excuse me, Ms. Palin? your hypocrisy is showing

I'm sure you've all heard by now about Obama's really bad slip up during his Jay Leno appearance last week (something along the lines of insinuating his awful bowling scores would qualify him for the Special Olympics). *Heavy Sigh*  Seriously, Obama knows better than that. Understandably, a public uproar ensued, with Conservative and Liberal pundits alike taking Obama to task for the offense.

Naturally, Sarah Palin had to put in her two cents. On Friday, a day after Obama's comment was heard, Palin commented,

“I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics, This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world.”

I believe that actions speak louder than words. Let's take a look at what Palin's done for the "world's most precious and unique people."

• In 2008, Ms. Palin vetoed $275,000 in Special Olympics Alaska funds. Source (from the AK gov't)
  
• Palin has decided to join the other GOP governors in rejected some of the stimulus money. Among the funding she has decided her state doesn't need: $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students.  Source
  
• While there is certainly a national dearth of special education teachers, Alaska is particularly hard hit. They are having a difficult time keeping their special education teachers and enrollment in training programs in special education has fallen over the last few years.  Source (from the Alaska DOE)

(what is going on with the space here?  damn you, blogger!)

• Ms. Palin belongs to the party that brought us No Child Left Behind. In regards to NCLB and special education, students with learning disabilities are expected to read, do math, and understand science at the same grade-level proficiency as non-learning disabled students no later than 2014. That's because the NCLB's expectations of special ed students is the same as those without learning disabilities. And that makes sense because...?  Source (from Washington State study)

As a huge supporter of creationism, Palin knows the Bible well, right? Isn't it in John 8:7 where we find this passage--"let he who is without sin, cast the first stone"?

Ms. Palin, you are in NO position to be casting stones.

For the neocons who are wondering what Obama has done, last month he doubled funding for IDEA 

fox news as eloquent as sarah palin

From last night's post debate wrap up on Faux Fox News:

Tonight as those candidates debate, an army of internet fact checkers will be trying to separate fact from fiction, acting as judge and jury as to which candidate is telling the truth or a tall tale. While most of these sites are non-partisan, timely and useful, like Factcheck.org and Politifact, remember, they are uh...well, their facts are -- no one is checking the fact checkers. And their facts...unlike science...the facts are not irrefutable. And now to Washington.

So facts are refutable now, huh?

hey, mccain campaign! any mud you can sling, i can sling back

The REAL no-spin zone is right here, folks. If the McCain campaign wants to go negative, the Obama campaign has plenty of ammo. Let's talk domestic terrorism*, shall we?

The McCain campaign, through the Pitbull-with-Lipstick, wants to bring up all sorts of exaggerations about Obama's connection to Bill Ayers, a man known for education reform and his ties to the Weatherman group (in the most simplist terms, it is a leftist movement known for bombing federal buildings during the 70s in protest of the Vietnam War). So, somehow Obama, who was 8 when these bombings happened and was certainly not in cohoots with them, is somehow tied to the Weatherman group because he worked with Ayers on education reform and happened to live 3 blocks from him in Chicago. Hmmm...that's quite the leap.

So, according to Palin, this indicates that Obama is "palling around with terrorists."

Let's take a Palin-like leap here and talk about domestic terrorists. When I hear domestic terrorists, I think Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph (responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing and the Centennial Park bombing at the Atltanta Summer Games in 1996, respectively). You know what else Eric Rudolph bombed? Family planning clinics. He killed several innocent people with those bombs too. You know, 'real Americans'.

And how does McCain feel about violence against family planning clinics?

• McCain voted against the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), which makes it a crime to forcibly interfere with women's access to reproductive-health facilities.
  
• McCain voted to allow perpetrators of violence or harassment at reproductive-health clinics to avoid paying the fines assessed against them for their illegal acts by declaring bankruptcy.
  
