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My Thoughts on September 11, 2008
Editor's note: This article comes to us via Karen's friend Jenny.
My Thoughts on September 11, 2008I can never wake up on Sept. 11 without remembering living in Ithaca, New York, and painting in my garden that morning, back when I didn't need to go to work before noon, back when my rent was $250 a month and I made $12 an hour working part-time as a secretary and back when I lived with and amongst a tribe of intelligent, liberal mostly overeducated and underemployed friends. This was also back when I didn't even know the field of landscape architecture existed!Now, I am a practicing landscape architect (and have watched over the years as memorial designs have been chosen for the World Trade Center, for Flight 93 and for the Pentagon - which opens today), and I pay $865 a month in rent in an affluent southern town in a state that is rallying for Sarah Palin. Every day since her nomination I have had conversations with colleagues, friends, and strangers that are becoming increasingly surreal. We have been waging war in Iraq for five and a half years. No evidence of any collaboration between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda was ever found. The Iraq Survey Group determined that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program ceased in 1991. The United Nations High Commissioner estimates that the war has left 4.7 million Iraqis refugees (16% of the population.) As of this morning my country has spent more than $575 billion dollars on an invasion justified by lies and manipulation that has left over a million people dead. And about three quarters of the entire global population agrees that this is wrong. How has that made us any more secure? Does that matter? "Victory is in sight!" What would victory even look like? Why were we there in the first place? To feed the military industry, to control oil? Because Americans want cheap gasoline, cheap food and cheap goods at Walmart. Who can blame them? Many of them have lost their jobs, or have demoralizing and low-pay jobs, have lost or are losing their houses, can't afford good health care, can't afford child care, and work most of their waking hours. I think the idea that young men who serve tours believing that they are serving their country and the betterment of humankind is a tragedy. McPalin is preying on the worst, not the best, in us. They are actually succeeding at making destroying our environment, our country, our world and our lives for cheap fuel, cheap goods, and cheap excuses seem sexy and just darn sassy, so long as a hottie like Sarah can represent those things as well as all of us with vaginas. And speaking of VAGINAS... read on to see Eve Ensler's thoughts on Sarah Palin. I saw Eve Ensler perform her Vagina Monologues in Baltimore about a decade ago, and performed in the show myself as part of her enormous VDay initiative that has raised over $50 million to support education and initiatives that address violence against women. ...and if the word vagina makes you uncomfortable, let me guess... like Palin much? *added bonus at the bottom, an excerpt from this morning's Washington Post that really captures the joie de vivre in Virginia right now. Drill, Drill, Drill I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country choose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
Eve Ensler For Working Moms, 'Flawed' Palin Is the Perfect Choice (?)Marc Fisher-We don't live in an age of looking up to authority anymore. We don't cotton to the idea that there are people who are our betters. In this time of "American Idol," bedroom bloggers and the belief that experience, knowledge and education don't necessarily mean a whole lot, Palin is a symbol, a statement that anyone can make it if he or she really tries.
-"She's just as flawed as we are," Tweddle said. "It's not the fact that she's a woman but the way she does it all. And let me tell you: There're more American parents with unwed pregnant teenaged children than American parents with Harvard grads. She's real."
-In this hyperdemocratized society, the national conviction that anyone can succeed is morphing into a belief that experience and knowledge may almost be disqualifying credentials.
-This is where culture wars, identity politics and self-suffocating academic theories of deconstructionism have led us: Authority is suspect. Experience is corrupting. Ignorance is strength?
Next will be "war is peace." Or have we already heard that one?
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Right on, Karen's friend Jenny! (and sparrow - this looks like a good piece for the front page - don't you think?)
Jenny, I grew up in Ithaca, and now live in possibly even more liberal Amherst, MA. We are definitely in a bubble here. But to quote Matt Damon (and I'm sure multitudes of other thinking people, the idea that Sarah Palin is qualified to be VP is ABSURD.
Jenny et al,
The whole notion that the Christian God put the resources on Earth for mankind to plunder, is the most dangerous thought ever conceived.
Religions have been practiced and refined to make humankind and its world prosper, not to destroy it in the name of some lunatic concept of afterlife. On that front, modern-day American/South Korean Christianity is not a religion, but a DEATH CULT that must be exterminated.
Please stop the McCain-Palin death machine, at ANY COST. In a few days, I will do my part by doing everything I can to stop its greatest funding source, South Korea's government and Christian community.
And yes, war is peace.
Outright treason (i.e. Karl Rove, Prescott Bush) is patriotic.
True patriotism (i.e. pro-democracy activism) is Marxist.
Karen's friend, Jenny said
Yes. Perhaps that's because she is the worst in (amongst) us.
Linda Carter, the original "Wonder Woman" says:
http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com
AND IT'S NOT PATRIOT DAY TIL I GET IT OFF - PAID!!!!
Hitler only allowed literalist art - had to be representational. B&W thinkers do not like abstractions or theories.
I watched Sicko with Veritas on Sept.11th.
Now that was freaking cool!
