the REAL john mccain

happy halloween! wanna see something really scary? it's senator mccain, turning himself into a walking, talking contradiction over the years about some fairly major issues. like those weapons of mass destruction. and the war in iraq. and the conditions there.

oy.




talk about edutainment -- this is an interesting fact check that barely scratches the surface about the things senator mccain said and done. he flip flops so much about such basic things that it makes him look really old and jaundiced and out of it, in this vague, spacey somebody-tell-me-what's-going-on kind of way.

ew.

there's going to be a lot of voter fraud on november 4th. by any means necessary, vote -- and if your state allows it, vote early.

the barack obama 30 minute infomercial

if you missed it (like i did), you can watch it here in four parts.

part one




part two




part three




part four

McHate

finally, someone in the media has openly denounced mccain's fear mongering and the hate that it has nurtured for the past few months. in this video clip, keith olberman sets them straight. neither senator mccain nor gov. palin have ever reprimanded these hostile crowds. in fact, they defend them vigorously and are flat-out unapologetic. what decent republican wouldn't want to distance themselves from this?

i find it interesting that these flare ups aren't necessarily happening in the south, a place that somehow contains all of the racism in the country as well as our collective racist history, as far as most americans are concerned. that would be convenient if it were true but of course, it's not. no one is absolved. every state carries its fair share of bile on this topic -- especially in the north -- and none of them are dealing with any of it. the incidents that keith olberman refers to in the video above aren't happening deep in the heart of dixie -- they're happening in pennsylvania and ohio. the last time i checked, both of those states were above the mason-dixon line. but not really.

will everyone return to their politically correct behavior after the election, so everything can get back to normal? or will anything ever really be normal again, now that we all know that so much venom is festering just beneath the surface in the american serfdom against people of color? truth be told, there has never been any such thing as "back to normal" for so many of us. we have always known that the hate was there. we see it and we live through it in the most ordinary mundane moments of our everyday lives.

do you really think that this recession is affecting anyone in the ghetto? the poor, the underclass? do you think their lives have changed because the economy is tanking?

my favorite quote from this clip: senator mccain! your supporters at your events are calling obama a terrorist and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. and yet you keep bringing back these same rabid right wing nuts to deliberately stir these crowds into frenzies and then you take offense when somebody who remembers the violence of our political past calls you on it. you, sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire in a crowded theater. there are some things to respect and honor about you senator mccain but on this, you are not only a fraud, sir, but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to violence.

well said.

five items of interest

1. plot to assassinate obama and "shoot or decapitate 102 black people" disrupted -- interesting tidbit: these two neo-nazi skinheads met a month ago online. nevermind what the media is bothering to tell us. there are probably quite a few assassination attempts against obama that we don't know about. remember what happened in denver in august? and who knows if the government is in on it or not?
   
2. barack obama "will be assassinated within months" if he wins the presidency -- anyone that seriously doubts as to whether or not an attempt will be made on senator obama's life if he wins doesn't live in the same america that i do.
3. obama mask listed as terrorist costume on amazon.com -- unbelievable! when are "good americans" going to let go of the idea that this man is a terrorist simply because of his middle name?
4. secret service order dallas police to stop screening for weapons at obama rally -- is anyone wondering why they did that, why the media virtually ignored it, and why no one has called them out on the rug for it?
5. obama camp worried about surprise, complacency - not mccain -- ...and they're right. a high percentage of people in this country don't vote. with record turnouts for early voters, voting booths have already proven themselves to be problematic. if people are standing in line for as long as 2 or 3 hours and the machines are breaking down already, what's going to happen on november 4th?
   

real americans

this footage was taken after a mccain/palin rally in strongsville, ohio.



and so was this footage.

"wassup!" the 2008 version

remember the infamous "wassup?!" budweiser commercial from a few years ago that caused such a sensation? here's the updated version. enjoy.

fashion or style?

here's the obamas on access hollywood discussing how they do it on a budget. the girls are adorable, aren't they. my favorite quote? michelle obama: this dress i'm wearing cost $30.

here's the question of the day: what's the difference between fashion and style?

while the GOP has blown over $150,000 of taxpayer's donations on clothing for gov. palin and her family to make them appear fashionable (they're millionaires! why couldn't they buy their own clothes?), senator obama and his wife michelle are international style icons -- on a budget. it has been roundly documented that whatever mrs. obama wears on camera is tracked down to its retail location and simply blows off the racks nationwide. and how cool that donatella versace has dedicated an entire line to "the type of man that senator obama represents -- a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power."

i'm wondering: where's the fashion designer that's inspired by anything related to gov. palin or senator mccain -- or cindy mccain and her six-figure glitzy gilded get ups?

why can't working class blue collar republicans see how inconsistent their party's message is? they're throwing other people's money up in the air like it's green confetti. whee!

another must-read article on senator mccain

as if that article about senator mccain in rolling stone weren't enough, slate comes up with this is not a test written by fred kaplan, a blistering analysis of exactly what he was doing on that aircraft carrier in 1962. he keeps going on and on about how being a carrier pilot means that he'd know what to do in a moment of crisis in the folksy speeches he makes. i thought military personnel of his rank did what they were told to do. it's high time somebody checked the facts on this.

here's my favorite quote that deconstructs the issue quite nicely:

I mean no disrespect for carrier pilots, especially those poised for combat. The job requires a special sort of skill, nerve, and bravery that few of us have ever faced. (Certainly I never have.) But it is not at all clear how this experience tested McCain—or any of the other pilots on the four aircraft carriers off the coast of Cuba—for the job of making strategic decisions in a crisis, any more than working an assembly line tests someone to be president of a major manufacturing corporation.

As a 26-year-old Navy lieutenant in October 1962, John McCain was prepared to follow orders, fly his plane along a predetermined path to a preselected target, drop his preloaded bombs, and fly back. Again, this is not to be minimized. But neither does it constitute being "tested" to be—either then or 46 years later—the president of the United States.

i think that kind of sums it up.

