The Palin legacy of hate

The Huffington Post has an article noting that the current issue of Newsweek which arrives on the stands today, includes its Special Election Project "which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaign with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day."

The section offers a number of fascinating tidbits, such as the fact that over the summer the Obama and the McCain campaigns were hit by a cyber attack "by an unknown 'foreign entity" in order, the experts believe, to obtain information that could be used "in negotiations with a future administration."

Then there is the brouhaha about Palin's costly wardrobe and a note that McCain was kept in the dark as his aides knew her extravangance would upset him.

And much more...

But, the most troubling item has to do with the fact that "the Secret Service [showed] a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the crowds at Palin rallies become more frenzied."

Much has been written about these "frenzied" crowds [mobs?] who called out racial epithets along with comments mimicking Palin's rhetoric, such as "terrorist!" and "socialist."

None of this fazed her majesty from Alaska in the least. She continued to spew out lies such as Obama is "palling around with terrorists," and Obama does not want to win the war, and Obama will raise your taxes, and Obama is not one of us, etc.

We have also learned that Palin wanted to use Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a means of attacking his character also, but was turned down by the McCain campaign.


It is incredible that in spite of the fact her words created a milieu in which racism and hatred thrived and led to a number of threats to Obama, which could conceivably have resulted in violence against him or even his death, she continued to attack him personally and directly on a daily basis, inciting the mobs even more.

That is the Palin legacy: Not spreading the wealth, but spreading the hate, and not caring where that might lead.

Poignantly, Michelle Obama, feeling the weight of the Palin attack, asked one of her aides, "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

The education of Tom Brokaw

Frankly, I never gave Tom Brokaw much thought. He was an anchor on NBC News and seemed to do his job fairly well, and he wrote a book about how great people were during WWII, and, well, he was a TV fixture...

...who I thought was "fair and balanced," unlike, say, those folks at FOX News...


Then John McCain ran for president. And I realized that Tom Brokaw really liked John McCain. When he interviewed McCain, Brokaw fawned all over him, lobbed him easy questions, and neglected to challenge McCain on his falsehoods. Brokaw wanted McCain to be president!


Then this from Eric Alterman at Altercation:

"Brokaw is back at it -- he said on Morning Joe that America is a center-right country because a majority of land area in the United States, if you measure it on the county level, voted for McCain."

Huh?

Alterman asks, incredulously: "When do they name that replacement?"

And, "Did he really say that? Does land vote? Is it possible for someone in Tom Brokaw's position to be that stupid? Of perhaps a better question is, 'Is it necessary?'"

Fundamentalist Christian rancor and hate, Part III

James L. Lambert is the author of something called "Porn in America," and "a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent." Wow.

He writes for OneNewsNow, too.

Lambert says if you voted for Obama, you put Obama before Christ! "...it seemsthat many people who claim the Christian faith are casting their religious values to the curb in favor of being able to claim a role in 'a historic event.'"

Yep. That's what he said!

But how could that be? Well, it's all about abortion and those pesky homosexuals.

Lambert quotes one Rev. Adlai E. Mack, "senior pastor and founder of Christians United Church in San Diego: "If you're willing to sacrifice your babies, your children, and your business for Mr. Obama, you have that choice...

"If Obama wins, the babies lose. If Obama wins, your children will be discipled by homosexual [activists] in the public schools. If Obama wins, small businesses will suffer. Raising taxes would be the worst remedy during an economic downturn."

And not to forget, Obama is really, really "liberal." And he's pro-choice! And he thinks gays should be allowed to be married!


Most of this is horseshit, but nevertheless, this ethically-challenged "Christian" poses the question to his fellow "Christians" -- "Are you willing to put Obama before Christ?"

Argh!

P.S. I talked to Jesus today, and he told me that those who voted against Obama voted against him, and obviously don't love him anymore. He's going to cast them in the fiery pit! Hey, that's what he said!

Fundamentalist Christian rancor and hate, Part II

Star Parker, "syndicated columnist," also writes for OneNewsNow. She loves Jesus, too. The trouble is her Jesus is a figment of her imagination.

How else do you explain this black woman's attempt to assassinate the character of President-elect Barack Obama?

Obama is a socialist, according to Ms. Parker, and he tries to cover that up with the "Obama oratorical fog."

Obama has big plans to use "the tax code to redistribute wealth." How will he do this? "He's got about $700 billion in so-called refundable tax credits in mind, direct money transfers to individuals, to finance his social engineering ideas in education, childcare, and environmental policy."

Is that all? Mein Gott, I thought he'd also "socialize" medicine - at least. And take over the banks. Oh, I forgot, Bush already did that!