• McCain said he opposed Colorado’s “Bubble Law,” which prohibited abortion protesters from getting within 8 feet of women entering clinics [Denver Post, 2/27/00]. The law was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
  

For sources and more examples of McCain's anti-choice record, check this out.

It's one thing to pal around with domestic terrorists who have since changed their ways and become community activists. It's a whole other thing to use the law to support domestic terrorists for the sake of pandering to your base.

*Also, this whole 'terrorism' crap Palin's spewing?  It's totally the politics of fear.  When will the GOP learn that voters are over that sh*t?

tales from the obama campaign front lines: male PUMAs? they do exist!

Last week, I volunteered again for the Obama campaign. Latinos for Obama volunteer night is on Tuesdays and because of my work schedule, I had not been able to participate before. But I was free last Tuesday, so I walked into the Arlington office hoping to put my Spanish language skills to good use.

I worked the phone bank again. As I was getting my assignment, I saw NotFunny from my first volunteer experience and we greeted each other like old friends. Between my first volunteer experience and my latest, I noticed that much had changed. First off, there were a lot more people available to canvass. Secondly, there were tons more volunteers! The phone bank had tripled in size and every phone was manned by a volunteer. This was definitely an encouraging development. And the diversity of the volunteers was inspiring. It was so wonderful to see people from all different backgrounds and ages and skills coming together to help elect Obama and turn VA blue!

My job that night was to call likely voters (most of them were Spanish-only speakers) and determine who they were leaning towards voting for. Of all the calls I made, only 3 people were voting for McCain and those who had already decided to vote for Obama felt very strongly about doing so (I spoke to lots of Undecideds). I sat and listened to a few women going on and on about how McCain is just like Bush and how upset they are about Palin and how she's significantly set back the feminist movement. I could completely relate to how they were feeling and encouraged them to put their anger to good use by volunteering or donating to the campaign.

Of the three McCain supporters, only one of them was nice to me (one of them hung up on me after telling me she was voting for McCain and the other one said in Spanish, "I could never vote for a Black man.") He was a Democrat, originally from Arizona, and a former Hillary supporter. He explained how he had been a lifelong Dem and was pulling for Hillary during the primaries and was disappointed when she ended her campaign. The PUMA said, "You know, Obama hasn't really convinced me to vote for him, so I'm going to vote for McCain." In the background while he was explaining his position, I could hear someone chanting, "McCain sucks!" I wasn't sure what was going on.

The PUMA explained, "You might want to talk to my wife though. She's voting for Obama." She wasn't on my phone list, but I asked the PUMA to put her on the phone. PUMA's wife got on the phone and, before I could say anything, began to go on a rant about how McCain is just like Bush and Palin is a complete joke. I patiently listened to her rant (as I've been known to go off on plenty of my own) and didn't say a word until she asked me, "Why are you calling here again?" I told her I was an Obama campaign volunteer and I was just doing some surveys. At this, PUMA's wife got really excited. "I'm so happy you're doing this!" she said. "We've got to make sure Virginia goes to Obama." I assured her that there were many like-minded individuals who were fighting the good fight and I encouraged her to join in either by volunteering or donating. She responded, "You know what? I'm going to donate right now!  And maybe I can still convince my husband."

I can't tell you enough how rewarding it is to volunteer for the campaign. I've met many passionate individuals who feel the same way I do that change is really what America needs right now and the REAL candidate for change is Obama.

As we're going into the home stretch (4 weeks left until election day!), things are going to get ugly. The McSame/Vagina campaign has already announced that they intend to attack Obama's character over the next 4 weeks (Palin already did so by linking Obama to terrorists this past weekend, using the politics of fear tactics perfected by Karl Rove and his chronies) in order to distract voters from the real issues. I honestly hope that Americans can see through the ruse.

