Freedom of Religion, period.

It literally pains me to see so many Americans falling into Bin Laden's trap. I say as gently as I can: however pure the motive, however admirable my friends who do so may be in other ways, that is exactly the fate of those who presume to tell other Americans where and when, within the law, they should worship or where they should build their houses of worship.

I believe that to the tips of my toes.

Those things are just plain noone’s business but the ones involved -- in the present case the Muslim community of lower Manhattan. The families of the Americans killed by terrorists are not involved in those decisions. Neither is the President (as he has said), Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Harry Reid, some song-writer named Rita, or any of the assorted bloggers, professional blatherers on TV and radio, or me.

This is the United States of America. It is not Germany. It is not Israel. It is not Saudi Arabia. Not only do the Americans in question have an absolute right, within the law, to build their community center two blocks away from the site of the attacks that killed Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sihks, Atheists and other AMERICANS in 2001, we should, regardless of our theological beliefs, praise and encourage them in their efforts at bridge-building, as some of the survivors of 2001 are doing. Christian-Americans have NO special claim on the site of those attacks. Bin Laden wanted to kill Americans. He cared nothing about hyphenated prefixes or suffixes. The more variety the better as far as he is concerned. Muslim-Americans were every bit as much a target as any other Americans, and every bit as much victims of it.

The correct American manifesto to Al Qaeda should be:

In America we believe in freedom of religion, period.

And no sons-of-bitches* like low-down, scum-of-the-earth Bin Laden and his murderous box-cutter wielding Kool-aid drinkers can make us back down from that basic principle even if they send a thousand fully-fueled 747s aimed at a thousand American cities.

You egg-sucking-dogs can kill us, but you can not kill our unalienable American rights of free expression of any sublime, mundane, or idiotic idea that we hold dear.

We will take necessary practical precautions, of course. We will submit to shoeless inspections in airports. We will pay whatever taxes are needed to fight you.
But we WILL hunt you down and you WILL submit to American justice. We WILL strike at you without mercy if you resist.

BUT...

We will NOT shy away from our big cities.
We will NOT alter our core principles.
We will NOT cower in fear.
We will NOT help you recruit extremists by striking at innocents.

We WILL remain steadfast in support of the principles of our Constitution and Bill of Rights come hell or high water.

WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED INTO THE WAR AGAINST ISLAM THAT YOU WANT SO BADLY.


* I detest overuse of coarse language but, in my opinion, it is entirely appropriate here.

Palling Around with Palin

Whatever honor John McCain showed in the Hanoi Hilton evidently got used up there. His campaign announced over the weekend that they plan to "turn the page" on the campaign by running attacks against Barack Obama for his acquaintances. (See our previous post) Never mind Sarah's "keep up the good work!" to Alaskan separatists. Never mind McCain's visits to the Bahamas as the guest of Charles Keating. Never mind McCain's praise of Gordon Liddy. For that matter never mind Phil Gramm.

McCain, understandibly wants to "turn the page" on the economic implosion. Especially since his misdeeds with Keating in the eighties led to problems very similar to those we confront now.

Here's McCain's vicious running mate probably winking as she heaves the slime. (Click the pic.)

Barack Obama's campaign has stayed almost exclusively positive, only attacking on matters of voting record or in response to McCain's mud-slinging. McCain's campaign is now 100% slime. Here comes another desperation Hail Mary pass from erratic John McCain. This one looks very wobbly and weak to me and just might get picked off. It looks like McCain has set the precedent that allows his opponents to bring up his part in the Keating Five affair, a scandal that actually took place while McCain was senator, with McCain's direct involvement, for which he was reprimanded by the Senate, and that relates very directly to the current economic scandal.

And the market just dipped below 10,000.

Palling Around

When I was a young teacher I commuted fifty miles or so to take some graduate classes. I shared the ride with three others. One was a brilliant but off-beat fellow who professed to admire Mao and to believe Communism the best form of government. I remember attending a political event for a fellow teacher who was running for state senator. That guy was there. I also attended a wonderful dinner he and his wife hosted at their house. I played chess with him a time or two.

I have served on the boards of several charity or comminity organizations. I know of several once active members of the John Birch Society - remember I am a former constituent of Congressman Larry McDonald - who have served with me on those boards. Some have attended events at my home.

I regularly hug and express admiration and love for some people who still support George Bush. One of the people I admire most in this world is the national spokesperson for a very conservative political group. Several people I regularly associate with write far right blogs.

Perhaps knowing these people of such diverse views has helped me a little in clarifying my own. I certainly don't share their beliefs however and their views have no real relationship to my abilities, my beliefs, or my political aims.

