Believe me, I do feel your pain

If you're one of those folks who is disgusted with the election of Barack Obama, who can't stand the sight of him, won't listen to him speak, and who feel completely disenfranchised by his election -- you're not alone.

I know exactly how you feel.

I spent 20 of the last 28 years (beginning with Ronald Reagan) avoiding any announcements made by a President. I would turn off the radio or TV if I heard their voices, and refused to listen to what they had to say. I didn't feel like I was living in my own country anymore.

So, yes, I am pleased that there is an apparent change in store. At the same time, I understand that one man alone cannot effect change alone. But I am hopeful.

I would just like to share these thoughts with those who now feel as hopeless as I have over the last almost 30 years: unless you are extremely wealthy, can you honestly say that your life is better as a result of the policies and beliefs of the man who has occupied the White House most recently? Are you pleased that we are involved in wars which we hear little about but that are draining our revenues? Have you or someone close to you lost a child in war? Are you really better off than you were eight years ago?

If you have any doubt that you might not be, I would suggest that you simply give the new administration a chance. You may not like Obama, but you may find he's on your side all the same.

Stunned, overjoyed and humbled

My cynicism for and about my country has been silenced.

My capacity for hope has been rekindled.

I'm stunned -- just as I was when the Berlin Wall was chipped apart.

I'm overjoyed -- a majority of American people have spoken and wonder of wonders, I agree with them.

I'm humbled. Someone I had come to loathe, Senator John McCain, spoke words of conciliation and cooperation that I had thought outside of his purview. If he can go there, I cannot continue to hold him in such scorn.

Life is amazing.

So let me say "Thank you, American voters!" You've convinced me: Yes, we can!!

Palin stylist draws higher pay than policy adviser / Evita Song: Rainbow High

Photo caption: AP –Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks to a crowd during a rally
Photo caption: Wife of Argentine President Evita Peron addresses a rally

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – An acclaimed celebrity makeup artist for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin collected more money from John McCain's campaign than his foreign policy adviser. Amy Strozzi, who works on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" and has been Palin's traveling stylist, was paid $22,800, according to campaign finance reports for the first two weeks in October. In contrast, McCain's foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500, the report showed.

McCain's campaign said the payment covered a portion of her work in September and a portion of October. An earlier campaign finance report showed Strozzi was paid $13,200 for a portion of September.

In recent days, McCain and his running mate have tried to douse a furor over how their side spent their money. The Republican National Committee came under scrutiny after the party committee reported earlier this week that it had spent about $150,000 in September on wardrobe and cosmetics after Palin joined the GOP ticket.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune and Fox News on Thursday, Palin said the clothes bought for the Republican National Convention were not worth $150,000 and said most have not left her campaign plane. She also said the family shops frugally.

"Those clothes are not my property. We had three days of using clothes that the RNC purchased," Palin told Fox News in an interview that aired Thursday night.

There was no evidence of additional clothing purchases in the most recent reports.

The Obama campaign has said it paid for hair and makeup costs associated with interviews or events, but neither the campaign nor the Democratic National Committee has paid for clothing.

***************************************************************************************
www.youtube.com/watch

[Eva’s dressers:]

Eyes, hair, mouth, figure
Dress, voice, style, movement
Hands, magic, rings, glamour
Face, diamonds, excitement, image

[Eva:]
I came from the people, they need to adore me
So Christian Dior me from my head to my toes
I need to be dazzling, I want to be Rainbow High
They must have excitement, and so must I

[Eva's dressers:]
Eyes, hair, mouth, figure
Dress, voice, style, image

[Eva:]
I'm their product, it's vital you sell me
So Machiavell me, make an Argentine Rose
I need to be thrilling, I want to be Rainbow High
They need their escape, and so do I

[Eva:]
All my descamisados expect me to outshine the enemy
I won't disappoint them
I'm their savior, that's what they call me
So Lauren Bacall me, anything goes
To make me fantastic, I have to be Rainbow High
In magical colors

You're not decorating a girl for a night on the town
And I'm not a second-rate queen getting kicks with a crown

Next stop will be Europe
The Rainbow's gonna tour, dressed up, somewhere to go
We'll put on a show

Look out, mighty Europe
Because you oughta know whatcha gonna get in me
Just a little touch of
Just a little touch of
Argentina's (Alaska's?) brand of star quality

You think they'd have learned by now

The Republicans, that is. I mean, they didn't dig too deeply into Palin's credentials, or somehow they missed the at-the-time ongoing Troopergate scandal; the pregnant teenaged daughter; the son with so many DUIs he had to enlist in the Army; the secessionist hubby history; the librarian firing incident; the travel expense fiasco. Etc., etc.

