Carl Pope: A Model for the Nation
<p>State College, PA and Seattle — I was at Penn State during Barack Obama’s 30 minute campaign video (it’s sleazy and dishonest to call it an “infomercial;” we ought to be encouraging this kind of use of TV in place of 30- and 15-second spots). We were there to honor the efforts of <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.powervote.org”>PowerVote,</a> the student-driven voter-engagement drive of which the <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://ssc.org/”>Sierra Student Coalition</a> (SSC) is a member. At Penn State alone, PowerVote more than 4,500 new voters have registered — more than 10 percent of the total student body — and an almost equal number have pledged to vote on the basis of clean energy and green jobs. Nationally, more than 300,000 students have taken the pledge. Al Gore engaged in a <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.powervote.org/GoreWebcast”>nationwide video webcast</a> with the students, and it was a real thrill that the three campuses he singled out at the start of the program — the University of Maryland, Portland State, and the University of Georgia — are all campuses with a very active SSC leadership role. </p><p>So I actually didn’t get to see Obama, live, call out one and only one American company during his telecast: <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/10/30/04835/215″>McKinstry,</a> the Seattle-based energy-efficiency company that specializes in reducing energy waste in buildings. Obama promised that “I’ll use companies like McKinstry as a model for the nation.” But when I arrived today at McKinstry to do an energy-efficiency event with Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, I was quickly updated on how exciting it was that Obama has picked energy efficiency (of which Vice-President Cheney famously said “It may be a personal virtue but it is not an energy policy”) as a centerpiece of his national closing argument. </p><p>Gregoire is probably “Governor Efficiency” — her decision to line Washington State up with California’s clean car standard was the key to bringing Detroit to the bargaining table for higher fuel-economy performance, and she may just have saved the U.S. auto industry. She passed the nation’s first green-buildings standard, and she took the lead in forming the Western Climate Initiative. </p><p>She’s in a surprising tough battle with Dino Rossi, who if elected would become “Governor Waste.” Rossi’s political base is bottom-feeding home builders, like the ones who battled viciously to keep their costs low and their buyers’ utility bills high <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://sierraclub.typepad.com/carlpope/2008/09/the-twilight-of.html”>last month at the International Code Council.</a> </p><p>Just as gasoline hit $4 gallon, Rossi declared that he wanted to shift funding from mass transit to highways. (He actually wants to shift a billion bucks from education to even more highways!) And he is solidly in the Palin wing of his party. Like Palin, he declares that he doesn’t know what causes global warming but thinks we can solve it anyway. (Imagine a doctor telling you, “The test results say you have tuberculosis. But remember, the germ theory is just that — a theory. I really don’t want to worry about what the cause of your fever is. Antibiotics cost too much and the economy can’t afford them. So just take two aspirin.”)</p><p>So whether I’m in Pennsylvania or Washington, clean energy and green jobs have taken center stage at the grass roots. Now, can we propel them down Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20? Five more days!</p> <p></p> <p><br />
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<td><p><em>NOTICE TO VOTERS (Required by law): Paid for by Sierra Club Political Committee, www.sierraclub.org, and Sierra Club Healthy Communities Fund, 180 Nickerson Street, Suite 202, Seattle, Washington, and not authorized or approved by any candidate or candidate’s committee.</em></p></td><br />
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Johnny Sisk: John McCain: Dumb and Plumber
<p>In a few days, the pundits will fill the airwaves with countless reasons for why John McCain lost this election. They’ll talk about Obama’s tightly run campaign and his ability to inspire. They’ll talk about McCain’s character attacks and negative campaigning. They’ll talk about debate performances, stump speeches, campaign financing, robocalls, and The Great Depression II.<br /> <br />
But none of those things will have had as much to do with McCain’s defeat as will the all-powerful pop cultural force that has taken our country by storm this past week: Joe the Plumber.<br /> <br />
If you’re looking for what’s gone wrong with John McCain’s bid for the White House, look no further than Joe the Plumber.<br /> <br />
Like his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain’s schoolgirl crush on Joe the Plumber has illustrated how badly the Republican candidate has misjudged the American electorate and mismanaged his campaign. In both cases, he enlisted uneducated rubes to campaign for him, hoping that these backwoods bumpkins could connect with and energize his red state supporters where he couldn’t himself. And in both cases, his plan has backfired in horribly entertaining ways.<br /> <br />
By tapping a moose-hunting, God-fearing, pro-life hockey mom as his running mate, McCain (a man who prides himself on his “strategy” expertise) made the biggest strategic mistake of the campaign. He turned an election that had been a referendum on Obama’s lack of leadership experience into a referendum on his own decision-making ability. McCain gambled with his VP pick, doubling down on a woman he thought could carry him to the White House by barking moronic drivel about lipstick on pit bulls. </p> <p>The problem, of course, is that behind Palin’s ignorant, uneducated, off-putting, and often hate-filled sarcasm – putting down community organizers? – was a woman who demonstrated a stunning lack of knowledge on everything from Bush foreign policy and Supreme Court rulings to a basic understanding of the Constitution. She claimed that she was the first line of defense from a Russian attack on Alaska and that the Vice President is in charge of the Senate. In other words, after two months of interviewing for the job, she still didn’t know what the job was.<br /> <br />