November 4 Prophesy

hard to believe, but true: there seems to be a real movement toward positive change in this country, thanks to senator obama's dynamic, inclusive approach in his campaign. putting an end to what's begun at this point would be like trying to stop a wave from hitting the beach. i think the republicans know that this election could be won by a fraction of a percentage point -- and with faulty voting machines, voter fraud, disenfranchisement by typo, and the many who will simply stay home on november 4, senator mccain could win the election.

it's astonishing to think of it, and yet it's still true: there has never been a moment in this country when absolutely every single adult voted for their candidate of choice. american history is rife with one violent, bloody upheaval after another as everyone struggled for the right to vote and own land -- something that white men in this country have always been able to do, unless they were indentured servants. remember: over 122.2 million americans voted in 2004, the highest voter turnout since 1968 -- but it was only 60% of eligible voters. what about the remaining 40%? was their non-vote an act of protest?

zorland at the daily kos published a detailed guide that explains how to vote early, state by state. i've put in for an absentee voting ballot and if it doesn't arrive by this weekend, i'm going to cast my vote next week. in the swing states, people are turning out early in droves. some are predicting a record turnout at the polls.

what would happen if everyone voted? and can we really be the america we'd like to think that we are until they do?

oh, sarah...

this is an interesting clip from the rachel maddow show that examines what gov. sarah palin said during the vice presidential debate a few weeks ago -- the misquotes, the misconstrued facts, and everything inbetween.

this video piqued my interest because of a book that i'm reading right now called the dumbest generation: how the digital age stupifies young americans and jeopardizes our future -- or the alternate title, don't trust anyone under 30. on a train ride to pennsylvania last weekend with my friend, i overheard someone talking about the book. what they said was so interesting, i dropped what i was reading and headed to the nearest bookstore to find it. the author, who teaches english at emory university in my hometown of ATL, asserts that the intellectual future of this country is dying because young people -- the 18 to 24 set -- aren't reading books. actually, they have a great deal of contempt for books and learning in general. he proves it, with a smorgasbord of statistics, surveys, polls and the like.

i'm somewhere in the middle of the book and i'm starting to believe that he's right.

according to his statistics, young people don't know history. they can't see things in historical context. they are so cocooned in facebook, myspace, iPhone and whatever tweaks them at the moment that they don't know who their local politicans are. they don't understand the importance of basic civics. there is a genuine disconnect from the world and what's happening in it that's stultifying. basically, they live in their own world. instead of studying hard and taking the tests, they take tests to figure out how to take the tests.

when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. why should they be able to name 3 artists from the 18th century? whatever information they need can be googled. why should they have to know that little rhyme "i before e except after c"? whatever word is in question can be spell checked. do you really need to know that stuff to land a great job and make a lot of money or to have any degree of rank amongst your peers? or be famous? or rich beyond your wildest dreams? or be the president of the united states of america?

it's kind of like that kid in english class back in the day when i was in middle school that read the cliff notes version of wuthering heights and/or saw the movie and then wrote a paper about it. and got an A. i actually read the book and got an A, too. but i really loved to read. it wasn't a chore for me. i always whipped through whatever i was given at school, kept the school librarian pretty busy, and maintained a personal library at home. what happened to me? my mother taught me how to read when i was 3 years old.

and therein lies the rub.

it's not that everyone under 30 isn't intelligent or ambitious. it's just that they aren't big on ingesting and retaining general knowledge.

that's when i started to think about gov. sarah palin -- the colleges that she attended, the fact that she never had a passport before she became the vice presidential nominee, how painfully inarticulate she is, how little she knows about world history or even american history, how little she knows about global politics, how she refuses to be interviewed because she doesn't want to be pummeled with "gotcha" questions from the media elite -- i began to see a correlation. i know she's over 30, but let's face it: she's a bright shining example of american anti-intellectualism. she is intellectually where most of the college-educated individuals of this country will be in short order unless something changes, and soon.

let's talk about those "gotcha" questions, for example.

a phd student from philly asked gov. palin a question about "the pakistan situation" and the answer she gave was in total contradiction to senator mccain and in line with senator obama. what a massively huge gaffe that was -- and ever since, the mccain/palin ticket has pulled the plug on such free-form q & a forums, and has stuck to what gov. palin does best: put her best most folksy-est face forward, misquote historical figures and regurgitate well-rehearsed republican talking points over and over again. the thing is, life isn't rehearsed -- and neither is political strategy. answering questions spontaneously shows us how gov. palin would deal with issues that inevitably will occur spontaneously.

i have a question: if senator mccain is elected and dies in office (because he's pretty old and he's pretty sick), will gov. palin's handlers run the country?

but i digress.

haven't we heard all of this "young people are stupid" stuff before? maybe i'm saying that because i've had to hear it a lot. my 92 year old daddy thinks that everyone is an idiot. i can see him now, sitting at the end of the kitchen table, waving his hand at one of us, at the television, at the world and going on and on, saying stuff like, "you kids don't know anything." and he's right. the problem with then and now is that kids today have access to absolutely everything -- and there are some people who think that they aren't necessarily doing anything with it. that may or may be true. but when i see gov. palin waffling over simple basic questions about the policies in her own party -- she seriously had no idea what the bush doctrine was, people! come on! the bush doctrine! how can any thinking republican trust a republican politician that doesn't know what that is!-- i'm inclined to agree.

straight talk, indeed

have you seen this?

in the video above from a palin rally in ohio on 10/12, casey kauffman reports for the english language version of the arabic language news network al jazeera -- the only independent news station in the middle east -- and displays a cavalcade of white, (lower) middle-class, mostly middle-aged and older, freaked out "good amerians" saying flat-out racist garbage about senator obama and his wife. it should be noted that this happened two days after senator mccain asked that everyone be more respectful during these gatherings -- and yet, it's his running mate that's fanning these flames, saying absolutely nothing to dissuade the crowd from yelling such incindiary things as "terrorist" and "off with his head" whenever senator obama's name is mentioned.

that's right: this claptrap gets broadcast worldwide. the whole world really is watching -- except of course, america. interestingly enough, no major cable news outlet and no major broadcast network's news program showed any of this. that's especially infuriating because in order for us to be the country that we think we are, we need to look at ourselves honestly and make changes. all of this open, up front talk is sparking some harsh realizations.

there's a reason why no media outlet will not address the gross inaccuracies that the mccain/palin campaign has made against senator obama --the "no, he's not a muslim and what if he were?" statement by colin powell said it best -- and all the fearmongering that goes with it. there's a reason why they speak at length about domestic terrorism and bill ayers and somehow never mention the Klu Klux Klan -- defined as this country's first domestic terrorist group -- the politicians that have been (and still are) active members in that organization, or how the federal government has never made a move to dismantle it. there's a reason why everyone is ignoring senator mccain's record on rev. dr. martin luther king, jr. day. there's a reason why the media won't talk at length about how high school graduate todd palin, gov. sarah palin's husband, was a member of the alaska independence party -- a group that wants to secede from "the lower 48".