Still, nothing is going to stop me from volunteering for the campaign again. In fact, I just might face my fears head on and actually canvass the neighborhoods this weekend. Wish me luck!

palin: open mouth, insert foot, endorse obama

One day, I'm going to stop blogging about VP nominee Sarah Palin. But as long as she continues to appear on TV saying stupid things I am going to be more than happy to point them out.

Last night in the latest installment of Couric's month-long interview with Palin (seriously, will Katie ever stop talking to her?), Palin said this regarding Dem VP Nominee Sen. Joe Biden:

I’ve never met him before, but I’ve been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, second grade.

Joe Biden is 65. John McCain is 72. I'm assuming she's been hearing McCain's speeches since she was in her mother's womb.

Here is Katie Couric calling Palin out on that comment:

You have a 72-year-old running mate, is that kind of a risky thing to say, insinuating that Joe Biden's been around awhile?

And Palin's response:

Oh no, it's nothing negative at all. He's got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we've been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years.

So basically, voters want new energy, a new face, and new ideas? Voters don't want all of that experience, all of those years in the Senate, and being a part of the Washington establishment crap.

Gosh, darn it. Sounds to me like she just described Barack Obama.

'gotcha' journalism and how the GOP must put an end to it

I see the Republicans have a new catch phrase. 'Gotcha' journalism. If you watched This Week with George Stephanopolous this past weekend (yeah, some people go to brunch; I spend my Sunday morning's absorbing political news for breakfast), McCain was the featured guest and Georgie asked McCain about an encounter poor, little Palin had with a VOTER (yes, voter...not a journalist, not a pundit, maybe not a blogger):



Here's a video of Palin's latest interview with Couric, this time with McCain as interview proctor (gotta keep those 'gotcha' moments to a minimum, you know):



And suddenly the term 'gotcha' journalism is born. From what I can gather, 'gotcha' journalism means that a media person asks a question which is meant to purposely stump the person they are interviewing. So, in this case, the voter stumped Palin on her foreign policy stance on Pakistan (who responded pretty much like so: hey, we've got to do what we need to do to protect America from terrorism--I believe this is memorized talking point #11). Kinda like how Katie Couric stumped Palin on foreign policy and the economy during her various interviews with her (still trying to figure out how the bailout will help health care reform and I'm hoping Palin will explain that during the debates). And how Charles Gibson did the same (but she can see Russia! From Alaska! And that's why she is experienced in foreign policy!).

Except the voter who shouted out the question to Palin is not a media person. He's not a newscaster or a journalist of any kind. Just your Average Joe with a question about a candidate's view on a particular policy. If the average voter can stump Sarah Palin, I think that says a lot about how little she knows about anything outside of the talking points she has so obviously memorized.

I have a suggestion for the McCain campaign. Since they are SO against 'gotcha' journalism that they even had to create a term for it, how about you just avoid it all together? If Sarah Palin were knowledgeable of the issues that any VP candidate would be expected to know, then you can avoid this whole 'gotcha' journalism phenomenon. It's that easy.

Basically, Palin needs to know what she's talking about. Since that has not been the case since she became the nominee, now she has to CRAM, BABY, CRAM! Hurry up and memorize those catch phrases, Sarah!

Since she's clearly NOT qualified to even be the VP nominee (let alone hold that office), those 'GOTCHA' moments are here to stay. And I personally I'm looking forward to more during the VP debates.

if you can't take the heat, get OUT of the race for president

Damn you, McCain! I had this nice little post for today about why I wasn't going to vote for you but then you go ahead and did what you did yesterday and now I need to vent.

So, apparently the media and McCain are on the outs. I believe it all started when his campaign declared that Palin wouldn't speak to the press until they showed her some respect (so many weeks later, I'm still laughing my ass off over that one). And then it continued with a statement against the NY Times and how it's Pro-Obama and Anti-McCain and how dare it call itself a news source. Hey, cut the NY Times some slack for reporting the truth about McCain's lobbyist advisors. The truth hurts, doesn't it, GOP?