Dear Houston,
Remember how your residents all talked smack about people from Louisiana who had to flee New Orleans and wound up in Houston? Remember all the nasty words you had for our residents seeking shelter...? I remember quite clearly.
All the emails I got telling me how criminal and disgusting their presence was in your city. My own cousin on the phone repeatedly telling me that they wished all these nasty survivors would get out because they were bringing your city down and everyone hated them... And we all know it wasn't really because they were just such horrible people, it was because they were pretty much all black folks. According to yall, there must not have been any crime at all in Houston until the Katrina survivors stepped onto the soil of your precious polluted city.
Well... All I have to say is... Oh nevermind... Ike will say it for me.
Duck Biatch!
Christy and V...that is cool!
I had to work this September 11th. I don't know. It didn't feel right. I wish they had a national holiday for it. I think it could be done without it being a political holiday. 7 years post 9-11 and watching this administration spoil the moment when the world was one with us has really taken away the Republican power from that day.
At any rate, I wish it was a holiday like Memorial Day.
Here's an article about women against Palin that has finally hit the msm.
abc news: Women Against Palin
Lou Dobbs was all over Damon last night for his comments. Quite bizarre, really. But I guess Lou is taking this populist thing a bit too far.
I thought Damon's remarks were quite on point. Even Harry Truman had spent time in the US Senate before becoming VP.
And let me be very clear that any kook who thinks the US should go to war in response to Russia’s squabbles with one of its former satellites is clearly not ready for prime time. Our military is already exhausted and overextended. We’re not paying as is for the wars were already fighting. But, sure, lets make Georgia and Ukraine part of NATO so we can fight the Russians too!
But I’m certainly glad that Dubya’s vaunted “gut” allowed him to see into Putin’s soul, and recognize a kindred spirit. And whose to say that Dubya was wrong – really. Maybe it takes a closet authoritarian to recognize a closet authoritarian.
September 12, 2008
Stung by Criticism Over Georgia, Putin Asks West for a Little Understanding
By ELLEN BARRY
MOSCOW — For three and a half hours on Thursday, in tones that were alternately pugilistic and needy, Vladimir V. Putin tried to explain himself.
More than a month has passed since Russia sent columns of armor into Georgia, asserting its sphere of influence with a confidence not seen since the days of the Soviet Union. But since the first hours of this crisis, Russian leaders have been asking the same question with mounting frustration: Why is everyone blaming us for this?
Mr. Putin, Russia’s prime minister, made his case on Thursday in Sochi, Russia, before the Valdai Discussion Club, a collection of Russia experts from around the world. Comments aimed at the West were, at times, rueful — he said he liked President Bush more than many Americans do — and even respectful, as when he asked for a moment of silence in honor of the victims of Sept. 11.
As for the criticism that has cascaded down on his government, Mr. Putin expressed only bafflement that those in the West did not accept Russia’s explanation that it had simply acted in defense of its citizens. How did they expect Russia to respond to the shelling of its peacekeepers in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, he asked — with “slingshots?” Did they expect him to “brandish a penknife?”
“What else could we do?” the Interfax news agency reported him as saying. “Do you think we should have wiped the bloody snot away and hung our heads?”
His plea was serious. This week, Russia’s diplomatic relations with Europe frayed badly during negotiations about a withdrawal of troops from Georgia. President Dmitri A. Medvedev’s decision to recognize the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has made even longtime allies like China and Serbia wary of standing with Russia.
But while Russia has been unbending across the negotiating table, what its leaders seem to want more than anything is to be understood.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/world/europe/12georgia.html
I just watched clips of mcperky and 'charlie' last night.
Was that even real? Did that really happen? That was the interview we were all waiting for?
I must be be trippin because I don't even believe that was real. That was the joke BEFORE the real thing...right? I can't even form an opinion of it because I can't believe that was it, THAT is their VP pick?
Holy McHell! Are they freaking mcSERIOUS?
I am in awe at the stupidity I see. Please someone stab me in the eyeballs!
As now some news from our "ally", Saudi Arabia...
AP
Saudi: OK to kill owners of 'immoral' TV networks
Friday September 12, 10:38 am ET
Top cleric in Saudi judiciary: it's OK to kill owners of TV networks airing 'immoral content'
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content.
The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the "deviance of thousands of people."
Many of the most popular Arab satellite networks -- which include channels showing music videos often denounced as obscene by Muslim conservatives -- are owned by Saudi princes and well-connected Saudi businessmen. Al-Lihedan did not specify any particular channels.
Al-Lihedan is chief of the kingdom's highest tribunal, the Supreme Judiciary Council. Saudi Arabia's judiciary is made up of Islamic clerics whose decrees, or fatwas, on everyday issues are widely respected. Their fatwas do not have the weight of law. In the courts, cleric-judges rule according to Islamic law, but interpretations can vary.
Al-Lihedan was answering listeners' questions during the daily "Light in the Path" radio program in which he and others make rulings on what is permissible under Islamic law.
One caller asked about Islam's view of the owners of satellite TV channels that show "bad programs" during Ramadan.
