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You are right about the hot racking. That would SUCK!
http://www.oklahomavets.org/
That said, Obama still has my support. (As long as he doesn't select Sam Nunn as V.P. - see above link)
It would seem to me that it is in ALL of our best interests to support OUR RIGHTS first and foremost, then our nation and then the party.
Problem with this is that none of us will ever make any of "these" women vote for Obama and we should just realize that now, however there are many women who still are in possession of their brains who just might consider voting for the O-man.
So what do we do? We talk to everyone we know about who McCain REALLY IS and cite what he has said, when and where. Be specific because there are many folks out there that are from a different age and they don't realize just how crucial Roe V Wade is for EVERYONE, not merely women. Roe is about civil rights for us all; women, men, gay, lesbian, straight, or transgender; it is about having a say over what we all do in the privacy of our homes.
So let's get moving!
Destruction of women's ability to control their reproductive choices fits nicely with the general
destruction of human rights that has been the centerpiece of Fascist rule.
Perhaps you don't understand the crucial nature of Roe and that it is not merely about abortion, but about all of our civil rights. I know you and many others don't trust McCain and that only shows that you do have smarts, BUT that man would and will do anything for power. Couple that with his limited intelligence and you have one dangerous man.
And it is the dangerous man/woman of whom we should all be wary!
BO isn't the perfect candidate for liberals. His support of the FISA bill proves this. But his campaign is well run and they are making efforts to build safe majorities in the Senate and House and in state legislatures. That is just the kind of leadership we need. We don't need perfect right now when we have had a decade of psychotic Republican leadership.
I have no idea what McBullshit believes in from one day to the next, but he has provided no evidence whatsoever of any vision for changing direction on economic policy, foreign policy, climate change and on and on.
I had forgotten about that horrible sodomy law.
Molly Ivins used to tell a great anecdote about that bill:
After yet another unsuccessful effort to modify the Texas sodomy law, the authors of a successful amendment were slapping backs and high-fiving. A voice from the press box said, "Sergeant, you must go over and reprimand both those men. Because under the amendments just passed by them, it is now illegal for a prick to touch an asshole in this state."
I have stopped giving him money until I see how he votes next week on FISA, but I will vote for him come November and to suggest that this man is some sort of criminally aberrant liar is just plain absurd.
Will he let us down if he votes the way he has suggested on FISA? Hell YES, but there is far more to the guy than just that and the prospect of a John McCain Presidency is enough to make me stand up and vote for Obama this very minute. So remember that there is much more at stake than this one vote, although it will most definitely make me look at the man differently.
This isn't just about immunity; it's about giving away our protection against an abusive government. This isn't just "this one vote"; this is a defining decision that he is making. He is choosing votes over freedom. I've had enough of that kind of crap. To my great disappointment, he's proved himself to be just as untrustworthy as the rest of the pack. I only wish I'd known sooner so I wouldn't have made the online donations. I promise there'll be no more. I probably won't vote in November. Obama looked way better than McCain, but I see now that it was only a facade. Underneath is the same say-anything,-do-anything,-so-long-as-I-win mentality. Obama just hides it better than the old fool.
You don't have to "wait and see" how he votes. He clarified his position today.
It's about the total package and at this point the scales are heavily in favor of Obama.
Sure, McCain is a total phony, and doesn't deserve to garner a single vote, but our guy just took a giant step in his direction. Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to say that, since I'm an Arizona spy! Funny how the rats turn on on another when the big foot kicks the cage. Watch your back, Polly. Don't criticize the Chosen One, or someone may ask to see your papers too.
I don't think you will get banned, look at Busboys score. But You will get pinned as a Troll, or working for McCain...
And very soon after the election of Big Love the Chosen one Oboma if you speak out you will likely be next to me and my family in a re-education camp.
You may not like Obama, but at least the Democrats (or what is left of them) are far better than anything the Republicans have or can offer.
Remember, THEY are the ones building those lovely little camps you speak of, not the left.
"For a price I will do almost anything, except pull the trigger, for that I need a really good cause." Operation Mindcrime
I can understand how the phone companies were easily convinced to help out. It was a horrible time for America. It was so bad people thought Bush was doing a good job.