Barack Obama taught with, served on a charity board with, attended political meetings with, and was acquainted with, a man who was an extrenist many year ago. John McCain has expressed admiration for, and appeared on the radio show of, a man who brags about planning a murder (He did not carry it out.) and who served prison time for participating in the Watergate break-in. Sarah Palin has had a close relationship with Alaskan separatists.

My opposition to Sarah Palin and John McCain is not based on their acquaintances. My support of Barack Obama is not based his acquaintances.

A majority of voters, accouding to Gallup, Rasmussen, ABC, CBS, and other pollsters, currently support Obama. The majority agrees with the proposals of Barack Obama. The only way for McCain to win at this point is to somehow convince a portion of his opponent's current supporters that, however much they agree with him, Obama is not the person they think he is. In other words McCain must drag Obama's reputation down.

This is from the Rasmussen polling site:

Forty-five percent (45%) of voters say they are certain they will vote for Obama and will not change their mind. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say the same about McCain. Thirteen percent (13%) currently have a preference for one of the candidates but might change their mind. Four percent (4%) are either undecided or plan to vote for a third-party candidate.
One way of understanding the difficult challenge now facing McCain is to consider the relatively small group of persuadable voters who could still change their mind. The Republican hopeful would have to win nearly 80% of those votes to pull ahead in the race. That’s especially challenging because most of those voters are currently leaning towards Obama. In other words, while the race is not over, McCain needs a significant--game-changing—event to win the White House. Simply doing what he’s been doing a little better will not be enough.

McCain knows this. He is now running almost exclusively negative ads. As the "Road to 270" gets harder for McCain, he will react by making ever wilder accusations, hoping to stumble upon something "game-changing".

We are in for a rough few weeks.

John McCain's Choice Exceeds Expectations

Walter Mondale - Bob Dole
Geraldine Ferraro - George Bush
Lloyd Bentzen - Dan Quayle
Al Gore - Dan Quayle
Al Gore - Jack Kemp
Joe Lieberman - Dick Cheney
John Edwards - Dick Cheney
Joe Biden - Sarah Palin

I think this list is the complete list of the major party Vice Presidential debates in our history. These debates have included some interesting moments. Think of these 13 folks and their debates. The most famous moment was likely Lloyd Bentzen's stinging put-down of a stunned Dan Quayle in 1988:

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy."
- Lloyd Bentzen, after Quayle had compared his own experience to that of John Kennedy.

None of these candidates, including the hapless Quayle, however, were as incomprehensible, unresponsive, or glib as the winking "you betcha" Governor who has been fearlessly guarding the Bering Strait as Putin "rears his head".

Joe Biden deftly torpedoed what few relatively coherent arguments Gov. Palin made. He beautifully stated the case for the Democratic ticket and gave a heartfelt defense of his own understanding of the real life struggles of ordinary people.

John McCain's choice to lead the free world in the aftermath of a Presidential calamity?

Well... she exceeded expectations.

John McCain's Poor Choices

First there was the VP.

• One perfunctory meeting with McCain before the Offer.
• Less than two years as Governor of a state significantly smaller than Gwinnett County GA.
• Mayor of a town significantly smaller than Cedartown GA and only slightly larger than Summerville GA. But government leaders in Cedartown and Summerville may have greater duties than the Wasilla AK mayor had. According to a report by the Washington Post:

The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns...

The loud aerial wolf-shooter has been a boon to McCain's campaign by revving up the crazies on the right. They love the fact that she would prefer to outlaw abortion even in the case of rape or incest. They are not bothered by the fact that Palin, though a very nice-looking woman, has been a figurative pig at the earmark trough: hiring a lobbyist to bring home the Federal bacon, pressing for the Bridge to Nowhere (until it was killed by others), fundraising for the King of Earmarks (Sen. Stevens).

Here is what Frank Rich thinks of the Republican ticket:

With all due deference to lipstick, let’s advance the story. A week ago the question was: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? The question today: What kind of president would Sarah Palin be?
It’s an urgent matter, because if we’ve learned anything from the G.O.P. convention and its aftermath, it’s that the 2008 edition of John McCain is too weak to serve as America’s chief executive.

I was distressed by the body language I witnessed in her Gibson interview. She had obviously been given talking points for every posible question. She delivered them. But the eyes and body language gave away her discomfort. This Washington Post editorial has it about right:

Ms. Palin's interview with Mr. Gibson was not disqualifying, but it was also far from comforting... Asked about the prospect of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Ms. Palin said three times that the United States should not "second-guess" Israeli decisions on self-defense. But of course the United States should, and does, engage in that sort of second-guessing, from the location of settlements to sales of military equipment. If Israel wanted to attack Iran, would a President Palin permit Israeli forces to fly through U.S.-controlled airspace?