"I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence ... and I warn them of the consequences," he said.
"What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity?" he said.
"Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them," he said. "Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don't, it is permissible to kill them."
Among the most viewed Arabic satellite networks is Rotana, which airs movies and music videos. It is owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a billionaire businessman and member of the royal family whom Forbes ranks as the world's 13th richest person.
Al-Lihedan sparked controversy in the past by issuing a decree that Saudis can join jihadists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.
Wow! ON the view they really rebutted McCain/Palin's lies!
Watch the body language too! Clearly Joy, Barbara, and Whoopi are not voting for McLiar and Palin-liar. But the blond is. (Not only does she say so, but she's leaning in while the others are leaning away!!! The other black woman whose name I don't know is leaning back--as in "WTF am I doing here with these people!" I think she's your independent. She also doesn't say anything.
However, their legs and hands are crossed. I imagine the hands are crossed tightly so that they don't go up to McCain and wash his mouth out with soap for lying.
Those polls that say this is a tight race. I don't believe them. I have yet to see one McCain sign. Yet each day, I see more and more Obama ones.
I agree with this guy. These people will never vote "D" unless they think they can screw up a primary. But their basic theory of racism and sexism will prevent them from voting "D" because they would rather hate them, then look at the terrible deeds the "R's" do.
That's very true even of my area, which is considered R+11 (feels a lot more like R+20), and was absolutely covered with W '04 ovals.
Now, I can count the number of times I've EVER seen a McCain poster/sign with ONE hand, while Obama posters/signs are everywhere.
The California behind the so-called Orange Curtain may be the Republicans' base and the cash cow, but even that is becoming Obama Country.
We bombed the wrong Arab country.
Well, here in NC I've been seeing more McCain sign and bumper stickers than I was before... but I am glad to hear the optimism of others out there, cuz I sure ain't feelin' it.
All I see is stupid.
Hey All,
I'm in Minneapolis at a dance convention and the sense of horror at the R ticket is palpable. Arts folks will be voting D this time. Lots of conversations and people asking me about what I think.
What I think is that the collective attention-span of the American people is even more reduced than in 2004. This is good news and bad news. The question is, who can have the last word? All of this spin is so much distraction and noise; what I am hoping for is a concerted and strategic effort on the part of the true Americans to push through with truth, justice, and the American Way to the last possible media moment.
Just keep speaking truth to power. That's my plan, anyway.
Agreed Karen, in that I didn't think it was possible for the electorate to be worse in their decision-making abilities than they were in '04, yet....
Are you dumber off than you were 4 years ago?
DESPISED IN SEATTLE
I went back in time 25 years today to University of Washington, where I did my PhD research. I took a class just down the hall from where I ran my experiments in perception. Academics are not usually the most political of people as they are far too busy, but I did find out today that some of them are finding today's political climate exceedingly "anti-intellectual"!! This perception was unanimous, once people opened up a little over a lunch. After all, these are people who believe in science, who write grants which support research in institutions of higher learning - epidemiologists, research pediatricians, etc. Their work eventually saves lives or makes them more productive. They sacrifice through hard work and study. As I just read on a blog (about experience) - what if scientists and physicians didn't go to University but these jobs were just handed to friends and relatives that we like to have a beer with?
After leaving the University I walked to University Village to check out the new H&M. The clerks were lamenting about the threat to Roe v Wade. After shopping, I waited at a bus stop. A retired gentleman was sitting next to me. He had taken the bus all the way in from one of the outer suburbs to go to the Burke Museum of Anthropology to see the Polar Bear Exhibit. He told me that it had a political theme r/t Global Warming. He then launched into a virulent attack on McCain, Palin, our media, our electorate and the general championing of stupidity. He and his wife travel all they can now that they are retired and they find in fellow travelers a more curious and open-minded mentality.
Thanks to my Uncle Jerry for the doll picture!!
Karen .. Let me know how long you'll be there! My friend Kayakbiker would probably love to meet you sometime!
about signs -
they aren't very predictive
about polls -
they are citing popular vote polls
YES WE CAN!! If somehow not, it's time for REVOLUTION!
Here we go again...
msnbc
AP
- Hurricane Ike, a colossal storm nearly as big as Texas itself, battered the coast Friday, threatening to obliterate waterfront towns and give the skyscrapers, refineries and docks of the nation's fourth-largest city their worst pounding in a generation.
ADVERTISEMENT
But even as towering waves crashed over the 17-foot Galveston seawall and floodwaters rose in low-lying areas, it became clear that many of the 1 million coastal residents who had been ordered to get out refused to do so and were taking their chances.
Authorities in three counties alone said roughly 90,000 stayed behind, despite a warning from forecasters that many of those in one- or two-story homes faced "certain death."
"I believe in the man up there, God," said William Steally, a 75-year-old retiree who planned to ride out the storm in Galveston without his wife or sister-in-law. "I believe he will take care of me."
At about 600 miles across, the hurricane was a monster. As it zeroed in on the coast, it trapped 60 people who had to be rescued by helicopter from the floodwaters near Galveston, breached levees in rural Louisiana, and stranded 22 crewmen on a disabled 584-foot cargo ship in the Gulf.