But the fact that McCain was willing to place our country in the hands of a woman whom he had met only once isn’t what angers me most. It’s that he put his candidacy ahead of his country. Country first? Hardly. <em>Candidacy</em> first.</p> <p>When McCain didn’t go with his gut and pick his first choice Joe Lieberman as VP, he was exposed, pandering to Middle America, cynically hoping that all it would take to capture the women’s vote would be a VP with lady parts.</p> <p>Unfortunately, McCain has badly underestimated the intelligence of the American voting public. Certainly, in some parts of the country, this strategy has worked. But more often than not, it’s led to the divisive cultural skirmishes that have marred his ineffective campaign. Two weeks ago, this strategy was evident in Palin’s now infamous “real America” remarks. And this week, it’s Joe the Plumber.<br /> <br />
At a rally Thursday morning, McCain asked Joe the Plumber to stand up for the crowd. The only problem was that Joe the Plumber wasn’t there. After roughly ten seconds of awkward silence, McCain urged the entire crowd to stand up, saying, “Well, you’re all Joe the Plumber.” </p> <p>This is John McCain’s message to Americans? We’re a nation of plumbers?</p> <p>Just like Sarah the Pageant Queen, Joe the Plumber is yet another symbol of “real America” John McCain has trotted out and put on display, in hopes of convincing his red state friends that he is, indeed, one of them. After all, Joe’s just like you! He’s a hard working plumber who doesn’t know the first thing about global economics or foreign affairs. McCain would be crazy <em>not</em> to give this man the mic.</p> <p>After losing his party’s nomination to a dim-witted moron eight years ago, why has McCain allowed two more dim-witted morons to appear at his rallies, field questions from voters, and speak on his behalf? I guess if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.</p> <p>But why has McCain staked his campaign on America connecting with this man? I know McCain is smarter than this. Right? Has he been trying to lose this thing? Who’s running his campaign? A group of second graders? A team of circus chimps? </p> <p>There can only be one reason he would lower himself to this sort of gimmicky schtick — because he thinks it’s the only way he can win. Incapable of doing it himself, he’s asked two fear-mongering idiots to light a fire under the collective, bulbous ass of his fearful idiot base.</p> <p>Palin, who’s good at reading a teleprompter and not much else, has already been rumored for a talk show host job when this circus leaves town on Tuesday. And Joe the Plumber is reportedly working on a record deal. I hope John McCain is happy. He couldn’t win the election. But he did help two people win the lottery. </p> <p>More and more, it looks like Americans aren’t buying it this time around. More and more, it looks like all the flag pins and empty slogans and hockey moms and Joe the Plumbers in the world won’t win the Republicans another four years in the White House.</p> <p>Unless on Tuesday, Americans do buy it. And John McCain does win the election … and Joe the Plumber becomes Joe the National Security Advisor.</p> <p>Guess that record deal will have to wait.</p>
Bryant Welch: State of Confusion: Tuesday’s Two Wild Cards
Samuel Johnson said, “Nothing so focuses a man’s mind as the knowledge he is to hang at dawn.” For the last six weeks the American voter’s mind has been focused by and on the economy. The heavy weight of the economic issue has helped inoculate Obama from the onslaught of divisive, negative attacks that Republicans have depended on for the last several Presidential elections. As I note in my book, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind (Thomas Dunne, June 2008) people often vote with their unconscious mind making them vulnerable to being controlled by only dimly recognized, primitive psychological states like envy, paranoia, and sexual anxiety. <p> <p> The economy has stifled McCain and Palin’s efforts to activate those primitive states because of the powerful reality-based set of fears created by the economy. Against a backdrop of the very real and imminent threat of losing one’s job and not being able to support a family, the William Ayers matter can be more readily seen as the irrelevant contrivance that it is. And by calling attention to Obama’s plan to “spread the wealth” and label it “socialism,”McCain is forgetting that for many American’s who do not have the same vast wealth that he and his peers have, that does not sound like such a bad idea right now.<p> But the approaching finish line of an intense election like the current one will make many voters vulnerable to a reemergence of these less rational factors drawn from the deeper layers of their psyche as voters experience the pressure that intensifies at the critical decision time. The voting booth is designed to be an isolation chamber, and it is in such a setting the unconscious mind holds its greatest sway. For all the talk of a certain Obama victory, these less rational factors are very much in play and will intensify at the moment of truth on Tuesday. <p> Some may call this the “racial” factor, but I think that oversimplifies the question. Like all powerful and irrational human behaviors, racism has several components some of which are more active and others more dormant at any given point in time. Paradoxically, some have very little to do with race at all. Instead, they have to do with an aggregate of the kinds of feelings I describe in State of Confusion. <p>
It starts with paranoid feelings that one’s psychological boundaries are going to be violated and controlled by a menacing foreigner (William Ayers, Reverend Wright, terrorism), by envy based on fears that one’s own resources needed for basic survival will be stolen by someone else (“spreading the wealth” and “taxes”) and by sexual anxiety that one’s personal feelings of inadequacy will be exposed leading to feelings of humiliation (“elitism,” “gay marriage,” the “angry black male”, “gun control”). In contemporary America race simply provides a definitional framework that makes the defensive fear-based mechanisms “work.” The famous Willie Horton ad, for example, was a trifecta for all three of the primitive states I discuss in State of Confusion. <p>
But fortunately for Obama there is another wild card at play on Tuesday.<p> Republicans certainly enjoyed themselves at the GOP Convention. Rudy Guiliani in the midst of his extraordinarily mocking address aimed at Barack Obama came across the phrase “community organizer” and brought the house down..”Community organizer? What’s that?” he said to guffaws from the GOP Conventioneers. “Obama worked as a community organizer?”
