COURAGEOUS CONFRONTATION

A grateful H/T to Lindsay at Majikthise for posting this:



A dramatic video capture of bigotry, confrontation, and retreat … all within a 3 minute segment. Most gratifying of all, this clip shows campaign staffers and supporters demonstrating more courage than their own candidate who, to date, has failed to acknowledge and condemn such conduct.

UPDATE (5:20 pm): This report about another GOP defector in an important swing state:

A longtime Republican State Senator in Wisconsin history announced on Tuesday that she would be supporting Barack Obama, in part because of the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign and, specifically, the use of "dishonorable" anti-Obama robocalls.

"All of us should be extremely wary of the half truths and outright untruths that have been spread by the recent negative campaigning and shameful automated phone calls," said Barbara Lorman of Fort Atkinson. "While my admiration for Senator Obama has grown with his positive approach to addressing the challenges facing our nation, my disappointment with the McCain campaigned has deepened. The negative tactics are inappropriate, downright dishonorable and have no place in the State of Wisconsin."

In issuing her statement, Lorman became the latest in a growing line of GOP officials who have publicly denounced the recent tone and tactics of the McCain camp ... [including] Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Norm Coleman, as well as former Secretary of State Colin Powell ...

Our Mutual Enemy.

I'm now convinced that this is the time. This is the time for all of us to come to the aid of our country, to stand up for civilization, for what is right and true; for our way of life, for our future, for our families, our homes and our fortune. This is my call to revolution.

The time to break the bonds imposed up us by an arrogant and assumed oppressor; a power that has made the truth its enemy, democracy its victim and the American people its hostage, is now. Indeed the time is now or the time will never be. Let us declare undying enmity toward Fox News.

Not to change the subject, but I have to ask "what do we know about Cindy McCain?" Not much really. Michelle Obama has been chopped up and re-assembled as a Terrorist, an opportunist, an elitist and many other silly things, but Cindy is an enigma. When the New York Times ran a long and somewhat sympathetic article about her and her unusual life with John, our mutual enemy, Fox News, decided without evidence that it was a "dirt Digging" article and opened the gates of hell in the direction of Barak Obama. Glenn Greenwald at Salon found it to be no more than

"just generally dissecting her private and emotional sphere for no apparent reason beyond idle voyeurism,"

but it's not partisan, he says. They did worse to the Clintons. That's true, but the idea that Presidents are entitled to secrecy when Republican is Fox policy, not the Liberal Press stereotype they peddle. She has become a public figure and thus has waived the right to privacy of a private citizen just as everyone does. "what do we know about Cindy" is as a legitimate question as is "what do we know about Sarah Palin, or Michelle Obama or the "first Dude" and his secessionist, anti-American "pals."

Because Mrs. McCain was said to have suffered from Migraines and took pills to ease the suffering, Fox News has decided that Barak Obama is a drug addicted criminal and has launched a crusade to find his "drug dealers" and search out anyone who may have bought "drugs" and hence can be associated with him. This is more than idle voyeurism, this is an attempt to twist the truth, to mold truth from the clay and animate it by blowing the breath of ignorance into its nostrils -- and for no reason other than to destroy anyone running against a Republican. Were this not obviously so, they would not have rolled their eyes and chanted Liberaliberal when George Bush's adult drug and alcohol problems, including a DUI conviction, was discussed.

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book"

said Fox and Friends. Oh really? The New York Times should inquire as to who passed Barry the joint at some party 25 years ago? Perhaps when Fox stops suggesting mob ties and terrorist ties of the Obamas; perhaps when they stop suggesting that his education was paid for by shadowy jihadists, that he was trained at terrorist training camps, that he supports the bombing of government property, that he's a disciple of Karl Marx and all the other foul things that issue from the anus of Fox - perhaps then.

Will we as patriotic Americans permit the quiet destruction of our country by the world's foremost propagator of terror, fear, hate and propaganda, or will we turn these bastards off? Will we sit idly by as associates, friends and others present Fox Facts as truth? Or will we do what we need to do to prevent our country from sinking into the cesspit from which nations never emerge whole?

Death to the Fox!

