"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."
-- Linus van Pelt in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Checking In
So I've been having sort of hectic month (in both good and bad ways) and that has left me much less time and mental energy for blogging. I could half-ass this blog, but I never wanted to do that. Believe it or not, I have generally strived for quality over quantity here (yes, even on days where I posted like 5 times!). So I am just conceding defeat for the time being-- especially with my vacation (finally) coming up next month)-- and taking a hiatus from all this.
I'm still just as obsessed with politics as ever, of course, and hope to be back in the swing of things soon.
I won't have much time for blogging for the remainder of the week or so (sad, I know). So, in the meantime, here are a bunch of videos I wanted to post about. Feel free to throw in your two cents and all that jazz.
Watch Sen. McCain debate himself on his similarities with President Bush. And watch as he tries to convince voters that he doesn't intend to privatize Social Security by attempting to redefine what 'privatization' means. And Keith Olbermann reports on on McCain's connections to Big Oil and Enron.
"This is our time to unite in common purpose, to make this century the next American century."
Earlier this week, Sen. Obama gave another speech on the economy, this time in Flint, MI... a city that exemplifies the economic betrayals of the last few decades. Watch the whole speech (nearly 50 minutes) here-
Matthew Yglesias is really impressed with the vision of economic reform Obama is promising-
[A]s a policy speech it's pretty awesome, one of the best efforts to chart a truly progressive, forward-looking approach to the big picture questions that I've seen from a practical politician. Rather than a world in which we try to whether economic storms by slashing taxes and cutting services to the bone, or by sealing our borders to trade and immigration, Obama is outlining a vision in which government plays a crucial positive role in providing human capital (i.e., education), physical infrastructure, basic R&D, and in putting our energy policy on a sustainable basis.
This is the clearest example I've seen of Obama as education reformer, talking about universal preschool and investing more resources in the most challenging classrooms, but also noting that "resources alone won't create the schools that we need to help our children succeed" and we "need to encourage innovation – by adopting curricula and the school calendar to the needs of the 21st century; by updating the schools of education that produce most of our teachers; by welcoming charter schools within the public schools system, and streamlining the certification process for engineers or businesspeople who want to shift careers and teach."
With the economy looking to be front and center this November, and with people becoming more progressive again on the issue, it's no surprise that Sen. McCain has been struggling to avoid the issue, and continue to focus on the cliched national security memes that worked so well for the Republicans... pre-2006 anyway. But the many, severe problems we face are not going away by themselves or by some magical market fix. It'll require people both smart and invested enough in solutions to fix them.
Sen. Obama's ability to convince swing voters that he's that guy will be key to victory.
The Daily Show once again provides the most hilarious take on a top issue... in this case, all the smears and attacks against Sen. Obama. Wake up, white people!!
Conservapedia's entry on Barack Obama is the most hilarious thing, and is just basically a storage depot of all the right-wing smears and distortions about him.
Here are my favorite highlights-
Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (b. Honolulu, August 4, 1961) is the presumptive 2008 nominee of the Democratic Party for president.[1] Obama has served as a freshman Democratic Senator from Illinois for three and a half years. In 2007, Obama was the most liberal Senator.[2] If elected, Obama would be the first Affirmative Action President.
Obama claimed to have visited 57 states while campaigning for president of the United States, which of course has only 50 states. He could never explain where the false number of 57 came from, but it has been observed that there are 57 Islamic states and Obama was educated at an Islamic grade school while he lived in an Islamic country.[3]
Obama has declared himself to be a Christian, yet never replaced his Muslim name with a Christian one as many do.[4] Obama downplays his Islamic background by claiming that his Kenyan Muslim father was a "confirmed atheist" before Obama was born, but in fact less than 1% of Kenyans are atheists, agnostics or non-religious.[5]
This is great not just because it tries to perpetuate the Obama = Muslim rumors, but because it sees conspiratorial evidence in everything he says or does to prove that he is, in fact, a terrorist Muslim.
We also learn that-
Obama's campaign "is proud to be actively participating in over 60 local and state wide homosexual Pride events over the summer."[20]
Obama's campaign has been financed largely by leftist donors opposed to the war and to the American military in general. Obama has encouraged this by refusing to wear the customary flag on his lapel during appearances (asserting that he would prefer his patriotism to be represented through his actions rather than an arbitrary symbol) and by other less-than-patriotic gestures and symbols, such as declining to put his hand over his heart during a patriotic recitation. In an appearance on May 16 where he addressed President Bush's statements that some politicians would prefer appeasing terrorists through negotiations, Senator Obama once again wore the flag pin as he did following 9-11.
