McCain surrenders GOP Party Platform. Includes Palin's hard lined stance on Abortion
By Jon Perr Friday Sep 05, 2008 6:45pm
In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric Wednesday, Cindy McCain seemed surprised to learn that her husband John wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned. But as it turns out, the surprises hardly end there for the McCains when it comes to abortion and the 2008 Republican platform. By rejecting John McCain's limited proposed exemptions for cases involving rape, incest and the life of the mother, the GOP's hard-line abortion banning plank echoes not its presidential nominee, but his running mate Sarah Palin.
That result was to be expected. During a July 30 interview, John McCain admitted he had "not gotten into the platform discussions." And it shows. Unlike Barack Obama, who personally intervened to help create a new abortion plank in the Democratic platform, John McCain left the GOP committee to its own devices in producing a document that is far more radical than even McCain's own draconian anti-abortion stand.
In reaching out to his party's religious right, John McCain famously reversed course on overturning Roe v. Wade. But as the Washington Post noted Monday, McCain in a May interview still claimed to support exemptions for abortions in cases involving rape, incest or the life of the mother:
"My position has always been: exceptions of rape, incest and the life of the mother," the senator said.
When asked if he would encourage the party to include them in the platform, he replied, "Yes," adding: "And by the way, I think that's the view of most people, that rape, incest, the life of the mother are issues that have to be considered."
As it turns out, not so much. As predicted, McCain flip-flopped on his position in 2000 that the Republican platform should allow the abortion exemptions. His hands-off approach resulted in a hard line GOP abortion platform that not only did away with those most minimal of protections for women's health, but called for that total abortion ban to be enshrined in the United States Constitution:
"We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children."
While the Republican Party apparently added fetal due process rights during the process of creating the 2008 GOP platform, John McCain played no part in the process at all. An astonished Chuck Todd of MSNBC Tuesday described McCain's abdication of the platform-writing to radicals in his own party:
"They made the decision not to fight these delegates here on this issue. Senator McCain, this platform does not represent Senator McCain's conservatism. He did not make it his party's platform. He made it the Republican Party platform, that he happens to be representing. Stark contrast to Barack Obama who went ahead, changed the wording on abortion, put in a line in there that made pro-life Democrats a little more comfortable. That was not done here. If anything this is as stringent of a platform on abortion the Republican Party ever has. And the problem is this. These delegates are more conservative -- I had, I had -- than, than even the ones four years ago. Than even the ones eight years ago."
And McCain's detachment from the platform of his party hardly ends there. On same-sex marriage, immigration and stem cell research as well, the GOP bucked McCain each and every time.
As it turns out, McCain's acquiescence doesn't merely reflect his weakness (which it surely does) as much as his disinterest. As McCain himself admits, he just doesn't care about details of policy; his campaign is about putting winning, and not country, first.
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The party of Change! Changing his stance whenever politically necessary.
The Theocrats are in control. The Fourteenth amendment, hijacked to confer person hood on Corporations, now will be called into action for fetuses.
I have to wonder how many American women, when they understand what is afoot here, will go along with this.
50% chance we may have to kiss our own asses goodbye.
Why am I not surprised?
McCain is being pussywhipped by Caribou Barbie and her friends.
McShame, indeed.
timothy @ 1:
While the MSM is entertaining the American public with the on going political circus, very serious storms are building and have been building in the Middle East. The spectre of possible war goes completely ignored.
Aw, c'mon. He's old. He's getting tired. He can't pay attention to everything. He needs to pace himself. But he shouldn't be crossing Cindy Lou . . . she could take the T-Bird, I mean plane, away.
Alice X - (Chomsky Nader) - status quObama - change you can pretend in - @ 2:
I hope the majority of American women get it because it is not just the right of choice that these folks want to take away from women. The Right leaning Roberts court has already ruled against women on equal pay. I try and understand the thinking but just don't get it.
I shall recc. a good book all of us should read before voting..."The Nine" by Jeffrey Toobin.
Here Palin and McCain have gone after the press and anyone else who dares to mention her daughter and her condition saying it is a family matter and her daughter has a right to privacy.
Fair enough. Too bad the far right won't give that to every woman instead of feeling it is their right and duty to legislate regarding a woman's body.
Women better get it. The next Pres. will probably get to pick 2 or 3 new people to the court.
Christians do make up for a large percentage of voters. But I hope that one issue will not sway all of them to the darkside, again.
When James Dobson said last week that he would now vote for John McCain, he didn't really mean he was voting for McCain. If, God forbid, McCain/Palin win in November, Dobson will be on his knees every night praying for McCain to suddenly die. This is what he really wants. He really wants Palin as President, then Dobson's wet dream will come true. Just imagine roving squads of Religious Purity Platoons, Religion Police, etc. This is really what Palins selection means.
Pity they are so keen to restrict the rights of others.
Not allowing for discretion is tyrannical. Abortion is a question of discretion of the mother.
Discretion being the better part of valor falls short on the nutjob right, for they believe in neither.
If we're lucky maybe the Dems have some major bomb-shoe to drop on the cons as the election gets close and we'll at least see a Nov 2006 repeat and con defeat.
Sarah Palin isn't Hillary Clinton.
The McCain campaign expect low information voters to associate a female candidate with pro-women issue stances.
While, at the same time, the more informed and frightening base enjoy the real red meat.
Please take a look at Sarah Palin's issue positions, and share them with all your friends (especially the inattentive).
Learn the differences, vote smart.
www.SarahPalinISNTHillaryClinton.com
Shocking. I'm shocked I tell you.
Actually, not shocked at all, the American Taliban have McCain in their back pockets.
You know that Edith Prickley really ran the place while Guy Caballero simply rolled around trying to look relevant. Oh- we're talking about the GOP and not SCTV?
US (State) To Take Control of Fannie and Freddie
Can't believe that Congress authorized this bail out without first changing the tax code to insure the rich pay their fair share.
C&L, I think you mean uninterest, not disinterest. There's a difference. XXOO, an editor. I wonder what else McCain would sell to make himself president? He's already sold his soul.
Trust the Yanks to give the world a gun owning, butt kidding Artic Circle Redneck who kills animals for laughs, wants creationism in the schools, is pro-war and,
if old man McBush gets elected and snuffs it, will become the Head Honcho of the planet's biggest military machine.
Why do I feel insecure?
Took this from Anderson Cooper's blog....Palin has a brother in jail...anyone know about this?
So, his differences with Bush are now:
He is...
1. Older!
2. Meaner!
3. Whiter (as in almost transparent)!
Oh, and...
4. Richer!
anything to win. so much for country first.
We won't see Palin for a while because she is getting intensive schooling getting ready for the debate. Right now she has no clue about international issues, national issues, history, law, etc. etc.
They know if they let her talk now, there would be so much video and audio of gaffs, miss leading statements, and of course BIG LIES, that she alone could tank the whole party for the next 4 (or more) years.
