Extremism

We've heard a lot about extremism recently: A nastier, harsher atmosphere everywhere - more abuse and "bother-boy" behavior, less friendliness and tolerance and respect for opponents.

Obama's shown remarkable restraint, although he's attacked ads and statements misrepresenting his policies and beliefs.

McCain? Well, you already know he's gone full metal Rove... and the talking heads and producers of commercial media mostly seem content to echo whatever a campaign spokesperson or ad producer has said.

All kidding aside, though, whatever happened to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and similar rules? Is it too much to ask of GOP operatives and candidates to conduct themselves with dignity, and integrity? Isn't that what we expect people to do if they win?

Sarah Palin A John Birch Society Member? Was Reading Their Stuff In 90s

According to FireDogLake, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin may be really on the fringe -- the John Birch Society one. 

That group was and still is a code word for "racist", "sexist" White Supremacist-types who you don't want to have dinner with if your anyone of a normal mind.

Here's the details from FireDogLake and BAGNotes:

Michael Shaw at BAGNewsNotes found this 1995 image of Sarah Palin at her Wasilla City Council desk. It appears to be her official portrait, and a mundane one at that.

What's striking, as Michael points out, is the article in front of her: It's a piece about the "Con Con Call" -- one of those hysterical non-issues that conspiracy theorists of the far right in 1995 were shrieking about, involving an attempt by a handful of governors to organize a convention aimed at fighting what they saw as states' subordinate status. (Yes, the shrieking shut it down.)

One of the organizers of that particular torch-bearing mob was the John Birch Society. And sure enough, the article that Palin is proudly displaying in this portrait is a copy of the March 1995 edition of New American, the house organ of the Birch Society.

The article in question was written by Don Fotheringham. (It's no longer in the NA's archives, but you can read the text of it at this site.)

The Birchers are best known for their ardent McCarthyism and their long career in promoting cockamamie conspiracy theories about supposed Communist infiltration of government -- not just in the '50s and '60s, but well into the late '80s, until the fall of the Soviet Union. At that point, they simply picked up the same act and transferred it to promoting similar theories about the "New World Order" under Bill Clinton in the 1990s. (Chip Berlet has one of the best disquisitions on the Birch Society's long career.)

Virginia Voting Starts - GO OBAMA 08 - Vote Absentee for Obama Biden

According to TIME Magazine, early voting for the presidential race starts in Virginia next week.  Get out the vote to the Absentee Ballottiers for Obama.

Here's the information from the Virginia Absentee Ballot page:

Who May Vote Absentee?

Per § 24.2-700 of the Code of Virginia, the following registered voters may vote by absentee ballot in any election in which they are qualified to vote:

Any person who, in the regular and orderly course of his business, profession, or occupation or while on personal business or vacation, will be absent from the county or city in which he is entitled to vote;

Any person who is (i) a member of a uniformed service of the United States, as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 1973ff-6(7), on active duty, or (ii) a member of the merchant marine of the United States, or (iii) who temporarily resides outside of the United States, or (iv) the spouse or dependent residing with any person listed in (i), (ii), or (iii), and who will be absent on the day of the election from the county or city in which he is entitled to vote.  See Absentee Voting Procedures for Overseas Personnel (Military & Non-Military)

Any student attending a school or institution of learning, or his spouse, who will be absent on the day of election from the county or city in which he is entitled to vote;

Any person who is unable to go in person to the polls on the day of election because of a  disability, illness or pregnancy ;

Any person who is confined while awaiting trial or for having been convicted of a misdemeanor, provided that the trial or release date is scheduled on or after the third day preceding the election. Any person who is awaiting trial and is a resident of the county or city where he is confined shall, on his request, be taken to the polls to vote on election day if his trial date is postponed and he did not have an opportunity to vote absentee;

Any person who is a member of an electoral board, registrar, officer of election, or custodian of voting equipment;

Any duly registered person who is unable to go in person to the polls on the day of the election because he is primarily and personally responsible for the care of an ill or disabled family member who is confined at home; or

Any duly registered person who is unable to go in person to the polls on the day of the election because of an obligation occasioned by his religion.

