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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/24/florida_voting/print.html
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By Mike Madden
Oct. 24, 2008 |
Sure, Ted Ravelo likes Barack Obama. But two hours is a long time to stand in line to vote, especially considering that it's still October. "This has to be remedied," Ravelo, 72, said Wednesday morning, shaking his head, as he gave up on voting early -- at least that day -- at the North Miami Public Library, where a couple of dozen voting machines and their operators were struggling in vain to keep pace with a flood of citizens. "Something has to be done." A line stretched two blocks from the building, as other voters doggedly stood -- or sat on the folding chairs many of them had brought along -- for up to two hours while waiting to cast their ballots.
It may have been a bit too much for Ravelo. He said he'd probably have to give it another shot on Election Day, and that his daughters -- who have to work on Nov. 4, and who sent him to scout out the wait time -- might not get to vote at all. But compared to Monday here, when early voting opened, two hours on Wednesday was a breeze; on the first day, officials and community activists said, the wait was three times that long.
A visit to Florida in the waning days of the 2008 presidential campaign threatens to evoke a certain sense of déjà vu for another late October eight years ago. Once again, polls show the state is deadlocked -- and once again, there's a very real possibility that a lot of people who support the Democratic candidate could have trouble voting.
This time, of course, it won't be butterfly ballots or Brooks Brothers riots that get in the way, and there's no chance Pat Buchanan will pick up any votes from confused elderly Jews in Palm Beach or any other county (if only because he's not running). But even so, a combination of heavy turnout and widespread confusion over new ID laws at the polling places could overwhelm the system again. "I don't believe that anybody's going to be ready for the onslaught of voters," said Roger Weeden, an Orlando lawyer who's working with Election Protection, a national coalition of civil rights and public interest groups that will monitor problems with voting around the country through Nov. 4. The new law -- known as "no match, no vote" -- says you need identification at the polls, and you can't vote if the address on it doesn't match what's in state or federal databases. Rumors are flying, especially in minority communities, that the law is even more restrictive. On Tuesday night, Miami's "Hot 105" soul station spent a good 30 minutes during the evening rush hour discussing potential voting problems.
Another difference this time around, though, is that Obama's campaign seems to be ready for problems. Part of the reason early voting has been so busy (nearly half a million people voted in Florida in the first three days) is because the campaign isn't shy about telling supporters to get out and vote ahead of time. "You can vote early right here and right now," Obama told about 30,000 people at a downtown Miami rally Tuesday night. Aides were concerned enough that some of the wilder rumors would suppress turnout that they sent a campaign lawyer out to warm up the crowd before Barack and Michelle Obama appeared. "How many of you have heard the rumor that you won't be allowed to go to the polls and vote if you're wearing a Barack Obama button or T-shirt?" the lawyer asked, getting a big roar from the crowd. "Well, guess what -- that's just not true."
Obama's team has been gearing up to turn people out, focusing especially on getting them to vote early and avoid the crunch on Nov. 4. More than 100 field offices are set up around the state; deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand and his consulting partner Paul Tewes, the duo who engineered the field strategy for Iowa and other early primary and caucus states that helped Obama win the nomination, moved to Florida a few weeks ago to help run their massive operation here. So far, it looks effective: More than 54 percent of the early ballots in have been cast by registered Democrats, according to state statistics, which might help offset a Republican edge in requests for mail-in absentee ballots.
Judging from what some people were saying -- at the Tuesday night rally and among those voting the next morning -- Obama's campaign didn't have to scare anyone into participating early. "I didn't want to take a chance of something happening and me not getting my vote in," said Rony Francis, 43, who directs operations for a transportation company. He waited 90 minutes to vote at the North Miami library, where most of the voters who joined him were Haitians and other immigrants.
"It's always in your mind, especially after eight years ago," said Al Morrell, 51, a truck driver, also from North Miami. "So you gotta be a little wary."
The night before, Tasha Thomas, 26, who works at the University of Miami's veterinary school, had told me she'd been besieged by weird, panicky questions from supporters since she started volunteering at the Obama field office in her Miami neighborhood. People thought they couldn't vote if their voter registration card was starting to fade, or thought they had to go back to the state where they were born to vote, even if they lived in Florida now. "It was eye-opening, how much wrong information so many people have," she said.
Election Protection plans to have lawyers roaming from polling place to polling place around the state on Election Day, ready to help voters who can't find their precincts or have questions about the process. (Though the group is officially nonpartisan, there's not much doubt that anyone working hard to increase turnout is probably sympathetic to Obama.) "Voter suppression is something that anybody who has any sense of commitment to democracy or civil rights would want to fight against," said Weeden, a criminal defense lawyer who also helped monitor election sites in 2004. Back then, he and other volunteers encountered people who had been called and told their polling places had changed, or found suspicious characters lurking outside precincts with clipboards, asking people if they had met rigorous requirements to vote that went above and beyond what the law says.
