“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force,” Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. “I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”

Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.” (AP Link)

“was talking specifically about expanding AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and the USA Freedom Corps, which is the volunteer initiative launched by the Bush administration after the attacks of 9/11.”(empahsis added, Link)

“I think that if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about Nafta, and about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context,” Ms. Palin said. “And that’s cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks, if they came away with it taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It is not fair and not right.” (Link)

And against the claims against “diva”-like behavior and that she went on a spending spree (she insists those clothes have been donated to charity), this:

“As for the allegations of wild spending, she insisted: “I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while.”” (Link)

Nicolle Wallace, a senior McCain campaign aide who worked with Ms. Palin, defended her… “She is perhaps the most un-diva politician I’ve ever seen,” Ms. Wallace said. “The only thing I’ve ever seen her ask for is a diet soda.” (Link)

Now despite the fact that even her defense sounds like a talking point, this sounds fishy: the attacks are coming from a well-known douchebag and are completely unverified. It sounds like Fox News is trying to cook up a story that will scapegoat someone; it will help people believe that the Republican Party isn’t increasingly feeble and about to blow apart.

We all know that she was underqualified and over-hyped. What we don’t really know is how, in the end, John McCain felt about all of this. Their relationship was obviously strained from the beginning and only got worse (you can actually watch this decline happen through their body language) and ended in her going “rogue” and offscript.

His concession speech was very dignified and the pain off loss was very apparent on his face and in his voice; it remains to be seen what he will tell us about this episode. I’m guessing that he won’t tell us what I assume is the real story: how John McCain, touting himself as a warrior on the side of truth his entire life, ended up shackled by his own ambition and fell in with the very people who tried to destroy his character and reputation in the 2000 race. And then, how the hatred they instilled in the conservative base coupled with the contempt of moderates who saw him crumble to the right worked to force him to pick Sarah Palin. We all know the rest of this story…

The Rest of US lived Happily Ever After (fingers crossed).

The End.

I think any of the McMenamins pubs would be the best bet to actually get IN TO…

No, not Xmas, the purported return of BSG to our teevee sets!!! I needed something to do with myself (besides working and paying too much attention to the election) so I made these Tshirts, in the style of the Obama campaign…

I will be selling these shirts until Xmas time, with the added bonus that any shirt ordered between now and Nov. 4th will see all proceeds going to directly to the Obama campaign. Therefore, all of you who think that BSG is some sort of simplistic parable for American hegemony and the righteousness of a blind, flailing “War on Terror” can consider buying later, when all proceeds will go to wherever I see fit. Maybe I’ll send it to ACORN. HA!

Sizes

XXS $14.00 XS $14.00 S $14.00 M $14.00 L $14.00 XL $14.00 XXL $14.00

Colors

Unisex Aqua Unisex Silver Unisex Baby Blue

all shirts printed on America Apparel Tshirts. Please refer here for sizing info.

My home state does not disappoint… When we’re not bearing the brunt of other people’s stupidity (as when the Ohio flag was taken by some morons as an “Obama Flag”: “The blue field has been changed to show an Obama seal” remarked one internet troll ), we are generating some stupidity ourselves. We have some of the most awesomely unabashed racism out there.

I think I remember John McCain saying something about, “proud of the people that come to our rallies,” right before he said he had been upset about some of the t-shirts at Obama’s rallies. As if someone selling t-shirts at a rally is the same thing as the candidate himself validating some front-row wing-nut’s point (speaking of t-shirts, check out mine here).

So, here are some more people who were at a rally in Ohio:

Via Political Irony

Of course, maybe because it’s footage from Al-Jazeera, and all of those Ohioans were captured surreptitiously on camera via a Gotcha-Journalism tactic, or perhaps they are just robots programmed to say those damning phrases…

From the Times UK:

Taleban gunmen shot dead Afghanistan’s most high-profile policewoman yesterday as her teenage son prepared to drive her to work.

Malalai Kakar, the head of the city of Kandahar’s department for crimes against women, had been the subject of numerous media reports and was famous for her bravery throughout Afghanistan. She had survived several assassination attempts.(Link)

From the LA Times:

Swathed in her burka and carrying a Kalashnikov in her hand and a 9-millimeter pistol on her hip, the region’s top female police officer — and mother of six — apprehended thieves, killers and wife beaters. Once, in a shootout with a dozen Taliban fighters, she and three male officers held their own until the Taliban fled…

It’s hard to state what was more important, Lt. Col. Kakar’s status as the highest-ranking female police officer or her work as the head of the department’s crimes against women division… Kakar’s work violated the sensibilities of ultraconservative Afghan men; she insisted on defining rapes, assaults and beatings as crimes, not as cultural and religious traditions. Unfortunately, with the resurgence of the Taliban, crimes against women have returned with a fury…

Last week, after ordering her to quit police work “or else,” the Taliban assassinated her. It announced the event with joy.

