It's not gonna be some guy wearing jackboots and a sneer, waving a machine gun. It's gonna be someone who is attractive and confident, selling you sweet, seductive lies, winking at you in complicity.
McCain had a genuinely classy moment when he shook his head and took the microphone away from a woman calling Obama an "Arab." That was the John McCain I respected and admired, several years ago. The one who spoke out against torture. The one who championed campaign finance reform. But he's clearly lost control of his campaign, as the Republican Hate Machine continues to spew character attacks rather than discuss actual issues.
I've got my problems with Obama too. His vote on the telecom bill. His elitist comments on people reaching for guns and religion due to ignorance and fear. His lack of specifics. But we heard him speak last month and, unlike the McCain-Palin ticket, he didn't draw an angry mob. He drew a group of people who seemed to genuinely want to believe in their country again.
Just like me.
I took the title of this post from Elvis Costello's song of the same name. They've come to look you over and they're giving you the eye.
12 comments:
I'm so happy you already think politically like I do. I really have nothing to add here, no arguments since we're on the same page. It would mean something if I were old enough to vote...
For anyone still making up their mind, Rolling Stone's feature Five Myths About John McCain should be a real eye-opener.
Whwn i saw your comment at Daisy's that you had posted a political diatribe, i hustled right over. Nice work, and true. A cobra in lipstick.
And gordo, wow!
I'd be going with Obama and hopefully for somwe badly needed change if I had a vote down there!
We just voted today and have the same P.M.! What a waste of $$ on the election! It's still a minority.
You're right clowncar. David Duke almost had it a few years ago in Louiseana. He had the looks,charisma and vacabulary. He just couldn't quite disguise the hatemonger portion of his being.
That woman frightens me.
I totally got your Elvis Costello reference, and you're now even cooler for knowing that brilliant man's work!
She has absolutely no business being anywhere near Washington, she doesn't have the experience, intelligence or the strength to do it.
Want a woman in office who can do it? Get Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, or Nancy Pelosi.
I cannot imagine this country in her hands, and it will be in her hands if McCain makes it into office. Eventually, it will be in her hands. Unthinkable.
Scarlett & Viaggiatore
Dropping by again for a selfish reason. If you have time and only if, I would very much like your take on my latest post. Thanks again. And you already know that I believe Palin crazy, right? I mean really, when asked about foreign policy, she simply exclaimed that she could see Russia from Alaska. Wicked. I see no reason why that kind of experience doesn't count.
The scariest thing about Sarah Palin is that she could be one 72 year-old heartbeat away from the presidency. And she, as you said, is versed in the politics of hate. As both McCain and Palin continue their Swift Boat campaign, using innuendo, half truths and outright lies against Barack Obama, their crowds are looking more like mobs than political supporters. A McCain rant is greeted with someone shouting "terrorist," Palin's vicious rhetoric has someone screaming "kill him," while others taunt reporters, complete with racial ephitets. And as she accuses Obama of approving domestic terrorism, and her own extremist ties remain unknown. What the people don't know about Palin is that her political career in Alaska was shaped by the ideology and support of fringe, anti-government, militia-organizing secessionists. Dave Neiwert has uncovered certain information in Wasilla, Alaska. TO quote a September 22, 2008 article (http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/22/sarah-palins-wasilla-base-a-unhealthy-dose-of-far-right-extremism/) This morning I interviewed John Stein, the former Wasilla mayor who was defeated by Palin in 1996 by using "a quiet campaign by some Palin supporters raising emotional issues like abortion and gun control, which had no apparent tie to municipal politics" -- and as Phil Munger notes, a whisper campaign that Stein was secretly Jewish (Stein is a Lutheran).
The connection revolves mostly around three men known to have far-right leanings in the community: a builder named Steven Stoll, a computer repairman named Mark Chryson, and a third man named Mike Christ. All three subscribed to a bellicose, "Patriot" movement brand of politics -- far-right libertarianism with a John Birch streak.
According to Stein, Steven Stoll -- whose local nickname, according to Phil Munger, is "Black Helicopter Steve" -- was involved in militia organizing in Wasilla the 1990s, and subscribed to most of the movement's paranoid conspiracy theories: "The rumor was that he had wrapped his guns in plastic and buried them in his yard so he could get them after the New World Order took over."
The vast majority of Americans know that the "black helicopter" concept "became popular in the United States militia movement, and in associated political circles, in the 1990s as an alleged symbol and warning sign of a conspiratorial totalitarian military takeover of part or all of the United States". If you aren't convinced that McCain knew who he was picking, you will be after you read this story. Meet Palin's fringe pals: Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.
Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."
So let's get this straight. John McCain's team chose someone whose political career was tightly interwoven with - and supported by - extremists. Not just average wingnuts. Extremists. Radicals. A secessionist and a paranoid militia organizer. So, McCain's cute lil' sidekick, that all-American hockey mom, the "pitbull with lipstick" that the cable news networks just couldn't get enough of for weeks, is actually so far removed from mainstream American politics and ideals that it's impossible to imagine her ever handling the job for which she has been recruited.
She may inspire the fringe, and may be able to tell voters the best way to store their gold and guns when the black helicopters come, but she's clearly the worst possible choice McCain could have made for his potential successor.
Well holy shit. My friend here really doesn't like Palin, so I gave him the link to your blog and...well I think we see the result. That's quite interesting.
You can still get involved in the campaign, Vic, even if you can't vote. Glad to hear you're on the bus.
Gordo, I for one will welcome our new vicious pitbull overlords.
Meno, I'm fairly even-keeled, but she can mae me quite literally shake with anger.
Hey, Moi. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. (insert Pete Townsend power chord here)
I've been listening to alot of old Elvis lately, Mona. Those first 3 albums are SO good. "Green Shirt" ("Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?") actually describes her better, but it's not as good of a post title, is it?
Scarlett, unthinkable is certainly the word for a Palin presidency. Yikes.
Friend, you response was longer than my post! Thanks for stopping by.
No worries, Vic. Clearly I'm preaching to the choir here.
Old one: she's David Duke with lipstick.
Post a Comment