While McCain is contesting the state as furiously as he is any other battleground -- he made several stops on a bus tour along Interstate 4 on Thursday, crossing from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico -- his top surrogate, Gov. Charlie Crist, hasn't been entirely on message when it comes to issues surrounding the ballot box. (Some local Republicans say prospects for the McCain campaign here are looking dim anyway.) In most states, Republicans are busy whipping up a frenzy about alleged voter fraud, mostly trying to tie it to the community organizing group ACORN (which is a member of Election Protection) and, by implication, accusing Obama of trying to steal the White House.
Crist, though, isn't buying the party line on that one. "I don't think we anticipate much of a problem with voter fraud," he told reporters on a conference call organized by McCain's campaign Tuesday afternoon (which it probably regretted later). So far, the state government in Tallahassee hasn't moved to block a ruling that says voters whose IDs don't match their registration information can correct the problem in person on Election Day, rather than having to go to another office and fix it before their ballot is accepted. Perhaps as a result of Crist's calm, even McCain's die-hard supporters at a Thursday morning rally in Ormond Beach didn't seem too worried about voter fraud. Of course, that's a matter of degree; several insisted that Democrats always get away with some fraud, but they didn't expect things to be worse than usual this year.
If Florida were expected to go as easily for McCain as it did for George W. Bush four years ago (if not eight years ago), the issue might not matter that much. But the more people who show up to vote, the better the night is likely to be for Obama. Democrats are paying close attention. "We have a chance this year, as a nation, to go past that horrendous 48 percent of eligible voters who participate in presidential elections, with the unprecedented number of young voters, independent voters, minority voters, that are participating in this," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told Salon prior to appearing at an early-vote rally for Latinos in Kissimmee, Fla., on Wednesday. He noted that he's heard reports of rumors about voting problems among Hispanic communities in Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico as well. But, he said of expected record turnouts, "It's very healthy for our democracy, and we should take advantage of it, not engage in negative tactics and voter suppression."
Obama's most passionate supporters, meanwhile, say they're ready to show up no matter what they hear. "We're smart," said Sherrie Kendrick, a retired phone operator from Miami, who will turn 54 on Election Day. "We may not look it, but we're smart."
-- By Mike Madden
A horrified America watched John McCain stagger up from his debate chair last night and turn into a monster. He almost caught our Barack Obama! What was happening? Clearly, the special anti-monster juice McCain drinks before public appearances was starting to wear off. They got him in the titanium-lined SWAT van just before he fully transformed. But fully transformed into what?
HORRIBLE MEDIEVAL WEREWOLF: This would actually explain a lot, including, probably, why McCain is always talking about medieval Ireland, when he was a boy, before he was bitten by a werewolf, which put a terrible end to his happy carefree days of being a Celtic warrior who always crashed his horse into the enemy’s village.
HORRIBLE CHILD-EATING DEATH CLOWN: No wonder McCain’s handlers try to get him away from those debate audiences so quick! He was just moments away from turning into this evil-ass thing, the New Hampshire Primary Murder Clown, Rich Uncle Pennywise! Imagine being stuck on Secret Service duty with this campaign. Imagine having to bury the bodies every night.
EVIL GORGON MEDUSA: Walnuts has always roamed the Earth, in his various guises, but by night, he shows his true death’s head, the GORGONEION from Hades, where he spent Five and a Half Million Years. (This is also the face he makes when he has sexytime! Your tax dollars pay for his Viagra!)
DISGUSTING CLASSIC-ROCK GIMMICK CAR: There is nothing more hideous than 700-year-old arena rocker Gene Simmons, so it stands to reason that John McCain is the demon father of the KISS monster. Legend says shitty ‘71 Volkswagen Beetles with home paint jobs and huge styrofoam monster skulls/tongues were frequently on the scene before the Crusaders lost Jerusalem to the Arabs led by Bill Ayers the Terrorist Muslin.
EVIL SILENT-MOVIE GERMAN VAMPIRE: And now, a quote from Bram Stoker’s Dracula: “As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me… a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal. When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demonaic fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat.”
Yes, that sounds about right.
THE BEAST: But our demonic experts here on the Wonkette staff finally concluded McCain was turning into this hell-beast of yore, as seen here in a 16th Century woodcut. These demonic shit-monsters once roamed the Eastern Seaboard, until they were captured by Benedict Arnold in 1776 and taught Naval Command skills at Annapolis. The creatures spawn a single fetus from the “egg duct” every hundred years; the fourth spawn of the cycle is always a crazy, self-obsessed idiot who has no military skillz.
We just raised 13,250.00! That is amazing! Thanks so much to all of you who pitched in to our biggest fundraiser ever- and the hosts were so thrilled with the support they will also match that donation to the National Democratic Party- thanks Shana and Andy Laursen! It takes all kinds of support- financial support is essential- thanks again everyone!
