What a wonderful day it was on Monday, January 19, the day our nation celebrated the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. !! 60 volunteers, some old friends and some new friends, some young, some not so young, some men, some women, came together to serve 120 of our Nation’s heroes at the Veteran’s Hospital at Jefferson Barracks.
The veterans, both men and women, came to enjoy the companionship of strangers who became strangers no more. They enjoyed a simple lunch but were nourished by the friendship and gratitude of the volunteers who gave of their holiday to serve and console. A wonderfully fun band (The Button Box Band) provided exhilarating music as the backdrop for dancing, laughter and remembering.
Thanks to Lee Bell, Linda Henry, and Sally Hodges for coordinating this great day that is hoped to continue in the future.
Some of the volunteers came as a call to service by our 44th President, Barack Obama. Others came because they were stirred to service to veterans and found the event on USAservice.org. Regardless of the motivation their participation in this event was received with gratitude and grace.
Check out the photos! http://www.flickr.com/photos/34498798@N05/show/
Just wanted to send out a quick notice about my event.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gptmxq
It invites folks to shop at sites like:
http://madebysurvivors.com/
http://www.thehungersite.com, and it's companion sites, and
http://kiva.org/
Feel free to suggest others...
This is an interesting and exciting article in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/10/AR2008111000013.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified. Apparently the right wing knew about this in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes.
The poll will be reported on PBS and picked up by
mainstream media. It can influence undecided voters in swing states.
Please do two things -- takes 20 seconds.
1) Click on link and vote yourself.
Here's the link:
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
2) Then send this to every single Obama-Biden voter
you know, and urge them to vote and pass it on.
The last thing we need is PBS saying their viewers
think Sarah Palin is qualified.
I attended debate parties for the three presidential debates and watched the VP debate in the comfort of my own home. It has been an exhilirating experience. My husband (John) and I met some wonderful neighbors at the first debate party and enjoyed the company of like-minded folks at the Phoenix AZ Democatic HQ for the other two. Last night at the debate party at the HQ we were photographed by an Arizona Republic photographer and WAHLAAA!!! we were on the front page of the Republic this morning, wearing our new T-shirts with our "I voted early" stickers.
This is the first campaign in which I have been active. I find that it has been a tremendously rewarding experience (with or without the picture)!
If you haven't gotten involved yet, there's still time! Come on out and make your voice heard. If you have been involved, thanks, keep up the good work. We're not done yet!
This is interesting information on ex-con voting rights. I think the issue is long overdue for exploratiion.
RICHMOND, Va. (Associated Press) -- Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons _ each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state.
Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box.
"People are really, really reluctant to say, 'I lost my rights to vote,'" Bailey said of his quest, which continued in the run-up to Monday's registration deadline in Virginia for the November election.
Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases working with election officials who can be both unfamiliar with the law and hostile to former convicts seeking to register.
Such challenges matter little to Bailey and others trying to return former criminals to voter rolls, an effort they consider crucial in light of the results of the past two presidential elections: A shift of a few hundred votes in Florida in 2000 would have changed the outcome of the presidential race, and the results in 2004 came down to a margin of 119,000 votes in Ohio.
The nonprofit groups and individual activists making the push on felons' behalf agree the effort is broader this year than in previous elections, even if they aren't necessarily making a coordinated push. They expect that effort to benefit Barack Obama more than John McCain, given that the population of former felons is disproportionately black.
Obama has co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow all ex-felons to vote, but his campaign isn't directly targeting ex-felons for registration. His campaign does include relevant info on its Web site and educates volunteers so they can explain state laws to those who may not realize they have the right to vote, said spokesman Kevin Griffis.
"All we're trying to do is make sure that, if someone is eligible, that they know their rights and that if they want to vote, they can take part," Griffis said Tuesday. "I think there's a lot of misinformation out there. Even people who may have been guilty of a misdemeanor feel like the felony laws apply to them and say they can't vote."
McCain has said states should decide whether felons have voting rights. But he personally believes ex-felons should forfeit certain rights when they commit a serious crime and that the right to vote should be restored only on a case-by-case basis _ much like Virginia's process.
Roughly 13 percent of black men nationwide have lost the right to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law, which advocates the reform of felon voting rights. Black ministers, civic leaders and activists believe they are a rich source of votes for Obama.
"Of course I would go with Barack," said Deshawn Tatem, a dreadlocked drug dealer-turned-activist from Chesapeake, Va. But he's never cast a ballot. "Right at 18, I caught the felony."
Tatem has never made the time to fill out an application to restore his voter rights, a request that would have to be approved by the governor. That means there's no way he'll be able to vote in November.
In Florida, where a new rule means more than 115,000 former felons who completed their sentences are now able to vote, civil rights attorney Reggie Mitchell said he's nonpartisan when he calls felons at home to give them information about registering to vote. But he also acknowledges the obvious.