Do you mean that McCain will take the lead? Or that Hillary will come forward at the last minute and run instead of or with McCain? Or do you mean that the Republicans will somehow slurp up the very essence of all Democrats in one gigantic Rovian gulp?
URP...
it would probably be Mitt...his physical prettiness appeals to the GOPers.
Anyone who questions the decisions of the candidate must be a spy. That's a very comforting position to take when the candidate is letting us down. Just adjust your blinders and cry Witch when one of the faithful suggests that the emperor has no clothes. Whatever you do, don't think independently. Don't read what Obama said today. Don't ask yourself, "is my goal a Democratic president even if he is happy dicing the constitution in the same way that Chimpy and Darth have been doing for the past 8 years?".
So long as you avoid self-examination, and stick to loyalty checks, you won't have to face the fact that our guy just spit in our faces. Kool-Aid anyone?
I tell you, even Wes Clark lied for Hillary -- and that really disappointed me. I guess he is a typical politician -- I didn't see him that way before. But I do now.
It astounds me that both Clintons (but mostly Bill) are behaving so childishly: "Pay off my debt, from continuing my campaign long after I lost." Give me a break! So what if her debt wasn't paid off? (To herself, that is.) She would still be a multi-millionaire. They are spoiled brats -- never grew up. Oh, Bill doesn't want ANYONE to kick him off the "No. 1 Democrat" stage. Sorry, Bubba -- you're off now. Live with it.
The vast majority of Americans either HAVE children, or HAVE HAD them. These folks don't want to see an adult act like a child. And the rest -- adults who have no children SURE don't want spoiled brats underfoot.
OK, you catch my drift about the Clintons. As to their female supporters who are "so hurt?" Grow the F up. All of you. I swear! Does this phenomenon happen in other countries?????
Most of the things I hear lately have been no-brainers. Everyone who votes should know the truth. It isn't hard to figure out.
What is wrong with America???? It is in VERY bad shape.
The problem is how to get the word out to women who don't read news or watch TV news channels. I'm in Eastern KY, and I wore my new Women for Obama t-shirt to see my mom in the hospital today. I thought the nurses were going to kick my ass. I was told he was brainwashing people when I tried to tell them that he did NOT want to be sworn in on the Koran. I couldn't convince them he was a Christian. I was told he says hateful things though no one could name anything. A nurse at the other hospital told me he was the anti-Christ. Most of them won't vote for McCain, and they won't vote for Barack so they're not going to vote at all, even though they know full well that things will get worse under McCain.
We aren't dealing with logic here. We're dealing with suppressed racism. They will swear up and down that they don't care that he's black, but they still aren't going to vote for him because of [insert Republican talking point here] but they get so intense about it that it's obvious is IS because he's black. I don't know if "choice" is going to matter to people who have that view. You won't find them protesting at an abortion clinic, but you aren't going to find them inside one, either.
It's not just a Southern problem. The same conversations are going on in working class neighborhoods on the East Coast, in the Mid-West, almost anywhere people struggle for a living and either don't think about or don't question religion. They're the ones that will latch on to the "elitist" or "Muslim" tags and hold on for dear life.
This is completely uncharted territory, and I don't think normal election dynamics are going to be in play. Obama can't afford to write these voters off. He needs to start talking to them now - there's a lot of ground to cover.
Most people live in a state of feeling powerless an being overwhelmed. They barely made it through high school if they finished at all. The bottom 60 percent of every high school graduating class becomes Middle America. Maybe they took vocational course to learn a skill, but that's not the same as an education. They've got a house full of poorly behaved kids and or grandkids, laundry to do, bathrooms to scrub, groceries that provide little nutrition to buy, bills they can't pay, a car that needs repairs, they work 10 hours a day for very little money and they never get enough sleep, even on weekends because the kids have games on Saturday and there's Church on Sunday. They've never had a massage, the women may not even know what it means to have your legs waxed unless someone in the family works in a salon. They may never have seen a dentist, and they don't go to the doctor unless something is bleeding or broken. They are probably working with some sort of chronic pain or disability but can't retire.