~Christa Darlington
As a [now formerly] lifelong Republican, a [Goldwater] Conservative, and a former GOP activist, operative and professional campaign manager, now ardently supporting Sen. Barack Obama, I feel that I have the proper perspective from which to advise this audience on how to "sell" Obama to your Republican friends, relatives, and business associates.
There is a large reservoir of discontent among Republicans who are dissatisfied with John McCain as the GOP nominee. As the recent 25% votes against him in the now uncontested primaries indicate, this dissention is far deeper and more persistent than it will be among Clinton Democrats, when the dust settles in August. These votes, and those of other Republicans now disenchanted are ripe for the picking this fall - IF you know how to make the case to these people.
Below the fold I'll try to give several viable talking points which should hold you in good stead with most any Republican you come across, talking politics with between now and the election...
In general, Republican voters dont have the same priorities as Democrats. The reasons YOU support Sen. Obama are most likely NOT the factors on which your Republican associates will make their voting decisions. Dont assume that your 'hot button' issues are necessarily even important to them, nor belittle the priorities they bring to the voting booth.
First, to most Republicans, the cornerstone Democratic issues of "Health Care", "Education", and "Jobs" just dont even register in the top five issues on which they will base their vote. Arguing that Obama will best handle such subjects wont win their vote even if they believe you that he is best on these issues. Moreover, Republicans will generally have less confidence in the government to deliver health care, and more confidence in private schools to deliver education than you will. Dont argue these issues, arguments just harden attitudes; save your breath - just dont go there. You want their actual VOTE, not their nodding agreement on some arcane philosophical issue.
Second, resist the urge to "Bush Bash". While many (even Most) Republicans are no longer enamored with the President, that doesnt mean they are sympathetic with everyone wanting to dump on him, either. They may feel President Bush to have been well intentioned, though blundering; they may have felt events got out of his control, they may even blame the Democratic Congress for his apparent failings. Again, DONT GO THERE. Its not a fight worth having. You dont win VOTES by fighting with people, you win by leading them to the better alternative - from their vantage point, not yours. George W. Bush is not on this ballot, and neither is his Vice President running to succeed him. That "Bush Third Term" drivel just wont cut it in winning Republican votes. Fortunately, with Obama as our candidate, we can make a better, more substantive case than that.
Third, the only really serious, pervasively damaging charge the GOP will make against Obama is the tried-and-true tactic of painting him as a traditional "tax-and-spend-liberal-democrat, squishy-on-national-defense", in the mold of John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, etc. To most Republicans, that's the killer - if they believe it. All other charges and acusations, no matter how scurrilous, are secondary and incidental to that one. If they buy the 'tax-and-spend-liberal' label, they'll believe all the muddier garbage gossip; if they reject that charge as bogus, they'll most likely reject any other labels that may be pinned on him as 'not credible' either. EVEN IF you, in your heart-of-hearts believe we need more taxes and spending, and you pray to your humanistic wiccan goddess every night (j/k) that Obama will bring these things, for the sake of the Polar Bears, keep those wishes to yourself!!! To obtain an Obama VOTE, you are appealing to your Republican friend's existing sensibilities, rather than trying to change them.
You may not agree with the following policy conclusions which led me to cross over for the first time in my life, and vote for Sen. Obama in Virginia's open primary, but THEY DID. Andthese same issues will resonate with other Republicans in voting booths across the country this fall...
1. TAXES. As a member of the Illinois State Senate, Sen. Obama was cosponsor of a bill which ultimately passed, creating the largest tax cut in state history. Since the start of his presidential campaign, he has consistently favored a broad-based middle class tax cut. By contrast, Sen. McCain "voted against tax cuts before he voted for them", and has no real credibility on this issue among conservatives. McCain was very critical of the Bush tax cuts, which most Republicans believe gave us years of prosperity - until very recently. Obama can thus be taken more seriously than McCain as a President who will cut taxes, rather than raise them.
2. SPENDING. Most Republicans' biggest gripe with their own party - by far - is its failure to control the bureaucracy and reign in runaway federal spending and deficits. It is useful to mention that while the last five (5) Republican Presidents promised fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, all of them grew discretionary civilian spending by tremendous amounts, and ran up ever larger deficits. Meanwhile, only Pres. Bill Clinton balanced the federal budget, and produced four years of surpluses, with the same forecast long into the indefinite future. A big problem with the federal budget is that almost nobody knows where all the money is going; its easy to add earmarks and pork barrel spending and special interest giveaways when the people back home cant tell the difference. Sen. Barack Obama's major legislative accomplishment in the Senate, the The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 has been to bring transparency to federal spending. Send your Republican friends to http://www.federalspending.gov which his legislation created, a veritable "Google of the Federal Budget", where anyone can research every dollar to see where their tax money is actually going. The whole Federal Rathole is now online, for the first time ever, inviting scrutiny from whoever has the patience to slog through it all. You dont have to be a CPA to realize that this does more in the long run to control wasteful federal spending than all the speeches Bush, Bush, Reagan, Ford, and Nixon ever gave on the subject, put together.