Blacks represent "about 40 percent of the people who've gotten their rights lost and restored," Mitchell said. "With an African-American running, and such a critical mass, this could have a tremendous impact."
Kenneth Glasgow served 14 years on robbery and drug charges in Alabama. Now a pastor, Glasgow launched a voter registration drive inside the prisons in Alabama, where state law allows voting by felons convicted of lesser crimes such as possession of small amounts of drugs, battery or attempted burglary _ even while still serving a sentence.
Glasgow, a Democrat, estimates as many as 70,000 felons in Alabama might be eligible to vote but haven't registered. Bringing them to the polls, he said, has the potential to alter the state's political landscape.
"It's not a black-white thing," Glasgow said. "It's that people will see Republicans standing against having people's rights restored while the Democrats aren't."
The state Department of Corrections halted Glasgow's registration drive after two days because of complaints from the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party that registering inmates without adequate monitoring could lead to voter fraud. Fewer than 80 inmates filled out registration forms. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has filed suit challenging the prison commissioner's decision to stop the registration drive.
Only two states _ Maine and Vermont _ place no limits on voting due to a criminal conviction; even prison inmates can cast a ballot. Kentucky and Virginia are the only two states that permanently bar felons from voting, although the governors of those states can restore voting rights to individuals.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear streamlined the process in March, and has since restored the rights of more than 740 released convicts. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine promised to fast-track applications for voter restoration that his office received by Aug. 1, adding three people to his staff to process applications before Monday's registration deadline.
Applications in Virginia jumped from 76 for all of July 2007 to 138 in a single week this summer. Kaine, the governor for nearly three years, had restored the rights of 2,633 felons as of Monday, according to his spokesman, Gordon Hickey.
Laws in the other 46 states are varied, some of them a relic of the Jim Crow era, according to the Brennan Center. Eight states permanently bar felons convicted of certain crimes from voting, while the others restore the right after a sentence is completed, including parole, or as soon as an inmate is released from prison.
Faulkner Fox, who leads organizing efforts for the group "Durham for Obama" in North Carolina, said volunteers there frequently explain to shocked ex-felons that they can register to vote.
The confusion isn't limited to felons. Researchers at the Brennan Center and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed election officials in 23 states from 2003 to this year. In a report released Wednesday, the groups said many officials in those states didn't understand voter eligibility rules for felons or how they can register to vote.
Among the problems: officials telling those convicted of misdemeanors they had lost the right to vote, failing to distinguish between probation and parole, and illegally demanding documentation. The researchers also found election officials who said they wouldn't help a felon register, which concerns civil rights groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"We still find election officials at the polls in too many cases only ask African-American males if (they) have a felony offense," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau.
The confusion works both ways. In some cases, the researchers found election officials willing to register felons who were not yet eligible to cast a ballot under that state's law _ a potential case of criminal voter fraud.
The ACLU, the NAACP and others support a nationwide standard that would restore voting rights to all inmates once they leave prison.
"Once a single local election official misinforms a citizen that he is not eligible to vote because of a past conviction, it is unlikely that citizen will ever follow up or make a second inquiry," the ACLU and Brennan Center report said. "The citizen will mistakenly believe that he is ineligible to vote for years, decades, or maybe the rest of his life."
But getting the information right, and then registering felons, isn't a guarantee of results. Tatem, the former felon from Virginia, isn't sure how much of a difference people like him will make.
"If they got their rights tomorrow, most of them probably still wouldn't vote," he said. "When you've been caged for so long, you can leave that cage open and some folk won't go through."
I think the Obama/Biden administration will be a great help to this important social issue:
NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- Frank Carter was once a globe-trotting professional dancer; his world is smaller now. He battles multiple health problems, walks with a cane and rarely leaves his compact Manhattan apartment.
As an 86-year-old gay man, with no family nearby and many acquaintances long since dead, he'd seem a likely prospect for isolation.
Instead, he has kindled a deep, five-year friendship with Gigi Stoll, a fashion model-turned-photographer half his age. Stoll helps Carter with medical arrangements, writes to him when she travels overseas, and sat with him for six hours during his most recent hospitalization.
"The other guys in the hospital, no one was coming in to see them," Carter said. "To get that gift, you have to be lucky."
It's not just luck. Stoll came into his life though a program that matches infirm gays and lesbians with volunteers who commit to making weekly visits.
Long overlooked by society at large, and even by younger gays, elderly gays and lesbians are emerging as distinct community, getting more help and attention as they confront challenges that differ in many ways from their heterosexual counterparts.
Advocacy groups say the estimated 2.5 million gay seniors in America are twice as likely to live alone, four times less likely to have adult children to help them, and far more fearful of discrimination from health care workers.
A watershed moment comes this month, when the AARP _ the largest advocacy group for Americans over 50 _ for the first time sponsors a major national conference focused on gay and lesbian aging. It's being organized by SAGE (Service and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), the New York-based organization which counts Carter and Stoll among its thousands of clients and volunteers.