Her charm (gak, I just threw up in my mouth) and her conservative views have run their course. She can now only hurt herself.
I can't wait.
Alice X - (Chomsky Nader) - status quObama - change you can pretend in - @ 2:
Do you really think that american women understand ANYTHING? Most of the women I know dont care about politics at all. They have no idea how far this country has strayed from the basic tenets of the Constitution.
Looks like caribou barbie is running the show already. At least the evil one stayed behind the scenes until after the election. We must not underestimate her appeal to the rethugs and fundies. The dems have to knock her down a peg or two if they want to win this election.
I don't know why anyone would be shocked by this revelation. When you embrace, sell-out and arse-kiss your enemies the way John McCain has done with Bush and Rove, this is a minor blip of the screen of hypocracy.
Enor @ 21:
According to reports, Palin was diverted away from a fundraiser for a pro-life group headed up by Phyllis Schlafly so she could attend a grilling session conducted jointly by AIPAC and Lieberman.
The AP has an article questioning if the McCain-Palin ticket is becoming the Palin-McCain ticket. McCain had zero chance of winning until he picked Robert Z'dar(look it up)...I mean Sarah Palin as his running mate. This election has become more about Obama vs Palin than Obama vs McCain. I'm sure it doesn't bother him because of his obsession to become president. Disgruntled Hillary voters should take note, on the issues, Palin is not Hillary. 4 years of Palin/McCain means the end of Roe v Wade, equal wages etc...
The Republican ticket is not qualify to become President....We've had Eight Years of Liars and Hypocrites leading this country. We need Change from Republicans...LIARS, CHEATERS, TRAITORS, THIEVES.
mccain also wants to sacrifice lives of soldiers but does not want the rich to pay for the protection of their riches. (to take off from mario cuomo).
Q: Christian huh? What Denomination?
A: Republican!
L.A. Confidential @ 24:
That explains the Israeli flag pins the whole family + Cindy were wearing Wednesday night.
L.A. Confidential @ 5:
That, I believe, is part of the reason Ms. Mooseburger was selected. A classic case of misdirection: turn everyone's attention at point A, and they can quietly do what they want at points B through whatever the agenda is. We're seriously screwed, I say.
It comes as no surprise that John McCain is ill-informed regarding the issues. After 2000, I believe he was promised the white house. He is just hanging around waiting to pick up the keys.
I don't know whether Senator McCain became Candidate McCain or if I, like many of us, were snookered in 2000 in believing in this man.
What I do know, is, "the maverick" has jumped the shark.
We have work to do all. Much work to do.
L.A. Confidential @ 24:
Makes sense doesn't it?
We will see her in very controlled (non threatening) situations, reading speeches, etc. They are not going to risk putting her on the talk shows.
There's a lot people don't know about Sarah Palin. The main reason is that the campaign will not allow her to talk to the press. Since her announcement on August 29, she has not been interviewed once or held a single press conference. She needs to called out on this.
The Sarah Palin Watch Widget
This is a clock that documents the elapsed time from her selection by McCain until her meeting with independent reporters.
Devil with a blue dress blue dress blue dress...Devil with a blue dress on.
This woman, in my opinion, is Satan incarnate. And I am agnostic.
Would it be considered amoral for hoping the women and children of those who drafted these policies be raped and forced to deal with pregnancies that might kill them?
I'm not suggesting anyone do it, but it would be a perfect way for them to put their cervix's where their mouth is since they are such hard-liners. Would they be willing to die for those beliefs? I'd say the same thing about their stance on gays, would they be consistent like Alan Keys and disown them?
Cheney Warns Russia to Reverse Its Course
“That is no way for a responsible power to conduct itself,” Mr. Cheney said. “And it reflects the discredited notion that any country can claim an exclusion zone of authority, to be held together by muscle and threats.”
He warned that Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, if not reversed, could lead to new divisions and conflicts on Europe’s eastern borders.
The Lunatics are still in charge of the asylum. (Imagine McCain)
Forget Palin’s Jet, McCain Sold His SOUL on e-Bay
Unbridled ambition. It's a shameful thing. It sounds like McCain just wants to have the title of
President, but not really make any decisions. Can't we just give him a flight suit with a codpiece and send him to the set of the TV show the West Wing? He probably wouldn't notice the difference.
Mark @ News Corpse @ 33:
I guess that's what makes a great Republican VP...How often do we see Cheney talking to the press anymore. Was he even mentioned at the convention? I didn't watch, I got a weak stomach.
NoOneYouKnow @ 16:
What a great skit for The Daily Show or SNL -- John McCain selling his soul...and whatever...on ebay in a fund drive for his presidency. Finding no buyers, he sells privately to RNC for cents on the dollar. I want to know what it's worth.
Ron @ 29:
It's out there that apparently Joe was McCains choice for VIP. But Rove decided that would be a total disaster and a Palin type would be the winning strategy.
L.A. Confidential @ 24:
Report: Secretive Right-Wing Group Vetted McCain’s VP Candidate Sarah Palin
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/2/report_secretive_right_wing_group_v...
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about, Max, the Council for National Policy, the story that you broke.
MAX BLUMENTHAL [of The Nation] : Well, this is the larger issue, which is, you know, what role Sarah Palin would play in a potential McCain administration? And last week in Minneapolis at the Radisson Hotel, without any media present, the most powerful power brokers of the Christian right met and essentially vetted Sarah Palin. They were there to watch her speech accepting her selection as the vice-presidential candidate. And they were delighted.
The only way I found out about this meeting is through a web video posted by the Christian right organization Focus on the Family, in which they discussed attending the meeting. One of James Dobson’s spokesmen discussed attending the meeting and being electrified by the selection of Sarah Palin. The Christian right absolutely loves this woman. And so—and what I wrote in my article is that the Council for National Policy is sort of the hidden hand behind the selection.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain who is in this council.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: Right. And it’s hard to know who is in this Council for National Policy. What it is is an umbrella group of the most powerful figures in the Christian right; the biggest donors of the right wing; the activists, like Grover Norquist, anti-tax activist; people like Erik Prince from Blackwater and his family; people—
DekeD26 @ 18:
L.A. Confidential @ 41:
Winning for them i losing for us. Big time.
Paul in Boca @ 30:
I just hope that "point B through whatever" has nothing to do with Cheney's recent excursion to Azerbaijan.
McCain is absolutely appalling. He has no reasons to become the president other than wanting to become the president. Whoever he thinks will help him with that he'll adopt their views.
I gotta tell ya, I'm not seeing the "maverick."
Carol @ 17:
As a liberal I've never been more supportive of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms than I am right now. That shit was written as a means to protect people like us, those who value the American ideal, regardless of our opinion of the implementation, from people like these, who would throw it all away in the name of corporate rule and theocracy. Discard the right to bear arms at your own peril. Who's going to protect us? The cops? Not in this country they won't.