3. BIG GOVERNMENT. In his North Carolina victory speech, among other things, Sen. Obama uttered the words "We dont need Big Government". Whether you agree with that or not, remind your Republican friends that Pres. Bill Clinton's National Performance Review reduced the federal civilian workforce by 250,000 positions (ones they will consider, rightly or wrongly, to be useless tax-sucking bureaucrats). This makes the last Democratic administration the only presidency since Eisenhower's to leave office with a smaller federal workforce that he started with - again, Bush, Bush, Reagan, Ford, and Nixon notwithstanding. But, the real stones Obama brings to the table on this issue are his formative years on the south side of Chicago, doing meaningful community social work through voluntary, faith-based, non-governmental community organizations, rather than government bureaucracies. Yes, We CAN - rehabilitate the homeless, educate the illiterate, provide day care for single moms, dry out alcoholics, and clean junkies off the dope without buidling perpetual bureaucracies - Obama himself has proven that, through social entrepreneurship. By contrast, John McCain has never drawn a day's pay that didnt come from the public trough, courtesy of your tax dollars (getting fabulously rich by marrying an heiress or taking money under the table from special interests he did favors for doesnt count as 'earning money in the productive sector').
4. PERSONAL LIBERTY. Barry Goldwater must be rolling over in his grave over what debasements of the U.S. Constitution the Bush Administration has gotten itself into, and which the man who took his seat in the U.S. Senate, John McCain now ardently defends. Warrantless domestic wiretapping, warrantless searches and seizures, arresting U.S. citizens without probable cause, holding them without trial, etc., etc....No REAL conservative believes these things are legitimate perrogatives of the federal government. There are innumerable horror stories you can research and recount of how the GOP has sat idly by while our cherished Constitutional protections have been ignored, abrogated, and turned into a joke. The last thing real conservatives want is the Orwellian Police State we're presently heading for. Grassroots Republicans dont necessarily trust the feds any more than you do. Thats a case you can make - and make stick - with them.
5. NATIONAL SECURITY. To the rejoinder, "yes, but its worked, we havent been attacked since 9/11", you must add: "BUT, we havent foreclosed the threat by taking out al Queada, either". The National Security argument is like the Tax-and-Spend one, it doesnt matter where you stand on "bombing al Queada back to the stone age" - the fact remains that your Republican friends will vote for the candidate they perceive to be most in tune with that idea, period. McCain vocally disagrees with the successful CIA program to take out al Queada leadership when located in northwest Pakistan, without alerting the local tribal authorities and Pakistani Intelligence, who have always warned off our targets in the past. Sen. Obama, by contrast, opposes giving al Queada sanctuary in Pakistan, and ardently supports this initiative. When McCain attacked Obama as niave for "wanting to bomb an ally", the very next day the CIA took out the #3 leader in al Queada with just such a raid, with a missile fired from a Predator drone. Coddling Pakistan's corrupt dictator for these eight years hasnt made us safer, and John McCain's simplistic continuation of this weak policy is just being Soft on Terrorism, no way around it. Also, its worth noting that whatever other implications it may have for John McCain's Character, Psyche, or Mental Makeup, having a plane shot out from under you and spending six years behind bars does not automatically qualify anyone as a "national security expert"; that notion is just ludicrous on the face of it.
6. OPPORTUNITY. While John McCain's four-star Admiral father ensured him a prized appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, his performance - 894th out of 899 cadets in his class - does not attest to diligent effort, whereas Barack Obama (from a broken home, on food stamps) won competitive academic scholarships to Harvard, which he proved himself worthy of by graduating Magna Cum Laude ("With Highest Honors"). Its been a long time since any politicians of either party could talk convincingly about "The American Dream", but Barack Obama can, because he lived it. Without handouts, family patronage, or inheritence, he pulled himself up by his bootstraps from the Chicago ghetto through his own hard work, enterprise, and initiative to become President of the Harvard Law Review, one of the most prestigious scholarly legal journals in the country. Which President is more likely to make a difference in the lives of people, and motivate them with initiative to best achieve their individual God-given potential?
Those are the issues that real, hard-core Republicans think about when they vote for a president. Talk TO them - not past them with vague, touchy-feely bleeding heart nonsense they wont understand or agree with - and you might very likely ring up another VOTE for Barack Obama this fall. Getting your friends VOTE is all that matters, not winning their hearts to any grander philosophical cause; that just wont happen, so forget it. Make common cause between your GOP acquaintences and Sen. Obama, even if its on points you, yourself, disagree with. THAT'S HOW YOU WILL WIN THIS ELECTION FOR OBAMA.