If they encounter technology at all, it's a big screen TV, an X-Box or a Wii. If there's a computer in the house, the kids use it. 1 in 6 Americans can't read well enough to understand a news paper. If they vote, they vote acccording to their parents, church or union. They've never read the Constitution - remember the study they did where where college students typed up the Bill of Rights and tried to get people passing by on a street corner to sgn it? People tried to have them arrested for distributing Communist propaganda.
There's a reason that the "elite" frame works in an election. Most people are intimidated by people who are well-educated. I've been in situations where people will burst out laughing because I've used a "big word" and I couldn't figure out which word they found unusual because I didn't say anything that complex, and that's been happening to me since the 6th grade. They don't have analytical skills. They know nothing about philosophy, policy or history and they don't even know what "ethics" is.
That's why it works when the Repubs conflate 9/11 and Saddam Hussein - it takes a certain level of sophistication to differentiate between foreign cultures. Nearly everything and everyone beyond 10 blocks (city) or twenty miles (suburbs) is "other" to them. Throw in a different language and mode of dress, and they might as well be from another planet. Modern humans are taught to fear the unfamiliar instead of embracing it. They still burn Witches without any kind of proof.
They know if they like someone, they know if they hate someone, but they may not know why and the "why" might be based on complete fiction or a misunderstanding. This is the electorate we are dealing with. These are the people that inspired the Electoral College, which is no longer functioning as the Founders intended. The Founders were the elite and educated class and while they respected the basic rights of everyone, they knew that the masses wouldn't have the wherewithallto make a properly informed decision. The general election is supposed to determine the will of the people then the EC is supposed to take the will of the people into account as they choose the best candidate based on the issues. The way we use the EC now makes it useless.
Organizing on the internet is only the first part of the job. We have to figure out how to get information to people who don't watch news or read papers, and who have already been programmed with Right Wing propaganda. The Right Wing gets to them throught the church or through the radio. They're not cynical, so local organizers go out into the community and spread lies that they have no reason not to believe, because they believe what most people tell them, The lies are being spread by peers, and the corrections are coming from elites and "eggheads" that they perceive as "other" and therfore do not trust. If you try to correct them, you're being a know it all or they've been that you are brainwashed.
The whole world is paying for the failure of our educational system, and the Republicans are getting rich from it.
This election has totally depressed me. Before 2003, I was too busy working,
being a single parent, etc. to get alarmed. But what you say makes sense. And
it is totally depressing. The first thing I wanted to ask you is: What IS
"working class?" I have a B.A. and have always had to work, even when
married. When I was growing up, my mother had a master's degree, and my father had
a PhD. They, too, always had to work. Everyone I know HAS to work. (And
when I was young, most of my parents' friends were university profs who also
had to work. What is "working class"? I truly don't get it.
The second thing that got to me was your description of how deep these
peoples' feelings were. Yes, I knew they were ignorant. Yes, I knew they were
hostile to "eggheads." But that many? Yet now, I have had time to think (my
children are grown now, barely!) and I see that there ARE that many.
While I would love to stay and FIGHT for America, I don't see the
possibility of success. My whole life, I have heard the stories of people trying to
educate and change Americans. Nothing has happened in 60 years. I am retired
now, and the last part of my life cannot be as depressing as the first part.
I have to leave America. As far as I can see, it is doomed. Nothing has
changed in the last 60 years, and I doubt it will in the next 60. The last
really progressive/liberal era was during FDR's term, and what saved America
then was the GI bill, as far as I can tell. When I was a child, our family knew
many GIs who came back and got a college education, on the GI Bill. Then,
when I was in college, many who normally wouldn't have gone to college, ended
up going -- to stay out of Viet Nam. But now? Cheney has figured it out.
With no draft, few will go (or can afford to go) to college. I have watched,
flabbergasted, for the past 7 years, as hardly any demonstrations have been
held. (And if there ARE demonstrations, they don't get on TV.) Most of
America is drugged, by narcotics or their TVs and shopping malls.