i suppose they think that the racism will go away when the election is over, and all of it will be a non-issue eventually because we will all have moved on to the next. but if senator obama actually gets elected, this kind of outrage from "good americans" may be a taste of what's to come. for me, all of the seething fury and racism and bigotry that this campaign has erupted will continue to flare up on foreign news outlets as it festers right beneath the surface here at home -- until we talk about the things that no one wants to mention.

colin powell endorses senator obama

...and now an important message from former president ronald reagan

it came from california

senator mccain has said that in this political season, he has had to endure the same degree of vitriol as senator obama. after perusing what the republicans have said and done against senator obama, i'm inclined to disagree.

here's a good example of what i mean.

a women's group in california called chaffey community republican women federated put this in their october newsletter. it said that if senator obama is elected, his image would be on food stamps instead of actual money like other presidents. apparently, this is what it would look like.

the caption for this image? "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on????? Food Stamps, what else!"

who's responsible for this? mrs. donna fedele, the president of the group.

mrs. fedele says she created this in response to obama's statement that as an african-american, he "doesn't look like the other presidents on the dollar bills." she was offended at the way he made race an issue -- "playing the race card," as it were. she thought this illustration would point out the outrageousness of his statement.

i don't understand what was so outrageous about what he said. he simply pointed out the truth. maybe she and other republicans were upset because he was right.

if she had an issue with the facts or the way that he stated them, then she needed to -- as they say in california -- own her discomfort and seek the help of a licensed therapist to get to the root of why she finds an intelligent, educated black man who simply states the obvious to be such a patently offensive thing.

what did she think this would accomplish? what was she trying to prove? was she cracking a joke?

where did she get this image, anyway? did she take an afternoon out of her busy racist day to photoshop it together herself? oh, no. according to mrs. fedele, it was emailed to her "in a number of chain emails." she refuses to name the source. she also refuses to discuss this any further.

isn't it a federal offense to use the u.s. postal service to send things like this?

she's already given what she calls an apology but in the next breath, she says she didn't see what was so racist about it in the first place, so clearly she's not sorry at all. saying "i apologize if i offended anyone..." is a rubbery, backhanded way to absolve yourself and not flat out admit that you were wrong. let's face it: "if" is a funny word. it's conditional. and a real apology shouldn't be.

wouldn't it be great if senator mccain publicly denounced this? wouldn't it be great if he publicly denounced any of the negativity surrounding his campaign? all those "good americans" screaming "off with his head" and "kill him" and "terrorist" whenever senator obama's name was mentioned at the rallies. we could start there.

here's my favorite quote: "I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else." i think KFC and Kool Aid should sue her organization into oblivion for reproducing their logo and their images and thus damaging their brand and their reputation by connecting them to this hot mess.

she says she's not racist because she supported african american republican alan keyes during his presidential bid, and -- here's the kicker -- because she's a jew. that's right: jews aren't racist! she's actually hiding behind the star of david.

oy gevalt.

people think that california is an open, liberal place but don't let the sunshine, the fake titties, the old hippies -- and their fantastic marketing campaign -- fool you. it's more racist and bigoted and segregated and conservative than anything the south has to offer. according to the southern poverty law center, california has more hate groups than any other state -- 80 at last count. and get this: protesters with california's radical, immigrant-bashing organization called save our state have joined forces with neo-nazis. so anyone that's been paying attention shouldn't be surprised that something like this would come from the west coast.

even walt disney was a massive ginormously huge racist and bigot. and nothing epitomizes california like disneyland.

it's this kind of behavior that keeps many conservative people of color from joining the republican party. who would want to align themselves with any organization that would do something this twisted? this is domestic terrorism, plain and simple -- straight out of any KKK playbook, if they had one.

if you'd like to tell her what you think of that image and what she did, be my guest.

Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated
P.O. Box 974
Upland, CA 91785
Diane Fedele (President) diane1354@mindspring.com or diane1354@verizon.net

Phone: (909) 981-0493
Fax: (909) 982-6880
Meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 7pm
Magic Lamp Inn, Rancho Cucamonga

joe the plumber redux -- what they probably won't tell you

yes -- in the video above, olberman began to deconstruct the "joe the plumber" myth so thoroughly, i cringed when i watched it. nice work -- but he really didn't go far enough.

here's my top ten factoids that are flying around all over the place about joe the plumber in no particular order.

1. joe the plumber is not a plumber. he's a contractor -- and he's working as a plumber illegally. this guy doesn't even have a plumber's license! he says he works for a. w. newell corporation, a small company that does residential work and he doesn't need one because he works for someone else that's licensed. but the fact of the matter is that under ohio building regulations, he must maintain his own license to do plumbing work. according to tom joseph, business manager for the local 50 of the united association of plumbers, steamfitters and service mechanics, joe the plumber has obtained absolutely no training or apprenticeship of any kind anywhere in the usa. he's an insult to real plumbers everywhere. and yes, that plumber's union has already endorsed senator obama for president. why? because according to them, he's worked hard to help workers for his entire political career.
   
2. joe the plumber's real name isn't joe. it's sam -- samuel joseph wurtzelbacher, to be exact. not exactly john jacob jingleheimer schmidt. but close.
3. it's not true: joe the plumber is NOT related to robert wurtzelbacher of milford, ohio -- son-in-law of charles keating jr and former vice president of american continental, the parent company of the infamous lincoln savings and loan. you remember the savings and loan scandal of the 80s and 90s, don't you? the one that almost derailed senator mccain's political career? you should -- because you, the taxpayer, picked up the tab for a whopping $124 billion. for his part in the scandal, robert wurtzelbacher spent 40 months in prison. name association is an ugly thing. senator obama could have zinged him last night by discussing this and bringing up the keating five -- but he was too focused on the issues. now that senator mccain and consequently the press made joe the plumber such a focal point, he doesn't have to. what a massively huge mistake on mccain's part. it's almost as big as his black gaffe. as it turns out, wurtzelbacher is a common name in ohio. (go figure.) the press will have a field day with this, by name association alone. or will they?
   
4. joe's voter registration was (and may still be) in question because he's registered under a misspelled name. that alone is enough to disqualify him from voting in florida, ohio or wisconsin. all of those misspelled names will get purged. that's right -- it's disenfranchisement by typo. if enough voters get booted out of the system, it could throw the election. sound familiar?
   