The audience, egged on by Guiliani, managed its ignorance with defiant smugness. They took the same sadistic pleasure in their know-nothing laughter at community organizers as they had a few minutes earlier in their passionately uninformed chant of “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Clueless about what they were mocking, they indulged themselves in a group orgy of ignorance elevated to a narcissistic state of splendor sanctioned by group consensus. <p> On November 4, the GOP are going to get a very painful crash course in understanding what a community organizer is, and they are going to find out that Obama learned a lot as a community organizer back in Chicago. As powerful as Obama’s charm and rhetorical skills are, it’s his community organizing skill that has defined his success. Obama solved the country’s campaign financing problem without legislation by creating a populist-based appeal for funding that worked far more effectively than anyone could have imagined. The advantage that “big moneyed” interests have had in fundraising, as it turns out, has not been money itself, but, instead, ease of harvesting money, a problem for Democrats that was overcome with the internet. Similarly, Obama won the Democratic nomination beating Hillary Clinton largely through the caucus system. He out-organized Senator Clinton so thoroughly that her confident and well-heeled campaign could never catch up or recover.<p> Tuesday, November 4 is the grand finale, and America will see what a brilliant, well-trained community organizer can do with an idealistic, energized constituency, plenty of money, and new communication technology to tie it all together. <p> What’s a community organizer, Rudy? It’s the election-day nightmare of all Republicans, where the “unwashed multitudes” will predominate and sweep over moneyed interests. Many will be people who never participated in elections previously but have over the past year been “organized” by Obama and brought into the political process. Many will be African Americans who have felt permanently disenfranchised by an America that has made political participation seem meaningless. <p>
Which of these wild cards will be more powerful on Tuesday? The constellation of negative fear based forces on one side or the legions of hope based Obama supporters on the other? Obviously, I don’t have a good quantitative measure of either wild card. But I don’t think Rudy Guiliani will ever mock a community organizer again. <p>
<strong>Bryant Welch is a clinical psychologist and an attorney from Hilton Head, SC. He is the author of State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind (St. Martin’s Press, Thomas Dunne Books, June, 2008.)</strong>
Rebecca Shapiro: Witches, Werewolves, And Sarah Palin: Send In Your Halloween Pics To HuffPost
Attention all you ghosts, goblins, witches and werewolves! This Friday night your haunts are likely to be joined by a whole other pack of spooky characters. We’ve no doubt that Sarah Caribou Barbie, Johnny “The Sidekick” McCain, Barack “The Messiah” Obama and similarly ghoulish incarnations of Joe The Plumber, Biden The Mouth and The Alaskan First Dude – all cleverly disguised as costumed trick-or-treaters — will be streaming up your walkway and pounding on your front doors. According to the New York Times today, Sarah Palin “is turning out to be one of the most popular costume figures this Halloween season — and not just for women.”
The ultimate photo op this week will be this Halloween’s versions of the 2008 candidates and their families.
Here’s your assignment: whip out your digital cameras and capture the best and worst versions of the political figures you see walking around neighborhoods asking for candy, or bobbing for apples at Halloween parties. Join HuffPost’s OffTheBus first-ever Costume Contest by submitting your photos. We’ll select and publish the winning photographs.
To submit, send your photos to campaigntrail AT huffingtonpost.com and put “Halloween photos” in the subject line. Include your name, city and state so that we can credit you.
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman: Beware the Twin Towers of Electronic Election Theft
<p>Obama supporters are exuding a potentially fatal air of confidence and expectation. Intoxicated by favorable polls and a gusher of campaign spending, many are, in John McCain’s phrase, “measuring the drapes in the White House.”<br /> <br />
It is a classic error, made lethal by the Democratic Party’s on-going unwillingness to face the realities of electronic election theft.<br /> <br />
In fact, the twin towers of pre-election disenfranchisement and rigged electronic vote counts make an Obama victory at best an even call, no matter how far ahead he may seem in the polls.<br /> <br />
As reported by Bradblog, Greg Palast, Robert F. Kennedy, Mark C. Miller and others, the Republicans are waging all-out war to purge hundreds of thousands of Democrats from the voter rolls. The now-familiar attacks on ACORN are a smokescreen to cover highly effective state-by-state assaults on computerized registration lists. These lists are often privatized and run by Republican-connected companies like Triad in Ohio. <br /> <br />
As Palast reported eight years ago, such tactics effectively removed tens of thousands of “ex-felons” (many of whom were no such thing) from Florida voter rolls in an election decided for George W. Bush by a fraudulent official margin of less than 600 votes. </p> <p>Since 2005, at least another 170,000 voters have been removed from the rolls in Franklin County (Columbus), 94,000 in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) and 58,000 in Montgomery County (Dayton) according to public records obtained by the Free Press. </p> <p>Also, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner effectively halted the purging of 600,000 additional existing voters by directing that all purged voters be given notification and a hearing. The Republican Party has sued repeatedly to remove another 200,000 new voters that have been registered since January 1, 2008.</p> <p>An estimated 75-80% of these new registrations are thought to be Obama supporters. The Republican challenge in Ohio is based on so-called “mismatches” in a database. For example, a mismatch could merely be the lack of a middle initial for a voter’s name on their voter registration when matched with records from the Social Security administration, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Ohio Secretary of State or lists maintained by private vendors for the counties. <br /> <br />
