for Native Americans), yellow (for Asians), white (for Whites), black (for Blacks), and brown for Hispanics. So each Democratic Party constituency had a stripe in the coalition. The fact that Jesse was Black was immaterial to the Coalition members---he was just the leader, a temporary CEO of this cause for the greater good. We had that brown stripe and that was all that mattered. When we called in phone banking and people answered “But he is a Black Man” --- and we said “So?”.
Taking this lesson from the Rainbow Coalition we have our own stripe again: it is in the ‘Hope’ and ‘Change We Can Believe In’ themes of the Obama campaign. These are messages and symbols that resonate in the Latino community that has been bypassed for so long.
William Henry Mee
Santa Fe, N.M.
Between 1950 and 1980, worker productivity rose by 93 percent and wages rose by 89 percent. Compare that to the 1920s, where high productivity gains were accompanied by declining wages and falling income for the vast majority of American consumers. Then we had the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed, and wages and productivity were readjusted. Since 2000 the productivity of American workers has increased by 20 percent, while the wages of the average worker have grown by less than 1 percent---these are warning signs. Between 2000 and 2006, corporate profits grew at an average rate of more than 10 percent a year—more than five times the average rate of growth in corporate profits during the previous 50 years. Corporate profits as a percentage of national income skyrocketed from around 9 percent to more than 15 percent during the same period—higher than at any point in the past half century.
Well-to-do individuals also did well: the 15,000 families at the top of the income scale saw their annual incomes go from about $15 million a year to nearly $30 million (that’s $450 billion). They alone accounted for more than 25 percent of all of the growth in income for the entire country. The remaining 1.7 million families in the top 1 percent of households accounted for nearly another 50 percent. That means that the remaining 170 million families/households split the remaining 25%. The bottom 90 percent of families accounted for only 4.7 percent of that growth, which went entirely to the top 20 percent of this group. (all stats in these two paragraphs from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/10/redistribution.html).
When the disparity in wealth between the upper most and the poorest becomes wider it is a prescription for disease, famine, revolution, crime, ignorance, and even more excessive greed which exacerbates all the problems. Witness the Fall of Rome, the onset of the Dark Ages, the depression of the Gilded Age, the Great Depression, and now where we are at today. ‘Spreading the wealth’ is the only way for the rich to survive as individuals, families and as a class. It is a way to relieve their soon to be guilty conscious. Greed is a disease and an addiction that threatens to tear apart our country.
The Middle Ages royalty which accumulated great wealth on the backs of serfs, indentured servants, and sharecroppers---eventually were overthrown; the guillotine for France’s Queen Marie Antoinette who reportedly said “Let them eat cake.” Which was her quaint idea of letting the peasants share with her own pampered lifestyle—because she was genuinely concerned with their welfare while the King Louis the 14th was completely out of touch. But as the economy got worse and as the Queen’s statement got translated and spread across the countryside it referred to the froth that a pig makes as it eats out of a trough and is scraped off by the farmers to feed other animals as times get hard—“let them eat the cake” (what has caked-up). It was enough to cause a national bloodbath and purge of the rich.*
So Americans have been eating cake and have only know realized it. They are starting to get mad; if Obama and the 60 vote filibuster-proof majority in the Senate don’t win---violence might occur---certainly Florida 2000 protests will occur. The Election of 2008 might be the “French Revolution” that restores the natural balance of the economy or the situation might slip further into depression and even armed revolution. It really depends how soon the Republican Party lies down and admits the error of its ways. The more it fights back and tells lies, that will only be discovered later, the harder the fall will be. Perhaps the Party will be destroyed or go the way of the Whig party and be replaced by an independent party or by a patchwork of Libertarian, Constitutional Law and Green parties.
People have been fooled by the Reaganomics theory of “Trickle Down” and how the rich man will take care of you. Even Alan Greenspan in his testimony to Congress on October 23, 2008 admitted that the Chicago Milton Friedman School of Economics and the Ayn Rand theories were proven not to work. Bush-Cheney bought these failed policies to their zenith and their legacy must be made to pay the price. Rejecting McCain-Palin is the first step towards your theological and economic retribution. This is not “class warfare” but pay-back for virtual crimes committed against the American People and our way of life. This is something that even the “Liberal” media like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Weiner Savage, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, Michele Maulkin, Bill Bennett and Bill O’Reilly cannot stop. These multi-millionaire broadcasters have been fooling you into supporting their lifestyle and addictions (Bennett’s gambling, Limbaugh’s drugs, O’Reilly’s phone sex, etc.). Now is the time to reject them and the crooked Republican politicians (Dick Cheney, Duke Cunningham, Tom Delay, Jack Abramhoff, Stevens, Craig, Vitter, Anthrax Attacks, etc.).