5. they're saying that joe is a republican plant. (he's definitely a republican tool.) if that's true, it would explain why senator mccain chose to make him the focal point of the debate, instead of discussing the issues. smart move, really -- mccain doesn't do well off script. if this isn't true, then answer me this: how did every and any media outlet know how to reach him so quickly after his initial impromptu chat on the street with senator obama? if he had no idea that he would be mentioned during the debate, then why was a newspaper with him while it was happening? why was he already scheduled for the morning talk show press junket before the debate ended? why was right wing radio talking about him before the debate?
   
6. joe the plumber is not an undecided voter, as was previously reported. he told katie couric that he "wasn't swayed" by the debate and pretty much knew who would get his vote.
7. he probably said that because (insert gomer pyle here) surprise, surprise, surprise! he's a registered republican. he even voted in the primaries!
8. que that gomer pyle send-up again, please: none of us enjoy playing taxes but joe goes one step further and doesn't pay his, period. he's had a tax lien placed against his house since january 2007 -- $1,182.96 to be exact, according to the lucas county (OH) court of common pleas. how ironic that he's so concerned about obama's tax plan, and yet he hasn't paid his own income taxes. ew.
   
9. what's up with the sammy davis, jr tap dancing reference about senator obama? joe asked him a question and was given a straight answer. too bad joe wasn't listening.
   
10. the mccain/palin camp says that they didn't give joe a heads-up before his morning press junket because they never contacted him. the quote is: "We tried to call him during the debate, but his phone was busy," said matt mcdonald. "We're not going to put him through media training." it may be true that they didn't contact him beforehand -- but if that's true, then what were they doing with his phone number? and why did they attempt to call him during the debate?
11. here's an extra one, and it's a goodie. joe the plumber has only lived in two other places: arizona (he left a trail of court records in mesa, believe it or not) and alaska (for 4 years -- his ex-wife is alaskan). makes you wonder, doesn't it.
    

i have a question: does anyone in senator mccain's camp know how to use google?

they could have done a simple internet background search on joe the plumber before they thrust him into the glare of the national and international spotlight and sidestepped what could easily become a "keating five scandal" blitzkrieg on every media outlet in short order. google him! that's what everyone else did -- from the associated press to small-town librarians everywhere -- to find out whatever they wanted on this guy. heck. that's what i did.

this was a calculated move to appeal to white working class folk. and it is backfiring.

if they really wanted to find someone who was "one of the people" to illustrate the flaws in senator obama's tax plan, all they had to do was reach out and touch someone, anyone. instead, they stitched together a bunch of blue collar white man stereotypes, stuffed him full of republican talking points and shoved him down our collective throats.

here's the kicker: joe says he's infuriated by obama's tax plan. as it turns out, he only made $40K in 2006 -- and that plumbing business he wants to buy only made $100K. what's unfortunate is that he is so brainwashed by soundbites and rhetoric that he can't see that obama's tax plan would benefit him more than mccain's plan.

talk about out of touch. i think the mccain/palin ticket just joined twitter a few weeks ago...

joe the plumber

meet joe wurtzelbacher, or "joe the plumber" as he was referred to ad nauseum in last night's debate. this video clip is the actual conversation that occured with senator obama and joe earlier this week, when the senator's campaign went into the streets of toledo, ohio and had a chat about taxes and the plumbing business he'd like to buy.

after being mentioned 23 times (!!!) in last night's debate, mr. wurtzelbacher is all over the morning news today. my question is: why is this man easier to find and interview than gov. sarah palin?

let's look at mr. wurtzelbacher on the black hand side and talk about a few things that i'm fairly convinced no morning interviewer will mention.

first of all, he already owns four companies in cincinnati, ohio -- including construction, painting, and one for septic tank cleaning/repair. one of them employs less than 5 people and makes something in the neighborhood of $500K. that doesn't sound very middle class to me.

and another thing: if joe is going to buy a business in this economic climate, he'd better have excellent credit and quite a bit of capital on hand. he says that plumbing business has a net revenue of over $250K. doesn't that mean that he's supposed to come up with six times that much to make that point of purchase? yikes! that's $1.5 million bucks! that doesn't sound very middle class to me, either.

secondly, there is strong evidence that joe the plumber is a republican plant with ties to -- believe it or not! -- the keating five, another scandal linked to senator mccain that republicans don't want to mention.

how bizarre: could it be that mr. robert wurtzelbacher of cincinnati, ohio -- senior vice president of the lincoln savings and loan corporation's parent company and married to elizabeth keating, daughter of charles h. keating jr -- is indeed his father? stranger things have happened.

who knows? maybe wurtzelbacher is a really common name in ohio. (heh.)

thirdly -- this is the strange thing: when you really look at the details of each senator's tax plan, what senator obama is proposing -- tax the rich a lot, with less taxes for the middle class and the poor to pay -- would benefit joe the plumber more so than anything that mccain is putting on the table -- tax the poor a little, tax the rich a little, and watch the deficit blow up. unless, of course, joe the plumber is loaded. and judging by the numbers he'll need to crunch to buy that plumbing business, he probably is.

what's screwy is that mr. wurtzelbacher -- whose involvement may have swayed this election most securely in one direction or the other -- may not be registered to vote. that would have been okay before october 6 because for a week, ohio allowed voters to register and absentee vote on the same day. shockingly, republicans tried to block this. it didn't work.

the irony in all this is that the united association of journeymen and apprentices of the plumbing and pipe industry of the united states and canada endorsed senator obama in january, 2008. they are the first international union to endorse senator obama as its candidate. plumbers! who knew?

here's my favorite moment from the debate: senator obama looks straight into the camera and tells joe that he would have a ZERO fine because he intends to exempt small businesses. note senator mccain's reaction. this shouldn't have been the first time he or joe have heard this information, especially when it was discussed in the second debate.

colin powell rocks out!

how amazing is this? i love how impassioned he is in these shots...

this is president bush the younger's 71 year old former secretary of state colin powell at the royal albert hall last night, in an impromptu dance/performance with a nigerian hip-hop group called olu maintain. he was there to speak as a part of THISDAY's 3rd annual africa rising festival, a celebration of african style, fashion and culture. apparently after powell left the podium, he was so inspired by the music that he joined in to sing and do a version of the nigerian dance yahoozee.

this is a side of colin powell i never imagined i'd ever see. he may be a republican and a conservative but apparently, he is truly blacker than black -- and proud of it. that gives me a lot of hope.

what's so exciting about this?

this festival is all about pan-african unity, involving models and musicians and leaders and activists from the entire black diaspora -- from alek wek and naomi campbell to lionel ritchie and beyonce, from king sunny ade to busta rhymes and then some. this is the first year that the festival has gone international. they were actually stateside, in DC! anything that brings all of us together to celebrate our accomplishments, that's focusing on "sustainable solutions" instead of problems, and that raises awareness of the good things that africa -- and africans everywhere -- are bringing to the table is a wonderful thing.

and here we stand as americans, on the brink of electing the first african-american to the presidency. the whole world is watching. it's so important that every eligible voter show up and do their civic duty on november 4th. perhaps it's true that africa is about to experience a renaissance. all africans, worldwide.

it's interesting to note that olu maintain's guitar-playing father is a medical doctor with the nigerian army and that olu studied accounting at the polytechnic in ibadan and has his own label, reloaded records.

here's a part of what mr. powell told the audience:

"I stand before you tonight as an African American.