As reported at Freepress.org, the GOP disenfranchised at least 308,000 Ohio voters (of 5.4 million) prior to a 2004 election decided by a fraudulent official margin of less than 119,000. At least another 170,000 have since been removed. <br /> <br />
Now the Republicans are using a compendium of tactics to do the same in other key states, much of which is being reported at Bradblog.org and elsewhere. <br /> <br />
Though they are meeting grassroots resistance in many cases, the combination of secret computerized manipulations and outright intimidation is certain to cost the Democrats hundreds of thousands of votes in the swing states that will decide the election. As in 2000 and 2004, with scant exception the Democrats are doing little or nothing to stop the slaughter.<br /> <br />
Likewise electronic voting machines. As amply demonstrated in studies at Princeton University, the Government Accountability Office, the Carter-Baker Commission, the Brennan Center, by Bev Harris at Black Box Voting, and elsewhere, electronic voting machines are perfectly designed to foster election theft. </p> <p>Steve Spoonamore, one of the world’s leading experts on computer data fraud and expert witness in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville vs. Blackwell case against the state of Ohio, has provided an affidavit declaring the Ohio electronic voting system vulnerable to tampering. This aligns with the results of the Everest study commissioned by Secretary of State Brunner that found Ohio’s voting machines easily hackable and the electronic pollbooks even more vulnerable, lacking any real security protocols.<br /> <br />
As in Youngstown and Columbus in 2004, we are already witnessing across the nation widespread touchscreen “anomalies” in which voters press Obama’s name and other candidates light up. CNN has been forced to report on the vote flipping phenomenon. Election officials have rushed to explain it away with such bizarre reasons such as the use of hand lotion, latent fingerprint shadows on the touchscreen, and ignorant voters. Recently, Greene County, Ohio pollworkers told the Free Press that election officials have simply instructed them to wipe down the screens at 11am an 4pm if the votes are hopping. <br /> <br />
Vote shifting has also surfaced where citizens attempt to select a straight party ticket. Even during less pressured advance balloting, machines are breaking down, causing delays and opening wide the door to theft and fraud. The magic word “recalibration” has come to mean mid-stream re-rigging of electronic machines, and is being strategically conjured in voting booths throughout the nation. <br /> <br />
The antidote is clear: paper ballots must be made universal. In Ohio, Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has attempted to make this happen, but has been beaten back by Republicans. Maryland and Virginia have announced they will return to paper ballots, but AFTER this year’s election. In Pennsylvania, a Democratic Secretary of State has, incredibly, RESISTED making paper ballots universally available in a state now dominated by electronic machines without paper trails. It should be no surprise that the McCain campaign is now insisting that Pennsylvania is still “in play” despite a double-digit lead in the polls by his opponent, Senator Barack Obama.<br /> <br />
On last Sunday’s (Oct. 26) Meet the Press program, NBC news political reporter Kelly O’Donnell’s comments provided the narrative for another potential election larceny in 2008. She commented on the McCain campaign and Republicans: “…they are looking at Pennsylvania. They see Pennsylvania differently than the pollsters and the Democrats, and they are really looking in places where Hillary Clinton was strong, believing they can make up some ground there.” </p> <p>Like Ohio in 2004, where Karl Rove and his Republican operatives spun a tail of a last minute voter surge from right-wing evangelical Christians including homophobic old order Amish in horse and buggies, the Pennsylvania narrative is already obvious. It includes the following elements: Hillary Clinton beat up on Obama in Pennsylvania, the Bradley effect of closet racist Democratic voters, and Obama’s comments about “bitter” people clinging to their guns and religion. All of these will be used to explain away Obama’s double-digit lead when, in the wee hours of the morning the Republican cybervote comes in.<br /> <br />
It was between midnight and 2am during the 2004 election that the Ohio majority for John Kerry electronically became a winning margin for George W. Bush. The “miraculous” shift occurred after Ohio’s official vote count was outsourced to private company SmartTech’s servers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The servers housed a virtual who’s who of Republican and anti-Kerry websites. </p> <p>The Free Press has also learned that SmartTech technicians took over control at then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s office at approximately 9 p.m. on Election Day 2004. </p> <p>Throughout the nation, the Democratic Party has been a no-show in the fight to rid the process of the machines that did so much to give George W. Bush his two illegitimate terms of office. The Democrats have refused repeated entreaties from the grassroots election protection movement to take meaningful action. Given the abject surrender of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, this is not a good sign.<br /> <br />
Nor is the syndrome limited to the Democrats. The arrogance of denial was recently trumpeted by the Nation Magazine’s Andrew Gumbel. His contempt for “underqualified” internet researchers who have “breathlessly” reported the GOP thefts of 2000 and 2004 reflects a widespread inability to grasp the enormity of what has been done to the American electoral process. Gumbel has refused to debate or appear on radio programs with co-author Bob Fitrakis, who holds a Ph.D. in political science and a J.D.<br /> <br />
The grassroots election protection movement has made enormous strides in forcing this issue into the mainstream. But because of the GOP-sponsored Help America Vote Act, more Americans will vote this year on electronic machines than ever before. <br /> <br />
That, and the stripping of the voter rolls, could make fleeting any apparent polling advantage Barack Obama may carry to November 4. He may yet win. But those who would see him enter the White House in January had best spend these last few days totally focused on the protection of voter registrations, on making paper ballots available wherever possible, and on finding ways to crack the secret fortress of electronic vote counting. In our next article, we will provide extensive documentation on GOP stripping of registration rolls.<br /> <br />