AND then the McCain campaign successfully lobbied (word seems appropriate here) to get a stricter format for the VP debate--structured questions, little time for rebuttal. Hmm. So Gov. Palin is ready to lead this country but she's afraid of getting into a war of words with Sen. Biden? But I thought she had so much experience, more than any senator, what with her being mayor and governor and in charge of the Alaska Reserve. And let's not forget her crash course in foreign policy this week. How could she be afraid of debating Biden now?

AND NOW, McCain wants to suspend his campaign and postpone the debates  in order to flock to Washington to fix the economy. Really? Isn't this the same man who said the fundamentals of our economy are strong? Isn't this the same man who has missed over 60% of his votes in Congress this session? Suddenly, he wants to interject his wisdom into the economic bailout plan that Congress is trying to work out (yup, the same plan he admitted to not having read two days ago). He's not even on the Senate Banking Committee.

So, right now, with 5 weeks left in this crucial election, McCain wants to stop campaigning (save that interview with Katie Couric last night and his appearance at Clinton's Global Initiative meeting today) and stop talking about the issues so he can singlehandedly save the economy? According to those already working to solve the crisis, McCain wouldn't be much help:

"We are pleased to report we are making bipartisan progress on a rescue proposal for our financial markets," said Chris Dodd and Sen. Chuck Schumer in a joint statement. "During these discussions, we have received significant cooperation and constructive feedback from the other side of the aisle -- with one notable exception. Apart from his unproductive criticisms made from afar, we have heard nothing from Senator McCain on these critical issues. Now is certainly not the time for him to inject presidential politics into these delicate discussions."

Couldn't he just hop on one of Cindy's planes and fly to Ole Miss after he votes? I'm confused as to why McCain couldn't save the economy and show up just in time for the debates. Can the man not multitask?

If he can't attend the debates, perhaps Palin can take his place.

Oh right, she's only had two media interviews (besides the Gibson and Couric interviews, I know that she spoke to Sean Hannity of Faux News but his bending over for her to spank does not an interview make). How can Palin not be media ready right now? How much of a delicate little flower is she if she must be so protected from the Big Bad Media? I thought she was a pit bull with lipstick. Well, she's not ready so NOW McCain's camp says, we must postpone the VP debate too! Oh lordy. Whatever happened to the Straight Talk Express?

Hey, McCain and Palin: GROW A PAIR. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the damn presidential race. It's only going to get worse if you're in office (heaven forbid).

Still, despite my frustration, I have to admit that nothing makes me happier than a GOP campaign imploding.

confessions of an obama campaign volunteer

Not sure if you've noticed, but I've been really fired up about the elections lately. I've been having a hard time getting over all of McSame's lies in his commercials which seem to air every 10 minutes and just Palin in general (there is nothing about the woman that I admire and please don't give me the "hooray for working mothers" speech because people seem to forget that Hillary was a working mother too and yet the two women have nothing in common).

So, after stewing in my own anger over the last few days, I finally decided to do something positive with my negative energy--I volunteered for the Obama campaign.

To give you an idea of why this was important to me, I should preface my story with the following:

I have never donated to a political campaign before.
I have never volunteered for a political campaign before.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into before I actually went out and did it. But all nervousness and fear of any less-than-perfect experiences in political volunteerism aside, I rushed over to the Arlington campaign headquarters last week to do whatever they needed me to do.

They needed me to make some calls. I give good phone (take your minds out of the gutter) so I felt comfortable giving it a shot.

I sat at a table of fellow Obamabots (hey McSame/Vagina '08 supporters! you wanna use that word as an insult? well, I'm taking it back!): two older women and a gentleman with an ObamaPride shirt on. ObamaPride boy was clearly a long time Dem and had lots of useful information about past elections. One of the older women, let's call her NotFunny, kept on saying under her breath between calls, "This election is not funny any more." I don't remember it being funny in the first place, but NotFunny was so clearly angry about all the lies coming from the McSame/Vagina camp that she just had to do something. Apparently, she had been volunteering for weeks.

