Year: 2008

What I Missed in John McCain’s Speech

Posted on by TL

I listened to John McCain’s acceptance speech tonight.  I was incredibly moved by his story.  We heard his personal several times tonight.

Right now I’m listening to commentators on MSNBC saying John McCain confessed George W. Bush’s sins.  They’re falling all over themselves in awe that McCain dared to denounce Bush.

But did he really?

Here’s what I missed in McCain’s grand “confessions”:

If John McCain rejects the sins of the Bush Administration and wants to make amends with the American people, then why did he vote with George W. Bush over 90% of the time?  Is McCain a recent convert to some truth?  Was he knocked off his horse this week?

Why did McCain ride the Bush gravy train to personal wealth for almost eight years while the rest of us fell so far behind?

Why, John?  Why?

Could You Find the Black Faces at the GOP Convention?

Posted on by TL

I just have to ask.

Were you able to spot the black faces at the GOP convention?

I watched this week.  I saw a sea of white people chanting, “Drill, baby, drill!” and “Prosperity!”

Yes, they look like a very prosperous crowd, immune to the ravages of the past eight years.

We did see the occasional Person of Color at the convention — and then we saw him again, and again, and again.  Contrast that with the incredible diversity apparent at the Democratic National Convention.

Just a thought.

Republican Congressman Calls Obama ‘Uppity’

Posted on by TL

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the term “uppity” to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.

While discussing Sarah Palin’s speech with reporters outside the House chamber, Westmorland was asked to compare Palin with Michelle Obama.

That’s when he let loose with the racially-charged epithet.

From USA Today:

“Honestly, I’ve never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama,” Westmoreland said. “Just what little I’ve seen of her and Senator [Barack] Obama, is that they’re a member of an elitist class…that thinks that they’re uppity.”

The 58-year-old, Atlanta-born congressman declined to elaborate further, though he did repeat one part of his comment when asked to clarify.

“Uppity, you said?” he was asked.

“Yeah, uppity,” Westmoreland replied.

Westmorland is white.

Later, Westmorland’s press secretary Brian Robinson tried to clarify, insisting that the congressman was trying to say Barack is “elite.”  Westmoreland apparently instructed his staff to check the dictionary to be sure he properly understood the meaning of the word.

Vanessa Beasley, who teaches political rhetoric at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said “uppity” is a word that hits the ear of African-Americans in a negative way — evoking images of the pre-civil rights era, when powerful whites sometimes punished blacks who spoke up for themselves.

“It has very clear roots in the history of slavery in the South,” Beasley said. “The term ‘uppity’ has such a specific, contextual historic meaning. It is more evocative of a particular moment in history and particular set of fears that exist today within certain parts of the electorate.

“The racial politics that it reanimates are very worrisome.”

I would bet a bale of cotton the congressman from Georgia knew exactly what he was saying.

Welcome to the Republican Party, 2008.  Amazingly, it’s a lot like the Republican Party of 1958.

GOP Attacks on Ordinary People

Posted on by TL

From Barack Obama:

Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people?

With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing.

Our convention was different. We gave the stage to everyday Americans who hunger for change and stepped up to make phone calls, knock on doors, and raise money in small amounts in their communities.

You may have missed it, but we also showed the country a video with the faces and voices of those organizers, volunteers, and donors from every corner of the country.

Watch the video and make a donation of $25 or more now to show that in this election, ordinary people will make their voices heard.

Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Meeks

Posted on by TL

Despite widespread criticism that he’s doing more harm to education in Illinois than good, State Senator James Meeks insisted last week that his planned student boycott of Chicago Public Schools will go forward.  Parents are almost unanimous in their opposition.

From the Sun-Times:

Parents at a Humboldt Park back-to-school festival Saturday said “no thanks” to the Rev. James Meeks’ planned student boycott of the Chicago Public Schools’ opening day of class Tuesday.

“The boycott is not good,” said Maybeline Juarez, who makes sure her 13-year-old daughter always attends school. “My daughter is in special education classes, and she needs all the help she can get. Colleges look at that.”

Angelo Valentin, who has five children in Chicago Public Schools, agreed that a boycott isn’t the answer to the schools’ money problems.

“The schools should get their money, but it shouldn’t be in the lap of the children,” said Valentin. “You can’t use them as pawns.”

The last statement really made an impression with me.  Meeks is using children as pawns in a vicious political game.

Meeks’ grand plan is simple: bus 2,000 students to wealthy Winnetka to protest school-funding inequities in Illinois, then try to register them at New Trier High School’s Northfield Campus.

This misguided publicity stunt will do nothing.  The children will not be able to register at New Trier High School.  At the end of the day the children will be left with anger and frustration.  No doubt Meeks will point reporters in the direction of children shouting in anger, or crying.

Then, next week, those kids will have to go to school, starting the year four days behind.  Will Senator Meeks pick up the tab for the Huntington Learning Center or the Sylvan Learning Center?  I doubt it.  When these students who took the four-day field trip with the senator start to fall further behind, Meeks will no doubt take advantage of the opportunity to further point out the failures of education in Illinois.