Before sunset Friday, power had been knocked out to hundreds of thousands of customers in Louisiana and along the Texas coast. That number that was expected to climb quickly throughout the night, according to Centerpoint Energy, the primary electricity provider for the region.
As of 9 p.m. EDT, Ike was centered about 70 miles southeast of Galveston, moving at 13 mph. It was close to a Category 3 storm with winds of 110 mph, and was expected to strengthen by the time the eye hit land. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere near Galveston early Saturday and pass almost directly over Houston.
Because of the hurricane's size, the state's shallow coastal waters and its largely unprotected coastline, forecasters said the biggest threat would be flooding and storm surge, with Ike expected to hurl a wall of water two stories high — 20 to 25 feet — at the coast.
~~~~~
and....
~~~~~
Flooding in Jefferson Parish near New Oleans from IKE
"The levees, which were aqua levees and tubing, were set up by Jefferson Parish officials near the intersection of Canal Street and Hwy 45, close to where Town Hall sits. Around 8 p.m., the levee failure was reported."
http://www.nola.com/
More hurricane links:
DU">http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1083&tstamp=200809#commenttop">DU
AP Pictures
NOLA and TX people...check in when you can!
No, Christy, quite frankly, I don't remember anything of the kind. I do remember that several students from New Orleans attended my daughter's grade school until the families got back up on their feet and moved back home. My daughter had one good friend from that. On a related note, I sure wish I had cut down that stupid tree that leans up against our gutter before I left on this stupid business trip I am on.
Good morning Chuck. I can understand that tree thing. It is probably making you nervous now. Anyways, I think this hurricane is going to be really bad! I think people concentrated on Galveston but it is going to harm up and down the coast.
I pray the Bush administration is prepared. I pray it's not another post-Katrina!
Hey!
I just want to give everyone heads up that, Monday, the Ed Schultz Show will be airing a town hall meeting that's taking place tomorrow...somewhere in Alaska (I don't remember what town). Ed Schultz is a liberal radio talk show host, but there will be both lefties and righties included in the discussion about Palin as a mayor/governor. It should be interesting if nothing else.
The Ed Schultz Show airs on 1520am in Buffalo 12-3pm You can check his website for your local information.
Also, Ed Schultz will also be on the Larry King Show Monday to discuss the town hall meeting...
Sparrow:
Well, it went right over us (my wife and daughter anyway, who went to stay with some friends just down the road as I am out of town). Just got off the phone and it looks like the roofs didn't do too well and there is plenty of flooding and we lost a few trees (this is Medical Center area just SW of Downtown). Sounds like they have several more hours of this to go. I guess I'll find out about our house in a day or so!
Chuck in Bangkok
Devastating Ike roars ashore in Galveston, Texas
snip
It remained unclear before daybreak how many people may have perished as the worst of Ike was passing over the Houston-Galveston area. But even before the storm had passed and daylight had arrived, damage was already considered extensive. Thousands of homes and government buildings had flooded, roads were washed out, 2.9 million people lost power and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. But the biggest fear was that tens of thousands of people had defied orders to flee and would need to be rescued from submerged homes and neighborhoods.
"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas," said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.
Several fires were burning untended across Houston and 911 operators received about 1,250 calls in 24 hours, said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White.
Streets around the city's theater district became rushing streams and shards of glass fell from the sparkling skyscrapers that define the skyline of America's fourth-largest city. Winds were estimated to be 20-30 mph faster at the top of the steel and glass towers than at ground level.
The stubborn storm remained a Category 2 hurricane with winds topping 100 mph, but started moving away from Houston on Saturday morning. It was about 15 miles east-northeast of Houston Intercontinental Airport at 7 a.m. EDT and was expected to turn toward Arkansas later in the day.
The eye of the storm powered ashore at 3:10 a.m. EDT at Galveston with 110 mph winds, just shy of a Category 3 storm. Because Ike was so huge — nearly as big as Texas itself — hurricane winds pounded the coast for hours before landfall and would continue through much of the morning, with the worst winds and rain after the center came ashore, forecasters said.
"For us, it was a 10," Galveston Fire Chief Mike Varela said when asked to compare Ike to earlier hurricanes like 2005's Rita. Varela said firefighters responded to about 60 rescue calls before suspending operations around 8 p.m. Friday.
September 13, 2008
Editorial
Gov. Palin’s Worldview
As we watched Sarah Palin on TV the last couple of days, we kept wondering what on earth John McCain was thinking.
If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.
It was bad enough that Ms. Palin’s performance in the first televised interviews she has done since she joined the Republican ticket was so visibly scripted and lacking in awareness.
What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.
The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/opinion/13sat1.html
Chuck
Good luck!
Click my name for beehives, opera, Iraqi American delegate etc. - too long to repost but fun!
My trees are already taking a bad stripping already.
Gustav took my nieghbors tree down and it took out power for days to most of the neighborhood.
Looks like a wild night.
