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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Today's 9/11 and the bad guys aren't caught.
I lived through 9/11 on the island of Manhattan, and seven years later the bad guys aren't caught.
I live in a "free" society where I can order a Manhattan, but nobody needs to remind me that those bad guys aren't caught.
A middle name and skin color keeps us from getting those bad guys caught?
Moving the war to Georgia gets those bad guys caught?
White woman saying: get those bad guys caught. With or without lipstick.
"Here's another fact for you: BO hasn't the experience and therefore also doesn't have the vaguest notion of how to command a military force"
How have Rumsfeld, Cheyney, Bush done with the command of a military force? Do they have the "vaguest" notion of WHERE Osama in Laden is? WHY have they not done something about that?
Here's a fact for you shithead: It's been 7 years since 9/11, this gang has done NOTHING to stop the perpatrators of that crime; instead has launched all the might and capital of this country into enriching their pals in the oil industry. HOW is that working out? I Wanna know. DO you have answers?
This was a really good analysis and article. Whether we like it or not, roughly 1/2 of America -- mostly outside the urban centers -- is very strongly motivated by fear. Specifically: xenophobia, or fear of the unfamiliar or foreign (not like a foreign country, but foreign or different from their every day experience).
Racism, homophobia, and all the rest are nothing more than fear of the different -- the "not like us."
The Republican party recognized this a long time ago and have totally mastered the art of playing on that fear in ways that most of us can't even imagine.
When those of us in the progressive community ridicule the folks who speak from a base of fear and call them names like bumpkin and rednecked idiot, all we do is reinforce the fear.
If progressives ever want to get the fear based community to recognize that the people they're most afraid of are the ones who are advocating changes that are most likely to make their lives better and also that the ones who are advocating the status quo and telling them to be very afraid are the ones whose policies are keeping them living in the economic and social shadows, we've got to learn a way of talking to the fearful in a "healing" way.
I know that sounds sappy and touchy-feely, but it's also the truth. We need to find a way to counter the right (who play the fear-based like a violin) in a way that doesn't scare the bejusus out of them -- a way that they can hear; a way that will help them understand and stand up to the bullies who have been manipulating them into voting against their own interests for all these years.
I still think that Obama is at a huge disadvantage because of his race, but that doesn't change the reality of what has to happen if he wants these people to vote for him. They're afraid of him, and he has to find a way of communicating his message to them that helps them be unafraid of him - whether it's his race or his religion or whatever the hell it is that scares the poo out of them.
$0.02
Obama was ahead in the polls until Palin gave her spiel at the RNC. The difference is in styles. She is more literal and that plays well in middle America who are less impressed with how articulate or inspirational a speaker is vs. how much their message conveys common sense.
The battle is between esoteric and literal minded speaking, of which blue collar people will choose the latter.
It is specifically that elitism that makes journalists and some politicians out of touch with how people will vote, and how George W Bush can come out of a debate not trampled to death.
To most of the country drilling in Alaska is too far removed from their everyday life to work up the energy to give a fuck. Gas prices aren't outside their concerns. If someone comes out and says, "Hey, we have plenty of oil, to take our dependency away from people with strange religions who blow up buildings," it plays well with the middle Americans mindset.
Someone will have to do a better job of communicating why Palin is full of shit and McCain a major golf ball.
But in the end, the national polls don't matter as much as adding up the electoral votes and the polls in those particular states.
Aftr reading this article, I am dismayed and dejected. I do not think--given the ignorance and small-mindedness of so many small town people that Obama will have a chance to win this election, unless the urban areas vote hugely!!! I wonder if any of them really KNOW John McCain--that rich, old white guy with 8 houses and a bunch of lobbyists running his campaign--who, if elected President, will not help them with health insurance or unemployment??? And what about Sister Sarah Palin--who would be, if elected, a mere metastasis away from the Presidency! Her deceitful and manipulative manner are not hard to figure out--doesn't take an urban PhD! What is wrong with these people!!!! Is there no way they will stop drinking the Kool Aid! No wonder the rest of the world has such distain for us--and, truly, they do!!!!
so these morons really feel that governor sarah "moose-piss for brains" better represents them in washington?? her and john mc jackass? really? what a joke!
personally, I think a lot of it comes down to what bill clinton said back in south carolina about the black vote. the working class whites just can not seem to get over their prejudiced views on black and white. and so, if that mc jackass and vice president moosepiss win in november? I hope that the economy and everything else really goes downhill even more and they all lose both their jobs and their employee healthcare. the lessons learned will go to serve them all right!
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