Once you wash that "tax-and-spend liberal, squishy-on-national-security" label away, none of the other, lesser acusations the Karl Roves and Rush Limbaughs of this world can make against Obama will stick, either. All other things thus being equal, the younger, more intelligent, more dynamic, less "Washington Establishment", less 'tainted-by-special-interest-money' candidate should prevail. Even among Republicans...
Palin: Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.
McCain: Well, I think Americans are going to be very, very, very pleased. This is a very dynamic person. [Palin's] been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply.
Alaska Resource Development Council: Alaska's oil and gas industry has produced more than 16 billion barrels of oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas, accounting for an average of 20 percent of the entire nation's domestic production.
In a convention hall filled with ecstatic Republicans taking in Sarah Palin's speech on Wednesday night, one observer seemed a little less than enthusiastic. Mike Huckabee, the former Republican presidential hopeful spurned by party leaders and religious right honchos, must have felt like the hockey mom from Wasilla stole the thunder of the Southern Baptist preacher from Hope.
Huckabee, it seems, represents "Real America" a little too much for the Republican Party's taste.
On the surface, Palin's and Huckabee's appeals to the religious right seem indistinguishable -- in fact, Huckabee, with a preacher's background and experience in elected office, could possibly have had an edge. Both can sling the red meat on abortion and gay marriage, and both are equally comfortable talking God and country. Two weeks ago, Huckabee was far better known to the religious right base than Palin was; he had built a dedicated grassroots following through his failed presidential campaign, and many of his followers participated in a petition effort to convince McCain to pick him as his running mate. But comparing the instant and unequivocal enthusiasm for Palin from religious right heavies with the uphill battle Huckabee faced to wring a belated endorsement from James Dobson points to something Palin has that Huckabee doesn't -- or something Huckabee has that the Republican Party just doesn't like.
At the heart of the Republican Party's marketing of Palin to the general public is that she is a Real American Mom. Even though she attends deeply conservative evangelical churches with theologies that are alien and even alarming to outsiders, she is portrayed as someone whose life is just like yours, who understands the daily turmoil faced by Real American Families, and who will therefore engage in a pitched battle to save you from unskilled community activists who operate in the nether reaches of Real America doling out government handouts to lazy welfare queens. (Yes, as conservative activist Richard Viguerie was not shy to announce, "cranky conservatives" were responsible for McCain picking "the next Ronald Reagan" as his running mate.)
The heart of Huckabee's appeal also was his regular-ness, with his oft-repeated tales of using scratchy Lava soap as a child, his mother's childhood in a house with a dirt floor, no electricity, and no indoor plumbing and the fact that he was the first one in his family to graduate from high school. He said that his family liked eating fried squirrel. He was, as former Bush adviser Dan Bartlett admitted to the heart of the business base of the Republican Party, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a hick.
That's part of Real America too, but it's the Real America the GOP wants to hide from public view, because it's the Real America it has so completely screwed. It has cultivated its votes with racist identity politics and phony paeans to Jesus. It has faked a love of cultural habits like NASCAR and disdained arugula-eating elites, all while the corporate lobbyists who wrote the laws that have sunk these Real Americans into further economic despair dine at Washington's finest restaurants. Mooseburgers might even push arugula salads off the menus in those haunts if McCain and Palin are elected, but admitting you've eaten squirrel is probably more embarrassing than having to go to your lesbian sister's wedding.
For all their accusations of elitism flung at Democrats, the Republicans despise the Huckabee part of their base. In Arkansas, Huckabee has a long list of Republican enemies who were dismayed by his record as governor, with his small acts of kindness to immigrants, tax hikes to fix highways, and, as one Republican operative put it, his "preacher mentality" in demanding that taxpayers "pass the plate."
In his presidential run, Huckabee spent time decrying the dominance of Wall Street Republicans over Main Street Republicans and accused his fellow GOP candidates of reading off the party's talking points on the economy instead of talking about the concerns of Main Street. For that, the GOP likely considered him a greater blasphemer than the Mormon Mitt Romney, whom many of Huckabee's grassroots supporters viewed as a silver-spooned interloper rolling in venture capital cash.
Sure, Huckabee's solutions to the economic woes of America's working class, like his flat tax proposal and calls to shut down the Internal Revenue Service, were amateurish and unworkable. Even so, Republicans couldn't put his class warrior rhetoric on their presidential ticket.
Sarah Posner has covered the religious right for the American Prospect, the Gadflyer, and AlterNet. Her new book is God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (PoliPoint Press).
OUR TIME IS NOW
WE NEED FOLKS TO MAKE CALLS TO NEVADA AND HAVE A NEED FOR FOLKS TO GO TO NEVADA TO CANVAS AND SUCH ON THE WEEKENDS.