The other woman has a special place in my politically cynical heart. I'll call her MyHero because she is a DC resident and stay at home mom who had seen one too many negative McSame ads that day and, after watching one, she got up, looked for the local VA Obama headquarters and metro-ed over to offer a hand. When I showed up at 5 pm, she had already been at the phone bank for 4 hours. When I left several hours later, she was still there.

MyHero showed me the ropes and ObamaPride fed me the information. And while I had a script to follow, I felt more comfortable giving it a personal touch. Not every call went well. I had a couple of hang ups the minute I revealed myself to be a volunteer for Obama. However, the tons of people I spoke to who were passionately supporting Obama more than made up for the random hang ups.

Several calls stand out to me now. There were a number of people I called who had previously identified as Democrats who were now unsure of whom to vote for. They were all women and were all pro-Palin. Seeing as that Palin is anything but remotely liberal, I kinda questioned their dedication to the party to begin with. But for whatever reason, they were confused because McSame had thrown Palin into the mix.

I reminded them that the election should be about the issues, not the impressions candidates give. I tried to answer their questions to the best of my ability. And I hoped I helped them come to a conclusion they felt comfortable with. I'd hate for anyone to vote for someone because they can relate to them personally and completely ignore the issues for which they stand. What can I say? I'm an idealist.

My final call was by far the best. The person answered the phone by saying, "What are you trying to sell me?" I was shocked, and stuttered, "Uh, nothing. I'm not asking for money." She replied in a very unfriendly manner, "What do you want?" And then I gave her my speech, saying who I was and what I had hoped she would do. With MyHero looking on, the caller replied, "Well, are you going to thank me for my donation to the campaign?" I thanked her profusely despite the fact that I didn't know she had donated until she mentioned it.

And then, her tone changed. She began to tell me how frustrated she is with the dirty campaign McSame's running and how she just had to donate (several times) because she was so mad. We talked for several minutes about what we did for a living and where we were from and where we went to college and what to do in Arlington for fun. Turns out, she is from Southern California and had attended USC (eek! a fellow Trojan!). She had recently moved to Arlington and was missing big city life. And she was livid about the elections and wanted to do anything she could to get Obama in office.

I convinced her to come in and volunteer with me in the phone bank and to canvass Alexandria over the weekend. The call ended much better than it began.

After that call, it was hard to leave but Jesse was waiting for me outside. I said my good byes to MyHero, ObamaPride, and NotFunny and told all of them, "I'll be back again soon."

I've convinced my assistant at work to volunteer for the campaign and she canvassed this past weekend. I've already signed up for various activities like phone banking, translating, reaching out to Latino voters, and post card making. Yeah, it's a lot of time but it's so worth it.

I'm fired up about this election and I feel as though I finally have the power to do something about it.

This may be my last post of the week. I'm leaving for the US Conference on AIDS and will be out of town for until Sunday. If I don't respond to any comments right away, I will do so as soon as I can.

so much for hard hitting journalists! the media turns wussy for palin

The media has been sucking big time this election.  Sarah Palin has decided to end her media silence and sit down for an interview with Charlie "Looking for Knee Pads Now In Order to Kneel Before Her Majesty Palin" Gibson.  If I were you, I'd skip that crap just so that ABC won't get the ratings win they are hoping for.  I'm sure the toughest question Gibson will ask her is: What is your favorite gun for hunting?

It's funny how the Right accused the media of liberal bias when they accused journalists of drinking the Obama Kool Aid.  They all seem to be drunk on Sarah Palin.  Oh no! The media can't interview her until they are ready to show her some respect.   Yeah, honey.  I'm sure Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (in case Palin hasn't been prepped yet on these people, they are the leaders of Venezuela and Iran respectively) are ready to show you some respect should you become leader of the free world (God forbid). 