Parker says "We're talking about a trillion dollars in new government spending to pay for his government-directed schemes to deal with just about every aspect of our lives."

All of this means "our country becomes more socialized and, by definition, less free."

Sorry, Ms. Parker, go back to school. Socialism is an economic system that by definition, has nothing to do with freedom. Freedom, or the lack of it, is a function of a political system!

Nevertheless, Parker whines that Obama's "vision of America ... has little to do with the vision of its founding because so many Americans are now detached from and uninformed by the documents that defined the country -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bible."

The Bible is one of the documents that defined our country? Please! Go back to school again, Ms. Parker, 'cause your full of ... well, you know what! And while you're at it, read the Declaration and the Constitution again, yourself, 'cause you really don't have a clue!

Because Obama's a socialist, says Ms. Parker, instead of protecting individual liberty and guarding against "intrusions on our life and property," he'll begin intruding wholesale on our individual liberty and our life and property.

Then, Parker really goes off the rails. She's afraid that Obama will appoint judges who will actually care about the poor, the sick, and minorities and might make laws to help them. She quotes a bible verse against such a thing: "Do not glorify a destitute person in his grievance." Whatever the hell that means. She doesn't reference the verse so it's hard to put it in context, if, indeed, it even appears in the bible.

What's the problem with caring for the poor, the sick and minorities? Well, says Parker, "Our biblical tradition, which is clear that we should love our neighbor and give charity, is also clear that courtrooms are the place to objectively apply law and not for politics.


The woman is a moron and biblically illiterate. Unfortunately, too many people will read this trash and believe it.

Fundamentalist Christian rancor and hate, Part I

OneNewsNow is an adjunct of The American Family News Network, which probably tells us all that we need to know. OneNewsNow is part of a phalanx of right-wing Christian fundamentalist outlets that promote exclusiveness, prejudice, and hatred on a daily basis; all for Jesus, of course!

The target for Christian hate is now President-elect Barack Obama.

Here is one example.

Someone named Jane Jiminez, a freelance writer and ex-elementary school teacher, writes in a column titled, "Style over substance," that we cannot believe what Obama says. Obama is all style, no substance. The "package [that Obama] delivered to voters is beautiful," says Jiminez, but boy, unwrap that package and you'll find all kinds of evil stuff.

Here's what Obama is really all about, according to this woman who knows not Jesus, nor ethics, nor truth:

"Partial-birth abortion and infanticide, ensuring that babies die who 'accidentally survived abortion,' will be finally and permanently entrenched as lawful 'choice' in America."

No more "choice" for people who want to use tax money to send their kiddos to private/parochial schools.

Obama will "cultivate the already glowing approval of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Hamas leaders, and Louis Farrakhan, all of whom praise Obama's politics."

We'll have an "activist" Supreme Court which will make law, not interpret laws [kinda like the Supremes who handed Bush the presidency in 2000?]

Real marriage will be over; no longer meaning one man and one woman. [Did you ever wonder why god allowed those ancient Israelite males to have damn near as many wives as they wanted. And Obama wasn't even born then!]

Those who want to became citizens will need only to "'show up' at a window to fill out paperwork.

Taxes - boy, they're gonna go through the roof!

American jobs will move overseas.

We'll soon have a really bad national healthcare system - like they have in Canada and England.

Blah, blah, blah.

Almost everything this so-called "Christian" loony-toon writes is false. I guess her Jesus made her do it!

The ignorance of Sarah

This from FOX News: [Yes, that FOX News!]

"There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lack[ed] the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada (sic), the US, and Mexico. We're told she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself ... a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled....was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn't accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times that she was hard to control emotionally there's talk of temper trantrums at bad news clippings....."


John Aravosis has much more at Americablog, here.

Reeking of racism

You can dress it up however you wish. You can say he's a Muslim. You can say he's an Arab. You can decry his "palling around with terrorists." You can whine about something his former pastor said a long time ago. You can bitch about his lack of experience (or the fact he wasn't the mayor of some teeny little burg in the snowy wilderness). You can pretend his birth certificate isn't valid. You can protest he will change our national anthem, or re-arrange the American flag, which he doesn't salute anyway.

There are all sorts of things you can say about President-elect Barack Obama; in fact most of them have been said - over and over again, ad nauseum.

But those things are all a cover for another word that most people are hesitant to speak out loud: he's a n------!


Robin Shulman writes in the Washington Post of a journey to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a town which contains not a few people who still cling to their guns and religion along with hatred of black people.

Shulman spoke with a couple eating breakfast at Denny's the morning after...you know, after "that one" won.

