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Polly Sigh: Live in St. Paul (sort of)
Greetings to the great lumpen unwashed! It has been quite some time since I have been motivated to write. The incessant bang of the drums of corruption have sent me underground to engage in the work of preparation for a brighter day...
But this week, the people of St. Paul are playing host to the Republican Convention, and lastnight, I was out on the town. My mission was to try to get a sense of how these strange creatures are dealing with the convergergence of such negative energy on their little gathering, and I have to tell you, it was not pretty.
The only positive note was the utter relief expressed by those who were spared a direct visit by the Twin Towers of Incompetence, George Bush and Darth Cheney. That did seem to bring forth a collective sigh of relief from our poor visitors. They seemed to view the visit with the same joy that one might encounter during exposure to a life threatening virus.
On one level, it strikes me as extremely fortunate that the Republican corporate festival will be spared the comparison to the american Democratic party's gathering - a multi-racial extravaganza of big ideas, big music, big themes and larger-than-life stories. The highly unfortunate appearance of Hurricane Gustav has ensured that many in the Republican party will be busy trying to improve on their Katrina management performance, and therefore will not be in attendance at the convention. It is shaping up to be a subdued affair. We can only hope that they drink copiously in all the local establishments to lessen the pain.
I will be on the scene again today, hoping to have a few words with visitors, protestors and conventioneers alike. It is all a mish-mosh of humanity. Confused humanity, but humanity nonetheless. Yesterday, I even had my photograph taken with some nice Republicans from Arizona. My poodle, Bethesda, was not impressed with these individuals until they forked over some kibble. Turns out Republicans won't be caught dead without a handful of kibble. I am not sure what to make of this.
Anyhow, I will write when I can, and hope to bring more stories from the scene of the Republican (almost) Convention. Until then, remember to keep your chin high, your eyes clear, and your heart open.
Your friend,
Polly
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Hey Polly - great to have your expert reporting back on the scene!
As I read around the blogs, I've seen some comments about what the thugs are going to do re: Gustav and their convention. I've read that they might create some kind of telethon to raise money for those who lose their homes.
We should consider all the angles of that.
a.) Hopefully, any money raised will help those in need
b.) If we think back to Katrina, and the Red Cross, and the corruption, I think we can see (however cynically) that this is another perfect opportunity for opportunism and cronyism. Can you say corruption?
c.) It will be hard for the dems to rip on the thugs for this.
d.) It will be easy for the thugs to say - look at the extravagance and waste of the dem convention, and look how we are doing good.
OY.
What do you hear about this, Polly?
Polly,
Good to hear from you. I personally can't wait until your next update.
Hi Polly,
Good to see you around.
Speaking of around, Chersey2004 stopped by in the IRC yesterday afternoon to say hello. Said that she'd been mostly offline since her husband died a couple of years ago but that she was interested in catching up with the old crowd.
I told her to head on over here. So say hello when she shows up!
Hey Polly!
Good to hear from you! I hope you can do a little updating on the detaining of free speech folks in your town. Apparently Minneapolis/St. Paul's finest are doing a little gun-jumping...with peaceniks, no less. Those men and women in blue may need some reading materials on nonviolent protest--Gandhi, for example.
Also, I am sure sighs of relief are being heaved all around over the no-shows, whose numbers seem to be growing. I suggest a stick-on of a heart with a red circle through it for those with no soul left, in memory of the purple band-aids so many of them wore last time. As many reminders of the cynicism and heartlessness of those on the right (photos of McCain and Bush with the birthday cake while the levees broke? The Kiss? etc.) would be in order as well.
Have a ball honey--and show them what REAL balls look like!
Chersey2004, I'm sorry to hear about your hubby.
Feel free to drop by anytime.
dwahzon, glad you were able to meet and greet her and others while in the irc. I know you're quite busy on your individual efforts but it's nice that you're still able to catch up with people in the irc.
Palin On Abortion: I'd Oppose Even If My Own Daughter Was Raped
In November 2006, then gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin declared that she would not support an abortion for her own daughter even if she had been raped.
Granting exceptions only if the mother's life was in danger, Palin said that when it came to her daughter, "I would choose life."