Without neutralizing these twin towers of electronic disenfrancisement and vote theft, a McCain-Palin victory on November 4 is all but inevitable, no matter what the polls now seem to say. </p> <p><br />
<em>Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of four books on election protection, including HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA’S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, and AS GOES OHIO: ELECTION THEFT SINCE 2004, both available at www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.</em><br />
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Eagleburger Tries To Walk Back “Stupid” Palin Criticism
<p>Appearing on Fox News on Friday, former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger awkwardly fell on his sword, entirely taking back his previously critical assessment of Sarah Palin’s readiness to serve as president, which was given to NPR on Thursday night.</p> <p>As the Huffington Post <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/eagleburger-blisters-pali_n_139524.html”>noted earlier</a>, Eagleburger’s endorsement of McCain is frequently cited by the Republican nominee. But clearly, the opinions of President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of State were less welcome on the subject of Palin, whom Eagleburger had said was “of course” not “prepared to take over the reins of the presidency.” Later, in his NPR interview, Eagleburger said, “Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be, she will be [pause] adequate.”</p> <p>By Friday afternoon, however, Eagleburger was more eager to chastise himself than Palin. </p> <p>”You are witnessing something quite unique: a man who is about to talk to you while he has his foot in his mouth,” Eagleburger said when asked if his NPR quotes had been taken out of context. </p> <p>”I made a serious mistake yesterday. I was quoted correctly,” Eagleburger said. “I wasn’t thinking when i said it — in fact, I was discussing foreign policy, and this was in that context, and I was just plain stupid, and if I had given the flim-flam artist Barack Obama some success with this I am deeply apologetic.”</p> <p>It was a fine performance, but the Fox News host proceeded to take Eagleburger’s retraction too far, resulting in another moment in which Eagleburger belittled Palin. Host Stuart Varney asked, “You do feel that she’s a quick learner and would be good as vice president given a few days?”</p> <p>To which Eagleburger paused and said, “A few days? No.” Later, however, he did argue that Palin has “made it clear she’s a quick learner,” despite the fact that “she didn’t know anything about foreign affairs, nor should she have on the basis of what she had done.”</p> <p>Winding up his extended apology, Eagleburger made clear, “I have done my best and I apologized to the McCain people.”</p> <p>Watch:</p> <p></p> <p>Also of interest is the fact that Eagleburger wasn’t the only conservative to call Palin unprepared on Thursday. As Think Progress <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/31/ensign-palin-qualified/”>noted</a>, Nevada Sen. John Ensign told a local reporter: “Well, I do not think that Barack Obama or her are experienced enough to be President of the United States — neither one of them, and Hillary Clinton was much more qualified to be President than Barack Obama was, but that who the nominee is. John McCain is much more qualified than Barack Obama and certainly Joe Biden is much more qualified than Sarah Palin is. I’d rather have the most qualified person at the top of the ticket, not number two.”</p> <p></p>
Ellis Weiner: A Letter to Sarah Palin from God
<p><em>NOTE: The following words occurred to me, seemingly out of nowhere, in the innermost recesses of the mind of my brain. I can only conclude that they came from God. I present them, therefore, not as a “writer” but as a medium, a messenger transmitting the divine text and converting it, as best I can, from a mode of pure thought into the publicly-accessible form of the written word. E.W.<br />
</em><br />
Dear Sarah:</p> <p>I would ask, “How are you, child?” but for two things. One, who knows better than I, Who Am That I Am, how you are? And two, my purpose in communicating with you here is not to ask how you are, but to tell you how you are.</p> <p>You are a disappointment to Me, Sarah.</p> <p>You seem to think, as do many of your co-religionists, that what you profess to believe–and, indeed, what you may actually in fact believe–is more important than what you do. You seem to be under the impression that advertising an ardent belief in Me (or Us, if you prefer) absolves you of any responsibility to act in accordance with what you know–or, at least, what you should know–constitute My values and precepts.</p> <p>The list of your transgressions is extensive, and includes: </p> <p>- That, while you know full well My admonition to Love Thy Neighbor, you spread calumny and derision about half of the population, presuming to declare who is and who is not “the real America.”</p> <p>- That, while you are fully aware of My Commandment forbidding you to bear false witness, you utter lies and deceptions on a routine basis, verily, you seem unable to speak publicly without lying. You have lied about opposing the Bridge to Nowhere; you have lied about firing the librarian and police chief of Wasilla; you have lied about your previous statements regarding climate change; you have lied about Alaska’s contribution to your nation’s oil and gas production; you have lied about Barack Obama’s position regarding habeas corpus; you have lied about your use of a TelePrompter at the Republican convention; and in manifold other ways have you lied, and lied, and lied.</p> <p>- That, while you are entirely acquainted with My intention to bestow upon Man dominion over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, yet you play fast and loose and get cute with, and otherwise wink at, the danger posed to all living creatures (including Man) by climate change; and you profess to be unsure as to whether these perils are caused by Man, while all reputable study affirms this analysis beyond dispute.