You think they'd have learned, you know, that they have to do their homework.

But noooooooooo -- now they foist "Joe the Plumber" on us. I'd feel sorry for old Joe if he wasn't cut from Palin cloth: screw my past and/or my present, I'm goin' for the Big Time! So I'm not competent for the job? Who gives a fuck? I'M GOIN' FOR THE BIG TIME!!

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/10/17/mccain-wrecks-joes-life/

This would be moot except for the interview I heard today on "As It Happens" with some woman who's still undecided, and who thinks McCain et al. have some good points. (big sigh)

Are you still undecided?

Maybe these bits will help you make up your mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAyK-enrF1g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDofbll86dY (this one is 13 min. long, but worth every second)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I5tNyvrztY

Really, vote Absentee -- please

If you think I'm a crackpot and overstating the case on this subject, check this out:

http://daytonos.com/?p=3449

Save your vote -- vote absentee

There's still time to register to vote using an "Absentee Ballot."

You don't have to be out of the country to use it; and for many of us, it's the only way to guarantee that our votes will not be hacked into someone else's favor -- or outright destroyed. You can make a copy of your ballot choices this way, too.

I've had my own troubles with an electronic voting machine, and I will never use one again ...

If you're still undecided ...

... check out this short film ...




http://tinyurl.com/6d9xqb
[sorry, folks, I'm not being able to upload actual links, so you'll have to cut & paste]

A brilliant idea for $10

Dear Friends,

Hope you'll think of lots of people who will also think this is an inspired idea!

Instead of (in addition to?) us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let's all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's name.

And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor (please cut and paste)

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:

McCain-Palin for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202

P.S.: make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate--Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular "Donate Online"

No blank check for Wall Street

Dear Friend,

Congress is on the brink of making a one-sided deal to give George W. Bush a blank check to bail out his pals - offering nearly (or perhaps more than) a trillion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street to cover its bad debts. That works out to somewhere between $2000 and $5000 from every American family. So what do the taxpayers get in return?

Nothing. No new regulation or oversight to help avoid this kind of crisis in the future. No public interest givebacks to help people whose homes are in the hands of the banks. Perhaps most shockingly of all, the taxpayers get absolutely no share in the profits if and when these finance giants bounce back, even though we are now assuming a great deal of the risk.

This is worse than a bad deal - this isn't a deal at all. This is a blank check to some of the richest companies in the world.

I just signed a petition calling on key members of Congress to impose a few sensible conditions to this bailout in order to protect the American people -- I hope you will too.

Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/no_blank_check/?r_by=944-1082230-6GHMIrx&rc=confemail

Thanks!

Truth by Repetition by Calvin Trillin

(Sarah Palin, via speeches, and the press, via news accounts, discuss her position on the "bridge to nowhere.")

I told them thanks, but no thanks, Palin said.

We'd rather pay for it ourselves instead.

But here's a tape on which you clearly say

You're for the bridge. The federals should pay.

I told them thanks, but no thanks, Palin said.

We'd rather pay for it ourselves instead.

You weren't opposed at all until the day

That Congress made that project DOA.

I told them thanks, but no thanks, Palin said.

We'd rather pay for it ourselves instead.

And then you thought it perfectly OK

For you to take the money anyway.

I told them thanks, but no thanks, Palin said.

We'd rather pay for it ourselves instead.

But... oh, skip it.

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/trillin

Someone's done their homework on McNasty, too

I have an e-mail name/address for the person who wrote this, but I don't have their permission to post that. But what they wrote is too valuable to keep to myself:

"I have voted in every presidential election since I had the right to vote. Yes, I have been raised as a democrat, but also to question the status quo and be open minded. I have tried to be open minded when it comes to republican candidates and there have been some I actually would have been OK with, which is probably why they didn't get elected. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt but I also do my due diligence as far as finding out who they really are, just as I do with democrats.

"I am trying not to be this way, but when you hear things, look them up and everything you see is supportive of what has been said, it begs the question... How can I not share? I was really inspired by Obama and Gore's speeches last night. For some reason, McCain has still got a "pass" in regards to his military service. The media, the politicians, everyone seems to be content to commend him on his service. It's one of the major points in McCain's bid for president but...