Any person who, in the regular and orderly course of his business, profession, or occupation, will be at his place of work and commuting to and from his home to his place of work for eleven or more hours of the thirteen that the polls are open (6:00 AM to 7:00 PM).


Any registered and qualified voter may request a mail ballot for presidential and vice-presidential electors only by writing across the top of their absentee application "request ballot for presidential electors only."  A voter who votes a "presidential only" ballot may not later decide to vote the rest of the ballot.  The same procedures and deadlines apply as for other absentee applications and ballots.

New registrants who submitted their voter registration applications by mail must vote in person (either in-person absentee or at the polls on election day) unless the voter is a full time college student, absent active duty military, residing overseas, physically handicapped, age 65 or over (however, they must also list a qualifying reason for voting absentee, as age itself does not qualify a voter for an absentee ballot), or voting a "presidential only" ballot.

Any voter with a question about whether they qualify to vote absentee, or how to apply, should contact their local elections office.



How Do I Apply for an Absentee Ballot?
Overseas Personnel (Military & Non-Military) See Absentee Voting Procedures for Overseas Personnel (Military & Non-Military)

You can contact your local Voter Registration Office to request an absentee ballot application. You can either return the completed application to your local voter registration office either by mail or fax. The absentee ballot application must be received in your local voter registration office by the Tuesday before election day to receive a ballot by mail.


Alternatively, you can download The Virginia Absentee Ballot Application (on-line fillable pdf format). Or, if you are an absent active duty military voter (or spouse/dependent) or overseas voter you should download the Federal Post Card Application instead of the Virginia application.  You must have the Adobe™ Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view or print either portable document formatted (pdf) application.  If you do not have Adobe™ Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you can download and install the Adobe™ Acrobat Reader free of charge.  After downloading the application form: 1) print the form, 2) read the instructions accompanying the form, 3) fill out the requested information on the form carefully, 4) sign the form and, 5) mail or fax the completed application  to your local general registrar's office by the Tuesday before election day to receive a ballot by mail.  (Note, if you email or fax the Federal Post Card Application, you must then mail the signed original to your local registrar, as it also serves as your registration application.)


Completing an absentee ballot application
Virginia law prescribes that Applications for absentee ballots shall be completed in one of the following manners:

1) In Person

An application completed in person shall be made not less than three days prior to the election in which the applicant offers to vote and completed only in the office of the local general registrar. The applicant shall sign the application in the presence of a registrar or the secretary of the electoral board.


By mail, electronic or telephonic transmission to a facsimile device

Applications can be made by mail, electronic or  by fax, if one is available to the office of the local general registrar. If a facsimile device is not available locally contact us . The application shall be sent to the appropriate local general registrar not less than seven days prior to the election in which the applicant offers to vote.


How often must you complete an absentee ballot application?
You must complete a separate absentee ballot application for each election in which you intend to vote absentee.

Exception:  You may file a single Federal Post Card Application at any time after the November general election to receive ballots for all elections that you are eligible to vote in during the next calendar year, if you are:

(i) a member of a uniformed service of the United States, as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 1973ff-6(7), on active duty, or

(ii) a member of the merchant marine of the United States, or

(iii) temporarily residing outside of the United States (but eligible for permanent registration in Virginia -- that is, your Virginia place of abode is still available to you whenever you return to Virginia), or

(iv) the spouse or dependent residing with any person listed in (i), (ii), or (iii) above.

Important Notice:
Your Federal Post Card Application will serve as your absentee ballot application for all elections that you are eligible to vote in for the next two regularly scheduled general federal elections. This means that you will receive absentee ballots automatically! It also means you are responsible for informing your local registrar of all and any address changes.     

If you have any questions or should require individual assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Vickie R. Williams by phone at 804-864-8932 or via email at vickie.williams @sbe.virginia.gov.   

