McCain Racism, Hypocrisy on Khalidi Issue
by Juan Cole
The increasingly sleazy John McCain, who once promised to run a clean campaign, has now attacked my friend Rashid Khalidi and attempted to use him against Barack Obama. Khalidi is an American scholar of Palestinian heritage, born in New York and educated at Yale and Oxford, who now teaches at Columbia University. He directed the Middle East Center at the University of Chicago for some time, and he and his family came to know the Obamas at that time. Knowing someone and agreeing with him on everything are not the same thing.....
ENTIRE POST/VIDEOS- http://www.juancole.com/2008/10/mccain-racism-hypocrisy-on-khalidi.html
by Glenn Greenwald
It's true, as those commentators point out, that this episode is just the latest in the McCain campaign's increasingly desperate (and laughably inept) attempt to win by sinking lower and lower into McCarthyite muck. But it goes far beyond just the McCain campaign. The neoconservative Right has been doing exactly this for a long time..........
ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/31/neocons/
By Haaretz Service
ARTICLE-- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031235.html
FROM THE NYT POLITICAL BLOG:
by Jim Rutenberg
.....the letter’s allegation that Mr. Obama had “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud.” Mr. Barley said the party had no substantiation for the claim and should not have made it. (Mr. Obama’s campaign and Acorn have reported he did conduct two pro bono training sessions, of one hour each, for officials there more than a decade ago.)
Mr. Barley was also referring to a statement in the letter that Mr. Obama was “associated with a known terrorist, William Ayers, who thought the terrorists didn’t do enough on 9/11.”
ENTIRE POST- http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/pennsylvania-republicans-send-false-anti-obama-e-mail/
By BRIAN JONES
This year , I'm guessing a lot of people are going to dress up as John McCain or Sarah Palin for Halloween.
If you've seen the videos of McCain/Palin rallies, you know what's so scary about them. You've seen people call Obama a terrorist or express fear that he's an Arab--or worse, a secret Muslim! You've seen the person carrying a Curious George doll with a hat that says "Obama." Yes, a stuffed monkey labeled "Obama."
In other words, you've been transported, via YouTube, into a world of hard-core racists--people who are just seething at the possibility that someone who isn't white might be the next president. And worst of all, some of those crowds look pretty big.......
ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.counterpunch.org/jones10242008.html
John McCain has been running a character assassination campaign against Barack Obama. He's been playing a con game to try to shift around Bill Ayers and Barack Obama to try to somehow associate Obama with Ayer's militant anti-war activities during the Vietnam War (which happened when Obama was a kid), just because Obama, along with countless respectable citizens, both Democrats and Republicans, served on the board of directors of a non-profit organization that Ayers, now a respected Professor of Education, happened also to be on.
John McCain has been playing a shell and pea game trying to make people associate Obama with certain bad apples in an organization called ACORN who were trying to make false voter registrations. The truth is that ACORN is a bipartisan get-out-the-vote organization and they were the ones who blew the whistle on their these bad apples as soon as they found out they were doing it. What that means is that all they want to do is just register as many people to vote as they can, but they leave the decisions up to those people. The problem is that some of the people they hired to get the vote out (and, as you can imagine they hire thousands of people), want to cheat to make money, so they'd fill out phony voter registration forms. This goes totally against what ACORN is trying to do. This link explains it:
http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=17855
It's true that the Obama supports ACORN, because, as a good, honest, upstanding citizen who supports Democracy, he wants everyone who's eligible to vote to be registered and vote, regarldess of whether they vote for him, for McCain, for Ralph Nader, or for someone else. That's Democracy at it's finest. He and ACORN are both blameless in this regretable act by a few bad apples.
But, McCain didn't stop his smear games there. He's authorized robocalls and mailings to people all over America saying nasty, hateful things about Barack Obama. These robocalls and mailings try to make him out to be a terrorist or claim that he's a Muslim. The truth is that Obama's a Christian. The truth is that Barack Obama's an upstanding citizen who cares about protecting America from terrorists.
What you can do.
Contact eveyone you know and tell them this. Stop dishonest character assassination attempts this elections season. Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers (you may even be able to do this online, just go to google.com, search for your newspaper's name and you may be surprised to find that they're online and you can send a letter to the editor over the internet right now). Do whatever you can to get the word out about this dishonesty from the McCain camp.