AARP's involvement is "a big breakthrough," SAGE executive director Michael Adams said. "To step forward and sponsor a conference of this high profile and splash your name all over, it's a quantum leap."
There will be workshops on a whole array of issues: mental health care and suicide prevention, transgender seniors, rising levels of HIV/AIDS among gay men over 50, and special challenges facing elderly gays in suburbs and small towns.
"There are very particular areas that make us a more vulnerable constituency of old people," said Amber Hollibaugh, 62, an expert on aging with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
"We tend to age alone, with no one to call on in times of need," she said. "We don't have a daughter to move in with us _ we don't have a kid to call when we're admitted to the hospital because we fall and break a hip."
Yet some of the somber dynamics are beginning to change. Today's gay elderly do face unique problems _ but they also remember the bad old days in the closet, and many celebrate the joys of gay life in the 21st century.
___
Logically, Garrison Phillips ought to be a lonely man.
Though still handsome and charming as he approaches 79, he is, like most gay men of his generation, childless. His partner died five years ago. His older brother has refused to speak to him for decades.
Yet the former actor emerges regularly from his fifth-floor walk-up apartment in Manhattan to engage in an array of civic activities and volunteer work. He blogs, does public speaking and lobbying for SAGE, helps out at workshops on caregiving with tips learned from assisting his mother and aunts.
Phillips and his contemporaries lived most of their lives in an era where gays feared being too open about their sexuality. Only as elders have they witnessed the activism that has drastically reduced the ranks of closeted gays and built momentum in support of same-sex marriage.
"You were forced to lie every single day of your life," Phillips recalled. "I lied to my parents, I lied to my teachers, I lied to get into the Army. Now you don't have to lie anymore."
Phillips was raised in West Virginia, and served in Korea during the Korean War. He knew no other gay soldiers, and confided about being gay only to his company commander, a high school teacher.
"He respected who I was _ he told me to be careful," said Phillips, who still wears his dog tag and proudly shows the paperwork verifying his honorable discharge.
In his 40s, Phillips joined gay-rights demonstrations for the first time, and came out to his mother, who replied, "Son, what's wrong with that?"
He acted in TV shows, on stage and in a few films, eventually supplementing that career with a job at a New York law firm, and became increasingly engaged in gay activism.
"By the '70s, I reached a point where I didn't stay quiet any more _ I got tired and angry," he said.
He notes that his generation of gay men was depleted by AIDS, and many of the survivors have few, if any, close relatives to offer support.
"We're all in the same boat. Maybe there's a nephew or niece who helps out, but that's it," Phillips said. "One of the great things about SAGE is that I feel I have support, because I don't have any from my family."
Ruth Juster is 85. She's managed to build a family of her own _ she and her longtime partner raised a daughter they adopted from Paraguay, and now they're contemplating getting married.
Juster also keeps busy as chief organizer for SAGE's annual women's dance _ the 25th anniversary gala will take place in late October, and she hopes for a turnout of 500.
"There are always things still left to be done," she said at her West Village apartment. "My advice is to gather up your energy and courage, get involved and suddenly the world will feel open to you."
A Minneapolis native, Juster came to New York in 1945, seeking fame as a journalist. She worked for a news service and for magazines, traveled abroad, and gradually shifted into a long career in market research. Her first lesbian love affair occurred in Italy, in the 1950s; the couple returned together to New York.
"Way back then, being gay or lesbian was viewed as sinful. We hid. There were raids on the bars. Society looked down on us," she said.
"A lot of people remained under the influence of that prejudice and kept their lives secret. We have to reach these seniors and let them know life is much different now. You have to speak up."
Back in his prime, Frank Carter danced for Earl Hines, the great jazz pianist, and other well-known musical acts. He performed in night clubs and at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, even starred on a television show in Venezuela.
Now he has a pacemaker and a slew of daily medications, but his memory and self-deprecating humor remain sharp.
In his tiny backyard patio, he shows visitors a mesmerizing scrapbook filled with photographs of himself on stage and at backstage parties, as well as dozens of portraits of the stars he accompanied or met _ Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, Melba Moore among them. Artwork collected from his travels covers the walls of his apartment.
Born in Chicago in 1922, one of eight siblings, he taught himself dancing before moving to New York in 1949. "Use your heart," he remembers his mother telling him. "Do what you want to do."
He recalled some down times _ his youthful dismay at hearing an anti-gay epithet, some of his friends contracting HIV years later. But mostly he looked back with delight and pride.
Gigi Stoll, who describes their relationship as "like family," encourages his recollections.
"You were so bad," she teases approvingly.
"I was terrible," Carter replies, with a soft smile, "I had fun. People came after me. Sometimes you said yes, sometimes you said no. I could pick and choose."
"I've had a tremendous life," he added. "Not one moment do I regret."
If some gays in their 70s and 80s have been emboldened to speak up, the noise level from the generation following them will certainly be louder.