Obama Party Hopping During Super Tuesday In SF and Oakland

This is a political "slice of life" video I created during the evening of the March 4th "Super Tuesday" Primary. It starts with my trip to the Oakland "Obama For America" headquarters to do some phone banking work and then to two Obama parties in San Francisco, one at Tosca and the other at an art gallery. Along the way, you will meet Obama volunteers and discover their motivations and passions for being involved in this enormous grass roots movement to get Barack Obama elected President of The United States. 

Florida Obama Heckler "Michael The Black Man" Is One Loon

I just got this great blog post a few seconds ago about the African American man who has this weird habit of interrupting Senator Obama's speeches when Obama's in Florida:

Earlier today, during a speech in Coral Gables, Florida, Obama was interrupted by a group of black people carrying signs denouncing him as a supporter of gay marriage, abortion, and the KKK. At first, Obama supported their right to be there and carry their signs, if they would just let him continue his speech. After interrupting him several more times, the group were escorted out of the building. Who were these protestors, and what were they after?

Calling themselves “Blacks Against Obama,” they alleged that Obama has been endorsed by the KKK, and that “Jessie Jackson Hates Obama.” Their home-made signs had the words “Michael Warns” on the bottom, which links to the websitewww.michaelwarns.com....

It seems that Michael — or Michael The Black Man as he prefers to be called — is a charismatic preacher who leads a cult-like church that preaches to black men against the evils of women. The e-mail address listed to contact Michael is bigboss1043@yahoo.com, and Michael seems to run a daily video sermon programmewhere he sings and talks about the ways to redeem “BLACK MEN,” [sic] which mostly seems to be by avoiding any contact of feelings for women. In fact, the ailing of black men in the United States is placed entirely upon the shoulders of black women, child support, and the Democratic Party:

HER NAME IS JEZEBEL, 1/3 OF THE  BLACK WOMEN OF AMERICA. This book is written to primarily show the BLACK MAN and the WORLD the true source of their problem…33% of the Black Women of America (BABYLON). GOD is angry with worshipping this WOMAN LILITH the devil.

Well, that's the end of that.  Why would anyone who's sane listen to a guy who thinks like that?  Maybe that's why Barack's ahead in Florida now? 

McCain Aides Made Over $14 Million Lobbying For Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae

Lost in the false claims by Senator John McCain that he foresaw the collapse of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae (but did express concern for the future of the institutions) is the fact that several of Senator McCain's direct campaign aides have pocketed over $14 million lobbying for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  According to Mother Jones and The Politico:

But McCain's own campaign staffers are those special interests, a fact that casts doubt on both McCain's hiring judgment and his ability to pursue tough reforms of Fannie and Freddie.

Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.

And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politicoreports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.

Naomi Wolf: "We need more drastic action than e-mails to Congress."

History shows that when an army of citizens, supported by even a vestige of civil society, believes in liberty -- in the psychological space that is "America" -- no power on earth can ultimately suppress them.

We are not to wait for others to lead. You and I are meant to take back the founders' mandate, and you and I are meant to lead. You and I must protest, you and I must confront our representatives, you and I must run for office, you and I must write the opeds, you and I must take over the battle.

The founders -- the unknown as well as the well-known Americans who "conceived" the nation in liberty -- did not intend for us to delegate worrying about the Constitution to a cadre of constitutional scholars, or to leave debate to a class of professional pundits, or to leave the job of fighting for liberty to a caste of politicians. They meant for us to defend the Constitution, for us to debate the issues of the day, and for us to rise up against tyranny: the American who delivers the mail; the American who teaches our children; ordinary people.... We have to rise up in self-defense and legitimate rebellion.

No more lies.
No Palin.
No McCain.
No way.

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Lynn Forester de Rothschild Can Kiss My Elitist, Black Male Butt!