Well, sounds like our neighborhood is a mess and no electricity but basically OK (and it looks like my tree held after all!). Our bayou (Brays) seems OK, but the news says that Buffalo Bayou and especially White Oak Bayou are in bad shape. But some of those coastal areas are in really bad shape I would think. I hope people evacuated in time.
Wild night ahead, even.
Sorry, kids and puppies were in my lap.
MSNBC hitting mcPOW hard.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/12/1382169.aspx
This is a couple miles from my place -- same oak trees:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid823433113/bctid1785367263
Shutting down. Tornados here.
Later.
Must see this video! (And send it on...)
Christy...stay safe. Go to the basement.
This is horrifying! This is inhumane.
And this is who they think women will embrace?
She Who Shall Not Be Named with Daughter
Sparrow, no basements in Louisiana. Grounds too wet.
Anyone hear from Veritas? She drove right into the path of Ike from here.
I didn't hear, Christy. I assumed she stayed with you until the danger passed.
McCain-Palin Crowd-Size Estimates Not Backed by Officials
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a1J0tfV3XJYs&refer=politics
No, she was suppossed to be in Austin by yesterday afternoon. She wanted to stay on the River Walk.
She drove right towards him.
Not Austin, San Antonio I mean.
Louisiana rescues begin as winds die down
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/13/hurricane.ike.louisiana/index.html
Cameron Parish, which has about 8,000 residents, was hit hard by Hurricane Rita in 2005.
"We are seeing the same flood inundation as Rita, if not more," Dunhon said.
The sheriff's office received several calls Saturday morning from people in trailers and homes who needed to be evacuated, but initially deputies couldn't reach them, Dunhon said.
Just north of Cameron Parish, in Lake Charles, Mayor Randy Roach echoed the concerns of the Cameron Parish sheriff, telling The Associated Press that flooding there is worse than it was during Hurricane Rita.
In Plaquemines Parish near New Orleans, sheriff's spokesman Maj. John Marie told AP that floodwaters are higher than they were during hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Don't worry. V is ok. (I just made sure!)
What about all our other gators?
From a kos diary...
From the somewhat more intellectually honest conservatives, a new meme is hardening on Sarah Palin, post-Gibson interview: she is fundamentally unprepared to be Vice-President."
~~ I guess that's the business conservatives and libertarians.
The religious conservatives seem to still approve of her.
My hope that truth will ever prevail with them is long gone!
Chuck, if your family needs a place to go, they are more than welcome to come here until this is sorted out. Hit me up if they need directions.
I couldn't get Chuck's link to work--it's my own computer's fault. I hope everything is ok!
Hundreds of protesters turned out in Anchorage, Alaska, today in a rally against Gov. Sarah Palin's candidacy for vice president. At least 500 protesters were outside the Loussac Library waving signs.
At least 100 Palin supporters were on the other side of the street showing support for the governor.
The protest came hours after the governor held a morning rally in downtown Anchorage, attended by as many as 1,500 cheering supporters, then flew off to Nevada to resume campaigning. It's the first public demonstration against Palin since she accepted McCain's offer on Aug. 29.
The protesters included a mix of Obama supporters, anti-war protesters, abortion-rights advocates and people upset that Palin, when she was Wasilla mayor, asked a city librarian about removing books. KansasCity.com
~~Sure hope those people realize that Palin already has a reputation of going out for revenge and that's according to residents of the city where she was Mayer.
Maybe those people should have worn a mask like we did when we protested Rove.
~~Something Wicked This Way Comes
Hope all my friends in the path of Ike didn't get the Tina Turner treatment.
Finally saw a McCain bumper sticker this morning, in suburban Los Angeles.
It's still Obama country out here. But I won't count on it until the liberals wise up and start playing hardball to defend their advantage.
Already they are starting to lose the culture war again - I am starting to see bumper stickers in support of Proposition 4 (third attempt in three years at teen abortion ban) and Proposition 8 (gay marriage ban). Both are constitutional amendments, and in case of Prop 8, well-funded (South Korea has just sunk almost $10 million into Prop 8, through Reverend Moon via Focus on the Family and related groups).
Unless the San Francisco Dems and liberals realize that they are in a tiny bubble and that they need to actively sell their agenda to the rest of the state, they are DOOMED. Especially when they keep thinking that nonwhites are incapable of homophobia, much less funding Prop 8. (Honestly, nonwhites are capable of WORSE homophobia than whites will ever be, based on my own experience and observation.)
I wouldn't count on it, Ally. People not only have to be willing to talk, they have to be willing to listen. And it's even harder to change your mind from what you're use to or what/who surrounds you.
It isn't going to matter to the people in that outside area if strangers come in and canvass. What matters is the interactions in their daily lives and seeing their own friends and neighbors willing to take a stand and do something different.
That's why I have always felt that the phone canvassing is ridiculous. And the best way to engage people for the progressive agenda is to actually speak to them and let them see that there is a more hopeful path, if they'd be willing to give it a chance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrJKB22PITs
Rally - Anchorage - a pleasant surprise!