One reason I'm voting for Obama is because I think he's simply more honest than McCain. McCain just seems like an oily con artist to me.
If you'd like to donate to my grassroots campaign for Barack Obama, click the link below:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/ivanrichmond
I worked the phone for Barack last night. For the most part it was the usual experience - five to ten ring-no-answers, or "No one is available to take your call..." followed by one or two real conversations. It was a pretty even mix between McCain and Obama supporters. Nothing special.
But I did get one woman who claimed to be undecided. I asked what issues might influence her decision. What do you thing she said?
It was a litany of McCain talking points: William Ayers, ACORN, baby killing, and so on. Only one question was related to an actual issue, namely, illegal immigration. Nothing about the economy, health care, Iraq, or entitlement reform.
What to make of this? Perhaps she was really undecided, and the issues she was concerned with are ones of character rather than policy. Or perhaps she was a McCain supporter who was just messing with my head.
On the way home I pondered this conversation. And I resolved that if this election turns for McCain on the basis of these vile Rovian tactics, it wouldn't happen because I left something undone. I logged on last night and made another contribution, and signed up to knock doors this weekend.
You should too. Don't let McCain win by appealing to our ugliest instincts. I'm exhausted after eight years of being torn down and driven apart. I can barely tolerate another three months, much less another four years. Let's elect someone who will instead build us up and bring us together.
I received yet another email forward, and it set me off on another rant. I offer it up as a guide to your own responses to this junk.
The original email is too long to reproduce here, so I'll settle for a few excerpts:
-----Original Message----- Subject: Fwd: FW: Most Americans are aware of Bill Lear,Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:54:47 -0700Straight talk for Republicans and Democrats. Most Americans are aware of Bill Lear, because of his Lear Jet business; however, he has accomplished much more, as you can see at this link: William P. Lear -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia . His opinions are worth a read: A Humble Plea to McCain and Obama Supporters: Dear friends, I am truly astonished by the ignorance Obama supporters have displayed in their quest to get someone - ANYONE - into the White House. Now, wait a minute. I can well understand your dislike or even hatred of our clown, GWB, but he is not the root cause of all of our problems. Our Congress is. And a change there would be welcomed by all. You ain't gonna get it done with Obama. You gotta fire the whole damnable crooked Congress. ...While McCain has abstained from playing "the race-card", Obama is playing it to the hilt even though he's technically not an African-American. To qualify for this distinction you must be at least one-sixth black. Obama is only one-eighth. His father would be, as he was one-sixth. No, Obama is more Muslim than black yet he trades on his blackness. The larger question I have about him is that we really don't know much about him other than what HE tells us, what we read on blogs and from some serious non-partisan investigators whose factual reports are, unfortunately, generally ignored and which receive precious little media exposure. I, as a registered Independent, a military veteran and a patriot, beseech you to put aside party considerations and vote for the lesser of the two evils. Yes, I am NOT a McCain supporter, but he is, at least, not a flake, doesn't carry Muslim baggage and is a PROVEN hero and patriot WITH experience. It's not a party issue. It's all about electing the best we can trust with what we've got to work with. Mr. Obama is NOT that guy.
-----Original Message----- Subject: Fwd: FW: Most Americans are aware of Bill Lear,
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:54:47 -0700
Straight talk for Republicans and Democrats. Most Americans are aware of Bill Lear, because of his Lear Jet business; however, he has accomplished much more, as you can see at this link: William P. Lear -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia .
His opinions are worth a read:
Uh-huh. Sure.