Another leader in education reform has another idea:

While Meeks prepared for the boycott, Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project, was at the African Festival of the Arts in Washington Park on Saturday urging men to participate in the project’s nationwide “Million Father March” by taking their children to school on the first day.

Jackson said he also wants better school funding. But he wants children in school on the first day — and every day.

“Every day they’re not in school, they’re further and further behind,” said Jackson, who expects “tens of thousands” of mostly black and Latino fathers in Chicago to take their children to school Tuesday.

Sadly, Meeks’ boycott is all about Senator Meeks, a publicity stunt he can tout during campaigns and from the pulpit.  The children of Illinois, already victims of an unfair educational system, will suffer.

Who is Sarah Palin, Really?

Posted on by TL

From our friends at MoveOn.org:

Dear MoveOn member, Yesterday was John McCain’s 72nd birthday. If elected, he’d be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for ‘inexperience,’ here’s who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here’s some basic background:

  • She was elected Alaska’s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
  • Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
  • She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
  • Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
  • She’s doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change.5
  • She’s solidly in line with John McCain’s ‘Big Oil first’ energy policy. She’s pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won’t be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
  • How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here’s a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She’s a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She’s vehemently anti-choice and doesn’t care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain’s part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he’ll get our vote by putting ‘A Woman’ in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She’s a global warming denier who shares John McCain’s commitment to Big Oil. And she’s dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he’s made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain’s vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do. –Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

  1. ‘Sarah Palin,’ Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin
  2. ‘McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate,’ NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=1
  3. ‘Sarah Palin, Buchananite,’ The Nation, August 29, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=2
  4. ”Creation science’ enters the race,’ Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=3
  5. ‘Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science,’ Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=4
  6. ‘McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy,’ Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=5
    ‘Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past,’ League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=6
    ‘Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor,’ The Times of London, May 23, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=7
  7. ‘McCain met Palin once before yesterday,’ MSNBC, August 29, 2008
    http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9680438-pUyoTHx&t=8

Want to support our work? We’re entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Karl Rove – McCain’s Chief Advisor

Posted on by TL

Despite denials by the McCain advisors, Time Magazine reports this week that Karl Rove is close, oh-so-close, to the McCain campaign:

A year after leaving the White House under the pall of an electoral setback and a congressional investigation, Karl Rove — hero of the right, scourge of the left — is back. With a twist.

In private, Rove speaks regularly with the McCain campaign, where his former protégé Steve Schmidt is now the manager. He’s also dialed in at the Republican National Committee, run by Mike Duncan, another former aide. And he still lunches two or three times a month with President Bush.

And Rove was heavily involved in McCain’s VP choice, running the whole show.

He’s ba-a-a-a-a-ack.

With Palin Near, Will McCain Approve the ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ Words?

Posted on by TL

How highly does John McCain esteem women?  It’s a fair question now that Sarah “Quayle” Palin is on the ticket.  Johnny M. might even say, “That’s an excellent question.”

The answer is as simple as “A-B-C.”

“A” stands for adultery, or possibly polygamy, depending on how you interpret the facts, and don’t care that the “A” comes near the end of polygamy.  McCain has made several statements that contradict the facts on record regarding his divorce from first wife Carol and marriage to beer heiress Cindy Hensley.

From the LATimes:

In his 2002 memoir, “Worth the Fighting For,” McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

“I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow,” McCain wrote. “I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980.”

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had “cohabited” until Jan. 7 of that year — or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Just for fun, let’s go back to November 2007.  Johnny McCain had fallen all over himself apologizing for his mother when she slammed Mormons on Hardball with Chris Matthews:

Matthews: “…You don’t think Romney’s done much heavy lifting for America then?”

R. McCain: “No, I don’t. I think being Senator – uh a Congressman, uh, a Senator – whatever it was, a Governor for four years. And as far as the Salt Lake City thing, he’s a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City caused that scandal and to clean that up, I – it’s, it’s not even again, it’s not a subject.”

J. McCain: “The views of my mother are not necessarily the views of mine.”

(nervous laughter from Sen. McCain and Matthews)

R. McCain: “Well that’s my opinion and you asked me.”

Yup. Mommy ripped a big one on national TV, and Johnny M. had to disavow that one.

But Johnny wasn’t nearly as concerned when one of his supporters called Hillary Clinton the B-word:

At a campaign event in South Carolina, a McCain backer stood up to ask the senator, “How do we beat the bitch?”

In response, McCain said, “We have our differences with our Democratic rivals, but I believe in treating people with respect. It’s why I don’t refer to women as ‘bitches,’ even when I disagree with them. I’m sure all of us believe we can debate the serious issues of the day without name-calling and degrading language.”

No, no, I’m just kidding. He actually responded, “That’s an excellent question.”

What about the “C” word?  The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop:

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain’s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, “You’re getting a little thin up there.” McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.” McCain’s excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Yes, many long days indeed. And this time with a woman at his side.

Watch Pat Buchanan Gush Over Barack Obama

Posted on by TL

Once again, I couldn’t believe what I saw last night. Here’s the one-and-only Pat Buchanan, mesmerized, as he tries to re-read Barack’s entire speech on MSNBC.

This is just one of those magic moments in television.

Enjoy this, Barack.  You may have Pat walking door-to-door for you before this election is over.