Wow, does this gay-loving Muslim hate America or what???!!!
Under his 'Political Views', we are told-
Obama's political views have been subjected to controversy even before he put himself forward as a presidential candidate. Former House majority leader Tom DeLay has described Obama's record in the Illinois Senate as that of a “Marxist leftist".[63] In May 2007, Obama (and Sen. Hillary Clinton) voted against funding the Iraq War for the first time.[64][65]
Well, if Tom Delay said so, case closed! Mr. Delay's entry, by the way, is surprisingly brief, very odd for a once powerful man whose career ended under such criminally delicious circumstances.
And a little below-- re: Iraq-- it reads-
Barack Obama in his short stint as Senator of Illinois, has made clear his opposition to the U.S. Military in policy and in rhetoric. Obama has spent much energy to remind America of the war that should have never been waged and that we should not be there at all, in any way. In 2002, as an unknown Chicago representative to the state of Illinois, he declared his opposition to the Iraqi conflict. At the time, America was united in the stance against terrorism and the prospects of a rogue enemy with WMD worried the United States. Since elected to Congress, he voted against the Emergency War Supplemental. Obama did not oppose his party debating the bill long past the timeframe requested. This action directly affects troop deployment in combat zones. Obama has repeatedly called for the return of troops in Iraq. Barack Obama has a no confidence vote for the 'Surge' before the measure was put forth by General Petraus to Congress. Obama would not denounce MoveOn.org's slander NY Times advertising against the General.
Wow! He opposed that disastrous and unpopular war?!? This terrorist is going down!
And, finally, in the section under his religion, it states-
Obama and his wife (reared a Baptist) have been active members since 1988 at the Trinity United Church of Christ[76] in Chicago. A church that embraces black liberation theology and its emphasis on empowering oppressed groups against establishment forces. Merging Marxism with Christian Gospel may show the way to a better tomorrow. This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays, women and blacks as ministers.[77] According to his sister, Obama was baptized at this church the same year.[78] Obama describes his conversion in The Audacity of Hope. The title of this book is taken from one of Pastor Wright's sermons.
Just in case you forgot that he's a Marxist who loves the gays. But he's also a Muslim too.
For contrast, you have to read John McCain's entry. I'm beginning to think there's bias here.
Is it Friday again yet? No? Oh, darn. Here's some news...
As another story of broken levees this week in the Midwest floods brings further destruction, you would think we would finally have that conversation about our national priorities and protecting our faltering infrastructure. But we won't.
Later this summer, the Obama campaign may be doing more extensive traveling: "Barack Obama may depart this summer from his road-warrior tour of election-battleground states to take a trip around the world, one intended to shore up his credentials on foreign policy."
Meanwhile, in Iraq: "The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces." Aka, 'progress'.
Sen. McCain has found the long-term solution to our energy woes... off-shore drilling.
Hey, look at you Congress, doing stuff! "Lawmakers voted Thursday to subpoena nine companies responsible for analyzing the most dangerous food entering the country as part of an investigation that gained more urgency with an outbreak of salmonella from tomatoes."
In court news, a federal judge rules in Bush's favor on the missing White House emails issue.
And finally, the Supreme Court "made it easier Monday for some foreigners who overstay their visas to seek to remain in the United States legally."
"So Barack Obama tells Jake Tapper that we can fight terrorists and follow the constitution at the same time ('for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial'), and we get the standard talking point reaction from the McCain team. You know the drill: naive, September 10th mindset, etc. etc. All the usual dumb little campaign comments.
But wouldn't it be nice if we could have a real conversation about this? We could compare, say, the amount of terrorism we've stopped via police work, intelligence, international cooperation, financial interdiction, and so forth, and compare it to the amount of terrorism created by our military intervention in Iraq. And then we could talk about how the real September 10th mindset is the one that says it doesn't matter what other people think of us because, you know, we've got the biggest military in the world and we can squash 'em all like bugs anyway.
I say: bring 'em on. Let's talk about who's naive vs. who's learned some lessons from 9/11. The sooner the better." --The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum on McCain's cliched 9/11-oriented attack strategy.
Israel and militant group Hamas have agreed to end months of bitter clashes with a six-month truce starting on Thursday, Palestinian officials say.
A Hamas official said he was confident all militant groups in Gaza would abide by the agreement, brokered by Egypt.
Israeli officials said they were "looking to see if this is serious"...