Lynn Forester de Rothschild just made herself my enemy and for a very good reason. The former Hillary Clinton fundraiser came out and basically made a totally racist comment regarding Senator Barack Obama when she said:

“This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don’t like him,” she said of Obama in an interview with CNN’s Joe Johns. “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”

This is the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever heard in my entire life. This matter of being elitist is a tag that I've gotten -- and frankly wear it -- as have other African Americans who are confident, well-educated, intelligent, and don't fall into deference because someone's White. There are those of us -- who are Black -- who still do this just to, as they say, "get along" but I personally decided a long time ago that I was going to be myself.

In fact, I made that decision at the age of 22 and simply went from there. The reason for that walk, that journey is because American society has sent so many messages to Black men that they're "less than" that one has to fight the messages every day of their lifes.

It's one reason why Black men have such high rates of heart disease and why self esteem is commonly -- even to this day -- sought via athletics and not education because the sport of the body the one area of life where a person can't deny your prowess. Sadly.

Getting good grades is awesome, but people at times have a tendency to pay no attention to transcripts. Scoring touchdowns is hard to ignore.

But I rejected that path at six years old. I decided then that I wanted to lead via the intellect and damn anyone who stood in my way. And yes, I was six. Six.

So I've met a lot of people like Lynn Forester de Rothschild and overcame all of them. See, some people like Lynn Forester de Rothschild are not happy unless they have the subconsious idea that if you're Black, she's better than you are.

Think about it.

Why then would she claim to reject Barack Obama for being elitist, and then run to John McCain, who's not only elitist and can't remember how many homes he owns, but is massively sexist on top of that.

Because McCain's White. That's why. Lynn Forester de Rothschild expected Barack to kiss her ring and when he treated her with respect and, well, like any normal person, that wasn't enough for her.

Well, my one request is for Lynn Forester de Rothschild to be kicked off the DNC Platform Committee. As soon as possible.

UPDATE: she's already off of it.

Gallup: Obama 47, McCain 45 / Daily Kos: Obama 48 Mccain 44 Dail- Convention "Tricks" Are Over

My blogger friend Oliver Willis reports that the post Republican Convention "bounce" is over, but I wonder if it's just that Gallup elected to stop playing games with numbers. So I walked over to the DailyKos, which has its own daily poll tracking system.

DailyKos has Obama ahead by 4 points and not 2 points, 48 to 44 points. But back to Gallup, I'm going to check on their method to see what's up, later.

Palin's Mistake: Idea Placing Federal Spending Online is Obama's 2006 Law

Last week I reported via video about Alaska Governor and GOP Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin's lack of knoweldge of who owned Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. I avoided making a video regarding Palin's lack of knoweldge of The Bush Doctrine, but you knew about that. Now, Palin's made another mistake -- three in the span of a week -- and this time it's a doozy because it could have been avoided.

At a rally in Ohio on Tuesday, Palin said this:

"I've got another idea that I think Senator McCain likes. In Alaska, we took the state checkbook and put it online, so everyone can see where their money goes. We're going to bring that kind of openness to Washington,"

There's one problem, the idea's been thought of and acted on and by none other than Senator Barack Obama in 2006. It was called The Colburn - Obama Act and had as it's other co-sponsors Senator John McCain, off all people. The law was signed by President Bush on September 26th, 2006 and called The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590). It established this new website called USA Spending.gov, where you can see where Federal dollars are going.

Palin Does Not Know The Federal Government

But the problem once again is Governor Palin's lack of knoweldge of the Federal Goverment. She simply lacks the feel for the nuance of goverment at this level, let alone a sound understanding of the history of the Federal Govermment and its policies and programs.

The other problem is the aides to McCain are not properly briefed on the Senator's work themselves. Regardless of where you look, it's a tragic story of the blind leading the blind.

Sarah Palin Goes From Most Popular To Least Popular Canidate

This didn't take long: Palin now has the lowest favorability rating of the four presidential / VP contenders.

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Bill Maher on the Rachel Maddow Show - Against Sarah Palin