As you may have heard, the McCain campaign is showering Ohio with shamelessly negative robo-calls that make false attacks against Barack Obama, on various fronts. This is a desperate attempt for the opposition to frighten voters into voting against Senator Obama. The video below contains an actual recording of one of these robo-calls--this one attempts to link Barack to the terrorist acts of the Weather Underground forty years ago.
YOU have the power to stop these disgusting tactics, that twist the truth beyond recognition in order to try to take down our candidate. YOU know that Barack has real solutions to the issues that face us, which is what we need right now--not more of the same old cynical, negative politics that have crippled this country in the past.
Take action against these calls. Write a letter to the editor of your local papers and tell John McCain and the Republican National Committee that Ohio won't take these kinds of Karl Rove-ian tactics.
Don't know what you'd say? Haven't heard all the calls? Don't worry, we'll inform you and provide you with talking points. We make it so with just a few clicks you can send to multiple newspapers across the state. Get started right now.
It’s time for all this negative campaigning to stop!
We all know that Sarah and “First Dude” Todd Palin’s 17-year-old daughter (who apparently must have received an incomplete for her “abstinence only” sex-ed course) became impregnated by a hockey player and self-proclaimed “F***in’ Redneck” high school dropout. While for whatever reasons the Palins have virtually crowed over the out-of-wedlock pregnancy in their family, the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate has been pilloried by some among us in the other camp.
For this and many other reasons I condemn the joke that someone sent me the other night: “Q: Why does Sarah Palin bring her 14–year-old and 7-year-old daughters with her to all her campaign appearances? A: She’s trying to make sure that they don’t get pregnant before the election."
Come on now; let’s cut this distinguished Alaskan family some slack! Let’s also back off a bit on our criticism of the Republican National Committee (RNC) rewarding Sarah Palin and family $150,000 to spend at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue to spruce up their wardrobe a bit. After all, when divided among the 7 Palins (and the “F***in’ Redneck” high school dropout that impregnated the oldest Palin daughter) we’re talking about an average of only $18,750 a head. By my calculations that’s less than $10,000 a month, per person. And hey, as the father of an almost 3-year-old, let me ask if you know how much it costs to dress your kids these days.
If nothing else, let’s try to be more charitable. And while on the topic of being charitable, the RNC has implied that the “gently used” clothing might be donated to charity after the campaign. I sure hope the Palins have the good grace to launder it before they toss it in the Salvation Army or St. Vinny’s collection bin. I for one can hardly wait to see the homeless wandering the streets in such fashionable designer clothes. Just imagine, it’ll be “Morning In America” all over again.
I digress for a moment to share a favorite family story that my elderly mother tells about herself: Way back in the good old 1960’s, the Bishop’s Clothing Drive for Latin America in our diocese was in full swing. My mother, young and idealistic, enthusiastically went through our family’s closets and pulled out an old tuxedo that no longer fit my father. Off to the Latin America clothing drive it went. Later, to her own chagrin, she fretted that some impoverished Andean village may have elected a terribly unqualified man as its mayor simply because he showed up at the local debates dressed in a badly out of fashion tuxedo. Oh well, we’ll never know for sure.
But back to my original point: It’s time to stop all these negative campaign messages.
I end my appeal to decency with a simple question: What in the world is the matter with mediocrity? If McCain and Palin are good enough for the revered American political expert Joe The Plumber, then shouldn’t we just drink the Kool-Aid and elect them without question?
I'll start off with my rant to get the bad things out of the way first. I am getting tired of the smear tactics of the McCain Campaign during these final days leading up to the presidential election. I would love their campaign to wake up one day and actually talk the truth to their "friends". Instead we get to hear the same things about Bill Ayers, about how Obama is unpatriotic, and how he is going to raise everyone's taxes.
/End of my rant
In much happier news, in less than 12 hours I will be seeing our future president Barack Obama speaking near the Arch Downtown. I get chills just listening to his speeches on T.V., so I can only imagine what it will be like in person. I hope anyone in the St. Louis area will come down to hear Barack's message of change. Everyone have a great night and make sure you go vote on NOVEMBER 4th.