</p> <p>- That, while you are surely acquainted with My Son’s admonition that you “beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye,” yet you persist in criticizing Obama’s (modest, progressive) taxation plans as constituting “socialism,” and abjure it as an evil, whilst never acknowledging that your own Republican Party put in place laws that have resulted in the most egregiously “socialistic” takeover of the nation’s banks in history; moreover, your own state of Alaska–particularly under your administration–is the most socialist of all the fifty states, in its collective taxing of the oil industry and its distribution, to every man, woman, and child in the state, a check upwards of three (3) grand each year.</p> <p>- That, while you proudly profess to believe in “freedom,” you have lately complained that if newspapers criticize you for “negative campaigning,” they are abridging your First Amendment rights under the Constitution–as though “freedom” means only your ability to say anything that enters in unto your head (regardless of how baseless or slanderous) but does not apply to the press.</p> <p>Of the sheer stupidity of this last assertion I, Who Am Eternal, shall say nothing, for I love all my creations, regardless of how ignorant, unsophisticated, or just plain dumb. Similarly, I will pass over your inability to answer the simplest question in a coherent sentence, your meanness of spirit, and the great selfishness and want of taste you display in subjecting your poor children to the travails, exhaustion, and abuse of a national presidential campaign.</p> <p>Rather, Sarah, it is your hypocrisy and mendaciousness that mightily offend Me. I am, as you know, a just and compassionate God. But even I (blessed be Me and blessed be My Name) have a limit to My patience. Thus, I find not only that you are unqualified to be Vice-President of the United States. I find that you are a human person deficient in those basic qualities (honesty, decency, compassion, modesty, personal integrity, a respect for knowledge, and a concern for truth) that are pleasing unto Me and which ought to constitute the character of the righteous woman.</p> <p>You are not just a bad candidate. You are a bad person. I only hope you will awaken to this fact, acknowledge the error of your ways, and take steps to atone for these transgressions before the Day of Judgment, when I shall be forced to render a decision concerning your eternal fate. </p> <p>Yours in Me, etc., <br />
God</p> <p>cc. Jesus Christ<br /> </p> <p>Cross-posted at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://barbel.wordpress.com/”>What HE Said</a></p>
David Quigg: I Am Professor Khalidi (Why John McCain Doesn’t Get to Pick My Halloween Costume)
<p>Happy Halloween. Nice costume, buddy.</p> <p>Now take the damn thing off. <em>You</em> don’t get to pick your own costume.</p> <p>Nobody does. Except John McCain. He gets to pick for all of us.</p> <p>Ask Rashid Khalidi.</p> <p>Khalidi is a big-time professor. Which is to say that, until quite recently, he was someone most of us had never heard of. But then John McCain picked Professor Khalidi’s new Halloween costume. Here’s how a <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103003244.html”><em>Washington Post</em> editorial</a> detailed the ensuing “vile smear”:</p> <blockquote>”In the past couple of days, Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have likened Mr. Khalidi, the director of a Middle East institute at Columbia University, to neo-Nazis; called him ‘a PLO spokesman’; and suggested that the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> is hiding something sinister by refusing to release a videotape of a 2003 dinner in honor of Mr. Khalidi at which Mr. Obama spoke.”</blockquote> <p>If someone other than the GOP nominee were picking the costumes, McCain himself would have to trick-or-treat as a Giant Hypocrite because of <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/mccain-funded-work-of-pal_n_138606.html”>his own links to Khalidi — nearly half-a-million bucks worth of links.</a> Or if someone other than the GOP nominee were picking the costumes, McCain might have to trick-or-treat as Fidel Castro because he <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2JPbQOHEkY”>defended higher taxes for the wealthy</a> back in 2000.</p> <p>But like I said, McCain picks the costumes. </p> <p>Sometimes they’re grotesque, as in the case of Professor Khalidi.</p> <p>Sometimes, as with Sarah Palin, the costumes are so flattering as to be lies.</p> <p>Palin’s Maverick costume takes a <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.adn.com/troopergate/story/552799.html”>power-abusing governor</a> who used <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/572474.html”>state money to bankroll her kids’ travel</a> and transforms her into a reformer who’s going to clean up D.C. and crack down on wasteful spending.</p> <p>For his improbable campaign sidekick Joe The Plumber, McCain picked an Economist costume with a big patch on the butt, which covers up the spot where Joe shot himself right in the wallet. Joe would do better under Barack Obama’s tax plan. As a special treat from McCain, Joe The Plumber gets an extra costume: Foreign Policy Expert, which he wears to make such outrageously ignorant claims about Obama’s stance on Israel that <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eSJuWgZGYo”>an actual Fox News anchorman stepped in to defend Obama</a>. The McCain campaign, in turn, lauded Joe’s “penetrating and clear analysis.”</p> <p>Which brings us to McCain’s costumes for Jewish Americans. He considered dressing them as Old Testament slaves, dressing himself as a pharaoh, flogging them with fear-mongering claims about Israel, and putting them to work building him a grand, glittering road to the White House. But he decided they might catch sight of themselves in a mirror and understand that they’re being used, that their justifiable concern for Israel is being enslaved for partisan advantage. So he’s going more subtle and inviting Jewish Americans to a geometry-themed Halloween party, where everyone will come dressed as a one-dimensional object.</p> <p>Someday historians will be flabbergasted by the lunatic contradictions of the McCain electoral strategy: that a campaign built on exploiting xenophobic skittishness about the foreign-ness and other-ness of American-born Barack Hussein Obama also banked so heavily on the dubious notion that Jewish Americans care so much <em>less</em> about their own country than they care about Israel that they’ll be swayed by his baseless scare tactics. Why do I say “baseless”? Because, as Shepard Smith of Fox News admirably told Joe The Plumber, “I just want to make this 100 percent perfectly clear — Barack Obama has said repeatedly and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the United States, no matter what happens once he becomes president of the United States.”