Barack O'Lanterns!

Have you run out of surfaces on which to display your support of Barack Obama? Well, good news! With Halloween coming up, many of us buy and carve pumpkins in a festive celebration of a holiday that no longer resembles the one that was appropriated for this great festival.

This year you can download and print pro-Obama patterns for your pumpkin carving by going to YesWeCarve.com! They have a bunch of great patterns -- I'll post a picture of mine when I've finished it (we're getting pumpkins this weekend).

Breaking: Colin Powell endorses...

Barack Obama!!!

Yay!

Voting tiiiime is heeere, brining loooots of cheer...

Our ballots, as well as my voter registration card, arrived this morning. Being the nerd I am, I couldn't wait to fill it out...

Saying it loudly, and with the most pride I've ever felt:

I voted for the person with the best policies, who also happens to be a black guy.

In short:

I voted for the black guy.

Dear Senator McCain: the policies you're proposing didn't work in Chile, either

I've been reading Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, wherein she details (among other things) the coup in Chile that deposed Salvador Allende and placed Agusto Pinochet as the supreme executive and president of everything (along with Miss Chile, and Chile Idol, as well as winner of the Chile Chili Cookoff during all 17-years of his reign of terror and mediocre chili).

Agusto Pinochet, a cruel, evil dictatorial man once he realized how much he liked power, knew nothing (or, about as much as John McCain knows) about economics. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. But, luckily for him, there was a pocket of Freidmanite economists that the Ford Foundation and US Government had paid to educate at Chicago University as a means of trying to take Chile from the most prosperous Developmentarian country in Latin America to what they dreamed would become a Free Market Utopia -- it did not.

So, after the shock of the Pinochet coup, some economic shocks were put into place... lower taxes, no trade barriers, and a 27% cut in governmental spending -- wait, whose plan does that remind us of?

John McCain has proposed in all three debates 1)lower taxes, 2)more giveaways to corporations, and 3)a freeze on spending for everything but the military.

Wanna know what happened in Chile?

400% inflation.

30% unemployment.

Those who were employed ended up spending 75% of their income on fucking bread. Having to cut back on such luxury items as milk and bus fare to get to work.

"By 1988, when the economy had stabilized [after Pinochet made a radical turn back toward regulation and taxes] and was growing rapidly, 45% of the population had fallen below the poverty line. The richest 10% of Chileans, however, had seen their incomes increase by 83%. Even in 2007, Chile remained one of the most unequal societies in the world -- out of 123 countries in which the United Nations tracks inequality, Chile ranked 116th, making it the 8th most unequal country on the list."

Before Pinochet deposed Allende, the highest unemployment rate was 3%. The highest inflation rate was something like 10%. Chileans had healthcare, free education, and were manufacturing goods in their own nation, supporting themselves, growing their economy and succeeding! But the violence of the coup and the continuing shock of the economic policies pushed on them by someone who was in complete control of their country caused them to become a dependent child of US corporations.

No, John McCain, or should I call you McPinochet, we're not going to let you do that here. This bullshit ends now.

Look at dictatorship on my own block

When I was walking home from the bus stop today, these signs had been torn down. Whomever tore them out and hid them under a sandwich board is a fucking coward. A mother fucking COWARD.

Not unlike the McCain/Palin campaign, who have no fucking ideas of their own, McCain supporters are turning to tearing down, in this case literally, Barack Obama, his family, and his campaign.

The next time someone tears out these signs, I'm coming back with two. After that, 4. Keep tearing them out. Keep hiding them. I know where to get more. Meanwhile, you don't know where to get any goddamn courage to stand up for what you believe in, so you're hiding behind the politics of destruction. Face the issues.

And I swear to god, the next person who calls Barack Obama a "nigger"* better come to my house and call me a "kike" to my face, cause I need to sit those fuckers down and give them a good talking to about white privilege, racism, and having some goddamn class. Stop calling a United States Senator and Presidential candidate by that word -- stop calling anyone by that word. It's hurtful and it's completely inappropriate. Moreover, anyone who would call someone that word is a coward. A fucking coward. Just like the fucker who tore out the Obama and Gregoire signs.

Fuck you, you fucking cowards.