At the time, her daughter was 14 years old. Moreover, Alaska's rape rate was an abysmal 2.2 times above the national average and 25 percent of all rapes resulted in unwanted pregnancies. But Palin's position was palatable within the state's largely Republican political circles.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/palin-on-abortion-id-oppo_n_122924.html
Christy said:
Palin On Abortion: I'd Oppose Even If My Own Daughter Was Raped
In November 2006, then gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin declared that she would not support an abortion for her own daughter even if she had been raped.
Granting exceptions only if the mother's life was in danger, Palin said that when it came to her daughter, "I would choose life."
September 1, 2008 12:07 PM
Funny thing about that...
The thing that shows how out of touch Palin is with women, girls, and rape is simply that the only life she would be trying to save, in that instance, would be that of her daughter.
If she can't keep her daughter alive, then there's no way she can keep the by-product of the rape alive.
I know there are some women who have been able to keep the fetus after an abortion and maybe those women are 'of a different world' or something. But I can think of nothing worse than being raped, getting pregnant as a result, being forced to carry the fetus for 9 months, and then either raising it for the rest of your life or giving it up for adoption. Then, twenty years later-the adopted child comes seeking his/her 'natural mother'. Hey, if a woman is up to that, then kudos to her!
But the average rape victim and their family is too involved in trying to support the victim and keep the victim alive than to want to force an unwanted pregnancy on top of the unwanted sexual assault.
That's just my .02 on it.
Gustav overtopping Industrial Canal barrier in New Orleans.
MSNBC is reporting that waters from Hurricane Gustav, now a Category 2 storm, have overtopped the Industrial Canal barrier in New Orleans, and FEMA Deputy Director Harvey E. Johnson has warned that New Orleans will be “at least partially flood[ed].” Officials have evacuated 2 million people from Louisiana, but an estimated 10,000 remain in New Orleans. Hurricane-force winds also “slammed into oil terminals around Port Fourchon,” which is southwest of New Orleans and where “56 percent of the imported and Gulf of Mexico oil entering the United States passes.”
http://thinkprogress.org/
Palins unwed 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant.
http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=1801
Gov Palins family and environment are about to undergo intensive scrutiny...It does not appear McCain campaign did much investigating.
it really seemed like MCcain just rolled the dice and hoped to hit the Yo bet. There is usually some voter triangulation of the candidate, especially the VP..Palin is bringing baggage to the Table, a net loss when the columns are added up...it will be interesting to watch this all play out.
Well, I know the blogosphere will go nuts because her 17 year old is pregnant and having a shotgun wedding.
Personally, I think it's a distraction to Obama's message.
(In response to a comment in the previous thread)
Sherry, for the record, I was responding to what I perceived as a nationalistic claim for God in contrast to a more universal acknowledgment. I don't believe that Obama buys into this particular form of American Exceptionalism, but I was disappointed that he didn't use his speech to help dispel it.
As I phrase it, if God exists, then God must be everyone's God. If God created the world before he created America - assuming you think that God had a hand in creating America, which is a controversial subject in itself - then God must also love everyone else.
From my point of view, it's important that Americans not assume that its leaders actions automatically reflect God's will, in order to guarantee than said actions are critically appraised by whichever spiritual yardstick one chooses.
By the way, does everyone realize the phrase "God damn America" did not begin with Reverend Wright, but actually the psychologist / philosopher William James (brother of Henry James, and author "The Varieties of Religious Experience") - in the aftermath of revelations of American torture and human rights abuses in the Philippines?
McCain is blaming Obama's bloggers for 'beating up on this innocent pregnant girl" and he's claiming he knew about it before he picked Palin.
Pass the buck, McCain...
Or is it pass the buck McCain?
Matthew,
It's a national election; it's not the world's election.
There are times and places for nationalism vs worldism. Our national election isn't one of them, in my opinion.
Well I had a big distraction from the DNC and RNC and even the Hurricane with some of the art I saw at a festival where I went to kick back and have fun on my holiday. This was sobering though. I'm also working on the Seattle/Tehran Poster Show, which was more upbeat and a project I very much want to support and participate in if I can.
This is from our own blog but I wanted to repost it here because I thought it might resonate here.
