Tag: 2008 elections

Oct 18 2008

Meet Ben Ray Lujan: NM-03

Ben Ray Lujan is running for Congress in New Mexico’s diverse third district.

He is young and progressive. He supports universal health care, single payer or otherwise. He hopes to transform northern New Mexico’s national laboratories into alternative energy research facilities. And, as the grandson of a farmer and sheepherder, he overflows with ideas about sustainable agriculture.

He is expected to win.

More about El Norte, New Mexico’s third Congressional District, and her favored son after the jump.

(Art by native Norteño artist and health care advocate, Roger Montoya. Photos by me.)

Oct 18 2008

“…and the elephant he rode in on.” [UPDATED: Now with Obama Pie!]

Crossposted from ePluribus Media. Not to be confused with this diary from last year.

January 20, 2009: The End of an Era Error

As November 4th approaches and the nation takes stock of the current state of our security, our economy, our infrastructure, our global standing and our fractured Constitution, it’s time to turn and bid adieu to the Administration that has, with the full and complicit knowledge of the GOP, lied, cheated and stole its way through two terms of unadulterated, unapologetic corruption.

So let us all say goodbye to George W. Bush and the elephant he rode in on this November, by voting against the Republican party. In droves.

Make the jump for Obama Pie…

Oct 17 2008

Help Stop Voter Harassment, Early Voting and on Nov 4th at the Polls

On my trip over to ePluribus Media this morning I found this open thread Help Make Sure Every Voter’s Story Gets Told in 2008, not long but with very useful information that was gathered from two other sources from yesterday, one found here at daily kos about incidents at early voting polls here in North Carolina and also sourced at Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic

Regardless of your political alignment, nobody — from any party, special interest or group, has the right to interfere with your right to vote for the candidate of your choice.

Oct 16 2008

What the Progressive Movement Is Really Up Against

Crossposted from Progressive-Independence.org.

The Chinese strategist Sun Tzu cautioned against fighting wars on multiple fronts, and for good reason; it has the tendency of dividing and exhausting one’s forces, thus leading to inevitable defeat.  So it is that the Progressive Movement in America fights not one but two enemies: the fascist corporations and their dogs in government, and itself.

I was reading a column by Dave Lindorff at Smirking Chimp in which the writer goes through all the various lame excuses for voting against his own beliefs and interests.  I know them for what they are, because I used them in 2004 when I held my nose and voted for Democrat John Kerry.  That’s a mistake I’ll not repeat again.

Take a journey with me as I dismantle the excuses given, one by one.

Oct 16 2008

My debate take…

You know… call me old fashioned.  Call me a man.  Call me whatever you want.

But, in this independents eyes, neither McCain or Obama won.

Oct 13 2008

The Five Stages Of Republican Grief

Okay, yes, I’m gloating. I admit it. I own it. But after eight years of the GOP running this country into the ground a bit of schadenfreude is cathartic. For background the Kubler-Ross five stages of grief, see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K…

Denial:

In a phone interview before headlining the Indiana Republican Party’s fundraising dinner in Indianapolis on Thursday night, Graham said Hoosiers are too smart to vote for Obama.

Democrats, he said, “can’t win fairly out here.”

Asked whether Democrats could win without cheating, Graham said, “No. They can’t win fairly out here ’cause their agenda is so far removed from the average Hoosier.

“We could lose, I suppose, if they cheat us out of it,” Graham said of Indiana’s 11 electoral votes. “I think the only way we lose a state like North Carolina or Indiana is to get cheated out of it.”

link: http://www.journalgazette.net/…

Oct 13 2008

Terrorist Videos From the Right and the Left

Also available in teal.

I was browsing the ‘net looking for political videos when I saw a couple that use fear to try to sway opinion.  The first, from the political right, is a McCain campaign ad against Barack Obama.

None of what is in the ad is even remotely true; it uses fear and lies to try to cement in the minds of voters that because the Democratic presidential candidate has an Arab-sounding name, he must therefore be a terrorist or someone with ties to terrorists.  The second ad is a creation of the left, used against Republican John McCain.

Now, most if not all of what is in this video is undeniably true; McCain supports and promotes the lies and imperial policies of the Bush-Cheney regime, and his dictatorship would continue them on what perhaps would be an even larger scale.  Nevertheless, the video still uses fear in an attempt to dissuade voters from casting their ballots for McCain.

Webster’s Dictionary defines terrorism thus:

the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion

Just some food for thought.  Enjoy Columbus Day.

Oct 12 2008

John Lewis On McCain/Palin Rallies, Race and Violence

From Politico:

As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign.  What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history.  Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate.  George Wallace never threw a bomb.  He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.  Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.  They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy.  We can do better.  The American people deserve better.

link: http://www.politico.com/arena/…

Oct 11 2008

America’s West Bank: McCain’s Forced Navajo Relocation

For more clarification,see here.


Source

Not that long ago, the United Nations performed a Human Rights Investigation of the forced Navajo resettlement from Arizona to Nevada, under Special Rapporteur A. Amor. A law revised and submitted to Congress by Senator John McCain and others before him was determined to be the root cause of violations, which after ratification by President Clinton in 1999 during a globally publicized sit in by Songstress Julia Butterfly Hill at Big Mountain, Arizona.

Oct 11 2008

McCain “The Sentinel of Truth” * Karma Comes Home Edition *

John McCain is pushing the meme Obama isn’t being open or honest about his association with Bill Ayres. Well John, openness and honesty, truthfulness should start with YOU. Every time you get in front of a camera with that self serving smirk and exhort Barack Obama to tell the truth, to be straight with Americans, remember you are the fraud here, you are the liar.

John McCain exists simply for John McCain, for him there is no higher purpose than nurturing and protecting his myth. McCain is a survivor, like a cockroach. Follow me below the fold for the truth about the little man who would be president, the truth too many have forgotten. A look at the real John McCain stripped of the patriotic myth and maverick hype.  

Oct 09 2008

I’m Not A Racist, But…

Dedicated to Chris Matthews and his handwringing over the McCain campaign’s last, desperate attempt to win through fear and smear.

It happens at the drop of a hat, when you least expect it from folks you’d normally think are just better than to utter the phrase.

And then it comes. “I’m not a racist, but…”

And when you hear it you instinctively hold onto whatever chair you’re sitting in and prepare yourself for the worst and wackiest of racist rhetoric ever to cross another human’s lips. And the folks who utter this phrase are the ones the McCain campaign is trying to appeal to, with the drumbeat of Ayers and Obama’s middle name and all the nonsense they’ve been throwing the last few days.

The only problem is it’s not working, and it probably won’t work moving forward.

Oct 08 2008

Social Security Aint Broke and, No, McCain Can’t Fix It

A two part answer to the question of how McCain can fix Social Security. First, Social Security is not broken and does not need fixing. Second, McCain can’t fix Social Security.

Social Security and Medicare are often lumped together as “entitlements”, and the threat of Social Security not paying off to the current working generation is used to try to grease the wheels of efforts to allow Wall Street to gain income from Security taxes.

Ezra Klein capably addresses the point that Social Security is not “in crisis” in Social Security as Signifier, so I’ll focus on why John McCain can’t fix it. But to get the basic … look at that gentle slope in Social Security … look at that massive explosion in Medicare … Medicare, that’s an entitlement crisis. Social Security, not.

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