Rabid

The Right Wing has become increasingly rabid. I become ill, literally, when Sarah Palin comes across the TeeVee screeching her disgusting lies. She really is a piece of work and her bullshit has encouraged the other hate mongers to come out in droves. Here is a small compilation of the hatred that they are spreading.

Click read more to see the disgusting actions of the Right Wing.


Cunningham alleges that Obama wants to “gas the Jews.”

Savage accuses anyone who supports equal rights in CA of being anti-family and anti-God.

Hannity refuses to apologize for his hate spreading.

Rose Tennent claims that the people in Obama’s ad aren’t really struggling.

DHS helps in smearing Obama.

Conyers makes clear that the DHS leak is illegal.

GOP mailer suggests Obama presidency could lead to a second Holocaust.

Anonymous Liberal tells the truth about the “redistributionist” smear. h/t Paradox

Liddy claims that the “welfare class” will elect Obama.

McCainism

Palin’s angry mob rally (yes, another one.)

Another Obama socialist mailer.

Obama repeatedly compared to Hitler.

All of these disgusting tactics are new. They just popped up on websites today. What's worse is that I could have kept going, there were more everywhere that I looked.

How horrible is the GOP to continue this shit? They want to divide us. They want to exploit fear and hatred. They want to kill the goodness in America. When they kill the goodness then what is left?

The contrast between Obama messaging and McCain messaging is so stark. I cannot imagine anyone being pulled into the McCain-Palin mind set. Their hate fests are evil. I just do not understand it.

What I do know is that if we are going to stop this crap in our country, then we absolutely must stop this. We cannot allow these people to be rewarded for their hatred. Every single vote for John McCain rationalizes and legitimizes what they are doing. That alone is enough to vote Obama. Let’s take back our country. Please, America, stop the hatred.

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New Articulation Leads To Battle Grip Charity

One point of difference between my wife and I has been our experiences with poverty, child jobs, panhandling and social acceptance. I grew up Eisenhower Republican - for awhile when I was growing up, my family didn't have much money, but we got the bills paid. I had an allowance, but didn't need or care about money until I started throwing newspapers at 12. My folks, strong Methodist Christians, firmly believed that the only charity was the sort that encouraged others to work their fair share. Street corner panhandlers were bums and drug addicts, even the veterans who still heard bombs and screams in the night. Single mothers were to be pitied and their children helped, but the mothers made their choices, and should expect to pay for them. Until I was throwing papers, I never went door-to-door unless it was UNICEF or a school or scout fundraiser.

My wife grew up poor. Her mother has been a habitual drug user until the last 10 years. She raised her 2 children with a succession of boyfriends whom were long-term, but whom also had drug dependencies. M's grandmother raised her grandchildren as much as her daughter did, and her grandmother had also raised her family as single-parent in the 1950's. M and her brother often sold candy and other things both for fundraisers but also just for money which to buy clothes and school supplies. My wife and her family never begged, but there were many nights where they slept in friend's homes and their extended family helped pay the immediate overdue bills.

So it's a bit of an issue between us when door-to-door sales people come around or when we see people camped out at the interstate exits. M knows something of this day-to-day existence and gives them a few bucks; I've always been taught that those people will blow it on booze or other poor choices and will pass them by. My own IRL nature is also one not to call attention to myself or others, and the whole nature of the panhandling transaction is uncomfortable to both parties, although my discomfort cannot be anything measurable to the panhandler's. Luckily, it's not an argument thing with us, just one thing that I think my wife insists on while I simply obey her wishes because She's Got Reason.

What got me here is this link from Athenae at First-Draft, Getting Taken. And there it is - why and what is important about direct charity. "You do the job in front of you." An answer my wife, whom preaches the Bible as a career to hundreds every week, was never able to get across to me. "You do the job in front of you." You don't scream at the dirty slacker to get a job, or tell the pregnant women paying with food stamps to quit spreading her legs. You don't comfort yourself that your contributions to the Sunday offering plate going to relief and assistance organizations are enough and the only right thing to do. You buy what you can from the kid selling overpriced magazine subscriptions, because even though he sees less than 5% of the money you hand over and the company is taking advantage of everyone, it's money he's working hard for and money he may desperately need.

The original threads with thousands of responses is at Dooce's Place.

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Election Protection Information

With the election around the corner and early voting well under way, it is past time to post information about Election Protection. There are a ton of resources out there and it is up to us to make sure that every voter has the information that will protect them and their vote. Please add any election protection websites or phone numbers that you come across.

The main phone number to remember is 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)

Obama has two websites devoted to reporting voting problems:

• Under the Radar Excellent flash map of dirty tricks Nationwide

• Truth: Vote for Change Clearinghouse for voting problems

On the Web:

• American Bar Association Election Protection Site

• National Campaign for Fair Elections

• NCFFE State Pages

• The Democracy Campaign

• Election Protection Wiki Clearinghouse to report problems at the polls.