_______________________
*My sincere apologies for actually using that word in full. I don't understand its full impact, but I do know that it is a very harmful word. If I have offended by using it, please understand that I say it out loud for effect, and I do so only with great pre-consideration and obvious disclaimer. I would never use it to describe anyone because, as I've stated, it's not appropriate. Again, I'm sorry I had to resort to articulating such a hateful word.

We have the power to resist fear

This article scares the bejeezus out of me. The fact that still-president Bush has first suspended the law that prevents him from stationing American military forces on American soil, and then the deployment of a brigade of 4,000 soldiers on American soil under the auspices of "crowd control"; makes my imagination run wild. It makes me wonder what they're preparing for... riots caused by the stealing of the election? riots caused by something so much more sinister that I dare not publish the thought on a public blog? Bread riots? What?

And then, I wonder what would happen to me... would I courageously participate and be imprisoned, rendered, tortured? Would I participate and fall victim to the lethal options that would be available to those performing crowd control? Or would I cower like those executing this bastardization of OUR country want me to? I don't know. I do know that I fear what would happen to me in either instance. If I participated, would I survive? Would I be held indefinitely? Would I be abused? Raped?

If I didn't participate would I run? Would I stay and try to resist whatever it is that happens next? Would I continue to cower until everything that I love no longer has meaning? Would I survive my own cowardice?

I fear these things. I fear impotence in the face of oppression. I wouldn't want to just go about my life in the event of a military coup. But the alternative seems equally frightening.

After oppressive regimes eventually topple, Nazi Germany, Pinochet's Chile, the Soviet Union, we learn about artists who resisted the regimes without getting into too much trouble because art can always have many meanings... slaves in this country developed what is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard, gospel singing, as a means of communicating with each other without their overlords realizing they were planning their freedom, and keeping each other safe in the hope that they would one day taste that which all humans yearn for.

Art is resistance. I've been seeing a lot more graffitti lately. Resistance. If something happens and there is a military coup, resistance will crop up. Artists will take to the streets. You and I will become invisible, undetectable, but omnipresent, just as the overlords, but we are more powerful beacuse we have something they fear more: hope.

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, the Day of Attonement. I, like millions of other Jews across the globe will be fasting, but tomorrow I will be praying, not for myself, but for my country. I will be praying that Barack Obama wins this election handily -- even though I know that will not be the end of our problems as a country -- because I have to hold onto the hope that so many of us have. With hope, with those three words that we pray will ring out from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, "yes we can", we don't have to be afraid.

We have the power to resist fear. We have the power to save ourselves, our families, our country, and as long as there is hope in our hearts and a song from our voices those who would seek to oppress have no power over us. Ghandi said that the only power anyone has over you is the power you give them.

Let us keep our power. Let us keep our hope. Let us keep our country. Let us elect Barack Obama so that we can start on the path to rebuilding our country, our politics, and dispelling the fear that has been wrought over the past 8 years.

Surprise! It's October!

I'm following the polls. I'm monitoring the politics in Washington. I've got electoral map info at my fingertips. I am waiting anxiously for the October Surprise. People keep telling me "well, Jimmy Carter was up substantially before October in 1980" or pointing out that the guy who ran against Poppy Bush was ahead before October too.

We remember the October Surprise from 1980. The botched rescue of the hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran -- later, we find out that people in Reagan's campaign had made deals with those who took the American hostages to make sure that the hostages weren't released until the day that Reagan was inaugurated (and that was BEFORE selling them weapons). And throughout the years, the October Surprise has been the political tac most feared by Democrats.

So what's it going to be this year? What despicable political strategem are going to allow the McCain/Palin campaign to snatch victory out of the hands of the capable and literate Obama/Biden camp?

I don't see anything that's going to make the American people change their minds about the fitness of McCain to survive or Palin to serve. We're into October now and Obama's numbers continue to climb. Short of capturing Osama bin Laden, there's not really any option here for fooling the American people into buying this load of garbage. And speaking of capturing Osama, this Administration can't find it's ass with both hands, what the hell makes anyone think they're going to crawl around in a gigantic cave system in Wyzeristan in order to find someone who might actually be dead of kidney failure?

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) suggested that the Republicans are going to use the bailout bill against Democrats, as a means of tethering the Democratic leaders in congress to George W. Bush. While possible, McCain voted the same way that Obama did on the bailout, so it's not going to stick, and while we're talking about that, Obama said in his floor speech that he's not really sure there is a crisis and that things might be fine if we did nothing, but he supported the bill because there was an equal chance that the sky would fall if they did nothing. McCain said nothing. He sat back on the sidelines and voted "Aye", even though he's "the sheriff" who despises pork (and there's some $150 billion in so-called pork in the Senate bill that he just voted for).