CMINCA @ 13:
Someone needs to creat an add that juxtaposes the Taliban and Republican Party...all it has to do is be seen once to do the damage.
McCain thinks Palin should rather lose a baby than win an election!
Why is Katie Couric asking Cindy McCain policy questions in the first place? What does it matter whether the first lady is pro-life or pro-choice or pro-iguana? It just doesn't matter. What a pointless interview.
TBone @ 28:
Dominionists - "a radical Christian movement, which seeks to cloak itself in the mantle of the Christian faith and American patriotism. Dominionism seeks to redefine traditional democratic and Christian terms and concepts to fit an ideology that calls on the radical church to take policital power. It seeks to politicize faith and, like all fascist movements, a beliefe in magic along with leadership adoration and a strident call for moral and physical supremacy of a master race, in this ccase American Christians." [excerpts from American Faschists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges, a Harvard Divinity School graduate and former New York Times Foreign Correspondent]
Arianna is right. We need to contact the corp media, one at a time and ask them to accurately cover McCain, stop calling him a maverick and address the extreme weakness of the GOP not only on the abortion issue, but the economy, his recklessness and his placing winning 1st, party 2nd, country last.
Select a few corp sponsors of lack of coverage and WRITE.
60m@cbsnews.com, anderson.cooper@cnn.com, letters@cnn.com, editor@latimes.com, editor@washingtonpost.com, letters@msnbc.com, countdown@msnbc.com, phil.griffin@nbc.com, abrams@msnbc.com, akmuckraker@yahoo.com, scoop@huffingtonpost.com, letters@latimes.com, nightline@abcnews.com, ftn@cbsnews.com, nightly@nbc.com, newshour@pbs.org, letters@washpost.com, letters@newsweek.com, letters@time.com, renata.luczak@comedycentral.com, tips@upi.com, fair@fair.org
Here's a sample:
When are you going to report on McCains lack of interest in his party's platform, his lobbyist laden staff, his lack of an economic plan, his lack of an energy plan besides "drill baby drill" and his laughable health insurance plan.
And while you're at it, care to report about McCain being 894 in a class of
899 at the Naval Academy? Or that he crashed 5 jets and caught an airline carrier
on fire before, inevitably, being shot down in Viet Nam? Or that the POW card can't
be played at Saddleback when questioned about cheating, about how many homes he
owns or about his taste in music to name a few.
This election is too important for 98% of Americans. Even if you aren't among
that 2% who could care less, I'm sure you have relatives, even children who
will pay a horrific price if the 4th estate is once again silent on the facts.
timothy @ 1:
LOL!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!! Brilliant
CMINCA @ 42:
The Repugs will never outlaw abortion!
They get 25,000,000 votes every national election because of this singular issue.
Different Anonymous @ 45:
http://www.linguakonzept.de/Praxis/Wild%20West%20Heroes/heroes/maverick.jpg
CMINCA @ 13:
You know, this may seem like a radical comment but is too close to the truth for us to ignore. What ever happened to separation of Church and State in this country? And how can we intervene in places like Afghanistan because we oppose some dogmatic theocratic state when these power-mad thugs in our country will enable the same thing if it will sustain their vision for a "permanent Republican majority?"
I suppose in a worst case scenario a person could just pretend their one of them.
Good luck with that
This is pretty frightening because it shows McCain is so in decline that he is in charge neither of vetting his vice presidential candidate nor of shaping the GOP platform. We can't afford another four (or eight to 16) years of putting this country on Talibamerican autopilot, with either McCain or Palin at the helm.
McCain is weak.
-Bill Maher
Are you ready for a President PALIN?
I hope he has an official food taster. He was safer as a POW.
LibertyLover @ 43:
Smitty @ 51:
He didn't set the Forrestal on fire, a freakin' defective Zuni missile was responsible for that and it's an aircraft carrier not an airline carrier. All it takes is one screw up like that an your entire message is discredited. Great idea but do your homework, check your sources and then send the email PLEASE!!!
StirFry @ 58:
And he'll be weaker still by election day. The is the guy were a tire, he wouldn't be worth recapping.
the evil-doers who foisted Palin to the precipice of leadership of the free world MUST be stopped... and by the way, has anyone seen Dick Cheney lately?...
What is Conyers time frame on Inherent Contempt charges against Karl Rove? THIS IS CULTURAL WAR!! GET THAT S.O.B. OFF THE AIR AND IN JAIL!!
Does anyone in the Obama campaign (or the candidate himself) possess the courage to seek out the cause of Don Seigelman? Why not? HE IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF POLITICAL PRISONER!! GET HIM ON THE AIR!! STAND BESIDE HIM!! DON'T COWER TO THESE ZEALOTS!!
How about the Permaculture bus, Amy Goodman and others denied their Constitutionally-protected right to freely assemble? Is anyone on this? Think its a non-starter? Or care to explain wha'happe? REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES IS NOT CONSPIRACY TO RIOT!!
Anyone preparing for the inevitable October Surprise these Repugnant SOBs have up their sleeve? What about when they steal the election? Do we get up Nov 5 as if it is merely business as usual? Do we realize exactly what is at stake here?
Sadly, ill-advisedly, naively, Al Gore as President of the Senate, and 49 Democractic Senators, accepted the 2000 results and the unconstitutional Supreme Court involvement in 'selecting' the President? THIS WAS A POLITICAL/JUDICIAL COUP DE ETAT!!
Kerry conceded Ohio DESPITE CLEAR MALFEASANCE!!
Does Barack Obama REALLY think merit will win this? Or will some proxy, authorized or not, have the cajones to stand up on the national stage and ask the hard questions?
These Repugnants are THE VERY DOMESTIC ENEMIES the Constitution warns us will attempt to destroy our great nation. WE ARE ENGAGED IN A CIVIL WAR OF MONUMENTAL IMPORTANCE, with possibly the hope of the human race at stake. Dammit, I say, TIVO, schmivo, do something to make a difference, today! @#$%^&!!! CAJONES, PEOPLE!!!
i gotta eat somethin', i'm gettin' light-headed! whew!!
[Paragraphs are your friend -- ours too. Makes you easier to read. I added some for you, so I could read it-Sitemonitor]
This is absurd. Let's just get this over with, already! At this point, does anybody (that intends to vote) really NOT know who they're going to vote for!?!
If you're seriously 'on-the-fence' now, you're not going make up your mind until you get into the voting booth, anyway, so why prolong the public humiliation of these buffoons making a mockery of the democratic process!?! THIS is what passes for a major political party in a modern 'Representative Democracy'!?! Really!?! Meanwhile, we are so self-absorbed and oblivious everyone and everything else, other countries are embarrassed FOR us.
The shining star of yesteryear, onetime role model to so many, now the punchline to so many jokes...
Enor @ 59:
hahahahaha! I just mentioned to a friend of mine today that I thought Sarah might slip a lil sumpin sumpin in McGrampy's nightcap at some point...