* = She was Austrian and had not produced a male heir and was seen as aloof and as a failure. The lavish parties with things brought in from India and China--and her diamonds gave the negative impression to the people. But at the end she spent more time away from the palace in the countryside and realized how bad the economy was. But it was too late.
<End>
Debate September 26, 2008:
What I wish Barack Obama would have said at the debate or next time:
Obama: Some people say I was too tough on Senator John McCain at our first debate when I criticized him on what he said about talking to the leaders of Spain. I said he was totally out of touch with who our allies are and who is not. When pressed on this, McCain surrogates say he made a misstatement, he is a maverick, he is old and you have to give him a take back. I say: ‘do you get a take back when your finger is on the red button?’
You can’t win in Iraq because it is no longer a War, it is an Occupation costing us over $10 billion dollars a month. That is something that will bankrupt a country like it did the Russians in Afghanistan in 1989. John McCain says he wants to stay in Iraq another 100 years at this cost, and when pressed about it said make it a thousand years or ten thousand years.
President Bush declared victory in his “Mission Accomplished” flight onto an aircraft carrier, and we did win the war but failed in the peace because the President was out of touch with the conditions on the ground in Iraq. Just as Senator McCain is out of completely out of touch with his bellicose statements about staying in Iraq when the Iraqi government is asking us to leave.
It was disturbing to see John McCain say “Bomb, bomb, bomb---bomb Iran” to the beach Boys tune, and laughing about it. The question to the American people will be does he sing this song as President when his hand is on the red button. In case he doesn’t know it, what he says now as a candidate affects world affairs.
It was genuinely scary to see McCain talk about Russia and its Georgian incursion and nearly threaten them with war. He called this leadership and contrasted it with what the Obama campaign was saying; he even sent aides there ahead of what President Bush was doing and jeopardized our united diplomatic position. We have an occupation of Iraq, the war with Afghanistan, issues with Al Qaeda in Pakistan, John McCain’s commitment to bomb Iran---and he still wants to take on Russia. This is nothing short of insanity. It is the Republican idea that being in a state of perpetual war is good for the American economy and sending our young people to their deaths will get us out of the economy slump we are in now; just as “Drill Baby Drill” will get us out of the energy crisis. It is probably the best reasons not to elect a Republican this time.
Leadership is more than just running out in front of the troops and telling them: “to go over the top boys, for God and Country.” Sometimes it is talking through problems and understanding your opponent and their customs. Things that McCain has attacked me on. Leadership is not degrading your opponents because they are different. Teasing someone for being a Muslim or calling an oriental person a “gook” may be leadership to John McCain but it is not what I will do as President. McCain is a product of a different time in the world, when America had never lost a war and found itself in Vietnam winning all the battles and losing the occupation. Sometimes I think the way he approaches every challenge to American power across the world is to try again to win the Vietnam War. Victory in 1970’s Vietnam is through the Iran or Russia of today. It is insanity. Staying in Iraq forever is McCain’s maverick brand of leadership. It is insanity.
Some may call us Neville Chamberlin and Hitler appeasers---but these are false comparisons. We will be tough when necessary. But in no way will we be naïve or uninformed like the Bush Administration. We know what leadership is and what it is not. John McCain somehow doesn’t. He has a legendary temper that makes a tough leader but it also makes a stubborn leader like George W. Bush has been. Temper, arrogance and pride can keep you from thinking about what is right or saying you were wrong and correcting course like setting a reasoned timetable to get out of Iraq and to shift forces to Afghanistan. Having a surge into Afghanistan would be to George Bush and John McCain admitting that they were wrong, even if it is the necessary and best thing to do.
Veteran’s groups have taken John McCain to task for not supporting veteran’s benefits and for his bellicose talk in a time when the military is stretched to a breaking point. In fact, John McCain just led the fight against Senator Jim Webb’s G.I. Bill. Costs are being pushed to future generations and the American people were told that supporting the troops meant putting a yellow ribbon on your van and going to the mall to shop. If this is the leadership you want, then John McCain is your guy.
This election is just too important to hand it to John McCain as a reward for his military service to our country. We need to honor his service and his time as a POW but realize that service is not the end-all to leadership or the magic bullet of a maverick. The John McCain Story is a uniquely American one, but not the answer to the leadership woes of this country created by George W. Bush, a guy that McCain supported over 90% of the time, even when he was grossly wrong or just being stubborn and arrogant. If you want change and success then vote Obama-Biden. McCain is more of the same.