Even on the domestic issues about which she could have been expected to have more familiarity, Ms. Palin's responses were disappointingly shallow. Defending her state's -- and her own -- record on earmarks, Ms. Palin suggested that the problem was not shoveling money toward pet projects but the failure to make this shoveling transparent -- seemingly not recognizing that this is far different from the more fundamental complaint of her running mate, John McCain. The "Bridge to Nowhere," after all, was no secret...

Her efforts to explain some previous statements were lacking in candor..... How does Ms. Palin reconcile her understanding of abortion as a "personal issue" with her view that the choice should be taken away from the pregnant woman?

I believe the appointment of someone so clearly unprepared to be President and someone who continues (as late as yesterday) to blatantly lie in her speeches about the Bridge to Nowhere, was a serious mistake by McCain. It was not Presidential. It reinforces his lifelong reputation for impulsivity -- in the Senate, in his extra-marital affairs, in his career as a Navy pilot, and as an irresponsible cadet (fourth from the bottom in GPA) at the Naval Academy. It also reinforces his record as a tool of the lobbyists. From his part in the "Keating Five" scandal to the lobbyists running his campaign this year (including a paid lobbyist for the nation of Georgia), he has shown his true colors. He is no reformer. He gave it a bit of a try in 2000. Now he is just another Bush-Rove disciple.


Now the lying ads.

McCain is avoiding the issues like the plague. His issues are Bush's. McCain knows he loses on the issues. Instead he is running a virtully uninterrupted negative campaign of faux outrage and outright lies. The "sex-ed" ad is one of the sleaziest, most dastardly ads in the history of dirty TV ads.

A pox upon John McCain and all who follow his low-down dirty, special interest-funded, lobbyist-run, swiftboating, Bush-Rove ways.

Later note: Hold on to you seats folks! Even Karl Rove -- Karl Rove!!! -- admits that McCain's campaign ads are dishonest!!!

McCain has gone in some of his ads similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know…beyond, beyond, beyond the, the 100% truth test.

-Karl Rove

To paint the McCain campaign as "change" is to put lipstick on a pig.

It is time for real change. Click the link for specifics.
Real change. Click the link for more good reasons.
Real change. Click the link for excellent arguments for change from someone who KNOWS.
Real change. Click the link to understand change from the viewpoint of a real feminist.

McCain's political team was smart to announce their pick the morning after Obama's wonderful speech. But the RNC bounce is flattening out. The lies are starting to backfire on the Bush-McCain team. It's a very close race right now. We can win back our wonderful nation.

Let's get to work.

Lipstick and Other Bush-McCain Smears

To see a brief but brilliant reprise of the Republican National Convention click the pic above.

The true use of lipstick? Click the pic.

She may not know the Bush Doctrine, but she has certainly given us the Palin Doctrine.

Watch Out, Mr. Bush!

Click the pic.

A Comment Reply

(This is in reply to a comment on the last post asking why I consider Obama ready to be President, but find Sarah Palin unprepared. Haloscan truncated my reply and I lost about half of it. I should know better. I also wanted to include the pic and couldn't use that in a comment. Little of the following will relate to issues. On the issues there is no contest in my book, of course. I agree with Barack Obama, I disagree with John McCain and what little we know of Sarah Palin.)

Yes, I find Sarah Palin's voice irritating. But that has nothing to do with my support or lack of support for her. I worked hard for Walter Mondale and proudly display on my office wall a photo of a very pregnant Sheila and me with Mondale at a meeting in Kennesaw in 1983. But his nasal, upper mid-west accent is grating to me. (I'm sorry Walter!)

(L-R) Mildred Greear, Sheila Shaw, Terrell Shaw, Walter Mondale,
Philip Greear, Jim Williams

Organizing and executing a large-scale, innovative, and very-successful national campaign with thousands of employees and volunteers for 19 months certainly does count, by the way.

In my opinion Barack Obama -- like Lincoln in the late fifties -- has been a major player in the national debate for four years. Prior to four years of national experience he had a strong intellectual, educational, and practical grounding in international affairs, constitutional law, and state affairs. He has been vetted by the press and by being in the public eye all that time. We know his positions. We have seen him work closely with senators of both parties. We have seen him operate under pressure. He has demonstrated himself as a person of depth, vision, and judgment to anyone paying attention.

Sarah Palin has been a rookie in a minor league. (Each of the 435 congressional districts has roughly the same population as Alaska) Palin seems to have some skills but has not yet demonstrated them in the bigs. It is plain that John McCain did not vet her in the way that he did Pawlenty and others. He is now scurrying to catch up with reporters and Democrats in post-vetting her. He does not know her. He has met her only once and briefly before last week. I doubt he knew she was a former member of an Alaskan political party that considers secession a real option for the state. McCain made, it is obvious to me, a quick political decision. Palin puts McCain in the news and dampens the post-convention attention on Obama. She is not a boring choice like a Pawlenty or Romney would have been and she excites the extreme right that has been uninspired by McCain. (She is the most extreme major party candidate and the least experienced in my memory.) Her choice shows poor judgment and, in fact negates McCain's best argument against Obama, who like Lincoln and others has a relatively thin official resume.