Learning From the Younger Crowd

I've been noticing a certain acerbic tone in my young child’s manner of speaking to me lately. Ill-tempered & impatient, to be exact. Now – I could, of course, explain this away by saying – “oh well, it’s the age” or “kids will be kids” etc. Yes. Mmmm Well. Um. Except for the fact that my child’s tone, manner, demeanor is beginning to seem oddly familiar. Like I’ve heard it before. Many times. Recently. A lot. Yes - hauntingly familiar. As if I am listening to my own reflection in a mirror. Could it be that my child is taking cues from dear old mom about how to communicate?

What’s that old expression about things going around & coming around?

Today as I was approaching my classroom building for my next class I was wading through the usual crowd of my students hanging around the door smoking like chimneys & generally lollygagging. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of my students grin & wave at me. I aimed my patented, squid-sarcastic look in his direction. As I passed into the building I heard him say, “She hates me, I know it.” Rolling my eyes heavenward I headed to my classroom.

A few minutes later as my students strolled into class, my “she hates me” student headed for his seat. I called out – in an ever so SO sarcastic voice – “Hello so & so. I like you so & so.” He turned & grinned sheepishly & said “See – I thought so, but I’m never quite sure.” Then we both laughed heartily.

It struck me later that this incident – like my struggles with my ornery child – is yet another example of the cycle of human interactions. How one person behaves or speaks informs how another person behaves & speaks, etc etc etc . . .

Both my child & my “she hates me” student have reflected back to me my own moodiness & manner respectively. Reminding me that I can not act & react in a vacuum. That I must bear responsibility for HOW I am.

What has this got to do with anything at issue on this blog?

It seems to me from recent posts on this blog - reporting about happenings on the campaign trails - that there is a lot of meanness & ill will being circulated around this land of ours. The debating of political issues has become thoroughly dumbed down into overly & overtly personalized & poisonous rhetoric. I too am guilty of this. I have been mightily & heartily sarcastic – not just critical – but sarcastic – about Sarah Palin. And it is my sarcasm that I am increasingly bothered by. Towards SP I am not playfully sarcastic as I am with my students. No. I have been aggressively sarcastic towards her & her running mate. And this sarcasm does NOT make me feel any better. It is not healthy blowing off of steam. No. It’s not. Call me a whimp – but it is really bothering me. I have allowed SP's own idiotic rhetoric to suck me into more of my own idiotic - yes, idiotic - rhetoric in retort. Where does it end?

I am not claiming that I am ready to go out & start slashing the tires of cars bearing McCain/Palin stickers. However – the angry desire to slash someone’s tires starts somewhere, doesn't it? People are not born inherently disposed to have evil tendencies towards tires. So how did we go from name calling to vandalism? What will be the next leap into the depths? As a collective electorate – what are we now demonstrating about ourselves? And I do mean COLLECTIVE. Are any of us really above the fray at this point?

Perhaps the phrase “what goes around comes around” needs to be modified to “be mindful of what you send around because it may come back around upon you in an even more disturbing form.”

Or maybe I am just an idyllic, idealistic, delicate flower in need of watering. I don't know.

BUT I do know - that if I want my child to learn how to speak in a more reasonable, polite voice it would be nice if I modeled such behavior for him. Might there not be a lesson in this? As for my "she hates me" student - a reminder to me that sometimes by simply owning our behavior we can get a smile & be understood.

Insane McCain

If you've ever been to a turkey farm, you will have seen how one lone animal will begin gobbling and the rest will follow suit until the whole flock begins to sound like the American news media commenting on an election.

"Spread the wealth" seems to be the latest gobble ever since John Mc Cain, in his desperation, attempted to conflate the Obama tax policy, which hardly differs from what we've had since the beginning of income taxes in America, with socialism. It's not much more of an idiotic redefinition than is typical of the 2008 campaign rhetoric which has it that a hundred year occupation of a foreign country is a "victory" and accomplishing the goal of regime change and democracy is "surrender." Indeed the trickle down theory is little more than a scenario in which people the government helps to get rich then redistribute a small part of it by spending.