I'n terrified of the prospect of McCain/Palin Supreme Court picks. That' all we need. Another Alito and Roberts.
HERE IS ONE OF THE HILLARY SITES THAT WILL NOT LET GO. I BELIEVE LARRY JOHNSON AND SUSANUNPC ARE REALLY RACIST. They are devoted to Hlllary beyond the measure of sanity. As soon as Obama won, they turned their attacks on him up tenfold. Something over at this website does not pass the sniff test.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/
Life Begins at Conception.
http://bgladd.blogspot.com/2008/04/diploid-dave-et-al.html
Breaking news......
After hearing that Obama had won the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton, Sara Palin was overheard in a public restaurant loudly proclaiming to some friends, "So... Sambo beat the bitch!" .
Then they all laughed in that smal-ltown knee-slapping way that is so endearing to all Republicans.
We all forget one thing--no single branch of the gvoernment decides any issue. It's called checks and balances folks.
McCain, alleged war hero, SURRENDERED and was taken prisoner.
McCain, facing a loss in OHIO, SURRENDERS.
McCain, in a Mavericky moment, SURRENDERS his own ideals to those of the GOP.
McCain, accepts a completely unqualified nut job as his running mate, essential SURRENDERRING his oursuit of the Presidency.
Enor @ 53:
At this point, they really don't have to. They have that pretty much sealed up in the south by creative legislature created by and backed by the religious right. There are Christian pharmacists that will not even carry contraceptives in their stores. It is another world there.
Also, you simply cannot carry out perpetual war without poor and uneducated cannon fodder. I don't mean to be crass or offend, but this is definitely the stance behind this anti-abortion rhetoric.
Theres a reason Elephants are not allowed to wander around poking trunks into bedrooms, clinics and places they dont belong.
Maverick, my ass.
miss_kitty @ 65:
He found himself the winner on top of the GOP dung heap and is now completely taken over by the right. I hear and read, more and more of the neocons have infiltrated his camp.
He can't be comfortable around all those people that just a few years ( I MEAN MONTHS AGO ) hated him - alot.
No surprise that McCain had no input on the platform - the candidate doesn't speak for the campaign.
Thanks all C & L's Obama's up to 43% from 18% yesterday in rural Nebraska www.chase3000.com
Alice X - (Chomsky Nader) - status quObama - change you can pretend in - @ 2:
If faceless corporations have this fabulous personhood status, how come they get away with assorted corp crime and pay only token fines !
Surely its time some CEOs CFOs go to prison instead of paying out 100 millions of shareholders monies in fines penaltys etc.
Does the 1980 Republican convention remind of....2008!
1980 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
The Republican convention was held in Detroit on July 14 - 17. Former governor Ronald Reagan of California won the nomination for president and former U.S. representative George H.W. Bush of Texas won the nomination for vice president. After efforts to persuade former president Gerald Ford to join the ticket as vice president failed, Bush was chosen as Reagan’s running mate. Reagan would go on to win the presidency in a landslide victory over incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
1980 was a time of unease in the United States, both domestically as well as internationally. The economy was at a low point, and the Iran hostage crisis left many Americans feeling helpless and confused about the future of the country. Reagan promised to “make American great again.”
Republican Party platform highlights included promises of lower taxes, reductions in the welfare rolls and increased attention to national security.
Chicken "Hussein" Little - Not! @ 61:
Ask them to do some serious investigation into McCain's top advisors and what they have done in the past....the neocons in particular.
To be fair, they'll have to do the same for Obama, but Obama doesn't have Neocons.
Anais @ 57:
All the guy needs to be able to do is sit in the Oval Office and pick up a pen and scribble his signature.
.
All good Radical Republicans enjoy knowing that behind the mask of a dipsh!t president, LIES an out of control, power driven by the dark side, V.P.
.
sgtmajor @ 55:
I cannot take credit for the term "American Taliban". Sam Seder has used it for years over on Air America Radio. He has also referred to Pat Robertson as "radical cleric". Think about it people. Why do we label someone a radical cleric? For the exact same reasons that this term can and should be used to refer to Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, James Dobson and their American Taliban ilk. They want a Christian state. Their revisionist history of American teaches that America was founded on Christian values. Creationism, not evolution will be taught in schools. Pictures of people riding dinosaurs. Homeschooled children already believe in this. You all need to watch or re-watch Jesus Camp, a documentary by British filmmakers who were facinated with the overly zealous Christian movement in America.
L.A. Confidential @ 5:
Yes, indeed.
And by the way, just a heads up to everyone to try to catch Obama tomorrow morning on "This Week" with George Stephanopolous. 10 am EST (Check local listings) ABC.
It should be very interesting....
I'm a long time reader of C&L, but this is the first time I am posting.
I've been living in the States for 11 years now. I'm French. And gay. And agnostic. And terrified by the idea that Palin could one day control this country. I came in here when Clinton was still the President. I loved it. Then I've seen this country inexplicably take a turn to the dark side, I started to feel threaten under Bush-Cheney, and yes, at one time I was pretending being Canadian and went back into the closet. This is how this administration made me feel. When the neocons started to take the civil rights one by one to make them irrelevent, I remembered my grand-grand mother's stories about france under Petain's Vichy government. The executions. The camps. The fear. It hasn't come down to this yet, but what will happen if the neocons have 4 or more years to enact their policies?
I cannot vote, but I am doing what I can to have Obama elected.
Abbybwood @ 83:
Fill me in. I get severe nausea whenever I am near a TV Set thats on.
Written, formal PROOF that McSame does NOT speak for the McSame campaign.
All the proof needed to ensure that the message of the smear machine that Rove continues to produce has a strong KoolAide draw.. But many folks around this country believe we progressives make all this stuff up for hate's sake...
Here's an example:
http://www.gazette.com/opinion/palin_40126___article.html/left_sarah.html
Published in today's Colorado Springs Gazette during McSame's visit to Dobson....
They really do live in an alternate reality...
For too long America has been progressing towards a brighter, fairer future. This must be stopped at all costs! The first stage in arresting this appalling blossoming was Bush's 8 years. He has done his job well. The rate of progress has been ground to a halt. Only now, can McCain & Palin initiate the next stage and start reversing any progress made.
It isn't a small task. They have a couple of hundred years worth of hard-fought progress to undo.
Vote Republican and reverse all the things that have made your life better!
RB-Chicago @ 86:
Opinion spewed as facts! Brilliant!
CMINCA @ 50:
I think this Chris Hedges book is one of the best sources to go to to explain what we are up against. I am very proud to have a signed copy of it. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, GO. The man is exceptionally gifted.
who wears the pants on the repub ticket?
Chicken "Hussein" Little - Not! @ 62:
Thanks for the correction. Noted and changed. Duh.
