Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Month: September 2008
New Policy
Posted on September 6, 2008 in Citizenship Roach-B-Gone
If you sign yourself “Real American” or anything suggesting that people who disagreeing with you are unpatriotic and/or unAmerican, I shall consider this an attack and delete your post. This includes blog names and email addresses.
I shall make no discrimination by party. But we all know which party stoops to this level.
We’ve had enough of this kind of divisiveness in this country. I am an American and you can’t take that away from me.
And look what other kind of lie that same party has been engaging in!
Keys to KOing the McCain/Palin Combo
Posted on September 5, 2008 in Campaign 2008
What’s the difference between Sarah Palin and an old-style GOP crony? Lipstick.
Did you know that Sarah Palin has more executive experience than John McCain? True, by the GOP’s definition. But did you know that Barack Obama provided services to more than 90,000 people as a community organizer? That’s more than 10 times the size of Palin’s little town.
Ane he did it without earmarks. Let’s hear it for Pork-barrel Palin!
John McCain Votes Against Vets
Posted on September 5, 2008 in Campaign 2008 Occupation of Iraq PTSD
Pacifist that I am, I am against all war. I know it is a position that I will never see any president embrace and even some Democrats think I am a traitor, but I feel that people like me are, at least, a valuable check on our country’s impulses to attack other nations and to ensure that civilians are not slaughtered. I also feel that soldiers deserve our sympathy: back in 1992 I was in former Yugoslavia. The tired faces and slumping shoulders of those men — fighting for the safety of their homes like no American has had to do in this generation — impressed themselves on me. I rose and gave my seat on the bus to more than a few. It hammered into me a sense of their humanity.
I wish John McCain felt the same. His endurance in the Hanoi Hilton deserves to be commended along with those of the 600 other men who went through the same thing. And so does the strength of those who were never captured but subjected to the pounding beat of patrol in the jungles or deserts.
But pacifist that I am, I feel that when you do take on a war, you take up an obligation to take care of those who are affected by it. John McCain and I differ on this. By this I mean the civilians caught in the middle of it, the enemy combatants who are captured, and the soldiers on our own side who have to erase the blasts and spurts of blood from their eyes when they come home.
Since FDR’s citizen armies of World War II, we have looked after the medical and social reintegration needs of our veterans. To our country’s credit, we have made major strides in understanding the physical and psychological syndromes that battle create in a person. To our shame, we have failed many veterans of Vietnam and other wars. A large percentage of our homeless served in combat. If you go to a shelter or dare to talk to them on the street, they’ll show you the Distinguished Service Stars and Purple Hearts that they have won. It’s the only piece of jewelry that many will ever own.
Under Republican rule, little was done to help these people other than create a Department of Veterans’ Affairs and salute the flag on Veterans’ Day. John McCain has been there, rolling off tales of his experiences in the Hanoi Hilton. But he has voted time and again against helping veterans. Once the video game is over, like many Republicans, he turns the computer off, and thinks about his investments, his vacations, his six houses, or the wienie-roasts he throws for reporters.
I hope you’ll take time to read Senator Obama’s position on veterans because it is laced with a deep sense of the traumas that soldiers go through when they must become civilians. We’ve spent trillions on the boondoggle in Iraq: the cost of reintegrating them will be far less and of far more importance to our country’s integrity.
McCain has voted against these things:
- Adequate rest for troops between deployments
- Providing the DVA with $20 million for health facilities
- Authorizing $430,000,000 for the Department of Veteran Affairs for Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans. He was one of 13 senators to do so.
- Increasing veteran health services funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate tax loopholes. He has championed corporate tax breaks over veterans’ health several times.
- Giving soldiers in the field safety equipment.
These deficits in care mean more stress on soldiers, veterans, their families, health care workers, and the communities they come home to. They undermine national security in the heart of the homeland.
John McCain Votes Against Vets. That motto alongside “90% with George Bush” should be on our lips.