I replied:
Vague smears and pleas to "trust me" from a millionaire industrialist do not move me, especially coming from someone with the slogan and book title, Fly Fast, Sin Boldly (See http://www.billlear.com), who admits to spending much of his life outside the U.S.. Contrast Lear's reasons, which basically come down to "he's a Muslim" and "he's uppity," with Colin Powell's well-reasoned, seven minute endorsement, and there's a huge difference in the quality of the argument. Details of Barack Obama's life have been thoroughly investigated and reported on for the past two years. Millions and millions of words have been written about him, true and false. Lies are perpetrated by far right nutcases (including an anti-Semitic would-be lawyer who was refused admission to the bar due to personality disorder)* and passed on to people who are made nervous because he has dark(ish) skin, a dead father from Kenya and a funny name. The smears are distortions at best, out-and-out lies at worst, endlessly passed on and believed despite being thoroughly debunked in the press and on several fact checking sites. (And in case you assume that Politifact, FactCheck.org and Snopes.com lie, consider that they debunk anti-Palin and anti-McCain stuff too, and Politifact even calls Obama out on inaccurate statements he makes.) Why is all this happening? Rich people with a vested interest in Republican power, and people who honestly believe Obama is dangerous because he's "not like us" are willing to lie and cheat to convince you not to vote for Obama. They know they can't win on the issues. Obama's tax plan is the one that benefits most people, while McCain' s will continue to redistribute the wealth upward to the richest 1% of the country. McCain's will result in more dead soldiers, and more hatred of the U.S. around the world. And by the way, his support of veterans' issues, such as funding of the VA, is abysmally poor. So the Republicans and radical right try to distract you with vague insinuations about Bill Ayers (who sat on a board with prominent Republicans as well as Obama) and a heaping helping of lies and distortions. YOU ARE BEING PLAYED. If you don't know who Barack Obama is and what he stands for, you're not looking very hard. Venture beyond the email forwards, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the Drudge, and check out a wide range of newspapers, magazines and tv networks, the fact-checking sites, and Obama's own site. If you dare to do this, and give these resources your honest attention, I think you'll be surprised. I am Karen Funk Blocher, and I wrote this message. * His name is Andy Martin. See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html Resources: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php http://www.snopes.com http://www.factcheck.org/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ http://www.nytimes.com/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ http://digg.com/2008_us_elections
Another email required a much shorter response:
Subject: McCain's or Obama's Computer Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:29:39 +0000 Barack Obama has put out an ad that simply reminded us John McCain cannot use a computer. Well guess what ... Barack cannot land a jet plane on an airc raft carrier at night.
Subject: McCain's or Obama's Computer Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:29:39 +0000
Barack Obama has put out an ad that simply reminded us John McCain cannot use a computer. Well guess what ... Barack cannot land a jet plane on an airc raft carrier at night.
This was followed by a picture of a laptop next to a picture of a jet cockpit, and then a goofy photo of young Obama next to one of McCain posting next to his plane. "If your [sic] still thinking about voting for Obama ; I have a question for you..." the email says. "Is your head up your..." well, you know the rest.
My reply:
How exactly does crashing several Air Force planes forty years ago make John McCain more qualified than Obama to lead this country? http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_mccain_crash_five_planes_did_he.html (As the article notes, he was not actually at fault for every crash and near-crash, but he did cause at least one actual crash, plus an international incident when he brought down power lines while clowning around in the cockpit.) Although the "McCain doesn't know how to use a computer" ad was a bit of a cheap shot, I submit to you that knowing how to use a computer to retrieve and disseminate information is slightly more relevant than knowing how to fly a outdated plane, which McCain probably would not do anymore because of his injuries. Neither skill is a strong reason for voting for or against anyone. Fortunately, both men have far more important qualifications. Karen
Will the people forwarding such emails listen? Maybe not. But it's important to counter the smears, ignorance and disinformation as best we can.
Karen
(Ok, I couldn't help it. I like acorn squash.)
Let's deal with the ACORN rumors, shall we? I think anyone who has worked with a non-profit will feel pain at reading this, because it is so often that when you are trying to do the most good for a non-partisan cause that bad nuts get into the batch. Whether they are employees or volunteers, sometimes your own people undermine your goals.
Does this make your efforts worthless? No. Does that mean that your organization is the problem? No. Is is frustrating and disheartening? Heck yes.
So, on to the reality check. I'm using FactCheck.org and the ACORN website as my sources.
WHAT IS ACORN?
WHAT IS THEIR PROCESS?