Many people have said to me -- you became Secretary of State of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African American or that you are black, and I say yes, so that we can remind our children.

It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn't just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains.

A lot of wrongs have been done to the continent of Africa by Western powers faced with an iron curtain and a bamboo curtain. These barriers have now fallen and the world is being driven now by new financial forces.

Asia is expanding, it created jobs for people, and Eastern Europeans are doing the same, in my continent - in Latin America, it's happening also. It's now Africa's turn.'"

here she is...

yes, that's right. this is gayle quinnell in the video below -- the 75 year old grandma from shakopee, minnesota that got the chance to ask senator mccain a question a few days ago during a rally  in lakeville, mn. she thinks obama is an arab and a muslim and that he "pals around with terrorists" -- in spite of the fact that mccain told her that this isn't true and the journalists that interviewed her afterwards specifically said that obama is a christian.

here's my favorite passage:

dana bash of CNN: "his dad was muslim. barack obama has never been a muslim."

gayle quinnell: "yeah...but he's still got muslim in him. so that's still part of it."

the fact is that both of his parents were athiests and his father didn't take part in raising him. actually, obama only saw him a few times in his life.  none of that is conjecture on my part. those are facts that have already been verified many times over. but what does gayle care?

if that kind of idiocy doesn't blow your hair back, maybe this will: grandma quinnell spends her spare time at kinkos, xeroxing letters chok full of Information That Obama Doesn't Want You To Know and passing them out.  do people read these letters and believe what they say?  she says they do.  

why would any intelligent person believe any information that's unsubstantiated?  

i've said it before and i'll say it again: a lot of this country's problems would be fixed if everyone had a basic liberal arts education and if they would stop eating deep fried garbage.  a decent education and proper nutrition, folks. seriously.  who in their right mind is going to watch this video and not think that we really need to raise the bar?

i know everyone is giving senator mccain a special pat on the back and a modicum of nonpartisan respect because he told this lady that she was wrong about what she believes  -- and in so doing, his supporters believe that he has effectively silenced everyone who believes the things that she does.  the problem is that all of the hate and fear and racism that he and palin have been spewing ad nauseum has caused a LOT of damage.  who's to say that some "good american" redneck won't pop up at some rally and commit a violent senseless act because he believed what he was told at a mccain/palin rally, just as grandma quinnell does?

think about it: this woman is only 3 years older than senator mccain. now, that's scary.

no, that's not scary.  this is scary: at gov. palin's rally in johnstown ohio the next day, a "good american" brandishing a curious george monkey with a big obama sticker on it gets up close and personal with the camera. 

could someone please identify this man, so the world can call him out for his racist behavior? someone out there knows exactly who he is.

here's what happened when he got inside the rally -- and all of a sudden, he realized that the cameras were on him and he was on national television. (heh.)

that's right. he gave the monkey to the kid.

oh, boy. this election is really bringing out the best of middle america, isn't it.  God bless us, everyone.

home-grown terrorists

okay. i'm going to say it.

i don't understand how anyone in this country can go on about the threat of domestic terrorism and how wrong it is and not make any mention whatsoever of the klu klux klan -- defined by any real dictionary as a domestic terrorist organization -- and the way that they tortured, lynched, raped, murdered, bombed, assassinated and massacred african-americans and native americans and asian americans and many others for hundreds of years with scant interference from the state or federal government. as a matter of fact, the KKK is still very much alive and well, and they're still at it. so many in their ranks are guilty as sin itself, and they're completely and utterly free -- and in some communities, they are celebrated heroes. evidently, the federal government doesn't care about justice for the crimes committed against african americans.

that's right, mrs. carolyn bryant -- the accuser that got emmett till killed -- i'm talking to you. everybody knows where you live and that your children are protecting you at gunpoint. why do you suppose the federal/state/local officials won't come and get you and put you in prison where you belong? you make me sick. but i digress...

what about congressmen who are members of the klu klux klan or who are klan sympathizers? if it's true that "once a terrorist, always a terrorist" rule applies to ayers, does it also apply to membership with the KKK?  because if it does, there are millions of americans out there who are palling around with terrorists and who probably don't even know it.

here's a bright shining example of what i mean: robert byrd, a senior congressman from west virginia and a democrat, joined the KKK at the age of 24 and was unanimously elected exalted cyclops and kleagle (recruiter). he remained active in the klan for years and was proud to be counted amongst its ranks.  (see? i didn't even have to mention racist/segregationist/bigoted ol' strom, or the lovely daughter that came along after he raped the family's black maid.)

of course senator byrd is very sorry about his involvement with the KKK now. he's all set to apologize for it for the rest of his life -- because according to him, he'll never be able to apologize enough. here's what he had to say then about african-americans in the military in a 1945 letter to mississippi senator theodore bilbo:

"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

charming.

if obama is guilty of crossing paths with ayers -- because a crossing of paths is all their relationship has amounted to, really -- is it so farfetched to accuse politicians of associating with terrorists by mingling and socializing with the klan members in their midst?

and hey -- what about the secessionists? we all know about the racist militia groups and how they've grown exponentially in recent months. what about the fact that todd "the first dude" palin was a member of the alaskan independence party until as recently as 2002? yes, they're the ones that were seriously thinking about breaking away from the US and joining canada a few years ago. how patriotic is that?

but the fact that gov. palin refuses to see the national "home grown" terrorists in her midst -- even when she's probably married to one of them (and is one, actually) -- isn't the the kicker.