Moreover, Americans, as I've said many times, aren't as stupid as the Republican party wants them to think they are. Americans realize that it's been George Bush's economic policies that have got us here. Americans realize that Phil Graham, McCain's top economic advisor is responsible for this shit. Americans realize that Republicans want to do everything for the corporations -- for fuck's sake House Republicans were pushing for MORE corporate tax cuts and LESS regulation as a means of solving the so-called crisis -- and nothing for them. Americans realize that when it comes to money, "tax and spend" is way better for them than "borrow hundreds of billions from the Chinese and spend". And what is government supposed to do? Tax and profit? Hate to tell you, government isn't supposed to profit. And you're certainly not going to go without your roads, are ya? Gotta drive.

So, like I said, short of capturing Osama bin Laden (which they can't do) and putting his ass on trial (which they wouldn't do even if there was time enough for it), the only other option is cancelling the elections. In which case there would be chaos. Riots. This country would collapse over night. And then there would be nothing for the Bush Crime Family to steal, no places for them to steal from. Everyone would lose everything and we'd become a 3rd World country over night. Not even Dick Cheney in his man-sized safe would be... safe from financial devastsation.

What to say when people ask if Obama has enough experience

(Just heard on Randi Rhodes, if you don't believe me, feel free to visit the Google.)

• After gratuating from Columbia University, he was a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago for three years, before going to Harvard Law
  
• from which he graduated at the top of his class.
  
• He also was the head of the Harvard Law Review (the first black man to do so), where he managed a staff of 80.
• After returning to Chicago he taught Constitutional Law for 12 years.
• Then he was a State Senator for 8 years, before running for the US Senate
• Where he has served for 4 years.
• And he's also run the largest, most successful (in terms of number of contributors) presidential campaign in US history.

Yeah, I think he's got enough experience.

Edit: It was Columbia, not Princeton (Michelle went to Princeton). For more, take a peek at Barack's bio.

A few thoughts on polls

I have a problem. I'm addicted to politics. Even when they depress me so much that I cry myself to sleep over the disastrous policies of the current administration, I can't tune out. I'm addicted to information and I know there are a lot of people out there with similar inabilities to disconnect. Luckily, I'm connected to people like Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, and Keith Olbermann; people who care more about the truth than partisan party politics -- and all three will attack Democrats when they do something wrong; their counterparts on the right, your Drug Addled Gas Bags, Sean Hannities, Ann Coulters (anyone ever notice how the right-wing pundits vastly outnumber the left-wing ones in our "liberal" media?) don't do that. They don't. Limbaugh still supports Bush. So does Hannity. So do O'Reilly and Coulter. But that's not my point.

I begin with this rather rambly preface because I've been, through a twitching eyelid (work stress+political stress= twitching eyelid) checking in with Gallup's Election 2008 Coverage daily, despite being fully aware of their incompleteness and fallibility. And, of course, McCain got a bump in the polls during the Palin thing, proving once again, as Rachel Maddow reported last night, that McCain does well in the polls when no one is talking about him. Then the market crashed.

Since Monday, Obama has been gaining. On Friday McCain was ahead by 1. By the end of Tuesday, Obama was up by 2. Yesterday he was up by 4. And today, the Obama lead continues to increase because people aren't as stupid as the Republican party wants them to think they are. Americans realize that the economic collapse is beause of the policies of the current president, who is a Republican, the current leader of the Republican party; ergo, Americans are coming around to the idea that this shit is mostly Republicans' faults.

Now, polls like Gallup, whose daily poll calls up 500 Democrats and 500 Republicans, are not a reliable source for absolute numbers -- and it's not because of the "Bradley Effect" which states that people will tell a pollster (out of guilt) that they're going to vote for the black guy, but then go and vote for the white guy out of sheer racism; I think with the economy the way it is right now, people are going to pay more attention to the issues and less attention to the whispers behind closed doors of "did you know Barack Obama is black?" (Noting of course, that if Hillary had won the nomination, the screams about her feminine instability -- despite the fact that she is passed menopause and her testosterone levels have gone up dramatically in relation to the estrogen and progesertone levels, hormones that sexists like to attribute female instability to -- and screaming "she's a woman! what if she starts crying?!" rather than whispering about the color of her skin. The media is tainted sexist and always has been -- but the racism exists too and is much more subversive; just look at how they're treating Michelle Obama.)