I've lived in Seattle for 30 years now and have always attended Bumbershoot Festival on Labor Day. There is an amazing amount of good music but the art is always worth checking out and this year was no exception. I'll try to find out more about the photographer who did this show. There were two segments. One showed large-scale portraits of soldiers, from 19-35, who had body parts blown off by IEDs and often were horrifically disfigured via burns. The other traced the rehabilitation and marriage of this former Marine Sargent. I took a couple of photographs which only give a hint of the poignancy of the entire exhibit.
Here is what was on a small piece of paper I took with me and it refers to the man pictured in the wedding photo:
Some of the text near the photographs mentioned long courses of rehabilitation in which the patients had to relearn to walk or talk, if it was even possible. As a speech pathologist who has worked with survivors of head injury, stroke, burns, gun shots etc. I had some idea of the intensity of this recovery and the long-term (often life-long) limitations to be expected, and the monstrous human and financial cost.
There was one woman in the exhibit. Most of the portraits did have quotations from those pictured, and many admitted only a small grasp of the context of the war that had destroyed their lives. Some wanted to go back, as they either lived in a hellhole or had viewed it as excitement or a source of stature. After all, many were 19-20 years old or so. The woman did say "I am not a hero. I am a survivor." She is a hero though, for coming to grips with the truth that she may have been used as someone's pawn.
There was a long scroll upon which people can write their comments over these three days of Bumbershoot. I have included one of the comments. It is typical. I did not see a bunch of "the surge is working" "support the troops" stuff that makes people feel better. No sacrifice on earth is worth this and all of the injuries and heartache also afflict hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions in Iraq and other sites of war. There are obvious amputations, burns, with pain and suffering, family breakup, loss of ability to work or be independence. There are also the hidden injuries like post-traumatic stress and severe memory and cognitive loss, which insure that the war really will go on for a hundred, maybe a thousand years.
This is an interesting article about "mein kampt" and if it should be banned.
Wow, slugbug--that art is truly gripping. It will be here long after we're gone to remind future generations of this illegal war and the consequences.
Sparrow, if this election is purely about nationalism, then leave God out of it. This pandering to immature religious sentiments clearly does He, She, or It no credit.
Water overtopping levees in Upper Ninth Ward
http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=1799
Sorry to bring this up, but this is from a "friend of a friend" who wants it spread -
*Subject: **Palin
*
Dear All............
As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on
Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I
know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that
he picked her.
The most accurate description of her is red neck. Her husband works in
the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles. She is a life
time member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow
indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and
bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial
hunting of these predators from helicopters and airplanes, dollars
that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's failing school
system.We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the
country. Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad,
but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are
many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is
appropriate is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial
hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to
informative web sites.
She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet
the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has 'green' policies. The
only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has
consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power
plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her home
town of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything else that will
unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy
its environment.
Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla,
a small red neck town outside Anchorage.The average maximum education
level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade.
Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and
other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put
Palin in office in the first place. I know what I'm talking about.
These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the
serious issues facing the US. Furthermore, they don't care. So long as
they can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and bears
and drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of the
wilderness, they're happy. I wish I were exaggerating.
Sarah Palin is currently involved in a political corruption scandal.
She fired an individual in law enforcement here because she didn't
like how he treated one of her relatives during a divorce. The man's
performance and ability weren't considered; it was a totally personal
firing and is currently under investigation. While the issue isn't
close to the scandal of Ted Steven's corruption, it shows that Palin
isn't 'squeaky clean' and causes me to think there ay be more issues
that could come to light. Clearly McCain doesn't care.
When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison would be laughable
if it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of economics
(admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international affairs,
knows nothing of national government, Social Security, unemployment,
health care systems - you name it. The idea of her meeting with heads
of foreign governments around the world truly frightens me.
In an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles in
the US, Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. John
McCain is not a young man. Should something happen to him such that
the vice president had to step in, it would destroy our country and
possibly the world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriate
as Sarah Palin. The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to try
to get Hillary supporters to vote for him. when McCain introduced her
today, Palin had the nerve to compare herself with Hillary and
Geraldine Ferraro. Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton.
To those of you who, like me, supported Hilary and were upset that she
did not get the nomination, please don't think that Sarah Palin is a
worthy substitute. If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you
think the media and the democratic party may have done to undermine
her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin. To
those of you who are independent or undecided, don't let the choice of
Palin sway you in favor of McCain. Choosing her shows how unqualified
McCain is to be president. To those of you who are conservative, I
guess you have no choice for president. But please try to see how the
poor choice of Palin tells us a great deal about McCain's judgment.