Pierre @ 84:
This country is a mere shadow of the country I grew up in. I agree with you; concern is definitely warranted. Everytime I hear the word "elitist", I'm reminded that in a genocide, the intellectuals are the first to be discredited, then exterminated. It was the same in Armenia, Germany, Rwanda. The media in Rwanda was complicit, calling the Tutsis cockroaches over the airwaves and fueling the fire. It is very scary stuff. This is not about reproductive rights. It is about a whole agenda of radical right wing issues. Look at how quickly the clerics took over Iran? These things can and do happen.
Pierre @ 84:
French, gay and agnostic? Wow that's a pretty dangerous trifecta you've got going there.
I have to tell you, I was driving a friend of mine today whose family left Germany in 1939. I was saying "I'd call these people 'Nazis' But it just makes me feel I'd have to apologise to some Nazis for doing so. And there is no one worse than them. Who do I use?" She thought that was pretty funny. As an old lady, these conditions remind her quite a bit of what was going on in Bonn leading up to her family's exodus.
Thanks for helping.
Bon chance to you Pierre...
Charles Wilton @ 49:
you are right...who cares what mrs moneybags thinks
in fact, who cares what any woman thinks....right?
bet you sock your wife in the kisser anytime she opens her yap
Michael M. @ 8:
Obama and Biden need to make it very clear that they do not like abortion any more than the woman who is forced, for what ever reason, to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. They have to make it very clear that all Americans feel the same way.
But where different paths are taken is at the point where one group wants to demand that no American women may have the choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy and that Obama and Biden want to make certain that PREVENTION is our first line of defense against unwanted pregnancies but that if a woman decides to end a pregnancy she will do it. One way, or the other. They need to be very clear that they prefer to allow a woman to control her own reproductive health privately and safely.
If we have to bring back the ugly pictures of a mother of six children dying because of an "illegal" botched abortion, leaving those six children motherless and her dead, then so be it.
And BTW, one more reason we need a national health care system! So all girls/women can get the reproductive counseling/education/birth control they need in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies, thus reducing the need for abortion drastically.
Lies mccain has told of Obama in the last two days ... From factcheck.org:
And now he totally flips to get the religious-right vote on the abortion issue.
Creationism = ignorance. palin can only be elected by lying like a republican. Her ignorance and her desire to convert our us and our childred to total ignorance must be informed to the entire electorate, to the point they begin to understand the dangers of this ignoramus and her masters.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/05/29/2268/
Soldiers of Christ
I doubt you can link to this at Harper's anymore, but it was one of the best media pieces I've read on the Religious Right. I still have this issue. They really do believe they are soldiers in a spiritual war.
C&L - if you can post this again, please do. It is more relevant now that ever!
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 96:
Thanks! I was just wondering what my next letter to the editor was going to be about.
too bad that palin's mom
had not kept her legs together
and save us all from a backward bitch.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 96:
Great. Now let's put it in a letter format & send it to:
60m@cbsnews.com, anderson.cooper@cnn.com, letters@cnn.com, editor@latimes.com, editor@washingtonpost.com, letters@msnbc.com, countdown@msnbc.com, phil.griffin@nbc.com, abrams@msnbc.com, akmuckraker@yahoo.com, scoop@huffingtonpost.com, letters@latimes.com, nightline@abcnews.com, ftn@cbsnews.com, nightly@nbc.com, newshour@pbs.org, letters@washpost.com, letters@newsweek.com, letters@time.com, renata.luczak@comedycentral.com, tips@upi.com, fair@fair.org
Jo @ 89:
You are very lucky. I will see him whenever he is in SoCal. I agree. He is brilliant. For anyone interested. This is an interview from Democracy Now! where Hedges discusses the book. Well worth the listen. http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/19/chris_hedges_on_american_fascists_the
Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times who has reported from more than 50 countries over the last 20 years. Chris is currently a senior fellow at the Nation Institute. He is author of “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” and “Losing Moses on the Freeway.” Chris has a master’s degree in theology from Harvard University and is the son of a Presbyterian minister. His new book is “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America.”
AMY GOODMAN: Who are “these people”?
CHRIS HEDGES: These are—you know, they’re not—we use terms like “evangelical” and “fundamentalist” to describe them, and I think that those are incorrect terms. Traditional fundamentalists always called on believers to remove themselves from the contaminants of secular society, shun involvement in politics. Evangelical leaders like Billy Graham’s always warned followers to keep their distance from political power. He, of course, was burned by Richard Nixon, came to Nixon’s defense and then when it publicly came out that Nixon lied, it taught a lesson to Graham.
This is a new movement, as embodied by people like James Dobson or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, who call for the creation of a Christian state, who talk about attaining secular power. And they are more properly called dominionists or Christian reconstructionists, although it’s not a widespread term, but they’re certainly not traditional fundamentalists and not traditional evangelicals. They fused the language and iconography of the Christian religion with the worst forms of American nationalism and then created this sort of radical mutation, which has built alliances with powerful rightwing interests, including corporate interests, and made tremendous inroads over the last two decades into the corridors of power.
Pierre @ 84:
i think you need to write to the obama campaign with this
it is one thing for us libs to discuss our thoughts...quite another for someone who first came to the country when clinton was prez
it is true....this country has deteriorated over the last 8 years...and it is sad
rc @ 90:
The American Taliban Radical Religious Right.
We must crush them in this election; crush them so terribly that the Republican party either implodes or pulls back from the dangerous brink upon which they now stand. Since the days of Nixon, the Republican party has been edging further and further to the right, and today we see them teetering above the abyss of religious fanaticism. How much respect can a rational person honestly expect the party of Nixon, Goldwater, and Teddy Roosevelt to have for Quakers, Episcopalians, or Unitarians when it has fallen to Palin and her fervent ilk? By her own words, she believes God to will whatever she wills; can this meglomaniacal blasphemy be trusted to produce good policy or defend religious tolerance? Can it be trusted to be safe?
This is more than just a matter of doing our part to ensure Obama wins the election; we must destroy Palin's political future, and humiliate their ticket so badly that the arrogant billionaires who run the party recoil from this apocalyptic strategy of wooing progressively larger sections of the lunatic fringe. If we do not crush her now, do not crush the movement she represents now, it will come back. It will come back with less respect for the law, less tolerance of dispute, and an even greater conviction that only through violence, deception, and monumental corruption will it ever create the scripturally pure utopia that it yearns to mutate this nation into. We must deliver them a blow so stinging, a repudiation so resounding, that they throw up their hands and retreat back into missionary work and television pledge drives. If any media or political figure still seeks out Palin's opinion on issues of the day when we have sent her back to Alaska, we will not have done our job.
I have watched my entire life as the Republican party has pursued its slimy campaign of flattering lies and anti-social conspiracies to grasp the reins of power, and over the last eight years we have watched that decades-long campaign reach its zenith, only to be repudiated in every way possible by a free and open society. Every way but one. This year we finally have a long-overdue chance to drive the last nail into the coffin of a great political abomination; let's not miss it.