Ahem, getting very rambly today. Gallup, by polling 500 of each registered party is, in effect, skewing results toward the Republicans because, while a majority of voters are registered as Independent (and in Washington, you don't register as affiliated with a party), 11% of the country are now registered as Republicans, and 30% (or thereabouts) are registered as Democrats. That means, that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 19%, making the Gallup Daily skewed because it's not taking an accurate sampling of voters.

The other issue is that poll companies like Gallup only call landlines, and most people under 30 (the demographic who support Obama by the greatest margin) only have cell phones. That means a huge demographic of people aren't being represented accurately in these polls. These two factors combined predict that Obama's numbers are actually a LOT higher than the Gallup Daily would have you believe. (I won't get into the stupid questions, because the questions pollsters ask often skew toward Republicans as well.)

So, if the polls aren't acurate, why am I compulsively checking the Gallup Daily? Because they do accurately represent (well, sort of) shifting trends amoung Americans. The poll numbers have indicated that Obama's lead is gaining momentum because of the economic collapse. The media is telling people about just how shitty things are right now, and Americans are waking up and saying "you know, things are shitty right now, and Republicans are lying to me about it not being shitty", and that results in gains for Democrats in general, and the Obama/Biden ticket in specific. (The "how can John McCain fix an economy he doesn't acknowledge is broken" ad didn't hurt either.)

The trend here indicates that Americans aren't as stupid as Republicans want them to believe they are. That's a good thing.

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton on Women's Issues

Oh Johnny [McCain]...

"We will stand on your side and fight for you," he says.

Which side of my neck are you going to stand on, John?

"We will get the me-first-country-second crowd out of Washington," he says.

That must be why he's running such a poorly-thought-out campaign.

"I've stood up to corruption in Washington."

Which is why he's stood up to George W. Bush the last 8 years and supported demands for the Bush administration to be investigated for -- oh, wait, what? He hasn't?

"[Sarah Palin] knows who she works for," he says.

Yeah, the oil companies and the Alaska Independence Party (not to be confused with the Independent party) who want to suceed from the Union.

Kudos for CodePink for getting in two nights in a row and disrupting both speeches. I can't take this Republican Party... why is it they are the biggest war hawks when Eisenhower was the biggest anti-war advocate who, in his farewell address when he left office went down a list of things that our tax dollars could be spent on instead of the military-industrial complex (a term Eisenhower coined, by the way).

"We believe that everyone deserves the right to reach their god-given potential," he says.

*Unless you're poor and expect a decent education in a public school, expect to be able to take care of your sick kids/parents/spouse without losing your job. Clearly reaching our god-given potential does not hinge on having health care, education, roads, or not being in the middle of three wars.

McCain says that he's going to lower taxes and Obama will raise them (if you make more than $250,000 a year); lower goverment spending (by following the same plan as the Bush Administration) by ending failed programs (except the Iraq War and abstinence only education); it seems to me like McCain is reading from the wrong play book... that is, he's saying he's going to do all of the things it says in the Democratic National Party Platform rather than the Republican one.

"Equal access to a [good] education has been gained," he says.

No. It hasn't. And, "help[ing] bad teachers find another line of work" isn't the way to help the education system. Giving bad teachers better training will fix it.

"We're gonna stop sending 7 billion dollars a month to countries that don't like us..."

By continuing the Iraq War?

"We've dealt a serious blow to Al Qaeda in the last few years," not, "and they'll strike again if they can," be afraid, be very afraid. "Iran..." we already know what he's going to say.

"My administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability," he says.

Our standards are pretty low. You gonna limbo under the moon, too?

Watch him play the POW card now. How utterly honorable.

Some thoughts on Michelle Obama's speech last night

I laughed, I cried. I was touched by the earnestness with which Michelle delivered her speech. She seemed real and honest, and all those who knew her said that that was the real Michelle who delivered that speech.