While the political posturing inherent in the choice of Palin is
obvious, the more serious issue is the fact that the VP is, literally,
a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin is totally and
unequivocally unqualified to be vice president, let alone president.
I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high.
I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political
affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to
live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis.
Jackie S.
Matthew
It is kind of like how I saw the exhibit of people with their faces burnt off by IEDs and "support the troops" by people who don't want to see photos like this or flag-covered coffins coming in at Dover RINGS A LITTLE HOLLOW. So does "God Bless America" for a God and an America who can't even prevent shit like this from happening.
Sparrow
I doubt banning "Mein Kampf" or any book would help. I think a lot more good education would help a lot more, so that people might analyze what they read/see/hear. Probably true also back in Hitler's time.
McCain is blaming Obama's bloggers for 'beating up on this innocent pregnant girl"
For 1, if you are 17, unmarried and pregnant, calling that 'innocent' is quite a stretch.
For 2, if you are old enough to screw around and get pregnant, then you are old enough to hear the opinion of the entire world on it.
I have gave birth 5 times, so according to Steve Doocy that makes me qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Wow! Thanks Steve! I'll remember you said so!
Matthew,
For years, "God Bless America" has been said. Since 1938!
Not one line in that is blasphemis or pandering!!! Not ONE.
The song itself is dedicated to America doing the right thing and having God Bless America to do the right thing!
That does not make it pandering. And in fact, place that song in the context of the years it was written.
America has not lived up to her promise and under the Republican party for the last 30 years it's failed even more miserably! However, when you look at Obama who said it in his speech, it clearly has been how he has lived his life!
He is a person who has devoted his adult life to improving America. He's also a person who has devoted his life to God. He is a practicing Christian and he intends to promote an America who doesn't torture and who treats other nations with respect and care.
So, frankly, I think this is a bogus controversy to create about one line in his speech which is designed to be both nationalistic and to hold America to her blessings received and blessings given.
I'm sorry to disagree with you so strongly about this. But the election IS about nationalism, no matter how you want to spin it. It's about AMERICANS getting off their a$$es and voting! It's about a person who believes that America should do right in this world. It's about creating a better America.
And by saying "God Bless America" at the end of a speech does not make it cross the lines of church and state. He's not advocating "God Bless America" be on every government building. He's not advocating placing it on the walls at school and making every child in America get tattoo'd with it.
It's an overstatement to think that a line in a speech crosses the line between forced religion and the government institution. Furthermore, the last moment during that convention was a benediction that people were asked to say in their own way if they wanted to participate-which is further evidence that he wasn't pushing God on people or on the institution of government.
At any rate, here I thought you were blaming him for not blessing the world in your first post instead of just blessing America, but apparently you were blaming him for saying the word "God."
Getting back to matters other than God in speeches...
Sure seems to me like this is a backhanded swipe at the state and city in 2004 and not at Bush's own administrations actions.
Bush: cooperation for Gustav better than Katrina
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago
AUSTIN, Texas - President Bush said Monday that coordination among states and the federal government in response to Hurricane Gustav has been better than during Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005 and tattered his administration's reputation for handling crises.
Bush visited an emergency operations center in Austin, about 400 miles west of Cocodrie, La., near where Gustav struck land. Gustav packed more than 100 mph winds, but delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans, raising hopes that the city would escape the kind of catastrophic flooding wrought by Katrina, which killed nearly 1,600, obliterated 90,000 square miles of property and cost billions of dollars in response and repairs.
At an emergency operations center in Austin, Texas, Bush said the federal government's job was to assist states affected by the storm. He said he wanted to ensure that assets were in place to handle the storm, and that preparations are being made to help the Gulf Coast recover.
"The coordination on this storm is a lot better than on — than during Katrina," Bush said noting how the governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas had been working in concert. "It was clearly a spirit of sharing assets, of listening to somebody's problems and saying, `How can we best address them?'"
He lauded Gulf Coast residents who heeded warnings to evacuate.