Those who use "commander" of the Alaska National Guard and facing the Russians across the Bering Sea as examples of foreign policy experience for Palin are just providing comic relief for the country, IMHO.

I understand the support of the right wing for Palin. She has a compelling story. She is a fresh face not associated directly with the failures of the last eight years. She is young, vital, strong, articulate, but still extremely conservative. Many conservative women have a feminist streak just under the surface. Fact is, they don't want folks pushing them around as women either. They want their female standard-bearers too.

To me the choice of Palin says that McCain has decided that his best chance is to continue the culture wars that allowed Bush to just barely make the White House twice.

Off Limits! and In Bounds.

Barack Obama is exactly right:

Candidates' children should be off limits.

If you are tempted to write about a pregnant seventeen-year-old, stop. Get a life. That little girl and her baby need love and support and reasonable privacy and not public humiliation.

Now, if you want
• talk about the ridiculous aspects of Sarah Palin's choice by a 72 year-old cancer survivor who has made "readiness to serve on a day one" the major issue in his campaign
• talk about the straight-faced emphasis, by McCain spokesfolk, on Palin's experience as "Commander" of Alaska's National Guard.
• talk about how Palin not only opposes most abortions she even opposes abortions in the case of rape or incest.
• talk about how she questions the existence of global warming, and believes that if it exists it has little or nothing to do with human activity. (Even Reagan's EPA director disagrees with her on this!)
• talk about how Sen. McCain chose to accuse Sen. Obama of choosing politics over country -- then named someone plainly unprepared to be president if McCain keels over on Jan. 20. I can think of no motivation except politics for this choice.
• talk about the pain of having to listen to that over-loud, nasal, upper mid-west accent for four years. Leno and Letterman will have a ball with it. (That accent will be worth a bunch of votes for Obama-Biden in these parts -- I loved Humphrey and Mondale, but the accent is like nails on a blackboard!)
• talk about how Palin supported the "Bridge to Nowhere" before she opposed it.
• talk about how Palin directed seven-times-indicted Sen. "Bridge to Nowhere" Stevens' political action committee.
• talk about the ethics investigations against her.

All that being said, I think Palin has some advantages for McCain. She provides the right-wing base with some red-meat. She will inspire such low expectations in her debate with Biden that she is predestined and fore-ordained to win that debate if she be just reasonably poised, that is, doesn't barf on the moderator.

She can overcome the misgivings of her lack of experience with deft dealing with the media, the debate, outstanding speeches. But I think her ticket-mate takes a hit for a poorly vetted choice and loses his best argument against Barack Obama.

Congratulations to Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has an interesting personal history and -- dismissing for the moment her untra-conservative political views -- skills that would serve her well as a vice-president. Perhaps after four or eight years in that post she would have gained the foreign and domestic experience and skills to actually be a strong President. She reminds me a great deal of some of the strong conservative women in my own family, for whom I have great admiration.

That being said let's think about the two most damning grenades that John McCain has lobbed at Barack Obama,

1. Senator Barack Obama is dangerously inexperienced.
By tapping Sarah Palin to be a 72-year-old's heartbeat away from leader of the free-world he has chosen someone whose electoral experience includes less than 19 months as governor of one of our smallest states and mayor of a town of a few thosusand souls; whose experience in national issues is tiny; and whose experience in foreign affairs is nonexistent. For goodness' sake, John McCain had only met her once before he tapped her and spoke with her on the phone twice. So much for worrying about the Commander-in-chief's credentials in facing Islamic terrorism, the "trancendent issue of our times". Maybe facing Russia across the Bering Strait is her strength?

2. Senator Barack Obama puts politics above country.

The sleasiest McCain attack is his stupid and insulting accusations that Barack Obama is a traitor -- that is that he puts getting elected above the good of the country. The choice of Sarah Palin above Kay Bailey Hutchison, Mike Huckabee, Joe Leiberman, Tom Ridge, Condaleeza Rice, etc., etc., etc. -- is an unabashedly political choice. He cannot know that she is prepared to be commander-in-chief.

The first and most important Presidential decision of any candidate for President is his/her choice of Vice President. John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and even George W. Bush, chose running mates that, yes they hoped would help them be elected, but they also chose people that they knew could help them govern and who could step into the Presidency at a moment's notice with the knowledge, experience, and confidence to lead our nation in an emergency.

Sarah Palin is not such a person.

We've had choices before that were not highly experienced: Dan Quayle, Spiro Agnew, Geraldine Ferraro.

John McCain has chosen the least qualified Vice Presidential nominee that I can recall.

John McCain has failed the test.