“Drill and kill” is the codeword for the Republican Platform; “Hope not Hate” would be the codeword for the Democratic Platform.
Sara Palin is more like Joan of Arc rather than Margaret Thatcher. Sara has a 15th Century view of the world---the time when religion dominated the conduct of armies and the government, and science was a relatively unknown dark art. A charismatic leader, Joan rallied the troops at Orleans when veteran commanders were bogged down in the 100 Years War (sounds like John McCain’s vision of Iraq). Joan didn’t participate in any book burnings because books were the devil’s work and ultimately she lost her life to execution after a heresy trial. So the parallels to Sara’s life are a little different because she only did book banning and attends a rapture-oriented church. It is not sexist to tell the truth. Sara is a big oil girl and I thought we had enough of that with the last two oil men in the Whitehouse.
Are you ready to get fooled again?
The Republican radical right wing, big oil, and religious extremists want to fool you again with McCain-Palin.
Remember a “uniter not a divider”; compassionate conservative”, “I don’t believe in nation-building and won’t get involved in foreign entanglements”---famous words of George W. Bush that many people believed in and became the real basis of their vote in 2000. Things that can be proven today to be totally untrue about a leader some thought was ready to lead. Yet, you fell for them, hook, line and sinker. Things that can be proven today to be totally untrue about a leader some thought was ready to lead. Yet, you fell for them, hook, line and sinker.
The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is at every turn: politicians who cry for wars and then never send their children.
The week before the Republican Party met in its convention, the country's most influential conservatives met quietly at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembly were members of the Council for National Policy (started by Tim Lahay of the "Left Behind" book series), an ultra-secretive group that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy. CNP members have included: Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. At a 2000 meeting of the CNP, George W. Bush promised to nominate only pro-life judges; in 2004, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told the group, "The destiny of the nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement." The group then told John McCain that this was his choice for VP after he had only met the lady for the second time. This is a scary thought that the candidate had little to do with the vetting or selection of Sarah Palin. The main qualification of Palin is that she believes in the “rapture” and believes that the war with Iraq will spread to Iran and will bring about the proverbial “End Times.” Probably why she is so glad her son is in Iraq is that he can begin the shooting war on innocents to create the apocalypse once she is in office.
Ultra-Secretive Right-Wing Group Met In Minn. To Vet Palin
NEXT CHAPTER OF THE END TIMES:
In recent days, Cincinnati-based talk radio host Bill Cunningham has repeatedly invoked the biblical prophecy of "the Beast" in reference to Sen. Barack Obama. On the October 10 broadcast of The Big Show with Bill Cunningham, Cunningham said, "[A]round Ohio, the number [of newly registered voters] is 666,000. Six-six-six. The mark of the beast. The great majority, of course, are registered by ACORN. [...] Who conducted ACORN seminars to tell ACORN employees and others how to cheat the system? Barack Hussein Obama. I may declare him to be the beast. Six, six, six. It could be the end of all days." Then, on the October 13 broadcast, Cunningham responded to a caller's assertion that Obama "may be the Antichrist" by asking, "Well, six -- you know how many -- how many new registered voters there are in the state of Ohio?" After the caller answered, "666,000," Cunningham stated: "Six-six-six." Later, Cunningham added: "Six-six-six. And then when people like you and I, Roger, say to [Sen. John] McCain, 'You know what, president' -- I'm sorry -- 'Senator McCain, we're scared,' he says, 'Don't be scared.' " As described in the Bible's Book of Revelation, 666 is the number of "the Beast," or the Antichrist, whose appearance portends the second coming of Christ and Armageddon in the Christian tradition.
According to an October 8 Associated Press report, "Roughly 666,000 new voters have registered in Ohio since the start of 2008," but on its website, ACORN reports that it registered 247,335 new voters -- not a "great majority," as Cunningham claimed.
As Media Matters for America has noted, conservative hosts like Brian Sussman at San Francisco radio station KSFO and Chris Baker of Minneapolis station KTLK have also made references to Obama as the Antichrist.
From the October 10 broadcast of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:
CUNNINGHAM: And around Ohio, the number [of newly registered voters] is 666,000. Six-six-six. The mark of the beast. The great majority, of course, are registered by ACORN. The mark of the beast. And who is the beast? Who gave ACORN $800,000 as part of this criminal conspiracy? Who was the lawyer for ACORN? Who conducted ACORN seminars to tell ACORN employees and others how to cheat the system? Barack Hussein Obama. I may declare him to be the beast. Six-six-six. It could be the end of all days.