ACORN VOTER FRAUD
John McCain stated in the final debate that ACORN is "now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
Goodness, McCain - embellish much? FactCheck.org disagrees with this outlandish statement about the fabric of democracy being unwoven by voter registration. But I'll put it together for all of us (majority of information from FactCheck.org):
OBAMA'S CONNECTION TO ACORN
FactCheck.org says:
The ad says that "Obama's ties to ACORN run long and deep" – that he "taught classes" for the group, paid a "front" $800,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts, and was endorsed by ACORN for president.That last one's true – ACORN's political action committee did offer an Obama endorsement.It's also true that Obama has worked with the group in the past. In 1995, Obama helped represent ACORN in a successful lawsuit to require the state of Illinois to offer "motor voter" registration at DMV offices. Obama has said [but no longer says- LEB] that this is his only association with ACORN, but that's not the case – he has had other, though less direct[emphasis mine], interactions with the organization. After law school, Obama directed a Chicago registration drive for Project Vote, which works closely with ACORN. And when Obama was on the board of directors of the Woods Fund, the foundation gave grants of $75,000 in 2001 and $70,000 in 2002 to ACORN's Chicago office. The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee cite an additional grant of $45,000 in 2000. The Woods Fund has not responded to our calls about their 2000 grants. The Obama campaign also paid Citizens Services Inc., a group affiliated with ACORN, more than $800,000 for get-out-the-vote (not voter registration) efforts during the primary election. The nature of CSI's services was initially misrepresented on the Obama campaign's disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, which the campaign describes as an oversight. The Obama campaign says it has not been involved with ACORN during the general election. As for "teaching classes" for the group, the McCain campaign cites a March 2008 Newsday article, which says that ACORN organizer Madeleine Talbot "initially considered Obama a competitor" when both were working to get asbestos insulation removed from a Chicago housing project, but that "she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff." Newsday does not say whether Obama accepted the invitation. An article by Chicago alderman Toni Foulkes says that "we [ACORN] have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year" between 1992 and 2004, when the article was written. The Obama campaign says that Obama participated in two, one-hour trainings in a volunteer capacity. Foulkes could not be reached for comment.
The ad says that "Obama's ties to ACORN run long and deep" – that he "taught classes" for the group, paid a "front" $800,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts, and was endorsed by ACORN for president.
That last one's true – ACORN's political action committee did offer an Obama endorsement.It's also true that Obama has worked with the group in the past. In 1995, Obama helped represent ACORN in a successful lawsuit to require the state of Illinois to offer "motor voter" registration at DMV offices. Obama has said [but no longer says- LEB] that this is his only association with ACORN, but that's not the case – he has had other, though less direct[emphasis mine], interactions with the organization. After law school, Obama directed a Chicago registration drive for Project Vote, which works closely with ACORN. And when Obama was on the board of directors of the Woods Fund, the foundation gave grants of $75,000 in 2001 and $70,000 in 2002 to ACORN's Chicago office. The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee cite an additional grant of $45,000 in 2000. The Woods Fund has not responded to our calls about their 2000 grants. The Obama campaign also paid Citizens Services Inc., a group affiliated with ACORN, more than $800,000 for get-out-the-vote (not voter registration) efforts during the primary election. The nature of CSI's services was initially misrepresented on the Obama campaign's disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, which the campaign describes as an oversight. The Obama campaign says it has not been involved with ACORN during the general election. As for "teaching classes" for the group, the McCain campaign cites a March 2008 Newsday article, which says that ACORN organizer Madeleine Talbot "initially considered Obama a competitor" when both were working to get asbestos insulation removed from a Chicago housing project, but that "she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff." Newsday does not say whether Obama accepted the invitation. An article by Chicago alderman Toni Foulkes says that "we [ACORN] have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year" between 1992 and 2004, when the article was written. The Obama campaign says that Obama participated in two, one-hour trainings in a volunteer capacity. Foulkes could not be reached for comment.
So, before we get all wound up in trying to pin massive voter fraud on anyone, perhaps we should do our own reality check of the facts.
Can we get back to talking about real issues again?
(originally posted at Exponential )
I just sent this to "FightTheSmears.com" The McCain people are pouring on the gasoline on the social networks like Twitter and Facebook. We need better tools.
Dear FightTheSpears:
We made this page http://tinyurl.com/3qpqfm ...so people have quick, easily pastable facts about Obama, to use on Twitter and other social sites. I would strongly advise you copy this and make it official (or make your own). Social net users are doing this ad hoc, and it's very ineffective. Our items are now being posted regularly. If your provide a similar "Quick facts about Obama" page, millions would use it.