Thanks for answering.
In a message dated 6/27/2008 9:49:17 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
writes:
Working class would be people who didn't go to college. Your family as you've desribed it is Middle Class - you had to work, but you had an education and probably made a fair wage and had benefits. Working class would be the people who work at Walmart that have to work off the books and use the welfare system for health care. It's clerical workers who aspire to make $9,000 a year. Factory or construction workers might make 20 or 30 thousand a year, but they're subject to lay-offs, hazardous conditions or chemicals, inadequate insurance. It would include the people who draw your blood at the doctor's office, clean your hotel rooms, wait tables and wash dishes, mop floors in schools or hospitals or shopping malls, serve you coffee or do any minimum wage job. And yes, there's a lot of them - a lot more than in the middle class these days. The vast majority of people think $30,000 a year is unattainable, while most of the people on blogs like this wonder how anyone can survive on so little. If blog denizens are that out of touch with the working class, think of how out of touch these rich politicians are. I hear people on these blogs talk about going all over the country or even the world, but the majority of people stay within a 30 mile radius of home most of their lives.
America is definitely in a trance perpetuated by TV and video games, buth that's why we have to develop more populist media. To do that, though, we need a greater understanding of the people we need to reach. Part of the reason the Left is seen as elitist is that we do tend to look down on under-educated people. We have to learn to speak their language because they don't understand ours.
will take a while. I realize the "internet generation" knows a LOT more -- and
that they don't understand how people who don't use the internet can be so
ill informed.
I am old, but not THAT old! haha I am 55, and my mother is still alive. I
have been using computers ... well since college, for research. (In the
days of punch cards!) And I have had a PC since around 1993. That is 15 years!
You are right -- with many young people using computers, there is hope. But
it will take a while. I don't know if I can spend my whole life, waiting.
Anyway, thanks for the emails.
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Q: “What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?”
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”
Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”
Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”
Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”
More here: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/m...
It is called propaganda. State owned media. Government in control of all parts of ones daily existance.
Obama holds 12-point lead over McCain, poll finds.
In a two-man contest, 49% of respondents favor Barack Obama, 37% John McCain. With Ralph Nader and Bob Barr added to the mix, Obama holds a 15-point edge.
Buoyed by enthusiasm among Democrats and public concern over the economy, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has taken a sizable lead over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the opening of the general election campaign for president, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
In a two-man race between the major-party candidates, registered voters chose Obama over McCain by 49% to 37% in the national poll, conducted Thursday through Monday.
On a four-man ballot that included independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr, voters chose Obama over McCain by 48% to 33%.
Obama's lead -- bigger in this poll than in most other national surveys -- appears to stem largely from his positions on domestic issues. Both Democrats and independent voters said Obama would do a better job than McCain at handling the nation's economic problems, the public's top concern. (……)
McCain suffers from a pronounced "passion gap," especially among conservatives who usually give Republican candidates a reliable base of support. Among voters who described themselves as conservative, 58% said they would vote for McCain; 15% said they would vote for Obama, 14% said they would vote for someone else, and 13% said they were undecided. By contrast, 79% of voters who described themselves as liberal said they planned to vote for Obama. (…….)
Even among voters who said they planned to vote for McCain, more than half said they were "not enthusiastic" about their chosen candidate; 45% said they were enthusiastic. By contrast, 81% of Obama voters said they were enthusiastic, and almost half called themselves "very enthusiastic," a level of zeal found in 13% of McCain's supporters.
"McCain is not capturing the full extent of the conservative base the way President Bush did in 2000 and 2004," said Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus. "Among conservatives, evangelicals and voters who identify themselves as part of the religious right, he is polling less than 60%.
"Meanwhile, Obama is doing well among a broad range of voters. He's running ahead among women, black voters and other minorities. He's running roughly even among white voters and independents."
SO, REPEAT AFTER ME: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA,PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA…!!!
Get used to it!
Oh , happy days!!!!!!!
Anyone who thinks overturning Roe will end the abortion debate is wrong. It will only make it an issue in every state for decades.