From the October 13 broadcast of The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:
CALLER: I have gotten phone calls from people that asked -- I debate on the phone with them and argue with them. They have called me. A woman called me from Buffalo, Ohio, and she's going through the phone book picking out names, and she says, "Would you be interested in working a couple hours every night making phone calls?" And I said, "Who for?" And she goes, "Obama."
CUNNINGHAM: Oh, my.
CALLER: And she -- I end up debating with her, and she's acting like he's the next Camelot.
CUNNINGHAM: Well, according to Louis Farrakhan, his buddy, I have the clip in which Minister Louis Farrakhan has declared Obama is the messiah, that Obama is the son of God.
CALLER: And that's the other thing I wanted to say to you. He claims to be a Christian, and anybody who would let those schoolkids say he's gonna change the world and he's the alpha, the omega -- I'm scared.
CUNNINGHAM: I mean, can you imagine if Ronald Reagan had schoolchildren shouting the name of Reagan, that he had ministers declaring that Ronald Reagan is the messiah? How big of a story would that be?
CALLER: He may be the Antichrist.
CUNNINGHAM: Well, six -- you know how many -- how many new registered voters there are in the state of Ohio?
CALLER: 666,000.
CUNNINGHAM: Six-six-six.
CALLER: It's scary, Bill. I'm scared.
CUNNINGHAM: Six-six-six. And then, when people like you and I, Roger, say to McCain, "You know what, president" -- I'm sorry -- "Senator McCain, we're scared." He says, "Don't be scared. He'll do a good job as the president. He's fine, he's a good man."
—L.B.
Lauryn Bruck is an intern with Media Matters for America.
The most scary thing about Sen. John McCain is that he has support from the Bush-Cheney crowd. Something that he can’t distance himself from or divorced himself from. Something he had to embrace to garner the support of the GOP base. There are probably some 30,000 individuals that have directly obtained federal employment under G.W. Bush by their political support of the Neocon movement. Some 3,500 in the White House and thousands more through the major agencies. They have been involved in violations of the Hatch Act and other corruption that has barely been inventoried. Many have changed their exempt job status to a covered or permanent job that they can not be dismissed from. There are some 1,000 policy areas. Each one of those policy areas has been harmed by Bush ideas. McCain can only come clean with a complete purge of the 30,000 and a reversal of every policy..........
The only inventory of these hiring crimes that has made the last page of the newspaper is the U.S. Attorney firings at the Department of Justice.
On another note:
The improper vetting of Sara Palin shows the weakness of a 72 year old decision-maker who most medical experts agree shows aging well into his eighties from both his torture and hard binge drinking after he came back.
It is too early to tell just how weak or how bad this pick will be. But if the rumors prove true, I suspect she will have to resign and be replaced with Mitt Romney or Joe Liebermann.
One of the scariest things is that Sara as Mayor fired the Town Librarian for not removing certain books from the shelves that Palin found offensive. This is fine for Rev. Dobson to do--staging a book burning at the Focus on the Families headquarters---but this is a potential President we are proposing to hire. The last national leader that engaged in any book censorship was Adolf Hitler---hardly anything for the GOP to aspire to.
John McCain Should Scare You. 8-18-2008
When John McCain speaks you should listen. No, he is not E.F. Hutton with some pearl of economic wisdom. In fact, he has been pretty clear that he doesn’t understand economics at all. His economic advisors like Phil Graham and Carly Fiorina are pretty clear about not understanding you also. In fact, from their elitist positions they think you are “whiners.” You need to shut up and take your financial losses while they rape your assets. The maximization of wealth for the ultra-super rich is the goal---now shut up; this is the Treasury Secretary Graham’s policy. The economic policy is to squeeze the middle class dry. Relax credit regulations until people get so in over their head you can break them. John McCain married Cindy, his trust fund baby millionairess, and is now set for life. Cindy is invested in the formerly American Budweiser that has recently been bought by a Belgian-Brazilian beer company; St. Louis is getting set for layoffs; while the McCains will get a dividend. Cindy has three American Express cards and pays off her accounts each month. For July, the bill was $800,000.00 in household expenses---the actual cost required to run the ten houses they own. One of the cards was for $50,000 of expenses their son had in one month. You probably don’t spend that much in a year. But then John McCain wants to extend those Bush tax cuts for himself and his empire. When John McCain speaks you listen. You will see how out of touch he is with the average American. Rather like a George H.W. Bush and his grocery store scanner. But that’s right---he doesn’t use a computer or own a Blackberry; he allows others to do that for him. When John McCain speaks you should listen. Because what McCain says should scare you. He speaks from his Georgian Lobbyist’s