• 866OURVOTE dot org Another way to get to the National Campaign for Fair Elections

• Election Strike Force In partnership with Brad Blog

• NAACP Vote Hard Bus Tour

• Standing for Voters

• Vote 411 dot org A project of The League of Women Voters, everything that you need to know about voting.

• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

• Alternet Online Voting Guide. Excellent resource with every link that you can imagine.

• PFAW know your voting rights page.

• Voters Unite

• Voters Unite Links to State SOS Pages

• Democracy Dispatch Election Resources

• Network of Citizens

• Center for Media and Democracy Election Watch

State Resources:

• Election reform CA

• Fair Elections Georgia

• California Election Protection Network

• North Carolina Democratic Party Election Protection

• Ohio Election Fraud

• NAACP Maryland

• California Election Protection

• Florida Election Protection

Report:

• Excellent report on the 2006 election and disenfranchisement of voters. PDF

A few articles on problems with machines and disenfranchisement, already, in 2008:

• Watching the Polls

• Where Are the Election Protection Attorneys?

• Election Protection in Sante Fe

• Some Small Wins for Voters

• Voters in 31 States Screwed

• Election Protection by Amy Goodman

• The Free Press Election News

• Scoop.Co.Nz “USA Coup” Articles about the theft of the 2008 Election

• Mark Crispin Miller Author of “Fooled Again”

Please note: I cannot vouch for all of these sites; I am only offering information and resources. Cross posted at Progressive Action Spot

UPDATE: Links that I forgot:

• Verified Voting

• Steal Back Your Vote

• Stealing America

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I Needed This

Seriously too cool.

Especially for a massive Beatles and art fan (as our household is.)

I had to have a nasty test this morning and I am really miserably ill. I have been trying to hold my head above water but it is doubly difficult because I feel tremendously guilty for missing work and for not doing enough to help during this election. I am just ill and inflamed and flared up right now and it sucks. I do not want to be like this - especially not right now. I am trying not to be so lame and to not indulge in self-pity, but things are just icky.

The video made me smile. So does the print. Cool huh?

UPDATE: Duh, I forgot to provide the link to the print. Duh. It is only $20.00 - for a limited edition of 3,000. That is cheap!

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It's Deja Vu All Over Again

Hmm, haven't seen this in a while . .

Pre-emptive ejection: Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls
By Dylan Boyle — Daily Staff Writer | Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:57 PM CDT

Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday’s rally even though they were not protesting. . .

“When I started talking to them, it kind of became clear that they were kind of just telling people to leave that they thought maybe would be disruptive, but based on what? Based on how they looked,” Elborno said. “It was pretty much all young people, the college demographic.”

But John McCain's not George Bush. If you're a Republican, just keep reciting this and clicking your heels together, and your wishes will come true!

Update: Chez has picked it up and a student of mine has pointed out that McCain at this or another rally the same day had a Palin impersonator in the crowd. I'm not sure if it was Cedar Falls or Rapids, both, or which happened first, but I almost suspect that the campaign decided to toss students matching the VP's general 'look' after that clip from MSNBC.

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Did Anyone Else Catch the Confession?

Maybe it was because I was napping while watching Meet the Press and my zoning in and out of consciousness tuned me in to something apparently overlooked by everyone else. I have not yet heard or read anything about this on the nets (though I have not researched it completely either.)

I double checked the transcript just to make sure that I heard what I heard.

From Meet the Press on Oct 26th, 2008:

MR. BROKAW: Four years ago I interviewed President Bush at a time when it looked like he may be in trouble against John Kerry, final weekend of the campaign. I showed him a map. He said, "Oh, I just don't do that. Karl Rove does that." As soon as the interview was over, he said, "I'll win here," and pointed to southeastern Ohio. Where will you win if you win?

Interesting. So, after the camera's were turned off, GW Bush pointed to Brokaw exactly where they were going to steal the election.

Now, look at the transcript from Oct 24, 2004. It is also very interesting. This is not the show that Brokaw was referring to, this show features Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe.

From MTP, Oct 24, 2004:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me talk to you about some of the things that have been in the paper about both political parties. This is The New York Times from yesterday. "Big GOP bid to challenge voters at polls in key states. Thousands recruited as monitors in Ohio," some 3,000 people being paid money per hour to go to the polls and monitor them. Democrats are saying you're trying to suppress the vote.

Gillespie answers Tim with a bunch of crap about "fictitious registrations" for "Mary Poppins" and "Dick Tracy," (this year it is "Mickey Mouse.")

Tim then responds:

MR. RUSSERT: But if you have monitors at the voting booths challenging perspective voters, you could delay the balloting, causing huge lines and discourage people to go home without voting.