Ally
I saw where Obama is not talking about She Who Shall Not Be Named but is going after McCain, as he should. People always blame campaign, candidate, surrogates, media and ads when someone loses but a huge factor is the stupidity of 51% of the electorate - that's all it takes, as Karl Rove knows.
My son was reading me some survey where something like half of women did not know the Republican candidate's views on basic issues - like they didn't know SWSNBN's position on choice or school prayer or environment at all but assumed she must be a feminist since she wore lipstick (actually, feminists do not need lipstick unless they choose to and that is part of choice. Men can wear it too.)
Sarah Palin seemed to understand this. Earlier this year, she wrote in a newspaper column, "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship." And, for all her talk of Alaska fending for itself, she told me, "There isn’t a need to aspire to live without any earmarks.
~~~
The State of Sarah Palin
~~
Of course, I'm preaching to the choir here. Palin sucked up as many earmarks as she could before. Of course now she just lies and says she wasn't for earmarks.
Gosh..it makes me wonder...they say that we can't pick on her cuz she's a woman and yet she leaves so many lies and pieces of corruption every where she goes!
Ally
I doubt San Franciscans, Portlanders or Seattleites can sell their way of life to outsiders, as most of us moved here to escape other mentalities in Places That Shall Not Be Named, in the first place!
Every single day, each of these places is thronged with young people to the point where it is difficult for all of them to find jobs and housing without difficulty. They are almost universally for Obama.
Hope resonates.
Outlying areas are filled with people who want to escape urban life and mentality. They don't want their children to go to urban public schools. They don't want them exposed to the type of diversity.
I came from South Dakota. It not only hasn't changed in 30 years but has gone backward. I no longer donate to my Alma Mater.
It's definitely way past time for Obama to get tougher on McCain. SOrry. But after watching Bush steal two elections to two people who are gentlemen and have integrity. It just makes me sick that McCain and Palin go dark and dirty and get rewarded for it.
Sorry. Not one more 'gentlemanly campaign' from our side when their side throws everything including lies at our side.
Sparrow
If these people fall in with another lying administration again there will be hell to pay. They will have buyer's regret once again.
Results 1 - 10 of about 299,000 for never underestimate the stupidity of the american public. (0.31 seconds)
Watching the Sara PaleIn (aka Moose-alini) bio on CNN. Did they just say that after her and Toad got married, ". . . almost 8 months later, they had their first child."
I'm no OB/GYN doctor and I don't play one on TV but Eight months . . . ???
slugbug,
People move to the country for many reasons. The least of those reasons is racism as far as I've witnessed.
Most people move out because of the cost of living. It is less out here. Another reason is that houses are more affordable in the boonies. And another reason is the quiet and fresh air! And trees...LOTS of trees! And places to plant a garden.
Maybe back in the 50-80's people were moving to subs for your reason. But in my experience, the late 80's and 90's and even early 2000's were because of the reasons I listed above.
Yes, I live in the boonies and we've got a racially diversified population here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrJKB22PITs
Obama steers clear of Palin as he gets tougher on McCain
The Democratic nominee takes a more aggressive stance against his Republican opponent, making his silence on the Alaska governor all the more conspicuous.
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Even as he mounts unceasing attacks on his Republican rival, Barack Obama is ignoring the person on the ticket who is the center of attention: Sarah Palin.
A few syllables are all Obama expends on the Republican vice presidential nominee. He'll mention "McCain-Palin" when he's on the trail; beyond that, her name is taboo.
This was the week Obama rolled out what the campaign billed as a more aggressive persona. And he is indeed denigrating John McCain at every turn. Given his new eagerness to slash at McCain's record, his silence on Palin's record is even more conspicuous.
Palin is the focus of a raging national debate over her qualifications for high office.
Twice at a town hall event in Dover on Friday, Obama fielded questions that invoked Palin.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-campaign14-2008sep14,0,6672184.story
____________________________________________________________________
I AGREE!!! This is what he SHOULD do. She is a distraction and that is what the Republicans wanted - a direct wage toward Gods, Guns and Gays and away from the poor record of Bush that they don't want to be associated with.
Talking about her legitimizes her. Others can examine her record. Her extreme lack of qualification tarnishes the judgment of the man who is the shadow of the former McCain myth. The presentation of them as a team of Mavericks is pathetic. That they must campaign together illustrates the weakness of them both.
Were Obama to go on the direct attack against her, he would be putting himself on her level. She can debate Biden later. She is not running for top of the ticket (unless there is a future where they "win" ie steal the election and something happens to McCain.) That scenario is unthinkable. If Obama cannot even use the word "lipstick" without being asked to apologize, you can see that Republicans would quickly make him a Black Muslim attacking the White Snow Queen.
I meant WEDGE not WAGE.
Sorry - short term memory failure here.
You're right: she's "snow queen".
More like the devil wears flannel.
abq I think it's the getting married that counts. Hence the decision for the pregnant daughter to marry the wacko she's been foolin with. He'll fit right into that family the way I see it.
