previously i've posted about willing myself away from most media during these last throes of the election. my residence in a non-swing state, tivo and npr limit my exposure to the worst of it. but some has leaked through:
a telemarketer in wisconsin by the name of mr. zoromski was prepared to interrupt people during their dinner hours to encourage them to vote republican. but when he got the script saying “you need to know that barack obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist bill ayers, whose organization bombed the u.s. capitol, the pentagon, a judge’s home and killed americans,” he packed it in. paid to make nuisance calls, this guy got sent over the edge.
at a town-hall style meeting, mccain told an audience member who said she thought that obama was an “arab,” “no, ma’am, he’s a decent family man.” we'll skip lightly over obama actually being an american, but being an arab precludes this? this dialogue was repeated enough to bring colin powell out of the woodwork steaming mad.
palin's flogging small-towners and branding them as "real" americans, and us city-folk as "something else". "the others". does she or her mullet-headed fans realize that nearly 80% of americans live in urban areas now? until 2002, her 1st-dude of a husband was a member of a group that wants alaska to secede from the union. very pro-america, that.
libby dole's tv ads proclaiming her opponent for her north carolina senate seat to be "godless". the woman to whom she is likely losing is a former sunday school teacher.
representative robin hayes, (also from north carolina -- besides winstons, what else are they smoking down there?) who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” republicans, he reminded the crowd, were kind people. plus, he added, the liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. with the crowd duly chastened, he accused obama of “inciting class warfare” and said that “liberals hate real americans that work and achieve and believe in god.” this is the same guy who claimed the only way to victory in iraq was to convert all them muslims to christianity.
rush limbaugh: "it is striking how unqualified obama is and, and how this whole thing came about with, within the democrat party. i think it really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy." limbaugh continued: "i think this is a classic illustration here where affirmative action has reared its ugly head against them. it's the reverse of it. they've, they've ended up nominating and placing at the top of their ticket somebody who's not qualified, who has not earned it."
in nh, a woman who'd voted early yesterday said she wouldn't vote for obama because he "is a communist."
dopy voters have always existed. slimy attack ads are nothing new, nor is negative smearing, so as disheartening as it to me (yeah, i remain a softie progressive, can't-we-all-get-along, but stay-the-hell-out-of-my-bedroom kinda gal) i accept its reality. but the willingness, the eagerness, to stoop to racism and feed people's fears makes me sick. in this, the 21st century, republicans are stirring up witch hunts, anti-american committees and dragging their hapless god through their fetid muck. the aggressive ignorance, combined with the damning of intelligence and thoughtful discourse of and by the far-right loonies who seem to be taking over the republican party make me wistful for the insight and mental agility of men like buckley and goldwater. creationism? are you fucking kidding me? (in this land of opportunity, and there's a monkey trial on tv --b.b.)
alberto gonzales is the only guy i can recall resigning from the administration under duress. even then bush praised him as "a man of integrity, decency and principle” and then complained of the “months of unfair treatment” that preceded the resignation.“it’s sad,” bush said, asserting that gonzales’s name had been “dragged through the mud for political reasons.” other than giving his cronies free reign, bush had no economic policy. lookie there! selling pencils and apples on the street corner likely won't cut it these days. although barrel-wearing might work as bold fashion statement. his fierce cowboy determination to go it alone in this increasingly connected world has isolated and shamed us in ways previously unimaginable.
there is an arrogance in the air surrounding the bushies that is suffocating. nobody has walked the plank admitting failure, and in a show of frat-brother loyalty, bush has called out not a one. a senate leader, an m.d. (!) who could diagnose a comatose woman via videotape better than her own personal physicians; george tenet’s wmd “slam-dunk,” cheney’s “we will be greeted as liberators,” rumsfeld’s avidity to promulgate a minimalist military doctrine, together with the tidy theories of a group who call themselves “neo-conservative” (not one of whom has ever worn a military uniform) have: de-stabilized the middle east; empowered north korea, iran, and syria; unleashed sectarian carnage in iraq among tribes who have been cutting each others’ throats for over a thousand years; cost the lives of over 4,600 american soldiers, with another 32,000 seriously injured troops saved only by very modern triage and 160 journalists also killed. but not to worry: democracy is on the march in the middle east. just ask hamas. and the neocons—bright people, all—are now clamoring, “on to tehran!”
“the trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.” ~~ paul valery
let's hope this is as true tomorrow as it was yesterday.
this is the most important election of my generation, and possibly since world war II. let's rock the vote, everybody.
No comments:
Post a Comment