"It's hard for a citizen to pull up stakes, and move out of their home, and face the uncertainty that comes when you're not at home, and I want to thank those citizens who listened carefully to their local authorities and evacuated," Bush said.
"This storm has yet to pass. It's, you know, it's a serious event."
David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters on Bush's plane en route that there has been "unprecedented cooperation" among federal agencies and the private sector. "What it allows us to do is share information of what's going on so we don't end up with what happened in Katrina, with different agencies doing things and others not knowing what's happening," he said.
Paulison said the help came ahead of the storm time, significantly easing evacuations. Everyone in New Orleans who wanted to evacuate could have, Paulison said. "There should not be any excuses," he said. "If people stayed in New Orleans, it was their choice."
The enduring memory of Katrina is not the ferocity of the storm, but the bungled reaction that led to preventable deaths and chaos. Disaster response has undoubtedly improved since then. But Katrina was a low chapter in American history, and it deeply eroded credibility in Bush's administration.
snip
First lady Laura Bush also was involved in the administration's effort to stress that things would be different this time. "Mistakes were made by everyone" at all levels of government in the handling of Katrina, Mrs. Bush said Monday on CNN.
"Part of it was not being able to have the good communication that you would need between the three governments," said Mrs. Bush, who also was to speak Monday at the GOP convention. "And we have taken care of that, we know that's a lot better. And the lessons that were learned from Katrina can serve the United States very well in any kind of disaster."
Sparrow, I was blaming him for mentioning God and NOT MENTIONING THE WORLD.
It's either GOD and THE WORLD or no God, and my nationalism, good or bad.
One more thing: I've had it with "my candidate, right or wrong".
Now, for a comic view of nationalism, I give you Flanders and Swann:
The English, the English, the English are best:
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!
The rottenest bits of these islands of ours,
We've left in the hands of three unfriendly powers,
Examine the Irishman, Welshman or Scot,
you'll find he's a stinker or not.
The Scotsman is mean, as we 're all well aware,
And bony and blotchy and covered with hair,
He eats salted porridge, he works all the day,
And he hasn't got bishops to show him the way.
The English; the English, the English are best:
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!
The Irishman, now, our contempt is beneath,
He sleeps in his boots and he lies in his teeth,
He blows up policemen (or so I have heard),
And blames it on Cromwell and William the Third.
The English are noble, the English are nice,
And worth any other at double the price!
The Welshman's dishonest, he cheats when he can,
And little and dark, more like monkey than man,
He works underground with a lamp in his hat,
And he sings far too loud, far too often, and
FLA-A-A-T.
And crossing the Channel, one cannot say much,
For the French or the Spanish, the Danish or Dutch;
The Germans are German, the Russians are Red,
And the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed.
The English are moral, the English are good,
And clever and modest and misunderstood!
And all the world over, each nation's the same,
They've simply no notion of Playing the Game:
They argue with umpires; they cheer when they've won;
And they practise beforehand, which ruins the fun!
The English, the English, the English are best:
So up with the English, and down with the rest!
It's not that they're wicked or naturally bad ...
It's knowing they're FOREIGN that makes them so mad!
For the English are all that a nation should be,
And the flower of the English are Donald
(Michael!) and me!!
Mathew,
It's a national election. Not a world election. The proper place to 'bless the world' might be at a world event--lie the olympics or a conference on global issues. But even then, if he's President, then at an official meeting, I wouldn't think it'd be kosher to say it then.
The pledge of allegiance:
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:
Pandering still? Or a sincere belief in the statements above?
Wait, the 'Under God' part of the Pledge is NOT original to it, and I refuse to add it and I refuse to let my kids add it.
It was not written that way, and the preacher that wrote it was sick at the thought they would add it.
It was added by an act of congess during the McCarthy years.
To make sure we were all good little Christian Americans.
So let's seeeeee.. Palin has 5 children, a 4 month old with Down Syndrome, and a teenage daughter is 5 months pregnant?
Hope she can pencil in some morally sound family values quality parenting time for her chldren, clearly in a time of need... not to mention tending to the needs of her OTHER 3 children!
Is it me, or did the campaign that brought up Britney Spears and Paris Hilton not select Lindsay Lohan's mother for VP?
Jerry Springer should moderate the debates.