"McCain was a crappy officer and pilot. (Remind you of anyone?) The following links are the results of a Google search for McCain's military record. At first, I thought, "so he got shot down and was a POW and broke under the pressure." It cannot have been an easy ride and he's not Rambo. I have never believed that made him fit to be president, but shit happens in war and he made it through. There is something to be said for that. I really, truly did this search to get an idea of his service, thinking that it would be a somewhat normal service record of a Navy pilot. Plus he flew a bad ass plane (see pic below). Nothing in the media had dwelled on it so I figured it would be relatively boring, showing he was an average pilot who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Unfortunately it is quite the opposite. All these links basically say the same thing from different sources. Just read one and you'll get the idea. When I read the first article, I thought "grain of salt," it's the internet after all. Everything I found, though, says the same thing and I have found nothing to the contrary despite an ardent search. (Google Search: mccain military record)

www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/mccain_post_card_word%5B1%5D.pdf

arclightzero.wordpress.com/2008...reer/ [this post appears to have been deleted]

www.forandagainst.com/article...resident

He also doesn't want any POW information to ever get out...

www.vvof.org/mccain_hides.htm

Again, find me something about Obama like this and I'll put it out there. I am trying to be as unbiased as possible but it is hard. Here's one though: read the link about POWs and you'll see why Kerry is on my shit list now.

pass it on...

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Christian Porn? I am so out of the loop ...

www.thenation.com/doc/20080...wypijewski

I want an answer to the very last question

www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/pollitt

"'Hockey Moms for Truth'"

John Kerry had the Swift Boat Vets, now Sarah Palin has the hockey moms coming for her.
Alex Koppelman

www.salon.com/politics/wa...s/index.html

"Sarah Palin's powerful 'First Dude'"

Todd Palin has exerted unusual influence on his wife's Alaska government. In Washington, their methods would do Bush and Cheney proud.
By Mike Madden

www.salon.com/news/featur...n/index.html

Another gift about SP

I'm forwarding this widely because it has more "meat" in it than a giant moose burger! In a nutshell --

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow , Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his eighth decade.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

LET'S GET BACK TO THE REAL ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN!!

Eve Ensler on Sarah Palin

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for 'The Vagina Monologues', wrote the following about Sarah Palin.

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears.

Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story - - - connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country choose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world! and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered.

As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently.

She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of ev! erything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not& nbsp;just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction.

I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force
mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity <>or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More! holes i n the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Warning: This television ad is disturbing.

secure.defenders.org/site/Donation2

A lot has been written about John McCain’s pick for Vice President, but here are a few things you might not know:

As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin proposed paying a $150 bounty for the severed left foreleg of each dead wolf. She has championed aerial gunning of wolves and bears and approved a $400,000 state-funded campaign to promote this awful practice.

Learn more about Palin’s record online at:

actionfund.defenders.org/palinvideo

"Zombie feminists of the RNC"

How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?
By Rebecca Traister

www.salon.com/mwt/feature...m/index.html

More about Palin

I got this from a friend after sending her the Judith Sowder letter:

"I would be happy to pass this on. Sarah Heath Palin was born and raised in Sandpoint, Ida. That's where I'm from. Her grandparents were my elementry school bus driver and my forth grade teacher. Her grandparents were good people. But Sandpoint has a culture of elitest, selfserving snobs, who think they're better than everybody else. And they could be really mean, spreading stories about people for their own amusement or the squash someones aspirations. How I found out she was from Sandpoint was when I sent an email to a friend about I left Sandpoint because of people like her's small brand of thinking. He wrote back, 'Did you know she was born there?' I wrote back, 'well, that explains everything.'"

VP 2 B?

The choice of Sarah Palin by John McCain frightens me more than he does.

And he scares the shit out of me.

I was worried for a while there that the Repubs had succeeded in snookering almost every woman in the country with this choice; I'm ecstatic to learn this isn't true.

But I don't want to keep bombarding my friends with the latest bits I find out about her, and the great news stories that are surfacing in print and on the net (but not on TV, apparently), so I'm going to list them here. I'll keep adding as "comments" whatever I find.

Please, please read on:

Fwd: Women Say No to Palin
See email address for response after letter

Friends,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce-on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate-that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called 'Women Against Sarah Palin,' which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest convenience-the greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.

Judith T. Sowder
Professor Emerita, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
San Diego State University
Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education
Alvarado Road Suite 206
San Diego, CA 92120