( – promoted by Jack McCullough)
I think this recent ad from the
Vermont League Of Conservation Voters has got to be one of the best in the gubernatorial campaign. This is the kind of messaging that works.
Great attack, I especially like how the production quality, refreshingly, doesn’t suck. I hope they bought a LOT of airtime.
Go figure.
Today I received my second Robo-Call from the spouse of arch-conservative, chickenhawk, Bush corruption enabling WhackJob John Cornyn of Texas. Mrs. Cornyn is dutifully helping her Big John in his reelection bid.
Either Acorn transferred me to Texas when I wasn't looking or this is one extremely and ambitiously wasteful GOTV effort, even by Texas standards. This is now (at least) the second time I am aware that Sandy Dearest Cornyn has called to remind me to vote in “my” district in Texas (.WMA file).
I hope this means there is a Republican in Texas (who thinks he has an Vermont 802 area code) and who is also in the process of forgetting to vote. More hopefully, this is probably a healthy anecdote of the state of Republican GOTV when it comes to finding willing campaign workers. Seems there is a chronic lack of volunteers with dialing fingers and enthusiasm for a notoriously shitty stable of GOP candidates, such as the delusionally unhinged War-Pig from Texas whose wife keeps calling me at home.
Robocalls are ubiquitous. However, if you listen to the text of this one, you will hear that this call is targetted to the identified faithful. A lack of people willing to volunteer for GOP campaigns like Cornyn's and make the personal calls to party generated “Identified Republican Voter Lists” (shit, I am still shaking my head over this one) leads to these types mistakes.
Seriously folks, how hard is it to explain to the phone bank programmer that “802” is NOT in Texas? Does a crudely cynical conservative Christofacistzombie running in another time zone really need a memo to know that yours truly is not registered as, sympathetic to, voting with or amendably disposed toward, Republicans at any level?
So. The Obamamercial has come and gone. Little to no content, but there was never going to be any content. If that’s what you were looking for, you were fooling yourself.
This was always about campaign theater. Heartstring persuasion writ large. And as a former electioneer myself, I could hardly wait. Nobody has ever done anything like this before, and I was dying to see what they would do and how well they’d pull it off.
And wow, did they. They nailed it. Just enough schmaltz. Sprinkles of the beginnings of policy content throughout, to give the illusion of content. This was a universe removed from Ross Perot and his charts and likely homed in like a laser beam on many in the swing voter set.
Now would I like beef? Content? Sure. But again, this wasn’t made for me. I knew that going in. Judged on its own terms against its own goals, I think it was a freakin’ masterpiece. And the fact that the last World Series game was forced into a rain delay in what otherwise could’ve been the series finale – that was an act of god, man. Having the World Series audience as a lead in bumped this to a whole new level.
Wow. We’ll see the ratings. If nobody watched it, I’ll have to eat my words, but I think we will see this create a noticeable bump in the polls.
Gotta say, this makes me crazy.
Looks like our Democratic US Representative hasn’t just dissed his own Party’s candidates, he’s doing it to candidates for the very body he recently led – the State Senate. Here’s a postcard from Republican Senator Phil Scott that’s been circulating in the county at this 11th electioneering hour, which is accompanied by comparable ads in Montpelier and Waterbury periodicals – possibly more (and yes, it sounds like it is an authorized use of the quote as I’m told party leaders just slumped their shoulders when confronted with it):
It’s bizarre and frustrating. Yes, Welch has formally endorsed the Democratic candidates, and yes he’s even doing some campaigning with them – but this is a freaking disaster. Dems had a solid chance of picking up a seat, as they came very close last time. This time, one of the Dem challengers looking to join incumbent Ann Cummings under the dome is from Barre Town (Laura Moore), which has been a virtual vote-black-hole for county candidates. With an eye towards breaking that trend, the future was looking rosy indeed until news that the Progressives were running John Bloch as well. Bloch will not do well overall, but he will perform respectably in Montpelier where he is a local face. Those votes will largely come at the expense of Moore, rather than repeat candidate Kim Cheney, who is also a Montpelier-area figure.
What that means is that this is going to be a nail biter after all – a nail-biter that could easily turn on only 50 votes.