My co-worker and I recently noted that the only unbiased journalism we've seen as of late is on The Daily Show (their mockery of Obama's nomination video was awesome).  I don't know about you, but that's pretty pathetic.  Fortunately, I am knowledgeable about politics enough to be able to separate the fact from fiction on a comedy news show.  I'm not sure if I have enough confidence in the rest of the viewing public.  The following videos (although very funny) are pretty good at getting the facts down. 

Just skip to the 3 minute mark on this one.




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Oooh...this one is REALLY good.




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You know, one day this blog will go back to light-hearted fair instead of being a cheap imitation of Wonkette.  I promise.

But until then, I'm mad as hell and I'm not taking it any more.  I've decided to turn my negative energy into something positive.  I'm volunteering for the Obama campaign!  Tonight!  If you're pissed too, I encourage you to do something positive for the campaign.  I refuse to let McSame/Vagina '08 win.

another day, another reason to hate sarah palin

Feminism has become such a subjective term recently.  According to Websters, feminism is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.  Back in the day, I didn’t consider myself a feminist because I always thought women were better than men so why should we be equal when we should get more?  Despite probably being alone in my just-stated theory, I began to realize that women are so far from being considered a man’s equal that perhaps I should focus on equality first before going for ‘more.’  And thus, a feminist was born.

Since the nomination of Sarah Palin as GOP VP candidate (BTW, has anyone heard from McCain lately?  Seems to be all Palin, all the time lately), the Republicans have usurped the word ‘feminist’ for their own purpose to promote Palin as a woman for all women (for the GOP, a feminist is someone with a vagina).  Except she’s not.  A feminist, that is.

Some people out there think that feminism, as the liberals define it, is about abortion rights.  I say to those people who feel that way that your view is short sighted.  It’s not about securing a safe abortion for all women who want one.  Feminism, if it relates to abortion, is about choice.  Women have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies, make their own choices over how often to reproduce and how to plan a family (if they want one).  NO ONE questions a man’s control over his penis.  NO ONE.  How is it fair that a woman’s control over her reproductive organs is fair game for criticism and control?  Sarah Palin is against all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest.  How is this woman a feminist when she is denying victims of rape and incest control over their own bodies (thus allowing the rapist to win)?

Feminists are fighters.  It’s about standing up for what you believe in (in this case, equality) and promoting equal rights for women.  Yet, there is Palin, standing next to John McCain as his VP candidate and staunch supporter.  John McCain is the same man who called his wife a ‘cunt’ in public and opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act , a law that is supposed to protect women and racial minorities from pay discrimination.  McCain’s rationale for his opposition?  Women just ‘need more training’.  Right, McCain.  Just like your VP candidate, maybe?

Speaking of fighting (and training), where has Palin been lately?  She came out swinging with her acceptance speech, criticizing community organizers (if Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive, I’m sure he’d be offended by her remarks) and Democrats in general.  Yet she didn’t offer one constructive solution to the nation’s problems (except DRILL, DRILL, DRILL).  And since then, she’s been in seclusion.  No interviews at all except with the hard hitting journalists of People magazine.  The McCain campaign said she would talk to the media when the media was ready to show Palin some respect.  HA!  If all the candidates felt that way, we’d have no interviews.  So it’s ok for the male candidates to take the hard hitting questions with no respect, but Palin can’t take the heat?  Her avoidance of the press is kinda wussy and very antifeminist.  Can you imagine if Hillary had gone into hiding when she cried during the primaries, facing all that criticism?  Despite all the sexism Hillary faced during her campaign, she never avoided the media.

Speaking of sexism, feminists fight it every day.  Instead of denouncing it, Palin is going with it.  According to the right wing media, being a working mother, being beautiful, wearing skirt suits instead of pant suits all qualify you for office.  I’m sure Condi Rice might have something to say about that. 

Right now, Palin is all appearances and no substance.  Palin may appear to be the GOP definition of a feminist.  But she certainly doesn’t act like one.