Jeon Ji-Yung @ 46:
The second Amendment wasn't written for the average citizen to own guns. It was to form a well armed militia. It's the gun freaks that that redifined it in the courts. If you feel that you should have the right to own a gun that's fine but don't use the second amendment for your argument. It was not written for "people like us".
Proves McInsane is a puppet and if we are stupid enough to let him get elected, his will be a puppet administration. Sound familiar????
Here's an idea. How's about banning circumcision, or vasectomies? Think America would go with interfering with men's choices?
Didn't think so...
Uncle Joe Mccarthy @ 103:
Thank you. And the sadest part is that I could call it quit and go back to France. However:
1. I recognize that when the American president farts, the smell can be experienced through the entire world. Fighting to make it better in the States is fighting tomake it better in the world.
2. If I go back to France, I go back to Sarkozi's kingdom. Not much of an improvement. It strikes me that Sarkozi's goal was to apply the Bush-Cheney's principles to Franch politics, and that since then, France is on a quick path to failure!
Smitty @ 101: ...
thanks Smitty. I will send emails , with pleasure.
I'm also going to point out Palin's pastor problem: "God Will Damn America".
The more we dig, the sicker this shit gets.
John McCain is seventy-two years old, he has been running for president for at least eight years. This is absolutely his last chance to make that dream come true. If he has to sell his soul to the devil, and the rest of us along with him, to make it happen, then that is what he will do. Anyone that thinks that a politicians runs for the good of the country and not for his own ambition doesn't know much about politician. The only way McCain can win this year is to get the Religious Right" to the polls in large numbers. Flag burning and gay marriage is not going to do it this time, so he picked the "Wing-nut Wet Dream" for his running mate. He thinks she'll pull the votes that he can't to put them over the top. So she has him by the balls. Either he gives her anything she wants or he doesn't get to set in the Oval Office. He doesn't care. he won't live long enough to see the destruction she causes. If the plan works we better hope that we either get enough Progressives out to stop them or we get full control of the House and Senate to keep Palin in check for the next four or eight years.
Phylter @ 108:
Great idea. But I think I can go ya one better...How's about REQUIRING circumcision, and vasectomies?
I think it's fair. It would be more equal -- forcing someone to do something against their wishes.
McCain / Palin : Which is the puppet puppet master, and which is the puppet puppet?
Phylter @ 108:
Having watched a circumcision, I support banning it. I think anyone who has ever witnessed the carving up of a newborn infant would also want to have it banned. The problem is, no one wants to look. If we force ourselves to look and really see what it is that we are doing...I guarantee most people would want it banned. It is a slow, painful, excruciating process. Better to have it done when you are older and can be heavily sedated.
Pierre @ 84:
Pierre, I wish I could help you out on this one but the polls are showing this race to be way to close. We've seen two elections stolen and I'm afraid it may happen again. This is the reason McCain picked Palin. They needed to even it up enough to steal this one. The religious right are single issue voters. Abortion. You get someone as radical as Palin, they'll rally behind her. McCain was dead in the water until he picked her. If he went with anyone else he wouldn't stand a chance. So he went with what was best for him and not the country.
ferrofluid (Obama + Biden = 2008) @ 77:
1) They do. They have rights of free speech, which means political money by the boatload, they can sue, they can be sued.
2) The Bush DoJ has been extremely weak on Corporate crime. If you have been paying attention they have been weak on a number of areas of crime, especially crime by their own.
3) They would if they were prosecuted, see number 2.
4) previously you were asking why they pay only token fines. See answer number 2.
Corporations exist to bring a profit to their shareholders.
They have no allegiance to this country or to our laws. If the cost of following the law is greater than the penalty for breaking the law, they break the law. It is very simple. It is a cost effect analysis.
This administration has been Corporate friendly in the extreme. We are in a Corporate crime wave.
Sometimes this administration has even worked hand in glove with Corporations in violating the law.
WITNESS FISA.
Our beneficent Congress has been the great enabler. Bought and paid for by the Corporations.
THE CORPORATIONS SHOULD BE BANNED FROM POLITICAL ACTION.
Who claims that Pa;in was not a member of the AIP?
At the 6 minutes mark.. DC talks about Sarah Palins membership in the AIP before she moved over to the Republican Party. The 8:40 part should be of interest also.
Alaska Independence Party - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NK2sFJebGc
The GOP Scrubbing crew seems to be slipping.
Oh Billy @ 106:
The original bill of rights states:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"
I see nothing ambiguous about it. The militia will bear arms to protect the state. The people will bear arms because it is their right.
Phylter @ 108:
Prolife already means no vasectomies and no masterbation. No tubal ligation, no morning after pill, even in cases of rape.
I wish I had more faith in John McCain that he would talk and act like the "old" John McCain, but maybe that was just a big show too. This ticket scares the crap out of me. I thought James Dobson railed against women like Palin for abandoning their children.
miss_kitty @ 112:
I was being perverse, I've had neither. It's no one's business but mine. The same should apply to women in this land of "equality".
Julian @105
Your anger is my anger and probably the same as most people on this blog. This is a war on women, a war on black Americans, and a war on freedom.
CMINCA @ 119:
And of course fundie xtians are also anti booze, anti drugs, anti gambling, anti games, anti fun of most kinds.
One fucking dreary world they live in, until they get caught doing what they preach against.
"Brad, Brad, BRAD" !!!!!!
Oh Billy @ 115:
I honestly don't believe the religious rights authoritarian types are the one that are responsible for the neocons being able to grab power. I believe that the real responsibles are the ones who don't care, the ones who will complain about their life being fucked-up, but then switch the TV on and forget about it. I believe that if the media were doing their damn job and decide to stop running reruns of American Idol or Clean House and run historical and geopolitical documentaries instead, the political landscape might become completely different. Don't forget that ignorance and its widespread dissimination is the tyrant's favorite weapon.
Phylter @ 121:
I agree. I'm just saying, refusing a woman her right to choose forces her to undergo something as painful as a circumcision, as permanent as a vasectomy.
I wonder if they honestly expect that anybody is going to obey laws that prohibit abortion? Isn't going to happen.
It seems to me that a siginifcant part of the right's desire to outlaw abortionhas absolutely nothing to do with their professed reverence for life, because clearly, that reverence ends abruptly at the moment of birth. It looks to me it's driven largely driven by clergy who just cannot abide the idea of men not exercising dominion over women, women's wombs an women's rights to order and live their own lives. It isn't about life, it's about power.
At the same time, it's about ultraconservatives/and neocons manipulating the clergy and the religious, as a class of "useful idiots", into supporting the destruction of a remaining right to privacy. Since Roe v. Wade is based in good part upon the acknowledgment of basic privacy rights, and since a totalitarian government cannot fully take root so long as any remnant of a right to privacy exists and is protected, it is a must-achieve priority objective of the neocons to eliminate that right. It, too, is a matter of power, where the neocons and fascists are manipulating the clergy, using reverence of life as a pretense. It's like big fish eating littler fishwho themselves have grown fat eating even smaller fish.