positions of taking a tough line on Russia. I feel he wants us to attack Russia through Iran. Two for the price of one. Then nuke Iraq for good measure. That is what a maverick would do. McCain has had a lifelong need to win in Vietnam and this can best be achieved by an Iran War. We barely survived the last eight years of Bush “cowboy diplomacy” and McCain now offers a ‘fighter pilot on steroids’ alternative of Bush’s “shoot first and ask questions later.” Imagine a Lindsey Graham as Secretary of Defense with torture as a mainstay of policy. This is not the America, the ‘home of the brave’, we grew up in. It is a back door deal, secretive, lying Administration that has lost the American People’s and World’s confidence. But then all the war criminals in the Bush Administration have contributed to McCain and signed volunteer sheets for his campaign to protect themselves from jail time. G.W. Bush term III. If you are a patriot you need to stop this culture of corruption and vote against all Republicans to get to the truth and stop war mongering and illegal profiteering. Profits are an American ideal---but these profits are being taken overseas in offshore deals like relocating the Halliburton (Cheney) Headquarters in Dubai. When John McCain speaks you should listen. Because what McCain says should scare the hell out of you. He panders to extremist right wing religious preachers (most recently Rick ) and outright lies about Obama in commercials. McCain will say and do anything to get elected. He is not the same man from the 2000 election. He allows surrogates to attack Obama on race and religion because this is what fuels the Republican base as much as gay-bashing and abortion; he knows this first-hand from 2000 South Carolina. He sends out Liebermann like some puppet. McCain flip-flops on campaign finance reform, immigration, taxes, etc. Then he says he now supported a MLK Holiday. But still you kind of believe the guy and like him because he is a war hero. The media loves McCain and likes to ride on his bus. Paint a slogan on it and you have the “Straight Talk Express.” Maybe McCain is brainwashing you. When McCain speaks you listen. Snap out of it. When McCain speaks you listen. Because what McCain says should scare you into action—like volunteering for the Democratic Party. But you tell me that Obama is just too intellectual for you. He is always giving half hour to hour speeches. It is just too much to read. Remember who was the Presidential candidate guy you would most want to have a beer with in 2000? How did that work out for you? It sucked for the rest of the nation (even for the world). Hope you enjoyed that beer. Here is the formula of McCain’s life: 26 years in Washington as an insider + Keating 5 + 2 wives + 5 crashed jets x $1.82 billion per day U.S. National Debt = "the real McCain" Keating 5 + 2 wives + 5 crashed jets x $1.82 billion per day U.S. National Debt = "the real McCain" GA_Atheist:
http://www.wickedwire.com/javachat.html
August 31, 2008
Words matter, speeches can change America; both are tools of great leadership. Leadership that has been absent these last eight years with a seemingly illiterate Administration.
Slogans sell. Remember “Remember the Alamo?”; “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”; “The New Deal”; “The New Frontier”; and “The Great Society.”
Then there are the great quotations: “Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security”; “A day that will live in infamy”; “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. (Eisenhower).”
“A day that will live in infamy” ---allowed FDR to move a very unwilling and completely unready nation to war in World War Two.
Remember a “uniter not a divider”; compassionate conservative”, “I don’t believe in nation-building and won’t get involved in foreign entanglements”---famous words of George W. Bush that many people believed in and became the real basis of their vote in 2000. Things that can be proven today to be totally untrue about a leader some thought was ready to lead. Yet, you fell for them, hook, line and sinker.
"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie - deliberate and dishonest --- but the myth - persistent and persuasive....." - John F. Kennedy.
Words did matter for Barack Obama in every one of his 45 minute speeches, when the Neoconservatives picked out a sound byte and held it against him. In dozens of speeches so inspiring that they will guide history---they stand almost forgotten on his website. Worse yet, a small group of greedy right-wing self-interested anti-patriots can destroy our hopes, our dreams, and the change we can believe in by running ads with their carefully crafted sound bytes. Our hopes, our dreams, and the change we can believe in are the central core of the Obama campaign.
A theme echoed some 40 years earlier: "Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not." - Senator Robert F. Kennedy; 1968 Presidential Campaign.
Obama’s opponents dismiss him as a novice and unready; and even level the ridiculous charge of him being an elitist. Yet, the same was said of another President: “The free society who do not take care of its many who are poor will not be able to save it’s few who are rich.” - John F. Kennedy.
John McCain is a rebel not a maverick. A rebel is one that seeks to destroy the system and not work from within.
Sincerely,
Santa Fe, New Mexico