And this postcard could easily – easily – be fifty votes. It will be fifty votes. There’s no two ways about it. Why Welch didn’t give him the quote but expressly restrict it to non-campaign use is beyond me.
And it doubly sucks because the Washington County Senate Candidates seem to be the Rodney Dangerfields of the Vermont Democratic Party. They also come out on the losing end of the VT NEA’s endorsements, as the union gave the nod to incumbent Dem Ann Cummings, but also Progressive Bloch and Republican Bill Doyle (who – incidentally – voted for the two-vote budget law, which was the litmus test cited in the passing over of Gaye Symington for Anthony Pollina, and that lack of consistency is telling).
The NEA thing is maddening. Cheney always comes within spittin’ range of winning and the former Attorney General is a solid lefty. Laura Moore is a total rising star and is even on her local school board. Being kicked to the curb by the teachers’ union in the face of a token “R” is pretty bad. Being shoved out in face of a “P,” on the other hand, is hardly a surprise, though, as the major unions are apparently working under a collective unspoken rule that any “P” on the ballot is an automatic endorsement. Honestly, if I were a Dem running for office and there was a Prog in the race, I wouldn’t waste my time with even talking with them about an endorsement any more.
Fortunately, most Dems are pro-labor without needing an official stamp of approval, but its bizarre that Vermont unions are willing to hang their hats entirely on individual Dems’ better selves.
But I digress. As a Washington County Democratic Party officer and former Chair, this stunt by Welch merits a big BIG response from self-identifying Dems. It could well be handing the Republicans a Senate seat at the expense of an ally. Outrageous. Honestly, I was shocked.
I encourage all to call Welch’s campaign office and give him a piece of your mind. From what I hear, this was borne out of cluelessness rather than untoward intent.
Let’s give him a clue.
(802) 658-0600
http://welchforcongress.com/contact
Something NOT about the guv's race…
There's been so much to digest and enjoy with the ever-expanding rightwing implosion. So many of us have waited so long for this, it's still “pinch me, I must be dreaming” for me sometimes. What makes it even better is the fact that for many of them, they seem to be completely incapable of any serious self-criticism or introspection… the dominating lizard brain simply seems to not allow it.
Many of the so-called “intellectuals” (who, I might point out, like Brooks, Noonan, and such are still consistently wrong on most things, but are at least able to use something more than monosyllabic words and grunting to communicate) are, if not jumping ship completely, seriously lamenting how the GOP has completely been taken over by the anti-intellectual fringe, those who have elevated ignorance and incompetence into signs of personal virtue. Christopher Buckley, son of Bill, founder of the con rag National Review, is actually voting for Obama now becuse the kooks have thoroughly taken over the party.
And it's going to get worse (actually better, from where most of us are standing).
It's been the conventional wisdom that when a party/faction loses as big as the GOP is expected to, they often lurch further to their extreme before settling into things. We're seeing this already. Just poke around the net, far and near, you'll read how McCain is losing because he's just “not conservative enough' or some other blather that is based on the erroneous assumption that we are not just a conservative nation, but a batshit-insane conservative one. If they had only cut more programs, bombed more countries, discriminated against more people, cut capital gains taxes more, if only… You get the point. It's ridiculous. They don't get it.
So I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one, and I get all giddy: Social Conservatives Fight for Control of Republican Party. They really don't seem to understand that humanity and society changes. It's why we don't burn witches anymore or think the sun revolves around the earth or that the earth is only 5-10 thousand years old (oops.. scratch that last one.. we're talking about social conservatives here). Young people, especially, who have gay friends and friends of every color seriously won't resonate with the messaging; they're more likely to be repulsed by it, actually. And so it goes:
In skirmishes around the country in recent months, evangelicals and others who believe Republicans have been too timid in fighting abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration have won election to the party's national committee, in preparation for a fight over the direction and leadership of the party.
I'm surprised none of 'em have tried to blame the financial meltdown on gays getting married. I'm sure it's coming.
But, what's been really taking me to previously unknown peaks of giddiness is the ones like this that I've been reading:Win or Lose, Many See Palin as Future of the Party. That's all fine and dandy, as it is ensuring the GOP remains a marginalized, fringe party for some time to come.