</p> <p>Let’s do a quick tally. How many of the Jewish people I’ve known, worked with, played with, studied with, befriended, and loved during my life are big enough chumps to buy what McCain is selling? None. Exactly none.</p> <p>But these are the desperate cards McCain is holding. So he’s playing them.</p> <p>And so Professor Khalidi gets forced to wear this radical, anti-Semitic, PLO spokesman costume McCain picked for him. Here’s a quote from our supposed PLO spokesman, <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11131863″>commenting in 2007</a> on the fighting between the two major Palestinian factions: “It’s the same kind of blind, shortsighted, irresponsible action that Hamas took in the Gaza Strip. It shows that neither of these groups, I think, really represents the deepest aspirations of the Palestinians. They’ve become sort of vehicles for personal and group ambitions, rather than what one could honestly call a leadership of the Palestinian National Movement. I think the Palestinian National Movement is in grave, grave crisis, frankly.”</p> <p>What a spokesman!</p> <p>Now, I don’t pretend to be able to sum up Khalidi in one quote. As <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/khalidi-and-the.html”>Andrew Sullivan wrote</a>:</p> <blockquote>”I have received countless emails from many students of Khalidi’s who find the demonization of him as absurd as it is abhorrent. Somewhere in all this is the truth. But the complexities of a scholar’s thought and record are not best explored in the heat of a campaign’s final days.”</blockquote> <p>Professor Khalidi’s forced costuming at the hands of McCain would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous. Guarded by the best professionals in the world, McCain may not appreciate what it means to paint a giant target on the back of someone who doesn’t enjoy the protection of the Secret Service. He is damn lucky nobody is dead because of the brainless hate he and Palin have incited.</p> <p>McCain gets to slap these costumes on people, in part, because we let him do it. It’s time to stand up, to stand alongside people like Professor Khalidi, whether we agree with all of his views or not. Because McCain would paint this same target on any one of us if he thought it would help him win. You. Me. Anyone. Absolutely anyone.</p> <p>Happy Halloween, Senator McCain. My name is David Quigg. Like Professor Khalidi, I was born in the state of New York. Like Professor Khalidi, I was born in the United States of America.</p> <p>I am an American, you vicious, desperate, careless, doddering bully. And I get to pick my own damn costume.</p> <p>And I’ve picked it.</p> <p>Today, senator, I am Professor Rashid Khalidi. And you, sir, are a disgrace.</p>
Summer Rayne Oakes: If Sarah Palin were a sustainable style maven…
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2988500208_bdd3a2abd5_o.jpg” alt=”Obama vs. Palin style” width=”500″ height=”400″/></p>
<p style=”text-align:justify;”><span style=”color:#333333;”>Much attention has been paid to <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Sarah+Palin+Style%22&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNFA,RNFA:1970–2,RNFA:en”>Sarah Palin’s style</a> these last couple weeks–thanks to the surprising news about her <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFtV9Ja4TaNa7hzHZC0AMGoOXEbA”>impressive wardrobe bill</a>. And while our ears may be tuned to economic news these days, our eyes cannot help but be drawn to the perfectly frivolous but delightfully satisfying allure of Vice Presidential and First Lady style. </span></p>
<p style=”text-align:justify;”><span style=”color:#333333;”>I think it’s safe to say that even <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-bellantoni/googling-joe-the-plumber_b_135081.html”>Joe the Plumber</a> knows that Sarah Palin is in no danger of preaching the good word of environmental responsibility…But since Sustainability is such a top-of-mind issue and Style is something that Michelle, Cindy, and Sarah all have–I figured it was time to look at some of the sophisticated, sustainable White House-worthy power pieces they’re donning in the final days. </span></p>
<p style=”text-align:justify;”><span style=”color:#333333;”>Lucky for us Recessionistas, these pieces are sharp, stylish and won’t force anyone to take out a second mortgage. </span></p>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3027/2988248658_18cb539794_o.jpg” alt=”Noir” width=”312″ height=”400″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>GET ALL MAVERICKY WITH A SLEEK SUIT. This well-tailored silver-gray, single-buttoned suit jacket with skinny leg trouser commands attention while playing up feminine sophistication. All fabrics are Oeko-Tech certified. Design by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.summerrayneoakes.com/wp-admin/www.noir-illuminati2.com”>Noir</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.fashion-conscience.com/product_details.asp?ProductID=dQ8G&productsubID=cQ8C&PL=1dd185ew”>Fashion-Conscience</a> for $860 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/2988239336_f186e433f2.jpg” alt=”Deux FM” width=”300″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>MILITARY CHIC. We may not all be able to tote a gun around, but we can be buttoned up in this shrunken military style suit jacket and pencil skirt with asymmetrical seams. 100% bamboo rayon suiting lined with organic cotton in gunmetal black. Design by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.deuxfm.com”>Deux-Fm</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.nimli.com”>Nimli</a>. Suit $296 USD; Skirt $144 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3168/2987378425_db5fbc0c50.jpg” alt=”Neuaura” width=”500″ height=”400″/></p>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2987453705_8573bd4bb0.jpg” alt=”Neuaura” width=”381″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>GOT SHOES? YOU BETCHA! No animals were harmed in the making of these shoes. These very contemporary, vegan heels give any suit an elegant but modern edge. Shoes by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.neuaurashoes.com/”>Neuaura</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.nimli.com”>Nimli</a>. Esperanaza boots $89 USD and Lolita shoes $74.</h5>