From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:
(MONROE, MICH.) - When asked to respond to Sarah Palin’s announcement today that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, Barack Obama sternly said the story is irrelevant to the presidential campaign.
“I think peoples families are off limits and people's children are especially off limits.”
Obama addressed the press after he attended a Labor Day picnic here. Although he intended to give a statement on Hurricane Gustav, Obama was quickly asked about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy.
“My mother had me when she was 18 years old,” Obama said, adding that families should deal with these issues privately. “That shouldn’t be the topic of our politics, and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that’s off limits.”
Obama said he was offended by comments from a McCain advisor suggesting that his campaign may have been spreading rumors about Palin on the internet.
“Our people were not involved in any way in this and the will not be. And if I ever thought that it was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/01/politics/fromtheroad/entry4404967.shtml
Christy,
Somewhat true about the McCarthy thing, yes. But interesting that he pointed to Abraham Lincoln's text from the Gettysburg Address to make it happen.
It's an odd justification--don't you think?
YAY! Right on, Obama! I agree!
As far as I am concerned anything dealing with government policy or perception should keep God OUT of it.
My friend Kim and I once got into an argument about prayer in schools. She was all mad because now her kids were being told that they could not pray in school.
She should have known better than to argue that with me, but oh did she try.
At one point, she says 'Well, what is wrong with putting a LITTLE God into our public lives?"
I told her how dumb that was because there is not any putting a 'little God' into anything, because God trumps EVERYTHING.
If I myself could afford to fight all the way to SCOTUS I myself would take on getting prayers OUT of our public schools and and our Pledge and I would do so while daring ANYONE to question my faith.
I believe as Jefferson believed. 'It matters not to me if my nieghbor believes in one god, nor 20, it niether picks my pockets nor breaks my leg."
Our Founding Fathers NEVER EVER intended to force Christianity into anything. If they had they would have made it very clear that was exactly their intention.
I say love your country but keep God out of it.
Christy
McCain is so full of shit. It's free speech. When I was commenting at John Kerry's blog I was careful what I said and when I comment at Obama's blog I'm careful what I say.
The rest of the time, the only person I'm reflecting on is me and free speech trumps being a good Democrat. Antiwar trumps Democrats. Peace trumps PCness. Truth trumps pragmatism. That's at a personal blog that is shared and our understanding is that it's partly political, partly artistic but NOT a campaign blog per se.
McCain is desperate. He picked someone to create wedge issues and didn't even have his people vet her properly. Not only has she proven abstinence education easily fails, she ran Ted Stevens 527, she doesn't believe in birth control even for married people, she belonged to and still supports a party that wants Alaska to secede to the Union, and she doesn't believe in global warming.
Is McCain implying this stuff isn't true? The truth is right out there and he didn't even bother to have his people check. I never thought I'd see someone in politics so corrupt that Dick Cheney looks slightly better. & the hypocrisy of being obsessed with the human fetus while shooting innocent animals from the air is beyond the pale.
I respected Ed Sanders from The Fugs who was against stopping any beating heart. For him, that would have included respect for the life of pregnant Iraqi women civilians including the life they carry. I have not heard the likes of Palin and McCain say much about that.
Women on far right blogs criticize Palin for being a career woman while continuing to spew out children and not stay home with them. Some will support her but there are many who aren't. Not if they are really fundamentalist. She is a Biblical hypocrite and so is McCain.
McCain is saying in effect that Obama is responsible for all the content of liberal blogs with Obama's name in them. That's like saying McCain is responsible for everything conservative blogs say as long as his name is in them somewhere. That is ludicrous.
It's kind of like after 9/11, anything the wingnuts didn't like was labelled as written by a "traitor" and they called themselves "patriots." There is no way wingnuts are going to tell me to shut up any more or liberals either. That's the problem with this country - people on both sides going around talking about liberty and freedom and meanwhile we are losing it all the time (FISA, police state in the Twin Cities even though the Convention is imploding etc.)
By the way, we have a blog called Barack Like Me and we rarely mention McCain.
Sparrow, Matthew
The reason I technically don't like the "God Bless America" business is because it's assumed it's the Christian God and evokes "God is on our Side" in wars. Why would a powerful God bless one particular country?