The woman is 62. She wears a diamond-studded cross around her neck.

She says, "I don't believe a black person should be president."

And there you have it. Racism front and center. From someone wearing what has been the symbol of Christianity for 1700 years - since the time of Constantine. Ironically, the person wearing that symbol denies by her words, just like Peter, the savior that cross represents!

Shulman says, "Few people acknowledge racial prejudice as nakedly as" this lady. But it's found in every corner of this Pennsylvania town. Michelle Obama hates her country, says one. Obama can't be trusted, says another.

To be sure, there are many not overtly prejudiced and others who overcame whatever latent prejudice they may have had and voted for Obama because they were convinced he was the best man for the job.

But, in Wilkes-Barre, in Boston, in Atlanta, in Los Angeles, in Houston, in Minneapolis, in Chicago, in Boise, in Sacramento, in Colorado Springs, in Milwaukee, in Cleveland, in Detroit, in St. Louis, and in all the cities and towns in between, racism is alive and well. It may wear different clothes in all these places, but the clothing does not disquise what's underneath.

And sometimes racism rears its ugly head unexpectedly. Julie Myers, the Bush administration's Head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, came under fire in 2007 for attending a "Halloween party honoring a white employee dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and makeup that made him look African-American or Hispanic."

Myers apologized. She's leaving the Bushite family on November 15. Not soon enough!


Fortunately, not merely for Senator Obama, but for our nation, a sufficient number of our citizens rejected the racist claims when they entered the voting booths.


But, to our eternal misfortune, and to our ever-lasting shame, we shall always have people who reek of racism in our midst - those uneducated, mentally-deficient, ignorant, hateful and stupid people, who judge other human beings, not on their merits, but on the color of their skin.

We'll just have to overpower them whenever and wherever they appear - as we did yesterday!

The Body Language of Loss

From distributorcap NY ... couldn't have said it better, myself!

Well, at the risk of sounding cliche - the page has finally turned. We can actually countdown the days to the end of the Bush-pierre Reign of Terror (well he still has 70+ days to do a lot of damage).

It was quite a night. Obama's speech was amazing. He is a once in a lifetime figure when it comes to oration and inspiration. But now the hard work comes. The vitriol and nastiness has already started - just listen to the diarrhea hitting the crapper from Morning Dump with Joe and Pat and his assorted sidekicks. They cannot wait for Obama to fail and tell everyone "we told you so."

Be that as it may - there is plenty of time to deal with them. And they can be the news source of material for the Blogworld Comedy Hour.

But first to John McCain. No amount of good will from him - or even that gracious concession speech will EVER absolve him for running the angriest, meanest and most divisive campaign in history. He can be humble and give his hand in peace - but we will NEVER forget how nasty he and Mooselini were to Obama - from saying he palled around with terrorists, that he was a socialist, to labeling him that one, and finally being called a celebrity and elitist. You name it, McCain and especially Sarah Palin called Obama everything but the word they really wanted to use - and we all know what that world is. We will not forget. McCain and Palin - you deserved to lose and lose bad -- because both of you really SUCK. This loss was not only a repudiation of the awfulness of George W. Bush, but also of John McCain, his nasty campaign and his unleashing of Sarah Palin on the American public.

May all three of them rot.

Speaking of body language. Look at McCain at the end of his concession speech. Look at his body language with Palin. It is SO obvious he is angry and blaming her for the loss. And you know, he should be -- she was a BIG reason he lost. He could barely acknowledge her - and watch how he greets/embraces her. It is quite telling.

On the flip side, so look at how ANGRY Caribou Barbie is -- she is not humbled (like McCain) or caught in the moment -- she is fuming that they lost -- and she blames McCain. She is not going gently into that good night.

What a team - they hate each other and blame each other for this demoralizing and overwhelming loss. You can't write this script.

Dancing in the streets

Words are insufficient to convey joy experienced and hope realized!

And a h/t to Blue Gal

Conservatives deal with loss

Here's an especially interesting and humorous article from 23/6. The photo, I think, illustrates pretty well why the Repugs lost the election.


Conservatives to figure out how they lost women, minorities, gays, Jews, anyone else? oh yeah, college grads

So where does the GOP go from here, now that it turns out the Bridge to Nowhere didn't lead to the White House? According to Jonathan Martin at Politico, that will be the main topic of discussion at a super secret Republican strategy session to be held this weekend -- sort of [a] reverse Renaissance Weekend. The gathering, says one attendee, will include a "who's who of conservative leaders -- economic, national security and social." And, one presumes, plumbing. After all, how they can chart a comeback without their primary fiscal policy guru. Plus, with that many people in attendance, sometimes the toilet backs up.