Gay and lesbian baby boomers _ sometimes called the Stonewall Generation in honor of the 1969 New York riots that launched the gay-rights movement _ have been accustomed since young adulthood to being open about their sexuality and aggressive in seeking civil rights.
This means that policy makers _ and the younger generation of gay-rights leaders _ are likely to face ongoing pressure from gay seniors to take their priorities into account.
"The Stonewall Generation is an activist generation," said Amber Hollibaugh. "We had to gear up to fight an epidemic (AIDS). We built the institutions to take care of our own community in the face of government refusal to do that, and we understand what it means to build an infrastructure to deal with our own aging."
Gay activists now regard the AARP as a valuable ally on aging issues _ and welcome this as a turnaround from benign neglect toward their elders in the past.
"It was clear we had to begin to pay some attention to what those different groups bring to the table," said Percil Stanford, the AARP's chief diversity officer.
With a membership spanning the political spectrum, the AARP generally doesn't take stands on gay-rights issues, such as same-sex marriage. However, Stanford said same-sex partners should be afforded the same rights regarding health care decisions that straight couples have.
Financial security also is a concern _ a bereaved gay or lesbian partner receives no Social Security survivor benefits. SAGE estimates that 70 percent of its clients have annual pretax incomes under $20,000, and Michael Adams says many gay boomers are notorious procrastinators _ worse than straights _ when it comes to long-term financial and health care planning.
Another challenge facing gay baby boomers _ perhaps more so than their straight counterparts _ is ageism. They perceive the celebration of youth and good looks, and the relative invisibility of older people, to be particularly pervasive in gay popular culture.
"It overvalues one stage in your life and underscores a fear of getting old _ not just 70 or 80, but 40 or 50," said Hollibaugh. "You're terrified. You think, 'It's over for me.' It creates a tendency to lie about how old we are."
Gay boomers are apt to shake up this mind-set, Hollibaugh said. "It's not a generation that's going to be quiet in the face of their own community's refusal to deal with aging."
I agree with Joe Bidden and Sen. Mikulski has a neat sense of humor!
STERLING, Va. (Associated Press) -- Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Friday that "ending the cowboy mentality of the Bush-McCain era" is part of the solution to the country's financial crisis.
"These guys have worshipped at the shrine of deregulation," Biden told about 1,000 supporters at a women's issues rally at a park in Loudoun County, a Virginia suburb of Washington that has been a key battleground in what is generally regarded as a swing state.
Biden jabbed at republican presidential candidate John McCain's response to the economic crisis, noting that until recently he had said the nation's economic fundamentals are sound.
"Something happened to John on the road to Damascus," Biden said.
Biden said there needs to be short-term, immediate intervention to "staunch the bleeding" in the financial markets and that in the long term, "we have to have a major, major overhaul of how the financial system works."
"There are all kinds of ideas Barack (Obama, the Democrats' presidential candidate) and I are putting together right now, but you can't do it haphazardly," said Biden. "Part of the solution is ending the cowboy mentality of the Bush-McCain era."
The McCain campaign countered Biden's rally with a "Women for McCain" press conference a few miles down the road. Susan Allen, wife of former U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., and Jeri Thompson, wife of former GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson, criticized Biden for remarks they characterized as linking higher taxes to patriotism.
"I don't want Joe Biden in my pocketbook. I'm patriotic enough," Allen said.
Allen called Biden "the gift that keeps on giving" and said he is prone to gaffes.
"He does mean well. It's just that things tumble out wrong," said Allen, whose husband's re-election campaign and possible presidential ambitions were thwarted after he referred to a low-level worker on his opponent's campaign as "Macaca."
Republicans jumped on Biden after he said in an interview Thursday: "We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Of those who would pay more, he said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
At Friday's rally, Biden said "there are a lot patriotic people out there making more than $250,000. ... We just haven't asked anything of them in this crisis."
Obama and Biden have said they will let lapse Bush administration tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 a year. McCain favors keeping the tax cuts in place.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., helped introduce Biden at the rally, referring to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as "George Bush in earrings."
I am completely amazed to report that in a week I raised $1,200! Please note that I don't know any rich people! And, I heard from friends all over the U.S. who said they couldn't give through my fundrasing effort because they had already contributed, or that they were contributing in other ways. My friend Brenda in Phoenix, Arizona said she had just spent $300 buying poster board, signs and buttons to outfit folks for an Obama rally today (Thursday). My friend Olga in San Francisco said she had just sent the maximum $2300 to the Obama campaign. One of my mother's best friends, a retiree from New Haven called to say that she wished she could contribute but that between the housing market and the stock market she was afraid for her financial future. She said, though, that she was talking to everyone she knows about the importance of electing Obama-Biden.