...The BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem says a ceasefire should lead to an improvement in people's everyday lives in southern Israel and Gaza, but any talk of political upheaval or breakthrough is premature.
Palestinian and Egyptian officials say the truce is to come into effect at 0600 (0300 GMT) on Thursday. As well as a halt to all hostilities, this stage of the deal also envisages a partial reopening of Gaza's borders, they add...
Grain of salt and all that, but obviously this is a step in the better direction.
Al Gore Endorses Obama: "Take it from me, elections matter."
I've been waiting to see this moment for many months now. I wish Gore himself were on the ticket, but his support is enough. He did a great job elaborating on what's at stake here.
In light of the Supreme Court's big habeas corpus ruling on Guantanamo detainees, here is Jon Stewart's take on the trials there from earlier in the week-
As I noted the other day, the tables have turned in this year's election. Whereas the 2004 election was Democrats simply running against Bush-- and not for any specific grand vision (though really, shouldn't that have been enough?)-- now the Republicans have no vision of their own, and are pinning all their hopes of victory on convincing Americans that Barack Obama is a scary, unpatriotic, elitist black nationalist Muslim socialist who will destroy America. It certainly didn't help matters that a certain one of Obama's primary opponents worked to fan those flames.
To me, the stealth weapon in that fight are the chain smear emails that everyone has been getting. I had a friend from Long Island just the other today tell me that his father's girlfriend was forwarding him emails about Obama, including one insisting Obama will "stand with the Muslims" (it purposely misquoted a section from Obama's book in which he discussed the mistake America made in interning Japanese citizens during WWII). I even got one months back, entitled 'Who Is Barack Obama', which states-- among other things-- that "Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States , one of their own!!!!"
This has all lead to voters like Shelby Sugg and Wanda Gibson here-
Now the news has picked up on Obama's efforts to fight back by... "form[ing] a rapid response internet 'war room' to track and respond aggressively to online rumours." The Obama fact-check website is here (look at the menu on the right for specific sections on Obama's religion and patriotism). And they have now launched a new, specific site-- Fight The Smears-- to maximize these efforts.
The problem there is that the percentage of Americans-- even among political junkies-- who visit a candidate's website(s) in this detail is really low. How much time is a Wanda Gibson going to take out of her day to surf through months and months of fact-check archives?
The GOP, of course, isn't just relying on stealth emails. They are being direct... if not very effective. John McCain's big attack of the week was responding to criticism that he's running for Bush's third term-- no, not by denying that!-- by saying that Obama is just like Jimmy Carter! Neener neener! During Carter's years, we had an energy crisis and Middle East woes... any party which presided over that would definitely be hated! Good point, John!
Sen. McCain's campaign is also running online banner ads juxtaposing Obama's face with that of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The right even has the creator of the infamous 1988 Willie Horton working on 'exposing' Barack Obama. His latest ad is like a parody of all the smears mentioned above.
Sen. Obama will definitely need to do more than put a fact-check on his website to combat all of this. One of the main reasons that the Swift Boat lies became conventional wisdom in 2004-- besides media laziness-- was John Kerry's failure to fight the attacks immediately and aggressively. I have been glad to see that Obama is playing a good game of offense, but he can't slack on the defense either.
I'm going to be posting next about all the Obama smear emails, but I wanted to post this first because it is relevant. The National Review's Andy McCarthy just doesn't get why those silly Democrats could be upset at all the suggestions that Obama is a crazy Muslim terrorist (oMg terrorist fist jab!). He writes-
Remarkable, isn't it, that someone so concerned about our image in the "international community," so offended by Bush's purported cowboy insensitivity, can get so spun up over "false rumors that [he] is a Muslim." Even if his accusations against Sen. Lieberman had any merit, why does Sen. Obama — who used to say that his middle name, Hussein, would be a real asset in the signals it would send to the world — now think it's defamatory to be taken for a Muslim?
Where does one even begin?
No, it should not be defamatory to be taken for a Muslim, and yes Obama's appeal to a broader swath of the world community than most U.S. leaders will be a huge plus for his presidency. But the reason that it's seen as a smear and has already turned some voters against Obama is because... conservatives have spent the last 7 years associating Muslims/Islam with terrorism and portraying most of the rest of the world as a scary place full of brown-skinned murderers and job-stealers!!! Seriously Andy, go fuck yourself. Hard.
My name is Jeremy. I'm a political geek (one of those dirty liberals you may have read about in the newspaper) and this is my blog. It's pretty self-explanatory.