PLEASE CONTACT SHERRI WALKER AT 530-272-9696 IF YOU ARE IN NEVADA COUNTY AND CAN GIVE US SOME TIME.
SHARE WITH YOUR CONTACTS WHO HAVE NOT PREVIOUSLY BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS HISTORIC ELECTION!
WE ARE ALMOST THERE, FOLKS. THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO!
Comment by Don DePasquale
January 29th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I worked for 37 years with John McCain’s cousin, Wendy Ruebman. Wendy and John McCain have mothers who are sisters. Even though Wendy is a Democrat, she is going to vote for “cousin Johnny” because of his character strengths and in spite of his character weaknesses. I will not vote for McCain because of his support of the worst president we have had in the past 50 years.
Bush was right in spring after the “liberation of Iraq”, when he stood on the aircraft carrier deck and pronounced “Mission Accomplished” for truly at that point we had liberated the Iraqi oil fields and Dick Cheaney and his buds at Halberton got what they really wanted.
The Iraqi and American people have been paying for this victory ever since. The Iraqis in lives and civil war in their country, the Americans in lives also and at a cost of $9 Billion dollars a month. For McCain to support this situation, shows his lack of understanding of world politics and the politics of Oil. I don’t think he is on the take, the way Dick Cheaney is on the take, but it shows a lack of understanding of the frustrations of Arabs the world over when they see the un-evenhandedness of American Foreign Policy. Ever since ARAMCO started supporting the House of Saud, one of the most cruel and wasteful dictatorships in the world, dissatisfied young Arabs of all religious stripes have opposed the perceived supporter of this dictatorship, namely the US government, the lackey of Oil companies of all persuasions. We are in a false dependence on oil as opposed to using renewable natural energy sources such as Solar power and Wind Power, and cheaper non renewable sources such as Nuclear power, and Coal. Other countries around the globe are striving to become independent of imported Oil from wherever it is pumped, whether it be in Venezuela, Nigeria, the Soviet Union or the Arabs in OPEC.
John McCain does not understand this for he and his buds in the US Senate have done nothing for decades to wean us from imported Oil. Not only am I happy to see $100 dollar a barrel oil but we should slap a 200% tarrif on all imported oil and use the money generated to get us energy independent. We then would not have to support Israel vs. The Arabs, we could let China and India become addicted to Cheap imported Oil. While we wash our hands of religious and political infighting in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Venezuela, the Soviet Union, Nigeria and all the Blanket-y Blankistans! I am not advocating Isolationism, but a self-interested Foreign Policy which puts the needs of our citizens over the needs of Big Oil and the dictatorships they prop up.
So cross the line and “Vote Barack Obama” for a CHANGE. He could not do any worse than the incompetents we have in the White House and the US Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Grow up Republicans its our future and the future of our country. And don’t throw the red herrings of Abortion and Immigration we need those foreign workers and I don’t care what a woman does with her body. Open the boarders to workers the way they do in the European Common Market. I would vote for any presidential candidate who would do that for the Americas North and South. And a candidate who would simplify our cumbersome Tax codes.
That is if you want my humble complicated opinion!
From MSNBC:
NEVADA: Per state political guru Jon Ralston, Democrats now have a 76,000-voter registration edge in Nevada, 565,855 Democrats to 489,802. Ralston asks, “Think John McCain should worry yet?”
Nevada is within our reach!!! Time to phonebank and canvass!!