For this latest round of fundraising I wrote my own letter, since I felt that I needed to convey how high the stakes are in this election for me personally and politically. I'm posting it here in case it helps to inspire anyone with their own letters:
Dear Friends:
Before I was an anthropology professor I was a community organizer in Harlem starting tenants' organizations and developing the leadership and self-advocacy skills of low-income people. I was outraged when Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin mocked community organizing at the Republican National Convention. If it were not for community organizing there would have been no Civil Rights Movement, no women's movement, no labor movement. From the Voting Rights Act to the forty-hour work week we owe a great deal to community organizers and to the work they do to ensure that the people who suffer most from Republican policies have a voice and a chance to fight back.
With less than eight weeks until the presidential election, I am completely convinced that my vote for Obama-Biden is the most important I will cast in my life. I support Obama-Biden because I live in a nation where three times as many black babies die in infancy as white babies, where real wages have declined, where epidemics of chronic diseases related to poverty are rampant, where public schools are underfunded and unprepared to teach.
I support Obama-Biden because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost almost $350,000,000 per day, there are 47 million people in the U.S. without health insurance, and because black men are incarcerated at nearly ten times the rate of white men. I support the way in which the Obama campaign has catalyzed the grass-roots. For all its shortcomings, the Obama campaign has nurtured grass-roots democratic activism. And this grass-roots, democratic action is the key to my faith in an Obama presidency. An energized, mobilized and informed electorate vastly increases the chances that policies and laws will be enacted that improve the lives of those who suffer most.
The McCain-Palin ticket scares me. From their attacks on community organizers to their support for the wars and their ignorant belief in offshore drilling, it is frightening to imagine the conditions we will endure in four more years of Republican rule. It is crystal clear that if the Republicans win, people from Baltimore to Baghdad will suffer. Do we really need more debate about the truth of global warming? Can we really afford to privatize crumbling bridges and infrastructure? Shouldn't it be beyond discussion that all workers earn a living wage?
I am not uncritical of the Obama campaign, but starkly, irrevocably there is no choice. I am supporting Obama and I think you should too. Last Sunday I helped train canvassers going door to door in the Tonsler District of Charlottesville. On Sunday I registered voters in subsidized housing. If you want to volunteer --and I urge you to give what time you have--there is plenty of work to be done.
In addition to time and energy, the Obama campaign depends on your financial contributions. As a member of the Obama-Biden Grassroots Fundraising Committee I am committed to raising $1000 in the next month. Please, make a contribution to the campaign. Please contribute as much as you can. It is absolutely critical that the Obama campaign have the resources to win this election. Take a minute to check out my page and make a donation of any size, all contributions big and small are urgently needed. http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Wendentia
Thanks, Wende Marshall
p.s. Don't forget to vote!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Wendentia
Below is the text from an email sent to members of the Native Americans for Obama group. Please take time to read it -- this is very important!! As Alaskan governor, her policies toward Native Americans have been horrible. As VP or possibly President, we could see Native American rights all over the United States severely eroded! We cannot allow this to happen!!
-----------------
From Native Americans for Obama group this week:
-------------Date: Sep 9, 2008 8:03 PM
Tribal Sovereignty, subsistence hunting & fishing as well as the Indian Child Welfare Act must not be overturned.
Sarah Palin's Record on Alaska Native and Tribal Issues
(Joy Harjo writes: Thanks to Suzan Harjo for this. She says,"I had a very tiny hand in it, but it's best to say that it was written by Alaska Native people. I did fact-checking and cite-checking, and can verify its accuracy.")
1.Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence FishingPerhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoplesas the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary andtraditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence way of lifefor future generations.
Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those rights.
Once in office, Governor Palin decided to continue litigation thatseeks to overturn every subsistence fishing determination thefederal government has ever made in Alaska. (State of Alaska
v. Norton, 3:05-cv-0158- HRH (D. Ak).)
In pressing this case, Palindecided against using the Attorney General (which usually handlesState litigation) and instead continued contracting with Senator TedStevens' brother-in-law' s law firm (Birch, Horton, Bittner &Cherot).
The goal of Palin's law suit is to invalidate all the subsistencefishing regulations the federal government has issued to date toprotect Native fishing, and to force the courts instead to take overthe roll of setting subsistence regulations.Palin's law suit seeksto diminish subsistence fishing rights in order to expand sport andcommercial fishing.
In May 2007, the federal court rejected the State's main challenge,holding that Congress in 1980 had expressly granted the U.S.
Interior and Agriculture Departments the authority to regulate andprotect Native and rural subsistence fishing activities in Alaska.
(Decision entered May 15, 2007 (Dkt. No. 110).)
Notwithstanding this ruling, Palin continues to argue in thelitigation that the federal subsistence protections are too broad,and should be narrowed to exclude vast areas from subsistencefishing, in favor of sport and commercial fishing.
Palin opposes subsistence protections in marine waters, on many of the lands thatNatives selected under their 1971 land claims settlement with thestate and federal governments, and in many of the rivers whereAlaska Natives customarily fish. (Alaska Complaint at 15-18.)
Palin also opposes subsistence fishing protections on Alaska Nativefederal allotments that were deeded to individuals purposely tofoster Native subsistence activities.All these issues are nowpending before the federal district court.
