Al Jazeera: Courting the ‘grey’ vote

by matttbatard

Elderly voters are considered to be the most reliable group of voters in the US, needing no encouragement to get down to the polling station.

So, it’s no surprise that senior citizens have become one of the most courted votes during this campaign. Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports.

Related: Older Voters Lag Electorate At Large In Support Of Obama: The Hartford Courant

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Science Fair Chic

by matttbastard

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Equality: Totally Not Pro-American

by matttbastard

Dennis Prager clarifies what constitutes (pro) American values:

Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.

ThinkProgress:

It’s a good thing Prager was there to explain the ideals behind the American Revolution. Otherwise, Americans might have relied on “Europeanized” documents like the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…

Or if they had looked to the United States Constitution, they may have erroneously thought “equality” was an important American value:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Thank you, Dennis, for helping this ignorant little Canuckistanian socialist (ideologically and ethnically socialist–EEK!) realize that the Founding Fathers actually hated “distinctive American values.”

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PSA: October 30th: Be Bold. Be Red.

by matttbastard

Document the Silence:

In October 2007 people all over the United States gathered physically and in spirit to speak out against violence against women of color. Some of us wore red all day and explained that we were reclaiming and reframing our bodies as a challenge to the widespread acceptance of violence against women of color. Some of us wrote powerful essays about why we were wearing red and posted them on the internet. Some of us gathered with bold and like-minded folks and took pictures, shared poetry and expressed solidarity.

This year, on the first anniversary of the Be Bold Be Red Campaign, we invite you to make your bold stance against the violence enacted on women and girls of color in our society visible. In D.C., Chicago, Durham, Atlanta and Detroit women of color will be gathering to renew our commitment to creating a world free from racialized and gendered violence, and this time, we’ll be using a new technology called CyberQuilting to connect all of these gatherings in real time. To learn more about CyberQuilting, which is a women of color led project to stitch movements together using new web technologies and old traditions of love and nurturing, visit www.cyberquilt.wordpress.com.

This letter is an invitation for you and yours to participate in a gathering in your city on Thursday, October 30th that will be webcast to similar gatherings in other cities. We are calling on you because we recognize and appreciate the work that you and the organizations you work with are doing everyday to make this a more loving and less violent world for women and girls in oppressed communities. Please join us on October 30th so that other warriors in this struggle can be strengthened and affirmed by the energy of our collective ferocity! Also we will upload the video of the video conference on this website on October 31, 2008 so that everyone can see what happened during video conference.

h/t Sylvia/M and Kevin

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Sarah Palin a “Complete Fiction” – David Talbot

by matttbastard

ForaTv:

Author and Salon.com Founder David Talbot dismisses Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin as a “complete fiction” created by Republican Party strategists.

Full video here.

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Sarah Palin: Marxism For Me, But Not For Thee

by matttbastard

Hendrik Hertzberg in this week’s New Yorker:

For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

Silly coastal elite–who cares about Palin, Alaska, and her hypocritical embrace of wealth redistribution sharing and collective ownership? When pro-Americans use the term ‘socialist’ in reference to Barack HOOSAYN Obama, what they really mean is ‘uppity Negro’. As noted recently by The Artist Formerly Known as dnA, that particular dog whistle is a longstanding trope among the backlash set. Shit, I’m sure even Joe the Plumber knows this (“a tap dance…almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr.” — how cute.)

Related: For more on Palin, Alaska, and IOKIYAR socialism, check out the aforementioned profile of Palin by Philip Gourevitch, featuring Palin’s quote lauding the virtues of wealth redistribution sharing.

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“He’s a [rhymes with 'bigger']!” UPDATED: DKos Diarist Claims No Racial Slur Uttered

by matttbastard

The key to successful pro-American public speaking: try not to blink when your one of your fellow pro-Americans drops the n-bomb like it’s hot.

h/t Sully

Update 10/28: Or was that ‘redistributer’ that was shouted out?

I’m not at all convinced that this has in fact been ‘confirmed’, but it does raise questions about what actually was said. See The Great Orange Satan for more.