So she preaches abstinence up until the sex act. Then when the act results in pregnancy, she says it's ok to have pre-marital sex as long as you get married. I am somehow confused on how this logic is realistic.
Like mother:like daughter. You decide.
slugbug said
I agree with you slugbug. Obama must not attack her, evil witch that she is. He must never stoop to her level. That's why they've made the choice they made. A slimy way of getting him to attack her and they can hold him up as a sexist black Muslin. It's up to all of us in the blogosphere to open eyes everywhere to Palin. That demo in Anchorage was excellent to see.
That truly horrific video clip of the slaughters she engages in and the photo where she celebrate the kill with her young daughter. Vile, gruesome images that will appeal to the party faithful. But they will not appeal to the majority of Americans. Encourage those demonstrators in Anchorage to make all their voices heard.
Get those images out there. Everywhere.
It's her logic, abq. Along with every other skewed and dreadful thing about her. I cannot believe that the majority of republicans would want her as their president. I just refuse to believe that.
A box of Obama Waffles is seen in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008. A vendor at a conservative political forum was selling boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap. The product was meant as political satire, said Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, two writers from Franklin, Tenn., who created the mix and sold it for $10 a box at the Values Voter Summit sponsored by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council.
(from Comcast mainpage)
The dolls - and now they can eat Obama! OMG Just when you think they can't come up with anything worse. This election is despicable in the extreme. Selling sexed-up dolls and the Change you can eat is making it all worse than childsplay.
And these idiots are making money out of this disgusting advertising and promotion.
Tiny Fey .. on Saturday Night Live tonight .. impersonating SWSNBN.. better dead ringer than me!!
Ma href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/13/1393986.aspx">McCain Campaign intentionally lies
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to the Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign's factual claims: "We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it."
Basing a campaign for high office on a strategy of deliberate lies is not an issue of tactics. It calls into question the character of the candidate and his fitness for office.
~~~~~
And imagine what this guy will do once he and his lobbyist own office.
So as Joy said on the View, "Which McCain will show up if he wins? The 'mav' or the McBush?
Frankly, it doesn't matter. The majority of people, even conservatives, believe he is more willing to start wars than Bush was.
And even McCain admitted on the view--"What? Politicians exaggerate. I'm here to win. And this is a tough election..."
In other words, he's going to say and do everything in his power to win. And when he gets there, he's going to keep pissing on the people who put him there. He feels we owe it to him.
The American presidential elections are always covered here in Australia, but none so regularly as this one. 2000 and 2004 were just news items every now and then. Athough The News Hour screens here the day after it airs on TV in the US. Today's Age editorial concentrates on your election and the introduction of Palin.
The Editorial: The Perils of a Pitbull
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/the-perils-of-a-pit-bull-on-the-oval-office-mat-20080912-4fkh.html
And the Sunday Age's national political columnist refers to Palin in his efforts to work out what's wrong with our federal opposition and our state governments here right now. Most of the article is about Australian politics but I did enjoy his observations of the lipstick nonsense.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/kev-rolls-by-unscathed-20080913-4fvl.html?page=2
And this from AP just in:
Obama tries to blunt Palin, by attacking McCain
September 14, 2008 - 12:50PM
Barack Obama seems finally to have hit on a strategy to fight the Sarah Palin phenomenon: sidestep the feisty Republican vice-presidential pick and turn full fire on an "out of touch" John McCain.
Palin's explosive debut left Obama's Democratic White House campaign flailing for an initial response as she trumped him as the freshest and most magnetic character in the history-making 2008 race.
Appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, the first African-American with a serious shot at the White House mused ruefully on how he had been upstaged.
"We didn't know much about her. Honestly, she's a skilled politician. There's no doubt that she has been a phenomenon," Obama said.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/obama-tries-to-blunt-palin-by-attacking-mccain-20080914-4g5l.html
Too much interpretation by the media. Associated Press does not even have a reporter travelling with Obama. Sometimes it is best to be under the radar of the press.
McCain had better not go on about "celebrity" any more. Obama is running against McCain. It is appropriate that he not be baited by a polarizing VP pick.
I waited for the video to appear on the internet where Tina Fey made an appearance as because I do not have television since 1991. Anyway, it turns out that Tina Fey fans long ago noticed the uncanny separated-at-birthness and at YouTube there are mind-boggling numbers of civilian-made grassroots SWWNBN videos and they are not of the complimentary type. "Polarizing" is the operative term. “sarah palin” video results 1 - 20 of about 19,800
UPDATE: Tina Fey did a good "Fargo" accent, which is requisite for SWSNBN, but the Hillary wasn't too good. I would rather substitute this video - the parallel with the Beauty Pageant who is geography-ignorant is spot on!
Obama Cancels Saturday Night Live Appearance Because of Ike - just as well - home in Chicago with the family & can get some sleep.
slugbug
While sparrow is correct in that open spaces and cleaner environment are the draw for the suburbs today, it is also true that many whites (and white-wannabe nonwhites, like most upper-class Asians) move to the suburbs to get away from the corrupting influence of the blacks and the Latinos.