Dave Axelrod's ObamaBlog, Aug. 31, 2008, on Sarah Palin for Veep: I thought Gov. Sarah Palin's selection was a master stroke by the wily old John McCain, and should give Barack Obama further regrets or second thoughts at having passed up Hillary. Of course, I'm sure the other David Axelrod (my namesake) and the rest of Barack's brain trust anticipated the possibility and worried not. In addition, McCain's smooth move is a ticking time bomb, since Sarah's Trooper-Gate scandal is already well in progress. George W. Bush's numerous scandals were a little fuzzy or came too late, for instance lying about his DUI arrests. Unlike Alabama Air National Guard-Gate, there will be no Dan Rather to blame for this one. The Valerie Plame Affair led straight to Dick Chaney, so Scooter Libby dutifully perjured himself, took the rap, and fell on his sword, deflecting attention from Bush, who then commuted Libby's sentence. The details on Palin, as I understand it, is that "someone" in the Governor's office ordered the Chief of the Alaska State Troopers to fire Palin's soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law from his job as a Trooper for no reason other than a nasty child custody battle with Palin's sister. When the State Trooper Chief properly refused to fire the targeted Trooper, Palin fired the Chief. That abuse of power was certainly enough to require Palin's resignation or impeachment. It was worse than anything Gov. Elliot Spitzer did because it was a conflict of interests and directly related to her arrogant use and abuse of the powers of her office, not simply a pattern of largely private misconduct, as was Spitzer's. Palin then made matters far worse by denying any knowledge of the order to fire her brother-in-law the Trooper. As with Watergate, the cover-up is even worse than the underlying unlawful and unethical conduct. It is more cold-blooded and insults the intelligence. Who else in the Governor's Office would have either the power or the motive to fire the Governor's sister's X-husband. Who in any Governor's Office would stoop to fire any individual Trooper. Sounds bizarre. Gov. Clinton allegedly had State Troopers fix him up with Paula Jones, but I don't remember any of them being fired for their indiscretions (or his). Now we will see if Sarah will come up with an aide (like Scooter Libby, Richard Armitage, or Karl Rove) to take credit or blame for the attempted wrongful termination of a sworn peace officer. And what about the wrongful termination of the Chief of the Troopers?? Shades of Richardson and Ruckelshaus who resigned rather than fire Archibald Cox.as Special Prosecutor in Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre. In that case, Robert Bork stepped forward to do the dirty work, only to whine about being "Borked" for the Supreme Court a decade or so later. I believe this scandal is way too juicy to be mopped up by the GOP spin doctors or to be swept under the carpet by Rupert Murdoch and the other compliant or complacent media moguls. To the contrary, that same institutional media sexism about which Clinton die-hards have complained will rear its ugly head big time. The major Media should have a field day with Palin. This is not just a sex, drugs or alcohol scandal, which might be politely ignored by the press, but rather a scandal that has all the gripping elements of a TV soap opera. The media will eat it up, (although I noticed Bob Shieffer omit any mention of it in his CBS commentary on Palin today). In a related scandal, ArcXIX on Daily Kos suggests Sarah Palin faked her last childbirth, passing off her teenage daughter's pregnancy and baby as her own. I would take a pass on the matter of Palin raising her granddaughter as her own child, however. Inasmuch as Palin, a right-to-lifer, did not arrange for her teenage daughter to have an abortion, she is guilty only of understandable dishonesty and misrepresentation, not hypocrisy. Such a lie regarding a private, personal matter is certainly no worse than Bill Clinton's deception in the Monica Lewinsky Affair, protesting that he "never had sex with that woman." Instead, I would focus on Trooper-Gate. All in all, McCain's choice for Number Two is indeed Number Two, so to speak. (Pardon the potty humor.) Stay tuned!
Driftwood Dave [The real David Axelrod]
This is too easy. Me thinks McCain's penchant for former beauty queens has clouded what little sense of judgement he may have had left in his convoluted brain. Any random Googler could have done a better job of vetting than McCain's people....Sheesh!!!!
From andrewhalcro.com:
Andrew Halcro is an American politician from Anchorage, Alaska. Formerly a Republican member of the Alaska Legislature, he ran for Governor of Alaska as an Independent candidate in the 2006 election.
One of these days Governor Sarah Palin will realize that the folks back home can actually hear what she says on the road while representing Alaska. One day she will; but it certainly wasn't yesterday.
According to June Kronholz who writes for the Washington Wire, a Wall Street Journal blog covering politics, at Monday's National Governor's Association meeting, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was addressing the group as the incoming head of the organization.
Rendell stated that his priority for his coming term would be to push for a larger investment in public infrastructure from congress. He decried the nations $1.6 trillion infrastructure deficit. However Rendell said that there would be difficulties convincing voters of the need for such investments.
Kronholz writes, "A problem for big plans like that, he added, is that such basic-needs spending is out of favor with voters. And the reason for that? “The Bridge to Nowhere,” he said, citing a pet project championed by Alaska’s Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young that was derailed following an outburst of public anger over the cost. Infrastructure “has become just a pork-barrel process in voters’ eyes,” he said."
Kronholz then wrote, "Alaska’s Gov. Sarah Palin—like Stevens, a Republican—rushed over to Rendell afterwards to remind him that she had vetoed construction of the bridge."
Let's pause and listen to that again: "Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin rushed over to Rendell afterwards to remind him that she had vetoed construction of the bridge."
According to the Ketchikan Daily News edition on August 8, 2006, this is what Sarah Palin rushed over to tell the voters of Ketchikan during the primary election campaign:
'People across the nation struggle with the idea of building a bridge because they’ve been under these misperceptions about the bridge and the purpose,' said Palin, who described the link as the Ketchikan area’s potential for expansion and growth.
Palin said Alaska’s congressional delegation worked hard to obtain funding for the bridge as part of a package deal and that she 'would not stand in the way of the progress toward that bridge.'”
And according to the Ketchikan Daily News on September 29, 2006 this is what Sarah Palin rushed over to tell the voters of Ketchikan during the general election campaign:
'Part of my agenda is making sure that Southeast is heard. That your projects are important. That we go to bat for Southeast when we’re up against federal influences that aren’t in the best interest of Southeast.'