So I know they say it and it's tradition but I don't really like it and never have. I don't even like people to bless me when I sneeze, really. I realize it's tradition and I even know why they do it (they are afraid my soul will fly out and not come back.) I may not even have a soul, for all I know, and it certainly never helps my cold or allergy.
Christy
I am reading backward and funny we were both thinking in terms of cards and
GOD TRUMPS EVERYTHING
It is inappropriate to lump GOD in with all this earthly messed up stuff created by man.
If that isn't true, then God doesn't exist.
Sparrow
Obama is right about campaigns but it is still true that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Republicans should never have gotten involved into the business of prying into peoples' bedrooms in the first place. It is none of their business about what people do with or put into their bodies in the first place.
They didn't shut up about it and now they have set the tone and can't make regular people like me say what they want.
For Obama it's different - he's running for office. Same goes for McCain.
If I want to talk about their hypocrisy, that doesn't have to do with politics, it has to do with religion. If I want to talk about their politics, it has to do with corruption.
The other mistake the (the conservatives) made was to try to MIX religion and politics. That is only the case in a theocracy and we are not going to allow this to be a theocracy. That is what I am fighting so I do not intend to shut up.
I know this doesn't sound like me but I think maybe you old friends have never seen me mad. These hypocrites have crossed the line. Remember - I learned when I was a child what hypocrites are. How dare people like this even pretend to be religious.
Hot Damn! Anne Coulter just texted me! (It's actually the replacement for Robert Novak, which is vastly inferior to the actual Robert Novak, who discontinued after his brain tumor)
SPECIAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION PREVIEW
Outlook
1. Republican spirits were buoyed immensely by Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. A convention that threatened to lack all enthusiasm now holds the possibility of catapulting McCain ahead of Obama.
2. The most important part of the week will be Palin's speech on Wednesday night. Given her potential upsides and potential downsides, she could affect the fate of the ticket more than most running mates.
3. Gustav will dim the GOP infomercial, but that may not be too bad. Republicans were never going to perform as well as the Democrats did last week.
4. Polls do not yet show an Obama bounce. A clear picture of the race will not begin to emerge until next week.
Palin: Derided by Democrats as "desperate" and "bizarre," and celebrated by conservative activists as redemption for McCain, the Palin pick is certainly a high-risk/high-reward decision.
1. Conservative enthusiasm for McCain's choice cannot be overstated. The mood in Minneapolis over the weekend was giddy, and the talk among delegates and conservative activists focused almost exclusively on Palin. Support for her was nearly unanimous. McCain needed to energize the base, and he had no time to waste. He did it.
2. Picking a brand-new governor whose previous job was small-town mayor in a far-off state has serious potential downsides. For one, it somewhat de-fangs the attack that Obama is not ready to lead—which was the entire message of the GOP counter-convention operation in Denver last week. On the other hand, if Republicans drop that attack, the worries about Obama's inexperience will probably persist in voters' minds, and a running mate's inexperience won't be as important.
3. Palin not only plucks the pro-life and conservative strings in the GOP base, but she also hits the reform note that has gotten louder among GOP dissidents following the party's spending binge in Washington and crushing defeat in 2006. McCain's reform message, criticism of ethanol and sugar subsidies, and crusades against pork and waste were his strong points in the eyes of the base. Palin multiplies those virtues, standing in rebuke to the old guard of the GOP.
4. Her sex introduces many important dynamics to this race. First, however, it is important to understand that she will have very limited reach into the pool of former supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton. Some female Clinton voters—not likely a significant number—were already considering a vote for McCain, and this pick could solidify their leanings. Will conservative female turnout increase? If McCain can get 49% of the female vote, he will win, but there are no early signs that Palin will have such an impact.
Sparrow, I agree it is an issue of Free Speech for him to say 'God Bless America' that is why I do not attack him for it.
But I am very uncomfortable when I hear it and like Slugbug even when someone says 'God Bless you' when I sneeze.
I do believe in God, I do believe in an Afterlife, salvation redemption and the whole shabang, but when it comes to politics or what I find appropriate in public, I do not believe God is a public relations issue and He should never be invoked as such.
I do not say anything when people say God Bless America, because I was taught to say it myself as an automated response, but I don't say it anymore because God may resent that I assume He picks sides.
