Update: JUST IN see side bar- Palin's Corrupt Mentor-
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"...In her 1950 Declaration of Conscience, Margaret Chase Smith said that "I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear." John McCain, Sarah Palin and the Republican Party have knowingly resurrected these demons with a vengeance. We must not, we cannot let them get away with it. "
Above quote from the article
McCarthyism Redux: The McCain Campaign's Calumny Express Menachem Rosensaft at Huffington Post Oct. 27, 2008 in which he details the false and incendiary accusations made by the Palin/McCain campaign against Barack Obama and all those in their view UnAmericans who support Obama:
"Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism."
While these words seem tailor made for the divisive rhetoric of the McCain campaign, they were actually spoken more than 58 years ago on the floor of the United States Senate by Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith from Maine in her historic repudiation of the vicious character assassinations hurled by Senator Joseph McCarthy against countless Americans. Speaking on behalf of herself and six other Republican Senators, she said that, "The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents."
The more popular epithets emanating from present-day Republican apparatchiks and the other flacks associated with the 2008 McCain campaign are "terrorist," "Muslim," and "anti-American," but their intent is the same as the red scare labels used so effectively by their McCarthyite role models: to depict their political adversaries generally, and Barack Obama specifically, as somehow dangerous, subversive, even evil.
And in America the " Right to Vote " is not really a right so much as merely an annoyance to over-worked bureaucrats and an annoyance to the Bush Regime & the Republican Party which believes it is the only part entitled to rule America in these troubled times . And if McCain and Palin win even if it appears to have been the result of a fixed election Barack Obama and the Democrats will be told to "graciously" accept defeat for the Good of the Republic. Meanwhile Officials tell complainers to get a life since voting in an election isn't all that important in America . So who cares if the election is fair or not only " Communists " and other trouble making subversive dare question whether the process is fair or not even if millions find themselves disenfranchised .
"Woefully inadequate response from election officials " in regard to voter complaints about problems at polls Election Official tells complainers " to get a life ". Even if thousands are unable to vote officials are unconcerned voters unable to vote due to mismanagement at the polls is not Voter Officials concern. So what is their job & their concern . Are they more interested in making sure as few voters actually vote . Are they more interested in helping the Government in power that is the status-quo which means the Republicans. There seems to be a concerted effort across America to disenfranchise as many voters as possible. Will these voter officials attempt for instance to improve the situation on election day . Maybe they could insist polls remain open longer and that local officials make arrangements for polls staying open longer . Maybe it is time that average American citizens should remind such officials and the government bureaucracy that they work for the average citizen and not just for the Republicans & the Bush Regime or other partisan groups.
Facing Substantial Delays at the Polls, Voters Sue the State of Pennsylvania
Posted by Danielle Ivory, American News Project at 10:49 AM on October 27, 2008.
With the help of Voter Action and the NAACP, voters filed a complaint in a Philadelphia federal court.
Earlier this week, ANP reported that, come November, Pennsylvania voters could face substantial delays at the polls. We spoke with the man running the election in Philadelphia, who scoffed at long lines and tales of lost votes. Now, voters are suing the state of Pennsylvania. With the help of Voter Action and the NAACP, they filed a complaint this morning in Philadelphia federal court, specifically citing an interview between the American News Project and Philadelphia Deputy City Commissioner Fred Voigt. Here's an update and more of our interview with Voigt.
Meanwhile McCain and Palin accuse Obama of being a "communist" and "subversive" &" terrorists "average Americans are losing their homes, their jobs and their investments while living without adequate health care.These bread and butter issues are of little real concern to McCain and Palin who are more interested in pushing for prayer & creationism in the schools and trying to overturn Roe v Wade and to fight for the so called traditional values . And what are the traditional values that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer while the Middle Class see their incomes being reduced and their jobs being outsourced to other countries. Meanwhile the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have become a quagmire and a strain on the US failing economy and becoming a problem for America's foreign relations. And detainees are being kept in prison who may or may not be guilty of any crime .
Wassup 2008
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on October 27, 2008
You know McCain's campaign is in trouble when the 'Wassup' guys -- the faces of Budweiser and the Anheuser-Busch company that has made so much money for the McCains over the years -- come out in support of his opponent. But that's what happens after eight years of Bush-McCain policies that have led us to and kept us in Iraq, economic turmoil, and catastrophic climate change. True!
According to Palin any country which has higher tax rates than United States are not Democratic or Free. Canada , Great Britain and most of Europe according to her rant are not free democratic countries. In many of those countries average citizens get better health care and education and other benefits than do average Americans because they pay higher taxes . And Americans only believe in the survival of the fittest that is Darwinian Social and Economic policies.