Afterward, Sasha and Malia (the Obama girls) came out on stage with their mom and Barack appeared via satellite from Kansas City MO. It was a little strange, I think to see that kind of a family moment in front of all of those people (their daughters are so adorable). This was a great introduction of the Obama family to the American people.

And, if you didn't see it, here's Michelle's speech

Quick hit: DNC party platform for 2008

I'm reading the Democratic National Platform for 2008 (pdf), titled "Renewing America's Promise", and I've got to say it's pretty goddamn progressive, and there are some dramatic proposals in this year's platform. I'll go over it with you in more detail after I finish reading it, but here are some of the things that have popped out at me in the first 12 pages. (All italics are mine.)

• "WE will provide an immediate rebate to American families struggling with the record price of gasoline and other necessities. We will devote $50 billion to jumpstarting the economy, helping economic growth, and preventing another 1 million jobs from being lost."
• There are numerous mentions of supporting people with mental health issues and substance abuse disorders.
  
• "We must end heath care disparities among minorities, American Indians, women and the low-income through better research and better funded community-based health centers. ... We will speed up and improve reimbursements by the Indian Health Services."
• "Research should be based on science, not ideology. We need to invest in biomedical research and stem cell research, so that we are at the leading edge of prevention and treatment."
• "We oppose the current Administration's consistent attempts to undermine a woman's ability to make her own life choices and obtain reproductive health care, including birth control. We will end health insurance discrimination against contraception and provide compassionate care to rape victims. We will never put ideology above women's health care."
• "We also will reform corporate bankruptcy laws so that workers' retirements are a priority for funding and workers are not left with worthless IOUs after years of service."
• "In America, if someone is willing to work, he or she should be able to make ends meet and have the opportunity to prosper. To tat end, we will raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation, and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit..."
• "We will pass the "Lilly Ledbetter" Act, which will make it easier to combat pay discrimination ; we will pass the Fair Pay Act; and we will modernize the Equal Pay Act."
• "We believe that standing up for our country means standing up against sexism and intolerance. Demeaning portrayals of women cheapen our debates, dampen the dreams of our daughters, and deny us the contributions of too many. Responsibility lies with us all."

It's nice to see some of my feminist ideals being represented in the platform for the political party which I support. Once I finish reading this I'll go through the important parts in more detail. So far, I'm totally excited. Go Donkeys!

McCain flagship (uh... flagbus) sporting Obama sticker

via The New Argument and Huffpo
but first heard on The Randi Rhodes Show (which also features an amusing rant about all of McCain's flipflops)

So, John McCain was in Florida this week trying to woo Jews with the help of Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) who is the Republican Veep nominee of my dreams! (more on that in a minute). But of course, while in South Florida the (poorly named) Straight Talk Express managed to do some damage to local drivers,
including running over a minivan. Lovely.

After the accidental destruction of an inconsequential "Security Mom"s gas-guzzling child-transporter, a camera began following the McBus and the images you see here were captured. That's right, the Straight Talk Express, after flipping and flopping over Florida drivers turns out to be supporting Barack Obama for president. If you're not laughing right now, you have no sense of humor.

And, from the looks of the bumper-sticker shaped discoloration on the other side of the bumper, this isn't the first time this has happened. In other words, people are so very fed up with John McCain, they're vandalizing his flagbus with the bumper stickers of his opponent. Fucking hilarious.

In regards to Republican Veep of my Dreams, Joe Lieberman there are two things that make me pray every night that he is given the veep nod:

• A McCain/Lieberman ticket would almost assuredly lose. If Big Mac wasn't gonna get creamed by Obama in November already, adding Joe Lieberman to the ticket would put the pickles and onions on this sesame seed bun of failure.
• Joe Lieberman would get creamed in 2012 by anyone (but likely Ned Lamont) in his bid for reelection to the Senate. You'll remember that Ned Lamont absolutely decimated Lieberman in the Democratic primary in 2006 because Democrats in Connecticut were so utterly fed up with this asshole (and I make no pretense at having even a modicum of respect for Joe) that they couldn't wait to vote for someone else. Lamont only lost because Republicans in Connecticut abandoned their own candidate in favor of the "Connecticut for Lieberman" candidate.
  

So, go Joe! Seek that nod! And John: he's your best only friend! Your best only chance of winning CT... and probably no other state... but that's good for everyone else.

Fucking hilarious. Keep it up Straight Talk Express...

Affectionately,
Rachel