Abortion is a personal, private matter between a woman and her doctor. the right to which women shold be able to exercise or forego as the see fit on an individual basis. But the right to privacy is something that everybody should be concerned about protecting and preserving..
But theres one excitement the xtian fundies do practice, at various levels depending on their status in pecking order.
They absolutely get theirs rock off on power, and dictating how others live their lives, its an egomania power trip.
Social engineering, thought crimes, SIN, and being a hard working uncomplaining drone in their fantasy induced world.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/19/chris_hedges_on_american_fascists_the
AMY GOODMAN: On the back of your book, Chris, is a quote from your professor at Harvard, Dr. James Luther Adams, who said that in a few decades we would all be fighting “Christian fascists.” Who was he, and why did he think this?
CHRIS HEDGES: James Luther Adams was my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School. He had spent the years 1935 and 1936 in Germany working with Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Confessing Church or anti-Nazi church and eventually was picked up by the Gestapo and told to leave the country. He came back—and this was in the early 1980s, when I was in seminary—and saw the articulation of this new political religion, this religion that talked about seizing control of mainstream denominations, as well as institutions, creating a parallel media empire through Christian radio and broadcasting, and ultimately taking control of the government itself.
And he understood, in a visceral way, how when countries fall into despair—of course, this began—it was the time that began the assault on the American working class, which has been accelerated and essentially left tens of millions of people within our own country dispossessed—he understood how demagogues use that despair. And I think we can say there, in many ways, has been a kind of Weimarization of the American working class. And he saw what we were doing through globalization, what we were doing to our working class and our middle class, coupled with the rise of these so-called Christian demagogues, as a frightening and toxic combination, which, if left unchecked, would destroy our democracy.
Nuffsaid @ 111:
If they win, we ALL lose.
I am really confused. I have no idea what John McCain stands for or stands against. He is definitely not in charge. To see where the US is heading just look up the Pentecostal Church. She said she left this church in 2002, but her beliefs haven't changed. Sarah Palin is a very scary person and John McCain is being pushed out of the race by the Republican Theologians.
CMINCA @ 50:
The American Talaban wants to rule the world under their own twisted set of rules called the "Old Testiment". god or someting help us...
She is a Pentacostal, by the way. Even Evangelics and Fundamentist concider them "Nut cases."
IF they win, it will be through fraud. I hope we are all strong enough to join the civil war that will ensue.
Northwest Washington @ 130:
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/2/19/chris_hedges_on_american_fascists_the
CHRIS HEDGES: That’s a deeply Christian message, calling for assassination. You know, I covered the war in Central America, and Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell came down to support the murderous rampages of Rios Montt in Guatemala, the military dictatorship that were running death squads that were killing 800 to 1,000 people a month in El Salvador, and, of course, the Contras, whose main contribution in Nicaragua was walking into towns drunk out of their mind, raping the women and killing the men and burning the villages. And they describe these battles as essentially a war against Satan, against Satanic forces, godless communism that had to be defeated. There are no international boundaries in Satan’s kingdom, if you look at it from their ideology. I think that the kinds of the wholehearted support for genocidal killers in Central America, which Pat Robertson was one of the stalwarts, is a tip-off as to, you know, without legal restraints, what they would like to do within our own borders.
. . . if we don’t begin to stand up and fight back, if we believe that these people can be domesticated and brought into the political arena where they will act responsibly, we’re very, very naive. And we should all sit down, and as unpalatable as it is, and listen to Christian—so-called Christian radio and television to see the kinds of messages of hate and exclusion that they are spewing out over the airwaves.
AMY GOODMAN: The quote of Jerry Falwell right after September 11th that became quite famous: “I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’” He was speaking on September 13, 2001, on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club program.
CHRIS HEDGES: That’s right. And, you know, this is—I mean, essentially, when you follow the logical conclusion of the ideology they preach, there really are only two options for people who do not submit to their authority. And it’s about submission, because these people claim to speak for God and not only understand the will of God, but be able to carry it out. Either you convert, or you’re exterminated. That’s what the obsession with the End Times with the Rapture, which, by the way, is not in the Bible, is about. It is about instilling—it’s, of course, a fear-based movement, and it’s about saying, ultimately, if you do not give up control to us, you will be physically eradicated by a vengeful God. And that lust for violence, I think that sort of—you know, the notion, that final aesthetic being violence is very common to totalitarian movements, the belief that massive catastrophic violence can be used as a cleansing agent to purge the world. And that’s, you know, something that this movement bears in common with other despotic and frightening radical movements that we’ve seen over the past—throughout the past century.
The old buffoon is utterly impotent. So it's really Sarah Palin running for President. this is fantastic! talk about LANDSLIDE.
In case any wildlife lovers out there care, the jet from Alaska was sold to a trophy hunting group to bring hunters from Ankorage to Russia with plans in place to "expedite" weapons and dead (mostly endangered) animals to and from.
“The problems associated with firearms transport are discouraging many hunters,” says Don Causey, President/Publisher of The Hunting Report. “Add to that the wildlife inspection problem hunters face when they try to bring trophies home with them and you have a witches brew of discouraging factors. This service is urgently needed right now by US hunters contemplating trips to Petropavlovsk, Magadan and other hunting centers in Eastern Russia. It will be warmly welcomed, I’m sure, by hunters headed elsewhere in the world if momentum can be built behind this effort and costs can be contained.”
The new service will be available between Anchorage, Alaska, and Eastern Russia starting April 1. The start-up strategy involves the use of a Westwind II private jet Larry Reynolds bought from the State of Alaska last August. The craft has a capacity of eight – or five hunters with all their gear – and a cruising speed of 450 miles an hour. It can fly between Anchorage and Petropavlovsk in just over four hours and deliver hunters directly to a VIP Center with no waiting lines. On the return trip, hunters will be able to bring their trophies with them at no additional charge. Arrangements have been made for US Customs and US Fish and Wildlife inspectors to meet the plane on arrival and process hunters and their trophies into the country without delay.
http://www.huntingreport.com/worldupdate.cfm?articleid=349
CMINCA @ 102:
Thanks, I just watched it. If we are really serious about winning this election it would behoove all of us to watch this and know who are the real enemy we are and will be fighting.
McCain should be careful. If elected and during his taking of the oath Sarah may push him away and take it herself. John, can you say "cancer on my
presidency?" Have someone taste your food.
oh John McCain is for Change alright and he does it quickly. He CHANGES HIS FUCKING MIND EVERY FUCKING MINUTE. WTF? Is he someone we want to run our country? Forget he's a republican, geezus, does he even know how to tell time at this point? Just put Palin as their fuglie Repugs' presidential nominee and bring Karl Rove in as the VP, or vice versa. Lets stop the dance now, and just get it ON!!!