The whole goal, in particular for the Asians, is to get to the city with the best public school system - without having to pay the correspondingly higher property taxes.
I grew up 20 miles NE of Los Angeles, in Arcadia, a very Republican/Asian town and home of the Santa Anita Racetrack. The horse racing revenue pays for the schools - so property taxes are low - yet the schools are good enough to send dozens of kids to Ivy League every year. Such is the draw of Arcadia to Asians that most people in Taiwan supposedly know it on a first-name basis.
slugbug
Thanks for the Tina Fey pictures. She is certainly hotter than the Pitbull with Lipstick - especially in her pinstripe Ally McLesbian miniskirt suit.
I leave in 20 hours or so for Seoul.
I will take this message to the people of Korea:
Two Bushie's with their cronyism
Sarah Palin--a heartbeat away--governs just like Bush---tpm
Truly Must-Read
I've been meaning for a while to write a post explaining just why Trooper-Gate matters -- a lot. And I will. But for now read this piece just out from the Times on Palin's governing style. In a different way it tells the same story -- a small-minded person who populates her administration with cronies and grade-school friends, fires those who dare to criticize her and uses the power of her office to pursue personal vendettas. In other words, someone in the habit of abusing official power who should not be let within a mile of being president.
Late Update: The Post, meanwhile, has a story about Palin's tenure as mayor. Gist: The position has limited responsibilities; she hired a city administrator to take over a lot of those; and her tenure was highly divisive. And the same pattern of hiring cronies.
And an observation from Al Jazeera English:
US election diary: Stupid season
By Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's senior Washington correspondent
Has the Republican campaign stuck strictly to the facts this week? [AFP]
In the time honoured tradition of presidential campaigns, both John McCain and Barack Obama proclaimed early on that their efforts to convince voters to give them the keys to the white house would be all about real, nitty-gritty issues, like the economy, the wars the US is fighting, and how to remedy the failed healthcare system.
And, in an equally time-honoured tradition, both campaigns have tossed the issues aside to get into truly idiotic political territory, all about pigs, lipstick, and Rubiks cubes.
First came the McCain camp's feigned high indignation over Obama's comment that saying the McCain economic plan was new was like "putting lipstick on a pig."
McCain operatives immediately screamed that Obama had made a nasty, sexist insult directed at Sarah Palin, because Palin joked in her Republican convention speech that the difference between 'hockey moms' like herself and pitbulls (not a bull, actually, but a kind of nasty attack dog) was 'lipstick'.
In-depth coverage of the US presidential electionThe mainstream news media immediately bought into this manufactured controversy, and began showing video snippets of McCain and Dick Cheney, the vice-president, using the same silly phrase in the past.
They closely analysed whether Obama meant that Palin herself was the 'pig' in the context of the remark, or whether he meant (as he obviously did) that the 'pig' in question was McCain’s economic plan.
continued: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/09/200891312016615912.html
This woman doesn't travel with Obama but she makes sense and gives me hope.
What Palin says about McCain
By Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst, in Washington
If selecting a running mate is a real test of a presidential candidate's judgment, then John McCain's decision to name Sarah Palin as his choice reveals a poor sense of astuteness and serves to underline his desperate political expediency.
Beyond the much taunted image of a maverick, his critics argue McCain's decision has once again exposed his opportunistic tendencies.
They draw an unflattering profile of a spoiled son of a Navy admiral who misused the good name of his political guru and predecessor in the Senate, the late Barry Goldwater, and who callously left his first wife and children to marry into a $100 million fortune.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/imperium/2008/09/2008917492560695.html
Palin--a real reformer--and so truthful too. Wow! Less than 2 years of government and she knows the proper time and place to lie. That makes her a pathological liar.
More Bush secrecy and lies from Ms. Sarah.
alin and McCain are exactly like Bush. He does the same thing too.
Can't wait to see those two non-reformers pretend to be reformers of their own party while they still employ the exact tactics that Bush, CHeney, and ROve, and the Republican Party employs.
But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents "haters" — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.
Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.
Once elected Palin hired friends and lashed foes
~~~
From:Frank Rich: McCain Transitional Front Man for Palin Presidency
Ahhh...McCain=McBush which is why Palin is Cheney to McCain. I get it now. She will be the driving force to use her vindictiveness, as has been reported by local Wasilla residents, and she will use the cloak of religiosism to abuse her office and take advantage of those who are willing to help her get elected.
Palin=Cheney.
Except...will Palin be Cheney to Rove or to who the neoCons?
Is this what people who think she's going to be a reformer will say too?
I wonder what Scotty McClelland would say about her particularly well-know brand of politics coming to DC. I seem to remember another so called religious, Christian, compassionate conservative who claimed he would reform DC and make ethics a part of government again.
This guy and his party is still sitting there abusing every power they can. They're vindictively getting people fired from their job and placing them on the no-fly list. They're still rewarding lobbyists and cronies.
And Sarah Palin is exactly like them and even making the same promises. And McCain is too--although many, even Republicans, are questioning if he has Alzheimers.
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