As it turns out from "Inside Edition" Joe the Plumber does not even have a plumber's license. Joe was actuately planted by the McCain campaign so that McCain would have something to use against Obama in the debate. While on the topic of what level Republicans will stoop to, in Columbus Ga they have began stealing Obama and other Democratic nominee yard signs. I think we have to work to ensure Obama gets elected no matter what acts Republicans commit. We need to make sure he has so many supporting voters that these acts do not faze Obama's outcome. I am challenging everyone to take at least five people to the voting polls with you that you know are voting for Obama. Please pass this on. We have to fight harder than ever to get Obama in his well deserving presidential seat. All the negative ads just make me want to work that much harder.
Having the VP candidate make the negative attacks is considered standard practice. (Remember Spiro Agnew?) Then John McCain makes conciliatory remarks, and Barack Obama is gracious at accepting them. However, the attacks don't stop and the McCain ads are almost all negative.
McCain claims the media is against him. But most of the media appears to consider him to be as distinct from his campaign, and many writers say the real McCain is a better man than his campaign presents. Isn't McCain in charge of his campaign?
The McCain campaign has had troubles. It ran out of money during the primaries because of mismanaged spending and lack of contributions. Advisors come and go. The message changes regularly—either to make sound-bites or to react to events. For example, McCain now is for regulating greedy Wall Street. Often, McCain and his website do not put forth the same policies. The terms “lurching” and “erratic” are appropriate.
The Obama campaign is a well-organized movement, powered by over 3 million donors and run by advisors, staff and volunteers, using old-fashioned community organizing and up-to-date technology. Barack Obama is responsible for his campaign. The staff practices “no drama Obama.” Statements are issued in response to events, and are consistent with the positions taken for the whole campaign. There is no need to make any apologies for Joe Biden, who speaks independently to voters or the press.
If John McCain can't run his campaign, how is he going to run the country?
I hope that I am just being paranoid, but my concern for Obama's safety is growing. I'm disgusted with the rhetoric coming from McCain- Palin lately, I think they've crossed a line & are inciting violence. If they have any honor or decent character, after hearing their supporter react by shouting "kill him", they will tone it down. I desperately hope for the sake of my country that there will be a backlash against McCain & Palin for stooping so damn low. As a responsible adult, if I were giving a speech to an audience & someone shouted "kill him" in response to something that I said, I would be startled & would make it known that violence, & remarks about violence are unacceptable. But there has been no response from McCain, Palin or any of their reps.
When the primaries began I remember thinking that I liked Obama & his ideas, but I thought there was no way in hell he would win. I also remember thinking that some crazy right wing nut job would attempt to take his life, but I never said that out loud. Later during the primaries I read that Obama was getting extra protection & security, so I stopped thinking about the possibility of assassination. I felt that we had learned from the past & would take the unfortunate but necessary action to prevent the loss of another great leader. But after the reaction from McCain-Palin supporters yesterday I began having concerns again.
I couldn't understand why a police officer in uniform was allowed to introduce Sarah Palin by smearing Obama - "Let's send a message to Barack Hussein Obama....." And while I think that any person trying to cast doubt about Obama because of his middle name looks a bit foolish, I was angry that an officer would do so in uniform. That's unprofessional & shouldn't be tolerated, he can say whatever he wants when he's not in uniform. As an officer of the law, he should be required to set a positive example for others while on duty. I was waiting for the white hoods to appear, and at this point I almost expect it.
I really hope that America does not reward John McCain & Sarah Palin for their behavior, in fact, I really hope that America lets them know on election day just how shameful their rhetoric is. I will be really proud of my country if the message is loud & clear that their rhetoric & deceit will not be tolerated.
Someone needs to mention that Sarah Palin has links to the Alaskan Independence Party, a group whose goal is to secede Alaska from the United States. Her husband, Todd Palin has registered to the group in 1995 and 2000 and remained registered until 2002.
Details are included in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmYqRfp6-x8
by Julie Redstone
In this presidential election year of 2008, the stakes regarding victory or defeat for each candidate are high; the competition for votes is fierce; and the strategies are abundant on both sides with which to win over the undecided. We, the public, see things happening as part of political life and of campaigning that we do not approve of, that we feel we can do without. But can we? Is negative campaigning something that is being foisted on an unwilling public, or does it correspond to the state of mind and consciousness that we are in?
Democracy is not simple. It is complex. And it is not easy. It is hard. It demands from us all that we have to give, and asks us, at the very least, to become responsible citizens who maintain an involvement with both the principles and policies that govern us.