The internet is awesome. I say that because it is a reliable avenue to receive news. I especially love it during this campaign. I give it credit for the smears just flying off of Obama's skin and flying right back into the GOP's face. Not every member in the GOP is spewing this silliness, but I feel sorry for the ones who are. I love the internet because everytime someone tells another lie, we can go jump on the net and find the truth. Pat Buchanan told Chris Matthews that Powell's endorsement was based on race. Limbaugh said the same thing, as a matter of fact, Limbaugh, is an expert on African American issues now. People can no longer deny their statements easily, as in the past.
Cheers to the internet, the new truth verifier!!!
Have you heard the latest smear? Now, McCain's criticizing us for having raised "too much" money. See here:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081019/ap_on_el_pr/mccainCan you believe that guy? I mean, in the past few elections, it's always been the Republicans who have raised way more money. I seem to recall that Bush raised $300,000 in 2000, 3 times what Gore raised, all because he had some of the wealthiest voters imaginable. Now, we have this grassroots effort to raise money. If you're like me you've been donating $20, maybe as little as $5 at a time, when you can afford it, and it's not been easy in this economy. But, I for one keep donating because I really care about these elections. I'm really tired of seeing Bush tear down this country, rip up our Constitution and attempt rape on Lady Liberty. I'm livid! I want a president who will respect our Constitutionand actually do what's best for the people for once. What does McCain think we should do, just not donate? I'm sure he'd like that.
But, what's going on here is framing at it's nastiest. Most Americans vote based on character, rather than on policies. McCain's frame is that Obama is dishonest. We need to reframe this. For more on framing, see framing guru and UC Berkeley linguist George Lakoff's article here:
(Posted to the Washington Post, October 19, 2008):
I was directed to an article in the Cleveland Leader from a C2NN (Care2 News Network) story submission:
Which basically accused the Obama campaign and some media companies of covering up Senator Obama's past ties with ACORN by claiming that they were "wiping the web clean of potentially damaging articles that had appeared, and were previously publicly accessible," giving evidence of his involvement with ACORN with a citation from from a 2004 article "Case Study: Chicago - The Barack Obama Campaign" written by Toni Foulkes:
"Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won. Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year. Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5,000 of them). Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for STate Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends."
"Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won. Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year. Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5,000 of them).
Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for STate Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends."
This article led to an add-on article, after "Fight the Smears" amended information about Obama's involvement with ACORN:
Which basically accused "Fight the Smears" of lying. The article stated:
As of yesterday, Fightthesmears.com stated:Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.Sometime on Friday, the website was altered, and the text was changed to state:Fact: ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee.The mere fact that his campaign has now changed the language of the site shows that they have conceded the fact that their original remark was a bold-face lie. As a lawyer Sen. Obama should know the importance of language. The original statement implied that he had no working connection with ACORN, whereas the new statement now insists that he has never been employed or hired by ACORN.
As of yesterday, Fightthesmears.com stated:
Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.
Sometime on Friday, the website was altered, and the text was changed to state:
Fact: ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee.
The mere fact that his campaign has now changed the language of the site shows that they have conceded the fact that their original remark was a bold-face lie. As a lawyer Sen. Obama should know the importance of language.
The original statement implied that he had no working connection with ACORN, whereas the new statement now insists that he has never been employed or hired by ACORN.
At this point, I had to make my comments. Making corrections is not proof of intent to lie and deceive people! This ACORN witch hunt is getting out of hand, really. They've whipped it up into a conspiracy to cover-up, the size of Watergate. If you wish to read my comments, they're under If you really wish to debate semantics, I agree, but that wasn't the point of the article, and I think the difference is in negative implication.
I clicked on the author's name, Julie, to see what info there was about her under the hyperlink. What info was there?
Julie
History
Member for
2 years 13 weeks
And that was all there was. So who is she?..
It has taken several months of dialog, but my Mother now sends my the "scare tactic" emails that she gets from her friends and alows me to do research on them and give her another point of view. I don't know if she will vote for Obama, I just don't want her to live her life in fear of her President.