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Obama = Antichrist Superstar (Or, John The Revelator Rolls Over in His Grave)

by matttbastard

Ed Pilkington of The Guardian ventures deep into the heart of pro-American country looking for information on biofuels, but instead uncovers the ugly eschatological truth about Barack HOOOSAAYN Obama:

I had hopped on to the GuardianFilms bus as it made its way across the US. We were joining forces to make a film about the ethanol issue, which has earned Obama the criticism of environmentalists because of his support for the controversial corn-based variety of the fuel that has helped to drive up world food prices.

We stopped at an ethanol plant in Craig, Missouri, where we were greeted by the general manager, Roger Hill, and shown around the plant. He said something odd early on in our tour, responding to the news that I was British by commenting on how Muslims had become dominant in my country. I only half heard his remark, and let it go; we were here to talk about ethanol.

Later though, he brought up the subject again, when I suggested to him that as an ethanol manufacturer he must logically back Obama over McCain, who has openly criticised federal subsidies of the fuel. That’s when he invoked Revelations, chapter 13. If you lack instant recall of the contents of Revelations 13, as I have to admit I did, it’s the bit in the Bible where the beast rears his ugly head, or rather many heads, and reveals the mark on his right hand or forehead: 666.

Ok, am I the only one who is disturbed by the fact that someone who feels that an official presentation to a foreign media outlet is the perfect time to drop a 1.5 oz. shot of premillenial dispensationalism into the mix is allowed to run a motherfucking ethanol plant? Watch the video–and try not to think about how insidiously popular those goddamned Left Behind books are. Also see James Ridgeway for more on the looming Obamageddon.

Related: Hitler and Chamberlain, rolled into one? Well, I suppose Billy Kristol’s seemingly oxymoronic (and just-plain-moronic) analogy isn’t that much of a stretch if one already believes that an individual can simultaneously be a Marxist, Muslim and Black Liberation Christian. 8 more days, brethren (followed by, in all likelihood, four more years…gah.)

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Joe Sixpack in Vegas

by matttbastard

As Pod-Parker (h/t Betty Cracker) said recently regarding the McCain-Palin Campaign’s pro-American outreach effort:

“Palling around with terrorists,” as Sarah Palin said of Obama, gets to an underlying xenophobic, anti-Muslim sentiment. Using surrogates who strategically use Obama’s middle name, Hussein, feeds the same dark heart.

This tactic, denied but undeniable, has been effective with target audiences, some of whom can be viewed on YouTube entering a Palin rally in Pennsylvania. One cherubic older fellow totes a stuffed Curious George monkey wearing an Obama sticker as a hat…

To McCain’s credit, he has tried to correct his audience—when, for example, a woman said she couldn’t trust Obama because he’s an Arab. Gosh, wonder where she ever got that idea? But the McCain-Palin bad cop-good cop routine is what it is. The hot babe lathers the crowd; the noble soldier hoses them down. This isn’t a campaign; it’s a sideshow.

Related: More from the Henderson, NV rally by Matt Toplikar of the Las Vegas Sun (h/t David Neiwert)

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Joe Sixpack in Denver

by matttbastard

Progress Now Action:

Take special note of the children acting like monkeys and calling Obama the “monkey president”. The cursing man with the baby was also a special treat:

Family is chanting NoBama over and over.
Man #1: he ain’t no real American.

Another man is shown punching a cardboard Obama in the head.

Man #2: eight years of terrorists!
Man #3: (sarcastically) Hussein…that’s cool!
Woman to Obama supporter: Are you sick? Are you a socialist?
Woman #2: He’s a fraud…he’s Osama!
Man #3: He’s a Muslim Communist!
(the videographer asks this man if he really believes that) The response:
Man #3: Yeah, absolutely. His wife made him say he is a Christian so he could get elected.
Man #4: Socialist…communist! He’s a communist!
Man #5: You need to read the Communist Manifesto ’cause that’s what you’re all about.
Man #6: Lookit — the important thing is, God may not be on my side, but Satan is on your side.
Man #7: I don’t want to be a communist, I don’t want to be a socialist. I want to be an American.
Woman #3 holding a McCain/Palin sign: Communist! Communist!
Man # 8: He’s a stupid bum.
Man #9, holding a baby: He’s bullshit and a piece of crap he is.

Pro-Americans represent!

h/t Pam Spaulding

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