Democracy asks us to not abandon our individual or collective awareness and voice - not for ourselves, and not on behalf of those whose voices have become diminished or who no longer feel they have a voice. It asks us to use this voice and this awareness not to shout, but to speak for the truth as we see it, to reflect upon this truth, and to offer it up as we speak, and vote, and as we take a stand for what we believe in. In this way, we create and ensure a government that represents the best interests of the governed.
All this is the ideal that democracy strives for. And yet it is not what we see in practice. Not by a long shot. Instead of widespread citizen involvement of a judicious and thoughtful kind, we often see anger, fear, projection, and sometimes fanaticism. Instead of voting with conscientiousness, employing our capacity to reflect, compare, and analyze, we often vote with our emotions or the emotions that are being activated within us in the course of a campaign.
We cannot be manipulated by emotions, whether presented by candidates, campaign ads, news media, or television personalities if we do not allow ourselves to be. We cannot be reduced to less than what we are capable of unless we allow ourselves to be. And yet, this is often what we do. We take the easier way rather than the harder. We let an external shaping of opinion such as that of negative campaigning define our emotions and create our state of feeling. We begin to identify with the innuendo, accusation, and fear-currents that surround us, so that we lose sight of what is true in favor of what sounds true while not begin so. We come to believe that the feelings that we have are natural and inevitable, even when they come from portrayals and strategies that mix half-truths with truth. In many cases, we have difficulty maintaining the 'high ground' of forming our own opinions, when the 'low ground' of negative campaigning, advertising, and criticism is so prevalent.
No, democracy is not easy. It is much easier to feel and to operate out of instinct and unconscious emotion, than to think and evaluate with a consciousness of choice.
We, as a national consciousness, are offered negative advertising and campaigning because it feeds the lowest common denominator among us that forms the basis of our perceptions - that of unconscious reflex which seeks to avoid fear and danger and to seek safety and security. Such campaigning paints the world in terms of fearful outcomes that have to do with the 'other', and encourages us to choose between fear and not-fear when we determine who to vote for. We are reduced to a very basic, even primitive level of feeling - that of the desire for survival both physically and economically - and this fundamental level, because of its importance to our overall sense of wellbeing, drowns out other considerations that may paint the world in softer shades of gray.
To remedy this situation, we must become responsible citizens - responsible for the content of our own consciousness. And we must learn how to recognize information and perspective that comes to us riding on currents of fear, and information that comes to us in more objective terms. Our voice and our awareness are precious gifts that we hold with which to construct a life that supports us. We cannot afford to sacrifice these to the methods and modes of the time we are in, not if we wish to create a new kind of government that is truly accountable to each and every citizen.
The world is capable of changing if we are ready for change, and campaigns are ready to become something different in tone if we are ready for that as well. To achieve this end, we must wake up and learn to listen, to reflect, to become more confident in our ability to see what we see, and to know what we know. When each of us is able to make the choice for consciousness, becoming firmer in our own center of truth and judgment, then we shall finally be ready for a democracy that truly represents what America is meant to be, and we shall be able to share this gift with the rest of the world as well.
Julie Redstone is a teacher, writer, and founder of Light Omega, a center for spiritual teaching and healing in Western Massachusetts. The purpose of Light Omega is to create an understanding of the sacred transition into light that the Earth is presently going through and the changes this will bring to individual and collective consciousness. For additional information concerning the spiritual basis of American democracy, see http://www.lightamericaspirit.org.
By Julie Redstone
Prayers for America are greatly needed at this time as the presidential election draws closer and as campaign rhetoric on both sides becomes more heated. Where anger and derision hold sway, there, forces of darkness can gain an easy foothold to defeat the purposes of light and of upliftment of a nation and a people.
America needs our prayers. She needs each person who cares, to pray for the light to be revealed within the heart of each of the presidential candidates and also within the American public. For the tenor of the public debate currently taking place could not be what it is if the American people were determined to have it be different. As long as we are enthralled by a ‘good fight’, fighting is what we will see. And as long as we judge strength by the force and success of combativeness, whether outright or through innuendo, we will reduce our leaders to the lowest common denominator.