Kakar’s death, and the Taliban’s promise of more assassinations of women who work outside the home, carry unusual significance. Her murder was meant to intimidate and devastate the country’s entire population — an admonition to men who dare support education and employment for their daughters and wives, and a warning to women who leave their homes.(Link)

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Some of the anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is mostly letting it flare. A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Barack Obama. They’re making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of “traitor,” “terrorist,” “treason,” “liar,” and even “off with his head” have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them… When a visibly angry McCain supporter in Waukesha, Wis., on Thursday told the candidate “I’m really mad” because of “socialists taking over the country,” McCain stoked the sentiment. “I think I got the message,” he said. “The gentleman is right.” (Link)

In two events this week, warm-up speakers at GOP rallies have used Obama’s middle name, Hussein, to seed doubts about the Democrat, a tactic meant to draw attention to the false rumors that Obama is a Muslim, as well as to belittle him. (Link) Its more than a little disturbing that “civilized” people would even consider being an Arab a sin. Read a great response to this thread from Khaled Hosseini, the author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” here.

(PHILADELPHIA) As the crowd cheered at a Sarah Palin rally this morning in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a man in the audience grinned as he held up a stuffed monkey doll with a Barack Obama bumper sticker wrapped across its forehead. (Link)

After several days of this McCain actually responded (I suppose this was a little of his actual decent character accidentally slipping out):

“At the Minnesota meeting, Mr McCain said Mr Obama was a decent family man and voters should not be afraid of him, but drew boos for defending him” (Link)

From the same event via CBS “We want a fight, and I will fight, but we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, I will respect him, and I want everyone to be respectful,” McCain said, to which he received a chorus of boos… Some of the questioners said they were scared of an Obama presidency, and one woman said she couldn’t trust Obama because “he’s an Arab.”  McCain shook his head. “No ma’am, he’s a decent family man, a citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.” (Link)

I don’t like to think of what this mix of angry angry/frightened racists morons and Palin’s stoking of the fire could produce. But it is obvious that they have let the “bulldog off of her leash”, and that her (and her supporters’) sense of reality has become equally untethered:

Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.” (Link)

The response to the media’s reporting on the last point (that Obama’s association with William Ayers is not what conservatives paint it to be) mirror this one (link): all of the media is “in the tank” for Obama. Strangely, all of these accusations use the exact same language and exclude the Fox network. This has extended to respected polling groups such as Gallup as well, and seems to be done without any self-awareness.

This is not about the content or substance of these accustations; it never is. The Republicans have decided once again to ramp up the “Culture War” element of this campaign, seeking to whip voters into a frenzy just like they tend to do with abortion rights and gay marriage. I refuse to believe that a majority of Americans can think this way; that we are in fact this bipolar nation who longs to rid itself of its evil twin. And yet the fact is, some people at rallies and in blog posts (for whatever % of the population they represent) have made it obvious that they are being led by the nose with unformed accusations, accusations that sometimes hinge on the most unhinged notions and could potentially result in the metastasizing of some of our hidden cancers.

If one needs a more gross and disturbing example of the ignorance and racism that is simmering, unreported, beneath the surface of apparently too many voters this year, you couldn’t find a better example than this video below:

[Queerty via Blogger Interrupted via MG]

Ugh. As if we couldn’t get ANY further away from actual reality in this presidential season.

Or hey, maybe we can: if anyone needed any proof that Sarah Palin is really stretching these days, check out her response to the ethics investigation, which found that… well, just read it please (full link):

(CBS/AP) Despite the finding of a legislative report that she had broken the state’s ethics law in the scandal dubbed Troopergate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Saturday that the report actually cleared her of any “legal wrongdoing or unethical activity.”  The report, which was released by Alaska lawmakers Friday, examined whether Palin abused the powers of her office by exerting pressure to have her ex-brother-in-law, an Alaska State Trooper engaged in a bitter divorce and child custody fight with her sister, fired. After the state’s public safety commissioner Walter Monegan rebuffed pressure to fire him, Monegan was fired by Palin.

