if we could start planting some yard signs -
"FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS VOTE REPUBLICANS"
in the yards already sporting obama signs on busy, heavily trafficked streets...
i've been talking to americans on the ground in NH and SC and NC and VA and OH -
and i see a crying need for us to reach out to a lot of our fellow americans, esp the salvageable repubs...
if we can demonstrate a warm affection, a sense of humor... that'd go a long way to defusing the eruption and blowback/payback i see coming on november 5th... and that i have experienced a little with my obama bumperstickers and buttons...
google Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Republican" - there's a yard sign for $20, bumperstickers...
i joke with repubs that we're gonna have to tie them up to a chair on election day and let the air out of their tires -we gotta do what we gotta do - and it'll be fine, they'll see... it usually brings a sweet smile [NEVER A VOTE!] and that's a start...
if we could be gracious winners... and start the hard work of truth and reconciliation now...
barack and michelle have done their part - they coulda torn their opponents and critics a new asshole 1000 times and instead they have kept their peace...
we need to try hard to bring our repub americans around... we want to be inclusive and part of the One Nation under God that barack has called us to?
$20... if you go up to the door of anyone who has planted a yardsign - and ask them if they'd be willing to add this,another one... if they can spot the $20 cost or not...
like johnny appleseed - planting a warm communalism???
fired UP!
online, you can get yardsigns and bumperstickers and buttons -
our repub fellow Americans, some of them, are SPITTING MAD...
if we could reach out to them, keeping our peace, showing a warm sense of humor...
so if you can buy a yardsign or a few for $20 online... and drive around to wherever you see an OBAMA 08 yard sign up and go up to the door and ask that person if he/she/they'd be willing to add this sign too - as a community outreach ----
ESP on busy streets that get a lot of traffic ---
if, like johnny appleseed, these could start popping up between now and nov 4 -
it'd show we have a sense of humor and we want the divisions to END after a legit win on november 4...
let's be gracious winners? starting now?
i tell salvageable repubs [and even die hards] that we're gonna tie our repub friends to a chair on election day and let the air out of their tires... cuz we gotta do what we gotta do...
it almost always brings a smile - and relieves SOME of the tension - the repubs are increasingly mad and it's not just their team losing - it's having to face how wrong they've been, how they were duped and sold a bill of goods... pretty hard stuff, esp for the older ones...
let's TRY to be what their nice speeches promised:
a kinder gentler nation
a shining city on the hill...
??
for Roman Catholics and evangelicals and everyone who is dealing with fellow members of our churches who are trying to overlay belief and personal principles onto a secular government...
how about if we had bumperstickers made
CATHOLICS for OBAMA and for
the separation of church and state
or next to a CATHOLICS FOR OBAMA 08 bumpersticker,
put one CATHOLICS for the separation of church and state -
this can be done - google custom bumperstickers... there are a few companies - they have templates and ship right away, even just 1 or a small quantity... the quality is excellent - you can have car magnets made too if you don't want to paste something on your car...
i think we want to ask our fellow citizens to think! not to assume we are as reflexive as they are...even Jesus didn't try to legislate sex lives... and how WOULD abortion laws be enforced... are we going to add a whole 'nother layer of law enforcement - do females have to report a pregnancy within X days like registering for the draft? are we going to make people PROVE their miscarriages Were REALLY miscarriages? dear God - what are people thinking...
and what WOULD Jesus do? what He did... He persuaded and he showed love and he tried to illuminate... NOT legislate, not arrest, not cast out of a secular society...
barack winning is only the beginning of a LOT OF outreach we need to do to our fellow citizens who are racist or intolerant or selfish or bullying or whatever we see... we need to do what we can...
this thing is won - but there is a lot to do to fulfill the promise of all of us increasingly coming together as Americans... all of us, Americans...
david brooks nailed it that she has the same "brashness and excessive decisiveness" -
but i have bristled at how The Left went after her as not being a feminist - she is exactly what the woman's movement wanted - a woman who has fulfilled herself in a marriage and family and career and community according to HER dreams for herSELF... conservative Jewish and Catholic women, women who stay-at-home OR forego marriage and family... these are all the right choices for individual women - and it has nothing to do with ideology...
it was awful to see Obama people going after her like Rush or Hannity go after our prominent people... i hope that stops...and we let palin be palin
it HAS to be richardson - governor kaine in VA is great but doesn't have the foreign policy experience -
AND hillary went to NM but i didn't see that she is going to VA...
nader said barack would pick hillary as JFK had to ask LBJ - canNOT imagine that -
he mentioned sam nunn, too
2 day [fact-finding, on the ground?] trip?
that DOES suggest it's biden for VP - for the foreign policy angle [even though richardson is as good and as well qualified on that] -
gotta be richardson or biden...
after i saw that hillary clinton was in NM on sunday and barack doing a town hall in NM on monday, i thought Of Course... she is there to heal the whatever rift [or pretend to, more precisely] -
mark warner is the keynote and that is such a sure and necessary win for the senate seat in VA -
patti solis doyle appointed as the chief of staff for a VP when there wasn't one yet -
it all added up - which is very barack. nothing is a great surprise - they're playing chess while most of the rest of us are playing checkers - and they're mostly WAY ahead of us As We Want A President To Be...
but also they are reliable and even predictable... steady. Nothing will seem a surprise or so unexpected, etc... not from an obama administration that Includes The People and proceeds forth doing what is right for the people by a value-laden decisionmaking process with certain predictable elements to it -
a good ticket, i think -
howard dean looked positively euphoric on saturday - he's worked so hard, so much of this is possible because of him - we owe him immeasurably and it was so sweet to see him enjoying himself after putting in a killer 3+ years laying the groundwork for this -
A Great American, howard dean -
barack is holding a town hall meeting in New Mexico tomorrow; hillary is there today -
mark warner is giving the keynote address and also is 40 points ahead of the repub in his senate race in virginia...