Which is exactly what happened in Ohio in 2004. Long lines in the cold rain and millions of people left without voting.

Then McAuliffe goes on:

MR. McAULIFFE: Let's be very clear on this, Tim. The goal of the Democratic Party is to make sure that everybody who has a right to vote in this country can go into those polls and can vote. We know what the Republicans are trying to do. They're going to try and disenfranchise voters. We want everybody to vote. It's the Republican Party today that is still under a consent decree because of 20 years of a history of voter suppression.

Now, who gets disenfranchised? Predominantly, it's the African-American community which supports this party 92 percent of the time. It's the Hispanic community that votes for this party 66 percent of the time. There are two statewide investigations going on right now because of a company that was paid a half a million dollars by the Republican National Committee. In Nevada and in Oregon, a young man, a registered Republican, who worked for this company was told he wouldn't be paid and to rip up any voter registration cards for Democrats.

We're not going to tolerate it. We know what happened in 2000. We know about the tens of thousands of people who were disenfranchised in Duval County, in other counties of Florida. Our promise is we are prepared for it this time. It will not happen. I want to encourage everybody to go vote in this election. This is the most important election of our lifetime. And I have spent four years dealing with these issues, started the Voting Rights Institute to make sure that we are promoting and protecting that right to vote in this country. So I want everybody to feel comfortable. When you go vote this time, we're going to make sure that you can go in, you can vote, and we are going to make sure that those votes get counted. There's a big difference between our parties.

McAuliffe goes on about all of the attorneys that they have in place and how they will not allow this election to be stolen, blahtity, blahtity, blah...

The problem is that they did allow that election to be stolen! I will never forgive Kerry for that concession. I cried compulsively that morning. He conceded before the votes were counted.

Obama - it appears - is ready and he says that he will not stand for voter suppression and that he will not allow this election to be stolen too. But I wonder, after reading the above.

We thought Kerry was ready too. I am still convinced that someone got to Kerry between election night and that concession speech. We will probably never know what happened, but something changed. He was ready to fight for us and then he did not. We have to make sure that Obama does. AND we have to make sure that we fight too. That we are ready to make sure that every vote is counted. We cannot allow a concession speech until the votes are counted - not this time. No way.

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Inside The Mind Of Someone From The Other Side

So I'm torn on a particular interesting topic . . my wife has a number of people that interact with her in the community that are full-blown Republican nutjobs. Nice people (as long as it's not politics), good members of the community, but full-on, "Democrats, or the Democratic name-of-the-week, will bring socialism to America!", sorts.

Recently one sent my wife an email on an slightly related topic church topic and jumped the tracks into a full-on political statement, and I'm going to provide a few exerpts. Because sooner or later one of these yahoos is going to corner me at coffee time, and I'd rather destroy them here than in the church basement.

You probably have surmised that I am pretty conservative, politically.

I actually think you've done everything short of march up and down Main Street with a sign in large letters. Our barber can't even watch CNN without you going ballistic - he has turn on Gilligan's Island when you walk in.

I think that the leftward turn of our denomination is certainly one of the reasons for our decline.

Well, that's your entitled opinion, but I think it has to do with the lack of engagement the denomination on a whole has had with it's children and teens probably has more to do with it than theological stances. But I'm also just an apostate born and married into the denomination.

I am very much in favor of Christian charity. We should preach and encourage it. “Extravagant Generosity,” for example.

Excellent. So what's your contribution record to the church & mission and relief projects?

But we should not ask our government to serve the function of charity. The only way for government to be charitable is to take resources from some people and give them to others.

So is it charity that the government pay for goods and services it uses in governing? Because I think the defense contractors would argue with us about that.

A government that takes from one to give to another can not stand forever.

You still haven't answered my question. Does the government pay for the labors and materials is consumes?

The very process pits the “classes” against each other.

I thought our necessity for consumption and the competition for classically-defined scarce resources did that. And are you denying that a man in poverty and a woman earning six-figures have different wants and needs?

Eventually, that re-distribution process runs out of resources. I saw first-hand that result in Russia in the late 90’s.

Did you go to the Soviet Union in the 1990's? I didn't know that. But didn't the Soviet Union collapse in 1992? And the shortages and poverty that followed didn't have anything to do with the governmental collapse, but were the product of the former system redistributing wealth?

Our America was founded on the principle of treating every individual the same way. “We’re a Free Country.”

No, we America was founded on the principle that a bunch of colonists whom had limitless potential at extraction wealth were sick and tired of their government being out-of-touch, demanding a portion of the wealth without services, and ham-fisted bullies enforcing a perversion of justice. The Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment didn't come into being until after the Civil War and caused such a damn fuss that the South had to be left to its own perversions of it for 100 years following. That there's still a huge fuss over electing our first racially ethnic citizen to president this year is a gross demonstration of the non-equality of our citizens in the government.