2.Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Hunting
Palin has also sought to invalidate critical determinations theFederal Subsistence Board has made regarding customary andtraditional uses of game, specifically to take hunting opportunitiesaway from Native subsistence villagers and thereby enhance sporthunting.
Palin's attack here on subsistence has focused on the Ahtna Indianpeople in Chistochina.Although the federal district court hasrejected Palin's challenge, she has carried on an appeal that wasargued in August 2008. (State of Alaska v. Fleagle, No. 07-35723(9th Cir.).)
In both hunting and fishing matters, Palin has continueduninterrupted the policies initiated by the former Governor FrankMurkowski Administration, challenging hunting and fishingprotections that Native people depend upon for their subsistence wayof life in order to enhance sport fishing and hunting opportunities.
Palin's lawsuits are a direct attack on the core way of life ofNative Tribes in rural Alaska.
3.Palin has attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty
Governor Palin opposes Alaska tribal sovereignty.
Given past court rulings affirming the federally recognized tribalstatus of Alaska Native villages, Palin does not technicallychallenge that status.
But Palin argues that Alaska Tribes have noauthority to act as sovereigns, despite their recognition.
So extreme is Palin on tribal sovereignty issues that she has soughtto block tribes from exercising any authority whatsoever even overthe welfare of Native children, adhering to a 2004 legal opinionissued by the former Murkowski Administration that no suchjurisdiction exists (except when a state court transfers a matter toa tribal court).
Both the state courts and the federal courts have struck downPalin's policy of refusing to recognize the sovereign authority ofAlaska Tribes to address issues involving Alaska Native children.
Native Village of Tanana v.State of Alaska, 3AN-04-12194 CI(judgment entered Aug. 26, 2008) (Ak. Super. Ct.); Native KaltagTribal Council v. DHHS, No. 3:06-cv-00211- TMB (D. Ak.), pending onappeal No 08-35343 (9th Cir.)).
Nonetheless, Palin's policy ofrefusing to recognize Alaska tribal sovereignty remains unchanged.
4.Palin has attacked Alaska Native Languages
Palin has refused to accord proper respect to Alaska Nativelanguages and voters by refusing to provide language assistance toYup'ik speaking Alaska Native voters.
As a result, Palin was just ordered by a special three-judge panel
of federal judges to providevarious forms of voter assistance to Yup'ik voters residing insouthwest Alaska. Nick v. Bethel, No. 3:07-cv-0098- TMB (D. Ak.)(Order entered July 30, 2008).
Citing years of State neglect, Palinwas ordered to provide trained poll workers who are bilingual inEnglish and Yup'ik; sample ballots in written Yup'ik; a writtenYup'ik glossary of election terms; consultation with local Tribes toensure the accuracy of Yup'ik translations; a Yup'ik languagecoordinator; and pre-election and post-election reports to the courtto track the State's efforts.
In sum, measured against some the rights that are most fundamentalto Alaska Native Tribes - the subsistence way of life, tribalsovereignty and voting rights - Palin's record is a failure.
Poll: US-Europe relations need ObamaBy: Alexander Burns September 10, 2008 02:32 PM EST
By significant margins, Europeans have high hopes for a potential Obama administration, according to a Transatlantic Trends poll of 12 European countries.Forty-seven percent of Europeans believe an Obama victory in November would lead to a better relationship between the United States and Europe, versus just 5 percent who think Obama would weaken the trans-Atlantic relationship.By comparison, only 11 percent think Sen. John McCain would strengthen European-American relations if he were elected president. More than half of respondents said a McCain administration would keep relations between the United States and Europe in roughly the condition they are now.The poll, commissioned by the German Marshall Fund and conducted by the firm TNS Opinion from June 4-28, queried at least a thousand respondents in each of a dozen countries, including Germany, France, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey.The survey’s release Wednesday follows the news of a BBC poll, conducted by the GlobeScan service and published Tuesday, showing that in 17 of 22 nations tested, respondents across the globe expected an Obama win would improve American relations with the rest of the world.