Not surprisingly, Martin writes that the feeling in the party is that the party lost because it wasn't right-wing enough. "There's a sense that the Republican Party is broken, but the conservative movement is not." Paul Krugman, writing about the future of the party in the GOP notes that many of them are blaming ... the loss on the media and, of course, the powerful ACORN.

Sounds like they've really got their finger on the pulse of the American public.

While the names of the attendees aren't public, 23/6 happens to have gotten its hands on a super secret copy of the schedule of the super secret meeting. Or not.


You can read all about the agenda here. It's great fun!

Palin and her clothes

This is from an article at Think Progress here.


In a new 50,000 word article on the presidential campaigns that will come out tomorrow, Newsweek reports that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) spent far more on clothing than the $150,000 reported last month. According to a preview by Politico's Mike Allen, "McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy."

'One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family -- clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.'

Newsweek reports that McCain "rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended."


Ah so. It all begins to unravel. Again, though, we are struck with just how stupid McCain was to pick this nogoodnik from Alaska. He must have been desperate. The Christian Right must have had him by the short hairs.

Palin was a disaster. But that disaster was McCain's fault!

None of this is all that surprising, however. Remember Palin's the one who charges the state of Alaska thousands of dollars to fly her family around while she is on "state" business. She even flew everyone up to a snowmobile race!

Won't it be fun if she decides to try for higher office when Alaskans throw her out of the governor's mansion? Oh, that's right, she spends most of her time at home. I forgot.

Obama around the world

Aidan Maconachy has an excellent post at his blog, Therion, on the Obama win and Obama's speech at Grant Park in Chicago.

Included in that post are photos of people in various countries who joined with us in celebrating Obama's victory.

America has already become again a beacon of hope!

Please click here.

Musings in the afterglow

Sarah Palin will fly back to Alaska on the plane she sold to eBay, over the Bridge to Nowhere, above the pipeline she hasn't built, with luggage containing her lies, her character assassinations, her snide, whiny voice, her winking eyes, her religious fanaticism, her lack of ethics, and her astounding ignorance... to face new ethics charges.

Can we never, ever hear again of Joe the Plumber?

May the words, "lipstick" and "pit bull" be excised from all political speech!

Can the "First Dude" fade away on a snowmobile to nowhere?

No more, "I was a POW, so vote for me."

No more, "My friends," and "I know how to do that."

Are we done with the political attack ads?

Barack Obama won. Evidently, the god prayed to with such fervor by the Christian Right was not listening. Or, horror of horrors, she wanted Obama to be elected! Or prayer doesn't work.

The disease of homophobia is still virulent in our nation, witness the passing of anti-gay marriage amendments in California and Florida.

This is not a Christian country, but a country where all people of all religions are welcome as well as people with no religion.

All Americans are "real" Americans!

Liddy Dole went down!

The election of Michelle Bachmann indicates that Minnesota contains too many morons!

Hatred does not always prevail.

The Dobsons, Hagees, et. al., were discredited. Their power, hopefully, is waning.

Racism is less a force in American society than it was a few years ago.

The politics of hatred and divisiveness, ala Bush, Cheney, Rove, et. al., was rejected by the majority of the American people.

Bush will retire to Dallas and disappear, in disgrace.

Cheney will, god-willing, disappear from public view forever!

Finally, after so many desolate years, we have an intelligent - brilliant, even - and articulate president who cares about the people and the Constitution.

Hope is real, and change is possible.

The McCain/Palin debate

I'm hoping Sarah Palin will go away. Forever! But this video was just too good. One last look at the two Repugs who dared to, not only appear in public, but run for president and vice president.

Thanks to the Huffington Post.

President-elect Obama speaks to the nation

Here's to you, America!

Grant Park, Chicago, November 4, 2008. The scene was surreal, beautiful, haunting, lovely, incredible ... hopeful.

Could it be that we, as a country, will begin to actually put into practice our rhetoric about freedom, and peace and opportunity?

Joe Galloway is a believer:

"Here's to the American people, the electorate, for finally coming to their senses and voting for something different, for someone different and for a chance to fix the multitude of man-made disasters that confront us.

"By their votes, the Republican revolution and all it's wrought - an economic meltdown, two endless wars, class warfare that's enriched the very rich and beggared everyone else and a treasury bulging only with IOU's -- will be crushed.

"That revolution began to take root with the criminality of Richard Nixon's administration, with its paranoid enemies list. It gathered steam in the time of Ronald Reagan and with Newt Gingrich's seizure of Congress. ...