How come nobody at the Congress or Senate come out and stand up for us???? Whoever will vote for the Republicans this election deserve whatever that is coming to them.
Jo @ 136:
You're welcome. This is some scary stuff. This interview is from 2007 and look how true all of it is today. I wish people would take this stuff more seriously and realize this is not at all about reproductive rights. It is about the death of democracy.
They are going to need a lot of cannon fodder and slaves to work the factories needed for their century long war. The work camps are built and ready to go. Notice they have no plans for jobs or education for all these babies they want us to have.
Charles Wilton @ 49:
This is a substitute for the MSM asking Sarah Palin questions, they hope the public will be satisfied or distracted !!!!!
happy @ 138:
Congress people are primarily concerned with getting reelected to Congress,
thats why its important to have a team to focus and attack on national issues unconcerned with the Hill.
And they have to be hard hitting and relentless in their defense and attacks, not patronage appointees or bored slackers.
Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004 proved being weak in getting message across was fatal, theres no lower limit of how dirty or truthful in the message,
the critical thing is doing, fighting and rejecting and ridiculing every Repug point and their people, grind them down into the dust.
The public detests weak losers more than strong dirty players.
I just emailed the AP news group to voice my issues with how they provide titles to the Obama and McCain stories. Essentially they make Obama out to be a bafoon and McCain out to save the world...here are the contacts if anyone else is interested.
Main Contacts
Main Number and General Information 203-744-5100
Internet and Website 203-731-3416 bkinney@newstimes.com
Circulation and Home Delivery (203) 798-2080 (800) 354-6170 circulation@newstimes.com
Letters to the Editor (203) 731-3362 mconnolly@newstimes.com
Classified 877-542-6053 Classified@newstimes.com
Sports (866) 611-8180 sports@newstimes.com
Administration
David R. Dear, Jr. Publisher
203 731-3401 ddear@newstimes.com
Internet
Brian Kinney Senior Web Developer 203-731-3416 bkinney@newstimes.com
Marty Bailey Regional Director of Interactive 203-512-0249 mbailey@newstimes.com
Keith Whamond Online Editor 203-731-3348 kwhamond@newstimes.com
Adrienne Antal Online Sales (203) 731-3427 aantal@newstimes.com
Managers
Ron Darr Production Manager (203) 731-3413 rdarr@newstimes.com
Loraine Marshall Advertising Sales Manager (203) 731-3328 lmarshall@newstimes.com
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Rich Matzinger Controller 203 731-3448 rmatzinger@newstimes.com
Editors
Art Cummings Editor (203) 731-3351 acummings@newstimes.com
Mary Connolly Editorial Page Editor (203) 731-3362 mconnolly@newstimes.com
Valerie Roth: Metro editor (203) 731-3370 vroth@newstimes.com
Kevin Hutson Production Editor (203) 731-3347 khutson@newstimes.com
Keith Whamond Online Editor 203-731-3348 kwhamond@newstimes.com
Linda Tuccio-Koonz Entertainment Editor (203) 731-3330 lkoonz@newstimes.com
Jason Sonski Sports Editor (203) 731-3377 sports@newstimes.com
Teresa Rousseau Night Editor (203) 731-3340 trousseau@newstimes.com
Jacqueline Smith Healthy Life Editor (860) 355-7321 jsmith@newstimes.com
Reporters
Karen Ali: Courts and personal safety (203) 731-3341 kali@newstimes.com
Eugene Driscoll: Danbury multimedia reporter (203) 731-3332 edriscoll@newstimes.com
Nanci Hutson: Bridgewater, New Milford, Roxbury, Washington (860) 354-2274 nhutson@newstimes.com
Robert Miller: Growth and the environment (203) 731-3345 bmiller@newstimes.com
John Pirro Police (nights) (203) 731-3342 jpirro@newstimes.com
Eileen FitzGerald: Schools (203) 731-3333 eileenf@newstimes.com
Marietta Homayonpour: Bethel, leisure/recreation (203) 731-3336 mhomayonpour@newstimes.com
Brian Koonz Columnist/Staff Reporter (203) 731-3379 bkoonz@newstimes.com
Susan Tuz: Ridgefield, Redding (203) 731-3352 stuz@newstimes.com
David Friedman Music Critic (203) 731-3335 dfriedman@newstimes.com
Dirk Perrefort Political/General (203) 731-3358 (860) 548-9888 dperrefort@newstimes.com
Ethan Fry Reporter (203) 731-3477 efry@newstimes.com
I know I should not have had that last beer...but after the MX track today, I really feel it was necessary. Anyway, here is the email I sent to the AP:
To Whom It May Concern:
Just a quick note to point out the total fairness in how the AP news writers have provided "great" titles to stories regarding this upcoming election. I agree that making McCain out to seem Godly is a great point; considering he has alot to be thankful for ...he did bow down to the special interests..um..I mean, Chrisitan Community. Not only that, Ms. Palin has now become the biggest celebrity and the AP hasn't been offered an interview, this leads me to believe you really need to work of the titles of those stories. Maybe something along the lines of, "Harp Music Plays to what Palin Says," or if that doesn't work, "Of McCain and Obama, how old Mac Disrespected Chelsa's Mama." (I like that) But seriously, when is this organization going to wake-up and understand, McCain is playing the same tried and true games with you (rhyme)...ha..ha..., they are presenting no true information to you and yet, the AP does nothing but run around looking for dirt...on Obama.
My recommendation is to digg up Palins past (start by looking at a lady named ???), she has alot to say, but sadly, your reporters haven't made it to her yet. Then I suggest you move the Obama funny story titles to the Sports or Comedy section, at least a few people will read them and they may even have some impact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-fbcy1tRoA
American Fascists, Chris Hedges on The Hour (CBC)
Still Waiting for Palin to actually step up to the plate, and field a question (without a script)
http://palincounter.blogspot.com/
109
Pierre Says:
I recognize that when the American president farts, the smell can be experienced through the entire world.
Great line there Pierre!
She's a political prostitute who stood on the corners of Wasilla waiting for the next John! He finally came around and she sold the remnants of her soul to him, even at the expense of her children.
Just wait and see. The other Johns are going to come out of the closet - one by one.
Andrew Sullivan says it best:
This [VP] decision is not worthy of a great power. Whatever skills Palin may turn out to have, however fabulous a person she may turn out to be, even if she becomes the Eva Peron of Christianism, McCain had no idea when he picked her.
He winged this. That's the critical, unavoidable, devastating point.
John McCain has demonstrated with this insane decision that he is unfit to be president of the United States. This was an act of near-criminal negligence. If he can behave this recklessly and impulsively with this decision, the idea of allowing him to become president of the United States is only a smidgen less terrifying than thinking of Palin in that position.
Whatever few doubts I may once have still had about this election, they are resolved now.
Obama has to win. The alternative is unthinkable.
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