[tags]Campaign 2008, veterans, veteran, Mean John McCain, John McCain, John McCain Votes Against Vets, Barack Obama, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder[/tags]
A Bipolar Fellow Speaks Out for Obama
Posted on September 4, 2008 in Bipolar Disorder Campaign 2008 Stigma
This bipolar fellow named Pelagius explains why he is mad at Sarah Palin for dismissing the work of community organizers and why the mentally ill and their families should support Obama. Read it at my.BarackObama.Com
[tags]Campaign 2008, bipolar disorder[/tags]
Obama’s Community Organizing
Posted on September 4, 2008 in Campaign 2008
You heard community organizing being bashed last night. Here is what it meant in Obama’s case according to the Dallas Morning News:
Now, the truth is that, starting at age 23, Obama ran a faith-based charity called the Developing Communities Project.
It was made up of eight Catholic parishes when he got there and had one staff member. He was its director, meaning he was in charge. He made decisions about it, including staffing, budgets, etc. And when he left in 1988 to go to law school, he had grown its budget from $70,000 to $400,000, its staff from 1 to 13 people. More important, he created a job training program for this community and a college prep tutoring program….
And keep in mind the timeline here: Obama did this as a young man BEFORE going to law school, becoming a successful lawyer and a law professor.
Everyone who has ever been an organizer or a volunteer at any level in any community organization ought to take offense at Sarah Palin’s remarks which pour urine all over the 1000 points of light.
[tags]Campaign 2008, Barack Obama, Obama, volunteers, volunteering, community organizing, community organizers[/tags]
Cindy McCain Dresses Fine
Posted on September 4, 2008 in Campaign 2008 Class
Wow! No wonder McCain has so many houses: his wife has the price of a Scottsdale split-level hanging from her ears.
–Vanity Fair
The other day, Cindy McCain protested that she was indeed in touch with ordinary people. Why she did charity work (a kind of community organizing) and, therefore, could empathize with the downtrodden middle class.
She called Barack and Michelle Obama “elitist” which is the new buzzword for the Republican Party.
Then on Tuesday, she arrived at the Republican National Convention wearing $300,000 worth of upscale geegaws, most notably three-carat diamond earrings worth $280,000. The $3000 Oscar de la Renta dress that she wore might go to some needy lobbyist’s wife. She will keep the earrings.
Cindy’s clothes sense tell where her and her husband’s sympathies lie and it’s not with the middle class.
As a member of the middle class, I support Barack Obama because it’s obvious that people like Cindy McCain have too much money to spend. Obama supports a middle class tax break that gives 95% of working Americans a tax break of up to $1000. If there are any future tax increases to pay off the huge Bush debt, they will fall on the Cindy and John McCains.
Elitist Republicans wearing expensive diamonds and pearls will not, of course, like this. But real people will.
[tags]Campaign 2008, Cindy McCain, class, conspicuous consumption, social class, class[/tags]
The Gender Card: Both Sides Now — From One Party
Posted on September 4, 2008 in Campaign 2008
One way for Sarah Palin, another way for Democratic women like Hillary Clinton:
[tags]Campaign 2008, Sarah Palin[/tags]
Original Mavericks
Posted on September 3, 2008 in Campaign 2008 History
The next time you hear someone call John McCain “the original maverick” tell him about [[Samuel Maverick]]. If they try to say that he is the first maverick in Congress, then let it rip with your tales of [[Maury Maverick]], congressman from Texas who coined the term “[[gobbledygook]]”. John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage tells the stories of many Senatorial mavericks who stood for the good of their country against the short-sighted politics of their times. With his latest behavior, John McCain shows that he does not belong in any sequel. As Bush and Rove played chicken with him, he winced and he flinched.
Can the Kennedy Library take back the award they gave him in 1999?
[tags]John McCain, facts, mavericks, maverick, Campaign 2008[/tags]
As Qualified as Obama?: Palin and the Branding of John McCain
Posted on September 3, 2008 in Campaign 2008
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
-Sarah Palin
Palin equals Obama only in Karl Rove’s imagination. Obama isn’t jumping from community organizer to Presidential candidate. Check his resume.