The report affirmed that, as governor, she had the constitutional right to hire and fire at will, and therefore her termination of Monegan was lawful. However, the report found that Palin, her husband Todd, and her subordinates used pressure and intimidation to try to force the firing of Michael Wooten, beginning before her swearing-in ceremony took place, and therefore broke the law.

The investigation said she violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which states, “… each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.” Palin said she’s happy the report affirmed her right to fire Monegan. But she said she still doesn’t think she abused her power like the report says she did. In fact, she said she considered herself vindicated.

In a brief conference call with press reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Palin said, “I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.”

(The Update for No One: Soooo… The part of the debate where McCain used Obama’s “earmark” of a 3 million dollar projector for a planetarium in Chicago was the only part I remembered, mostly because it was a supreme example of how McCain’s campaign rhetoric many times does not seem to be thought through and/or strikes a sour note. I couldn’t imagine anyone that would actually think that a planetarium’s projector could be gotten on the cheap… It also had the double effect of making him sound like he is against funding education or at least against city kids learning about stars n’ planets n’ such. Who gives him these examples? NPR’s All things considered had a good bit about it here.)

Do you see it?

Do you see that twinkle in the eye, highlighted by that awkward wink?

My friends and I have decided that once this whole vice-presidential hoopla blows over and she is (hopefully) sent packing back to Alaska, Sarah Palin will consider starring in her own sitcom. Tina Fey has already proved that there is an audience for her; Fey’s impression was so dead-on and often used enough actual dialogue from her damning Katie Couric interviews that there’s no real reason for a surrogate. Those of us who weren’t simultaneously appalled and thrilled with her ineptitude seemed to actually find something redeeming or at least charming in her guileless ignorance (those people will not be referred to by name until I figure out what the hell is wrong with them). And in Thursday’s debate she seemed more like she was auditioning for the role of a vice-president on a new NBC drama than a person engaged in an actual debate to become the all-too-real VP: there were painfully obvious attempts to not answer questions, but there were also homespun yarns. At one point she called Joe Biden “O’Biden”, but there were “betcha’s” and “don’tchas”. There were winks, albiet awkward ones which seemed to betray traces of her discomfort. There was a shout out to her brother’s students. in response to a question about education. She spoke about energy and oil when asked about the bailout and then again when the topic was bankruptcy laws.

When she did answer questions directly, especially on foreign policy, she did it with the enthusiasm of a new student, displaying her bright and shiny new facts in front of the entire world. She had a few practiced lines that she brought out in response to obvious attacks, like the link between the McCain campaign and the Bush administration: “For a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there’s just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that’s where you’re going.” And she tried out a lot of tactics in reference to Obama and Biden’s voting records, which is really convenient when you don’t have a voting record.

But back to the wink, right? Some people took it as seriously, like the Huffington Post:

Any professional woman will tell you she’s seen this before. This is the kind of woman who uses her prettiness to get what she wants, in this case a job she’s not qualified for. And nothing, nothing pisses women off more than that kind of woman. Just imagine what would have happened if Hillary Clinton had winked during a debate. The pundits and press would have gone absolutely bonkers. “She’s using her sex as a weapon.” “Nobody could possibly take her seriously.”

This is a great comparison, but I wouldn’t say she’s “using her sex as a weapon.” I would say that she constantly showed signs of trying to fall back into her comfort zone, and she is definitely used to winking in these situations, as much as she’s used to “doggone it”s… But this does bring us back to what Palin means to women, and to the word that conservatives used to hate but now cuddle up to like, well, Sarah Palin herself: feminism. A new TIME poll shows that she is quite a bit more popular among men than women, which would serve to illustrate this point by Salon’s Rebecca Traister (read the whole thing, it’s pretty dern important stuff):

What Palin so seductively represents… is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It’s like some dystopian future … feminism without any feminists.

And so we come full circle, and by “full circle” I mean back to the image at the top of the post. Beyond her folsky star power, there is something really similar about the role that she plays in the McCain campaign and the role Patricia Heaton played in “Everybody Loves Raymond”: that of a reasonably attractive female meant to bring in those who would otherwise pay no attention to such a vacant, hokey and pathetic display. And while ELR used their woman to bring some actual blood (and breasts) into their intentionally bloodless and dorky midlife dramedy, the McCain camp is the type that seeks to pander to your essential values when it isn’t preying on your deepest fears. And we’ve seen this one before. You betcha.

Check out this informational flow chart from Ezra Klein at the American Prospect: