One of the things that has become even more apparent in America during this election campaign is how deeply embedded racism is among a significant proportion of Americans who even now feel threatened by the very idea of having a black president. Most of them will not say this out loud in public but will instead use coded language i.e. Obama is a " socialist" , a " secret Muslim" or "he pals around with Domestic Terrorists" he is " an appeaser " or he's really an " Arab " as if Arab Americans or Muslim Americans were not " real Americans ". The only " Real Americans " according to angry mob are " White Christian Americans ". We can only hope that this minority of racist Americans will not carry the day and if Obama wins that they will learn to accept him as their president. It is odd that these are the " Folks " who always say that one should respect the President no matter what that is no matter who he is. It is these " Folk " who get all upset when someone dares criticize George Bush because after all they claim he is due our respect because he is the President.
Just a reminder of how McCain Flip-Flops and lies
McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare
One should remember that the term " socialist" or "Communist " or "anarchist" were often used as a way to dismiss anyone who dared to speak out in favor of the Civil Rights of Black Americans. African Americans who tried to get other African Americans to register to vote and to insist that their rights be protected were often called Communists, or socialists as a way to discredit the Civil Rights movement. And those whites who took part in the Civil Rights movement in America were also labeled as being Communists or anarchist and as being UnAmerican.
So when McCain and Palin call Barack Obama a " socialist" they are reverting to using the same "smear "and "fear tactics" used by the White Supremacists in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s . Since Obama beleives in equal rights and equal opportunity and that he encourages African Americans to register to vote and to exercise their right to vote McCain and Palin use the Red Scare tactic to spread fear among their white supporters. Their arguments break down into being basically racist- Obama can't be trusted what because he's black, he is two faced in the sense that blacks in order to survive in the Jim Crow South had to act one way in front of whites and acted a different way among their own people - He can't be trusted because being black he is ruled by his emotions which he as a black man can't control . Or another fear some white voters have is that if a black person were to become president he might decide to take revenge for all those black Americans who were denied their rights over the last two centuries of American history. Or they fear that the courts for instance would treat white and black defendants as if they were equal before the law. This would mean that a white person accused of killing a black person couldn't depend on a judge or jury to sympathize with him and be lenient in their judgement because he is white and the victim was black. It would further mean that a black defendant would be judged in a court of law based on the evidence and not on the color of his skin. It would mean that the courts couldn't arbitrarily give out harsher sentences to black defendants who are found guilty than they would to a white defendant as is the case in the United States currently.
McCain Palin Racist Campaign
And let us not forget that John McCain and Sarah Palin have run a dirty Fear Mongering Smear campaign & that they have done all they can to appeal the racism of many of their supporters.
John McCain and Sarah Palin have done little or nothing to dispell the beliefs of their supporters that Obama is a " secret Muslim" an " Arab " in their minds both of these terms "Muslim" or "Arab" are used as slurs as not being truly American in the same way as Japanese Americans were in WWII seen as being not Real Americans. The McCain campaign has called Obama a domestic terrorists or a disloyal American or even Anti-American or as a " redistributor " -
Racism at John McCain Rally- Denver Oct. 24/ 2008
Sarah Palin Punked by Nicholas Sarkozy: Masked Avengers with Subtitles
Anyway to begin here is the major article at the moment circling the globe:
From the UKs Guardian on Monday Nov. 3rdJoke on Palin again as she falls for fake Sarkozy call
bySuzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Maybe Sarah Palin should have caught on when the caller purporting to be Nicolas Sarkozy told her he could see Belgium from the Elysée Palace.
But the Republicans' vice-presidential candidate remained blissfully unaware during the six-minute conversation with a Montreal comedian that she was the victim of a prank - even after the fake Sarkozy said his wife, Carla Bruni, was hot in bed, and slipped in a line in French about how fun it was to kill baby seals.
The caller, Marc-Antoine Audette, was one half of a comedic duo called the Masked Avengers. Audette described his call with Palin as his greatest triumph.
The prank on one of the most heavily protected personalities in US politics was an instant internet sensation in the final hours of the presidential campaign.
It also overshadowed what John McCain had orchestrated as his comedic moment - an appearance on Saturday Night Live with his wife, Cindy. McCain used his turn to try to make light of Obama's dominance of television advertising, saying his campaign only had the money to appear on the shopping channel - where his wife displayed campaign jewellery.
"I'm a true maverick - a Republican without money," he joked. He went on to lay out a number of strategies for trying to overcome Barack Obama's lead including one he called "Sad Grandpa".
"That's where I get on TV and go, 'Come on, Obama's gonna have plenty of chances to be president. It's my turn'," he said. But instead, it was Palin who got the most laughs - albeit inadvertently. The telephone call got off to an auspicious start.
And in Canada's The Globe And Mail's special section on the US Election this was also the feature story have her chances now evaporated :
Quebec duo gets star treatment for Palin prank/The Canadian Press November 2, 2008
MONTREAL — The Quebec comedians responsible for pranking Sarah Palin are getting the star treatment from the international media.
The duo known as “The Masked Avengers” was being courted by U.S. news networks Sunday after their prank call to the Republican vice-presidential nominee took the Internet by storm.
The Avengers — Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel — managed to get Ms. Palin on the phone, conning her into thinking she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“We're flying to New York in a couple of hours to do the CBS morning show — oh, my God,” a breathless Mr. Audette said Sunday.
The two say they're surprised at the impact of the gag, which has garnered global headlines after it surfaced almost instantly on blogs and websites around the world.
“We're doing it for fun — as comedians, that's our job,” Mr. Audette said.
“We had no idea it would have such a big impact in the United States and the rest of the world. It's the same in France and Britain — it's everywhere.”
The Canadian-made prank has provided a fitting exclamation point for a U.S. campaign that has been inextricably linked with — and endlessly satirized by — the American comedy circuit.
Following in Ms. Palin's own footsteps, Republican presidential candidate John McCain poked fun at himself over the weekend during a highly anticipated guest appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Some journalists from around the World love Sarah Palin but that's not a good thing for the McCain Campaign. While some see her as a joke or passing fad like hoola-hoops others see her as a dangerous and inept person to be so close to being President of the United States. Others see Palin as an embarrassment for Americans to try to reason away or make excuses for or is it all just a case of Americans being " Punked " by the Republicans - a sort of bad joke by the Republicans or a joke or prank on the rest of the world -just say it ain't so America.And McCain finally confesses " ..ah.. we were just screwing with you all , you Betcha!" if only eh!
Here are a few examples gleaned from the WEB:
Vice-presidential candidate Palin is a gift to journos, The Australian Business/Nov. 3, 2008
REPUBLICAN vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has dramatically polarised voters since exploding on to the political world in September.
Yet journalists unanimously adore her. Not necessarily for her policies, though, but for sheer entertainment value.
US politics hasn't produced such a goldmine of entertaining copy since Bill Clinton, says BBC Sydney correspondent Nick Bryant, who was based in Washington during the Clinton term and is back there this week to help cover the vote ...
"Journalistically, Sarah Palin has been the gift that never stops giving," he says. "She has provided absolutely wonderful copy that has contributed an extraordinary narrative to this extraordinary, break-the-rules election."
Many argue the 2008 US election campaign is the most interesting since the 1968 race, which featured the shock withdrawal of Lyndon B.Johnson, the rise of George Wallace, the rebirth of Richard Nixon and theassassinations of Robert F.Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr against a backdrop of race riots and Vietnam War demonstrations.
"(This campaign) has certainly provided the best copy since then," says Bryant.
"It's had the first viable black candidate, the first viable female candidate and the first viable septuagenarian candidate. An African American president is something I never thought I'd see in my time. It's one of those Berlin Wall moments."
Without doubt, the campaign has captured the attention of Australians like no other in recent history, with even the vice-presidential debate, usually a news non-event, generating so much interest that live blogs run by newspapers and TV networks drew capacity audiences and had to lock out some would-be visitors. "The level of interest both in the public and in the media is really quite extraordinary," says Geoffrey Garrett, chief executive of the US Studies Centre at Sydney University. "And the level of sophistication in the analysis is high."
And on Sarah Palin as Presidential material:
US Election | 02.11.2008 Deutsche Welle, Germany Fear of a Palin Presidency Drives US Expats to Vote for Obama
The economy, taxes and America's image are hot-button issues for US expats in Germany. But even Republicans are now going Democrat for a far more compelling reason: Fear that Sarah Palin could become president.
Picking Palin alienated expat voters
The choice of Palin was meant to balance and galvanize the Republican ticket with a social conservative who could draw on the extreme, evangelical elements of the party as well as female Hillary voters.
But the move wound up alienating many of the US expatriates DW-WORLD.DE spoke to in the old American settlement of Bonn’s scenic Plittersdorf district on the Rhine River, where life revolves around the international school and English-language church.
All those interviewed said it was a key, if not the key reason, to vote for Barack Obama, whether they liked the Illinois senator or not.
The expatriates in the former German capital come from all over the map in the United States and reflect diverse political views. They tend to be better off than their compatriots back home, since many are managers at blue chip US multinational companies. That puts tax policy, trade and America's image abroad high on the list of issues that matter to them.
and from the UK's The Independent poking fun at Sarah Palin & McCain:
US election diaryMonday, 3 November 2008
*Sarah Palin might be able to see Russia from her house, but her grasp of international affairs doesn't extend to spotting the difference between a Canadian comedian and the President of France..
Palin was telephoned on Saturday by a comedy duo known as The Masked Avengers, who in pidgin English managed to convince her that she was speaking to Nicolas Sarkozy. The hoax caller asked if it might be possible to further the cause of Franco-American relations by organising a joint hunting trip.
"Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done," replied Palin. "We can kill two birds with one stone that way." The comedian then joked that they should avoid asking Dick Cheney, who shot and injured a friend while hunting quail, to join in. "I'll be a careful shot!" came Palin's response.
*John McCain proved he can at least deliver a competent punch-line during a guest appearance on the satirical comedy show Saturday Night Live. In a joint skit with Sarah Palin lookalike Tina Fey, McCain presented a fake segment on the shopping channel QVC, selling pork knives (referencing his oft-repeated election promises to cut out "pork") and a set of 12 commemorative plates to mark his town hall debates with Barack Obama (they're blank, since the debates never happened).
* Oprah Winfrey has added to fears about Florida-style ballot chaos marring election day, after telling viewers of her difficulties voting in Chicago. "When I voted yesterday electronically, the first vote that you vote for on the ballot is the presidential candidate. It was my first time doing electronic, so I didn't mark the X strong enough, or I held down too long. Because then when I went back to check it, it had not recorded my presidential vote." Winfrey complained she had to queue 72 minutes to vote for Barack Obama
and from The Miami Herald on Sunday Nov. 2, 2008:
What's the secret behind Palin's appeal?By ERIKA BOLSTAD McClatchy Newspapers
RALEIGH, N.C. -- There's a moment during each of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's stump speeches when the Republican vice presidential candidate utters the "S" word, the one word that can fire up crowds almost as much as her favorite chant, "drill, baby, drill."
The word is "socialism." And as Palin has made her way across the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina for Republican John McCain in the final days of the presidential campaign, she has used the word to stir fear that a vote for Democratic Barack Obama is a vote for higher taxes. Or even worse, Palin warns in her stump speeches, a vote for Obama means "spreading your wealth."
"Now is not the time to experiment with that," Palin told voters in Latrobe, Pa., on Friday. "They do that in other countries where people are not free and where work ethic is not rewarded. And when an entrepreneurial spirit is absolutely stifled. And that's exactly what his plan will do to Americans and to the children who we are trying to teach work ethic and the reward for hard work."
It's an argument that resonates with many of the voters at her rallies, especially the working class Republican men whom Palin attracts in droves. Palin makes much of "Joe the Plumber" in her stump speech, a reference to the Ohio man whose assertion at an Obama campaign event that the Democratic candidate's tax plan smacked of socialism, who has become such a part of the McCain-Pain campaign that volunteers pass out oval-shaped "Joe" stickers at rallies.
If Republicans are successful on Tuesday, Palin will have had something to do with landing the votes of those so-called "average Joes" across America.
...Obama's proposal does call for higher taxes, but for wealthier taxpayers in the top tier of earners. His plan would restore higher, pre-2001 tax rates for individuals earning more than $200,000 and families making over $250,000. Others would get a tax cut or no tax increase at all.