“She’s dynamite,” said Morton C. Blackwell, who was President Ronald Reagan’s liaison to the conservative movement. Mr. Blackwell described vying to get close to Ms. Palin at a fund-raiser in Virginia, lamenting that he could get only within four feet.
“I made a major effort to position myself at this reception,” he said, adding that he is eager to sit down with her after the election to discuss the future. Asked if the weeks of unflattering revelations and damaging interviews had tarnished her among conservatives, he replied, “Not a bit.”
Of course not. She's idiotic, corrupt, and incompetent, and she believes in the vengeful nasty God who protects her from witchcraft, hates gays, and cares more about the unborn than the already born (bomb 'em! starve 'em!), so she's exactly what the base is looking for. Let them groom her, get her to pronounce big words and learn where Moscow is. Maybe they can actually get her to read some books without pictures, too. I can't remember the article, but it was similar, and some spokesperson said something along the lines of, “People saw some interviews, and the reporters made it seem like Palin was really dumb”. Did you get that? It wasn't what she said that made us think she was dumb, it was the reporters telling us that made us think that. Okay.
Now, I don't even think she'd win the primary, because although they talk this stuff now, after four years of Democratic dominance, you'd think they'd catch on and not try to cast their campaigns as “the war on thinking”. Maybe the fear of an imminent attack by an Arabic gay army weilding aborted fetuses and mochachinos will shock them into a change in direction. Probably not. And if the Dems actually have some measure of success, forget about it.
It's really an epidemic, as Monibot's latest in the Guardian points out:
Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15-year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD. But this merely extends the mystery: how did so many US citizens become so stupid, and so suspicious of intelligence?
One theme is both familiar and clear: religion – in particular fundamentalist religion – makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing.
There's a whole lotta stupid in this country, and Palin personifies that like no other mainstream candidate has before. So there is both sadness and joy in this. Sadness, in that it does a lot of damage to this country. Just look at the last 8 years. But there is also a joy in knowing that, since much of the success the GOP has had is due to this same anti-intellectualism, that they're not going to just cast it away any time soon. You betcha!
Well now ,how about this,more pleasantly surprising than early snow.It is a serious charge that needs to answered by the Governor,not just brushed aside.Maybe this will contribute some other questions about Gov.Douglas’s permanent PR campaign.
Symington, the speaker of the Vermont House who is challenging the Republican incumbent this year, said her opponent was “exploiting” the taxpayers by not reimbursing the state of Vermont for his political campaign expenses.
The Democratic candidate for governor referenced a recent newspaper report that showed former Gov. Howard Dean reimbursed the state for thousands of dollars in campaign expenditures when he held office – but that the Douglas campaign has not followed that same standard.“It is galling that at a time when an increasing number of Vermonters are losing their jobs, Jim Douglas is using Vermonters’ tax dollars to campaign to keep his own job,” Symington said during an afternoon press conference at Montpelier’s City Hall.
Here’s my last dispatch before the election for Huffington Post’s Off the Bus. Hope you enjoyed. – Christian
Jack Shaheen, a sort of one-man anti-defamation league, is the author of the groundbreaking work “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,” which is also the subject of a documentary film. A former CBS News consultant on Middle East Affairs, Shaheen is one of the world’s foremost authority on media images of Arabs and Muslims. Other works include “Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture,” “Nuclear War Films,” the award-winning “TV Arab,” and his latest is “Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11.” In “Guilty,” Shaheen examines Arab images in more than 100 post-9/11 movies, and addresses other issues at play since 9/11 that affect public perceptions of Arabs and Muslims. OffTheBus caught up with Shaheen to discuss Arab and Muslim portrayals in the 2008 election and how an Obama presidency can make a positive impact.
The 2008 presidential election is forcing many Americans to deal with issues pertaining to Arab and Muslim culture. How has traditional media outlets handled the issue and what can we learn?