_______________
surely, tom ridge is mccain's smartest choice - that's the bumper sticker of 2008 - President Ridge [or Romney]???
given that john mccain has outlived his dad and grandfather by 10 and 20 years - and had more stress and a life-threatening bout with malignant melanoma -
just the facts -
and nice platitudes...
Morning In America [myth while the reality was that the country and its companies and communities were Carved Up and jobs shipped overseas and the rich got richer and there was NO trickle down in the voodoo economics that started the Era of Greed Run Amok]
Shining City on The Hill
Kinder, Gentler Nation [still waiting - that was promised by George HW Bush mouthing peggy noonan's words in august 1988, fully 20 years ago when we couldn't imagine how greedy and selfish we were YET to become in america]
1000 points of light - ditto
_____________
last night, john mccain saying we are a beacon of light - maybe for an admiral's son, the son of an heiress, the husband of an heiress ---
but not for the Americans i talk to - the obama supporters are trying to do what they can - others are scared to death or too much in need in a land of PLENTY...
it is the REPUBLICANS who do the Nice Speeches and no action -
john mccain said last night that he wants to inspire a generation to join the Peace Corps, the initiative of a Democratic President Kennedy
or Americorps... which the Clintons promoted and supported heavily 15 years ago ---
SO... which party is known for the Nice Speeches? and which is known for memorable oratory then
i have been to NH, SC, NC, Northern VA and now OH...talked to hundreds of people in parking lots and grocery stores...everywhere -
and i have seen that smears are irrelevant. truly.
the people who need to think badly of michelle - are just deflecting politically incorrect not wanting to vote for barack [for a VARIETY of excuse/reasons] -
muslim, pledge of allegiance [it wasn't that - it was the star spangled banner], elitist --- it's all excuses tacked on to someone Who Wasn't Going To Vote For Barack anyway.
honestly... you can show someone ABSOLUTELY how false something is, they move to a different baseless complaint -
and so i realize that all our talk about hope and change to believe in and believing in our ability to make change --- we gotta Walk The Walk on this one --- and as i have struggled with my own moments of fear or clenching or anger at What The Other Side Is Putting Out -
i realize i gotta believe. i gotta believe in other americans. i gotta believe in whatever has brought all of us here and is gonna take us OUT [which is God to many people but not many others] -
i gotta believe in The Good - the triumph of good because evil is always repulsive once it is clear that is what it is - we all shrink back from The Bad...
i am going to always try to recallibrate back to faith and hope and believing - even with the negativity...
i am going to honor those who gave so much 40-50 years ago in the struggle for civil rights - to manage the negativity that is far less dangerous or threatening as we get the negativity of anti-obama citizens who are enraged because they know The Gig Is Up...We Won't Be Fooled Again...
i am going to remember to keep the faith, keep hope alive, believe in my fellow americans as i believe in my own efforts...
i am NOT going to give into fear... i am not going to worry - i am going to be happy in the community of now, the wonder of this time and that i have lived to see it and have been free to be part of it -
bumpersticker seen in walmart parking lot in columbus OHIO, available on www.northernsun.com
not inflammatory, just wry...
The tactics used against Barack Obama have been highly tainted with mockery by the McCain campaign. As a christian I feel McCain crossed the line of "taking-the-name-and-likeness-of-God-in-vain". McCain's advertisment depicting Barack Obama as "Moses" or referred to Barack Obama as the coming Messiah is simply taking the name of God in vain. The best way to handle such negative tactics is to apply true spiritual tactics by fasting and praying not only for Barack Obama's success but also the country. I will and I ask that others fast 40 days and 40 nights before election for Barack Obama to be able to fight against those who mock him. And pray that God bless this country with a strong leader, Barack Obama.
Yesterday, the Senate passed FISA legislation that sold out our Fourth Amendment rights.
According to the ACLU: The FISA Amendments Act allows for mass, untargeted and warrantless surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States. And to top it off, it hands immunity to telecom companies for their role in domestic spying. This means your phone calls can be tapped and emails read with virtually no proof of threat, and there's no chance to learn how the telecoms invaded your privacy.
In a word, WHOA.
Of course Bush will sign it. And if elected, McCain will support it.
I sure am glad we have the ACLU fighting for our rights. Hopefully if elected, Obama will too.
I am one who still feels that Al Gore should have been our President. Some may disagree, but his record shows he is a great man who cares deeply about this country, it's people, and our planet. I was THRILLED that he endosed Obama's candidacy. Not that I can fathom a way that McCain could come close to winning this election, but I believe Gore's support will help ease the discomfort of some undecided voters.
On CNN, MSNBC, etc. this evening, the talking heads mostly agreed that Al Gore's support won't do much for the "Hillary voters" - I disagree, but be that as it may, I believe his endorsement wuill reign in some Libertarians, Greends, and Independents. Why? Because those parties have all grown since the 2000 (and 2004) elections for the same reason that organizations such as moveon.org have expanded. Their members are the disenfranchised voters of 2000.
I speak first-hand, as I admit, I haven't felt a part of the Democratic party much at all but especially since then. Briefly, I vainly tried to get behind Dean... then Kerry ... enough said.
So, now in 2008, with this great candidate Obama on the stump, I gave the Democratic party another chance at keeping me. I dare say I fave the "Audacity of Hope" as well. Thank you, Barack, for putting yourself out there, for helping our voices be heard again, for making a chance.
And thanks to Al Gore for giving him a boost.
Julie K.