Regardless, Palin presses forward with thinly disguised warnings that average Joes will see higher taxes, even as she pledges that McCain will lower federal income taxes, increase the tax credit for each child and cut capital gains taxes.
---
Sounding the "Socialist/Communist Alarm" in her attacks on Barack Obama Fox News Reports on Nov.2, 2008 : Hoping For Some More Time, Governor Palin? by Shushannah Walshe
“And there’s hope though, on Tuesday there is hope, because John McCain and I, we have just the opposite commitment in all of this.” Palin said, “Instead of taking your hard earned money and spreading it around according to some politician’s priorities, we’re gonna spread opportunity so that you and Joe the Plumber can create new wealth.”
And from Australia The Sydney Morning Herald reports that ironicly Palin blames Democrats for scaring the elderly
Seema Mehta in Ocala, Florida
November 3, 2008
SARAH PALIN has barnstormed through central Florida, telling supporters at three rallies that her Republican running mate John McCain is the one man in the presidential race who can fix the nation's economy.
"The choice could not be clearer," the vice presidential nominee told thousands of people gathered at a high school baseball field.
"Only John McCain has the experience and the wisdom to get our economy back on track.
"He has a pro-private sector, pro-growth plan that will put government back on your side.
"You should not think you have to work for government.
"Your government should be working for you."
and from Singapore the writer wonders how Sarah Palin managed to get so far in politics and is relieved that in Singapore she would never have gotten that far but that some more serious & tougher female politician would:
How did Palin get this far?November 02, 2008 Sunday, Zuraidah Ibrahim wonders if Sarah Palin could pass the PAP tea party test.
As Mr McCain’s aides have sheepishly admitted, the vetting stamps weren’t even whipped out for her papers before the Republican candidate decided she was his veep partner. For a while, it looked like an inspired choice that would invigorate the Republican ground. And it did. But only for a while, before the carefully-crafted image of empathetic hockey mom cracked to reveal what many describe as an incurious mind and an ill-disciplined politician with a knack for going off-message.
That’s just her political chops. Let’s not go into such alleged indiscretions as the abuse of petty power, from wreaking revenge on a public servant because of a family squabble to claiming expenses for personal travels.
Already, more voters have concluded that she is not qualified to be a vice-president, dragging down Mr McCain’s chances. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll out over the weekend found 59 per cent of voters believing her to be unqualified to be veep, compared to 50 per cent a week earlier. Voters also said they had much more confidence in Mr Obama to pick qualified people to serve in his administration than they did Mr McCain.
Still, the question has to be asked: what was Mr McCain thinking and how did she get so far?
In Singapore the writer continues:
...Even if she were picked as a candidate, would she rise in stature and to significance in the Singapore system? Probably not. The qualities that the Singapore government values in its ministers are glaringly absent from Mrs Palin.
The PAP system is not perfect and suffers its own weaknesses. But, I am quite relieved actually that its recruitment system would not take a Palin-like candidate very far. I can almost see the late Mr Lim Kim San pursing his lips and casting an acerbic remark about her, the way he did over some other candidates that journalists would mention at our internal meetings when he was our company chairman.
The late Mr Lim was a sharp talent scout for the PAP and one hopes that the same tough, unsentimental scrutiny of candidates is a tradition that continues to this day.
So, Mrs Palin? A backbencher, perhaps. Hip hop dancing at Chingay Parades, why not.
But it’s good to know that the decisions that matter would be made not by the likes of her, but more by politicians in the Hillary Clinton mode: smart and tough and who will earn people’s respect sooner than she is relatable or liked.
Or a humorous article on Nov. 3rd One degree of separation and a lifetime of differences by Australian journalist Sean Parnell who happens to have the same name as the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Writing for The Australian for instance he claims he can't remember the campaign as such and humorously adds :
(Although I can't remember making these ads, I can only presume I'd had a few Alaskan pale ales at the time, which would also make me accept that Palin is incredibly smart, worldly and a former beauty queen.)
or see: from Herald Sun of Australia : Way up north, the vote is on, Nov. 3, 2008 by John Trevorrow
and so it goes,
GORD.
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