In St. Charles Missouri this weekend, John McCain attempted to show the show me state that lifting some of the burden from the struggling classes is Socialism. Senator Martinez from Florida compared Obama's tax plan to that of Fidel Castro and the chorus of boos from their gobbling audiences is not directed at the dishonest and sometimes demented charges or the turkeys who make them, but at anyone outside the circle of the tribe by virtue of sanity, education, honesty or intelligence: particularly intelligence. There is no idea too stupid, too false, to demented that the tribe will not dance around the fire and scream "kill him!"

It there any charge quite as incredible as insisting that presidents like Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan must have been socialists who wanted to redistribute the wealth by not giving the kind of tax breaks to the top 5% that George Bush did and that John McCain wants to continue and extend? We have never had a bigger and bigger spending government than we have now and McCain has no plan to change that that could pass a second grade arithmetic teacher's scrutiny. He has hot button topics like earmarks, and socialism and spreading the wealth, but the rest is only "trust me my friends."

"Our opponent's plan is just more big government, and John and I think that that is the problem, not the solution," said the gobbler in the glasses "Instead of taking your hard-earned money and spreading your wealth, we want to spread opportunity so people like you and Joe the plumber can create new wealth."

Of course it's not more big government by any measure. It's a return to the time before George Bush's borrow, bloat and spend policies.

What's the Palin plan? Give it to the rich and let it trickle down. Gobble, gobble, gobble. What's the plan? borrow and spend and put the burden of all that debt on people like you and me and Joe the plumber and our children and grandchildren, and how do we sell it? We lie about palling around with terrorists, we call Obama an elitist Arab Muslim Terrorist, who conspires with Vietnam War protesters, who is a Chicago Machine politician with no experience, whose house was paid for by gangsters, who reads books by terrorists and whose education was paid for by Pakistani Fundamentalists and who isn't even an American. Did I mention that he's black?

At this point and regardless of who wins, I'm ashamed to be part of this. If Obama wins, the country has been so damaged already and will be filled with a large minority who think he's the devil, the future is so dim my old eyes can't see anything but gloom.

Colin Powell's Endorsement of Barack Obama

Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was about as thoroughgoing as this dinosaur could have hoped, the general’s polite qualifying phrases aside. He demolished Senator McCain’s potential closing arguments for the last few weeks of the campaign: the “experience and c-in-c prep argument,” the economics argument (though McCain had already ruined that one himself), the character attacks alleging radicalism, and the insinuation of an unacceptable degree of “otherness” in Obama’s person and background. McCain isn’t likely to change many minds from here on out, especially since his running mate and high-level supporters keep declaring whole swaths of the country “un-American,” claiming that our core values are hunting and fishing, insulting us by lying to our faces about things that have already been proven several times over against them, and so forth. They just can’t help saying transparently blockheaded, alienating things because if they didn’t say them, they would have nothing at all to say. For once, we seem to be showing some collective determination to invalidate the cynical judgment that “nobody ever lost a nickel underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” (Either P. T. Barnum or H. L. Mencken said that, I believe.) What I’m seeing – based in part on those huge St. Louis crowds Barack is drawing now, and the amount of money he raised in September ($150 million, mostly from small donors) -- looks like a genuine upwelling of healthy regard for participatory guv’ment. Still two weeks to go, but at present things are looking good. Maybe humans aren’t so bad after all, though I still think things were better and simpler in the Jurassic. We didn’t have politics at all because we had already achieved Aristotle’s dream of “the good life.” Bloody asteroids!

VIOLENCE AT PALIN RALLIES

The über-patriot in action again, here is Sarah Palin delivering a speech at Elon, North Carolina, yesterday :

We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.

Does Petite Syrah mean to imply that other parts of America are less wonderful, less patriotic, and less pro-America?  According to another report, her speech was briefly interrupted after a protester was led away in handcuffs.  Here is how Sarah Palin responded:

"You know what, maybe we need to tell security that maybe he need not go," she said.  "Maybe he needs to stay and learn a little from all of you."  The crowd then cheered.

What exactly did Sarah Palin have in mind? Did she intend to have the protestor drawn and quartered?  Have him fed as raw meet to the cannibals? Here is another account from Mark Binker who was covering another rally:

I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.  As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.

"Hey, hey, " I said. "I'm trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay?"

The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building.   We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.