" [...]

"High tide arrived with the unlikeliest occupant of the Oval Office in our history, the beady-eyed, smirking, tongue-tied, counterfeit cowboy George W. Bush, and a Congress that after 9-11 was ru by runaway Republicans who were too busy enriching themselves and their friends to care what their president was doing to the country, the Constitution and even their own party.

"Little wonder, then, that Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Paliln will go down to defeat after a campaign of sheer desperation that's been nasty, brutish and long. ..."


McClatchy's article encapsulated much of what has been going through my mind since last night. You can read all of it here.

The Obama Robin

The Obama robin ...
A sign of hope!

Go Obama!


Photo art by Denise Jelonek, noted Colorado photographer.
See more of her work here.

The Repugnicans are going CRAZY!

Watch these poor, deluded Repugs go crazy about Obama! Dontcha jest love it? You betcha!

Europe celebrates the end of Bush or Why I love Paris

Not everyone around the world is rooting for Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.

But most people are!

The election today is being watched carefully everywhere! In Germany, "...the election dominated television tickers crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites.

"Obama mania was evident not only across Europe but also in much of the Islamic world, where Muslims expressed hope that the Democrat would seek compromise rather than confrontation. The Bush administration alienated Muslims by mistreating [read torturing!] prisons at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison -- human rights violations also condemned worldwide."

Rais Yatim, the Malaysian foreign minister expressed the hope of many: "I hope Obama wins (because) of the need of the world to see the U.S. represent a more cosmopolitan or universal political attitude.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson said "For those who have become disenchanted with America -- including many Americans -- (Obama) offers the hope of reigniting the love affair."

In Kenya, of course, Obama's support is overwhelming and Kenyans "packed churches today to pray for Obama.

And in Obama, Japan, a "sleepy ... coastal town ... images of him [Obama] adorned banners along a main shopping street, and preparations for an election day victory party were in full swing."


But, then we have Paris. I love Paris for many reasons. Here's just one more reason to love Paris. Thousands of Parisians are expected to show up for a "Good-bye George" party. How great is that?


Read more here.

Christians are full of bull - on Wall Street

The Lord [Jesus] spoke to Cindy Jacobs during a church service. The Lord [Jesus] said: "Cindy, the strongman over America doesn't live in Washington, DC - the strongman lives in New York City! Call My people to pray for the economy."

Now when "the Lord" talks to you and tells you to do something, you sure as hell better do it! So, Cindy called "His" people "to converge on New York City the week of October 29 for an emergency prayer rally to cry out against economic collapse ... "

Oh, the Lord also told her that "October 29 was Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crashed and Satan wants to do it again."

Cindy, no slacker, cried out, "we need to P.U.S.H. (pray until something happens to avert financial judgment."

Why would god send financial judgment on his favorite people, the United States Americans? "[B]ecause" said Cindy, " ... not only for our stance towards Israel, but our blatant sin against Him in passing laws such as the one allowing homosexual marriage."

But it's not just Amurricans who have to worry. The Lord is sending his judgment on "the ideologies of nations. He is moving to put the fear of the Lord not only on His church, but upon the nations of the world."

Whew! That IS scary!


Not to worry. Cindy had an answer, a way out of the mess: "We are going to intercede at the site of the statute of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion's Market,' or God's control over the economic systems."

She gets crazier: "While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble."

So, these freaks went to the site of the bull and prayed for money.


Evidently, they don't bother actually reading the Bible they claim to revere. I'd suggest they gather at the site of a ass and have do a study on Mark 10:17-22. Methinks they might think twice about praying for money in front of a bull; actually, they might think twice about praying for money at all!

Now I know "good" Christians don't believe that the Law, which Jesus, the Jewish peasant, said he had come to fulfill and must be obeyed, applies to them; but they still go the Hebrew Bible to pull out select verses when they want to castigate some poor sinner, like a gay person.

Perhaps they should read more than one verse calling homosexuality an abomination. They would find that praying to a bull for money is right up at the top of the list of No-No's that God gave Moses - something about graven images, as I recall. Plus, there's a story in Exodus 32 which tells what happened to the Israelites when they collected all their gold and fashioned a "molten" calf. It wasn't pretty:

God told Moses his people were "a stiffnecked people." But more than that, in the scathing words of the KJV, God said, "Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them..."

Yikes!

Cindy Jacobs and her idolatrous cretins that followed her to pray before the bull better make tracks for some safe place, 'cause god is gonna get 'em! The bible says so!


Jesus Cristos! What a bunch of morons!

Did I hear a heavenly "bullshit!"?

h/t to Wonkette and Pharyngula