I was taught anyone praying in public is lewd and doing it for show and NOT a true believer. The older I get the more I believe that is true.
God is a deeply personal issue to each of us and there is no faster way to make us fight or repress people than to bring God into politics.
Our Founding Fathers knew that. They were obviously men of deep faith themselves, but they refused to set up a theocracy and I believe it is something we should all be very careful to avoid even in jingoistic terms.
That's true that people assume it's a Christian God. But I also think it's a really difficult line to assert: all, none, or something in the middle.
Regarding glass houses...yes, that's true. And it is complete hypocrisy.
So I guess in my own behavior, I will say the pledge with God in it. Or I will say "God Bless America" or whatever I want to say. And I will allow you the choice not to.
And when it comes to talking about their sexual morals, it's the same thing. I will give them personal space, but you all can say what you want.
Seems fair enough to me.
As far as her kids 'not being an issue'.
Ok Fine.
But the very next time I hear what a 'hero' she is because she did not abort a mentally ill CHILD...Then IT IS ON!
And I better NEVER see her using that baby as a photo-op. She is already using him to garner the support of flat out crazy people and By God, I reserve the right to have an opinion on it.
Oh, BTW, how exactly are her kids 'not an issue' again when every republican with a mouth is on TV telling us how her being a mother of 5 suprememly qualifies her to be VP?
Ok, I will shut up. For now.
It will be interesting to see how the pregnant unmarried daughter plays with the Republicans.
Granted - it can happen to anyone.
But honestly - do we want an unmarried pregnant 17 year old (or a married pregnant 17 year old for that matter) held up as the role model for the nation's girls? The teen pregnancy rate is already on the rise again.
The beauty queen mother is bad enough. But now the daughter?
I can't imagine it will be long until the thugs start eating their own. The liberal blogs should try to be quiet and bring on the popcorn!
Actually, it puzzles me too. When the DNC final stage was crowded with the family members of the Democratic candidates for president and vp, why were they there? I thought they were there to show what regular, ordinary, every day people Obama and Biden are.
Um - doesn't parading them on stage at a huge public venue on the biggest night of the year, constitute making them an issue. Sure, the family members shouldn't be branded or condemned. Who has criticised the girl over her pregnancy? Surely no one. Many circumstances led to that. And those are best known to her family and are not a public issue.
BUT they should - always - be a side issue and only ever brought up when specific concerns crop up that reflect particular behaviours or attitudes. If that 15 year old's pregnancy were a consequence of rape, for instance ....... that would be an issue that would be of grave concern for every voter. If her mother were to force her to remain a victim for her entire life by seeing the pregnancy through and raising the child (or not), that would certainly make the mother unworthy of holding any public office. A Life Sentence? For a 15 year old?
Oops! 17 year old.
Matt,
I understand your point. His using that phrase might lend some to fear that there is a danger of him feathering the line between church and state.
I'm going to try to focus on the good that remark "God Bless America" may do. Like convince thousands or millions of Americans who DO believe in THEIR God that Obama is not an Osama bin Laden surrogate, because that is what they have been fed by the bucket fulls for the last 18 months.
I'm trying to be pragmatic about it. He was speaking to a nation comprised of, in very large extent, Judeo-Christian voters, (that's how George W. Bush got elected - by the RURAL VOTES of churched Americans who believe in a God.) I am never redundant, so I shall NOT say again that I WATCHED the rural votes come rolling in on election night 2004 and slowly but surely swamp the urban votes. I don't see it as pandering because he is of the same faith as the majority of the churched in this nation.
I don't know how much clearer he can make it that, as he has stated by action, word, and deed, that he does not intend to mix religion and state.
(Becky said "He didn't say "which" God, he just said God.)
Yes, many may be more progressive, more educated, more intellectual than the majority of rural church goers. But the rural votes still add up and count just as much as anyone else's.
I am learning that try as we might, we will never make others (or even be able to wish hard enough) to control others into believing what we individually believe. As much as some would wish or try to make another like himself, I believe they are really cheating themselves. That's what liberty and freedom are all about.
I have learned some things over the past four years, and this is one of them: Diversity is not to be feared, but to be understood and appreciated. The next step is everyone working around common goals.
I want us to win this one.
Amy Goodman apparently arrested at RNC:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/19345/31771/170/582581
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