This was met with curses, screams and chants of "U.S.A" by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.  It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.

"Oh, you think that 's funny?! " the large bearded man said.  His face was turning red.  "Yeah, that 's real funny…" he said.

And then he kicked the back of [my] leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.

Yup, it’s sure getting ugly out there.

Down the drain

Maybe we shouldn't have been wasting our time last night, listening to McCain and Obama accusing each other of being big spenders when we should have gone straight to the one expert who seems to agree with John's tax proposal. I don't mean some PhD economist or tax law expert or even a CPA; I'm talking of course, about Joe the Plumber, the fellow whose concerns about Obama's tax proposal has made him one of the most well known men -- and certainly the best known plumber on the planet at the moment. If that notoriety alone doesn't translate into financial success for Joe, it will be only because he'd rather not be in a higher tax bracket.

According to Joe Wurtzelberger, a progressive tax structure is Robin Hood socialism and John McCain seems to agree. I particularly liked his oily sneer when he repeated his "spread the wealth around" formula, but I wonder how that meshes with the spreading around of wealth inherent in supply side economics. It's only the direction of the trickle that differs after all, not the redistribution.

Of course Joe seems to have misunderstand what the differences are, and who can blame him? Like all of us he's been bombarded with ugly stereotypes of tax and spend liberals all his life and to be fair, it's complicated, but Joe is wrong. If he buys a business that grosses more than $250,000, he will not be propelled into a higher tax bracket by that fact alone. Surely Joe understands the difference between gross and net and knows about all the expenses and other deductions available. It's very unlikely that the business would net that much and therefore be subject to a tax increase of any kind. It's not very nice of his "Buddy" John not to have explained that to his "best buddy."

For one thing Obama's plan offers additional benefits like a tax credit for new employees and the elimination of Capital Gains for small businesses. Even if the business is wildly successful, and with all this notoriety, it may well be, the increase would be 3%. He would be better off in Obama's America than he would have been in Ronald Reagan's or John McCain's.

Very much to Mr. Wurtzelbacher's credit, he's not endorsing anyone yet. After all, his future and my future depend on a lot more than a 3% potential tax hike that's very unlikely to affect him. A new and deep recession may make it all moot if McCain's leadership is not much better than George Bush's.

All in all, the scenario is not what Joe fears it would be, it is not what John McCain misrepresents it to be and it's very very far from anything one could honestly describe as "spreading the wealth around" even if it's said without the squint and sneer and rubbing of hands. But then we're talking about John McCain's claims about his tax policy and not about honesty and to quote another plumber and funny guy I used to know - that shit don't flush.

Let him have one?

Although all indications are that the vast majority of Americans thought Barak Obama "won" last night's conversation, the howling of the media this morning seems to be about the whining comment McCain made: "I am not George Bush." Is this an effort to allow McCain to leave with some small measure of undeserved dignity?

In the interest of that old "fair and balanced" shell game I guess they have to show that he didn't come across as an incoherent, double-talking, sneering and condescending Bush clone. He did however, and in contrast with polls of professional pundits who listen to and repeat what other professional pundits repeat, the public seems to agree. CNN's unscientific poll shows that about 80% of respondents did not think McCain won, but the "scientific" polls seem restricted to those still, after all this time undecided and not to the voters in general. I can't help thinking there's something a bit wrong with someone unable to make up their mind after almost two years.

So far this morning, all I'm reading are rubber stamp repeats of the "I am not George Bush" line and nothing of the embarrassing (for McCain) reiteration of "he's going to fine you" after it was explained that he would not and the nauseating repetition of the "there's more we need to know about your relationship with ayers" red herring after that stinker was put thoroughly in its grave. There are no more unanswered questions John, no matter how often you ask the same damn thing. No, Obama didn't say that, but I wish he had.

McCain repeated his rehearsed points over and over and it was often obvious that he wasn't really listening to the answers and that he had no idea what the public's view of his and Palin's mean, vicious accusations might be.