There are many forces of negativity that are at work during the current campaign season – forces that would divide parties, divide the country, create fear within us so that one section of the populace feels threatened by another. As we witness these forces of division at work and the fear that is generated in their presence, we must be careful to neither succumb to the anger of criticism and accusation, nor the fear that is based on mistrust and on seeing only dreaded outcomes. Rather, we must remain in a place of love and trust that light will ultimately hold sway over darkness, and that America’s future is therefore secure, no matter what the outcome of this election. It is this love and trust that can act as an antidote to fear, and it needs to remain with us during a stormy ride that promises to become even stormier.
In addition to remaining anchored within trust, we need also to tune our hearts and our ears to listen for the sound of truth – for the feeling of truth. For much that is said by one or another in this campaign season partakes of only partial truth, and some of what is said may be entirely false. At a time when advertising, soundbites, patriotic fervor, and accusations of one to the other are meant to sway our emotions and alter our thinking, we must be courageous enough and confident enough in our heart’s discernment to always be listening and looking for the deeper layers of truth and rejecting the shallower.
There are many things to be concerned about during this election year, and many scenarios that flit through the mind’s eye that we would rather avoid. There is also the presence of greater hope for us, for a future that can be transformative and liberating. As we pray, we must pray for our own hearts and conscience as well as for that of the American people, so that we remain united in love and truth, and so that the emotional currents of the moment that divide and separate are seen for what they are, no more and no less.
May the light of God that shines through all planes and dimensions shine into every heart at this time, bringing a great illumination to the people of this country as they prepare to exercise their sacred right to vote and to elect a new President of the United States. Amen.
If you have not done so already, please consider saying aloud the Invocations, in whole or in part, at the beginning of ‘One World Meditations’ or regularly throughout the week. These prayers and invocations are powerful, and join each individual and group prayer with those beings of light praying within the Realms of Light for the future of America.
To learn more about the spiritual purpose of nations and the role of each in the spiritual economy of the Earth, see Prayers for America - The Family of Nations within the Sacred World Newsletter. This article conveys the role of the Realms of Light in this current electoral season.
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From Light Omega newsletter
Salvation is Here!
Well, after many thousands of years of being tormented by probably the most common of the Seven Deadly Sins, humanity is about to be rid of one of them thanks to John McCain. He now promises to crush the "Greed" that has driven Wall Street into shambles this year. Whew!
Granted, we'll all probably do a lot better with "Sloth" now that "Greed" and its many shiny objects are out of our way. Granted getting rid of "Greed" will give us a lot less to be "Envious" about. But I can't help but worry that "Lust," "Gluttony," "Wrath," and "Pride" will swell to fill the void left by the abeyance of these other three.
Swollen Leftover Sins
Just look what they've done to McCain's own campaign, for example. Let's assume he's found some way, that he will soon share with the rest of us (like his plans to catch Bin Laden, and his plans to "win" the war, secrets he has kept assiduously to himself for seven long years so they must be really awesome!), to keep Greed at bay; and let's further assume Envy and Sloth have paled along with Greed in his campaign soul such that he is no longer comparing himself unfavorably to Obama's 'celebrity' status (must be Palin's influence...), and no longer idling around while the democrats keep sparring (he was kind of forced from Sloth on that score, but we all have to take inspiration where it comes). But the remaining four Deadly Sins seem to be really weighing down the McCain campaign (or buoying it up, according to your political ethics).
Unbridled Lust for power seems to have forcefully unseated "honor" as the internal justification for campaign strategies and objectives. The "ambition" that McCain himself acknowledged years ago as the source of his Keating Five scandal bad judgment seems to be running at full tilt again. With the Presidency in view, Lust seems to have overcome the 'better judgment' he promised us when the Keating Five debacle embarassed him before us all. Moreover, the McCain campaign has as a key Catholic advisor someone who had to leave a tenured professorship over Lust-ful misconduct with a student (this was/is Deal Hudson, whom McCain refuses to fire from the campaign, and who is quoted in a page one story in today's NYTimes).
Gluttony has certainly replaced originality of insight in the McCain campaign's approach to messaging. It has taken to gobbling up every message that seems to "work" with voters, regardless of whether that message is Obama's ("Change," "Enough") or whether that message is completely contradictory to the principled positions that McCain himself has held for decades (embracing regulatory policy, tax cuts for the rich, overturning Roe v. Wade, embracing 'agents of intolerance', drilling, etc.)