Jack Shaheen: From the beginning most media systems, print and broadcast, were content with the defamation of all things Arab. I say that because if you go back to when Hillary Clinton was being interviewed on “60 Minutes” and was asked if Obama was a Muslim or not. Clinton responded, “Of course not” rather than countering with, “No he’s not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. What if he were, so what?” She could have said what Colin Powell only recently said, which was, “If there’s a seven-year-old Muslim, a boy or girl out there who wants to be president, why shouldn’t they be?” Powell is the first major American figure to really spell this out. It took forever, but it shouldn’t have taken this long. Even before Powell spoke up, one had to credit Campbell Brown of CNN. She commented on it and said “So what if Obama were a Muslim or an Arab. It doesn’t make a difference.” Maureen Dowd wrote also wrote about in the “New York Times” but it was Powell who took it a step further. But by and large, there hasn’t been much said.
The other thing that concerns me is most major newspapers did not report about a DVD that was released and distributed (in key battleground states) to sway voters. “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” The DVD is as about as anti-semitic or anti-Arab as it can get. The fact that newspapers throughout the country (with the exception of the “Saint Louis Post-Dispatch” and others) accepted this DVD willingly without commenting on it, without bringing out the fact that it is one of the most racist DVDs ever released, this is something Goebbels would be proud of if he were alive today. There was very little commentary on that. I think it went out to 28 million homes throughout the country.
It’s time for more journalists to really address this issue and I’m hopeful that after the election this will come out and much more will be said. I think there’s a reluctance now because the McCain people and the conservative base has said, in affect, that he is a Muslim and an Arab. By writing about it and saying he’s not and so what if he is, might create more doubt and hurt Obama in the election. As far fetched as that may sound, I think that may be one of the main reasons why there’s been silence.
What do you make of Obama’s reactions to being called a Muslim?
He’s mentioned from time to time that Islam and Muslims are good. He hasn’t done it that often but he has done it to some extent, said that we should not target Islam and we shouldn’t target Muslims. He has not been as forceful as he could be, primarily because the fear that some people would perceive him as a Muslim and that in itself is a tragedy. If he were white and Muslim, that would be bad enough but because of his color and the fact he’s being tagged a Muslim is very difficult. It’s like “driving while black,” and God help him if he’s a black Muslim! So I think it makes it that much more difficult for Obama. I do think once he’s elected, this will be one of the items he will address. He is a unifier and he will somehow address this issue.
Is this bigotry a stand-in for anti-black racism? Or is this kind of bias against Obama due to his marginal past associations with Islam, his being a child in Indonesia, etc.?
I think it’s both. I think many people don’t want to say they’re not voting for him because he’s black. No one likes to admit they’re prejudice. You talk to a bigot and say “you’re bigoted,” they’re going to say, “no I’m not.” We don’t like to admit that. But it’s safe to say “I won’t vote for him because he’s a Muslim” or “I won’t vote for him because he’s an Arab.” You can get away with that even in liberal circles. So in an a way, Arab and Muslim have replace the n-word. You can get away with it. Just like movies and television shows that target Arab and Muslim-Americans as terrorists. These portrayals have worked their way into the psyche of many Americans.
Has either candidate contributed to the bigotry?
I think McCain contributed to it (when the McCain supporter) asked if Obama was an Arab and he said “no, he’s a decent man.” What he should have said is “No, he’s not an Arab or a Muslim-American. But if he was, so what? He’s a decent human being… just like most Arab and Muslim-Americans are.”
The Internet in general has helped democratize media coverage. Do you believe that it has made some impact in bringing about appropriate portrayals of Arab and Muslim-Americans?
That’s a difficult question. I follow mainstream more than I do the Internet. I still believe that mainstream media rules the day. I certainly think the Internet has helped Obama, but I also think it reinforced the attitudes of those who would swear on the Bible that Obama is a Muslim or an Arab. I think Huffington Post is a great Web site. Many of my friends go to it. I think that’s helped a lot. But I think people go to the Web looking for sites that reinforce their beliefs. I really believe change will have to come from the top. The only person to speak out with any eloquence has been Powell. What he said has to be expanded. We can’t let these comments filter down into yesterday’s news. It just has to stay alive.
I am optimistic. In time, I think Obama will address this. Given his world views and approach to issues, eventually it will be OK for someone to say “Oh, you are a Muslim” or “Oh, you are an Arab.” Eventually it will be acceptable and embraced in a small town when someone says “Gee, they’re building a mosque” instead of saying “Oh my God, no.” They will say “Gee, isn’t it wonderful to have a mosque next to a synagogue and next to a church?” This is America, this is what it should be. We need leadership that will take us to that point. We don’t need another scapegoat. We have vilified so many people for so long with blacks, Asians, Jews, and others. It’s time we stop vilifying all things Arab and all things Muslims. I’m confident that Obama will do his best to change this.