It also comes on the heels of a report Tuesday that Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, intends to publish a column praising Obama’s response to the troubled real estate market. In an unorthodox step for a foreign leader, Brown is expected to argue: “In the electrifying U.S. Presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times.”According to the Transatlantic Trends report, Brown’s upbeat assessment of the Democratic presidential nominee is shared by the majority of his country: 75 percent of British respondents said they had a favorable or very favorable opinion of Obama.Among Europeans more generally, that number was only slightly lower: 69 percent said they had a favorable impression of the Illinois senator.McCain’s favorability ratings are considerably lower, with just 26 percent of Europeans giving him the thumbs up. He is also significantly less well-known than Obama: 29 percent of respondents did not render an up-or-down judgment on the Republican nominee, compared with just 19 percent who had no impression of Obama.It is hardly shocking that Obama would be better liked in Europe than his opponent, given that McCain is a member of the same political party as President Bush. The president has consistently received dismal poll ratings from abroad, and in 2004 a GlobeScan survey showed Europeans favored the election of Sen. John F. Kerry by similarly wide margins — 74 percent to 7 percent in Norway, 74 percent to 10 percent in Germany and 64 percent to 5 percent in France.It is also no surprise that Europeans would be more familiar with Obama than with McCain. In late July, Obama toured several European nations as part of a weeklong trip abroad, giving a speech in Berlin that attracted an audience in the hundreds of thousands.Yet even as the Transatlantic Trends poll highlights Obama’s popularity in Europe, it outlines some of the diplomatic hurdles that any American president will face, regardless of party.While 80 percent of Americans call it very or somewhat desirable for the United States to “exert strong leadership in world affairs,” just 33 percent of Europeans say the same. A quarter of European respondents called an assertive United States “very undesirable.”While a majority of Europeans — 55 percent — said the United States and the European Union have close enough values to make diplomatic cooperation possible, they’re still less confident about it than Americans, 67 percent of whom said the United States and the EU could tackle international issues together.And some persistent diplomatic disagreements, such as resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also remain: Europeans expressed considerably less positive feelings about the state of Israel than did Americans.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13312.html
McCain and Palin will accuse Obama of something just to avoid discussing what's really important.
NORFOLK, Va. (Associated Press) -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is accusing John McCain's campaign of "lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics" in claiming he had made a sexist comment against vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Obama on Wednesday called the Republicans' criticism of his use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" a "made-up controversy."
On a campaign stop Tuesday, Obama criticized McCain economic policies as more of the same from the Bush administration. He said: "You can put lipstick on a pig ... it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."
McCain's campaign has accused Obama of "smearing" Palin in "offensive and disgraceful" comments.
Palin not only condones the horrendous practice [frowned upon by most regular hunters] of aerial killing of adult wolves, but their surviving pups are shot as well?! RELATED ARTICLES: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund Statement:
http://www.defendersactionfund.org/releases/090308.html
Sarah Palin and the Environment [Alaska]:
http://www.defendersactionfund.org/newsroom/sarah_palin.html
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund's VIDEOS [2]: Palin a Champion of Aerial Hunting
https://secure.defenders.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=c406_090308palinwolf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGPFPBmzRrQ
And from the Huffington Post:
"As if this wasn't enough, now Palin's administration is allowing its "Department of Wildlife Conservation" to enter into wolf dens and slaughter wolf pups; in July, her employees went to retrieve adult wolf carcasses they had shot a month earlier from a helicopter and then found the wolves' pups in their den and so dispatched them one-by-one with pistol shots to the head. They then tried to conceal their actions from the public. When they were exposed, they said they had tried to place the orphaned wolves with zoos. Then the zoos said no one had contacted them. Meanwhile, Palin's government spent $400,000 in taxpayer money on an aerial wolf hunting "education" program to lobby for the program. This is the sort of thing you can expect from Sarah Palin if she gets to be a heartbeat away from the presidency."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-hurowitz/sarah-palins-cruel-streak_b_123388.html
A wonderful video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpniuotfpR8
This just posted from CNN Poll Ticker:
----quote
Palin speech pulls in $8 million — for Obama
Posted: 08:08 PM ETFrom CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser The Obama campaign is pulling in cash following Palin's speech.
(CNN) – Barack Obama's campaign says it has raised more than $8 million from over 130,000 donors following Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday night.
The campaign also says it is on track to raise $10 million before John McCain takes the podium at the Republican National Convention tonight.
--------end quote
Just goes to prove that being such an unprincipled, nasty, mocking barracuda really pays off in the Lower '48 -- FOR OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOW MUCH HIGHER CAN WE BOOST THIS TEACH-THE-HOCKEY-MOM-ABOUT-THE-OBAMA-REALITY FUNDRAISER TODAY?? CAN EVERYONE READING THIS POST CONTRIBUTE JUST $5?? Or more if you can? Let's let our feelings about what we saw last night -- and today -- drive our donations to the campaign!
YES, WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-mccain-thinking-one-alaskans-perspective/
Lovely Downtown Wasilla, Alaska
“Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image.
There is no doubt in my mind that many Alaskans are feeling pretty excited about this. But we live in our own little bubble up here, and most of the attention we get is because of The Bridge to Nowhere, polar bears, the indictment of Ted Stevens, and the ongoing investigation and conviction of the string of legislators and oil executives who literally called themselves “The Corrupt Bastards Club”.
So seeing our governor out there in the national spotlight accepting the nomination for Vice Presidential candidate is just downright surreal. Just months ago, when rumors surfaced that she was on the long version of the short list, she was questioned if she’d be interested in the position. She said she couldn’t answer “until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day. I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here….”
There is no doubt that Palin has fierce territorial loyalties. When elected governor there was much concern because she came right out and said she would favor her own home town of Wasilla (where she was mayor) and its surrounding environs collectively known as “the Valley” while leading the state. And it’s obvious from her statement that Alaska was on her mind when accepting the VP nod (see my emphasis above).