Wrath is about the only word I can come up with for McCain's only stated reason for running such an astonishingly negative campaign. He keeps saying that had Obama appeared with him at Town Hall meetings, the tone of the campaign would have been different. So, the tone of the campaign is negative out of some spiteful sense of revenge for not getting to appear WITH Obama? That's a little weird, but not unheard of among people who have a hard time modulating their hostility, as McCain so clearly does (just ask anyone in the Senate that he's cursed out over the years, or Mika Breszinski whom he attacked unprovoked yesterday at the very start of an interview [I guess that doesn't count as sexism?]). Boy, Wrath is sure confusing!
Pride is about the only thing that has remained intact from the beginnings of McCain's political career, but the time in the spotlight has now caused it to grow to malignancy proportions. A man who writes about "Courage" because, in part, he recognizes himself as Courageous is someone who spends his life courting Pride. I guess the courtship has ended, and a lifetime commitment has taken its place. How many times a week do we hear "I KNOW how to do this," and "I KNOW how to do that" and how often must his family and runningmate remind us that ONLY JOHN MCCAIN can save us from all that people like John McCain have wrought in our lives (well, that may be a little true...if redemption means anything).
Hands Off My Greed!
Looking at these results, I'd have to say that McCain should not focus on eradicating Greed, one of the standing conditions of human nature. The consequence of removing this fundamental motive of human conduct seems to be the dangerously pathological metastases of some other Deadly Sins. Instead, he might focus on the policies and objectives of what effective government might need to do in light of the overwhelming orientation to self-interest that is built into our human nature and the very cornerstone of our market economy. At the very least, I don't see how he could square his pro-greed tax policies with his new anti-greed message, but fortunately for his own balance right now Gluttony has made that contradiction of little import to him. But for the rest of us, these moral and economic tensions are a disaster in progress and a catastrophe in the making. McCain's plan to empanel a 9/11-Style Commission to study the issues that have wrought chaos in our markets and terror at our kitchen tables may betoken one creative idea in his campaign: the final formalization of the new Deadly Sin that Bush/Cheney have been working to instill in the American soul, "Confusion".
Consequences of The Eighth Deadly Sin
Self-inscribed "Confusion" will be the undoing of all of us if we don't get this election right. The punishment will be a country that we won't want to recognize. Fortunately, we might be too confused to recognize it when it comes to pass.
Seems like someone finally grabbed a few news anchors and shook them to the point that John McCain had been creating ads that were outright lies merely to dominate the news cycle. They worked with the knowledge that even bald face lies have to be responded to, thus accomplishing 2 things: 1.) Keep Obama off message and REAL issues. 2.)It keeps the McCain campaign from having to talk about plans and policies they don't have.
A third reason may have been to draw attention away from the outright incompetence Ms Palin demonstrated in her Interview with Charlie, Charlie, CHARLIE!!!.
Note: I truly underestimated Mr. Gibson. I fully expected him to do no more than softball her. He was direct, to the point, fair and asked the type of questions I expect from a responsible media. I hope from here out the news agencies will follow his lead and resist the hyperbole.
Now that McCain's lies have drawn fire from all sides, perhaps he will stop and get back to what the point of the election is. Hopefully America has hit its limit with slimeball politics, and for that matter, flavor of the day politics.
With Obama apparently slipping in the polls isn't time to fight back with some hard hitting ads that expose McCain Palin lies?
It isn't fun to turn on the television and see nothing but negative ads against Obama and no reply from the Obama campaign.
There is so much to use against McCain in boggles the mind why nothing is being used about his flip flopping on so many issues, his gaffs, his lies about himself and Palin, his phony claim to be a Maverick and an Independent. His hawkish posture and failure in the Military. Yes FAILURE! McCain's military record is one disaster after an other. His rich guy sneering at the middle and working class,
McCain's plan to tax middle class heath care benefits should be a major issue for every middle class person since it's a way to raise taxes. This from a man who has had the government paying for his health care for most of his life!
McCain's ties to big oil and his Drilling push is another issue.
The list goes on. When are the general public going hear the news. They are not hearing it from the media who can't stop fawning over Palin, who also should be shown up for the empty suit she really is.
Americans perceive someone who doesn't strike back as weak and that goes for fundamentalist Christians who seem to have forgotten "turn-the-other cheek" for creationism and anti abortion issues.