<h5 style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3033/2987377657_c11c6afb90.jpg” alt=”Grace & Cello” width=”334″ height=”500″/></h5>
<h5 style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3037/2987492759_e8610dd7bd.jpg” alt=”Grace & Cello” width=”381″ height=”500″/></h5>
<h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>IT’S COLD IN ALASKA. Wrap up in bi-color jackets made from 80% recycled wool and 20% nylon. Designs by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.gracecello.com”>Grace & Cello</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.nimli.com/items_1610.html”>Nimli</a> for $260 USD and $365 USD respectively.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3217/2987377415_ae555d21b2_o.jpg” alt=”Ethika Boutique” width=”220″ height=”330″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>POLLS ARE IN. A cosmopolitan mac hand-embroidered by women in Pakistan. Available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.ethikaboutique.com”>Ethika Boutique</a> for $230 USD.</h5>
<h5 style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2987377565_05e3337fe3.jpg” alt=”Emily katz swing coat” width=”381″ height=”500″/></h5>
<h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>WINNING CANDIDATE. An organic cotton fleece swing coat with bow that adds a beauitful feminine detail for the colder months. Design by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.emilykatz.com”>Emily Katz</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.nimli.com”>Nimli</a> for $174 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2988235476_289a0264ab_o.jpg” alt=”Ethika Boutique” width=”220″ height=”330″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>FROM PTA MOM TO VP-CLIMBING THE LADDER. An origami pleat ladder blouse is a decidedly feminine take on a traditional tunic. Hand-woven in Pakistan. Available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.ethikaboutique.com”>Ethika Boutique</a> for $105 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/2988235670_2bda6f61eb_o.jpg” alt=”Swati Argade” width=”450″ height=”454″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>FOREIGN POLICY. An elegantly-cut sari-inspired dress with gold brocade and embroidery detailing. Classicly elegant form by Indian-American designer <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.swatiargade.com/collections/stargazer/”>Swati Argade</a>; made to order.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2988248636_83a0577dc4.jpg” alt=”FIN OSLO organic cotton” width=”375″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>CASUAL CAMPAIGN. For a more casual look, try a pleated organic cotton blouse and organic cotton twill sailor pants. Designs by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.finoslo.com”>FIN Oslo</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.ekovaruhuset.se”>Ekovaruhuset</a> for $166 USD and $230 USD respectively.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/2987396721_0d7e65a5c4.jpg” alt=”FIN OSLO organic cotton” width=”375″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>SWING STATES. Swinging, slouchy style with this basic black dress. Designs by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.finoslo.com”>FIN Oslo</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.ekovaruhuset.se”>Ekovaruhuset</a> for $345 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3051/2987403445_2e0c1e9561.jpg” alt=”FIN OSLO organic cotton” width=”375″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>SMOOTH TALKER. A 100% silky smooth floral print blouse is perfectly patterned. Designs by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.finoslo.com”>FIN Oslo</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.ekovaruhuset.se”>Ekovaruhuset</a> for $307 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3022/2988243058_e37039d704_o.jpg” alt=”FIN OSLO organic cotton” width=”300″ height=”399″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>CLASSIC BLACK. A 100% organic cotton, hand-embroidered pleated dress with high-neckline has some First Lady appeal. Designs by <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.finoslo.com”>FIN Oslo</a> and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.ekovaruhuset.se”>Ekovaruhuset</a> for $307 USD.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3023/2987384909_cc9f77bb52.jpg” alt=”Enamore UK” width=”249″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>JACKIE O to OBAMA MAMA. A Michelle Obama must-have. This slim shift dress shapes the body while the sixties-inspired vintage floral collar gives a touch of femininity. $220 USD and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.enamore.co.uk”>Enamore</a>.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/2988243002_9a55a3815d.jpg” alt=”Enamore UK” width=”224″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>HONE IN ON YOUR INNER JACKIE O. A beautiful A-line dress with high neck made out of Hemp/Tencel and silk yoke detail and ribbon sash . $244 USD and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.enamore.co.uk”>Enamore</a>.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2988242962_664d8abb80.jpg” alt=”Enamore UK” width=”189″ height=”500″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>PARTY IT UP PREZ STYLE. Don’t hide your feminine form-accentuate it in classy style with the Gracie dress made from a jet black organic silk dupion, lined in organic cotton voile and trimmed with vintage fabric detailing. $414 USD and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.enamore.co.uk”>Enamore</a>.</h5>
<p style=”text-align:center;”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2987382019_1e482a72cf.jpg” alt=”Enamore UK” width=”500″ height=”382″/></p> <h5 style=”text-align:justify;”>PRESIDENTIAL COVER UP. This silk dupion bolero with vintage bow is perfect for throwing over a simple dress or pant. $140 USD and available at <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.enamore.co.uk”>Enamore</a>.</h5>
Palin: Criticism Threatens My First Amendment Rights
<p>Somehow, in Sarah Palin brain, it’s a threat to the First Amendment when newspapers criticize her negative attacks on Barack Obama. This is actually so dumb that it hurts:</p> <blockquote>In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by “attacks” from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama. … <p><br />
“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”</blockquote><br />
</p>