If this sounds familiar, maybe it's because you read it here a couple of weeks ago. As much of a colossal media titan as Green Mountain Daily is, I'm glad to get the added eyeballs that the Free Press delivers.
(This flew under the radar yesterday…. but still important. – promoted by Christian Avard)
Financial problems may yet get the old nukes. Enexus the Entergy shell company that Vermont Yankee would have been part of is now on hold .Money is too tight and the markets uncertain.The current upheaval on Wall Street also substantially shrunk the decommissioning fund Entergy is supposed to maintain for the future.One wonders how fast Enexus might have crumbled in the recent mayhem in the money world.How’s a giant out of state company to run it’s five aging nuclear plants at a profit if it can’t spin them off into a protective shell ? Put them in a shell the liability stays in and the profit flows out .
Alex Schott, spokesman for Entergy in New Orleans, said Tuesday that Wall Street uncertainty led the company to put the creation of Enexus Energy Corp. on hold, but he stressed the company was still pursuing regulatory approvals.
Entergy still needs the approval of the Vermont Public Service Board and an administrative law judge in the state of New York before the plans go ahead.
Entergy had announced the spinoff a year ago, initially calling the new company SpinCo. The project has run into strong opposition in Vermont, especially in the 2008 Legislature, which raised questions about the financial stability of the proposed new company, especially in light of the fact that Vermont Yankee’s decommissioning fund was still underfunded
Gov. James Douglas vetoed a bill that would have required Entergy to either fully fund the cleanup fund, which is anywhere from $400 million to $600 million short of estimated costs, or provide a guarantee that it would.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081029/NEWS/810290299/1003/NEWS02
It’s illustrated extremely well in the thread on this blog The latest WCAX poll: Symington and Pollina tied (and Douglas’s strategy revealed?).
Go ahead read it: the thread devolves into blaming Pollina and shouts to close down dissent and discussion … all because Pollina is obviously doing just as well, and maybe better, than Symington in the latest polling.
That is fear you read in that thread … the same thing the Republican Party has thrived on for decades, kept the Democratic Party compliant to the Repubs for decades, and helped do such as pass the misnomered PATRIOT Act and Military Commissions Act … oh … things like this:
“I asked him if he had a badge and he pulled out a white and blue laminate card with his name on it,” Griego. “It wasn’t even a badge, but it said ‘Al Romero, private investigator.’ He came in and he started asking me about my grandmother and I was trying to tell him that she didn’t live here. He’s like ‘OK, so let me just write some stuff down.'”
Griego said that Romero asked her questions about her grandmother’s voter registration card; her grandmother lives in a trailer down the street, but receives her mail at the house, she said.
“It freaked me out when he got upset, when I did tell him that, regardless of what happens, my grandmother is voting and it’s OK for her to vote.”
“He tried to tell me to tell her to be careful when she’s voting. He was trying to tell me stuff to scare her from voting.”
Bojorquez also said her mother felt wary about the visit.
“My mom is confused because she doesn’t understand why she’s being put through this because she voted. She doesn’t trust anybody anymore,” Bojorquez said, requesting that her mother’s name not be published again.
(GOP lawyer refuses to deny private eye visits, New Mexico Independent, 10/23/08)
(Thankfully ACORN is not full of fear and apparently is responding … see this Huffington Post story.)
AND FOLKS HERE WANT TO GIVE IN TO THAT????
The last time I checked my vote belonged to me. Not Pollina, Symington, Douglas, any of you or anybody else. Oh … by the way … about your vote? That’s yours!
Please do as you wish with it. I may disagree with your decision to vote for Symington or Douglas or someone else, but I respect your right to do so. I may disagree with your reasoning, and I certainly have no problem engaging in discussion or argument about your reasoning, but I will not try to shut you up.
And I will not become fearful because of your decisions to act in a manner you see most fit.
(PS. Did you ever consider this is exactly the reaction someone like Douglas would hope to see from the ranks of the Democratic Party faithful?)