the kicker is that she would "read" an article in the new york times about obama and ayers (you and i both know one of her minions signed off on that one -- she wouldn't touch the times with someone else's hand), cherry pick her way through the facts, twist all of it into a hot steaming pile of jingoistic rhetoric and feed those half-truths to a seething crowd of republicans who are so full of fear that they are foaming-at-the-mouth ready to accept any reason to take a stand against obama. even if it's an outright lie.

the truth is, obama doesn't pal around with ayers -- or any other terrorist. they haven't spoken to each other since 2003. and what about the other politicians -- both democrat and republican, by the way -- that have worked with ayers over the years? why isn't anyone mentioning any of them?

so many in the republican party seem convinced that he's an arab, a terrorist, and that he's muslim -- when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. with every gathering, they are becoming increasingly agitated and violent. and racist. senator john lewis was right when he compared senator mccain to george wallace and the birmingham church bombers. he and palin are inciting a riot. God only knows which "good american" will take it upon themselves to show their patriotism with an act of violence towards obama, their percieved enemy.

here's the CNN report on the "terrorist" scare that gov. palin created.



...and here she is, taking the new york times article in question totally out of context.



and finally, CNN's truth squad debunks everything that gov. palin has said. we now know that obama doesn't pal around with terrorists.



now, how many "good americans" saw this report and ignored it because gov. palin said otherwise?

perhaps the real question that should be asked is, will the federal government step in and put an end to the mccain/palin race baiting and hate mongering? or are they going to keep this up until something bad happens?

what if jesus ran for president?

what if Jesus Christ ran for president against senator mccain? i think that this "commercial" is probably the way the senator would turn his republican constituency against Him. and judging by how rabid and ignorant and soft-headed mccain's followers seem to be (did you see the videos i posted yesterday? yikes!), they would probably believe it.

how scary is this?

this is scary.

this is scarier.

How will your taxes change if McCain or Obama is elected in November?

amazing what you find out when you do a little homework.

the tax policy center, an independent non-partisan group, dissects tax policy issues. because both senators' tax plans have been made public, the center has compiled these stats for both candidates in an interesting, accessible and informative way.

here's the question of the day: would you like to know how your taxes will change if either candidate is elected? click here to find out.

By The Time I Get To Arizona

in light of yesterday's post, i think we should all take a moment to watch Public Enemy's video By The Time I Get To Arizona -- a protest song if there ever was one -- about the controversy that arose when arizona gov. evan mecham insisted that martin luther king jr. day would never be celebrated in his state while he was in office. interestingly, he was impeached after serving only a little more than a year, for obstruction of justice and misuse of government funds.

i happen to love Public Enemy very, very much. in a hip-hop world filled with ignorance, sexism, the denigration of women, and the glorification of "bling-bling" materialism and stuff, they are so necessary and they are sorely missed. God knows we need some protest music right about now -- and who's creating it? this video may not have had anything to do with the governor's ousting per se, but it definitely gave arizona a foul rep worldwide that they have yet to shake.

by the way -- the speech that is given in the opening montage are gov. mecham's very own words, taken directly from an announcement he gave to the press.

for your convenience, i've included the lyrics. enjoy!

I'm countin' down to the day deservin'
Fittin' for a king
I'm waitin' for the time when I can
Get to Arizona
'Cause my money's spent on
The goddamn rent
Neither party is mine not the
Jackass or the elephant
20.000 nig niggy nigas in the corner
Of the cell block but they come
From California
Population none in the desert and sun
Wit' a gun cracker
Runnin' things under his thumb
Starin' hard at the postcards
Isn't it odd and unique?
Seein' people smile wild in the heat
120 degree
'Cause I wanna be free
What's a smilin' fact
When the whole state's racist
Why want a holiday F--k it 'cause I wanna
So what if I celebrate it standin' on a corner
I ain't drinkin' no 40
I B thinkin' time wit' a nine
Until we get some land
Call me the trigger man
Looki lookin' for the governor
Huh he ain't lovin' ya
But here to trouble ya
He's rubbin' ya wrong
Get the point come along

An he can get to the joint
I urinated on the state
While I was kickin' this song
Yeah, he appear to be fair
The cracker over there
He try to keep it yesteryear
The good ol' days
The same ol' ways
That kept us dyin'
Yes, you me myself and I'ndeed
What he need is a nosebleed
Read between the lines
Then you see the lie
Politically planned
But understand that's all she wrote
When we see the real side
That hide behind the vote
They can't understand why he the man
I'm singin' 'bout a king
They don't like it
When I decide to mike it
Wait I'm waitin' for the date
For the man who demands respect
'Cause he was great c'mon
I'm on the one mission
To get a politician
To honor or he's a gonner
By the time I get to Arizona

I got 25 days to do it
If a wall in the sky
Just watch me go thru it
'Cause I gotta do what I gotta do
PE number one
Gets the job done
When it's done and over
Was because I drove'er
Thru all the static
Not stick but automatic
That's the way it is
He gotta get his
Talin' MLK
Gonna find a way
Make the state pay
Lookin' for the day
Hard as it seems
This ain't no damn dream
Gotta know what I mean
It's team against team
Catch the light beam
So I pray
I pray everyday
I do and praise jah the maker
Lookin' for culture
I got but not here
From jah maker
Pushin' and shakin' the structure
Bringin' down the babylon
Hearin' the sucker
That make it hard for the brown
The hard Boulova
I need now
More than ever now
Who's sittin' on my freedah'
Opressor people beater
Piece of the pick
We picked a piece
Of land that we deservin' now
Reparation a piece of the nation
And damn he got the nerve
Another niga they say and classify
We want too much
My peep plus the whole nine is mine
Don't think I even double dutch
Here's a brother my attitude hit 'em
Hang 'em high
Blowin' up the 90s started tickin' 86
When the blind get a mind
Better start and earn while we sing it
Now
There will be the day we know those down and who will go