She cited the widespread negative attention focused on the Gravina Island crossing project. 'We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative,' Palin said.
But yet Palin, rushed over to placate Rendell who just got finished doing exactly what she said she'd defend Alaskans against.
It shouldn't surprise anyone.
Governor Sarah Palin, a CEO who couldn't bother to rush over to meet with head of the Mat Maid Dairy when things went sour, instead choosing to wave signs with angry farmers in front of television cameras.
Governor Sarah Palin, a CEO who couldn't bother to rush over to tell her Commissioner of Public Safety that she was replacing him, instead sending an acting staffer to do her dirty work.
Governor Sarah Palin, a CEO who couldn't bother to rush over to tell Ketchikan community leaders as well as the congressional delegation she planned to veto the funding for the Ketchikan bridge, instead sending out a 5:30am press release so it would hit the east coast news cycle.
But yet she rushed over to tell the Governor of Pennsylvania that she wasn't to blame for the negative publicity surrounding the same bridge she promised to fight for during her campaign.
One governor, two faces. What a bargain.
Please dont say its so. Obama ok'd Off Shore Oil Drilling.?
From Wonkette:
Oh ho ho: “According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.” Wow. Barack Obama hates American troops so much that he takes all of their money! [OpenSecrets via AMERICAblog]
With all the excitement over this week’s great trip abroad and the incessant media coverage of McCain’s whining, cheap shot slams and Rovian tactics, it’s time to take a deep breath, step back and remember how we felt in the beginning of this long race. It’s time to recapture that early feeling, to recall the historical significance of what we’ve accomplished already together and to rekindle that sense of urgency in getting Fired Up and Ready to Go again right now.
As VBond posted on another site at the time,
Andrew Sullivan (Atlantic cover story) is right: this is the right man and the right time… tactically (for the nomination)… strategically (for the general election) and historically (for the U.S. and the world).” Link
GET FIRED UP & READY TO GO!
Please help me in getting donations for Barack’s campaign by contributing through my Grassroots Finance Committee fundraising page. LINK
Even a small donation will help keep the ball rolling!
Please encourage your family, friends and associates to match or exceed your contribution by forwarding them this link: LINK - http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/TCP
Thanks very much!
God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own creative genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit, and Eternity our measurement. There is no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our own minds. Mind creates, and as much as we desire in Nature we can have through the creation of our own minds.
Government left to the free and wanton will and caprice of the individual in an age so corrupt as this, without any vital reprimand or punishment for malfeasance, other than ordinary imprisonment, will continue to produce dissatisfaction, cause counter agitations of a dangerous nature and upheavals destructive to the good of society and baneful to the-higher hopes and desires of the human race.
For those who have abused their trust, images of them should be made and placed in a national hall of criminology and ill fame, and their crimes should be recited and a curse pronounced upon them and their generations.
Marcus Garvey, 1920
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/timeline/index.html
Hey all of our local and not so local artists. On September 28th, the Democratic Club of Auburn and the Sierra Foothills for Obama will be holding a fundraiser at Latitudes restaurant in Auburn, CA to help pay for our new campaign headquarters. We will be hosting a WINE AND ART event with all proceeds going to the Democratic Club to help promote the campaign through our headquarters and through buying other items needed to support canvassing, phone banking, swag acquisition etc. WE NEED ANY ARTISTS who would like to donate artwork, crafts or other themeatic items for an ART AUCTION at the event. Please contact me via E-mail arry@neteze.com or by phone 916-508-6888
I know there are a TON of us artists who are in the OBAMA camp, this is a great way to have your artwork seen by the cream of the crop local Democrats...ie: OBAMA SUPPORTERS!
I'd like to defend a literary device called hyberbole.When Michelle Obama said in a speech that for the first time in her adult life she is really proud of her country, did she mean she had never been proud of her country before? Of course not. Anyone who's ever read a magazine article or American literature or any document the Founding Fathers wrote (like Common Sense) can recognize the use of hyperbole -- which is defined as "obvious and intentional exaggeration, or an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as 'to wait an eternity.'" She meant that she was especially proud of her country on that day, a day that she realized America had matured to the point where people of any color could be nominated by their party for major office -- a point that she may have thought unattainable before.When Cindy McCain said (one day later) that she has been proud of her country every day of her entire life, did she mean it? Does she mean that the day the pictures of Abu Gharib came out, she was proud of Lynndie England and the soldiers who flushed the Koran down the toilet? Of course not.For people who criticize Mrs. Obama because of this statement, they should be reminded that she was using hyperbole, not making a definitive statement. (I could say the same for Mrs. McCain, but she was obviously taking a shot at Mrs. Obama--by using the very same literary device that she was criticizing.)