The Palin pick shows how out of control John McCain is at this time. Word is that even he didn’t want her, but that back-scenes pressure from Karl Rove and the Bush White House saddled him with her. If McCain can’t even choose his own VP, what kind of maverick is he?
One branded and on the way to the slaughterhouse.
[tags]Campaign 2008, John McCain, Sarah Palin, fallacies, Republicans, scoundrels[/tags]
The Culture War is On: Bloggers are the Enemy
Posted on September 3, 2008 in Campaign 2008
The culture war is on. John McCain has declared that the press and bloggers are the enemy. Sarah Palin is God’s prophet. There are no issues, only personalities.
What can we do?
First, we must keep our heads and not buy into the media darling business. Republicans have used the culture war model before and lost badly with it.
Second, we must focus on the divisiveness of this ploy. Calls that point out how McCain and Palin are turning American against American in a time when we need to come together to solve the big issues is key.
Third, we need to keep challenging them on the issues. Point out that while they are slinging mud, we have an outstanding program to offer you.
Fourth, remind people that the Republican Party of George W. Bush is behind this all with its disastrous policies. Iraq, Katrina, etc. should be buzzwords.
Fifth, think carefully about engaging in an abortion debate with them. This is the underpinning of their culture war and we must be very careful. Stand up for Choice, but don’t be caught hitting a tar baby.*
Sixth, expect them to bring up homosexuality. Again, the key is to brand them for divisiveness in the name of continuing the Bush legacy.
Seventh, Sarah Palin is where they want the debate. She is their new Ronald Reagan. Put it somewhere else. This will madden them and lead them into more mistakes.
* This is an allusion to one of Joel Chandler Harris’s Animal Stories where Bre’r Rabbit finds a tar baby that the Fox and his pal have crafted. Bre’r Rabbit is so miffed by the tar baby that he hits it over and over again, getting stuck in the gooey mass and making his situation worse. Hell, the whole culture war business is a tar baby, so the neatest thing to do is to call it for what it is and keep on the issues.
[tags]Mean John McCain, Sarah Palin, culture wars, Campaign 2008[/tags]
Fifteen Reasons Why Sarah Palin Should Not Be VP
Posted on September 2, 2008 in Campaign 2008
- Her lack of experience: she has been governor of Alaska for less than two years.
- When she is criticized for her lack of experience, her supporters cry sexism, even if many better qualified Republican women (e.g. Olympia Snowe, Elizabeth Dole) are mentioned.
- Her education is pathetic, a bachelor’s degree from North Idaho College in communications/journalism.
- John McCain met with her once before choosing her. Despite claims by the Republicans, her background was never investigated by the FBI. No one in Alaska was consulted about her candidacy before it was announced.
- Her husband was a member of a political party that wanted secession from Alaska. She was seen at the 1994 convention of this party.
- She is married to an oil company executive and known to be in the pockets of the oil companies.
- She says that she opposes welfare, but she lives in a state where every citizen receives a stipend from the state courtesy of the oil companies.
- She says that she opposes government earmarking, but her state received $100 million more in federal earmarking than any other state while she was governor and she actively campaigned for this.
- She uses her office for personal vendettas. When the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner refused to carry out her command to fire her former brother-in-law, she fired him.
- She is actively using her office to prevent the Alaska state legislature from releasing the report about her behavior, as previously scheduled, on 31 October 2008.
- She is a protege of corrupt Senator Ted Stevens and pretends it isn’t so.
- She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
- She opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest.
- She supports the teaching of creationism in the public schools — effectively erasing the line between church and state.
- She doesn’t believe that global warming is caused by pollution.
Sarah Palin is clear evidence of the deficiencies of McCain/Rovian Republican politics. Even if she withdraws, she shows that McCain is not capable of making decisions about who works for him.
[tags]Sarah Palin, corruption, Alaska, John McCain, Campaign 2008[/tags]