Somehow McCain and Palin have made the leap from having those making over &250,000 a year pay more of their share of taxes to being a form of collectivization as in Lenin, Stalin, Mao etc. And somehow they believe that helping the poor , the homeless, the working poor or even doing more to help out veterans or those who have lost their jobs or homes is all part of a Communist plot rather than a nation taking care of its own citizens. Obama has never argued for instance in getting rid of private property or private ownership or stripping multi-millionaires or Billionaires of all of their wealth. He has proposed that a multi-millionaire pay a couple of thousand dollars a year more in Income Tax while lessening the tax burden on those making less than $ 250,000 a year. It is no wonder with this fear mongering and exaggerations that it is difficult if not impossible to get many Americans to accept the reasonableness of a universal Helth Care plan such as the one we have in Canada.
Palin Bizarre Rant Warns of Communist Nightmare Regime
Next thing you know Barack Obama will be insisting that all of America's children have a right to a decent education. That all schools across America be adequately funded so that all schools have enough text books and other resources necessary for a good education including a well looked after school building . In America though it is considered acceptable that schools in prosperous areas be better funded than those in poorer areas which is just another form of Apartheid for the poor and certain visible minorities in America.
By accepting this status quo those from poorer areas start of with fewer opportunities for success than children in more prosperous areas. Social injustice is just part of the American Way. If you are poor than you attend poorly looked after schools and you are not eligible for good healthcare or decent housing or nutrition which leaves such children behind and at the back of the economic & opportunities bus as it were. But that's their own fault Bush & Palin would say for being or allowing themselves to be born into an economically deprived home that is into poverty.
But America has had a long history of mindless or uncritical thinking in terms of belief in American exceptionalism and Fanatical Patriotism and the Faith that America is always right and is on God's side. Those who argue that certain issues are complex and are therefore not open to easy or simple solutions are called UnAmerican or Pointy-headed intellectuals. Americans in general prefer decisive action no matter how wrong over a thoughtful response to an issues . So after 9/11 invading and occupying Iraq and killing a million Iraqis made many Americans feel good about themselves and proud of their country. So Flag-Waving Hucksters such as Bush & Cheney or now McCain and Palin are able at times to shout down any reasonable thoughtful criticisms of these disastrous foreign policy decisions. Even most of the Media who should know better acted out of a need for vengeance and as much blood as possible to teach those evil people the Muslims, the Arabs all those less than human swine ( according to the Hysterical American Press & its uninformed Masses )a lesson that you don't fuck with America that is God's Chosen people. And again and again they argue that no international court or organization or international agreements have any hold over America . So Americans can kill and torture individuals they deem the "Enemy "and terrorize whole nations at will.
It is unfortunate for the rest of the world that Americans have never valued the virtue of humility. They also continue to believe as the Soviet Union once did that its ideology is superior to all other points of view, that Evangelical Christianity is the only True Religion and when arguments and diplomacy will not convince others of their rightness than Military Force will. America is like a banana republic which suddenly was thrust into being a Super Power
Or as the writer in this next article points out ignorance is championed in the United States and even if Obama becomes president he will have a difficult time over-coming this legacy of ignorance and anti-intellectualism :
How these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington
The degradation of intelligence and learning George Monbiot The Guardian, Tuesday October 28 2008 --
How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama was a Muslim and a terrorist?
Like most people on my side of the Atlantic, I have for many years been mystified by American politics. The US has the world's best universities and attracts the world's finest minds. It dominates discoveries in science and medicine. Its wealth and power depend on the application of knowledge. Yet, uniquely among the developed nations (with the possible exception of Australia), learning is a grave political disadvantage.
On one level, this is easy to answer. Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15-year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD. But this merely extends the mystery: how did so many US citizens become so stupid, and so suspicious of intelligence? Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason provides the fullest explanation I have read so far. She shows that the degradation of US politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies.
One theme is both familiar and clear: religion - in particular fundamentalist religion - makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing.
Modern fundamentalists reject the science of Darwinian evolution and accept the pseudoscience of social Darwinism
...Besides fundamentalist religion, perhaps the most potent reason intellectuals struggle in elections is that intellectualism has been equated with subversion. The brief flirtation of some thinkers with communism a long time ago has been used to create an impression in the public mind that all intellectuals are communists. Almost every day men such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly rage against the "liberal elites" destroying America.
The spectre of pointy-headed alien subversives was crucial to the election of Reagan and Bush. A genuine intellectual elite - like the neocons (some of them former communists) surrounding Bush - has managed to pitch the political conflict as a battle between ordinary Americans and an over-educated pinko establishment. Any attempt to challenge the ideas of the rightwing elite has been successfully branded as elitism.
Obama has a lot to offer the US, but none of this will stop if he wins. Until the great failures of the US education system are reversed or religious fundamentalism withers, there will be political opportunities for people, like Bush and Palin, who flaunt their ignorance
and so it goes,
GORD.
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