So what is it that we’re “trying to accomplish up here”?
Will all this wash with voters in the ‘Lower 48′? Time will tell.
18 Million Cracks in the Glass Ceiling
It was obvious anyway, but became beat-you-over-the-head-with-a-two-by-four obvious when Palin referenced the ‘glass ceiling’ line, that this choice is a blatant pander to women. I would like to believe that women will actually feel insulted by this. Yes, it would have been historic if Hillary had gotten the nomination. It was historic that she made it as far as she did. Yes, it would be great to have a woman in the oval office, or in the VP slot if they are the right woman…a woman who got there with her own drive, grit, determination, intelligence, skill and merits. When you’re hand-picked by a man to win votes simply because you are a woman, that doesn’t count, and it doesn’t break any kind of ceiling. Would we have had a Stan Palin as our VP pick? No. So choosing a woman because you think her gender will get votes is insulting.
Governor “Squeakyclean”….or not.
Another focus of Palin’s introduction today was her reform image. Listen to John McCain and you’ll hear about a maverick reformer who took on big oil, took on corrupt Alaska politicians, and whose ethics are unquestioned.
Alaskans really want to like Sarah Palin. In a state where corruption is the rule, and the same faces keep recycling over and over and over again like a bad dream, a new face, with a promise of reform seemed like a breath of fresh air. Palin defeated incumbent governor Frank Murkowski (father of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski who he appointed to his own Senate seat when he was elected governor) because he was such an obnoxious, bloviating, downright BAD politician. This staunchly republican state voted with relief, not having to cross over and vote Democratic, but still able to get Murkowski the hell out of office. In the general election Palin swept into office running against a former Democratic governor, Tony Knowles, who was capable but came with baggage. And he represented to Alaskans more of the same, tired old-style politics, and special interests that we have come to loathe.
So, if McCain had made his selection six months ago, the squeaky-clean governor meme would have made a little more sense. But, Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have newfound celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin. For those of you not interested in trashy novels, feel free to skip ahead. Here it is…what we in Alaska call “TrooperGate”.
Sarah Palin’s sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin’s father accompanied him on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody fight. Wooten’s story is that he was basically stalked by the family.
After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to kept his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin’s appointed new chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of town and Monegan got “offered another job” (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans. Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, before this investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation was going to find. (No, I’m not making this up). The AG interviewed several people, unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.
As if this weren’t enough, Monegan’s appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was reassigned after sexual harrassment allegations by a former coworker who didn’t like all the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.
After extensive news coverage about all this nasty behind-the-scenes scandal, which is definitely NOT squeaky clean, Palin’s approval ratings fell to 67%, still high, but a far cry from the 90% number that’s being thrown around so glibly by the Republicans today. Alaskans are quickly becoming disillusioned once again.
“Executive Experience”
Before her meteoric rise to political success as governor, just two short years ago Sarah Palin was the mayor of Wasilla. I had a good chuckle at MSN.com’s claim that she had been the mayor of “Wasilla City”. It is not a city. Just Wasilla. Wasilla is the heart of the Alaska “Bible belt” and Sarah was raised amongst the tribe that believes creationism should be taught in our public schools, homosexuality is a sin, and life begins at conception. She’s a gun-toting, hang ‘em high conservative. Remember…this is where her approval ratings come from. There is no doubt that McCain again is making a strategic choice to appeal to a particular demographic - fundamentalist right-wing gun-owning Christians. And Republican bloggers are already gushing about how she has ‘more executive experience’ than Obama does! Above is a picture of lovely downtown Wasilla, for those of you unfamiliar with the area. Behind the Mug-Shot Saloon (the first bar I visited when I moved to Alaska long ago) is a little strip mall. There are street signs in Wasilla with bullet holes in them. Wasilla has a population of about 5500 people, and 1979 occupied housing units. This is where your potential Vice President was two short years ago. Can you imagine her negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty? Discussing foreign policy? Understanding non-Alaskan issues? Frankly, I don’t even know if she’s ever been out of the country. She may ‘get’ Alaska, but there are only a half a million people here. Don’t get me wrong….I love Alaska with all my heart. I’m just saying.
I, and all Alaskans will be interested to see how this whole process unfolds. This is definitely a gamble for McCain, and in my humble opinion, a gift to Obama and to Joe Biden who just got thrown a big hunk of red meat for the vice presidential debate.
This is the wedge-issue, desperate ’Hail Sarah’ pass of the McCain campaign.
Now I’m off to get some Jiffy Pop.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/08/hail-sarah-pass-open-thread.html
Do you know any Democrats who say they're going to either not vote or vote for McSame? Tell them to read this article -- it should help to change their mind!
We need UNITY at our convention this week, and all the way through the November election!
Read the full article here:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3866/jumping_ship/