My biggest disappointments of the evening were that McCain seemed too often to have the last, and often dishonest word; that Obama did not point out the continuing "trickle down" nature of McCain's proposals that are so much like the Bush standard, that Obama did not bring up William Timmons and tell us "we need to know more." I wish Obama would have asked him why he kept repeating that chestnut about fines when it was patently a false claim. I wish a lot of things, actually. I wish sanity and honesty weren't so rare in this country, but all in all, I saw McCain as the defendant here, a defendant trying to talk his way around the evidence by postulating unlikely explanations of how his fingerprints were all over the crime scene.

Cross posted from Human Voices

Sexism - Will It Never Cease!?

DEAR JOHN MCCAIN & FEEBLE-MINDED MEDIA:

I am a WOMAN. A SINGLE woman. And I am NOT referring to my lack of marital status. I am referring to the fact that I am an INDIVIDUAL woman. I am UNIQUE. I do NOT necessarily think like other women I may encounter in the course of a day. And they do NOT necessarily think like me.

I am SICK TO DEATH of us all being lumped together into some sort of collective. It is insulting. It is condescending.

None of you would ever DREAM of saying things like - "Joe Biden is a role model for men." You would be hooted at if you did. You would NEVER do news stories with opening lines such as "American men say they are still not hearing what they need to from the presidential candidates."

You wouldn't - would you?

Well then STOP doing it to us women!!! We are not mindless sheep all bleating in the same direction. I personally have heard what I need to hear from the candidates & made my mind up long ago so, what your idiotic, derivative news story was REALLY about was that SOME women had not made their minds up yet! SOME! not ALL! You are continuing the nonsense you began months ago with your mindless news stories about Hilary's women voters being so mad that they were refusing to vote for Obama. Maybe that was true of SOME, but not ALL of us reacted that way. Do your jobs! Tell the whole story. Dig deeper. And you, Campbell Brown - now known for calling the McCain campaign on its sexism towards SP - are guilty of perpetuating this sexist drivel just like the rest of the media. The "American women are still not hearing what they want" story was on YOUR program!

And as for you, Mr. McCain - how dare you imply that your running mate is a role model to women! The fact that a woman is on a presidential ticket - in & of itself - is a positive for women. Yes. HOWEVER - the actual woman herself is NOT a role model to women - at least I -an individual woman with an individual brain - do not think so.

SEE! I have an INDIVIDUAL opinion! Just like all of the INDIVIDUAL opinions that you all readily assume men to have.

Get with it folks! Your sexism is shamelessly on display!

A sincerely ANGRY,
Squid

Jurassic Debate Analysis

The Third Debate as Viewed from the Jurassic:

This dinosaur says Obama did better than McCain. McCain's dig about how pro-choicers have been shamefully stretching the definition of "the mother's health" (presumably to cover the sniffles and mild headaches) was shocking--I agree with Fogg's comment in Octo's post, for which post many thanks. I had no idea McCain would say anything that insensitive on national television. He managed to express his "pro-life" stance in a way that's hard not to take as bordering on open contempt for women.

McCain also had been issuing Viking boasts about how he was going to bring a whole case of whoop-ass (at least 24 units with the tops already off and the cans properly shaken) to the debate, whereas in fact the whole thing was fairly civil. Obama bested him on the Ayers issue and managed to avoid "repudiating" John Lewis for telling the truth about the atmosphere McCain and Palin have allowed to develop at their rallies. McCain's "hide behind the flag" defense of the imbeciles who attend his rallies was contemptible, period. Obama, by contrast, was comfortable as an old shoe: just the sort of person we ought to make president at a difficult time. Nothing either candidate said was particularly memorable, which no doubt helps Barack at this late date.

The stuff about Joe the Plumber had me rolling my eyes and sighing like Allosaurus Gore: my fondest hope is that Joe the Plumber will immediately sit down and write a highly theoretical rejoinder to both candidates and the moderator, one that will bring to bear Kant, Hegel, Foucault, Nietzsche, and even Derrida on all the things they said about him.... Deconstruct, baby, deconstruct! Really -- how hokey and condescending can a candidate get? Even Joe and Jane Sixpack are insulted at being summed up as "Joe the Plumber."

Finally, I think McCain done sunk himself good with all that ridiculous talk about school vouchers and similar things at a time when -- yet again -- the stock market is collapsing and we are "on the eve of destruction," at least financially. What piffle! "Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace...."