I'm countin' down to the day deservin'
Fittin' for a king
I'm waitin' for the time when I can
Get to Arizona
'Cause my money's spent on
The goddamn rent
Neither party is mine not the
Jackass or the elephant
20.000 nig niggy nigas in the corner
Of the cell block but they come
From California
Population none in the desert and sun
Wit' a gun cracker
Runnin' things under his thumb
Starin' hard at the postcards
Isn't it odd and unique?
Seein' people smile wild in the heat
120 degree
'Cause I wanna be free
What's a smilin' fact
When the whole state's racist
Why want a holiday F--k it 'cause I wanna
So what if I celebrate it sta a corner
drinkin' no 40

senator john mccain's black gaffe

when the GOP began to take senator john mccain seriously as a presidential candidate, i began to do my homework on the black hand side -- because God knows the media wouldn't. and besides, i love a good fact check. as it turns out, what i found was more than unsavory: the man is nothing short of a privileged, spoiled rich kid, a womanizer and a heel. he's old. he's sickly. he's reckless. sure, he's no ivy league elitist -- but thanks to his wife's $100 million dollar beer fortune, he's loaded, with 7 homes. or 8. or is it 11? no one seems to know for sure, least of all senator mccain. (how many homes does barack and michelle obama have? one.) he and his wife cindy have 13 cars. if you want to see them, click here. (how many cars does barack and michelle obama have? one. and yes, it's a ford.)

think of it: if senator mccain becomes president, he won't need air force one. he already has his own jet!

nevermind that carefully handcrafted homespun myth about him being a war hero or a rebel maverick in congress. or a faithful husband. his record -- with a special emphasis on the way he has become the presidential candidate that he rallied against so self-righteously in his initial bid for the white house -- speaks for itself. here's a case in point that i found especially bizarre: take a look at which side he stood on concerning a national holiday for the iconic, internationally recognized civil rights leader dr. martin luther king jr.

sure, we're all human, we all make mistakes. sure, i forgive him. but this one was kind of a whopper. and the gist of it all is, it reads volumes into his character -- the man he really is, not the one he or the media pretends that he is.

in the video clip below circa 1983, someone queries senator mccain as to what he intends to do to make dr. king's birthday a state and national holiday. in spite of his vow to rectify the situation, he spent the next 11 years opposing it.

that's right -- senator mccain opposed a national holiday for dr. king as recently as 1994. and arizona republican governor evan mecham deserves some special neoconservative award for simply being who he is. to their credit, the congresspeople of arizona did impeach him eventually -- but that was only after they realized his racist idiocy cost their state over $500 million dollars. once they felt the financial heat, a national holiday for a black man became a great idea.

how can he explain away this voting record? here's the real question: how can he think that thinking black folk will vote for him in spite of it?

don't get me wrong. senator mccain certainly wasn't the only congressperson that opposed the bill initially in 1983. a holiday honoring dr. king was ratified state by state throughout the 90s and was officially a national holiday in 2000. only 17 states participated initially. but supporting and aligning yourself with a republican state governor that openly used the word pickaninny amongst other racist remarks (and defending this), and that went on record as saying that although he thought dr. king did a lot for "the coloreds," he didn't think he did much for anyone else, didn't help then. and it definitely doesn't help now.

so why did mccain vote against a national holiday for martin luther king, jr?

in the following video clip, he attempts to explain himself by saying that he "wasn't familiar with the issue." a remark like that is usually vague enough to give any politician a free pass but this guy is running for president, so we deserve a real answer on this one. i mean, seriously -- doesn't everyone in the world know who dr. king is and what he did? what didn't senator mccain know about dr. king and the civil rights movement, exactly? in his rosier moments while waxing poetic about his time as a POW in vietnam, doesn't he go on about how his tormentors told all of the captives about the assassinations of both dr. king and robert kennedy, to somehow break their morale?

ew.

i especially enjoy the way senator mccain justifies his stance on this issue by referring to his career in the navy. the military isn't racist, so neither is he -- is that it? the truth is, the military is one of the most racist and sexist places there is. frankly, if he doesn't know something that basic, he's way more out of touch than i thought.

maybe he should ask a black man in the military about what it's like to be in the service. or a woman. or a black woman. does senator mccain even know any black women?

hm. watching the following video clip might be helpful -- it's a CNN expose about the neo-nazi invasion in the military and how officials have turned a blind eye to their activities for years.

AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka on Obama and racism

if you watch a lot of the election coverage on television, you'll get a lot of talking points and quite a bit of cheerleading for either candidate but you won't really get much insight as to what working folk are thinking or what's actually happening on the campaign trail. here's a clip that surprised me -- richard trumka, the current secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO making an empassioned speech about racism and unions and obama. it's a total breath of fresh air, to see someone that's this on fire about something that matters so much -- and who's actually right, for a change.

keating economics: john mccain and the making of a financial crisis

as a nation, we really need to be informed on a very basic level about senator mccain. we need less sloganeering and more facts, more information. more, well...straight talk.

from obama's campaign headquarters comes the brand-spanking new website keatingeconomics.com that dissects john mccain's involvement with "the keating five" -- apparently, he was one of five senators named in the savings and loan scandal from 1989 that unhinged his presidential bid at that time. i know, i know -- it's 13 minutes long. but at a time like this, it's must-see viewing. and if it contains the facts, if it's really straight talk, then why wouldn't senator mccain want everyone to see it?

let the games begin!

an anonymous flier circulating in african-american neighborhoods in philly says that voters with outstanding arrest warrants or traffic tickets will be taken into custody by undercover policemen if/when they show up to vote on election day. of course, the authorities are doing everything that they can to reassure everyone that this claim is completely and utterly false -- but unfortunately this incident has kerosene all over it.

who knows where else this is happening in the country?

americans want to believe that we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave but anyone that's paying attention knows that this isn't the case. truth be told, this great land of ours has always had a long-standing tradition of keeping certain basic inalienable rights away from very nearly everyone, while a particular segment of the population has always enjoyed those rights. a part of what it means to be american is to not only acknowledge that those rights are for all of us -- not just the priveleged few or those who feel that they are especially entitled to them -- but to actively do something about it when everyone isn't accommodated.

i have often wondered if there were ever a moment in this country's voting history when absolutely every american went to the polls and voted for the president of their choice without having to deal with any kind of voter intimidation, threats, violence or abuse. i have often heard stories from my 92 year old african-american south georgia-born father about what it was like in the rural south of his childhood when it was election season, and what they did to us -- how they terrorized us. in my mind, our national african-american museum (that's right -- we don't have one!) would be filled with video commentary and testimony from him and his contemporaries, so we could all hear the stories that fill my parents kitchen/den whenever my father waxes somber and reflects at length about What Happened Then. wouldn't that be something.

think about it: white men are the only people in this country that have always had the right to vote and own property. even when they were indentured servants -- over half the white people who came to this country in the 17th and 18th century from places like england, scotland, and germany were indentured servants -- those basics were given to them as a matter of course when they worked their way out of their debt contract, if they were men.