Then everyone could be enthusiastic about our government, and Americans were proud to be Americans.

I've never understood this pride thing. Both I and you are by coincidence of birth, Americans. Or really, Usonians, since all Brazillians and Mexcians too are Americans. But you're confusing pride in state & country with pride in government. It's why state and government in the modern British-derived parliamentary systems are separate powers. The government must never be trusted with the affections that citizens have for country. I love

There were no persons destined to be givers, and none destined to be takers.

Destiny is a tricky thing. Is it all pre-ordained and we're just following a script? Is free-will an illusion? Or do I have a choice in arguing with you?

A great American once said: “When the number of receivers (of government distribution) is greater than the number of givers, our system is doomed.”

That's funny, a search of the Internet, which is full of political cranks of all flavors, can't tell me who said that.

I am all for Christian charity. I am not for using the police power (confiscation and imprisonment) to serve a Christian function.

Oh, so you believe that the taxation of citizens is a Christian function? There's a disconnect here. Taxation is a necessary function. We practiced free-will offering in government once from 1776 to 1787 during the Confederate Articles where the states ponied up according to how they felt collectively about how to pay for the debts of the national Federal government. What was paid by the states was still collected through the taxation of state citizens - even the states weren't dumb enough to try free-will donations. Taxation, as Christ pointed out, is not Godly but a apparatus of man, sure to come about as soon as the ruler mints coin.

Iowa is not a state that depends on government to enforce its morality. Iowa is a state of individual responsibility.

And if the state doesn't enforce individual responsibility, who does? And who's definition of responsibility are we talking about here? If we were using some people's definition, I'd be married to my ex-wife, abusing and being abused, and some interpretations of Christian morality would consider me justified.

This is the classic outrage of Americans toward taxes, and then greater outrage when those taxes are used for something you personally don't approve of. I'd slash the defense budget by 2/3rds at least. You'd kill every social services program you can lay your hands on, including the one that feeds my son at school and the state office that tracks child support payments. Guess what? I'm still paying my taxes even though I despise some of what my government does because I make a decision that it's not about criminality, but my belief that I belong in community with my fellow citizens, and that community carries the responsibility that I suck it up and do it. My taxes however give me every right to bitch, whine, fight for changing my government for the better.

Your issue is your refusal to understand that government has an moral and ethical right to protect its citizens, not only from without, but from the worst effects of human society - poverty and it's enablers, abuse, addiction, infirmity, and worst of all, stupid human choices. What I can't believe is that someone as smart as you can't see that we've tried Christian charity as the basis of social support in an industrialized society before - and it fails miserably. Dickens wrote of it in Britain, & we have the entire history of the 1870's-1930's.

It's not perfect, I don't have all the answers. But I know this - if you don't pay as much in donations to the institutions of your Christian faith as you do in the taxes you whine about, you've got no fucking leg to stand on you fucking millionaire wealthy snob. Your tax bill alone would be one-tenth of this church's annual budget. The last time I checked, this church alone is short by at least one-quarter of its budget. Where's your statement of donation?

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You're Just Another Liberal Tokyo Rose

What, has calling liberals & Democrats un-American worn thin? Sen. Tom Harkin and his Republican challenger, Christopher Reed of Marion (a Cedar Rapids suburb), had a debate last Thursday:

Reed criticized the idea of putting out a "timetable" for US withdrawal from Iraq, then charged that Harkin was a "Tokyo Rose."

"We need somebody who believes in the United States of America," Reed said. "...Don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Yepsen asked when Reed meant by the term "Tokyo Rose."

"Providing aid and comfort to the enemy," Reed said.

Yepsen asked if Reed was accusing Harkin of treason?

"I'm accusing him of giving our enemies the playbook," Reed said, adding that -- in regards to the treason question: "I believe that some of his positions and speeches were."

Yepsen asked Harkin for a response: "Well, it's hard to know where to begin. I'm very proud of my military service and I am dismayed by torture....I think we have to be better than that. I think what the Bush Administration...what they did has given us an image around the world that we shouldn't have, that we're going to engage in the same kind of torture our enemies are....So, yes, mark me down as someone who is going to do everything he possibly can...to make sure that no one in our military....can engage in things like waterboarding and torture," Harkin said, adding later: "These kinds of personal attacks of what people get sick of....This ankle-biting personal attacks. This is nonsense."

What the article from O.Kay Henderson doesn't mention is immediately after the debate, Harkin regretfully informed Mr. Rants that his "Tokyo Rose" comment had just effectively killed Rants' career.

Both Harkin and Reed are Navy veterans. Harkin served in a Naval support role in Vietnam prior to 1967. Reed served in Virginia & Connecticut on shore postings, and aboard the guided missile cruiser USS San Jacinto.

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