Someone needs to tell the fundamentalist Christians that they are being used. Just look at the last 8 years. The Republicans don't give a dam about these issues and McCain and Palin are just going back to the rhetoric and issues that fooled people in 2000 and 2004.
People need to realize that Palin is window dressing. She is no more then a prop for this aging, senile, impotent old man to drag around from event to event. I guess Cindy wasn't doing it for him.
I know the campaign really can't get into this notion that McCain promotes, that this election is not about issues, but personalities but it is pretty obvious what "personality" is code for.
Even though it would be a sacrifice I think many donors would be willing to support a "kitchen sink" blitz on McCain that reveals who he really is and what that he has no plan except to win at the countries expense. Our countries future is too important not to do anything necessary to stop McCain.
If you watched Obama's history making speech last Thursday night and have a beating heart, then you were most definitely moved. We know that Obama is this country's destiny. I have seen hardened reporters say that they get chills when they hear Obama speak. (No one is saying that about Mc Cain.) But our after glow was short lived when, on Friday morning Mc Cain announced his VP choice. I'm not even going to reiterate the name because it is dominating the headlines and I refuse to give their tactic any more momentum.Whether it is positive or negative, everyone's talking about her, and has seemingly forgotten a momentous evening in our country's history. Obama's thunder was stolen and it's up to us to restore it. Keep ther excitement alive! Talk about him, his speech, his strength, and his future as President on the United States. Forget about right wing negative politics. Don't give it another word. As Ghandi said, we have to be the change we want to see in the world.
ABANDON YOUR CYNICISM AND EMBRACE HOPE!
I just read Arrianna Huffington's post about attacking the Republicans.
That is right on. Nothing unites old enemies like a common foe.
McSame is nothing but that. The same Bush policies that have failed our country and the world. That is the message that has to be out there. No one wants 4 more years!
Politics is traditionally referred to as the "art of the impossible". John McCain has apparently taken the "impossible" in hand, but has lost touch with the "art" part along the way.
The headline promises and objectives of the McCain campaign have congealed around several things that can reasonably be called "impossible".
1. Summer gas tax holiday: While the call for this is waning, the fact that ANY strategists still put this out there (and they do) indicates just how profoundly attached to impossibility the campaign is. Labor Day is almost here, and this is STILL on the agenda? But worse, it was NEVER possible. It would have had to be voted into play by those who would never do it. NO proposal for summer gimmicks is based in reality in a presidential campaign year, as no such proposal could be voted on. Especially one that was, from the outset, economically undesirable as assessed by most experts. So on this one, McCain is guilty of a triple commitment to the impossible.
2. New Nuclear Power Plants--43 of them--will help solve our energy problem and the economic woes those entail. Considering the fact that we would be starting from "zero construction plans" and aiming at "43 construction projects", there is a baseline impossibility factor attached to this proposal in terms of the simple inertia of current processes. Beyond that, there is the astronomical cost involved not only in the construction of each plant (many billions per plant in raw capital expenditures), but in the preparatory studies required, land acquisitions, legal costs of fighting the challenges that would almost definitely arise, costs of disposal, evacuation planning in the event of catastrophe, etc., as well as of course the ongoing cost of maintaining the plants. While nuclear power may be economical once under way per kilowatt hour, that McCain thinks the kind of outlay 43 plants would entail makes for a good strategy for an economy that is at present drained by war and the basic underlying debt of consumers and government alike is a sure sign of his commitment to impossibility as a political strategy.
3. Drill Here Drill Now! The oil industry has busily been closing refineries for over a decade now, opting for greater efficiency in remaining refineries and opting for the deliberate restriction of supply in order to keep prices at a profitable level (tho of course there are other factors in current price rises). While refineries have some current wiggle room to take on new crude, it is in no way the case that refineries exist or are even proposed or wanted by the oil industry in the U.S. Now, factor in the enormous expense and risk associated with building new offshore platforms, and it is truly unlikely that the oil companies who would have to build these platforms (but don't seem to want to, since they haven't built them on their existing lease spaces) will in fact go ahead and construct them, no matter how favorable tax policy may be for them.
To these three embraces of the impossible as potential policy we can add the mounting pile of untruths the McCain campaign has emitted about the Obama campaigns policy proposals. When you substitute a lie for the truth, you are in fact embracing the "impossible". For example, when you KNOW that Obama has put out a multi-dimensional energy policy, and then put out a tire-pressure-gauge and describe it as the whole of that energy policy, you are embracing a contradiction: A & not-A. That's impossible. The logic of this campaign has come to be the logic of impossibility.