and yes, i could go on about white women and white privilege and white entitlement but that's another conversation.

all i want to say is ths.

we don't live in a democracy. we live in a corporatocracy with neofascist overtones -- one that has everyone running around looking for parking, eating their way into a pre-diabetic coma with fried, heavily processed foods and hating on minorities, immigrants, people of color and anyone else that's "different." while we distract ourselves with the garbage we eat and the garbage we watch on television and the garbage we listen to on the radio, the economy goes to hell and hundreds of thousands of people go to the war that is hell.

now, who's going to be the national commentator to call george w. bush a neo-fascist? who's going to run the word "jingoism" up a flagpole and let it fly right next to the stars and stripes? (if you look hard enough, you'll see it there anyway.) who's going to toss a 2 for 1 coupon for that new chicken bisquit from mcdonald's into the garbage and have a shot of wheatgrass and a healthy salad instead?

i'm convinced that real change amongst the people starts with diet and excercise. you know what the first sign of malnutrition is? apathy.

let the games begin.

do you know who your elected officials are?

because there are so many americans that are flat-out ignorant of the political process and how things work, i think we should start with the basics. you know.  all that junk we learned in social studies class in grade school.  the thing is, we should not only know how things work but specifically who's representing us and how to reach them.  here's my short list.

the united states congress has two chambers: the senate (the upper house) and the united house of representatives (the lower house). both must approve legislation before it can be passed.  thanks to the wonderful world wide web, every elected official's contact information is online. you can call, you can email, you can do it the old fashioned way and write a letter -- and many of them actually have websites.

1. if you want to reach out and contact president bush or vice president cheney, you can -- and you should. click here to find out how.
2. every state gets two senators. i live in new york, so i've got senator charles schumer and senator hillary rodham clinton.   to contact your senator by state, click here.
   
3. how many representatives each state has depends on how densely populated it is, but each state is guaranteed at least one representative.  they count heads to come up with these numbers, which is a part of the reason why the census is so important.  new york has 29 representatives. at 53, the state of california has more than anyone else.  the current total is 435.  i live in new york's 15th district and i am represented by the honorable charles b. rangel. to contact your representative by state, click here.
4. of course, each state has their own executive, legislative and judicial systems.  new york has the state assembly (lower house) and the senate(upper house).  we have a pretty good idea of who's representing us nationally because one of them just ran for president and the other one is in the news quite a bit. the breakdown for new york state is: governor david a. patterson, state comptroller thomas p. dinapoli, and attorney general andrew cuomo. new york state has 60 senators. i have two senators in my zip code: bill perkins (district 30) and eric t. schneiderman (district 31). to find yours in new york state, click here.  to find the senator in your state, click here.
5. ...and then there's all the action that happens in the counties, cities, towns and villages, from comptrollers to judges. to find out who's who and what's what in your state, click here.

make no mistake: our votes (or lack of them) put each and every single one of these officials in office and in power. our tax dollars pay their salaries. they are supposed to be representing us and working for us, to better our communities and give us a good quality of life.  and when they don't, they should be held responsible -- and if necessary, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  

you can abstain from voting if you feel like it. you can ignore who's doing what and why. but by choosing to not participate, you are participating.  if you are a citizen of the united states, there is no wrangling your way out of it.  you're in on this and voting is your responsibility.  

late breaking news

i've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo for the month of october. this means i have to blog everyday for a month. 

this theme for october is VOTE.  i figured this would be a chance for me to really dig into the process, take a closer look at everyone from the local officials (do you know who your comptroller is, or what a comptroller does?) to the presidential candidates, dissect things and learn more about how the system really works.  along the way, i'll be going off about the issues, what the candidates are saying and what they're not saying, and how things may stack up for the rest of us either way. 

i'll be out of town on november 4, so i'm voting in absentia this year for the very first time.  figuring out how to do that was a trip and a journey -- they really don't make it easy for you, do they. actually, it was obama's website that challenged anyone to make sure that they were registered to vote that pointed me in the right direction. so there you have it.

oh -- and by the way: a comptroller (a misappropriation of the word controller which the'vey mangled since the 1800s) is the chief accountant, the one who keeps track of the monetary flow and makes sure that everything is on the up and up.  

the rolling stone must-read about john mccain

if you haven't read Make-Believe Maverick, the ten page article in rolling stone magazine by tim dickenson about the real john mccain, please please please find a moment somewhere in your day that will allow you to sit and truly absorb this information.  it is well worth the read.

irregardless of political affiliations, facts are facts. it's one thing to blame liberal media for attacking conservatives, but there is no denying the truth.  there's simply way too much at stake.

we already know that physically he's a very sick man and that his choice for vice president is attractive and clever but ignorant when it comes to the affairs of state or even the basic tenets of her own party -- i can't believe that any thinking person would rush to defend her at this point, but they do -- so make no mistake whatsoever: if john mccain is who this article says he is and if he gets elected, this country's economy will go straight to hell with gasoline drawers on.

more, more, more...

more fallout about how patently clueless sarah palin is on the basics from jack cafferty's cafferty file in CNN's situation room. (in her interview with charlie gibson, she was not at all familiar with the bush doctrine.  where has this woman been since 9/11?  astonishing stuff...) what's disturbing at this point is how many neo-conservative republicans want her to step down for the good of the nation and her political party -- and how so many others insist that she's doing a great job.  like elizabeth hasselbeck on the view, for example. *sigh* 

are most republicans like ms. hasselbeck?  close-minded, unyielding and uninformed, blathering their way through any argument by talking over anyone else?  i'm not kidding when i say this: she has the intellectual maturity of a canned ham. seriously -- she is genuinely uninterested in considering anyone else's point of view, even when what she's saying (her vigorous defense of sarah palin to joy's hilarous observation) is pure idiocy.  she seems proud, that she is standing up to the liberals by spewing talking points like shrapnel. ew.

i don't want republicans to become democrats. i don't want to convert anyone to a particular way of thinking. i just want everyone to stop clinging to their ideology and listen to another point of view. ms. hasselbeck is a wierd case to me because she's on a show that's all about considering that other perspective -- and she doesn't do it.  if she's typical of what a republican is like -- because frankly, i don't know any -- we are going down like a freight train, a la freddy king.  but i digress.

i said all that to say this.

as we stand on the verge of tomorrow's vice presidential debate, i thought it would be a good idea to zip through these clips to get a glimpse of what the rest of the country is thinking. because like i said, i don't know any republicans.