Finally, when you embrace the non-sequitur you are also thumbing your nose at the possible or the likely. When strategists are sent out, as they have been this week, to repeat a non-sequitur as your official campaign argument (it is official because McCain himself said it too), you are embracing the illogic of impossibility: McCain and the "strategists" (there are other words for what it means to misrepresent and spread illogic on the air, but let's go with their official label for now) are spouting essentially the following when the issue of negative campaigning comes up this week: "We would not have had to campaign negatively [let's call this 'A'] if only Obama had acccepted the invitation to do town halls [let's call this 'B']." The "if" implies a connection between A and B, and yet there is absolutely none, except perhaps spite. Negative campaigning in no way follows from Obama's decision not to do Town Halls with McCain. And yet, that's the line of the week in defense of the indefensible, which is the character-assailing, lie-promulgating and generally trivializing string of ads McCain and his party have released in the past two weeks.
Finally, we barely need to mention the inartfulness of McCain's recent conduct of his campaign (with the exception of the polish and humor of their bad ads themselves). The flat-footed and confused look of many of McCain's campaign stops would never evoke the appellation 'art' from an objective observer. That they (the McCain team) have been politically artful in the character assassination campaign may be argued, but I would be inclined to refuse the term "art" to the enterprise of base behavior that is called negative campaigning. Not all clever conniving is "artful". It's just clever and conniving.
It is my hope that the sensibilities of the public have not been so twisted in the direction of the "impossible" as represented by this kind of politics as to not be able to see through it. The jury is out on that. It is certainly my hope that the kind of aspiration towards the seemingly impossible human aspirations embraced by the Obama campaign will outstrip, in the imaginations of the public, the gross economic and logical impossibilities embedded at every level of the McCain campaign. I really did expect better from McCain once he got his chance, but sometimes our expectations turn out to also have been based on impossibilities unbeknownst to us.
Been watching closely as the talking heads on television tell us what we should think--well, not 'think', really, but 'perseverrate about endlessly without reason'--about in this election. And watching and talking about things with the like-minded (that is, the community of those whose minds have not been twisted by the nonsense for sale in the media these days) have led me to one conclusion:
Time to pull the pants down on the right-wing operatives. Game over. Jig's Up. Mask off. Gloves off.
So, a love note to the "strategists" of the right who keep showing up on my t.v. and computer:
You say outrageous things, and when we get outraged you snidely say, "Hey, calm down--get a sense of humor, why don't you!?"
But love, YOU ARE NOT THE LEAST BIT AMUSING, sorry.
You say untruths and when we confront you with the facts you say, "Facts don't matter, all that matters is what works! You're annoyed--it's working!"
But love, IT IS NOT WORKING--you just helped Obama raise millions more--be sure to be watching your t.v. in september! Our annoyance is the transient flicking at flies.
You say the left are a bunch of dilletantes, but when your own lives of ease and privilege are pointed out you say, "There's nothing wrong with being rewarded for hard work"
But love, THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG with being rewarded for lying--it's called losing your soul.
So, love, guess what? This year, the curtain is being pulled aside to reveal the impotent wizards. And it is beginning with the self-uncurtaining of your grand-wizard, the formerly quasi-honorable man you despise but support and defend anyway. This week, your infidelity to our national interest has gone too far; the consorting with prostitutes of untruth has been found out; you cannot hide from the constant scrutiny of the betrayed. The grand wizard of forgotten honor will lead you, and you will lead him, into the cold daylight of public shame--a scarlet letter is waiting, love!
Metaphors and creepy love-noting aside, here's the deal: you cannot hide the nonsense anymore, and we are coming at you for every lie and every unfounded assault. Every oblique inflaming of race hatred....every subtle hint that the 'uppity black guy' doesn't know his place....every misrepresentation of the obvious facts of history.....every overt claim that is falsified by everything you do and everything that is real: all will be scrutinized, recorded, deconstructed, and woven into the "narrative" you can no longer determine. Nothing personal, just business. So go ahead--lie on the air again tomorrow. Lie in the email campaigns. Lie in your blogs and your foul disinformation websites. Rev your engines, and we will direct your vehicles over the cliff.
